Chapter 199
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 199
Chapter Title: 184. Inosuke's Ambush
It was a really good call to look up info on the Oni ahead of time.
Would the damage have been minimized back then if the current Shinohara had been around? Who knows about that Oni from before. But she was Japan's top exorcist and hunter, recognized by every hunter family as the number one.
The current Oni should be well within her ability to handle.
"Grraaaaaah!"
Boom! Rumble rumble!
The Oni's fist slammed into the ground, and in an instant, the earth was engulfed in lava as if Hell's landscape had unfolded.
This was her chance.
The moment the Oni turned the terrain into lava to create a field favorable to itself, a brief opening appeared.
"Thousand Sword Arts: One Stroke, Two Halves."
Slash!
Finally, the Oni's right arm came clean off.
This should have been a fatal blow.
The Yellow Dragon was killed by Yoo Eun-ha's teammate, after all. The Oni shouldn't be any different.
"Keurgh!"
She pressed the attack without mercy.
The Oni knelt, clutching its severed arm.
A thousand swords soared high into the sky once more before raining down on the Oni gripping its arm.
Though they were a thousand swords, they were all conjured from mana.
The swords embedded in the Oni vanished, only for new ones to pierce it anew.
"Thousand Sword Arts: Hell of Blades."
Pffft! Pffft!
As long as her mana didn't run out, an effectively infinite barrage of swords poured down.
Good thing she'd brought mana stones.
It wouldn't be long now. She could finish it off completely.
"Groooaaargh!"
"Nothing's more pathetic than a guy who died once coming back to flail around."
She infused more mana into the cascading swords.
The Oni, shredded and buried in the earth, screamed in agony but could only thrash in the lava.
"Kaaaagh!"
As its body began to soften like ground meat, she seized the moment.
Her Hell Blade came down on the Oni's neck.
Crack! Crunch!
"Graaaargh!"
The Oni strained its neck to hold out, but Yuzuki didn't stop.
She poured all her mana into severing the Oni's neck.
It might worry Yoo Eun-ha. But if she won, wouldn't Eun-ha be happy? A strong woman like her wanting Yuzuki—wouldn't that be great?
The thought crossed her mind.
Crack! Grind!
After hacking away at the neck for a while, it finally separated from the body.
The thousand swords had brutally ravaged the neck, tearing it apart like something gnawed off.
The detached Oni head showed no signs of life.
"Is it really dead?"
The colorful glow in its eyes had faded, and it wasn't breathing.
Good thing she'd charged in from the start.
If the Oni had used its full power, she'd still be struggling now.
Maybe it was because it hadn't been revived long.
"Whew, if I head back like this... Huh?"
Stab!
A deep ache and sharp sting hit from below. Looking down, she saw a blade protruding from her chest.
What? The Thousand Swords wouldn't attack their master. Where had this come from?
It wasn't the Oni. The Oni didn't do sneak attacks like this.
Forcing her weakening head to turn, she spotted someone she hadn't seen in ages, someone she'd forgotten about.
"Heh heh. You look pretty worn out."
"Shinohara... Inosuke?"
Why was Shinohara Inosuke here?
Why was this loser stabbing her?
"Long time no see, Shinohara Yuzuki."
"Why are you... here! Gack!"
The blade in her body garbled her words.
Inosuke's sword was slicing through her insides.
"To reclaim my place, obviously."
"What does that..."
His place? What was he talking about?
This guy who lost the successor battle, didn't even know why, and fled to Kumamoto.
"I'll kill you here and become the hero who slew the Oni."
"You... madman."
Had she ever seen such a lunatic?
He was as despicable as ever. Absolutely unfit to be successor.
"You've always been a pain in the ass. It's natural for the strong to rule the weak, but you put on this fake act about protecting the people and made everyone uncomfortable."
What was wrong with a leader protecting the people?
"What era do you think this is? That power logic bullshit!"
"Isn't it the world where Shinohara seized power after the Great Cataclysm? If you have overwhelming strength, use it to rule the pig-like masses!"
What an idiot.
Everyone knew that. In a military regime, it was necessary.
Any Japanese who studied history knew Japan's past.
The Warring States era with samurai everywhere, the shogunate periods.
Strong rule was good. But tyranny bred rebellion from other families.
If it were a centralized dynasty like Korea's, maybe. But the shogunate wasn't.
Even now in the hunter era, hunter families existed under Shinohara.
Above all, Inosuke would use that power selfishly for himself. And maybe his family at best.
In other words, the Shinohara family would suck Japan dry.
'To think I lost to this psycho!'
If things went Inosuke's way, the country was done for.
That's why he couldn't be successor.
That's why he fled.
"Kukuku. Survival of the fittest, right? Well, bye now. Don't hate me too much—I'm just taking back what's mine."
Inosuke yanked the sword from Yuzuki's body.
