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 119: Clad in the Sky

-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
Follow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-

Yoshinori, gazing out the window at the darkness-covered sky, could do nothing but sit on the sofa.

It seemed Nene and the others had already headed into battle to bring this situation to an end.

"...I wish I could have fought too."

With a few popsicles and a glass of barley tea in front of him, he wasn't allowed to move.

Now the living room had become a safe zone.

That place, surrounded on all four sides by sealing stakes embedded with special syntax issued by Enri Academy, was now no different from a sanctuary devoted to hundreds of years of prayer.

An absolute defense that allowed no curse or any misfortune to pass.

Even if an Aberrant Entity manifested by the Night Kagura tried to attack Yoshinori, it would likely be blocked by the wall.

That is, of course, only if it were a low-class Aberrant Entity.

"Heyy."

As if the sanctuary didn't exist, she calmly broke through it head-on and stepped into the living room.

No, perhaps she didn't even have the sense of having broken through it.

She was no different from when Yoshinori had parted with her, as light in manner as if she were still under the summer sun.

"Ruu!"

"Using four stakes is VIP treatment, isn't it. That's quite a careful job. Mm-hmm, as your senpai, I'm proud."

Saying that, she grabbed one of the popsicles on the table and opened it without hesitation.

"...How many does that make?"

"They're basically like water, so any number is fine. It's hydration, you know. I've been doing all sorts of work too, so this much is fine, riiight?"

Saying that, Ruu threw herself onto the sofa, kicked her legs, and seemed to be in a good mood.

She didn't seem concerned with the hellscape outside.

Yoshinori was not so insensitive that he could see that and remain calm.

"Hey, Ruu, don't you need to go?"

"Eh, where?"

"What do you mean, where? There are monsters outside again, right? Then shouldn't you go fight as an Enri Bearer?"

"Ah... I'm fine."

She laughed lightly, and utterly casually.

"Even without me, those three will manage somehow. After all, all three of them are terrifyingly strong. If anything, I'd be like dead weight, you know?"

"I-Is that so?"

Ruu held up three fingers toward Yoshinori as if showing them off.

When he tilted his head in confusion, she continued.

"With three days, they could definitely destroy Japan. And each one by a different method."

"...I-I see."

"Right right. So I'll fulfill my role of protecting Yoshinori. Besides, things are going well now, so if I ran into Senano-chan here and looped, it would all be ruined, right?"

"...Ah, that's right! Senano-san and Ei-chan made up. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, they did. But it was fine this time. Maybe because there was a couple nearby who had just confessed."

"......So I was useful after all, in some small way."

Yoshinori gave a vague reply, feeling both embarrassed and not, in an indescribable state of mind.

But Ruu clearly affirmed it.

"You were useful. Thank you. Thanks to you, this loop will end this time... Now then."

After finishing her popsicle, Ruu tossed the wooden stick into the trash can.

She stood up, clapping lightly as she watched the stick draw a clean parabola into the bin, and reached out to Yoshinori.

"I have to give a good kid a reward."

"A reward...!"

What came to his mind was, naturally, money.

But what was given along with her outstretched hand were unexpected words.

"I'll show you the truth of the world."

That invitation, which would greatly twist his fate, had been lurking within the ordinary and now revealed itself.

■

Flames danced through the city, turning tragedy into ash.

After they ran through, nothing remained.

"From here on, we split up. Senano, Ei, handle it well."

"Yes! Let's go, Ei."

"Understood!"

Nene tossed a pebble from the ground as if it were an afterthought, eliminating one Aberrant Entity, then leaped toward a nearby rooftop.

And she vanished into the darkness and the horde of Aberrant Entities.

Moments later, the former Aberrant Entities dancing through the air demonstrated the extent of her strength more than anything.

"We can't afford to lose either."

"I'll do my best! ...That said, my role is to help people, but so far I haven't confirmed any such people. Could it be an anomaly in ZONE?"

With the division of roles where Senano handled Aberrant Entities and Ei protected civilians, the two ran through the city.

But the people who should have been visible at first suddenly vanished, disappearing as if they had never existed in the first place.

"That's likely. But we can't let our guard down."

"There's a high probability the Five Sealing Families are here. Let's win this time...!"

As if to show off his motivation, Ei clenched his fist and nodded at Senano with rough enthusiasm.

Just as Senano lovingly watched him and reached out toward his head, an Aberrant Entity fell from the sky.

The misshapen thing, like a failed imitation of a human, spread its limbs as if to pounce on them.

"Ei, get back!"

Senano lightly kicked off the asphalt, leaped, and landed a somersault kick directly on its head.

At the same time, that action was interpreted as a dance offering, and Hibari's flames surged, turning the Aberrant Entity to ash.

