I Became the Final Subjugation Target of That Era’s Light Novel

Chapter

The Nue is a creature that looks like an animal mixed up like it has something related to the twelve zodiac signs. If called an Eastern chimera, I’m sure people would agree.

It seemed like the Nue had made its nest in the afterlife.

I think I read somewhere about how it cried, making hyo hyo sounds, and those who heard it fell ill and lay down, but I’m not sure where. I probably came across it while searching on Wikipedia a while back.

It has the legs of a tiger, the head of a monkey, the body of a raccoon, and a tail with a serpent’s head.

And that chaotic appearance was more bizarre and terrifying than I imagined.

“Bearer of another’s form, unable to possess a body of your own, hidden within a name,” Yuuki said, placing his left hand on his waist and extending his knife straight to the right.

That line was so beautiful that it stole my gaze for a moment.

This was the first time I’d seen Yuuki draw his blade. Naturally, it was also the first time I had seen that blade.

The blade was so sharp it looked almost white, having endured through many years, and it seemed capable of cutting anything. Even if I didn’t know the true identity of that sword, I felt that it could slice something not of this world.

And— I could instinctively know.

That it could even cut a god.

…Me too—

“If you return to your place, I will not strike you down. Cast aside your greed and return to where you belong.”

But the Nue showed no sign of fear at all. Why could that be? Was it not scared even after seeing the sword?

“…Kuro-chan?”

As I trembled with my legs shaking, Kaneko asked me with a worried expression.

It was cold.

Not from the rain, nor because my body was wet. But rather, a chill was rising from somewhere much more fundamental.

It felt as if it was chilling me to the bone.

A whistle echoed again.

From the gap, something crawled out. Something invisible. But both Kaneko and I knew that something was there.

“You sure follow the sound that leads souls to the underworld well,” Yuuki remarked, drawing a yellow paper from his waist with his left hand. On the white paper, black characters were haphazardly scribbled.

The paper didn’t get easily wet, even when drenched, perhaps it had been treated with some kind of adhesive.

As a blue flame ignited at the end of the talisman, Yuuki held the paper up and almost instantly, it burned to ash, leaving just small embers.

Those small embers danced in the air, unaffected by the wind and rain. It was an eerie sight.

The embers floated and ignited one by one the talismans Yuuki had set up in the twelve directions.

As the talisman closest to us caught fire, the salt within flared up blue.

And then Yuuki moved.

He momentarily tensed his legs, and with a trail of red and white light, lunged straight at the Nue, thrusting his blade forward.

The sound of metal clashing rang out. Seeing the Nue’s hand raised above, it seemed it had deflected Yuuki’s sword.

Yuuki didn’t flinch at all.

He swung down his sword again, parrying.

Hiss!

As the Nue’s other hand moved swiftly, Yuuki ducked quickly. A few strands of his hair were sliced off by its claw that was trying to catch his head.

The glimmer of the blade was beautiful.

“How lovely…”

Without realizing it, Kaneko murmured that.

“Grrr…”

The Nue displayed its teeth, showing its discontent at the situation not going as it wanted. Was that its original sound?

The Nue sprung to the side quickly, distancing itself from Yuuki. In that moment, Yuuki quickly reached his left hand to his waist and drew another talisman. This time, he hurled the talisman, already ablaze with blue flames, towards the gap where the Nue had emerged from, a tear in the afterlife.

A screech was heard. But it wasn’t Yuuki’s.

It was a terrifying scream, as if something trying to break free from the outside was being blocked.

The Nue opened its maw, screaming.

That sound—

Was a monkey’s cry. After all, it was hard to think it would produce any sound other than that.

I guess the Nue was angry that its hiding place waiting for prey had been blocked, because it slammed its hands onto the ground multiple times while letting out a sound akin to a disgruntled monkey.

Yuuki, not bothering to respond, once again aimed at the Nue.

And,

Whish—— Ho———

…Again, that sound echoed.

“…Ah.”

The sound was coming from a small gap that was about to close.

A beak was poking out sharply from that small opening. This whistle similarly broke through the air like when the Nue did earlier.

And what emerged was another Nue (鵼), a creature looking as if it were a jumble of everything, having a chicken’s head and wings, tiger skin, a monkey’s head and a dog’s legs. It looked like another jumble of the zodiac animals.

The Nue (鵺) and the Nue (鵼).

It wasn’t just one.

“Tsk.”

I could hear Yuuki clicking his tongue.

The second Nue spread its wings and flew up into the sky.

As it was about to drop down on Yuuki, it suddenly fell straight downward toward the ground.

A gigantic arrow was embedded in its neck.

The person from the direction the arrow flew was Yuuki’s grandfather, holding a bow much larger than his upper body.

He was dressed in red pants below, and a white outfit above, with a quiver strapped to his waist.

He drew another arrow from the quiver and nocked it.

Kiieek!

The Nue squealed.

As everyone’s gaze turned towards the fallen Nue, Yuuki had already ripped through the abdomen of the Nue he was facing. Blood gushed out. Even a monster bleeds red.

Indeed, I had seen it last time.

Kiieek!

