Watching Yuka lift the sword, I contemplated what I could do.
Blood was flowing from Yuka’s body. It would’ve been nice if I could at least use healing magic like an anime or game character, but unfortunately, I had no such abilities at this moment.
However—
I let my hair grow longer, wrapping it around Yuka’s body. This should at least stop the bleeding.
As I cut my hair with my nails, a sharp pain shot through me.
“Kotone.”
Seeing blood flow from the ends of my hair, Yuka called out to me, but I merely smiled at her.
There’s no time.
At this very moment, yōkai pouring from another world were targeting us, but if we couldn’t deal with Kosuzu properly, the yōkai would spread everywhere.
Everyone frozen in time would be in danger.
…If only I were Nyarlathotep, or if I were truly some distant entity, I might have similar powers.
Surely, it wouldn’t be just flying in the sky or something like that.
“……”
Is this common sense? Or is it prejudice? Am I unable to unleash my full power because I’m tangled up in such things?
Splash.
With every bell sound, monstrous roars echoed. It was the sound of monsters stirring. Kosuzu kept ringing the bell as if she were about to turn this world upside down.
The gigantic tentacles were Kosuzu’s throne, and everything in this world became the source of her power.
The face of a person appeared gradually on the surface of a tentacle, then limbs started to emerge one by one. It felt like a monster’s body had sprouted a person’s face and limbs, giving me chills.
“Yuka…!”
Yuka dashed past me, white as a sheet.
Slowly like that, several entities that emerged from another world fell to Yuka’s sword.
Thud! Like bursting a water balloon, the body made of flesh that had come out of Kosuzu exploded. Black blood splattered everywhere, and everything inside vanished as if it had never existed.
I leaped forward.
I grabbed Yuka around the waist and jumped up. Yuka seemed unfazed, swinging her sword toward the place we landed.
Just a moment ago, it was where the tentacle had burst.
Yōkai were tumbling out in a flurry from there.
The corpse of ‘Kurosawa Kotone’ was now unrecognizable. Yuka’s pierced chest was wide open, the ribs fanned out like a flower. It was wider than my original body and looked like it was barely held together by thin skin.
The limbs had already been eaten by the tentacles around us, sprawled out in a ‘大’ shape.
“……That’s too much, really.”
Seeing what had become of the existence that once was ‘me’ didn’t feel good at all. I was somewhat relieved that it no longer existed over there.
“Can we cut that away?”
“We’ll have to try.”
Yuka responded, her voice resolute as if she didn’t know the meaning of giving up.
Her voice made me laugh for some reason, even in this dire situation.
My heart raced. I could feel Koko.
Koko, who had jumped up behind us, dashed ahead of us swiftly, as if knowing perfectly well what we needed.
I can’t quite describe this feeling. It was a bit embarrassing yet simultaneously fulfilling.
In a way, it felt practical.
Maybe once this fight ended, I’d also develop a habit of enjoying simple things, like Koko, stuffing my face with all sorts of things.
Koko shrieked.
Her long, dark hair stretched out in all directions, slicing through everything around.
Souls pierced by the black blades shrieked, and blood erupted from all sides.
And then—
Among the debris Koko’s hair was clearing, a large horned object protruded. It resembled the claw of a beast, or possibly the horn of a mountain goat or a rhinoceros; the end of that large horn was sharp.
I saw that end.
Koko was in between me and the horn.
“Koko!!”
My heart ached. Koko was in pain.
But even with a hole in her abdomen, Koko continued moving.
The tentacles that had spread out swarmed toward that horn. As one horn was awkwardly brought outside, Koko’s hair pierced the eyes of a devil-ish creature.
A loud shriek rang out.
The monster caught in the hole…was, in a sense, fortunate. Thanks to that, the ‘entrance’ became somewhat blocked, trapping other monsters trying to escape.
Monkeys, snakes, chickens, even dragons—there were creatures that, under normal circumstances, couldn’t move at all.
Everything that was supposed to be separate was huddled together, screaming and thrashing. It looked like one mass.
I clenched my teeth and turned my gaze away from Koko.
Despite appearing as a person most times, wasn’t she actually formless? I wanted to believe that she wasn’t in immediate danger…
Thud!
As I pushed down to accelerate my speed with Yuka, the monsters grew frantic.
The devil forcibly pulled one horn outwards, causing the ‘pathway’ to tear more. Blood burst forth into the air, and immediately, souls spilled out.
As soon as they emerged, they became food for the yōkai, bursting like water balloons.
Like a Parisian hell, various maws were raised to the sky as they poured out.
Yuka swung her sword.
While I was distracted trying to control our position in the air, Yuka skillfully blocked the attacks flying toward us.
With each flick of her sword, a tentacle tore, teeth lunged for our necks, and horns shattered. I tried my best to support Yuka’s center while I clawed at the throats of the creatures charging us.
I could hear the wind rushing by my ears. We had risen higher than we had imagined, and our descent was faster than expected.
“———!”
