“I’d love to, of course, but you might be attacked again. Listen, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. I want you to understand that.”
“We’ve never met before.”
“No, please don’t say that. Remember, I was the one who gave you that hairpiece.” Boichiro’s hand stroked the bird-like hairpiece she wore in her hair.
“Huh? I don’t remember who gave this to me.”
Just as she said that...
There was a squelching sound, like a ball of sticky ooze hitting the ground and bursting. Boichiro and Eiko tensed up, ready for combat, and Keena turned toward the sound as well.
Space split in a vertical line, and ooze began to drip out. It was a strange and gruesome sight, like seeing the internal organs of the atmosphere. And what was more, a pair of hands came out and widened the opening.
From the darkness beyond the ooze came Akuto.
“That was a pretty creepy way to make an entrance, but it looks like this is the power I was given,” he said as he stepped into the lounge. He looked at Boichiro.
“Ackie!” Keena tried to run towards him, but Boichiro grabbed her shoulder. “Hey, let me go!”
“It’s dangerous.”
“Ackie will protect me, so I’m fine!”
“No. He’s dangerous.” Boichiro grabbed her in his arms to keep her from going to him.
Akuto frowned.
“Are you judging people by their looks? No, that’s not it. It looks like you and I are just never going to get along.”
“Agreed. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to consider you as anything less than ‘evil itself.’ Even calling you a villain doesn’t seem to do you justice.”
“What a coincidence. You seem like goodness itself to me. And that’s why my resolve is so firm.”
“Your resolve?”
“I’ve resolved to do two things. But only one of them’s important right now: I’m going to protect her freedom.” Akuto stretched out a hand to Keena.
Keena reached out her hand as well, but Boichiro stopped her.
“How arrogant of you.”
“No, it’s not. The whole country has a stake in getting out of this story.” Akuto took a step forward.
Boichiro responded by pulling Keena closer with his left hand and waving his sword with his right.
“Aagh...!” Akuto let out a short cry of pain. His body had dodged the blade, but he’d lost his left arm.
“Ackie!” Keena screamed.
Akuto waved his right arm to show that he was fine.
“Tch... I used mana to block that.”
“This works on an entirely different principal. Mana can’t cut through the dimensions themselves. This is called Hodgson Type Complete Severing.”
“I don’t know how it works, but...”
Akuto held the area where his left arm had been severed with his right hand. And then he poured his strength into the hand and dug it into the open wound. It was an awful sight, but strangely there wasn’t that much blood.
When he pulled it out, his fingers were wrapped around another hand. It was his left hand. When he pulled it, the wrist, and then the left arm followed. He was pulling out a new left arm with his right hand.
“Monster. That’s disgusting,” Boichiro spat.
“Agreed. I only just now realized I could do this.” Akuto closed and opened the fingers on his new hand as if trying to make sure they worked.
“But you won’t be able to dodge me forever. One strike to your torso will be fatal, and that will happen soon.” Boichiro raised his sword with one hand.
“Dimensional severing... Is that what you call it? I think I see how it works.” Akuto took another step forward.
“See how what works?” Boichiro raised his eyebrows as he spoke, but instead of saying anything else, he swung his sword at Akuto’s torso again.
The air itself began to split as the severing traveled towards him.
Akuto grabbed it.
He grabbed it.
He pressed his hands on it from above and below, pushing as hard as he could. Impossibly, smoke began to pour out from between his hands. Intense heat was being generated.
“He’s grabbed... he’s grabbed the severed space itself?” Boichiro’s voice was trembling.
“It needs a lot of energy to do, but yeah.” There was sweat pouring down Akuto’s forehead. He walked towards Boichiro.
But Boichiro didn’t panic.
“It seems you’re a lot stronger than I thought, but I will stop you no matter what!”
Boichiro attacked twice. Akuto compressed and destroyed the severed space by punching it, but that wasn’t enough to stop it completely. Small but sharp cuts appeared around his body, and they began to bleed.
“Stop me, you said?”
“Because you’re going to destroy all humanity,” Boichiro declared.
“I’ve never even thought about doing that. Let go of Keena.” Akuto stretched a hand out towards Boichiro. There was anger in his eyes.
“I’m saying that your short-sightedness is unforgivable!” Boichiro yelled, and began to charge at Akuto.
Akuto leapt back out of reflex. Boichiro stopped in the space where he’d been a moment ago.
Suddenly Boichiro’s hands had moved places. He’d been holding his sword low when he began his charge, but now it was in a position like he’d swung it from above.
In the next instant, the front of Akuto’s body was cut open.
“Uwah!”
Akuto’s eyes opened wide as if he’d just seen something impossible, and he fell to his knees. Blood poured from a wound that ran from his left shoulder to the right side of his stomach.
“The cut is... different?” Akuto said as he pressed his hand into the wound to stop the blood.
Blood was dripping from Boichiro’s sword. He’d been cut directly by the blade.
“I didn’t see the sword.”
“If I don’t bother with the dimensional severing, I can do that instead,” Boichiro said.
His blade had been brought down at incredible speed. Akuto had felt his blade coming across his chest.
