What was that, the female oni, or rather Haruna, looked at the scene accomplished by the human man before her as if she couldn’t believe it.
He should be human.
She thought he must be human, but the man’s actions up to this point did not convince her that he was human.
Though he was now leisurely smoking a cigarette, just a moment ago he had shown Haruna a power that was beyond human.
That was why.
“Who are you?”
Just by looking at the oni’s appearance, its strength was obvious.
It should have been an overwhelmingly strong being, so much so that it was ridiculous to compare it to anyone in Haruna’s clan.
It should have been a being beyond the reach of even Haruna’s older brother, Take, whom she had considered the strongest in her clan.
Haruna, who excelled at manipulating demonic power among oni, had felt the magnitude of its power firsthand and despaired.
There was no doubt about it.
Haruna felt that it was truly the oni’s true form, the one that had been called a disaster.
And yet, in the end, that oni was gone.
The human before her had not only struggled to defeat the giant oni, but had easily vanquished it while laughing.
Haruna shivered at the fact.
The giant oni that Haruna’s clan could not defeat even if they teamed up. The fact that it had been defeated before her meant that the man before her was stronger than that.
And perhaps sensing Haruna’s muttering, the human man turned towards her.
The scene of the man’s blow flashed in Haruna’s mind.
A presence visible behind the human.
Something different from a guardian spirit.
Though it was vague and indistinct, Haruna was certain that this indistinct presence was an oni.
While Haruna was bewildered, wondering if there was a human who carried a brave and magnificent oni on his back while smiling, the human man, Jiro, was basking in a sense of accomplishment. Interrupted by her voice, he indifferently turned around, removed the cigarette from his mouth, and puff ed out smoke.
“Just a salaryman.”
Haruna couldn’t believe his words.
Although they were isolated from the world and their information was limited, it wasn’t as if they lacked common sense.
They knew what a salaryman was.
They knew that it was not a profession that would possess such combat power.
Facing Jiro’s words, she wanted to scream that he was lying.
However, having witnessed the presence and combat power she had seen last, and fearing the human before her more than anything else, the words of denial wouldn’t come out.
“…!”
So, all she could do was clasp her hands tightly at her chest and grit her teeth.
Was the force transmitted from her whitened hands regret or sadness?
Originally, if her plan had not succeeded, she would not have lived to see tomorrow.
“…Older brother, please forgive my incompetence.”
With a determined resolve, Haruna, who had bet everything on this plan, reaffirmed her decision.
If she were to continue living in shame, she would die for that resolve. She took out the dagger she had hidden in her pocket and tried to thrust it at her throat, but.
“What an idiot, what good is dying?”
Before she could, the dagger vanished from her hand. The culprit, as if annoyed, frowned, and while still in a kicking stance, removed the cigarette from his mouth, grumbling, and blew out smoke.
“Then what should I do!?”
“At least, it’s more likely that things can be worked out if you stay alive.”
Haruna appealed, driven by emotion at his selfish and irresponsible behavior.
She was not even allowed to die. If not, then what awaited her was punishment for causing such a major incident.
Haruna, who had resolved to act for the sake of her clan, had no regrets about what she had done.
However, she could not involve her clan, whose power had weakened and who remained in the village, by her actions.
Therefore, she had to ensure that the instigator did not survive.
Yet, the person before her would not allow it.
Despairing at this fact, and at her own incompetence in being unable to do anything about the person before her who was acting as if to fulfill her wishes, Haruna lowered her head.
Not noticing that the human before her, when contemplating what to do, was roughly scratching the back of his head, a habit of his, with white smoke.
Changing the subject, those female oni have superior physical abilities to humans.
They can lift giant rocks and use special spells, a power that humans call divine power, but oni call demonic power. That power easily surpasses that of humans.
When an oni appears, humans flee in panic, and when an oni wields its power, the place becomes indistinguishable from a natural disaster.
Oni are said to be equal to humans in mind, technique, and body.
However, that statement is usually prefaced with “in the past.”
Just as humans have woven their history and reached the modern era, oni have also spun their own history.
