Chapter 511: Kazumi’s Recognized Friend
“Are you Kiyomizu-san?” “Am I dreaming?”
My head is spinning.
The short-haired girl, curled up in place, gradually regained consciousness. Her hazy eyes focused, though her gaze was still filled with deep confusion. Looking at the face of the person making porridge in front of her, she seemed to be trying to recall something, but she frowned tightly and spoke subconsciously.
“Wake up, Kazumi!”
Hearing the familiar voice and seeing the dazed appearance of the girl before her, Mai Shinomiyai’s suspended heart finally relaxed. She glanced at the greyish-white ghoul still bound in place, knowing it wasn’t the time for a chat. Enduring the pain, she used her arms to shake Kazumi hard and spoke loudly.
“Mh! Kiyomizu-san… How did you get here…? Ah! Kiyomizu-san, your clothes… and the wounds on your body! I’ll contact emergency services right away!”
The strong shaking instantly woke the dazed Kazumi. As if waking from a dream, the girl subconsciously greeted the person before her, but as her gaze shifted downwards, a high-pitched scream echoed through the scene. The girl’s breathing quickened, and she fumbled to search for something. Then, as if remembering something, she hurriedly took out her mobile phone from her pocket and dialed the emergency number.
“No need, you can’t make calls here.”
Just as Kazumi’s finger was about to press the send button, a swollen, twisted hand pushed against the side of her mobile phone. Mai Shinomiyai’s weak voice echoed in Kazumi’s ears.
“But Shinomiyai, you…” “Listen to me!”
The suddenly raised volume interrupted Kazumi’s thought of continuing to speak. Mai Shinomiyai couldn’t afford to let her stern attitude cause a rift between friends, and she shouted loudly.
“I’m sorry, Kazumi. It’s hard to explain everything in a short time. Simply put, you were involved because of me, and now I need your help. Don’t worry, as long as I’m here, no one can harm you!”
Placing her left hand on Kazumi’s shoulder, Mai Shinomiyai softened her tone and spoke gently. The determination and decisiveness in her voice were exceptionally reassuring.
“Okay, what do you need me to do?”
Perhaps it was a testament to her trust in her close friend, or perhaps Mai Shinomiyai’s confident tone had infected Kazumi. The girl, who had been filled with fear due to the sudden unfamiliar environment and seeing her severely injured friend, slowly calmed down. She pocketed the mobile phone in her hand, looked up at Mai Shinomiyai before her, and nodded seriously in response.
“Alright, extend your hand, Kazumi. It might be a bit disgusting, but you’ll have to bear with it.”
Although she already knew her friend’s personality, Kazumi’s performance still made Mai Shinomiyai look at her with a bit more admiration. As an ordinary girl with no special abilities, she was able to calm down in such a short time amidst such a sudden and drastic change, and even understand that she was needed to help her friend in this situation.
Just this composure and ability to analyze problems were enough to rival a professionally trained hero candidate.
However, Mai Shinomiyai couldn’t afford to dwell on praising her friend’s strong mental fortitude at this moment. She raised her right hand and explained to Kazumi.
“Mmm—”
Then, without hesitation, she thrust the charred, broken end of her right arm into her mouth. Her pearly white teeth forcefully tore off a piece of the blackened tough scab. Accompanied by a muffled groan, she fiercely flicked it away. Instantly, splashing blood dyed half of the girl’s cheek red.
Completely disregarding the red blood splashing onto her face, Mai Shinomiyai quickly extended her injured left hand to catch the blood continuously flowing from the wound on her right arm. After her left palm was completely stained with blood, she directly gripped Kazumi’s outstretched right hand with her bloody palm. Then, a faint, almost invisible blue energy, intertwined with the aura of blood, surged towards Kazumi’s palm.
“Don’t resist, follow my guidance and change your hand gestures!”
Sensing Kazumi’s subconscious intention to dodge, Mai Shinomiyai firmly pressed Kazumi’s palm and loudly stopped her.
However, Mai Shinomiyai hadn’t expected that, perhaps due to being possessed by that monster, Kazumi’s body had already stored a considerable amount of death energy, which greatly hindered the girl’s spellcasting. She had no choice but to grit her teeth, forcefully sending the spiritual energy she extracted from her body with every cry, and finally managed to influence the changes in Kazumi’s left hand.
Kazumi felt a strange energy guiding her left hand through a series of gestures. After the final gesture was completed, a faint light erupted along with smoke between the two of them. As the smoke dissipated, a familiar, giant white figure appeared before them.
“I’m okay, Baiyue. Take us away first!”
The moment she summoned the giant wolf Shikigami Baiyue, Mai Shinomiyai had already received her most frequently used Shikigami’s concern in her mind. Waving her hand to show she was alright, Mai Shinomiyai urged it on.
With exceptional默契, the giant wolf Baiyue let out a low growl and lowered its entire body, providing a convenient height for them to climb onto its back.