The Nue on the ground let out a similar cry. The bizarre monster, with a primate’s head but a completely non-primate body below the neck, sprang to its feet.

Thud, blood trickled down the arrow still lodged in its neck. The white fletching quickly soaked up the blood.

Kiieek!

Without uttering a word, the grandfather aimed and shot at the Nue.

I was… anxious.

No, it wasn’t that I was anxious about me dying. Rather, I had a feeling that I should be playing some role here, and yet I was unable to fulfill it.

So, I was an outsider who had fallen into a light novel.

Then, shouldn’t I do something like another reincarnated being? Shouldn’t I at least jump in and help Yuuki like Sasaki, the original protagonist?

But, I had nothing I could do.

Rather, if I were to meddle, I might just make the situation worse.

After all the help I received.

“Hmph.”

The Nue dodged the arrow shot by the grandfather with a leap to the side.

It seemed the Nue was highly reluctant to enter the barrier Yuuki had set up. Was there some primal instinct at play here?

Instead,

“No way!?”

The grandfather shouted upon seeing the Nue’s movement.

The bird-like Nue seemed to think it was no match for either Yuuki or the grandfather.

It had a form resembling a four-legged beast, so it turned that to its advantage and circled the barrier like a maniac.

Knowing that we were at the end of its path, Yuuki turned his body, but—

Kiieek!

Right next to him was another Nue.

It was a predator, twice a human’s height, bleeding from its belly. If I were to get hit by its unwieldy slashing arms, I’d be lucky if only something broke.

Yuuki threw himself toward the ground. The attack barely sliced through the air.

The Nue stabbed the claw of its opposite leg firmly into the ground. Then it pushed toward Yuuki. Ka-chunk, the sound of something striking deep into the ground echoed. The Nue rushed towards Yuuki, plowing deeply into the sandy playground like a circular saw cutting through wood.

…I’m becoming a burden.

My heart raced faster.

What if I hadn’t come here? If I hadn’t sought them out all this way, perhaps none of this would have happened—

Yuuki rose from the ground and rolled to the side. The white shrine maiden attire was instantly splattered with dirt.

But the Nue did not pause. It had not lost its explosive momentum.

The Nue pulled its claw, buried deeply in the ground, as if to flick away the earth.

No, it wasn’t just flicking the dirt away. It was genuinely flinging the earth.

The thick clump of dirt soared through the air.

“Oops!”

The grandfather shouted. At the same time, the dirt fell onto the talisman set up for the Chushi.

The blue flames of the fire were obscured.

Had the fire… been extinguished?

But whether it was out or still burning wasn’t important right now. It was evident even to an outsider like me that something had gone drastically wrong.

When the flames of the Chushi talisman went out, soon the flames of the surrounding jasai and inne began to weaken. It was as if it were counting down.

And those flames were connected to the salt we were standing on.

The grandfather began to run. He was racing toward us to intercept the oncoming Nue as fast as he could.

But the winged Nue was cunningly mobile.

As the grandfather started running, it leapt ahead, putting us between itself and him. If the bow was mishandled, we could easily be hit too.

I had to do something.

If I just stayed here, I’d end up as nothing but log fodder.

What I could do was—

Suddenly, a thought flashed to Kaneko’s pocket.

“…Kaneko-senpai!”

I cried out, diving into Kaneko’s arms.

“Kuro-chan?”

Kaneko easily caught me.

“It’s okay, Kuro-chan. Surely—”

Kaneko’s eyes widened, seemingly trying to comfort me as she hugged me back.

“…Kuro-chan?”

But in my hands, I had already taken out the knife tucked away in Kaneko’s pocket.

Shink.

The sound of the blade unsheathing echoed. Kaneko pushed me away, startled, but by then, I had already pressed the knife against my wrist.

As Kaneko roughly pushed me back, my arms slipped from her waist. With that force, my wrist was cut.

“Kuro-chan!?”

Of course, when I fell away from Kaneko, blood was slowly trickling from my wrist.

Kaneko reached her hand out toward me—

Yet, time didn’t freeze.

My left hand reached upward as if trying to grab something. The long cut on my wrist tore open like an eye shape. The pentagram drawn on my wrist turned blood-red, and tears of blood flowed into the air.

Red blade.

I snatched that blade even before the hilt was fully formed.

“…Kuro-chan…?”

Kaneko asked, as if she couldn’t comprehend the situation.

“…What I said before.”

That’s all I said. Even though it was limited to my wrist, turning the wound to create an eye shape was truly an immensely painful thing to do.

It wasn’t something I was doing because I wanted to, however.

Moreover, I had simply torn open a bleeding wound. The blood, already flowing, simply flowed out even more. It could truly be fatal.

…At that moment, I thought this was definitely a sure-fire way to commit suicide.

Well, I hadn’t planned on dying, though.

After all, I had gone to great lengths to turn that house into a home for people. At the very least… I wanted to enjoy it a little.

As I thought that, I swung my bleeding left hand.

Droplets of blood scattered into the air with plop plop. It was barely enough to make a splash.

Still, it was a relief that the rain had lessened a bit. Thanks to that, my blood was able to touch the Nue leaping toward us.

“Kiieek!?”

