As expected, when cats and dogs are quiet, they are bound to be up to no good.
As one minute, two minutes.. five minutes passed, Kisaragi Chiyo looked at the furry little ball that was still playing dead, she was almost driven to laughter by frustration.
Hara." The young man let out a cold laugh as he spoke. "Just how long do you intend to remain silent?
"And you, Matsuda," the black ball of fur that had been named lightly shivered.
Hara Kenji is being unreasonable, you're joining in on the nonsense too?
Don't you always pride yourself on being the most mature and steady person in this house? Why do you become so unreliable the moment a critical moment arrives?
Matsuda Jinpei didn't dare make a sound; after all, he didn't want to be the first person to endure Kisaragi Chiyo's wrath.. little fluffball.
But he couldn't just do nothing either.
Matsuda thought for a moment, then the black fluff shook again, two round, triangular ears popped out from the top.
Immediately after, a pair of round, teal eyes slowly opened, the ball of fur let out a "mew" toward the young man.
Kisaragi Chiyo: ".."
"Stop acting cute." Kisaragi Chiyo frowned, trying her best to make her tone sound serious.
Don't think you can get away with using that trick on me; you know it won't work.
As soon as the words fell, the tricolor furball nearby moved. It rolled slowly toward Kisaragi Chiyo, finally stopping when it bumped into the knee of the young man who was sitting cross-legged.
Then, the tricolor fluffball lifted its face, revealing bright, watery purple puppy eyes, let out a pitiful, cautious whimper.
The furry little head nudged the young man's fingertips, the fluffball attempting to use this to soothe his anger. That sensation, which felt like being brushed by soft clouds, caused Kisaragi Chiyo to subconsciously curl her fingers.
Although it was cute, he would not be easily swayed by it.
"Stop acting innocent." Kisaragi Chiyo felt that she had already seen through their little tricks.
He lowered his eyes, watching the other black ball of fur approaching him, curled his fingers, giving a sharp flick toward where the tricolor ball's forehead should be.
Under the force of the flick, the tricolor fluffball rolled once and fell to the ground. Lying there splayed out, it revealed its soft white belly and its short limbs, which were flailing through the air in an attempt to flip itself over.
The black fluffball: ".."
The black fluff ball fell silent. He thought for a moment, then decided not to trouble the young man to act, choosing instead to collapse on the spot in a somewhat dignified posture.
The tricolor fluffball: ".."
Little Jinpei is so cunning!
Hara Kenji was shocked; even though he was the one who had come up with this idea first, Matsuda Jinpei acted even more adorable than he did!
It was truly too much!
The original anger was interrupted by the antics of the two fluffballs. Kisaragi Chiyo felt both exasperated and amused, but her primary feeling was worry regarding the actions of Hara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei.
“You guys..” Kisaragi Chiyo let out a long sigh, she reached out to pick up the two fluffballs and pull them into her arms.
“Since you're already here.”
At this point, Kisaragi Chiyo could only convince herself to accept this outcome; it wasn't as if she could heartlessly drive them back. "But without my permission, you two must stay hidden in the backpack and are not allowed to come out whenever you please," Kisaragi Chiyo said with a stern face, threatening them. "Otherwise, heh.."
Hearing the young man's cold laugh, the two little fluffballs in her arms trembled instantly, hurriedly nodding to show they understood.
"That's good." Having received the assurance, Kisaragi Chiyo finally showed a smile, she gently stroked the tops of the furballs' heads with her hand.
The wind and snow outside still hadn't stopped, but perhaps because she was holding the fluffballs, Kisaragi Chiyo didn't feel even a hint of cold.
*
Following the route provided by the map, Kisaragi Chiyo had no idea how long she had been walking before she finally saw the edge of the dense forest—or rather, it should have been the center, but the sudden appearance of exposed brown soil had misled Kisaragi Chiyo into thinking she had already walked out of the forest.
Unlike the forest where snow fell heavily, this place felt more like a piece of redundant space that had been intentionally pieced together.
