The Savior Ninja (5)
Beyond the wax walls came the sound of more of them approaching.
I considered killing them all, then quietly held my breath instead.
The entrance was smaller than the room itself; from outside, the corpses should stay hidden.
Just as I expected, the yokai walked past without noticing a thing.
To map their positions and numbers, I fired off a radar pulse.
Wooooong—
Five had just gone by.
Seven more insects sat in the rooms to either side, and the entire hive swarmed with more honeybee yokai than I could count.
Even I, who had wiped out two hundred yakuza in a few hours, couldn’t go full unstoppable mode against yokai tougher than humans.
Taking down those three so cleanly had only been possible because I’d ambushed them and severed their thinly armored necks in one stroke.
In a real fight, complacency was fatal. I had to assume these yokai were as smart as possible.
If creatures with that powerful “shell” defense noticed me and switched to a defensive stance, the one who would tire first was me.
I wanted to just set the place on fire and burn them all, but unfortunately I had no materials for it.
“...”
First priority: find the Wild Tribe’s sacred artifact.
Protecting the hope of innocent people mattered more than slaughtering thousands of yokai.
Still maintaining Floating Shadow, I clung to the ceiling.
Unlike the floor, the ceiling wasn’t coated in sticky yellow jelly, so it was at least bearable.
I slipped out of the cave-like chamber into a vast corridor that stretched beyond sight.
Honeybee yokai stood guard along both walls like sentries at a lord’s mansion, motionless and far more disciplined than most human soldiers.
If I’d touched any of the ones passing by earlier, the fight would have exploded from the start.
Careful not to knock loose any wax crumbs from the ceiling, I crawled over their heads.
Patience. Patience.
I barely restrained the urge to smash every single one of those antennae-waving skulls.
Someday. I was definitely going to hit them someday.
Finding the sacred artifact with nothing but the vague clue “the central chamber” was, frankly, impossible.
The honest method would be to keep moving nonstop until I located it—and just saying it out loud made it clear that was pure insanity.
If I took too long, the people of Evergreen Village might start suspecting me, so I needed to wrap this up fast.
A quicker way to find the central chamber… what was it?
I spun my brain into overdrive for the first time in a while.
Hanging upside down actually made the gears turn faster.
Why had the honeybee yokai seized the shrine in the first place? That was the question I needed to start with.
Because they hated the Wild Tribe? Because they were bored? Because the shrine’s structure made a convenient hive?
Or because some special power flowed through the shrine itself?
I needed to dig deeper.
…That was it.
Saserif had said all she needed was the sacred artifact.
What if they hadn’t taken the shrine for the shrine itself, but for the artifact inside it?
If the sacred object the Wild Tribe treasured held some special power the honeybee yokai coveted as well…
That had to be the answer.
Any room housing something that precious would be packed with troops.
I fired the ninja-radar again—the one that painted only living things in green—and scanned the surroundings.
Wooooong—
Before long I found a cluster of motionless green blips, just like the guard yokai.
The density was higher than anywhere else; even if it wasn’t the artifact, it was clearly an important space.
I scrambled toward the target on all fours across the ceiling like a ghost from a horror movie.
“...!”
What greeted me when I arrived was something I never expected.
The chamber was filled with nothing but round objects coated in jelly.
They twitched and writhed as if something alive were inside.
Honeybee yokai eggs? Insects laid eggs?
In a world where mammal-looking Oculs laid eggs, I accepted it instantly.
Wiping out the yokai’s future.
It wasn’t the sacred artifact, but it was still a solid haul.
Crack!
To confirm they were the enemy’s young, I grabbed the nearest one and tore it open sideways.
Jelly like lubricant gushed out.
The white-skinned creature with hair on its head inside was… a human!
If I’d bisected it with my ninja blade, it would have been a disaster.
“Wake up!”
I seized the jelly-covered middle-aged man’s shoulders and shook him hard.
Even when his head snapped back and forth, he didn’t stir.
“If you won’t open your eyes… I’ll kill you!”
Threats did nothing, so I slapped his cheeks a few times.
Smack-smack-smack-smack!
“Cough! Cough!”