“Go! Towards the direction of the Divine Tree!”
With Kazumi’s help, she climbed onto Baiyue’s back with difficulty. After confirming Kazumi was sitting behind her, Mai Shinomiyai suddenly patted Baiyue beneath her and shouted.
Mai Shinomiyai didn’t know how long the specially developed talisman could control that bizarre monster. But now, with her energy almost depleted, coupled with Kazumi, who knew nothing, it was clearly not suitable to stay here any longer. Even the final blow seemed too dangerous for her, who had lost her long-range attack capabilities, and something else might happen.
The only thing that slightly eased Mai Shinomiyai’s mind was that the greyish-white monster not far away remained motionless on the spot, as if its body were its weakness. It no longer used its previous bizarre and varied moves, simply struggling to break free from its restraints with its physical strength.
However…
“Careful!”
Suddenly, a wave of intense dizziness washed over her mind. Her body, out of control, stumbled and tilted to the side. Fortunately, a pair of small hands from behind reached out and struggled to steady the girl’s naked body.
Before Mai Shinomiyai could even thank her, a soft piece of fabric was draped over her.
“I don’t know what you’ve been through, Shinomiyai, but wear some clothes first.”
“Also, take this. Use it for now.”
Kazumi’s familiar coldness…
the butler’s ears rang.
“Your clothes are from… The one who tore them was… I ripped them off…”
“… The butler’s face was filled with a smile as he helped bandage the wound.
“… His eyes then looked at the two girls, the same eyes that had seen so much horror.
“… I came to help you. It’s in my family’s bloodline.”
“… The butler spoke.
“… It’s because I want to kill you.”
“… The butler’s mouth curled into a smile, and he looked at the scene before him.
“The timing for altering space is correct!”
A strong divine light flashed in the butler’s eyes. The gentle smile on his face deepened, and his familiar eyes looked at him, the time for the honor student to shine.
“Kill him, alias… Colorful Moon. You’re the one who’s going to die! No matter what, you’ll die!”
Fighting against the strange power in his body, he suppressed the weak computational power in his mind.
“… The butler frowned.
“I can’t save you…” “…
The butler clenched his fists. The butler then looked at the butler in front of him.
One couldn’t help but admire Kazumi’s performance. Not panicking and screaming immediately was the greatest help to Mai Shinomiyai. Not to mention the subsequent assistance.
“Okay!”
A voice came from behind.
As if suppressing something, a slender arm wrapped around Mai Shinomiyai’s waist, then squeezed hard. Even Mai Shinomiyai’s already weak body felt a bit of pain.
But at this moment, Mai Shinomiyai had no desire to stop her friend’s actions. She understood Kazumi too well. The inarticulate girl never willingly expressed her emotions in front of others. Even in front of her boyfriend, the girl was like a startled hedgehog, carefully retracting her thorns and revealing a bit of her soft belly.
[You’re trembling with fear to the point of shaking, yet you’re pretending to be strong to help me. What a hopeless idiot!]
A faint smile appeared on her numb face. Feeling the weak warmth of the girl behind her, Mai Shinomiyai’s strength seemed to recover a bit.
Looking up at the collapsing fragments of space, Mai Shinomiyai took a breath. The spiritual energy that had recovered a bit was brought to her palm. Then, she captured that most familiar, powerful energy.
“Found it! Kazumi!”
Mai Shinomiyai’s face was filled with the joy of victory and the relief of finding what she was looking for. The spiritual energy in her hand guided the trace of the Divine Tree’s aura. Her tensed body and emotions finally relaxed at this moment. She wanted to turn her head to tell Kazumi the good news.
“Mmm—”
Suddenly, the sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh echoed in Mai Shinomiyai’s mind. The last spiritual energy thread in her hand snapped at this moment, dissipating powerlessly into the air. The girl’s head, which wanted to turn, instinctively looked down. All she saw was the tip of a dark green sword, materialized from necrotic energy, piercing her chest.
What entered Mai Shinomiyai’s final field of vision was the greyish-white monster still bound in place in the distance, and her friend, sitting behind her, trembling all over, smiling, and holding a dark green dagger in her hand.
“Mmm…”
Ka…
She wanted to say something, but the blood foam in her throat, which she couldn’t swallow no matter how hard she tried, made Mai Shinomiyai unable to utter a single word. She could only laboriously spit out a few indistinct syllables.
“I know what you want to say, my best friend.”
A fair finger traced across Mai Shinomiyai’s lips, gently wiping away the small specks of blood foam, but they were quickly smudged again by the fresh blood gushing from her mouth.
With a gentle, stiff smile on her face, the girl softly caressed her friend’s pale lips, tilted her head slightly forward, and spoke word by word with seriousness.
“It’s just that… when I thought about how I would be able to kill you soon, I got so excited that I couldn’t control myself!”
At this moment, the realm of flesh and blood officially collapsed.
