13 An Ordinary Day in the Human Village (2/2)

I smiled back ”Yes, I came for my weekly book rental.”

”Hohoho, now then Kosuzu, why don't you guide Akyuu-dono to the bookshelves to pick her books.” Ordered Harusen.

”Yes! Follow me, we got some new books for you!” she started dragging me.

”W-wait! Slow down for a second.” I said hurriedly while glancing toward Arah.

He just smiled and waved at me.

-Me POV-​

'And there she goes, a Loli getting dragged by another Loli, what a scene. I wonder if I should start helping her every week.'

As I was wondering about that, the old man that seemed like Kosuzu's grandpa called me.

”Now then boy, while the girls are away, I want to ask you something.”

I gave him a questioning look.

”Why did you help Akyuu-dono?” he asked me with serious eyes.

'Ah… It's this type of question.'

”From the looks of your face and the strange way you wear your Yukata, you're definitely an outsider. I think that's why you're a guest at Akyuu-dono's mansion.” He gave his theory about me. ”Now then, why did you decide to help her? Is it wealth? Or is it for some other reason? Because the Hiedaa clan is not gonna share their wealth with just some nobody.” he said with serious tone.

'… Is he interrogating me because of his grandpa instinct to dote on grandchildren? If so, he's a cool dude in my book... Let's give him a serious answer.'

I grinned, ”Of course I have a reason to help her. The reason is even so obvious that you don't need to ask me about it.”

”Ho~, then tell me, boy. What is this reason?” his voice turned cold.

”The reason why I helped her is none other than because…” DRAMATIC PAUSE ”… She's too cute to be left alone.” I gave a wide smile when I answered the question.

”!?” My answer apparently gave him some shock.

'Ah~, it feels so nice when you shock people.' I was delighting internally.

”… Boy, do you know what you're saying?”

”… Yes, I also know about the Child of Miaree and what their future fate is.”

”… Then, are you prepared for what will happen in the future?”

”Yes, I already prepared when Akyuu herself explained her situation and what the ”Child of Miaree” was to me.” I said with a confident tone.

'Oh, I prepared all right. But right now I'm still weak, very weak. I calculated that 10 years of experience will be good enough of a preparation. '

When I looked closer at Harusen, he was trembling.

”…Fu-fufu-FUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” he suddenly started laughing loudly.

”…You okay, gramps?” I gave him worried look.

”Don't worry Arah-boy, you just humored me with your answer.”

”… What?”

”I don't know if your answer is real or not, but if it's real, then I can die without worries.” He said while smiling.

'BADASS GRANDPA RIGHT HERE BOYS! You are literally my dream self in the future Harusen-san!'

Just as I idolized Gramps, the girls came back from their book browsing.

”Grandpa, what happened? Why did you suddenly start laughing out loud?” asked Kosuzu with a worried look.

Akyuu also looked worried.

”Oh, Kosuzu, we were just having a nice little chat. Apparently this boy thinks Akyuu-dono looks cute and wants to keep her for himself.” He said happily.

The girls started going red, especially the subject herself, Akyuu, blushing like mad.

”A-ARAH-SAN!” She shouted at me.

Despite the uproar Gramps started, I just smiled throughout the ordeal.

-A few minutes later-

We finished our business in the store.

Akyuu wasn't kidding when she said she wanted to order more books than usual. I counted at least 30 in the pile, but I have my ability and can easily carry all the books.

Gramps tapped my shoulder and said ”Take care of Akyuu-dono for me.” with a smile.

Kosuzu started hiding away from my vision. She probably thought I'm some kind of pervert due to gramp's statement, but it's not totally wrong and I didn't see a need to correct his statement.

Akyuu and I started going back toward her mansion.

Nothing happened on our way back.

Akyuu decided not to rest and started rushing despite her tiredness on our walk, resulting in total exhaustion when we arrived.

I entrusted the books to a servant and went back out again for unfinished business.

-Random Alley, Human Village-​

This is where I sensed something while I was resting with Akyuu this morning.

'Akyuu said sometimes friendly Youkai go into the village to get drunk or buy things. I already sensed those guys before, their aura feels open and friendly… But it's different from this thing right now. It feels suppressed, and at the same time, evil just like the Youkai in the mountain. But unlike those guys, this thing feels the need to hide its presence. Why though?' I wondered.

As I walked into the alley, I sensed something in my surroundings.

'… Thin, long, and hard to see… A thread?'

It started getting close to me, and I expanded my armor.

Recently I stopped adding the Counter effect to my armor, because I began to like hitting things up close. I didn't know I had this kind of wild side in me.

'It's clearly a trap, but I hope this will make it reveal itself to me on its own.'

I purposely got hit by the thread to make it easier to locate whatever put this trap down.

After several seconds, the threads started forming a cocoon around my upper body.

'… It's kinda weird that the thread is rolling me up while floating 5 cm away from my body. Guys, that's not how physics works.'

I sensed something coming from the corner of the alley.

”Kukuku, finally, my first prey.” A voice came out.

It stepped out of its hiding spot.

A humanoid figure wearing a Yukata, with 8 spider legs behind his back, 6 eyes on his face, and fangs coming out of his mouth.

