Instant Death

Chapter 28 - What do you mean you killed ice!? Are you getting philosophical again!?

When Tomochika returned to her room she packed her things right away. Her belongings were few enough to fit in a backpack, so it didn\'t take too much time.

『Can we talk for a second?』

Tomochika was just about to leave the room when her guardian spirit, Mokomoko, spoke up.

"What? If I don\'t hurry up I\'ll make Takatou-kun wait."

Yogiri most likely didn\'t require much time himself, and they were supposed to meet up in the corridor after getting ready.

『Don\'t worry about that, tell him you needed more time because you\'re a girl and he won\'t even question it. It won\'t be a long talk, don\'t worry.』

"Well, alright then."

There most likely was value in whatever Mokomoko wanted to talk about if she was going to bring it up under such circumstances, so Tomochika agreed and took a seat on the bed.

『We don\'t know what they\'re after, but this time someone is targeting you in particular. Sure the youngster can perceive killing intent, but it looks like that perception loses a good deal of precision when it\'s not him that\'s being targeted. Might be that I\'m better at sensing danger to you than he is.』

"Yeah, I already guessed that just because Takatou-kun is safe from danger the same doesn\'t have to go for me."

『There\'s also the matter of you two not being guaranteed to always be together. What I\'m saying is that you need to become able to handle this world on your own.』

"Well sure, but there\'s nothing I can do about that, is there?"

Tomochika didn\'t possess any of the powers bestowed by this world\'s system, nor a special power like that of Yogiri. Those degrees of strength weren\'t something a normal person could reach just through effort.

『I\'ve given your situation some thought myself, but indeed, there\'s no way for you to become that strong right away. For the time being you\'ll have to get by with just your current strength.』

"You say that, but am I strong enough for that right now?"

Tomochika was fairly familiar with martial arts thanks to her family being so closely connected to it, but she only ever practiced her skills on her relatives. Present day Japan didn\'t offer a lot of opportunities to put one\'s martial arts skills to the test, so she couldn\'t actually tell how strong she truly was.

『You\'d easily win against someone who only had physical strength going for them, a knife wielding maniac shouldn\'t pose a problem either. Against some martial arts master I suppose you\'d be able to stall for time and find a way to escape.』

"That… sounds pretty amazing."

『In terms of our own world, yes. However, the arts of House Dannoura won\'t do much against this world\'s system and skills and what not.』

"Alright, so what should I do? You brought this up because you know a way to change that, right?"

『We shall lift your seal.』

"This turned really suspicious really quickly! …B-but maybe I\'m interested, go on!"

She hesitated for a moment, but her curiosity soon outweighed her feeling of being made fun of. If there was some secret potential lurking within her, then maybe it was possible for her to be of help after all.

"So, what will happen after lifting this seal? Do I get some kind of super power? The old me would have thought you\'re just screwing with me, but after seeing Takatou-kun\'s power I guess you might be serious."

『Mhmm, now I feel bad for raising your hopes. You won\'t awaken to some special power, you\'ll only gain the mindset required to kill people.』

"That\'s all!?"

The resolution to kill a person was certainly a kind of strength itself, but Tomochika was expecting something much greater, so her disappointment was rather great as well.

『Don\'t go \'That\'s all!?\' now, just executing an attack with the preparedness to kill someone makes it much stronger already. A normal person can\'t kill that easily, no matter how resolute they may be. There\'s always some part in them that subconsciously tries to avoid dealing a fatal attack.』

"Isn\'t that a matter of mental fortitude then? What\'s that got to do with a seal?"

『You\'ve heard of tsukimono lineages, right? House Dannoura is similar to that: all its descendants are born with an offense oriented soul. You included.』

(Note: Tsukimono lineages: wealthy families said to have gained prosperity by possessing people.)

"It just keeps getting less credible!"

The whole story didn\'t sound very believable to Tomochika. It was true that her family was heavily invested in martial arts, but there wasn\'t anything that extreme about it as far as she knew.

『Is that really something you can say after having ripped out your father\'s eyes at the age of ten? In that regard you\'re more promising than your older sister, if you ask me.』

"Pretty sure my dad\'s eyes are in perfect shape though!"

『Erm, well, you know how it is, he got artificial eyes a long time ago.』

"That\'s way too obvious of a lie! You\'re making this up as you go, aren\'t you!?"

『Mhm, I thought steering your character in that kind of direction would fit the whole \'the wild beast within\' story, but looks like it\'s not working out.』

"Who cares about my entertainment value right now!?"

『Well anyway, instead of awkwardly relying on some weapon or skill you should just make use of your innate offensive nature, that\'ll serve you better.』

"Fine, so how are we going to lift that seal?"

Just being turned more violent wasn\'t what Tomochika had been hoping for, but she reminded herself that it was better than nothing.

『The seal is based on a key phrase. To lift it you have to say a special incantation.』

And the incantation was as follows:

The maddened of all realms know not of their madness

The blinded of all beings know not of their blindness

Life upon life upon life upon life begins in darkness

Death upon death upon death upon death ends in darkness

"Isn\'t that what they call eighth grade syndrome!?"