However, the way humans and oni wrote their histories differed greatly.
Rise and fall.
Flourish and decline.
A fact that is, in a way, natural, also known as the law of all things.
No matter how much humans train, they will eventually age and decay.
However, by passing it on to the next generation, they accumulated will, techniques, and knowledge.
Humans have developed by repeating this cycle like waves, rising and falling.
Oni, on the other hand, are currently in a state of continuous decline, like a mountain.
When they were at the peak, it was still fine.
They possessed great power compared to humans and had long lifespans.
Therefore, they became arrogant.
Oni are superior to humans.
They thought there would be no problem if they maintained this advantage.
But that was a grave mistake.
No matter how strong they were, no matter how great their physical ability to fight against a large army, they were not invincible.
They were not immortal.
Even if humans called them monsters, they were not beings that could not be defeated.
They were beings that could be defeated with great sacrifice and effort.
Yet, the oni did not learn.
They slaughtered over a thousand humans.
They defeated renowned generals clad in magnificent armor.
They were unfazed even by the spells of famous onmyoji.
They just believed in that fact.
They believed it and would repeat the same training and actions, never realizing that their opponents would learn.
While they were being arrogant, humans developed countermeasures.
If, hypothetically, like the oni in the Demon Lord’s Army, humans had been constantly engaged in combat and instilled with a sense of threat that could match their power, the history of the oni might have been different.
But that is just a hypothetical scenario. That process disappeared long ago.
Therefore, the oni were left behind by the flow of history.
Mysteries faded, and both demonic and divine powers were relegated to the shadows. Their fame declined year by year, and in their place, science emerged on the stage.
And that flow of history brought one detriment to the oni.
A decline in the birthrate for unknown reasons.
As if the world didn’t need the oni, mating between oni became difficult.
The number of oni, which had exceeded a thousand, declined before reaching ten thousand and now is less than a hundred.
The oni, after a period of flourishing, continue to decline to this day.
If human history is a wave, then the history of oni is a mountain.
And it’s a mountain on the way down.
The oni clan felt a sense of crisis as they continued to descend into the valley and the existence of oni was about to disappear.
But it was all too late.
The number of oni decreased year by year, and humans began to forget the threat of oni.
The oni continued to be arrogant until that point.
Before they knew it, they had reached a stage where the oni tribe was destined to perish.
The aging of the oni tribe.
No matter how long their lifespan, they are not immortal.
Their lifespan is, at most, five hundred years.
Oni who live that long are rare; at most, three hundred years is the limit.
Due to the decline in the birthrate, there were few young people.
What had previously prospered without problems suddenly changed. They launched investigations but lacked the technology to pinpoint the cause.
The action these oni took can only be described as a last resort.
That was interbreeding between oni and humans.
Oni had always abducted humans.
The purpose of abduction varied each time, but this time the objective was to produce oni children.
The blood of oni is strong.
The oni’s idea that slightly diluted blood would be fine was merely a ploy to prolong their existence, and they knew it wouldn’t be a solution, but they had no choice.
However, there was another miscalculation.
Indeed, children with oni blood were born, and temporarily, the oni population showed an increasing trend.
However, their power weakened in return.
At first, it was just a slight decrease.
It was only the difference of not having talented oni born.
But as generations passed, the decline widened, and now there are only oni who cannot even come close to the strength of past oni.
Some were even born without horns.
The species of oni gradually became absorbed into human society.
As time progressed, they could no longer stand on the main stage, and extinction was only a matter of time.
Within that environment, the oni who maintained their pure blood were Take and Haruna.
This brother and sister were among the few pure-blooded oni who survived to modern times.
While these two led the clan and worked as leaders, someone discovered the long-cherished wish of their ancestors—the cause of the decline in the oni tribe’s birthrate—over a long period.
It was a clan of onmyoji who had interactions with the oni tribe.
That is, the other party in mating with the oni tribe.
According to this onmyoji clan, the decline in the oni tribe’s birthrate was not due to a decrease in demonic power on Earth.
