Yamiyo no Hotaru

Chapter 23

Two figures were moving through the forest in the mountains, where the atmosphere was heavy and gloomy. One was a tall man, and the other was a slightly shorter and slimmer girl.

They walked in silence, and behind them, several presences were lurking. Little by little, but surely, they were closing the distance between them, making small, low, eerie animal noises... and gradually, these noises were being heard not only from behind them, but also from both the left and right sides of the forest, and even from above their heads.

..in other words, they were being surrounded.

Here in the far north from the capital, a land of the northern part of the country (北夷) where the youkai still roam, it was the most dangerous area of all.

'Roarrrrrr!!!'

The roar made the earth shake like an earthquake. Then, several huge shadows appear from the deep forest. Each of them was a great youkai that resembled a snake, a crab, a boar, and so on... and each of them had the potential to become a calamity youkai in another hundred years.

The area is dangerous in the northern part of the country, where a hundred calamity youkai who once followed 'Kuuban' and rampaged in the central part of the country. In addition, there is a mountain forest with a low-grade spiritual vein through which the Ushi-oni (ox-demon) escaped from the Imperial Court's conquest of the area.

Despite the cleanup of the remnants immediately after the end of the great war, a few exorcists were returned and eaten to death, and thereafter the Imperial Court had to give priority to the restoration of the land and the defeat of other dangerous youkai who were still actively working, so the extermination of the monster, a wounded creature that never came out of the forest, was postponed and gradually, it was left unattended.

Nowadays, it's been several decades since humans have wandered into the forest, where they are strongly forbidden to enter so as not to feed them along with the containment, and in fact, the last time humans were eaten was even longer ago because they escaped from the forest... Anyway, for a long time, the taste of human beings was kept away from them. So, there is no doubt that these two stray people were a great treat for the monster formed from the spirit of mountains and forests.

Now, the great youkai, a serpent with a body like a giant tree, was the first to shout a threat. Then, stretching out its slender tongue, it leaped at the wanderers with its sharp fangs. But then... its entire body went stiff.

'H-hisssss!!?'

The serpent, literally within arm's reach of the wanderers, clearly defies gravity in a strange position... as if time has stopped... and its yellow eyes widen as it cries out as if it has no idea what is going on.

'C-creakkk....!?'

Next, a crab as big as a castle tower spurts out a lot of foam from its mouth and shakes its body, letting it drip on the ground. Its shell makes a creaking sound, and cracks appear, leaking out yellowish bodily fluids that stain the soil.

'Grumbleee!!?'

The boar howls. As it howls, its thick neck bends slowly but surely. The boar tries to resist the invisible force with its muscle power while shaking its whole body and sprinkling saliva, but gradually the balance of the force is broken and the angle of the neck bending increases.

Snap! Snap! Crack...Crack...Crack! Snap! Crackk......!!!

Such various "breaking" sounds echoed through the forest. A moment later, there is a thud, and the sound of something huge crumbling down. It was a serpent whose body had been folded into dozens of pieces like origami, a crab whose shell had been torn off its entire limbs, and a boar whose neck had been twisted all the way around.