A towering tree stood in the center, its thick roots and branches coiling and twisting like snakes. A true giant serpent rested upon the tree with its eyes closed, its pitch-black body coiled around the trunk. Occasionally, patches of decaying flesh were exposed from its curved sections, the scales, which should have been lustrous, instead exuded an aura of decay.
This is Nozomi's true form.
A snake that was continuously rotting.
The two fluffballs in the backpack perhaps sensed something, wriggling restlessly for a few moments. Kisaragi Chiyo patted them gently, a sign for the two fluffballs not to forget what she had said before.
After his reminder, the little fluffballs quieted down. But Kisaragi Chiyo's heart remained on edge, refusing to settle.
A thick, gloomy, ominous aura lingered over the land ahead. In the damp, brown soil, aside from that single tree, Kisaragi Chiyo looked around but could not find a second living plant.
Purple-black mist drifted in the air; the young man had only just taken a single step when he immediately felt a sense of oppression and agitation wash over him.
Kisaragi Chiyo heard her own amplified heartbeat, but upon sensing it more closely, she felt something was wrong; once she realized what it was, her face turned somewhat pale.
It turned out that besides his own heartbeat, there was another even more intense and powerful heartbeat thumping beneath his feet. Within this brown earth, it went thud, thud, one beat after another.
Kisaragi Chiyo stood in place, somewhat dazed, as his thoughts suddenly went blank. A strong sense of *** and a voice guided him, down.. down.. to this place, to be with us..
That voice came from deep within the earth. Kisaragi Chiyo clutched his head in resistance, gritting his teeth until the spreading taste of blood in his mouth allowed him to regain a semblance of clarity.
He finally knew now where all the yokai that originally lived near this forest had gone.
It turned out they were all here, right beneath the very ground he was standing on; they had all become nutrients for [].
Only at this moment did Kisaragi Chiyo understand why the black giant snake, as a monster's corpse that had died hundreds of years ago, had not completely decayed.
So that was it.
Upon learning this truth, even Kisaragi Chiyo, who had already prepared herself mentally, couldn't help but be shaken, but that was not what was important right now.
The young man lifted his face and looked toward that lush, leafy tree, thinking that as the center of the formation, Nozomi should be hidden there.
All that remains is to
Before the brain could even react, the body had already sensed the danger approaching from behind, twisting aside to dodge.
The moment Kisaragi Chiyo turned her head, she threw out a white rope, the binding weapon made of braided cord quickly tied the attacker up tightly.
When Kisaragi Chiyo saw that person's face, her stomach inevitably began to churn.
The person who had just ambushed him was none other than Miki, the man Hozuki said had disappeared.
Although Kisaragi Chiyo did not remember the man's face, the blue and white striped hospital gown he was wearing had already revealed his identity.
Miki was indeed already dead; to Kisaragi Chiyo, Miki was now nothing more than a decaying corpse.
More than half of the flesh on his face had already rotted and sloughed off, leaving his white teeth and bones exposed. Muscle tissue and yellow fat were accompanied by a powerful, pungent stench.. As Miki flashed a twisted, horrific smile at him, his turbid eyeballs rolled out of their sockets and fell to the ground.
In the next second, Miki instantly rotted into a puddle of decaying flesh.
The purple-black smoke permeating the air grew even thicker. Kisaragi Chiyo took out a compass, as the magnetic field shifted, the needle spun wildly, completely losing its ability to indicate direction.
He didn't dare stay where he was; instead, he immediately picked a direction at random and bolted. Just as he had run five or six steps, Kisaragi Chiyo caught the scent of a thick, foul stench.
The giant snake coiled around the tree had quietly opened its eyes at some unknown point, its crimson eyes seemingly flashing with a greedy light amidst the dark purple mist. Its decision to skip any unnecessary words and strike directly was the only point of mutual understanding between Kisaragi Chiyo and [Nozomi].
-----------------------
Author's Note: Thank you for the support, my little angels, mwah 030
Chapter 152
If I were bitten by a snake like this, the wound would definitely get infected, wouldn't it?
Kisaragi Chiyo thought, trying to find some amusement in her misery.
