07. Perception Alteration: The Terrifying Art of Savage Hypnosis!
"Save me... I... I don't want to die! We were friends, Kokuyo. Please... please, save..."
"Ahh, so annoying... It was you, Hibana, who told me to harden my heart, right? Keeheet, kuhuhuhu."
I sliced through the neck of the red-furred fox beastkin girl who was clutching my knee, begging for her life while blood poured from her entire body.
"Atta... you're splittin' her real brutal-like, ain'tcha. Or maybe that's cryin', not laughin'."
"Puhh, keeheeheet, ahahat... ahahahaha!!"
"...Sorry 'bout that."
Staring at the bluish-furred girl whose one shoulder had been severed, blood gushing out in torrents—an unbearable amount of blood—as her eyes grew dim... I just let out mad cackles.
Crying? Me...? Puh, no way. This thrill... slicing people... who knew it could feel this good. My brain soaked in pleasure... all I could do was spew uncontrollable laughter.
And then...
"Kgh... cough cough, ha... haa, uha."
Getting tired of listening to her final words one by one, I finally severed her nape.
That opponent was... the one who'd been with me constantly since I opened my eyes in this world, the one who'd told me she liked me... that girl with the pure white fur.
Even with her nape cut, her throat filled with blood, barely able to breathe... what was she so desperately trying to say?
Puhh, puhhuhuhu, ahahahahat... so pathetic, it makes me laugh.
But yeah... I really did love you. Killing you sent shivers down my spine... such an electrifying rush. Wonder if I'll ever feel this high again? My cheeks burning red, my crotch getting wet... like my brain's melting...
I want to kill more, a whole bunch more...! I want to feel this sensation again!
"Hey... proctor lady, once I become a ninja, can I kill even more people?"
"Fufu... of course."
"Then... I'll become a ninja. Just a bit more—no, from now on, I want to kill tons of people."
Yeah, let's kill a ton... kill tons of people, amplify this pleasure from today...!
It was a dream—one that felt strangely vivid. Nearly ten years had passed since that day.
Ten years since I'd become a ninja. Hoo... what a spine-tingling, hair-raising good dream.
After that, I'd gone on dozens, hundreds of missions and requests, killing several times that many people... but nothing buried me in ecstasy like that moment.
It was my first time, after all... and the ones I killed were the most precious people I'd known since waking in this world.
Hard to top that pleasure. Still, I'm satisfied... with life as a ninja. As a slayer.
The proctor, Kasumi of the Morning Mist... on the final day of the exam, she'd pulled a trick on me. Genjutsu.
True to her name—written as Morning Mist, read as Kasumi—she was a master of genjutsu.
Genjutsu is a kind of hypnosis. It usually inflicts abnormalities on the target's cognition... confusing their five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch.
But someone at Kasumi's pinnacle... can go further.
Perception alteration.
A terrifying art that rewires the common sense or emotional responses a person should have as a human.
You know how in those thin isekai books from my past life, hypnotists rewrite girls' common sense to make them do... that? Yeah, like that.
That day, Kasumi altered my perception: turning aversion to murder into desire for it, and most human disgust into pleasure.
And I... surrendered to desire and ecstasy, slicing those kids down.
A straightforward, clichéd tale. No going back now.
Sure, over the past ten years as a ninja, I've honed my skills enough to dispel the perception alteration Kasumi cast on me that day.
But why bother? If I undid it, I'd probably shatter like the obsidian my name implies—Kokuyo.
I know the pre-alteration me well. That sniveling fool from my past life memories, weeping over killing... couldn't handle the guilt from the mountains of corpses I've piled up these ten years.
So better to live as the current me: reveling in slaughter... sharper than any blade, cleaving targets apart. As Kokuyo.
"Puhuhuhu, what boring, pretentious thoughts."
Ahh, it's just 'cause I haven't gotten a taste of blood lately. Standing at the center of that pleasure—slicing, stabbing, turning clinging meat into corpses—blows away all stray thoughts.
Should be about time for village orders or requests to roll in, right?
Today's the regular meeting for ninjas still in the village. Hm... overslept a bit? Eh, it'll be fine.
Most of those guys are weaker than me anyway... puh.
I stepped out. Crowds of commoners on the roadside glancing my way, bowing their heads.