A roar echoed, and a horned devil shook its head. Koko’s body, which was pierced by one horn, was about to be flung away, but her hair stuck to the horn, barely holding on.
Confirming Koko was crawling this way, I brought Yuka down.
I pressed my weight on her.
Yuka swung her sword with all her might.
It was a challenging sound to distinguish, whether it was a scream or a battle cry, as Yuka struck at the body of the towering monster.
The layers of monsters stacked on top of each other were sliced apart like neatly stacked tofu being cut.
Blood sprayed into the air, causing an ear-piercing noise.
It hurt.
While blocking claws and fangs flying at Yuka, my own body was being torn apart. Fortunately, Yuka didn’t see that.
I pressed down on Yuka’s shoulder and the sword that had pierced the enemy, pushing down with all my strength. Yuka held the sword tightly in her hand. As if she would never let it go.
The line drawn opened like a door. The monster’s arm, which swung at us, fell weakly. Since it was winter, steam rose from the insides and blood, making Yuka and me drenched in sweat.
Thud.
I supported Yuka to prevent her leg from being injured at the last moment of that long strike.
What would it have been like in the original?
How did Yuka resolve this situation that ultimately could not be prevented?
What would Yuka’s state be like after everything was done?
Would she have lived? In the original novel, often the male or female protagonists would die.
Before I knew it, the sounds had ceased.
“……”
As I opened my mouth, I tasted blood. Blood surged up, filling my throat.
“Kotone…!”
Yuka managed to keep me afloat.
Splash.
Once again, the sound of bells rang out. I thought I heard someone laughing.
The space that had been torn apart when the monster emerged grew even larger. People flooded out from there.
A child with a shattered head, a man with a severed neck, a woman bleeding from her lower half.
A person without legs, a person without arms, a person completely decayed and rotten, a person burnt—
I swung my hair. Wherever my hair weakly touched, things burst apart, but there were simply too many entities pushing in behind.
Eventually, they pushed over the ones ahead and crawled over them. The ruckus of what was below felt dreadful.
“Y…uka…!”
I said that and stood up.
Yuka, who had briefly fallen into a panic, instinctively got to her feet.
I moved forward.
Yuka swung her sword too.
Forward, forward. We moved on, protecting each other’s front.
Above, a black object fell.
With blood spilling from her mouth, Koko descended like a spider, creating a web with her elongated hair. That web pulsed as if it were about to burst any moment.
“Kotone… Yuka…!”
Koko cried out in a mixed voice. Her hair was tearing from inside, with blood leaking through the intricately made gaps.
I dashed there to lend a hand. My hair had almost turned into a bob, so I reached out.
“Kotone!?”
Koko gasped in horror.
My hand was sinking into Koko’s hair, just like when she first formed her body.
…I felt Koko’s thoughts.
And her emotions.
Horror. Sadness. Fear.
Was she afraid of disappearing into herself?
I heard Yuka’s voice racing toward me, her sound unidentifiable beyond a strange mixture of a moan and a scream.
I turned around.
Monsters rushed toward Yuka. She bore wounds all over her body—
Yuka lifted her sword.
And then she swung down.
I released my grip and rushed to move behind Yuka.
Thud!
With the sound of something bursting, blood gushed from the web Koko had made.
Blood fell like rain.
Now bobbed-haired Koko approached us.
With a handless arm, I hugged Yuka’s back. I spread out what remained of my hair as wide as possible. From my back, various tendrils emerged, blocking the incoming attacks.
I locked eyes with Koko, who was defending Yuka from attacks.
Despite the roaring shrieks surrounding us, strangely enough, that moment felt quiet.
Our original pale skin was hardly visible; we were both drenched in blood. Yuka resting on me, and Koko looking at me.
Wings forged from blades sprouted from Koko’s back. It was a fierce appearance that could hardly be deemed angelic even in jest, looking like it belonged to a demon from hell contemplating its own nature.
Koko loved her appearance more than anyone. Even in a perilous situation, she didn’t want that form to crumble.
But right now, it was slowly breaking down. Just like me.
Koko smiled.
I could sense Koko’s emotions. Her racing heart.
She sensed the end. So did I. Koko wanted to show me her smiling face, even if it was her last moment.
My vision blurred.
Despite thinking it can’t be, was it because we were connected?
I empathized with Koko.
Without any basis, I too felt my end was approaching for some reason.
Even though it had just restarted after ending once, why?
I struggled to grab onto my fading consciousness.
Somewhere beyond there, someone was waving at me.
That figure was—
“——!”
Yuka shouted with what seemed to be all her might. The vibrations were so strong I felt it through the body pressed against mine.
Yuka’s sword, crafted not for this world but to sever things not of this dimension—
—No, it was still ‘incomplete’ and ‘honing’ that sword.
It slashed through the neck.
*
“……What is that—”
Fukuda, who was riding the bike with Kagami in the back, unwittingly stopped the motorcycle.
What exactly lay beyond that?
The constant sounds of monstrous roars and the screams that didn’t seem human barely mattered in the face of something enormous—something.
