Can Someone from a Tradition-Ridden Village Pull Off a Narou-Style Story in a Modern Dungeon? ～The Higher Being Behind Me Is Way Too Much of a Final Boss～ - Chapter 118: A Heart That Deceives
-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
Follow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-
The sky was dyed black.
It couldn't be called night.
The bizarre, noisy darkness without peace or silence was as if a black curtain had simply covered the whole world.
A world without moon or stars indicated something abnormal.
The footsteps of people still coming and going through the city and the cries of cicadas remained unchanged, as if still left behind in a summer afternoon.
The damp heat that clung to the skin also seemed to show that the sun was still there.
"What's going on with this?"
"Night Kagura seems to have been moved up... Ei, you stay here and protect this person. I'll be right back."
"Understood!"
Senano left the dim room without hesitation.
By then she'd already activated Hibari, and the small bird clad in flames followed after Senano, scattering sparks.
Everything was going as planned.
"Master, something's strange outside."
"...Yeah, I confirmed it visually too. The Aberrant Entities as well."
In front of the entrance, which had been destroyed, she could see what had been an Aberrant Entity, crushed and deformed, convulsing.
Nene held a door with its tip stained black in her hand, and what she'd used it for was obvious.
"Don't tell me you used that against an Aberrant Entity?"
"Yeah. I didn't have a choice. It's absolutely not that I'm using this as a weapon to cover up the fact that I accidentally broke the door."
"So you accidentally broke the door."
"How did you know?"
Even in an abnormal situation, the two continued their tensionless exchange.
One because she'd been told this would happen.
And the other because this much could be handled either way.
"It seems early for Night Kagura... Could it be that you altered the settings, Master?"
By the time Senano lined up with Nene at the entrance, the area was overflowing with Aberrant Entities.
Even so, the passing people continued to enjoy their daily lives unchanged.
A girl who gazed up at the sky as if the sun were still there was bitten into from the head by a wide-mouthed, milky-white humanoid.
A young man riding a bicycle with a friend had his head fall in the next moment, and his body followed, falling from the bicycle, but his friend continued talking with someone who wasn't behind him and disappeared into the darkness beyond.
The world where the ordinary and extraordinary mixed distortedly was such that the word hell felt lukewarm.
"I didn't do anything. Miraku got really angry at me before, so I didn't do it. So I don't know."
"Is that so? ...Master, could it be that someone's intervened?"
"Someone?"
Senano nodded at Nene's question and continued.
"Yes. Doesn't it look as if someone's trapped us inside a labyrinth and is trying to kill us with Aberrant Entities? ...Could it be the Five Sealing Families, targeting either me or Ei?"
"You have a point... Not coming at us head-on is exactly their usual method."
Having fought the Five Sealing Families several times in the past, she tilted her head while agreeing with that opinion.
"But something bothers me. They have a troublesome mentality, so at times like this they usually show themselves."
"Couldn't it be that they're moving extremely cautiously this time?"
"That's possible too. ...But, Senano."
Nene looked down at Senano.
Senano reflected in her eyes looked a little smaller than usual.
"Are you hiding something?"
"...No."
"My intuition is said to be highly accurate. I think so myself too."
She was by no means foolish.
Continuing as an Enri Bearer at S rank meant having survived many times through actions beyond reason.
Intuition without reason. Nene trusted that more than logic.
And now it was making a strange sense of wrongness stand out within her disciple.
"If there's something, I want you to tell me."
Senano stared at Nene.
Then, as if reluctantly, she told her.
"......Actually, I saw a figure that seemed to be from the Five Sealing Families. I wasn't certain, so I thought I'd keep quiet."
"When?"
"It was after you left the house with Ei. I suddenly felt someone's gaze from outside the house... They probably fled the moment they realized I noticed. I searched the area afterward, but I couldn't find them. So I thought something might be watching us."
"I see."
"But that's only my speculation."
"No, it was helpful. You have sharp senses."
Nene stroked Senano's head and smiled as if to reassure her.
"Then first, let's find the culprit who caused this incident. They'll probably appear if we defeat all the Aberrant Entities in this city."
"Right. Then I'll call Ei too."
After saying that, Senano called Ei's name toward the back of the hallway.
Soon, Ei showed her face and ran over.
"Senano-san, did you call me?"
"We're going to hunt Aberrant Entities from now on. Think of it as Night Kagura coming early."
"Night Kagura...!"
"It's all right."
Senano smiled at Ei and stroked her head, imitating what'd just been done to her.
But hers was nothing more than a deception.
"Let's fight together. I'll support you where you're not used to it."
"Ah! Understood!"
Not protecting her, but fighting together.
Senano knew from experience that Ei would be happy if she made that proposal.
Therefore, now she offered words Ei likely wanted and acted in ways likely to please her.
She was acting out the behavior of 『Mikama Senano』 as seen from a detached perspective: the way a Senano who'd made up would act.
"First, go drive stakes and set up a barrier to protect Yoshinori. Even in a real Night Kagura, there are many times we protect civilians. Can you do it?"
"Yes, leave it to me!"
She was probably happy to have been given a role by Senano.
Ei nodded with an innocent smile that showed no trace of tension and ran off toward the back of the hallway.
"That's unexpected."
"Is it?"
"Yeah. I thought you would be a bit more fixated on protecting Ei."
"...I've learned my limits. As I am now, I can't protect Ei perfectly. So I decided to bear all my weakness and sins and do everything I can do now."
"You..."
It was a declaration too painful to be expressed by the word resolve.
But Nene accepted it.
The reason was simple.
Because she believed in the girl named Mikama Senano.
"Then you'll have to train in this Night Kagura."
"Yes. While we're at it, shall we make it a competition between the Ei-and-me team and you, Master, to see who can deal with more Aberrant Entities?"
"That won't do."
"That's surprising. Were you always this serious?"
"No."
Nene said the following with an extremely serious face.
"In that case, my victory is already decided. It wouldn't be fair."
"...You sure can talk. You're an S-rank and a calamity-lord-class pseudo-medium, after all."
"That's all there is to it. It's not worth mentioning... No, on second thought, maybe I should do that."
Nene nodded as if she had convinced herself of something.
"Come to think of it, I've never seriously competed with you. It's important to once show you the difference in our abilities as an S-rank here. Fine, it's a competition. If you lose, accompany me in my training afterward. I just managed to reserve a village that looks good for training the body."
"You're still going to train? Fine, I'd welcome it, of course."
"Sorry to have kept you both waiting! I properly surrounded Yoshinori-san with stakes and protected him! I told him not to go outside!"
"Well done."
Sensing that her master had shifted to combat readiness, Hibari soared high, serving as the signal to begin.
Ei clenched her fists from nervousness, while Nene still carried the iron cylinder containing NARROW on her back and showed no sign of using it.
But both already had the eyes of people about to fight.
(...I'm sorry.)
Only one person, Senano, understood how hollow and absurd this situation was.
Therefore, she voiced an apology in her heart.
Even knowing it would never reach anyone, she still prayed that way to deceive the guilt that kept swelling within her.
"All right, then shall we begin?"
As if to show she stood in the same position as the two, Senano said that.
What would begin now was a false battle, all of it fabricated.
Even if its beginning had been a pure prayer.
(Only this time... Only this time...)
She was now nothing but a clown.
-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
Follow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-