Ch.174Chapter 25. Bell (7)

Watching Yuka raise her sword, I wondered what I could do.

Blood was flowing from Yuka’s body. It would be nice if I could cast healing magic like a character from an animation or game, but unfortunately, I didn’t have such abilities.

However—

I extended my hair and wrapped it around Yuka’s body. At least this should stop the bleeding.

When I cut my hair with my fingernails, I felt a sharp pain.

“Kotone.”

Yuka called out to me when she saw blood flowing from the ends of my hair, but I only gave her a slight smile.

There was no time.

Right now, yokai pouring out from the other world were targeting us, but if we didn’t properly deal with Kosuzu, the yokai would spread everywhere.

Everyone frozen in time would be in danger.

…If I were Nirlas, if I were truly part of an outer god, I would have similar abilities.

Surely it wouldn’t just end with flying through the sky.

“…”

Was it common sense? Or prejudice? Was I not fully utilizing my power because I was bound by such things?

Tinkle.

With each bell sound, there was a monstrous cry. It was the sound of monsters stirring. Kosuzu rang the bell repeatedly as if about to turn this world upside down.

Were the giant tentacles Kosuzu’s throne, and was everything in this world the source of Kosuzu’s power?

Human faces appearing on the surface of the tentacles gradually became clearer, and limbs emerged one by one beside them. It gave me chills, like human faces and limbs randomly sprouting from a massive lump of flesh.

“Yuka…!”

Yuka shot out white beside me.

Slowly, several of the souls that had emerged from outside the world were sliced by Yuka’s sword.

Splat! Like cutting a water balloon, the bodies made of flesh that emerged from Kosuzu’s body burst open. Black blood splattered everywhere, and what was inside disappeared as if it had never existed.

I also leaped forward.

I grabbed Yuka’s waist and jumped upward. Yuka wasn’t particularly surprised and swung her sword toward where we landed.

It was where the tentacle had exploded moments ago.

Yokai were bursting out from there.

The corpse of ‘Kotone Kurosawa’ was now unrecognizable. The chest area where Yuka had stabbed was wide open, with ribs spread like a flower. It was so much wider than my original body size that it seemed to be barely maintaining its shape with just thin skin.

The limbs were already devoured by tentacles all around and spread out in an X shape.

“…This is too much, really.”

Even so, seeing what used to be ‘me’ in such a state didn’t feel good. I was somewhat relieved that I wasn’t there anymore.

“Can we cut that down?”

“We have to try.”

Yuka answered.

A voice that seemed to know no surrender, full of determination.

That voice made me smile despite the situation.

My heart raced. I could feel Koko.

Koko, who had jumped up behind us, ran quickly and overtook us. As if she knew exactly what we needed more than anyone.

I don’t know how to explain this feeling. A bit embarrassing, yet at the same time, fulfilling.

In some sense, a practical sensation.

Perhaps after the battle ends, I might develop habits like Koko’s—enjoying sweet things and stuffing my mouth with food.

Koko let out a monstrous cry.

Her long black hair extended in all directions, cutting down everything around.

Souls pierced by the black blades screamed, and flesh exploded everywhere.

And then—

Among the things being sliced by Koko’s hair, something like a large horn emerged. It looked like an animal’s claw, or perhaps a goat’s horn or a rhinoceros horn—the tip of that large horn was sharp.

I could see that tip.

Between me and the horn was Koko.

“Koko!!”

My heart ached. Koko was in pain.

But Koko was still moving despite having a hole in her stomach.

The tentacles that had spread everywhere gathered in one place and extended toward where the horn was. The demon-like creature, which had forcibly exposed one horn outside and was trying to pull out the other, had its eye pierced by Koko’s hair.

A loud scream was heard.

The monster stuck in the hole was… in some sense, fortunate. Thanks to it, the ‘entrance’ was somewhat blocked, causing other monsters trying to emerge to get stuck as well.