Aaah, so delightful...! Even if it doesn't look it, I'm quite the VIP now.
My name's Kokuyo—the one that kid called me back in test 594, slapped with "black obsidian" for flair.
Alias: Shinigami.
That's me, a full ninja now.
Bam! Slam!
I shoved open the meeting room door hard.
Eleven ninjas inside. Yeah... twelve of us staying in the village without missions or requests right now. I'm dead last? Ahhat!
"Late! You damn blackie!"
"Blackie? What kinda bullshit nickname is that?! No other ninja has skin this porcelain-white like mine."
"I'm talkin' fur color, you damn blackie bitch!"
That hulking old man uncle snarling at me? Raijin—guy with a name way too grandiose for his station. Puppeteer ninja specialist.
The village defense puppets, the massacre series? His handiwork.
Hm, his alias was... what again? Puppetmaster? Oh yeah...
"Long time no see, Tin Can Uncle! Man, it's been ages!"
"Use respect, you little shit...! I'm older, higher gen than you by a mile..."
"Puhahat, respect? To you?"
"......"
"I don't use respect with weaklings? Old-timer uncle."
"You... ignorant little fuck."
Aww, he's pissed. But you started it, calling me blackie first?
Keep scratching at me like that, and I might just go full blackie wargreXmon... not wanna listen to orders from some weakling, right? Or not. Whatever.
"Keep callin' me a dog-fuck, but foxes are canines anyway, so it ain't an insult? And you're a fox beastkin too, so same boat... spittin' in your own face?"
"You dog-bitch! I'll kill you!!!"
"Quiet."
Someone cut in on me and Tin Can Uncle's spat.
Leader's out on a named request, so running this ninja meeting in their stead... is that woman who cast perception alteration on me, Kasumi.
Aaah, can't mouth off to her... tsk, no choice. Gotta play along.
The meeting wrapped quick.
No real issues in the village, and none of us—me included—are the type to brainstorm wise suggestions for its growth.
Usually, we divvy up upcoming missions and named requests... two landed in my pile.
One: a named request scroll. The other: a leader's direct order, sealed with a seal stamp.
These classified ones can't be read in the meeting room.
Wonder what's inside... intriguing?
"Kokuyo, you know the drill—that order gets read alone, then burned immediately."
"Yessir, yessir."
Tsk, such dull, pedantic security... Fine, I'll start with the named request I can read here.
To Whom It May Concern.
Client: Claudia Archduke
Time Limit: None (sooner the better)
"Claudia Archduchess...? Who's this chump? And the client's her own dad?"
"...In the southern lands—the tail-less humans' country—she's a famous noblewoman. Shinigami, tread carefully on that request."
"Eh? What's this, our Morning Mist lady gettin' all kindly worried?"
"...Cat and tanuki ninjas took a similar request and died."
"Hmmm...? So? They just suck?"
"You know the tanuki side—the Mujina vice-leader... he got taken out."
After becoming a ninja, I learned... we're not the only ones calling themselves ninjas in this barren northern land.
Other beastkin clans had their self-proclaimed ninjas too. Tanuki beastkin, Mujina clan included.
They boasted "we got 808 ninjas!"—all numbers, no quality, total jokes.
But Mujina's vice-leader uncle? Skilled enough to escape after fighting me.
And he got caught and killed...
"That Claudia Archduchess is called the God of War among the southern tail-less folk."
"Whoa..."
"If you're taking it, don't plan a frontal assault. Rumors say she's..."
"So if I fight her, Shinigami vs. God of War? Awesome..."
"......"
"Can't wait?"
Kasumi's mouth twisted like she'd eaten shit. Bet the fox mask hides a hilarious face.
She acknowledges my ninja skills but gripes about my flippant personality. Blames botching my head during perception alteration or whatever.
But whatcha gonna do? Imagining thrusting a blade into a strong foe's nape... the thrill won't quit.
Hoo... alright, I'll take this request.
"Claudia Archduchess" rang a vague bell, but eh... probably nothing.
After the meeting... back home, I checked the leader's order.
Puhh, puhhuhuhu, ahahahahat!
Whoa... for real. Something I'd secretly hoped for forever, dropped right in my lap?
Archduchess can wait—this comes first.
The order had signatures from all ninjas except me and one other... and the leader's command.
Assassinate the ninja "Raijin of the Puppets."