15 Days
The fire blazed high.
Crimson flames of the inferno swallowed the village whole.
I, the shrine maiden, Nakagami Risa, Hagawa Ryoko, and the shrine maiden’s subordinates stood before the village and watched it burn.
They say fire-watching is the finest of spectacles, and the flames held a kind of magic that made you stare blankly. A campfire had much the same pull.
“Do we really have to burn it like this? The money poured into this village can’t have been ordinary.”
I asked the shrine maiden.
She answered while gazing at the burning village with complete indifference.
“Wada Kyoshiro, was it? That place is already known to him. Unlike the yakuza, with whom renegotiations are finished, there’s no telling what he might do. We cannot kill him. So we must at least clean up the village thoroughly. So no evidence remains.”
“…….”
I glanced at Hagawa Ryoko. She, too, was staring blankly into the flames the same way I was.
“Is it really all right to erase this village like this? From what I’ve heard, it’s been around for decades.”
“I understand it has roughly two hundred years of history, but history is only the past. If the past becomes an obstacle, it must be cleared away.”
“The media? A fire this size, reporters would catch the scent.”
“We’ve already handled it with the government’s help. Thanks to the recent disasters, no one will grow suspicious.”
“What will you do from here? Try to build another village like this?”
“That would take far too long and be inefficient. The money spent on this cleanup was considerable. The Japanese government and the yakuza are smiling to our faces while aiming at me behind our backs. For safety’s sake, I intend to focus solely on Hyeoldan production for the time being.”
The shrine maiden laid out her schedule in a calm voice. The further she spoke, the tighter her brow drew, wrinkles gathering between her eyes.
“What’s bothering you?”
“…Money and time are the problems.”
“Time can’t be helped, but why money? Don’t you have plenty? Enough to offer us three billion yen.”
“Four point two billion yen. That is the sum I can freely use.”
“That’s a lot.”
“It’s not enough.”
“What do you plan to spend it on?”
“Two billion yen is lobbying funds for the politicians. One billion will have to be scattered among the yakuza.”
“The yakuza were the ones who screwed up first. Those bastards should keep their mouths shut.”
“If things resolved that easily, how wonderful it would be. The business I spoke of with you, Seong, requires the cooperation of both the Japanese government and the yakuza.”
“……And the remaining one point two billion?”
“Invested in production facilities and material procurement. Honestly, it’s quite tight.”
“Does Hyeoldan production cost that much?”
“Because narcotics go into it.”
“Ah.”
I understood at once.
Hyeoldan contained five different narcotics. This was Japan. Even if you somehow obtained the drugs, the price would be anything but ordinary.
“I think I can help with the money problem. The more money there is, the more mass production of Hyeoldan becomes possible, right?”
“Yes. Human corpses are easier to obtain than narcotics. But a few coins won’t cut it. Seong, are you perhaps wealthy?”
“No. I’m broke. But I know how to make money.”
The shrine maiden quietly nodded. Somehow she still seemed not to trust me.
“We should leave the village soon. The flames will spread to the mountain before long.”
“Ah, already leaving? Shame. This fireworks show… isn’t half bad.”
Nakagami Risa, who had been watching the burning village with an ecstatic expression, turned away. Her flushed cheeks suggested she was somewhat sexually aroused.
We boarded the prepared vehicles and left the village.
The shattered village roads had been patched by the yakuza when they stormed in. Temporary repairs using suitable rocks, cement, and timber. The surface looked precarious, yet the cars crossed the makeshift road without trouble.
The moment we cleared the road, a notification window rose before my eyes.
You have escaped Ookaruma Village.
Quest complete.
Quest rewards will be issued.
You have acquired the Right of Life and Death. Please check your inventory.
You may now view the ending.
You may continue the quest until Day 15.
Do you wish to end the quest?
I stared at the notification window visible only to me with a somewhat blank expression.
Information about the original work 15 Days rose in my mind. I also learned the quest success conditions I had not known until moments ago.
Survive fifteen days, or leave Ookaruma Village.
I let out a hollow laugh. It was currently the sixth day. In a few hours it would become the seventh. I had shortened more than half the time.
In the original they fill the full fifteen days to the brim.
The original was a survival story of the protagonist’s group. They had to survive the villagers. In the end, a total of four people lived.
The protagonist Wada Kyoshiro and the heroine Hagawa Ryoko naturally survived, and the remaining two were a mild surprise: the senior Mori Masahiro and the third-year Fudo Jun.
The shrine maiden dies at the end. Shot by the protagonist Wada Kyoshiro’s gun.
That was how they killed the mastermind and escaped the village.
At the close, the ending showed what became of them.
Mori Masahiro became a national judo representative; Fudo Jun a famous musician.
The heroine Hagawa Ryoko supported Wada Kyoshiro as a devoted wife. Wada Kyoshiro became a politician, revealed to the world what had happened in Ookaruma Village, and denounced the corruption of the Japanese government and the yakuza.
The original has changed. Mori Masahiro and Fudo Jun are dead, the shrine maiden lived and joined hands with me. Nakagami Risa is alive as well.
In the original, Nakagami Risa fell off a cliff together with Shibata and died.
I rested my hand on the shoulder of Hagawa Ryoko sitting beside me. The protagonist’s devoted wife was my cock sleeve. Time-limited, but still.
