I thought she was a kunoichi, but she turned out to be a female demon.
Tsk. Give me back my expectations!
『…..You got your hopes up on your own and then now you are disappointed?』
Ignoring Lindwurm, I asked,
“By the way, what happened to that Hattori Hanna, the kunoichi?”
“You mean that foolish little girl? I killed her long time ago.”
So, the real kunoichi had already been killed. The ninja organization had been taken over by this demon huh.
“Why did you take over? And why go so far as to have your own body converted into a karakuri?”
The female demon answered my question with a look of ecstasy on her face.
“It’s all to prepare for his resurrection.”
“His resurrection?”
“I’m talking about the supreme being who was once hailed as the king of demons! I heard he was killed by loathsome humans, but in fact he’s secretly surviving, waiting for the right time to be resurrected!”
What a rare type of demon.
Demons generally don’t form groups after all. In fact, demons often don’t get along with each other —infighting and killing their own kind was practically a pastime to them.
Well, humans had wars too, but even so, humans still had more sense of cooperation than the demons did.
And then the female demon spoke the name of the one she worshiped.
“Alzazeil-sama, the Demon King! The knowledge of these karakuri that I have obtained shall surely aid you in reclaiming your rightful dominion over this world!”
I can’t help but pause.
“Uh-, yeah? About that, Demon King Alzazeil already came back recently—and I defeated him.”
“…Huh?”
For a moment, the female demon simply stood there, dumbstruck. Then—
“Ha… ha-hahahaha! You defeated the glorious one? Don’t make me laugh!”
“It’s true. I’m the one who did it.”
“Do you mean to mock him, you bastaard?!”
With a roar, the demon unleashed her mana. The surge of power was so overwhelming that a normal human would’ve fainted on the spot.
Of course, I remained perfectly calm as I reached into subspace and pulled something out.
“If you want proof, I’ve got it right here.”
It was the Demon King’s heart.
Thump, thump. Even though it is sealed under layer upon layer of powerful restraints, it pulsed steadily, as if still alive.
“~~~~~!!?”
The female demon’s eyes widened in shock.
“This magical power… No way…. for real?!”
“I’m telling you it’s true.”
“Give it to meeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
The female demon screamed and leaped at me. At the same time, the back of her costume ripped, revealing her wings. They looked very similar to the wings of an insect, and were probably some kind of mechanism.
The female demon flapped her wings at high speed, accelerating forward.
—However, a samurai girl stood in her way.
“Yagyu Shinnen-ryu — Thunderbolt!”
Karen unleashed a slash, striking the female demon’s torso from the side.
“Uh?! Guaaaahhh?!”
Perhaps she was so enraged that she couldn’t see anyone else but me. The female demon took the hit head-on and was sent flying, crashing into the wall.
“Well, to be honest, you seem like a pretty weak demon, so I don’t think I’ll even need to do it myself. I think it’ll be good training for Karen-oneechan.”
“You bastaaaaaard! Are you mocking meeeeeee!?”
Further enraged, the female demon transformed her arms. Her right arm transformed into a sword, and her left arm into a shield.
A “Uiiiiiiiiiin” sound echoed around. Looking more closely, the sword and shield were vibrating minutely but at an incredible speed.
“This is a special sword that achieves incredible cutting power by vibrating at high speed!”
The female demon lightly swung her sword, and a nearby wall was cut through as if it had cut through air.
“And this shield, by vibrating at high speed, it can repel any attack! One carelessness and your own weapon will shatter before it even touches me!”
“What an intriguing weapon. However… I do not lose.”
“You insolent human girl! If you dare stand in my way, I’ll carve you into a thousand bloody pieces!”
With a furious roar, the female-type demon flapped her karakuri wings, closing the distance in an instant. Her vibrating blade echoed through the air, splitting the wind itself as it came down toward Karen.
But Karen didn’t flinch. She couldn’t afford to block it head-on as the oscillating sword would cut through steel like butter. A reckless counterattack would only be deflected by that vibrating shield, destroying her own blade in the process.
Instead, she took a deep breath, centered her focus, and whispered,
“Yagyu Shinnen-ryu Secret Art—Battle sense.”
A deep, blue aura flared around her sword.
Come to think of it, her old master once gathered all his fighting spirit into his blade for a single strike. Apparently, this Yagyu Shinnen-ryu school had similar techniques that channeled battle aura.
A weapon imbued with aura doesn’t just hit harder, it becomes far tougher as well.
Gakiiiiiiiiiin!
Sparks exploded as the blades met.
Karen’s sword didn’t yield an inch. It had caught the demon’s vibrating blade perfectly, holding it in place as if the deadly oscillation meant nothing at all.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
Previous ⚜ Table of Contents ⚜ Next
Yume Neiji's Works 