Chapter 51

Sherlock and I stand there.

We stare at the once undefeatable demon lord who now is nothing but a simple spear.

Behind the spear are two people. And, without even truly understanding what happens:

Uyeno pulls out a knife and slits Miss Cho’s throat.

She falls down onto the ground. I hate to say it, but I can easily recognize it nowadays: She is dead.

We stare at Uyeno, still in shock.

“What? Didn’t think a cute girl like me could do things like that?”

To be quite frank: No, I didn’t. I didn’t at all.

Yes, of course the logic Sherlock had proposed earlier does make sense… But for it to be actually true just seems… absurd.

“No…”

Sherlock’s eyes glow. You can see the puzzle pieces in his eyes slowly parting up again. And then, those same puzzle pieces rearrange themselves.

“You aren’t Uyeno… If you were… you would never show yourself now…”

“Why not?! You two are about to die, after all.” She cackles. But Sherlock’s face doesn’t change even a little bit. He seems to have fully understood.

“You… are someone else, aren’t you?”

She cackles even more. “Is that so? Then tell me! Tell me, Grand Magician: Who am I?”

Sherlock starts breathing heavily.

“The conditions must still be set… You must be able to reach the task, which only High-ranking officers can reach… You must be able to make the Headmaster appear before us and give us those tasks… You must know of the Academy, its properties and the students… Therefore, you have to be a student… And now, at the very end… You must be able to look like Uyeno.

In this tower, there was one of every S-Rank Yokai… besides the… Kitsune…

You… are able to shapeshift.”

The Yokai in front of us starts laughing loudly. Her hair turns white and long until it reaches down to the floor. Her clothes stay the same: She is still wearing our school uniform, though her bust has become larger. Out of her head there slowly sprouted fox ears. There are nine fox-tails swinging behind her back. And the face itself turns into the very nightmare I had once seen:
In front of us stood the kitsune who had killed Hira. Who had killed most of the people in my village.

In front of us stood the very being who was responsible for the annihilation of my entire village.

She is laughing.

“Very well! You’ve solved the first part of the puzzle… Now, come on! Tell me, who… am… I?”

She slowly picks up the spear and throws it at the very top of the tower where it is stuck in the ceiling. Makes sense, the kitsune is still a S-Rank Yokai.

Sherlock seems to think hardly.

“Come oooon, Mister Detective… Mister Grand Magician…” The kitsune stands behind him and slowly lets her sharp fingers draw circles on Sherlock’s arm. I can’t even react, but she gives him a single kick.

This kick throws him into the wall where he loses a tooth. He slowly turns around. He is not bothered by it. I want to attack, but he stops me.

“STOP! I… I will figure it out.” He glares at her.

“Come on, come on~! If you find out, I will let the two of you live~...”

I want to attack her but in the very next second I get kicked by her as well. Just like Sherlock I crash into the wall and cough up blood.

“There… there is only one… person…” Sherlock grins a bit.

“There… is only one person who tried to hide the kitsune’s existence… there is only one… who left the stadium even before us… Who could’ve gotten the task… Only… one… person who could use their foreign background as an excuse for missing human knowledge…

You are-”

He coughs blood. But those were enough hints.

I finish his sentence.

“Kida… Nezuki…”

I stare at the kitsune in disbelief. In the next moment her hair gets a bit shorter, her eyes grow blue, her muscles show.

In front of us stands Kida Nezuki.

“Bingo~!”

She licks her lips, then she stands right in front of Sherlock.

“Oh, also; If you reverse the syllables in my surname, you literally get Kizune! Not that hard, is it?”

She uses her fox-claws and - with a single attack - turns Sherlock’s entire face into nothing but blood and meat. Just like that, he too did die.

His headless body falls to the ground as Kida grabs his hat and proudly puts it into her own. She starts cackling once more.

“You… How could you?!”

“Hmm? Oh, you did not really think I’d let you stay alive, did you? That was SO obviously a lie….”

“What… what are you doing all of this for?! Were we not friends?! Aren’t Muraoka and Arita your gang?! Was… was all of that fake?!”

She looks at me perplexed, then her face turns into a wide grin.

“Yes. It was all fake. Sorry if you got a crush on me, but the Kida Nezuki you know is aaaaaaaaaaall fake!”

I can’t take it anymore.

“But that’s just the nature of us Yokai, isn’t it? We are the hunters and you are the prey. Sometimes, you are the hunters and we are the prey. That is just the eternal cycle we are stuck in… There is no such thing as balance between humans and Yokai.”

She snickers and slowly comes closer to me.

“You know, you humans and we Yokai aren’t that different. Neither of our lives serve any purpose. Neither of us will ever truly find meaning. And neither for us will be able to truly be happy until the other is fully destroyed.

You know why?”

She is smiling oh so strongly.

“Because that is what we were created for.

The very first being has created both humans and yokai for the sole reason of them slaying and killing the other. Do you understand?! If there is a purpose, then it is to kill and harm the others! There is no such thing as unity in this world! There is no such thing as purpose in this world.

And, soon enough… There will not be such a thing as humans in this world anymore.”

She comes closer.

She takes my head and slowly kisses me.

“I would have loved to live together in peace. I would have loved to keep on being friends with everyone. I would have loved to not kill Muraoka or Arita… I would have loved not to kill you. If I could have chosen, I would have chosen to be human.

But it is not like that.

And I could not wait a single moment longer.

For today, tonight… Is the night in which the end has finally come. The night in which Death shall take all of our enemies.”

She raises her hand.

Her claws will strike and kill me at once.

…

The blood splatters.

And death has once more taken another life.