I Was Nearly Killed by My Fellow A-Rank Party, but Now I Fed a Nine-Tailed Fox Deep in the Dungeon. ~ “My Master, I Shall Never Leave Your Side for All Eternity,” the Legendary Monsters Said While Doting on Me. Before I Knew It, I Had Become the World’s Strongest Lord of the Demon Realm~ - Chapter 37 & 38

Guild Receptionist Takes Down Yamata no Orochi

Mike slipped out of the Adventurers’ Guild still wearing her guild receptionist uniform and headed straight back to her rundown little apartment.

She pulled out the Kusanagi sword from under the bed.

The second she slid it just a bit out of the sheath, her own tired eyes reflected in the glowing blade.

(…Man, I look awful. Eyes all hollow, huge dark circles… The only good thing is there’s no blood splatter on my cheeks.)

She let out a big sigh, slid the sword back in, and fastened it to her waist.

“Alright… let’s go.”

◇◇◇

Meanwhile, Kuon and the others were still there.

“You want me as bait…? Huh?”

Yukime looked totally confused at Tamamo’s suggestion.

“Those things are desperate to bite us. They’re probably starving. So here’s the plan: Yukime strips down and lies there, Kuon piles a bunch of food on top of her, and the second all the heads rush in to eat, I burn every neck off at once.”

“…Um, if you’re just gonna put food there, you don’t actually need to sacrifice me, right?”

“We don’t know if they want ‘humans’ or ‘yokai’ or just ‘a feast.’ Having a human-shaped yokai lying there covered in food is the surest way.”

“Tamamo, that’s a bit much…”

I tried to stop her, but Yukime already had her hands on her kimono.

“I-I’ll do it for Lady Tamamo…!!”

“No way! Don’t take your clothes off!”

“Come on, Kuon, stop me! Pour boiling mapo tofu all over me! I don’t care what it is—if it’s for Lady Tamamo, I can take it!”

“Let’s try a different plan!”

“Nooo, big sis Yukime! Don’t sacrifice yourself!”

“Nuraraaa…! Ah, a brand-new kink is about to be born…!”

“—Hey, what are you guys even doing?”

Everyone spun around at the voice behind us. There stood Mike, still in her guild receptionist outfit, sword at her side, right outside the wall.

“…Mike! Why are you here!? It’s dangerous!”

“I came to take down that annoying Yamata no Orochi thing… That’s the one, right?”

“Y-yeah… wait, but—!”

Before I could even explain the regeneration youjutsu, Mike took off running.

“I’m… gonna beat you…!”

She drew her sword and leaped right in front of Yamata no Orochi.

“I just wanna go home and sleep already~!”

Tears welled up in Mike’s eyes as heads shot at her from every direction.

She twisted her body, dodged, and sliced two necks clean in half with one swing.

“Take that! Stupid boss! Annoying senior! Die die diiie~!”

Another head tried to bite her, so she used the first neck as a stepping stone, jumped again, and lopped off a different one.

Watching her chop heads off over and over by herself, Yukime shuddered.

“Amazing… Is Kuon giving her youki reinforcement?”

“Nah, I’m not doing anything… It’s crazy, but at this rate—”

Yeah, even though Mike kept cutting heads, they kept regenerating in the meantime.

After she’d sliced about ten heads on her own, Mike finally noticed and came running back while still moving.

Her eyes were sparkling like crazy.

“Haaah… haaah… Okay, I get it. This isn’t gonna end anytime soon.”

“Mike, you okay? You look pretty worn out…”

“I’m fine! Actually, I feel great! My old instincts are coming back!”

Mike’s cheeks were splattered with blood, but she had a huge grin as she flicked it off her blade.

“Tamamo, if we team up with Mike, can we take Yamata no Orochi down?”

“Yeah, basically we just need to destroy all the heads at the exact same time, right? With more hands, we can pull it off.”

“How should we split them up?”

“You and Kuon can handle one, I’ll take three… so that leaves…”

“I’ll take four. I can drop them almost simultaneously.”

Mike said it while stretching her arms.

“You sure you can?”

“Yep, if I go all out. But first, Nurara, can you put up a ton of tall, skinny walls all around Yamata no Orochi?”

“R-right! Youjutsu—【Thousand Pillars Ten Thousand Thunders】!”