Monkeys, snakes, chickens, even dragons—even creatures that shouldn’t be able to move like this.

Things that should have been separate were all clumped together, wailing in a grotesque manner. They looked like a single mass.

I gritted my teeth and turned my gaze away from Koko.

She might just look human normally, but her actual body might be amorphous. I wanted to believe she wasn’t in immediate danger.

Thud!

As I shifted my weight downward to fall faster with Yuka, the monsters became more desperate.

The demon forcibly pulled one of its horns outside. This caused the ‘passage’ to tear more. Blood burst in midair, and more vengeful spirits poured out. As soon as they emerged, they became food for the yokai and burst like water balloons.

Like a colony of Venus flytraps, they raised their various mouths toward the sky, forming an army escaping outside.

Yuka swung her sword.

While I was distracted trying to control my posture in midair, Yuka brilliantly blocked the attacks coming at us with her sword.

With each flash of the sword, a tentacle, teeth aiming for our necks, or a horn was torn apart or shattered. I helped maintain Yuka’s balance as much as possible while tearing apart the necks of those that came at us separately.

I heard the sound of wind in my ears. We must have flown higher than expected, as the falling speed was faster than I thought.

“———!”

A monstrous cry was heard, and the horned demon shook its head. Koko’s body, which had been impaled on one horn, almost flew off but was barely hanging on as her hair got stuck in the horn again.

After confirming that Koko was crawling toward us, I lowered Yuka. I put weight into my body.

Yuka swung her sword with all her might.

With a scream that was hard to distinguish between a shriek or a battle cry, Yuka plunged her sword into the body of the highest monster among the layers of creatures.

Like layers of tofu being cut, the monsters that formed the layers were sliced away.

Blood drew a straight line in the air, and there was an ear-splitting sound.

It hurt.

My body was torn in various places as I tried to block the claws and teeth flying toward Yuka. Fortunately, Yuka didn’t see it.

I pressed down on Yuka’s shoulder and the sword embedded in the enemy with my strength. Yuka’s hand was firmly gripping the sword, as if she would never let go.

The drawn line opened sideways like a door. The arm of the monster that had been swinging at us fell limply. Because it was a cold winter, steam rose from the internal organs and blood, quickly making Yuka and me covered in sweat.

Thud.

At the final moment of that long sword strike, I supported Yuka’s legs to prevent them from being damaged.

I wonder how it was in the original work?

How did Yuka resolve this situation that we ultimately couldn’t prevent?

What was Yuka’s condition after it was over?

Could she survive? In novels of that time, the male or female protagonists often died.

The sound had ceased.

“…”

When I opened my mouth, I tasted blood. The blood filling my throat surged up.

“Kotone…!”

Yuka barely supported my body.

Tinkle.

The bell sound was heard again. I think I also heard someone’s laughter.

The space that had been torn when the monster emerged earlier was torn even wider. People came out from there.

A child with a burst head, a man with his neck cut off, a woman bleeding from her lower body.

A person without legs, a person without arms, a completely aged and decayed person, a burned person—

I swung my hair. Those touched by my powerless hair burst open, but there were too many pushing out from behind.

Eventually, they pushed over those walking in front and crawled over them. They piled up, and those at the bottom burst, and the number of creatures crawling over that slimy mess was horrifyingly large.

“Yu…ka…!”

I said that as I got up from my spot.

Yuka, who had momentarily fallen into panic, got up in a daze.

I moved forward.

Yuka also swung her sword.

Forward, forward. We advanced. Protecting each other’s front.

A black object fell from above.

Koko, with blood flowing from her mouth, fell like a spider and created a spider web with her extended hair. The spider web swelled from the inside and looked like it would burst at any moment.

“Kotone… Yuka…!”

Koko’s voice was mixed with tears. As Koko’s hair was being torn from the inside, blood was flowing through the roughly made gaps.

I also ran there to help. My hair was already almost as short as a bob cut, so I used my hands.

