Demon
It had been quite some time since I last had an erotic dream, but I had no intention of altering the plans I had laid out yesterday.
If I were the sort of coward who cowered over an ominous nightmare, I never would have taken up the exorcist's trade, hunting down demons in the first place.
“Yuna, be careful out there. If anything feels off, just get out immediately. You understand?”
“That’s the fourth time you've told me, Jun.”
“And another thing...”
“Make sure to seal it properly with a talisman once the exorcism is done. Right?”
“…Yeah.”
I saw Yuna off as she stepped out of the shrine, wearing her usual serene smile. I had packed the bag containing her exorcism tools with my own hands; not a single item was missing, and nothing had been overlooked. Of course, whether I was meticulously prepared or thoroughly negligent, it wouldn't change the destiny dictating that Yuna was bound to lose to a demon...
“Instead of worrying about me, shouldn't you be careful? Aren't you heading to the cave with Shion? Watch yourselves so neither of you gets hurt.”
As the eldest among us, Yuna had always looked after me, Rin, and Shion. She wasn't just driven by a sense of duty; she possessed a gentle, self-sacrificing devotion, always prioritizing us even at her own expense. She was a genuinely good person, and an equally wonderful friend. When I resolved to become an exorcist and came to this shrine, she was also the first of the three who came with me to walk the path of a shrine maiden.
“Rin, you said you were going into town today, right? You're going all by yourself without Jun, so don't go following any strangers.”
“Yu-Yuna! I'm a full-grown adult now!”
Standing beside her, Rin answered with an embarrassed chuckle, though she didn't seem to mind the teasing. She seemed slightly preoccupied with the person from the supermarket the other day—the one who might have been an old classmate. When she asked if she could visit downtown again, I naturally told her she could. Just as Rin had said, she was an adult; an ordinary outing was hardly something to fuss over.
“Well then... see you this evening, Jun. Have a good trip, Rin.”
“Take care, Yuna.”
If my prayer reached the Guardian Deity, the curse etched into my flesh wouldn't inflict any terrible harm upon Yuna. I couldn't shake my anxiety, but there was no shame in that; it merely proved how deeply I cared for her.
Last night's dream... was just a dream.
Until Yuna returned, I had to focus on what I could do.
“Isn't that skirt uncomfortable to hike in?”
“These robes are actually the most comfortable clothes I have now.”
“Still, watch your step so you don't trip. From here... it's this way, right?”
“No, it's that way. Are you really an exorcist?”
“H-Hey, anyone can get turned around.”
I made my way up the mountain behind the shrine toward the cave alongside Shion.
This entire mountain was private property, and I was its owner. Or perhaps that sounded a bit strange—to be precise, it was an ancestral estate belonging to my family, passed down through generations of exorcists. From my late parents, I inherited this mountain along with the sealed cave harboring the portal to the Demon Realm. Guardianship over it was my duty.
“We're here. This place gives me the creeps every single time. What about you, Jun?”
“It's certainly not somewhere I'd visit for fun. But it's a place I have to come to often nonetheless.”
Shattered boulders had littered the cave entrance just days ago, but now they were nowhere to be seen, as if pulverized into fine dust. Even though it wasn't midsummer, the midday sun beat down with considerable heat, yet merely standing before the cavern mouth washed me in a chilling draft that raised goosebumps across my skin.
Deepest within this cave lay the gate leading to the Demon Realm—the infernal plane ruled by the Demon King.
I had ventured that deep only once.
In that past timeline, at the moment of my defeat at the hands of the Demon King.
“The talismans and geumjul rot away every single time we visit...”
“Have you talked to Reina about this? We need to block it with something else.”
“There probably isn't a proper way to seal it right now. The boulder that originally barred the way was supposed to endure for centuries.”
If demonic energy had erupted with enough force to shatter such a barrier, someone of my skill had no hope of resealing the entrance. While I was searching for answers, understanding what had transpired here after the seal broke took far greater priority.
“Let's head inside. Speak up the moment you feel anything strange, Shion.”
“Acting cool, are we? Trying to show off your manly side?”
“……”
This was hardly the time or place to indulge Shion's teasing.
Moving slowly, every nerve taut with vigilance, I took my first step into the subterranean darkness. Even though I wore thick-soled sneakers, the eerie chill seeping up from the earth sent an instant, numbing ache through my ankles. If the underworld existed, the road to the netherworld must look just like this cave.
“It really is disgusting in here.”
“How is it, Shion? Sense anything?”
“What does the Guardian Deity say?”
I was the only one who could commune with the Guardian Deity, as the exorcist who had formed the direct pact. Normally, I could have consulted the deity and shared their thoughts just as Shion suggested, but...
“They just said... it's a bit dangerous.”
“I'd say so. Even when we tackled that five-story shopping complex possessed entirely by a demon, it wasn't this bad.”
“See any noticeable traces? If a demon climbed out of the Demon Realm and slipped past us, that spells disaster.”
“I'm looking. Nothing visible yet.”
Today's plan was strictly limited to scouting the shallows near the cave mouth. Bereft of the Guardian Deity's aid, venturing anywhere near the gate with just Shion was nothing short of suicidal. The ideal outcome would be finding traces left by an ordinary, low-level demon—one I was capable of exorcising. If we found zero traces at all, it would only heighten my unease.
“Jun.”
“I'm listening.”
“Take a look at this.”
Did Shion spot something?
Following her call from behind, I turned around and looked down at where her finger pointed.
“Is this... fur? Or hair?”
“Looks like hair. But the color is bizarre.”