Boichiro stood just a few feet away, the sword in his right hand at the same level as Akuto’s neck. He called to Eiko without turning around.
“Take her back safely.”
“Got it.” Eiko grabbed Keena and drew her close. Keena had been freed from Boichiro’s grasp, but she couldn’t move an inch.
“Keena!” Akuto stood up and tried to go to her, but the slightest movement from Boichiro’s sword stopped him.
“Once you’re gone, her fears will disappear as well.”
Boichiro leapt forward. Akuto stepped back, but his opponent was faster.
Boichiro’s sword and the hand holding it could no longer be seen as there was a series of loud crashes. His sword was so fast it was causing sonic booms.
Blood and scraps of clothing spread out in an arc from Akuto’s body, and a moment later he was blown backwards. It was like an explosion, limited in area but incredible in power.
The front of Akuto’s body was covered in wounds. Unlike the dimensional severing, he was able to protect himself with mana to a degree, but there had been so many strikes that they had drained his mental reserves and torn at his body. Akuto regenerated himself, but it still wasn’t easy to stand up.
“Understand this: if you disappear, humanity will be saved.” Boichiro walked over to Akuto and pointed the blade at him.
“I’m honored you think I’m that important, but there’s something that I’m sure of, too.” Akuto grabbed the blade with his bare hands, and stood up on shaking legs.
“Sure of?”
“If I don’t end this, nothing will change. Nothing will change the way things are.” Akuto’s eyes were serious.
“End this? You’re so short-sighted.” Boichiro flicked the sword with his wrist. Akuto’s hands were knocked away from the blade.
“Enough. Once you’re out of energy, you won’t be
able to control your body, and you won’t be able to block my blade. You’ll suffer more if you try to stand. Give it up,” Boichiro said, and swung the sword again.
There was another sound of wind and explosions, and Akuto’s body was blasted back once more.
“The next strike will end it.”
Boichiro silently moved towards Akuto. He raised the blade. Akuto must’ve been unconscious, because he didn’t respond.
And then Boichiro took a short, sharp breath as he readied the next attack.
“What?!”
Boichiro stopped. The earth began to rumble. No, he was in the school building, so it wasn’t the earth — the whole building was shaking.
Boichiro must’ve sensed where it was coming from, because he looked towards the stairs that led towards the lounge.
There was a huge object coming towards him. Boichiro knocked it away with his blade.
A massive snail’s shell rolled on the ground next to him. Tiny tentacles poked out from the shell, as if to say that it had no intention of angering Boichiro, and then it quickly ran away.
“A demon beast...” Boichiro whispered.
“Akuto!”
With that shout came a tsunami from below.
It was a black tsunami of dozens of demon beasts storming up the stairs at once. They were all rushing towards the top like it was a race to see who could get their first, a stampede far more horrible than that of any wild animal. The eerie beasts flooded into the room just like a tsunami floods a small port.
Boichiro leapt back, but one of the demon beasts — which looked like a huge spider — grabbed Akuto with its front legs and put him on its back.
“Hahaha! I have succeeded! I, Fujiko Eto, have studied long and hard for my beloved Akuto, and come up with a way to control the demon beasts! The snail I threw at you was forced to obey me in a different way, however!”
Fujiko was standing on a demon beast bigger than the others as she spoke, a three-headed dog. She was wearing an extremely scanty black leather dress. She truly looked like the queen of the underworld.
There was no obvious connection between her outfit and the research she’d done, so it was clearly a fashion choice she’d made on her own. That said, it was hard to say if it was a symbol of her resolve, or just a symbol of how much fun she was having playing the part.
Fujiko beckoned the spider towards her Cerberus, and lifted Akuto up. She took a medicine vial out of a pouch from the beast’s saddle and poured it down his throat.
“Ugh...” Akuto woke up.
Fujiko must’ve been overjoyed to be holding Akuto in her arms, because she was hugging him with a face that suggested her nose would start bleeding any minute.
“Akuto, I did it! Now they’ll respond to your every order! You can use them to go kick some ass!”
Akuto understood what had happened and patted Fujiko on the head. She was so happy she looked like she might cry. He turned towards her, and said this.
“I don’t want to tell the demon beasts to die for my sake, but there’s still things I want to do. And I’m happy that you were willing to do this for me. So I’m going to use this power you gave me without hesitation.”
Akuto stepped down from the Cerberus and silently raised a hand.
The demon beasts began to stir. An eerie spiral of mana began to form around Akuto, growing bigger and bigger. Every demon beast it touched reacted like it had undergone an electric shock.
“Tch... You would even use such accursed power?” Boichiro yelled.
He must have sensed the danger, because he turned towards Eiko and Keena. Eiko was still holding Keena as she watched the scene unfolding in front of her in awe.
“Take her and run! I’ll stop him here!”
Boichiro’s voice brought Eiko back to her senses, and she tried to leap away. But the demon beast horde was faster. They climbed up the walls and threatened to engulf the whole lounge.
“I’d be running from these things even if you hadn’t told me to!” Eiko shuddered in disgust. No one could simply stand there and feel nothing while they watched the whole room become infested with such vermin.