Still boosted by my youki, Nurara pressed her hand to the ground.

Suddenly, a whole bunch of pillars shot up, surrounding Yamata no Orochi.

“Perfect. Here we go—”

With that, Mike started peeling off her tight skirt, so I panicked.

“Wait, Mike!?”

“It’s too hard to move in this. Sorry, can you hold onto it for me?”

“Y-yeah, sure…! Sorry, I’ll try not to look.”

“Eh? What’s with that cute reaction? You already did the youki transfer with Lady Nine-Tails, but now you’re blushing at me?”

“Everyone, I can only pray for you… but do your best!”

“Thanks, Suzu! Having a zashiki-warashi pray for us is super reassuring. Nurara, can you protect Suzu?”

“Leave it to me! Kuon-san!”

We stepped out of Nurara’s wall barrier. Tamamo, Mike, Yukime, and I lined up side by side.

“Alright, let’s all take that thing down together!”

Going All Out With My Strongest Teammates

Standing right in front of Yamata no Orochi, I turned to Mike.

“Alright, I’ll give you my youki too, Mike.”

“Ehhh!? Right here!? I-I’m happy, but… if possible, somewhere nobody’s watching…”

“Mike, Kuon is a youju tamer. He can lend youki without any special procedures.”

“Oh… I see… haaah, too bad.”

…Suzu’s face was all red too, but what the heck are these “special procedures”?

While thinking that, I cast the youki reinforcement on Mike.

“Okay, let’s go!”

We all dashed straight toward Yamata no Orochi.

“Kuon, stick right behind me. I’ll protect you.”

“Thanks, Yukime. You be careful too.”

Right beside us, a shadow shot past at insane speed.

“No way, is that Mike!?”

“What speed…!”

“Hmm, looks like she hasn’t gotten rusty at all.”

Mike leaped up, using the pillars Nurara had put around Yamata no Orochi as stepping stones, bouncing off them to keep accelerating.

“We’re going too! Senjutsu—【Shimen Binding】!”

The second Tamamo finished her hand seals, a huge shimenawa rope appeared and tied up three of Yamata no Orochi’s necks.

“Perfect! This is the Three Arrows Strategy! We’ll cut them all at once!”

“I still feel like the story’s different… Yukime, let’s go too! I’ll jump up to that head, so hop on my back!”

“Got it!”

Yukime wrapped her arms around me from behind.

Feeling that cool, soft sensation against my back, I poured youki into my legs and leaped toward the leftmost head.

“Yukime, go for it!”

“Yojutsu—【Absolute Zero】!”

Yukime froze Yamata no Orochi solid.

—Now everyone’s ready…!

“Mike! Now!”

The moment I shouted, Mike—who had accelerated so much she looked like nothing but a shadow—raced around the remaining five heads.

Then she drew her sword.

“Kenjutsu—【Gale Thunderclap】.”

—Fast.

Way too fast. Starting from the right end, Yamata no Orochi’s heads started falling one after another.

“Fox fire—【Great Crimson Lotus Blade】!”

A massive flaming blade created by Tamamo’s youjutsu came crashing down on the three bundled heads.

“This is—the end!”

I poured youki into my right arm.

The instant Mike sliced off the fifth head, I punched the frozen one as hard as I could.

“Gyoooooooh!”

All the heads that got cut at the same time let out a scream.

Then the body dropped to the ground like a puppet that had lost its power.

I caught Yukime in my arms and landed.

“Nice… everyone, perfect timing!”

“…………”

“Ah, sorry Yukime. I was still holding you. I’ll put you down.”

“You don’t have to apologize for that.”

“Indeed, looks like Kuon’s finally getting the hang of using youki.”

The MVP, Mike, flopped onto her back and spread out like a starfish.

“F-finally I can rest… I’m so tired~!”

“Everyone, great work~!”

“Nuraraaa! Y-you were so cool!”

Suzu and Nurara cheered us on too, and we finally took a breather.

“—Is that all? The nine-tailed fox has gotten pretty weak, huh.”

At the sudden voice, we turned around. A silver-haired young man was looking at Yamata no Orochi’s corpse and talking to us.

“W-who the heck is this guy!? When did he even get here!?”

Tamamo let out a big sigh.

“So he really showed up… Kuon, this is our old nemesis. ‘Ryomen Sukuna.’”