First Outer World Story Series: The Black Mist that Devours - Chapter 118

(Kurokiri POV)

During the time that Chirito was attending the 4th Japanese Demon Conference, in “White Mist and Black Swamp Forest”.

“So what are you planning to do with this Hanryojin we ended up capturing?”

Ryo was questioning me about what to do with the Hanryojin, who had been pummeled and bruised to the stage where he was barely alive while pointing her finger at the Hanryojin who was in a state of being wrapped in a bamboo mat.

Yeah. It was true that he has been captured. But I didn’t expect that the Hanryojin would be driven to such a state of half-death. Ryo had apparently become quite apathetic after 10 years of mercenary life without my awareness.

I mean, I was convinced an ordinary human or kin would die if their fingernails were ripped off, their scales were removed, and parts of their bones or internal organs were harmed. Even Ichiko was a little taken aback by the disastrous scene.

Despite this, he was still alive. What a pitiful thing. Furthermore, since he was the Octopus King’s monster, he wouldn’t be able to divulge anything that would be detrimental to his master, even if he desired to.

Yeah. It’s truly pitiful.

“Are you listening?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m paying attention. About how to deal with him, right? I’ve built an exclusive room for this purpose, where I’ll confine him for the time being, with suicide prevention measures in place.”

No, this is not advisable. I must ensure that this Hanryojin would not fall into despair in this world any more than he already had.

“Aren’t you going to obtain information about the Octopus King right away?”

“Unlike you guys, simply questioning him about his master won’t yield any information, and I haven’t found someone who can probe his memories. For the time being, all we need to do is apprehend him.”

Right. We just need to capture him for the time being.

In reality, there were far too many obstacles in the way of vanquishing the Octopus King… To mention a few, I believed there were at least this many issues that need to be addressed.

?Development of a practical, Ultra-long-distance Transportation Formation method.

?Since the dungeon of the Octopus King is presumably located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, it is necessary to develop skills related to diving.

?Development of mind-reading skills to extract internal information from captured monsters.

However, the tricky aspect was that except for the top two points, I didn’t know any related skills, so there was no way to do anything about the Hanryojin at this state.

This signified that either I will continue my steady development of skills, or the Fox Princess or Snow Sage will have to come up with an innovative solution. Alternatively, someone else will have to acquire such a skill…

Whichever method it took, it will likely require years of time.

“From the look on your face, I’m assuming that overthrowing the Octopus King will be a long time in the future.”

“Or rather, we have no choice but to do it first, Lady Ryo.”

Whether the two of them could decipher the length of time ahead from my expression, they said something like that.

For now, I was going to contact prominent individuals on the human side and search for the owners of such related skills…

————–

(Izumi POV)

On the other hand, at my side…

“Wow, I would have never dreamed that the little kid from back then would have grown up to be this strong.”

“?”

I was assisting in the reconstruction work of the city.

At any rate, the human called Tachikabe was constantly pestering me.

Is he a pedophile? Is he the same type of guy like Kurokiri nii-chan? If so, I should be out of his scope. Despite my appearance, I am about to turn 20 years old. Even alcohol consumption would be acceptable for me.

“Tachikabe! If you’ve got time to idle your time away, you should be working, too!”

“Oui! Excuse me! Otachi-san!”

See, Uncle Otachi is pissed at you.

Even so, this port city was well defended, huh? Although it must have taken a long time from the commencement of the battle to the arrival of my team, the damage was far less than in other places.

Was this due to the power of Otachi?

Whatever it was, I must report to Kurokiri once the reconstruction was completed.

And when I was dwelling on that point, an explosion was abruptly heard from the outskirts of the city.

“What happened!”

While Otachi was trying to ascertain the situation, I called Moyasuke and mounted him. A poleaxe was also created for me to be ready for battle at any moment.

“Someone on the outskirts seems to have utilized an explosive-type skill, but the criminal appears to have already fled!”

A man informed Otachi of this.

And then, both Otachi and Tachikabe headed towards the scene of the crime.

Yet at this juncture, my sixth sense picked up a strange sensation from another direction from where the explosion took place, and I followed the sensation and had Moyasuke start running.

“It’s here…”

I had a memory of this sensation.

It was a presence of that thing that I will never forget.

It was unclear to me why she was here or what she was going to do, but I can’t overlook it. If I missed it, that will probably lead to the creation of another person like Houki.

————–

There was no telling how much Moyasuke had been running, but little by little, we were drawing closer to the presence of that thing.

Yet, something was out of alignment.

The land around that port city should have been a plain, not a forest like the one we were currently through. Furthermore, as Moyasuke ran, more and more flowers that were unlike anything I had ever encountered began to bloom at my feet.

Eventually, the trees became sparse, replaced by an increasing abundance and variety of flowers blooming at my feet.

After I had passed through the forest, a hooded girl awaited me. And once she sighted me, a brief remark emerged from her lips.

“You seem to be an irregular after all.”