[Lv.16 Spider Youkai]

… That's pretty low even for a weakling. A newbie Youkai, perhaps?

”Oh my god. A Youkai. Please don't kill me. Help me…” I said, obviously faked fear in my voice.

”Kuahaha! It's useless, human! Be happy that you will be my first prey!” he said menacingly.

'Oh wow, he actually believed that. Someone please give me an Oscar.'

He walked slowly toward me, probably for dramatic effect.

He walked slowly.

Slowly.

… Slowly…

”Okay this is taking way too long.” I dropped the threads that were encircling me and prepared to fight him.

”What?!” He seemed genuinely surprised that I got away from his threads.

”Let me show you how a real thread affects an opponent.” I pulled out Mimicry String from my waist pouch.

I already used it on Maribel and now I used it again on this guy.

Mimicry String looks just like any other string, but it's magically attached to my every limb. When I will the string to move, it moves according to what I imagine.

5 strings started to fly at the Youkai: arms, legs, and torso. Those were my targets.

As an aside, I haven't implemented it in a spell card yet, because I still don't know how to turn robbing my opponent of movement into fair play. It's really difficult.

”W-what?! I can't move my body! Human, what did you just do to me?!” yelled the Youkai.

”Don't worry, I only sealed your movement, don't get yourself so worked up.”

”A human opposing me?! How dare you!”

He spit out some kind of liquid from his mouth at me, but it was futile because it was blocked by my armor and just plopped to the ground. When he saw the attack failed, he started shouting angrily at me. Because it was loud, I muted him for a while.

'… *sigh* Now what? Do I report to Reimu? But how do I get to her with this guy with me?'

As I was thinking about how to handle this situation, I sensed energy forming beside the Youkai.

It's a gap, Yukari's gap.

But what came out of it betrayed my expectations.

It was a woman. She had yellow eyes, short blonde hair, and a light pink two-tailed hat festooned with many amulets. She had fox ears hidden under the hat, had nine fox tails, and wore a blue & light purple dress with blue print on the front.

It's Ran.

[Lv.65 Kitsune Shikigami, Yakumo Ran]

”Seems like a troublemaker has already been stopped before anything bad happened.” She said.

She started doing some sort of hand signs and ended with two fingers pointed toward the Spider Youkai.

Purple chains appeared around him and tied him down.

”Hoh~, amazing.” I said, admiring this little magic and pulling my string back.

”As for you,” she turned toward me. ”I can only thank you for stopping him before he hurt any humans in the village.” She lightly bowed at me.

”I just happened to sense him in my walk, think nothing of it. But more importantly, who are you? Why do you use the same thing as Big Sister Yukari?” I started my ”Who are you?” routine for people I already know.

””Big Sister Yukari”, is it?” she asked.

I just nodded.

”*sigh* Yukari-sama, please...” She sighed and looked down for a second but went back to being serious. ”*cough* well, my name is Yakumo Ran, Yukari-sama's Shikigami, or you outsider can call me Yukari-sama's subordinate. The thing you saw was a gap, Yukari-sama taught me how to use them. And as for why I'm here,” she glanced at the chained down Spider Youkai, ”I sensed this newbie lurking around in the Human Village, and I'm here to stop anyone from getting killed. Including the newbie.” She finished explaining.

”I see. So, what now?” I ask.

”Now, I have finished my business, so I'll start packing up.”

A gap opened beneath the Spider Youkai and he fell in.

”I have heard stuff about you from Yukari-sama. You're not bad for a Danmaku newbie, Arah-boy.”

After she said that, she also disappeared into her gap.

And now, I'm all alone in this alley.

”That was something. Now what? Playing piano at the SDM? Yup, definitely playing piano.”

I decided immediately what I was gonna for the rest of the day and started going toward my new destination.

Author note:

Heyo, Author here. OMFG, THAT WAS HARD. CONVERSATION BETWEEN CHARACTER IS SUPER HARD, I think that's what making this chapter really hard to make. Ugh…fuck my life.

In the series, human village is just a prop, so Information regarding anything from the human village is really low, freaking ZUN.

That's also including theory about Akyuu situation; I'm just speculating her situation from Forbidden Scrollery, which is the only source of information regarding the human village.

As for Kosuzu Grandpa name, his name is not revealed in the series, so I took liberty to named him in here, and again, freaking ZUN.

As for Arah plan ”10 years later”, yeah, I really will starting to help Akyuu when the fanfic arrived in that time line, that's also if my fanfic stay updated until that time line occurred, Ugh, crossing my finger right now.

When I first write the chapter, I really having hard time writing the conversation, so when I reread it, all I saw is just a bunch of gibberish, I just wondered what the fuck am I thinking when I write this stuff.

You gotta have full concentration when writing sentimental stuff, and my poor English is not helping at all in this case, it's only making it harder when I create this stuff, FML.

And last but not least, Horray for reaching 50k word to me! Horray for all the reader that still stay and read all of my messed up of a fanfic! I TRULY THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT!

By the way, I know it's late but Stack, the Akatsuki Record singer released ZUN theme song, it's fucking amazing, one of my dream come tru