Chapter 28: A Twister of Rising Darkness

Kuro replayed the last sound he’d heard in his head.

Eek…?

He had never heard anything as meek and endearing as—

Oh, she’s still falling…

Irina was plummeting towards the concrete, head first.

Her body seemed to have lost all will to fight, and surrendered itself to the freefall—

What she felt was not the texture of solid asphalt, but rather, a gentle cradle.

Her eyes opened; gradual, and slow…

The outline was fuzzy as her vision focused.

“Wha…? What—U-Unhand me you fiend!!!”

She sprang out of the hands, which belonged to Kuro.

Kuro was well aware that a fall from a meager height like that wouldn’t even leave a scratch. But he’d feel awkward just watching her fall while doing nothing.

“Why did you not finish me off?!”

“I never wanted to—”

“Liar!!!” She pointed at him.

“Could you please stop with the name calling? I can only take so much.”

“……”

“Is it because of what I said about your Japanese that one time? I’m sorry if for undermining your efforts to study the language… In hindsight, I didn’t detect any magic in your words, and there’s only the slightest hint of your original tongue—”

“Stop speaking to me!”

Irina was at her wit’s end. What was he going on about?

“Lord Ku—I mean, great Demon King!!!”

Yuka’s shout came from behind them. When they both looked in her direction, she was flying straight for them.

Each of her claws were engulfed in a purple fire—a spell she called Flames of Desire.

Slash!

She cut down one of those freakish creatures with them. From the cut across its chest, the flames swallowed it and it fell with a shrill cry.

“Lord… Ku—Demon King…” Yuka huffed.

Kuro had almost forgotten about her.

“Oh, Yuka. One of them chased you all the way here?”

“Not one… I cut down ten—no, twenty. They kept coming no matter how many I took down.” She huffed one last time, before shouting, “Look!”

If the roads weren’t as empty as they were, the horde consisting of fifty of those creatures would have overrun humans, causing many casualties.

Cars parked along the edges of the road were squashed flat in midst of their stampede. Yuka, Irina and Kuro faced the horde, an uneasy feeling hitting them.

“Lord, Ku—Demon King, these things won’t go down with simple attacks. The magic has to be—”

“I can’t stand the sight of them…” he said. “I’ll end all of this quickly—Darkness Splitter.”

Irina, trying to muster her remaining strength, attempted lift her sword to fight. She stopped as the Demon King strutted past her.

He flickered out of sight.

Shlick! Slhuck! Gash!

The creatures had all been hacked into two by a streak of black that ran across their bodies.

Why would he be concerned about them wreaking havoc..?

Irina stared at the wearied face of the Demon King.

One of the creatures vaulted high above the street. One of its hands was extended as it clung with its other to the edge of a building.

“One… Strand…!” it cried excitedly. “One… Strand…!!”

Kuro shook his head reluctantly, before springing of the ground—

Shlack!

—and taking it down.

It grasp slackened and the object it held drifted in the wind.

“That settles…”

Rumble…

“…that…?”

The three of them felt the vibrations travelling through the ground.

“ONE… STRAND!!!”

Gargantuan. This one was nothing short of a giant! It stood easily at over twenty stories tall. Like a curious child, it peeked from behind a building, and stared at all of them with its non-existent face.

● ● ●

The fire burning along Yuka’s claws sputtered out.

“That thing is humungous!!!” She looked up at the monstrosity eyeing them even without having eyes. “Where do we even…”

Yuka remembered that The Hero was standing right next to her, and she recalled her previous blunder. A solemn expression took over her face.

Kuro was glad she’d realized her folly, but wasn’t pleased with his friend in that kind of gloomy state. So, he decided to lighten the mood.

“Yuka have you ever heard people say, ‘Spin moves aren’t cool’?” Kuro asked, moving a few paces toward to the monster.

Yuka blinked, processing the question. “Y-yes. I have. What about it…?”

“Then tell me if you think this is cool, or not.”

Kuro dropped to a crouch, aligning his sword horizontally to his right side. His leg muscles tensed, the asphalt underfoot trembled.

The giant appeared to recognize the imminent danger, and raised a lumbering fist for an attack.

Like a loaded spring, his taut legs soared off the ground with a spin.

As he spun, black coiled around him, and he impaled the creature’s chest like a torrent of living blackness.

The silhouette of Kuro bursting out the back of the monster contrasted beautifully against the face of the full moon.

He landed gracefully with a final spin.

“Twister of Rising Darkness…”

As if on command, the gaping hole in its chest began to collapse in on itself, sucking more and more of the monster into it…

…until there was nothing left.

“Well? What do you think, Yuka?”

“Scary…”

“Ah—”

“But pretty darn cool…”

Kuro briefly put on a smug grin, before putting on a neutral expression as he faced the stupefied Irina.

“Do you want to pick up from where we left off?” he asked.

“Say… Did you orchestrate that robbery from our first meeting…?”

“Why would I? I’d never stoop so low. I was only teaching those thugs a lesson. Taking the easy way out never pays. Now that I think of it, it’s not that easy, with the weapons, the hiding, the—”

“Do you want to wipe out…humanity?”

“Honestly, the thought’s never crossed my mind. Can’t say I want to.”

“I see…”

BOOOM…

Shooting skyward, Irina’s figure grew faint as she left the two Demons on the ground.

“Sheesh. What’s her deal?” Yuka spat in Irina’s direction.

“……”

● ● ●

“Have you seen Irina today?”

“No, it’s been days. Hope she’s doing okay…”

“There are rumors that she’s going back to Russia. Something about the company owned by her parents.”

Gossip was the order of the day. No one had seen Irina for nearly a week, so it wasn’t out of place. People tend to formulate answers to problems they have no way of solving.

“I’m so worried…” Hisashi clawed at his face, seated next to Kuro. “Did you see the news?! What if Irina got caught up in that…?”

The “news” Hisashi was talking about involved several sightings of humanoid creatures rampaging through some streets in West Shinjuku.

But of course, no bodies or live samples were retrieved.

Kuro wasn’t going to let the populace get any further information.

With a snap of his fingers, the bodies he’d cut down combusted with black flames that licked all of them away.

And for the ones Yuka had slain, he’d searched for their pieces and handled them similarly.

“Don’t worry,” Kuro said, “She’s tough…”

“This isn’t the time for jokes! What if something really did happen to her?! Dammit, if only I’d gotten her contact…”

Kuro didn’t say it, but even if he did have her contacts, there’d be no guarantee that she’d respond. The whole hall seemed to have a similar line of thought, as they asked one another if anyone had her contact details.

The rest of the lectures for the day continued, a thick air of glum accompanying them…

Somewhere in Shinjuku Central Park…

Where could it have landed…? A shadily dressed figure was inspecting lawns and benches around the park. It couldn’t have gotten very far… Those good for nothing Sapienculi can’t carry out one simple task.

The figure got up using the bench he’d just finished searching as support.

Judging from the air currents from that night, it should have blown over here… Argh! It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Placing both hands on their hips, the person mumbled bitterly.

“Mommy, there’s a strange man over there,” a little boy said, pointing at the conspicuously dressed figure.

“No dear. It’s rude to point at strangers…” His mother glanced warily at the person. “Let’s go play over there.”

“Okay!”

The mother briskly walked away with her child.

Urgh… I can’t orchestrate another plan like that on such short notice… Now slumped onto another bench, the figure gazed longingly at the sky. Why do I always get the short end of the… stick…

A single strand drifted whimsically in the breeze…

Could it be?

The figure tailed the strand till it landed at the base of a Japanese Black Pine.

Would you look at that?

A manic laugh echoed throughout the park not long after…