183. Apostle of the Dream Demon (3)
183. Apostle of the Dream Demon (3)
Ichika blinked, unable to grasp the scene unfolding before her eyes.
"......Huh?"
She had no choice but to react that way.
Two people she had assumed were the same person were fighting each other.
No, could this even be called a fight?
It wasn't.
It was closer to one-sided violence than a fight.
Boom—!
Boooom—!
The incubus was barely holding on by wringing out every last drop of pink Demonic Energy and detonating it across the area.
But even that was clearly only a matter of time.
Swish—
Through those massive explosions, a man appeared out of nowhere without a speck of dust on him, indifferently slashing his sword downward.
Slice—
Shunk!
His blade accurately drew across the incubus's neck,
but pink Demonic Energy blocked it, preventing the neck from being fully severed.
The man frowned as if he found that displeasing.
"......For a Demonized Human, you're annoyingly hard to kill. Like a cockroach."
But not dying was all he could manage.
Blood gushed from the neck like a fountain.
"Ghhhk!!! AAAAAARGH!!!"
The very same incubus who had pulled every dirty trick to seduce her.
Clutching his neck, he poured out tears and snot until his delicate face turned hideous.
"......What's going on here."
Ichika muttered to herself, still unable to accept the current situation.
— Ichika! I told you! The Dream Demon was dying!!
A small shadow approached her.
"......Why are there two dream demons."
Ichika pointed at the spot where the fight was happening and asked the shadow.
The shadow rippled as if frustrated and shouted back.
— You blockhead! Idiot! That man is not a Dream Demon!!
"......What."
— Not a Dream Demon, someone else! Someone who came to save you!
"......Eh?"
At the shadow's words, Ichika's body froze stiff as if time had stopped.
*
A brief moment passed as she processed the situation.
Ichika turned her head and her blank face twisted into a bizarre grimace.
"......You should have told me."
She whipped her head around and spoke to the shadow reproachfully.
— We did!!!
— That's right! That's right! We kept telling you!
— You kept mumbling that you wanted to see a handsome man who wasn't a Dream Demon, so we even went out of our way to bring one from far away!
— But you didn't listen to us!!!
— Didn't listen!!!
Ichika bit her lip hard.
Then, trembling—
Thud!
She slammed her head into the ground.
'......What a mistake.'
It must have been the aftermath of being pushed to her mental limit, tormented by the Dream Demon day and night.
She had truly made an absurd mistake.
Treating that man who had come to save her
like an incubus, and what had she said to him.......
Her mind replayed the dizzying scene from moments earlier.
— You piece of trash bastard. You did this to me and now you pretend not to know? After you made me desperate for carnal pleasure.
— Ahh, so that's the concept. You made my body fall like this and now you're going to act like an innocent man. Now you're even trying to shame me. As expected of a filthy incubus.
— Sss, but you look even creepier today....... What, did you go work out or something?
And also.
Knead, knead.......
Fondle, fondle.......
Squeeze, squeeze.......
'Ah.'
Boom—!
A massive firework went off in her head.
No, in reality it was the sound of the Dream Demon exploding his Demonic Energy in a final desperate struggle, but—
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Ichika slammed her head into the floor repeatedly with a blank expression.
Blood ran down her forehead but she couldn't feel such trivial pain.
'......Let's just die.'
Simply put,
she was mortified.
Enough to want to drop dead right then and there.
Still, how could she die without even learning the identity of her benefactor who had come to save her?
Ichika, who had been writhing in shame with her head pressed to the ground, lifted her head with a jolt.
— Wha, what's wrong! Ichika!? Are you okay!?
— You're bleeding from your head!!!
— D-did you do that because you want to hang out with us!?
The shadows made a fuss beside her but she ignored them and asked.
"......Do you perhaps know how that person came to be here."
— Hmm, we don't really know!
— Earlier he said he came for a request!
— That's right! He said that earlier! He said Ichika requested him!
'A request......? From me......?'
Ichika tilted her head, then her eyes suddenly widened.
* * *
The anomalous phenomenon called Gates suddenly erupted in the middle of peaceful everyday life.
The whole of Japan was shrouded in dark clouds.
Neighboring Korea saw the emergence of an Irregular, a once-in-a-century genius named Rina.
But Japan, which wasn't so lucky, had no choice but to suffer massive damage.
