Mob Yandere

[Part 4/4]

Two out of the 3 arrows pierced through the monster's wide-open mouth. The octopus head shakes, letting out a bizarre scream. But Kaya's arrows had a deadly tip. Even if the arrows broke, the tips dug even deeper into the flesh. Plus, they were coated with poison.

"Ahaha... but, it doesn't seem very effective?"

It's the poison from Juuyaku's house. It might have been their pride and joy, a deadly poison. But seeing the monster thrash around with almost no effect made Kaya smile wryly. Still, she keeps shooting, and when her arrows run out, she pulls out her machete and gets ready.

'Gah!!'

Meanwhile, the octopus youkai uses its soft body to slip through the iron door. It leans forward, growling, and charges at Kaya. ...And then its legs get cut off, and it slams its face into the floor.

"Serves you right!!"

I was trying to distract myself by setting up a tripwire with Teguruma, but the octopus-like creature was quick to notice and tried to attack with its severed legs. The neatly severed legs thrashed around, not understanding what had happened. The main body seemed confused as well, spewing out blue liquid. It desperately tried to stand up using the legs around its mouth.

"Hana!"

As I called out to her, Hana pounced with an invisible blunt weapon. She struck the octopus head from behind, smashing it against the back of its head. The octopus, which was trying to stand up, stumbled again. If its internal structure was similar to an octopus, the impact must have caused significant damage to its organs.

"One more blow to finish it off...!! Ugh?!"

Just as I was about to cut off its head with Teguruma, one of the severed octopus legs stopped me. It wrapped around my arm and squeezed tightly. I tried to free myself, but the suction cups stuck firmly. The strength in its grip was enough to break my bones, causing me to cry out in pain.

"Household Member Coordinator...! Ugh?!"

Hana, who had been repeatedly striking the octopus head, noticed my distress and turned around. That was her opening. The octopus's leg lashed out and knocked her away. The monstrous creature, gasping for breath and foaming at the mouth, glared at Kaya. It turned its mouth towards her as if to bite.

"Ah, this is bad!"

Kaya muttered, sensing something ominous. The creature, lacking legs, forced itself into a sprint. Its speed, momentum, and most of all, its grotesque form were enough to make anyone's legs freeze in fear, and Kaya was no exception. Her reaction was too slow...

"Come and get them!!!"

The creature, fully focused on its target, rushed past Kaya──and devoured the scattered ginshari (substitute grain) on the floor, licking and sucking up every last grain.

The bug-repelling Pollock, or 'Migawari Shari (substitute cremation)', had an incredible effect as I threw all my remaining supply. All of its hatred, malice, and hostility seemed to dissipate as the creature frantically devoured the ginshari on the floor. It was a horrifying yet comical sight.

"Huh?!"

"Kaya, get back!!!"

I forcefully pulled her hand, making her retreat. Just as the creature finished eating the shari and turned around, countless octopus legs grabbed me in an instant.

"Ugh, ahh?!"

My whole body is making weird noises. Not broken yet, but...!!

"Haha, that's pretty inappropriate, right...!?"

In front of me is a dark red hole. A messy row of sharp teeth like needles. Are those tentacles? They're wiggling around like worms. So many of them.

I was planning to eat it right from the head.

"Before that! Let's start with this guy...!!"

I move my arms, which are getting restrained, and desperately pull it out from my pocket. I ignite it with my spiritual art (reijutsu).

"Here, an early Christmas present!!"

Then I toss it into the wide-open mouth of the creature. A bomb packed with pure white and 'Miwagari Shari(Substitute Cremation)' was instinctively swallowed by the monster.

With a loud bang, the monster's belly exploded. Parts of its body, gooey fluids, and a strange blue liquid flew through the air. The monster crumbled. Unfortunately, I was right in the middle of all that chaos and got knocked down by the force of the explosion, landing beneath the debris.

"Yikes!!?"

The way the giant octopus fell apart was bad, and creatures like this keep thrashing even when mortally wounded. My body was stuck under the twitching tentacles, and the main body was pressing down on me, almost crushing me.

"I'll help you now...!!"

"Ugh!"

Kaya and Hana rushed over. Kaya dragged me out from under the rubble, while Hana punched the tentacles to pull them off and free me. They worked together to beat down the wildly thrashing limbs. I was finally freed.

"Cough, cough... ugh! Th-thank you!"

I coughed, probably from the pressure on my lungs, and expressed my gratitude. When I looked up, the two were standing over me, each wielding a bow and invisible weapons, looking down with deadly intent.

"...!!"

Then, they swung their weapons down hard towards me. ...To swat away the tentacle that was coming from the side. Blue blood splattered everywhere. The tentacles fell limp, finally subdued, and everything went quiet.

"Haah, haah... is it dead?"

"Wait. Let me check."

Hana kept punching the octopus head repeatedly. No response. Kaya was stabbing each of the scattered tentacles with her machete, checking thoroughly. I looked around. Nothing seemed to be lurking. Safety was definitely secured.

Well. In other words.

"It's over..."

Finally, I let my guard down and just relaxed right there. The two guides did the same.

Of course, it's usually not good to be so careless. But right now, it felt like I really needed it. Even though we hadn't been in the forest for half a day, the fatigue hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Ahahaha, you must be tired..."

"...Yeah. Thanks for your hard work."

The two of them collapsed back-to-back. I was genuinely impressed that even when they let their guard down, there were no blind spots──typical of Juuyaku's exorcists.

"Ah, I'm beat. ...That was surprisingly close, huh? I didn't expect it to be like this with 3 of us."

Being able to take down a great youkai solo is the bare minimum for a proper exorcist... that's one way to look at it. The one we just took down was probably just a high-level great youkai. Thinking about it, having 3 of us in this life-or-death mud fight was quite a problem. Well, for the other 2, their looks were a debuff, and I was wearing geta, so that might have played a part.

"Haha. ...When we get back, it's training time. For sure."

I need to toughen up again. Now that the battle is over, I realize there were quite a few bad choices I made. Have I been relying too much on the monsters' power and letting my own strength slip? How pathetic...

"Ahahaha. That goes for me too! It's because of my blunders, right? If it's like this, I'll probably get chewed out by the head of the family when we get back."

"I'll write a good report to defend you."

"That would really help!!"

Kaya was so moved by my words that she was almost in tears. No, seriously, she was crying. How strict is the head of the family? ...Turns out they're a hardcore martial type. The quiet Hana nodded vigorously in agreement. So it's that bad, huh?

"Phew. We're lucky, huh? ...Oh, right, right. I just remembered!"

Kaya, looking genuinely relieved by my lifeline, suddenly stood up with a burst of energy. Then she came right up to me, spun around, and of course, stuck her butt out.

"After a battle, you get all fired up, right? Let's let it all out and feel better!!"

"..."

It was a straightforward sales talk from Kaya, complete with a tongue stick-out and a wink. Hana, a bit late to the party, also stuck her butt out. With a blank expression, she mimicked Kaya's behavior and tone. There was 0 charm in it. Butts lined up.

...Well, yeah. You know.

"Such a shame to ruin the vibe. Just giving my honest opinion here."

Honestly, it really messed up the aftertaste.

...Is this the scene at the end of my last post for the year?

Fan-art:

Hina in a Santa costume. She looks like she could sneak into your bed at any moment... =>here