“Kotone!?”

Koko was shocked.

My hands were dissolving into Koko’s hair. Just like when Koko first created her body.

…I could feel Koko’s thoughts.

And emotions.

Shock. Sadness. Fear.

Was she afraid that I would be absorbed into her and disappear?

I heard Yuka running. It was a strange sound that I couldn’t tell whether it was a groan or a shout.

I looked back.

Monsters were rushing toward Yuka. Wounds were appearing all over Yuka’s body—

Yuka raised her sword.

And brought it down.

I took my hands off and ran with all my might to move behind Yuka’s back.

Splat!

With a bursting sound, blood spurted from the spider web Koko had made. Blood rained down.

Koko, who had also become bob-haired like me, ran toward us.

I embraced Yuka’s back with my armless arms. I spread what hair I had left, extending my body as wide as possible. Several wing-like things sprouted from my back and blocked the attacks.

My eyes met Koko’s, who was blocking attacks in front of Yuka.

The moment should have been noisy with monstrous cries from all directions, but strangely, I felt that moment was quiet.

We were covered in blood to the point where our original white skin was barely visible. Yuka with her back to me, and Koko facing me.

Blade-like wings had also sprouted from Koko’s back. It was a savage appearance that even a hell demon might hesitate to possess, far from being called angel wings even as a joke.

Koko loved her appearance more than anyone. Even in truly dangerous situations, she didn’t want that appearance to collapse.

But now, she was slowly collapsing. Just like me.

Koko smiled.

I could understand Koko’s emotions. Her beating heart.

She sensed the end. Both me and Koko. Koko wanted to show me a smiling face even in the last moment.

My vision blurred.

Even though I thought it wasn’t true, perhaps because we were connected.

I was empathizing with Koko.

Without any basis at all, I somehow thought my end was approaching too.

Even though I had already ended once and started anew, why?

I tried to hold onto my consciousness that was gradually drifting away.

Someone was waving at me from somewhere beyond you.

That figure was—

“——!”

Yuka let out a short cry. She shouted with such force that I could feel the vibration from Yuka’s body pressed tightly against mine.

Yuka’s sword, a nameless sword made to cut things not of this world—

—no, that sword that is ‘still being tempered and not yet complete’.

It slit the throat.

*

“…That is—”

Fukuda, who was riding a stolen motorcycle with Kagami on the back, unconsciously stopped the motorcycle.

Whatever was beyond there.

Something massive that made the continuous monstrous cries and inhuman screams seem irrelevant.

It looked almost like a flower.

An endlessly fluttering flower blooming on the ground. But looking closely, it also resembled thick grass like aloe.

“…An octopus?”

Yes. That seemed to be the most accurate description. An octopus with its head buried in the ground and its legs stretched up toward the sky. Whether that was possible or not aside, what was visible right now looked like that.

Those octopus legs fluttered toward the sky, then suddenly stretched their legs upward and began to poke at the ‘mouth’ part, the center where those tentacles were sprouting.

“…Mr. Fukuda, I’ll go alone from here.”

Kagami said that and got off the back seat.

Still dressed in her shrine maiden outfit, Kagami seemed to have made some kind of resolution.

She removed the cloth from the disc she had been preciously holding.

In this place where even the surrounding streetlights had gone out, only that mirror was shining.

Fukuda hadn’t seen what was reflected in that mirror. However, like a mirror strongly reflecting sunlight, light was emanating from that mirror.

Like playing a prank in the school corridor to the opposite building’s corridor in childhood, Kagami directed the light from that mirror toward the monster that appeared to be hundreds of meters away.

As if that light was trying to illuminate inside where the monster was attacking.

“Hey, Kagami—”

“No!”

When Fukuda tried to approach Kagami, reaching out his hand, Kagami shouted like that. Fukuda’s hand, which was about to rest on her shoulder, was pulled back.