In the midst of that chaos, Ichika awakened the ability to hear the voices of the dead.
People dying in agony every day. Their voices ringing out without warning at all hours.
At first she had tried to reject that power, but ultimately she accepted it.
She accepted becoming a shrine maiden who listened to and honored the stories of vengeful spirits.
Because she believed this was the mission the world had given her.
That was why she headed to Jukai Forest, where the largest number of deaths gathered.
How many days had passed like that, spending each one alone in that ominous, uninhabited forest listening to and comforting vengeful spirits?
One day, auditory hallucinations began to strike her out of nowhere.
At first she thought it was the mischief of a playful child spirit.
But it turned out to be the work of a man.
Back then, if she had wanted to, she could have driven him out herself.
But thinking that worldly matters should be left to worldly people, she had requested help from the Japan Hunter Management Headquarters.
Anonymously, because having her identity exposed would be troublesome.
However, perhaps the reward was unsatisfactory even though she scraped together all the money she had on hand.
Or maybe it was the ominous image this forest gave off.
Even though she had submitted the request long ago, the Japan Hunter Management Headquarters remained utterly silent.
So, unable to take it anymore, she stepped up to deal with the man herself.
But by then, his schemes had already progressed to a certain extent.
Belatedly realizing this, she resisted with the power she had cultivated here, somehow managing to hold on day by day.
But to be honest, handling a Demon—an incubus—alone was beyond her.
Like a bug caught in a spider's web, unable to do anything.
Just as she was slowly being poisoned by the insidious Demonic Energy.
Toyed with by that vile, horrific incubus's tricks.
Thinking this was the end.
That she would spend her entire life trapped in a hideous hell, unable to tell anyone, unable even to die.
She had truly thought that was her fate.
'A miracle...... has come.'
A man who had heard the screams no one else would listen to and came for her.
Her savior.
The Dream Demon now panting shallow breaths as if having exhausted all his Demonic Energy.
And the man before him, raising a sword that reflected a blue gleam.
Bzzzt—
A shiver ran down Ichika's spine.
She gazed at the man's back with bleary eyes.
And in that moment.
Surge.
An irrepressible impulse burst from inside Ichika.
She sprang to her feet.
Tap tap!
She ran toward that broad back before her eyes.
And then.
Squeeze—
She hugged his back so hard she might break it.
The Dream Demon, who had been facing only death, snapped his head up and his face suddenly lit up.
"I-Ichika!! M-my beloved mate!! You, you came to save me!! You came to save me!!!"
As if she would.
Right now, not a shred of concern for that trash remained in Ichika's mind.
All that was there.
"Thank you...... Thank you. Thank you."
In a voice tinged with tears. Only conveying her thanks to him.
"......Huh?"
Jin Yu-ha turned his head, seemingly flustered by the sudden embrace.
"Thank you so much for coming to save me. If it weren't for you, I would be right now......"
Ichika babbled out words of thanks like that.
"Uh, sorry to interrupt, but...... Hm, could I maybe deal with this guy first and then hear what you have to say?"
"Ah."
At Jin Yu-ha's words, Ichika's face turned as red as a ripe persimmon.
Because the incubus wasn't even completely dealt with yet, and she'd let her emotions get ahead of her and had made another mistake.
She nodded hastily.
"Right. Got it."
Thus Ichika tried to pull away from Jin Yu-ha.
But.
Stroke.
"?"
Knead.
Knead.
"......?"
Fondle.
Fondle.
"......Excuse me?"
Ichika's hands were thoroughly engrossed in greedily exploring the chest and abs of Jin Yu-ha, whom she was hugging from behind.
"......Ex, cuse me?"
"......Sss. Yeah."
"Um, your hands......"
"Yeah. Why are they...... Ah, I get it. I'll move away now."
But even as her mouth said she understood, her body clung tight to Jin Yu-ha with no intention of letting go.
Her hands caressed him adoringly as a bonus.
And the eyes of the Demonized Human Suzuki Satoru, kneeling before Jin Yu-ha like a defeated dog, shook mercilessly.
"......I-Ichika?"
This was the scene he was witnessing.
"How, how can you."
That was the very image he had so desperately longed to see and yet never could.
"How, how can you do this to me."
It was Ichika, blushing and looking at someone with eyes full of adoration.
"How can you, how can you do this to meeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A horrifying scream that seemed to scrape at the soul spread throughout Jukai Forest.