Her body went limp and collapsed with a thud.
Blood surged up and she vomited it out.
Was she really going to die like this?
There was so much she hadn't done. Protecting Japan, and Yoo Eun-ha...
She just wanted to see her face one more time.
'No. I can't die here.'
She poured her fading mana into her dying body, forcing it to move.
She had to kill that madman Inosuke.
If he took Japan, it would surely fall.
He must be in league with the Sins. The Oni was probably their creation too.
That's why he'd shown up now.
He'd definitely be a threat to Yoo Eun-ha.
Shinohara couldn't become the Sins' puppet.
If Inosuke died, Shinohara or some other family could take Japan.
Anything was better than him in power.
"Urgh."
After crawling for what felt like forever, she reached the Chaos Oni's corpse.
The lava hadn't cooled; it was still scorching. But Shinohara Yuzuki wrapped her body in mana and barely made it to the Oni's heart.
She'd heard it during hunter training once.
Implanting a monster core had a low chance of turning you into a monster.
She'd bet everything on that.
Staying put meant death anyway.
Yuzuki ripped open the Oni's chest and extracted the pitch-black core. Then, using the fading Thousand Swords, she widened the wound in her own chest and shoved the core inside.
"!!!"
The moment the core went in, it felt like scorching flames engulfed her body.
Bone-scraping pain came with the sensation of her very genes rewriting themselves.
The Oni's core devoured her heart and took its place.
She could feel it.
Demonic energy starting to flow through the veins connecting to the core, one by one.
The Oni's blood coursing through her.
In that instant, the memories of the Chaos Oni she'd slain flooded her mind.
Yuzuki's life and the Oni's memories intertwined, forging her into a new being.
In that process, she saw it.
Behind it all: Inosuke and a boy who looked Middle Eastern.
That had to be one of the Sins.
With the Oni's blood now flowing, she knew instinctively.
'Those bastards to kill!'
As the Oni's blood fully merged with hers, the pain stopped like a command for vengeance, and her body finally relaxed.
Whoosh!
Hot flames erupted from her body.
Strength returned to her weakening form.
Demonic energy overflowed.
She could feel herself becoming a monster. Not just any monster—Yuzuki had become the Chaos Oni.
It didn't matter if she was the Chaos Oni with Yuzuki's personality, memories, and body, or Yuzuki having gained everything from the Oni.
"Heh... heheheh... Hahaha!"
"W-what... how...?"
"You loser should've stayed holed up in Kumamoto. Who told you to play hero by killing the Oni?"
She couldn't forgive him.
Inosuke had to die, no question.
"Urgh. Die!"
"You think stabbing me in the back after I used all my strength means you'd win head-on?"
Yuzuki grabbed Inosuke's sword-swinging arm tight and unleashed her authority.
The Oni's authority: Hellfire.
She melted his arm with flames that dissolved anything.
Flesh and skin liquefied, exposing bone that soon crumbled to ash.
"Kaaaaagh!"
"Getting hit by a sneak attack from trash like you is just embarrassing."
It was so absurd, all she could do was sigh.
"S-spare... me! The Sins blackmailed me too!"
Blackmailed? Yeah, right. He talked a good game.
She could tell from the stab it was premeditated murder, not some reluctant act.
Why should she spare him?
"If our positions were reversed, would you?"
"!!"
The chaotic Yuzuki snapped Inosuke's neck.
"Die."
"G-gaaah!"
Skin and flesh melted, eyeballs rolled out, and in seconds, he was a skeleton.
Yuzuki incinerated Inosuke's entire body, erasing every trace from the world.
The problem was, after killing Inosuke, Yuzuki's body began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Urk. Kraaaagh!"
Maybe it was inevitable.
Human-to-monster transformation via core implantation was unstable.
Especially implanting a core from one of the Four Heavenly Kings called Oni—her body couldn't stabilize.
Soon after, Yuzuki lost all strength and collapsed.
And someone had watched the entire battle between the Oni and Yuzuki, plus Inosuke's appearance, from the start.
The Flood, Stubborn Kamikaze Volunteer Corps creator, Hellgate maker.
Plus, the one who revived the Oni.
On top of that, the hikikomori who'd lost a mating contest to Little Dragon.
It was Sloth's Sin, Cale.
Cale was briefly surprised when the Oni died by Yuzuki's hand.
"Kukuku. Who'd have thought Shinohara Yuzuki would fuse with the Oni. Guess the side effects are unavoidable."
Cale leisurely approached Yuzuki, who could barely move from exhaustion.
"Y-you bastard."
Thud!
Cale's fist slammed into Yuzuki's solar plexus, right where the core had been implanted.
"Rest up."
"Guh!"
Yuzuki's freshly core-implanted body couldn't handle the shock to her heart-substitute core.
She blacked out, unable to withstand Cale's punch.