The moment it lunged at him, he flipped to dodge it, drawing the dagger hidden in his sleeve and stabbing toward the snake's heart.
The sharp dagger struck its hard scales, producing sparks and a piercing, screeching sound during the friction.
"Tsk." Kisaragi Chiyo sheathed the dagger with a dissatisfied click. Just as he had imagined, ordinary weapons were completely unable to harm it. Would he really have to wait for Hozuki after all? In any case, he had no intention of fighting it alone.
Thinking of this, Kisaragi Chiyo did not intend to linger in the fight; while dodging attacks, he moved closer to that large tree.
He arrived faster than he had expected, now he needed help.
After repelling another attack, Kisaragi Chiyo shook her somewhat numb arms. Although she had previously drawn a large number of talismans that could be scattered at will, maintaining this stalemate between the two sides was not a permanent solution; his talismans would eventually run out.
He is very patient. He had thought of this as well, so he didn't mind leisurely playing with Kisaragi Chiyo for a while longer, taking the opportunity to gradually erode Kisaragi Chiyo's will through the passage of time and the gap in their strength.
He couldn't let it drag on any longer. Kisaragi Chiyo turned her head, waving her hand to scatter a large number of fire talismans, while using her other hand to cover her nose and mouth, letting out a violent cough.
The purplish-black mist permeating the air here had some effect on humans, after all. Even Kisaragi Chiyo couldn't avoid feeling a slight difficulty in breathing; her chest felt heavy, as if stuffed with a large mass of cotton, the coughing caused a faint, persistent itchiness to rise up within her.
"Matsuda," Kisaragi Chiyo called out, turning her head. Almost as soon as the words left her lips, a black shadow lunged upward from the ground, flexibly coiling itself around the snake's body.
"Chiyo-chan, you go find something first." Although he didn't hear his own name, Hara Kenji jumped out anyway; he had long been impatient and was already rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
"We'll hold him back." Yuan released all of his tentacles, the pure white, translucent tentacles instantly occupied the entire space. He took over Matsuda Jinpei's position, forcing [] back down to the ground from his frantic soaring state.
So that's why we run into flying enemies almost every time a fight is about to break out.
Hara Kenji thought indignantly, while curling up the thickest tentacle and lashing it toward [] to strike him in the head.
“I hope Chiyo-chan can hurry up.” Hara Kenji sighed; compared to the discomfort Kisaragi Chiyo was feeling, the pain he was personally experiencing was far more intense.
Nausea, dizziness, weakness—just like a pathetic little octopus hauled from the sea and left to bake on a deck, Hara frowned, barely enduring the pain, but upon seeing [] bite off his tentacle, he immediately replaced it without the slightest hesitation.
Although the cost was the rapid depletion of his strength.
*
Kisaragi Chiyo was actually quite good at climbing trees; when she was little, she would often climb that old tree planted in the shrine's backyard, which is said to be three hundred years old and was already there before the shrine even existed.
Along with the old tree, the shrine disappeared into the flames.
Kisaragi Chiyo felt a sense of sadness at this thought, but now was not the time for reminiscing; he shook his head to cast those trivial emotions aside and drew closer and closer to the top of the tree.
Just as he was preparing to land on the branch on the other side, a dense, needle-like chill suddenly surged up his spine.
Kisaragi Chiyo followed her intuition in that moment, crouching low to dodge a foul-smelling black shadow.
But that black shadow seemed to possess a consciousness of its own; after realizing its sneak attack had missed, it immediately turned around and veered back toward Kisaragi Chiyo.
It was only at this moment that Kisaragi Chiyo could clearly see what had just ambushed him.
It was something with a flexible, long neck, it was uncertain whether it could even be called a yokai. To be more precise, it was a grotesque species formed by stitching together a human corpse and a yokai's head.
Its appearance was similar to a Jorogumo.
Kisaragi Chiyo pulled out the revolver and crushed the opponent's head with a single bullet. As the yokai's head exploded, the corpse also lost all control, plummeting straight down like a rotting fruit.