Returned from Another World, Earth Turned Out to Be Quite the Fantasy Too. Also, Losing Heroines, Stop Looking This Way. - V5 Chapter 39: “Shuten Doji and Tamamo-no-Mae? That’s Seriously Overkill” ②

Chapter 39: “Shuten Doji and Tamamo-no-Mae? That’s Seriously Overkill” ②

“Alright, I believe that Shuten Doji-ossan isn’t trying to hurt humans anymore. As for Tamamo-no-Mae-san, I don’t really know her that well… But if a big-deal youkai like her is vouching for him, I’ll let it slide. …And hey, if anything does happen, I’ll just kill both of them. Problem solved.”

“Did… did this child just casually say something incredibly disturbing!?”

“Must’ve imagined it.”

Tamamo-no-Mae clearly heard Natsuki’s quiet muttering and looked very concerned…

But Natsuki just waved it off like it was nothing.

“Hey, Yura. You do realize you’re talking to Tamamo-no-Mae, right?”

“Exactly!”

“Exactly what!?”

“She’s the Nine-Tailed Fox, right?”

“Y-Yeah…?”

Natsuki threw her a quick glance—

Tamamo-no-Mae gave a dignified little nod in response.

“So… isn’t she supposed to be a killing stone in Tochigi right now?”

He was, of course, referring to the Sessho-seki—

A famous tourist spot supposedly cursed by a deadly youkai.

Tamamo-no-Mae’s eyes snapped wide open.

A sudden surge of spiritual power exploded from her petite frame.

“Natsuki Yura-dono!!”

“Y-Yes ma’am!”

“That’s that—and this is this!! Got it!?”

“R-Right, ma’am!!”

Yeah.

That was definitely one of those things you don’t bring up.

Even if she looked like a little girl, Tamamo-no-Mae was clearly on the same level as Shuten Doji—

Maybe even stronger.

That brief flash of spiritual pressure?

Easily rivaled Shuten’s… maybe even surpassed it.

And just like him—

She carried the weight of something divine.

(Man, Kyoto’s seriously scary… Hey, Holy Sword-san, stay on standby in case things go south, yeah?)

(Nope. I’m not helping with pointless destruction.)

(Wait—are you misunderstanding me too, Holy Sword-san!?)

“Uh, hey, real quick…”

Natsuki raised his hand like a student asking a question and looked over at Shuten Doji and Tamamo-no-Mae.

“So in the end… who exactly am I supposed to kill?”

“Hmmm… well, we weren’t really planning on getting involved in this whole human-vs-oni mess… What do you say, Shuten Doji?”

“Yeah, same here. Honestly, if Abes and the others hadn’t stepped in, I probably would’ve killed those brats myself sooner or later.”

“So basically—if I take out your kids, mission complete?”

“Yup. And while you’re at it, go ahead and wipe out the Abes too.”

“Oh, don’t worry. They’re already on my to-do list.”

“…Yeah, this kid is still terrifying.”

“But wait—why do you want the Abe clan taken out, Shuten Doji-ossan? Did they do something to you?”

“Nah. There’s really only one person in that family who could actually threaten me—and that’s Shinonome Abe. This isn’t about him. The current head of the Abe clan is straight-up working with the oni.”

“Huuuh~?”

Most likely, Shinonome’s siblings and the rest of the Abe clan weren’t involved in that shady business.

“Shuten Doji. The way you said that made it sound way worse than it is. Yura-dono, the youkai of Kyoto genuinely do want to coexist with humans. At least, that’s what we believe. Some, like Shuten Doji here, are even living completely normal human lives.”

“Yeah, I remember that nuranura guy from Tono said something similar.”

“They’re probably thinking about the future of all youkai, too. But of course, there are always outliers—hot-headed types among both the oni and the youkai. Some still wanna eat humans. Some just want to trample the weak. And weirdly enough, it’s usually the small fries that act like that.”

“And honestly? That’s fine. If they won’t follow us, we just kill ’em. That’s how youkai roll. The real problem is…” 

“The head of the Abe clan has teamed up with some of those rogue oni.”

“Huh?”

Natsuki tilted his head.

“Doesn’t that… technically count as coexistence?”

“There are two main camps among Kyoto’s spiritualists. The hardliners, who want to exterminate all youkai—And the moderates, who claim to support peaceful coexistence with the friendly ones.”

“But turns out… those so-called moderates were all talk. They’re actually in bed with the rogue youkai and making bank off the partnership.”

“…Minus ten thousand Nacchan Points.”

“See, the hardliners want me dead just because I’m an oni. And the moderates? They wanna kill me and every other uncooperative youkai who won’t play by their rules. No matter who’s in charge, I get dragged into everything! This sucks!!”

“…Minus sixty million Nacchan Points.”

“Hey—hold on now.”

The one who finally called for a timeout…

Was Senju.

“Teaming up with youkai to make money? What does that even mean?”

“…I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about us youkai, but… Some spiritualists have been secretly working with the more unruly youkai—Together, they take out any oni or youkai who get in their way. Sometimes, they even have youkai assassinate humans. And since the bodies get eaten, there’s no evidence. Add in their psychic connections, and nobody dares come after them.”

“That’s straight-up trash.”

“And on top of that, they’re trying to use oni as pawns to pick a fight with the Institute—All so they can climb the ranks and become top dog among spiritualists.”

“…Absolute trash. That plan’s never gonna work. They’ve gotta be insane if they think they can mess with the Institute.”

“Right? But the current Abe head is a total sleazebag. He doesn’t care if someone eats humans, as long as they’re useful to him.”

Natsuki stood up.

He’d heard enough.

So the Abe clan was teaming up with dangerous oni to do whatever the hell they wanted—

And they were dragging Shuten Doji’s name into it to stir the pot.

Got it.

“Just to check—Even if we ignore the small-fry working under that trash Abe guy, there are some strong oni in the mix too, right?”

“…Yep. That’s where my brats come in. To them, I’m just some annoying obstacle. They probably want to use humans to wear me down and finish me off.”

“Minus three hundred million Nacchan Points! I’m done! I’m so done!! Why am I getting dragged into this drama between petty youkai and greedy humans!?”

“Honestly? Same here. I don’t wanna be involved either.”

“Fine then! Let’s raze the Abe clan to the ground and throw those oni into a bloodbath!”

“…Even Shuten Doji isn’t that violent.”

“…Yeah, even Tamamo-no-Mae isn’t that bloodthirsty.”

In the end—

Natsuki reached a simple conclusion:

Both the humans and the oni were being selfish idiots.

So…
He decided to stop thinking and just kill them all.

～～Afterword～～

Trash + Trash = Super Trash.

Yes, this will be on the test.

Basically, the oni just wanna go wild—

And some humans are like, “Let’s use oni to go full Overpowered Mode, bro!!”

By the way, if your Nacchan Points ever drop to minus 100…

You’ll win a special prize:

Getting slashed by either the Holy Sword or a demonic sword.