No longer was her dance offering made only through steps as before; she had become capable of offering dance through direct attacks as well.

"Phew."

"That was amazing, Senano-san!"

That could be called clear growth.

But she did not take pride in that growth.

On the contrary, she frowned and looked down at the Aberrant Entity that had turned to ash.

"Rather than attacking on its own, it looks like it was thrown by something."

"Could it be Master?"

"Surely she wouldn't throw one at us. If someone were to do something like this—"

Senano looked in the direction from which the Aberrant Entity had come.

In the sky covered by dark clouds, there was a human figure.

Wrapped in scorched rags, it was unmistakably staring at Senano and the others.

"...Senano-san."

"Yes, that's the mastermind this time."

As if to confirm Senano's words, the figure spread both hands and flaunted its existence.

The name it announced was one of the taboo names familiar to any Enri Bearer.

"I... am Aratsuba. One... of the Five Sealing Families."

It spoke in a hoarse voice while its head rattled with an eerie irregular motion.

The words, which could not be taken as either male or female and only barely formed a voice, seemed as if an Aberrant Entity were hurling words at them.

"That patchwork-like voice is really creepy...!"

"Still, what we do doesn't change. We'll just have to blow it away."

Senano had already begun her dance.

It was because she knew that a fighting stance moved Ei more than words of encouragement.

"...Indeed, you're right."

And Senano's actions would bring about a change in Ei beyond all expectation.

"What I can do now."

Ei's anger toward the Five Sealing Families, who had hurt and toyed with someone precious to Ei in the past, exceeded Senano's imagination.

On top of that, the mental stability from their reconciliation and the experience that had accumulated in Ei's subconscious over these repetitions blossomed in this moment.

Even if this battle was a fabrication, Ei's mind had been made up, as if to prove that the resolve of an Enri Bearer named Ei was genuine.

"Ei...?"

"I'll fight too."

Looking up at Aratsuba, Ei intertwined their fingers and clasped their hands before their chest.

"...tata naga hiso kuku kotohara minashi na izu miyo."
(TL Note: This is literally just a ritual prayer; as the next sentence says. In the raw it's 「……たた なが ひそ くく ことはら みなし な いず みよ」.)

The words Ei spun were a norito offered to the sky.

It was a necessary process to turn the gaze of a calamity-lord-class entity toward this place.

Even though it existed beyond the dark clouds, it immediately read Ei's wish and produced a violent miracle.

There is neither the sound of cicadas nor the summer sunlight there.

But the vivid blue reflected in Ei's eyes and the summer breeze swaying their hair proved that the labyrinth had manifested.

It was a manifestation of the labyrinth onto a body, never observed until now.

That is, a superhuman feat of donning the sky and holding it within.

"—Clad in the binding, descend once more."

In an instant, the outlines of the surrounding scenery distorted.

From within the distortion wavering like a heat haze, it suddenly appeared.

Sickly white fingertips trailing dark red threads, a veil full of patchwork, and a face whose everything had been sewn into nonexistence.

"Togigara no Yome."

The tragic bride who stirred fear in all who saw her had just now appeared as Ei's loyal servant.

"I'll borrow your power."

As if in answer to Ei's words, Togigara no Yome prostrated herself.

Then her body unraveled like thread and stretched toward Ei.

In the blink of an eye, the threads began fusing with Ei's clothes, transforming the Enri Academy uniform that represented their innocence into something entirely different.

The skirt swaying in the wind was like ash spreading through the air.

The wedding gloves covering Ei's slender hands seemed smeared with grimy soot.

It was the polar opposite of blessing: a form that picked up and wore the faint wishes left behind within tragedy.

"Let's call it... Soramatoi, perhaps."
(TL Note: Soramatoi is the romanization of 空纏い. Which can mean something along the lines of 'Wearing the sky'. Imma leave it as the romanization cause I like it more.)

As if donning a crown, the veil wrapped around Ei's head.

Now in a form like a bride born from ash, Ei was exactly one and the same existence as Togigara no Yome.

"Ei..."

"I won't let you fight alone anymore. From here on, we're together! And—"

Through the gray veil, Ei glared at Aratsuba.

"This time, I'll defeat the Five Sealing Families for sure!"

Even within falsehood, there was certainly something that never changed.

『Yeah yeah, wedding dresses really are the only choice for a boy-girl, aren't they＾＾』

『Sora, h-hey, this is really too lewd...!』

『It's fine. That level is just right. Now, go ahead and use your power however you like. It's a no-downsides, all-out rampage time＾＾』

『Really!? Then fine by me! I'll do it!』

-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and Cannedbread
Follow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-