Eiko put Keena under her left arm and drew a dagger with her right as she leapt for the shattered glass window in the ceiling. However, sticky threads shot out from all directions and attached themselves to her. She used her dagger to cut them, but it slowed down her flight magic to the point where the demon beasts were able to seal the hole before she could escape.
“If I can just get away, we can regroup...!”
Eiko threw Keena to the ground. Now that her body was lighter, she sliced through the body of a winged centipede that was leaping at her, and then escaped outside. Less than a second later, the demon beasts had completely covered the walls of the lounge.
“She put her own safety above all else...? How cold!” Boichiro looked disappointed.
Keena fell downwards, but began to fly under her own power. Flight and invisibility magic were the two things she was good at.
“Ackie!” Keena tried to fly towards him, but Boichiro started to move at him before she could get there. If he could pin down Akuto first, she’d have nowhere to go.
A many-tailed snake bared its fangs and leapt at Boichiro.
“You would sacrifice those who serve you?”
Boichiro swung his sword, and an invisible attack severed its head in an instant. But even without its head, the snake still advanced. Its tenacity was incredible, but Boichiro’s was even greater. He kept attacking, slicing the charging body into tiny pieces. It was like poking a soft stick into a high-speed chopper.
When the snake’s tails were shattered at last, Boichiro leapt out from behind the shower of its blood and flesh. There was not a drop of blood on his handsome face nor his white clothes, as he’d knocked it all away with his high-speed attacks.
“Take this!” he shouted as he swung at Akuto.
Akuto tried to face his charge, but once again there was no way for him to avoid the attack.
“Ackie!”
“Akuto!”
Keena and Fujiko yelled.
Fujiko tried to run towards him with the Cerberus, but Akuto stood his ground and motioned for her to stay away.
“Don’t. You can’t beat him.”
“Then you think you have some way to win?” Boichiro asked.
Akuto nodded.
“I can feel the power coming forth within me. As my resolve becomes clearer, more and more power gathers.”
“So you think you can win if you can buy enough time? Then I’ll need to end this quickly.”
“What matters isn’t time, it’s my will. Actually, no matter what I said before now, I never really believed it.”
“Your will? Your will means nothing.” Boichiro said, but Akuto reached out his arms as if he didn’t even hear him.
Keena came down into his outstretched arms, and he placed her at his side.
Keena reached out a hand towards his face as if she was worried about him. Akuto nodded silently and motioned for her to step back. Then he turned to face Boichiro again.
“Not at all. I’m ending the story. That’s what I’ve resolved to do.”
“The story? You mean faith?”
“That’s right. You’re trying to take advantage of people’s faith. You’re trying to accomplish something by controlling the gods.”
Boichiro nodded at his words.
“It’s the only way to avoid destruction. I know that you’re going to destroy this world.”
“But does that mean that it’s okay to make people believe in the lie that is faith in the gods?”
Boichiro’s lips pressed into a thin smile.
“Listen to me. Humans are weak. They want the cowards and the criminals to be automatically purged, so that they can remain weak. That’s the story that mankind wants. And I’ve gained the power to help them. If you just let me defeat you, everything will be fine.”
“It’s important to seek strength. But you st
ill need to allow for weakness.”
“What are you trying to say?” Boichiro asked.
“Even cowards and criminals can’t be judged by anyone. Even the gods,” Akuto said, and then he declared in a calm voice, “I’m going to kill the gods.”
In that moment, a swirl of power appeared around him.
○
The hour was very late.
Hiroshi had managed somehow to escape Iga village. He’d left Yuko in Yozo’s care, and with the excuse of taking care of Korone, he’d managed to move to a place where nobody else was around. He didn’t activate Korone, though, instead leaving her in a room in the Hattori mansion and activating his suit. He’d just now reached the area above the school.
He was in shock at what he saw.
“Boss...! What are you trying to do? Is this what you want?”
The school was transforming in front of his eyes, and it was clear it was Akuto’s fault.
All the demon beasts that had been lurking and hiding had been gathered at the school grounds and were covering a part of the building. Perhaps the building itself had come alive, because it had twisted itself into an ugly color, and its surface looked like the shell of some creature.
It was truly a demon’s castle — the shape of everything that humanity hated and feared.
“No matter what you’re thinking, if things look like this everyone’s going to try and come kill you!” Hiroshi yelled, even though no one was listening.
4 - Akuto’s Imperial City War
Now that she was outside, Eiko Teruya looked back at the school building and shivered.
“There’s no way I could join in a fight between monsters,” Eiko said to herself. She was alone. “Everybody I think is interesting turns out to be crazy. But I guess that’s over. Only the winner will get me as a prize.”
She took out her communicator and called the Teruya household. It was the middle of the night, but a servant responded immediately.
“Mistress, what is it?”
“Father’s been killed.”
“Understood. Is it possible to confirm this?”
The servant was calm. They had no idea that Eiko had done the killing, and it was just the Teruya way to show no reaction, no matter who died.
“Just check the mission he was on. It should be classified, but I’ll transfer the encrypted code.”
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 4 Page 10