Of course I had not the slightest intention of freely releasing her. And she could not escape me. Not for some ridiculous reason like Japanese conviction… but because I had become the shrine maiden’s business partner. If she abandoned everything and returned, Wada Kyoshiro would die.
“What.”
“Don’t get prickly.”
My hand slid downward and groped her breast. Hagawa Ryoko sighed.
“…Aren’t you tired of this yet?”
Her half-resigned voice was strangely decadent and sexy. My hand slipped inside her top. I unhooked her bra and settled her well-shaped breasts into my palm. A heavy yet soft sensation traveled up my hand. I gently rolled her nipple between my fingers and answered.
“A delicious woman like you—I could eat you hundreds, thousands of times and never get tired.”
“…Keep it moderate.”
Hagawa Ryoko did not resist. Her nipples were stiff.
How to make money.
It was not difficult.
Only two things were required.
One was a mask that could hide the face; the other was a knife.
I considered robbing a Japanese bank, then realized I currently had no space-transfer scroll and changed course. A deadly game of tag with the Japanese police would have been entertaining… but without a space-transfer scroll it would become excessively tiring.
I switched to a target that would be less exhausting.
Loan sharks. Private moneylenders. Even if they were connected to the yakuza, it did not matter. They would prove less bothersome than Japanese police who wielded public authority.
I walked into a suitable loan-shark office.
Except for the one who looked like the boss, I cut every last one of them down with the knife. The time it took for the office to become a sea of blood was exactly forty-three seconds.
“W-where the hell did you come from…!”
“Give me the money.”
“…What?”
“Give me the money.”
“Kyaaaaak!”
Since he failed to understand, I sliced off one of his right ears.
“Give me the money.”
“Y-yes, I’ll give it…!”
It was remarkable. Even after losing an ear, he suddenly listened far better.
He began opening the safe right in front of me. His movements were sluggish, so I stabbed him in the shoulder with the knife.
“Give me the money.”
“Aaaak! I’m opening the safe right now!”
Right foot—out.
“Give me the money.”
“My foot!!!”
“Give me the money.”
“A-alright! Please spare the left foot. I’ll open the safe as fast as I can!”
Inside the safe were ten-thousand-yen bills and plastic packs filled with powder. I stuffed everything into the bag. Roughly thirty million yen, I estimated.
“Give me the money.”
“Yes? I-I gave you everything! That’s all of it!”
“Give me the money.”
“Aaaak! My right arm! You crazy bastard!!”
“Give me the money.”
“Kkeuuuut! S-sorry. Please spare me. Please.”
“Give me the money.”
“T-this is everything in my wallet!”
I obtained 7,210 yen.
“Give me the money.”
“N-now there’s not a single yen left! Really! What I just gave you is my entire fortune! Please spare me! Please! I’m begging you!”
“Give me the money.”
“M-my elderly mother is at home. Her legs are bad. Without me she can’t… Please… spare me.”
“Give me the money.”
“Y-you fucking bastard! There’s no money! You already took it all!!”
I severed his limbs. The man with arms and legs cut off writhed like a caterpillar atop the pool of blood. To keep him from dying I forced Kaminoyama secret medicine down his throat. The effect was excellent. With this he would live another one or two hours.
“Give me the money.”
“You think you’ll walk away from this? Kagurokai will turn you into dog food…!”
“Give me the money.”
“No… money…! Damn it…!”
I smirked and pointed at both of his eyes with my index finger. The finger traveled down his body, indicated his chest, then poked hard into his abdomen—the kidney area.
“Money.”
“…….”
His face went deathly pale with terror. An unpleasant ammonia stench rose as well.
“P-please….”
I gagged his mouth, roughly stuffed him into the bag, grabbed the car keys from the office, and stepped outside.
That day I hit five loan-shark offices. I obtained five fresh loan sharks and three hundred million yen.
Back at the hideout I sighed while watching the three doctors extracting organs.
“I invested three whole hours and hit five places, yet I only made three hundred million yen. Making money is really hard, isn’t it?”
One of the doctors looked at me with an expression of pure disbelief.
“Isn’t a hundred million yen an hour an enormous amount?”
“No. Real high-earners make a hundred million yen while lying down. Compared to them I’m dog shit. Originally this smelly, filthy work should be done by slaves….”
“…It really does feel like you see us as slaves.”
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“There are plenty of doctors. Doctors are everywhere.”
“…I’m sorry.”
The doctors silently focused on their work.
Rustle, rustle.
I pulled out the triangle kimbap I had bought earlier at the convenience store and shoved it into my mouth. The taste was terrible, but it filled the stomach well enough.
Knock knock knock.
Someone pounded on the operating-room door. I, who had been leaning my back against it, frowned.
“What.”
“…It’s Kikuchi.”
Kikuchi.
One of the subordinates the shrine maiden had personally brainwashed.
“What is it?”
“Yakuza have arrived outside. Sixteen in total. All of them are armed.”
“They found this place? There must be some skilled ones among them.”
The three doctors stopped working and stared at me. Their pupils trembled with unease.
“Doctors, keep doing what you were doing. I’ll clean this up and come back.”
“…You said sixteen yakuza came. We should run.”
“I’ll handle it. Just keep working.”
“…….”
And fifteen minutes later.
I presented the doctors with sixteen fresh yakuza. Their overtime was going to run long.