“…Essence is something that shouldn’t be seen by those who can’t withstand it.”

Kagami muttered as if talking to herself.

The tentacle touched by the light twitched.

Some of them seemed to be looking this way, as if turning their heads.

“…”

Fukuda briefly thought about just running away, but he managed to endure.

Was it because of the distance?

On the other hand, Kagami had no intention of running away from the start.

“…Yes.”

Kagami muttered.

“Sister. It’s here.”

Kagami moved forward.

The tentacles showed more reaction.

The behavior that seemed to be looking this way intensified.

The ground vibrated.

“Now, I think I understand a little.”

Kagami said while looking straight at the tentacles.

“…You were jealous of me.”

Kagami remembered the look in Kosuzu’s eyes when she looked at Kagami.

Always smiling yet sneering.

Even knowing that Kagami’s body was gradually breaking down, she continuously made her bear children. Bearing children by receiving the seed of something not human, something like a spirit, was painful. Even if it was smaller than a human, there was a tearing pain.

What came out were monsters that were neither one thing nor another.

But—what did that ‘Kosuzu’ give birth to?

Just an ordinary child who couldn’t even become a monster.

Just an ordinary child that had been born in the Kurosawa family all along.

So, Kosuzu was rather in despair.

“…How strange.”

As if having a conversation with the tentacles, Kagami muttered.

“—The child I wished for was precisely such an ordinary child.”

*

I can see the sky.

Why? Some of the tentacles that were coming down as if to crush us completely were looking outward.

The ground was rumbling. Was it trying to raise this massive body?

“Ugh…”

Trying to forcibly raise my body, I realized I had no hands.

As soon as I realized this, hands slowly grew from the cross-section.

However, there was no skeletal structure. They were just hands that mimicked the outer appearance. Perhaps there wasn’t enough flesh.

“Girls…?”

But it was enough to support my body.

I crawled on the floor and reached out.

Is this—Yuka? I can see black hair. I can’t tell whether blood is flowing from there or not. All three of us were too red.

Then I found a hand. That hand was tightly gripping a sword. Then it must be Yuka.

Urgently placing my hand on her back, I found she was breathing.

“Yu, ka…!”

When I shouted, blood gurgled out of my mouth.

When I shook Yuka’s shoulder, she also coughed violently. Seeing blood mixed in her saliva, I felt blood draining from my head.

“…Ko, tone.”

Yuka barely looked at me and muttered.

I placed my still unfinished, rough hand on Yuka’s cheek. Still, I could feel the sensation. It was warm. Yuka was still alive.

“Koko!”

When I called out next, I heard my name being called in a slightly fading voice.

Koko crawled over and rested her face on my shoulder. In my awkwardly prone position, I wrapped my right arm around Koko’s back and hugged her.

She’s breathing. She has body heat. All three of us are still not dead.

“————!”

Probably Kosuzu’s scream.

It’s not over yet. We’ve just finished one stage.

I tried to look away to avoid seeing the severed head rolling on the floor.

All three of us staggered to our feet.

Yuka gripped her sword.

Asking if we were okay seemed meaningless. None of us looked okay at all.

But, even if we weren’t okay, we had to do it.

“Ka, gami——!”

A voice shouting toward Kagami.

“…Let’s go.”

I said that and reached out to Yuka and Koko.

Both of them looked at my hand with sad expressions. There’s no need for that. Because you both look terrible too.

But, about having something to do—

—it seemed both of them agreed that we all had something to do.

They each took my hand.

I looked up at the sky.

There was a beam of light passing through the middle of the black night sky.

Somehow, I felt like I knew what that beam of light was.

“…I told her to wait.”

I muttered unnecessarily.

—The problem wasn’t completely solved yet.

We had only resolved the biggest obstacle.

Because Nirlas’s body had already been mostly consumed by Kosuzu.

…I never thought I’d say this about Kagami—

—but I felt that this time, Kagami really came at the right timing.