The man shot upright and spewed jelly from his mouth.
His eyes still wouldn’t open, so I forced the lids apart myself.
“Can you see me?”
“This place… eugh…”
That was all he managed before his eyes rolled back and he toppled over again.
No choice. Time for the final option: the nuclear knuckle-rap.
Thwack!
“Bwooooooh!”
The effect was outstanding.
The man clutched his skull and hopped around like a frog.
“You with me now?”
“H-huwaaaaah~!”
Apparently escaping the River of Three Crossings felt so good he wailed like a child.
No time for celebration.
I gave his shoulders a gentle squeeze to calm him down.
“Huuuh…! Why are you doing this to me…! What crime did I commit…”
Finally ready to communicate.
“Remember the situation. I just saved you.”
“Ah—wait, this place! Ah…”
His hair whipping as he looked left and right, the man slumped.
Still the hive, huh? No time for gloom either, so I pressed on.
“I’ll help you and the others escape. But…”
His belly was absurdly swollen.
Without the mustache and wrinkles, I might have mistaken him for a masculine pregnant woman.
“Looks like they planted their young in your gut.”
Some yokai hatched their offspring inside human bodies.
“You trust me?”
I drew my ninja blade and leveled it at his stomach.
I’d have to slice carefully and pull it out.
There was a chance he’d bleed out, but better that than being taken over by a baby yokai.
“I’m cutting your belly open now. Hang in there. You hang in there too.”
“This is just because I’m severely obese! I eat five apple pies every morning and it just… please calm down!”
“How can a person eat that much? Making excuses now… you’re a yokai. Already seized the human body, have you?”
“What even is a yokai?”
“Sorry. This is the only way.”
Only one option left.
I poured mana into both arms, intending to end it as painlessly as possible.
“F-fuck! I swear on my father and mother! My name is Bap, I’m human! I’m just fat!”
Yokai never grew up with a parent’s warm affection; the concept of family was foreign to them.
Only a human would sell out their parents like that.
“I believe you. You’re human.”
His name being Bap—the soul food of Asians—suddenly made him feel familiar.
I lowered the ninja blade and handed Bap a dagger.
He took it, flustered but accepting.
“Use this to cut open the eggs and free the people. If they won’t wake, smash their heads hard with your fist. If you think you’re in danger, yell loud. I’ll come save you. Judging by how they locked you all up, they won’t kill you easily.”
“W-where are you going? Beelix are everywhere!”
“I’ll buy you time to escape. Once everyone’s free, head in a direction with no honeybee yokai.”
There were too many enemies to escort these people myself.
Running wild alone and drawing aggro was far more effective.
“...Who are you, doing something like this? You don’t seem to be from the kingdom.”
“I’m a Runaway Ninja.”
With that, I sprinted outside.
“Runaway Ninja… if it’s a Runaway Ninja… th-the Judge of Martolan?!”
Bap muttered something, but I was already focused and barely heard him.
My enemies filled my vision.
Crack!
I shattered the skull of a guard yokai whose antennae were twitching obscenely—with my bare fist.
- Sawflyyyy!
The one beside it raised its voice as if calling for allies.
Agro was exactly what I wanted, so I watched calmly, then stepped in and ripped its jaw clean off.
- yeeeee...
Even while transparent blood poured out, it flailed its two pairs of thorn-studded arms in resistance.
It seemed skilled at enduring pain. Or maybe it felt none at all?
If that was a racial trait, things could get annoying.
I dodged the windmill of arms that looked like a toddler throwing a tantrum for food, then launched a jet kick.
Its scrawny legs—far thinner than its torso—shattered, and it crumpled.
Typical flight-type with underdeveloped leg muscles.
I took its head with the ninja blade and scanned the honeybee yokai pouring in from front and back.
Wiiiiing—
They charged and flew, packing the corridor with perfect coordination.
An ordinary person would have lost the will to fight just looking at it.
But I wasn’t the kind of opponent who folded to mere human-wave tactics.
“Wazabyot—!”
This was a chicken game—whoever flinched first lost.
I charged straight into the wave crashing toward me like a storm.
Now this was real Hamlet.