Chapter 46

The Itsumade chokes for a second, then it spews out the leftovers of Itoh’s head. I stare at it.

I was not able to help them. Despite everything that I have went through, despite beating my own enemy, despite standing right in front of the room they were fighting in… I could not change a single thing.

It feels as though I lose my very grip on reality itself. The situation feels just… unreal. Wrong. I literally lose my grip on reality and fall down from the little hole I had created, right into the room itself. I now kneel in front of the Itsumade and Nagano’s corpse. My knees were hurt pretty badly thanks to the fall, yet I do not care even a little bit. I cannot care about such a trivial thing due to what had just happened.

The sword I am holding suddenly feels light.

As everything around me turns black, I can see something. I can see two white figures piercing through the darkness created by the everlasting blackness around me. Those two white figures slowly disappear.

I have just seen Itoh’s and Nagano’s souls pass on.

I scream. The Itsumade probably doesn’t even realize it yet. After all, time is moving oh so slow. Perhaps it is even fully at halt.

I can see the red heart of the beast shimmering and I know of my quest. I need to avenge those two. I can not let this beast live on.

I jump directly at the yokai, however, just before I reach it, my vision returns to normal. Time runs normal again as well.

The snake tail of the Itsumade quickly reacts and hits me right in the face. I get thrown onto the ground. I close my eyes and scream due to the pain that was inflicted onto me by the whip-like strike I had just received by the snake-tail.

When I open my eyes again, I see right into the dead eyes of the corpse of the student who was blessed by not one, but two Protogoni.

And only now do I realize: Blessed are not special. We are truly human. We can truly die. And we will truly die.

As the Itsumade spreads its wings and looks down on me, it lets out a cry. The sound it makes sounds just like a common question: “Until when?”

I am about to die. It asks me directly: How long until I die? When will I finally stop living and breathing?

And, while lying here, I think I know the answer.

However, before my pessimistic thoughts turn into reality-

Through a small crack in the wall, created by the Itsumade flying around earlier-

A thin and black string, showing the deepest depths of one’s shadow-

Spins around the beak of the Yokai-

And in the next moment-

A single woman crashes through the wall, breaking it altogether.

As Taya Hanebana breaks through the wall, she directly lands on top of the beak of the yokai. It seems as though she pulled herself at the string. As she stands there, she quickly kicks the thing right into its eyes, then jumps onto its back. There, she runs around him for a second until she jumps on the ground. The black string is attached to her hand. The other end of it is attached around the beak. The middle part has been swung around the wings of the demon bird just now.

Hanebana extends her other hand and the end, previously attached around the beak, flies straight to this hand. As she holds both ends in her hand, she pulls on them both. And, at the very next second, the string all around the Yokai gets pushed together and cuts deep into its flesh. At first the Yokai starts screaming. However, at the very next second, it stops.

The beast explodes into a giant wave of blood, painting all of the room red.

Hanebana looks at me, my hair dyed red by the blood.

“Are you alright?!”

I slowly nod. Hanebana notices the corpse of Nagano, as well as the head of Itoh. She is quiet. I can see the sadness on her eyes.

Ah, how could I have been so stupid? Did I ever truly believe that just because she was like a mother to me, she was not the same to everyone else? Did I really think I was the only one who looked up to her as a mother? And, most important of all, did I truly think that she would not feel the same? Witnessing the bodies of two of her sons must be hell itself for a mother.

The two of us leave the room quickly.

“Who else is here?”

“Sherlock, Iwata and Okubo… We were given a task by the Headmaster and ended up here.”

She nods. “Well, not quite… I will tell you in a second, but this was a set up. A trick. This task is not one that should be tried to be completed by you… By not any student, to be specific. Even amongst the military, who this task should actually belong to, only the higher ups should actively confront it…”

“Yeah, I… I can tell.” I have already seen 2 S-Rank Yokai, back to back. This quest is nothing that I should fulfill, especially since the only tasks I actually fulfilled were finding a cat - well, technically not even that - and defeating a B-Rank Yokai!

While we are running through the hallway Hanebana stops in front of a door.

“Judging from the structure of the building from the outside… Going through here should get us closer to the main entrance.”

The plan was to find the others and then leave as quickly as possible. Hanebana wanted me to leave, but after being stubborn and promising her not to die - which was a pretty stupid reason if you ask me - she allowed me to accompany her. I think it was also because Hanebana herself really was scared as hell, just like everyone else.

We wanted to find the others and thus listened up. After opening the door Hanebana suggested, we were indeed on the second level of the tower’s main room. Shortly after, we hear a loud scream from beneath us.