It walked like a flower.
A flower blooming on the ground that swayed endlessly beneath the sky. But upon closer inspection, it resembled thick grass like aloe.
“……An octopus?”
Yes. That seemed like the most accurate description.
An octopus with its head buried in the ground, its legs stretched skyward. Regardless of whether that was possible, that’s what it looked like right before my eyes.
The legs of that octopus swayed skyward, then it suddenly thrust its legs upward, starting to poke at the ‘mouth’ area, where those tentacles were sprouting out.
“……Fukuda, from here on out, I’ll go alone.”
Kagami said that and got off the back.
Still clad in shrine maiden attire, Kagami seemed to be making up her mind about something.
From the circular object she had been holding gently until now, she pulled away the fabric.
In this place where even the streetlights had extinguished, only that mirror was shining brightly.
Fukuda hadn’t seen what was reflected in the mirror. He just knew that, like sunlight intensely reflecting off a mirror, light was bursting forth from it.
Just like they had previously played pranks from one corridor to another in school, Kagami aimed the light from the mirror at the monstrous figure hundreds of meters away.
As if trying to shine that light toward the inside where the monster was attacking.
“Hey, Kagami—”
“Don’t!”
As Fukuda reached out towards Kagami, she shouted that. At her voice, Fukuda’s hand that was about to grasp her shoulder pulled back.
“……Essence, is something that shouldn’t be seen other than by beings who can withstand it.”
Kagami muttered as if speaking to herself.
The tentacles shook at the touch of the light.
Part of them seemed to turn as if they were looking this way.
“……”
For a brief moment, Fukuda thought about running away, but somehow he endured.
Was it merely because it was a distance away?
On the other hand, Kagami had not even considered fleeing from the start.
“……I think I understand a little.”
Kagami spoke, staring straight at the tentacles.
“……The jealousy it felt.”
Kagami remembered the way Kosuzu had looked at her.
Always smiling, yet mocking her.
Even knowing that her body was slowly breaking, she incessantly gave birth. It was painful to give birth to something that was not human but akin to a spirit.
Even if what emerged was something smaller than a human, there was a tearing ache.
But—what had come was nothing more than just an ordinary child that hadn’t even become a monster.
Just an ordinary child born from Kurosawa all this time.
So, Kosuzu despaired instead.
“……How strange.”
As if conversing with the tentacles, Kagami muttered.
“The child I wished for was supposed to be an ordinary one.”
*
The sky became visible.
Why? Part of the tentacles that seemed to be trying to crush us entirely was now looking outward.
The ground trembled. Was it trying to raise this massive body?
Ugh…
Realizing I had no hands, I tried to forcefully lift my body.
As soon as I realized that, a hand slowly began to grow from that patch.
However, it had no bones. It was just a hand that mimicked the surface.
Perhaps it lacked flesh.
“Hey, guys…?”
But it was barely enough to support my body.
Crawling on the ground, I reached out.
This is—Yuka, right? I could see her black hair. I couldn’t tell if blood was flowing from there. All three of us were too red.
Eventually, I found a hand. It was firmly holding a sword. So it must indeed be Yuka.
I quickly placed my hand on my back to find breath escaping.
“Y-Yuka…!”
As I yelled, blood coughed up from my mouth.
When I shook Yuka’s shoulder, she coughed as well. Seeing blood mix in with her spit, I felt the life draining from my head.
“……Ko-Kotone.”
Yuka barely looked at me.
I placed my yet-unfinished, rough hand on Yuka’s cheek. I could feel the warmth. Yuka was still alive.
“Koko!”
I cried out immediately, this time hearing Koko’s voice call my name, fading away slightly.
Koko crawled over, pressing her face against my shoulder. In her awkwardly crouched position, I wrapped my left arm around Koko’s back and hugged her tight.
She was breathing. She had warmth. None of us had died yet.
“———-!”
It must be Kosuzu’s scream.
It wasn’t finished yet. We had just completed one stage.
For fear of seeing the neck rolling around on the ground, I turned my gaze elsewhere.
All three of us struggled to get up.
Yuka grasped her sword.
Asking if she was alright felt pointless. None of us looked fine at all.
But regardless of how we felt, we had to move forward.
“Kagami——!”
I shouted towards Kagami.
“……Let’s go.”
I said that while reaching out my hands toward Yuka and Koko.
Both of them looked at me with sad expressions. There shouldn’t be a need for that. Because they weren’t in great shape either.
Yet, it seemed they agreed that we had things we needed to do—
—Ultimately, the three of us had things we needed to do.
Both of them took my hand.
I looked up at the sky.
There was a beam of light piercing through the dark night sky.
That beam of light, for some reason, felt familiar.
“……I told you to wait.”
I mumbled reflexively.
—The problem wasn’t completely solved yet.
We had solved the biggest obstacle, true.
But Nyarlathotep’s body had already been consumed by Kosuzu.
…I had never expected to say such words to Kagami—
—Somehow, it felt like this time Kagami had truly arrived at the right moment.
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