The Nue squealed and promptly fell to the ground.

It seemed the foul thing spat me out after tasting my blood. While it wasn’t powerful enough to kill with just blood, it seemed that it disgusted youkai greatly.

What the hell is my blood? Surely, it can’t be just regular human blood.

As I pondered that thought, I slowly moved forward.

With the red blade I held in a manner imitating Yuuki’s, I lunged forward.

The Nue quickly regained its senses.

It exchanged glances between its large, round monkey eyes and my face, as well as the knife in my hand.

It soon bared its teeth and screeched, “Kiieek!” There was blood on its teeth, likely from the arrow that had pierced its neck, causing it to regurgitate blood.

The Nue didn’t seem scared. It must have assumed that something extremely foul and unpleasant was coming its way, and decided it would dispose of me quickly.

The Nue charged toward me again.

This time, I swung my hand to spray blood, but the Nue didn’t bother to dodge.

It made an extremely unpleasant expression as soon as my blood hit it, but that was all.

Well, I had been aiming for that.

After all, it surely can’t kill me.

“Kurosawa-chan!”

The old man’s voice desperately called me from behind. I heard the sound of a bowstring being pulled taut. But it was already too late.

The Nue bit down on my shoulder.

“Bwehh.”

The Nue let out that noise. It didn’t attempt to release its bite, but its eyes shook as it got closer to my face.

“Is that really not tasty?”

People don’t seem to think so, but somehow I feel like I’m destined to be unpopular with youkai.

Before the pain swallowed my brain, I moved my left arm in the Nue’s mouth, grabbing its tongue tight.

“Kiieek!”

The Nue’s mouth opened wide. The fangs that pierced my body came out, creating a hole, and blood surged forth. Breathing was difficult. Maybe my heart had been pierced?

I couldn’t die, for some strange reason.

Gulp, I felt something sour and metallic rising through my throat, but I ignored it.

Ignoring it, I moved my right hand.

“Why didn’t it cut in one go?”

The surprised, big round monkey eyes of the Nue looked back at me.

Holding its tongue tight, I pulled it, drawing my right hand back.

Thud.

The red blade pierced the soft area beneath the monkey’s jaw. The blade rose up through the bottom of its chin, clear and visible. The blade punctured the root of the tongue I was holding tight, continuing up to penetrate the roof of its mouth.

But it wasn’t enough to pierce its brain.

“Eew! Eew!”

How annoying.

I sawed the blade to pry it out. The sharpness of the blade was likely similar to Yuuki’s unique martial arts, as it came out rather easily.

The Nue was desperately trying to break free. Its raccoon-like legs clawed at me repeatedly, tearing at my school uniform into rags.

Holding onto the torn tongue, I thrust the knife back into the Nue’s mouth.

The Nue closed its mouth. It seemed to be trying to at least close it. Strangely, I ended up with a few more holes in my arms.

While bleeding, I was uncaringly awake. Should that be deemed fortunate?

The Nue moved its mouth several times, desperately trying to sever its own tongue.

I threw away the tongue that I was holding.

And again I lunged at the Nue.

Thud!

Another arrow embedded itself into the Nue’s neck.

The Nue’s legs buckled beneath it.

I ran towards the fallen Nue and swung down the knife I held tightly with both hands. A golden mark appeared in its right eye, and through the gap, a transparent substance of glass or whatever, something sticky and clear oozed out.

Seeing the Nue’s head droop to the side, I jabbed the knife forcefully into where its head, the brain would be.

Do youkai even have vital organs? Then again, they might just be treated as beasts in a different world.

The Nue sprawled its legs out and trembled, and finally collapsed.

“Haa… Haa… Haa…”

Everything happened in an instant.

The stench of blood pervaded the area. It was hard to tell if the smell was coming from the Nue or me. They were likely mixed. It was an intensely fetid scent that could make one nauseous.

I sank to my knees on the ground.

“Kuro-chan!”

A near-screaming voice was heard.

I saw Kaneko rushing towards me. Ah, it seems I had already fallen to the ground.

“Ah, ahhh…! Wh-what should I do!?”

I covered the holes in my body with my hands, but when blood surged from another hole, I automatically moved my hands to try to cover it too. But of course, wherever I lifted my hands, blood would flow again.

For someone seriously wounded in one area, this might be manageable, but in a situation like this where I had holes everywhere, simply applying pressure would do nothing.

“…I’m okay,”

“I’ll help you! I’m here for you…!”

Um.

I think I might be okay.

But thinking back, I had already nearly bled out last time.

Wait, am I actually going to die?

Did I make the wrong choice then?

With a blank mind, I thought about that.

Kaneko’s voice slowly faded. It seemed that grandfather and Yuuki’s voices were overlapping with hers, but I couldn’t distinguish them clearly.

“Indeed, a foolish choice.”

And amidst that situation, as if waiting for the right moment, someone intervened.

“But this time, you’ve certainly received a ‘life’. Since I’ve received an offering from you, it seems I must repay my debt.”

A chuckle echoed.

“You should be fine. Right now, it’s best if you sleep well…”

Yes, that would be good.

I felt a little, no, very sleepy.

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