From ancient texts, they said that the presence of oni unique to Japan and other non-human beings in a place would cause demonic power to permeate, accumulating and strengthening the power of those species.
However, for some reason, the demonic power in the air has decreased year by year, and their ability to absorb it has diminished, which might be why new children are not being born, according to the onmyoji clan.
And that clan stated that, as a relative clan with whom they had interacted since ancient times, they would cooperate to restore the status of the oni tribe.
Another side End
Side Jiro
“And that’s what happened.”
“In other words, you’re saying we got caught up in an internal conflict within your organization, right?”
“Basically, yes.”
“Give me a break.”
I lost count of how many times this had happened, and I never expected to see the first sunrise of the new year in Aokigahara Forest. While my portable ashtray was full and the pack of cigarettes I brought was almost gone, Kirie-san explained the whole story of this incident to me.
It was an “internal family dispute,” so to speak.
A certain onmyoji clan was quite prominent during the Heian period, and their power even influenced the nation. However, they fell into decline from a certain era and lost their power.
When they could no longer produce powerful onmyoji and things were getting serious, they set their sights on the oni tribe, who were also on the path to ruin.
The blood of oni is, so to speak, a source of high-purity power.
There was someone who thought that by absorbing it and also making the oni their subordinates, their future would be secure.
However, the power of the oni was quite strong at the time, and humans could not control it.
So, they decided that if they weakened it to a controllable level, it would be fine. The head of that clan chose a roundabout method.
He took care not to alienate other onmyoji and pretended to be an ally of the oni tribe.
The objective was to obtain the blood and power of the oni.
Kirie-san couldn’t come to the scene for the aftermath, and as I was talking to Kirie-san on the phone, I looked at my finally depleted cigarettes, sighed, and then a woman dressed like an onmyoji, who was nearby, offered me a cigarette.
Very courteously, she also handed me a portable tin ashtray.
I managed a wry smile, accepted it, and lit the cigarette.
“So? What about now? Can I go home?”
“If the reward is paid, and you keep the confidentiality agreement, I would say that’s fine.”
“…I understand what you ingin to say.”
“I appreciate your understanding. I never thought that my own sister would cause me so much trouble.”
“She’s also my mother, you know.”
“Haa.”
Kirie-san and I sighed in unison over the phone.
The incident was resolved. Normally, as an outsider, I should have been paid my reward and left without meddling further.
In fact, I wanted to say, “I’ll leave the cleanup to you.”
But someone stopped me from leaving.
Ah, I had talked to Kirie-san, but it was my mother.
For some reason, she had interrogated the onmyoji involved in this matter, and it seemed that someone who knew the inside story had spilled everything.
My mother, who dislikes those who do crooked things or try to profit by deceiving others, argued with Kirie-san’s words about making the utmost consideration for the oni tribe.
Thanks to that.
“I will take this girl!”
“Uh, no, that would be problematic.”
“I’m fine with it!!”
If this continues, it looks like I’ll have a sister-in-law.
“Is this going to be alright?”
“There’s a way to make it work, and my sister intuitively understands it, which makes her even more troublesome.”
The onmyoji who were dispatched to apprehend the female oni looked at my mother, who was embracing the bewildered female oni, and me, who was on the phone, with troubled expressions.
“What will happen?”
“Only God knows, at this point.”
“Give me a break.”
Suppressing the urge to say I was exhausted, I gazed at the sunrise.
Today’s quote:
“Tomorrow is another day”? We’ll see what happens.
That’s all for now.
Thank you for pointing out any typos and for your comments.
If you found this interesting, please leave a comment, rating, bookmark, etc.
*The first volume has been decided to be published by Hayakawa Bunko JA.
It was released on October 18, 2018.*
*The e-book version was also released on October 31 of the same year.*
*The second volume was released on December 19.*
*The third volume was released on February 20, 2019.*
*The content has been revised and expanded from the content posted on Shōsetsuka ni Narō, with the addition of an unpublished interlude.*
*Please check out the new books as well!!*
*In addition, a comic adaptation has been decided for Kodansha’s “Young Magazine The Third.”*