『That\'s a paragraph of Kukai\'s Hizou Kuron, alright? Happens a lot in martial arts, having to chant some esoteric mantra. Anyway, go ahead and recite that.』

(Note: Hizou Kuron: a book written by Kukai, famous Buddha of the 8th century.)

"Isn\'t that pretty long? Doesn\'t seem very easy to use in emergency situations… Wait, aren\'t we making Takatou-kun wait too long!"

『Very well, let\'s leave things at that for now. After chanting the mantra the effect stays active for a while so just recite it whenever you\'re about to head out.』

Tomochika mumbled the incantation as she got to her feet. Nothing felt different when she finished, but maybe that was for the best.

She left her room and met up with Yogiri.

＊＊＊＊＊

Yogiri and Tomochika, both with all their belongings with them, headed towards the emergency stairs. For now they had only decided that continuing to stay at the hotel was dangerous, the matter of where to go after leaving it was postponed until later.

『I agree that the emergency stairs are safer than taking the elevator, but won\'t the enemy realize where we went right away? How about jumping out of the window, no way they\'ll see that coming.』

"You do remember that we\'re on the fifth floor, right?"

Mokomoko\'s proposal was a little too absurd for Tomochika.

『I remember a guy from our original world that could jump from this height without problem.』

"Are you sure he was human!?"

"There might be something like an escape slide around here actually, but we don\'t really have the time to search for something like that. On top of that it would stand out pretty badly, not the best method for secretly escaping."

"Yeah, the emergency stairs should be safe enough."

The hotel was built in the shape of an L. To the right of their room was an elevator, to the left a corner. After going around that corner and walking to the end of the corridor there should have been some emergency stairs.

The two walked through the corridor while focusing all their attention on their surroundings, thanks to which they noticed the sudden sound of footsteps right away.

Someone was coming from around the corner, and before long a woman appeared before them.

"My oh my, what might have you two so flustered?"

The woman spoke with a gentle smile, wearing a fluttery white dress and carrying an excessively ornamented staff. Yogiri didn\'t feel any immediate killing intent, but he doubted a person that appeared with such timing could be unrelated to the people targeting them. Without bothering with politeness, Yogiri threw her a question.

"And you are?"

"Lisa of Yuuki-kun\'s personal guards. Don\'t let my looks deceive you now, I\'m actually the group leader."

The woman replied with a completely calm, carefree voice. So she truly was part of Yuuki\'s followers -- not one of the girls Yogiri and Tomochika had met before, however.

"What do you want?"

The woman didn\'t make them wait with her response, although it wasn\'t a verbal one: Ice pillars. That\'s what they suddenly found themselves surrounded by, caged in even -- thin pillars of ice blocking all four directions in the form of a fence.

"Yuuki-kun ordered me to take Dannoura-san with me, so if you just let me do exactly that we won\'t have any prob――"

Yogiri kicked the ice, upon which it shattered and formed an opening just wide enough for a person to pass through.

"Huh? Are these really brittle or something?"

Tomochika carelessly tried punching a pillar herself, but threw up her hands and screamed when she ended up with the same result one would get from hitting a wall.

"So cold! What did you do!? These are super tough!"

"Tried killing the part of ice that I kicked, looks like it worked."

It appeared that Yogiri\'s power also worked on objects created by magic.

"What do you mean you killed ice!? Are you getting philosophical again!?"

Tomochika, albeit shocked, followed Yogiri on his way out of the cage of ice while Lisa could only stare at them in disbelief; their escape wasn\'t within her calculations.

Yogiri now knew for sure that she was some kind of assassin sent by Yuuki, so killing her would have been fine, but then they would remain in the dark about what\'s going on once more.

"What the hell is going on!?"

Lisa shouted in confusion as she raised her staff and pointed it towards Yogiri and Tomochika. The tip of her staff started glowing, then began producing a massive icicle floating in the air. She was most likely planning to fire it at them, in which case the ice clump\'s sharp tip and massive weight would easily turn them into dead piles of meat.

Yogiri was preoccupied with how to ask her about what was going on and as such failed to react in time. The spell was cast and even if he killed the sorceress now, there was a good chance the ice block would still be fired. With that in mind Yogiri used his power not on the woman, but on the huge icicle.

Without a moment\'s delay it cracked, shattered and then vanished before it even hit the ground.

"Hii!"

Lisa squeaked in a scared voice as she slowly stepped backwards.

Now that she directly attacked them there was little to criticize Yogiri for if he killed her, but instead he turned his eyes to her staff. It was conspicuously big, but perhaps that was necessary for magic. Since he could kill her any time he decided to try killing her staff first.

He used his power and with a snap the staff split in the middle, lost its glow and cracked, its gem-decorated tip dropping to the ground.

Witnessing that, Lisa sunk to her knees, her eyes wide open with fear. Although too late, it seemed she finally realized that the person before her was of a different caliber than she was familiar with.

"Can you use magic without a staff?"

"N-no, I can\'t!"

She answered instantly -- the right choice in her current position, for Yogiri intended to kill her the moment she turned out to make it difficult to deal with her.