A single strand of pure white hair lay across the dark soil.
I knew herb gatherers occasionally climbed this mountain, but almost no one ever ventured all the way to this cavern. And among those few, someone possessing hair this long and snow-white would be practically unheard of.
...Wait. Long, pure white hair?
“Shion... quiet for a second.”
“……”
I brushed off the dirt and held the strand of hair in one hand.
Facing back toward the path leading to the entrance, I focused my concentration. Drawing the faint demonic energy lingering on the hair into my palm, I channeled it through my arm. Then, pointing my fingers forward, I let the demonic energy unfurl—and there it was.
Footprints.
Traces of a foul entity invisible to mortal eyes came into view. I could see the demon's tracks—stamped deep into the earth with every lumbering step after opening the portal and rising from the depths of the Demon Realm.
“…Phew. Haaah.”
Exhaling slowly, I struggled to quiet my racing pulse.
Was this... even possible?
Was the white-haired demon from last night's dream truly an entity that had crossed from the Demon Realm into the human realm right through this cave? And Yuna was destined to be captured and defeated by a creature like that...?
“Jun.”
“……”
“Jun! Snap out of it!”
“…Ah, sorry. For now... let's head back.”
“Why? What's wrong? That hair belonged to a demon, didn't it?”
Shion possessed instincts far sharper than mine. Bringing her along to scout this place was no mere coincidence, and once again, her intuition had hit the mark.
“Yeah.”
“What kind of demon is it? Is it really dangerous?”
“I... don't know for sure yet. Let's go back and check the archives.”
The curse's description had clearly stated that whoever received the transferred defeat would never die. Even in last night's dream, Yuna didn't appear to be in mortal peril. Yet becoming a demon's plaything instead of dying was an entirely different nightmare.
Was that why Yuna looked so resolute in the dream? Because she had been defeated and threatened with her life...? And in exchange, she surrendered her body to satisfy the demon's demands?
A flood of sickening anxiety churned in my gut. A relentless chain of grim possibilities kept flashing through my mind.
“Let's go.”
“…Okay.”
The moment we returned to the shrine, I rushed straight into the archives stacked with ancient tomes. This time, instead of the grimoires on curses I had combed through previously, I pulled out illustrated bestiaries and demonological compendiums. Naturally, I knew almost every common variety of demon, but I had never heard of anything matching the entity in my dream.
A hulking fiend with dark skin and waist-length white hair. Judging by how he groped Yuna's breasts and shoved his cock in front of her face, his primary sin was Lust...?
“……”
My lips were parched, but I didn't even care to wet them. Silently, I turned page after page, skimming the text. Flipped again, and skimmed.
Then, finally, I found a passage matching the demon who had appeared in my dream—the one who had gripped and kneaded Yuna's chest.
“A demon of such immense stature that he looks down even upon the most robust human men.
Characterized by pitch-black skin and luminous white hair that shimmers like silver under moonlight.
Possessing a savage temperament and overwhelming martial prowess, he is far more cunning and calculating than he appears, taking immense pleasure in bewitching and corrupting mortals.”
Raksasa — No recorded appearances in the mortal realm since the year ■■■■.
Skin tone, white hair, physique. Everything matched.
“Raksasa...?”
The section where the year should have been was heavily smudged with ink, rendering it illegible. Yet the demon's name was written clearly and unmistakably.
Raksasa.
“…!”
Footsteps sounded from outside. Was it Rin returning from town? Or Yuna, back from her exorcism?
Unable to tell, I set the tome down in a hurry and rushed outside.
“Yuna?”
Yuna was standing near the shrine's entrance. Having halted mid-stride on her way in, she stood turned to the side, gazing toward the moon rising in the darkening night sky. The bag I had packed for her earlier was nowhere in sight, but something else caught my eye far more acutely... her clothes.
“Ah... Jun.”
Her pristine white miko robes were so drenched in sweat that her bare skin seemed almost visible beneath the sheer, soaked fabric. Clinging tightly to her ample chest, the cloth rose and fell slowly with each breath. Now that I looked closer, her breathing seemed... heavy and sluggish.
“D-Did everything go well? Did anything happen during the exorcism?”
“Happen?”
“With the exorcism.”
Had Yuna truly fallen into that demon's clutches, just like in my dream? My lips trembled slightly as I choked out the question weighted with dread.
Yet, completely betraying my fears, she replied:
“Yes. I wrapped it up without any trouble.”
“…Huh?”
“What's wrong, Jun?”
“No... I mean, uh...”
She spoke with utter calm and composure, her tone just as gentle as always, as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
Staring blankly at her, the lines I had just read in the ancient codex flashed across my mind.
'Should the caster face defeat directly, death is absolute...'
'...taking immense pleasure in bewitching and corrupting mortals.'
“……”
An ominous dread crashed over me, screaming that things had already begun to spiral horribly out of control.
Casting my gaze down to my wrist to inspect the brand carved by the curse, I found not a trace of crimson aura left. It was absolute proof that I had evaded a brush with death—that my inevitable defeat had passed. And at the same time, it meant Yuna had endured that defeat in my stead and returned.
And yet, she claimed she had finished the exorcism without a hitch...?
“…I see. Good work, Yuna.”
If only the Guardian Deity were by my side right now.
Yet wishing for what was gone changed nothing. I had to seek guidance and intelligence elsewhere. Even if it meant dealing with someone unsavory, it was the only path left open to me; standing still was not an option.
Tonight, I would scour the ancient tomes for whatever else I could find. And once dawn broke tomorrow, I would seek out that demon.
Cassandra.
