Chapter Seventy-Two: You’re Just a Kid
“I see, so you are also a member of the Super Research Division, Kaoru-kun…”
Huzuka murmured softly after realizing Kanade’s identity.
Then she revealed a self-deprecating smile: “I used to be so enthusiastic about these supernatural phenomena, but I never expected that when they finally appeared before me, it would turn out like this…”
Huzuka raised her right hand, which was still able to move normally, but her slender fingers now resembled a beast’s claws.
“Huzuka-senpai…”
But then Huzuka changed her tone to a more cheerful one, as if to dispel the gloomy atmosphere.
“Chihua-chan has changed too.”
The Chihua who used to timidly hide behind her now would risk her own life to save her junior.
Making an active contact with something she was least skilled at—supernatural entities.
Huzuka marveled at how in the time she’d been away, the girl named Chihua Amamiya had gradually matured.
“I understand now, let me lend a helping hand to you, Kaoru-kun.”
Huzuka accepted Kanade’s request with a hope of assisting him.
“Speaking of which, Kaoru-kun…”
“Mm?”
“Are you perhaps… Chihua-chan’s boyfriend?”
“No, no, no! That’s not the case,” Kanade shook his head vigorously at the words.
“Eh~ Really? I thought for sure that was how it was…”
Huzuka looked at the naive boy in front of her and revealed a teasing smile.
She was surprised to find that he would blush from such a remark.
“Then, Kaoru-kun… do you like Chihua-chan?”
“I-I don’t have that kind of relationship with Amamiya-senpai…” Kanade explained, shaking his head and waving his hands.
“So that means… you like that girl named Mana?”
Huzuka recalled her memories as a shrine maiden, and indeed, she had seen the girl who had just been brought back not long ago at the shrine.
With platinum blonde hair, exquisitely beautiful features like a doll, and a slender figure—it was a girl that anyone would have to admit was a beauty.
If it were to rescue such an adorable girlfriend, it wouldn’t be hard to understand why this junior was so desperate…
“No, no, I and Mana are not like that…”
Kanade’s answer caught Huzuka off guard.
She glanced into Kanade’s eyes.
Confirming that he wasn’t hiding out of shyness, and it seemed he also didn’t have feelings for the platinum-haired girl.
“So, Kaoru-kun, just like Chihua-chan, you’re just a kind-hearted gentleman, huh…”
Huzuka said with a wry smile.
At the same time, she was curious as to why this junior seemed completely uninterested in them.
Even from a girl’s perspective, whether it was Chihua or that girl named Mana, both were very cute and beautiful.
Could it be that there are girls around Kaoru-kun who are even cuter than them? Or perhaps—
“So how long are you two planning to chat?” DD-chan, unable to watch any longer, chimed in.
It transformed from a spiritual being into a physical one.
Its figure appeared between Kanade and Huzuka.
“…Eh?! What is this?!”
“This… this is the evil spirit Dokidoki-chan…” Kanade explained to the startled Huzuka.
“Ah! That Dokidoki-chan!?”
Upon hearing this, Huzuka seemed to recall something, a name she had seen in articles from the past about Super Research.
At that time, she was very enthusiastic about supernatural matters, so the contents of those articles left a deep impression on her.
Then Huzuka noticed the close relationship between this evil spirit Dokidoki-chan and her junior.
She looked at DD-chan’s distorted and terrifying face, then at Kanade’s expression of trust towards it.
—Ah!
A flash of lightning passed through her mind, as if she understood everything in an instant.
Could it be that this kid likes…
No, no, no, human preferences and partner choices are free, and she absolutely did not mean to look down on him; rather, she would definitely support them.
For this, she only had one question to confirm—
Is it D × Kanade? Or is it Kanade × D?
“It feels like I’m being consumed by decayed thoughts…” DD-chan rolled its eyes at Huzuka, who suddenly started a mental storm.
Thinking that both the seniors and juniors of Super Research were the same.
“Although I want to suggest we wait for Alice to arrive before acting, after all, it’s hard for us to face the White Spirit with just our strength…” DD-chan continued, recalling the man they met in the Special Ring SEMA data room.
His strength was certainly on par with Alice, and their battle might not end anytime soon.
“But we must rescue those two children before they are turned into shrine maidens.”
Kanade nodded in agreement with DD-chan’s thoughts.
Simply waiting made him feel very uneasy; the thought of “having to do something” occupied his mind.
“I understand. Let’s follow the plan mentioned before; I’ll pretend to ‘capture’ you back to the shrine and then find a chance to rescue Chihua-chan and Mana-chan from within the shrine.”
Huzuka said.
“However, before that, I have one thing I hope you can help me with—”
“What?”
“Kill me.”
“Huh!?” Kanade was surprised and stood up suddenly.
But when he met Huzuka’s gaze, he realized she wasn’t joking.
“My current body can hardly even move, let alone fight…” Huzuka looked down at her soulless arm, as well as her tattered and blood-soaked white ceremonial robe.
“But as long as you kill me, I can return to my original form at dusk.”
The authority of dusk.
In this world, whether human or fantasy monsters, no one can truly die.
“I know this request will trouble you greatly, Kaoru-kun, but we have no way to ‘commit suicide’…”
“This is the absolute will of the higher beings, and we cannot defy it.”
The False God, the White Spirit, would not allow her child to end her own life.
“But… but…” Kanade’s hand holding the weapon began to tremble.
“It’s okay, I’ve long since been dead.” Huzuka revealed a faint smile and gently shook her head.
“I died on that day, but it is this dusk that allows me to continue to stay in this world.”
“So at the very least, in the end, let me, as your senior, make my final contribution for you juniors who are still alive.”
“…..Huzuka-senpai.”
“It’s okay, I’m no longer human, just a monster wearing this skin.” After saying this, Huzuka placed her right hand on her heart and closed her eyes.
Kanade showed a struggling expression.
But he felt he couldn’t betray the resolve of the senior in front of him.
Thus, his trembling hand slowly raised the blade in his hand.
The sharp tip of the knife aimed at Huzuka’s heart.
“I-I…” After taking several deep breaths, Kanade still couldn’t steady the trembling blade.
“Kaoru-kun, you’re truly kind…” Huzuka realized that Kanade couldn’t take that step.
Suddenly, she extended her claws and lunged at Kanade.
“——!?” The sudden change made Kanade reflexively swing the knife in his hand.
“This will be fine—”
The sharp tip pierced the fabric of the white ceremonial robe.
Just as Kanade was about to witness himself killing Huzuka with his own hands.
He suddenly felt his perspective shift.
His vision filled with the tranquil dusk, and his hands did not feel the sensation of the blade cutting through flesh.
“…..You’re just a kid; there’s no need to leave behind such memories.” DD-chan’s voice echoed in Kanade’s mind.
Upon hearing this, Kanade finally understood that it was DD-chan who activated its power at the last moment.
Forcibly switching his visual and tactile senses.
—This sin should not be borne by you children.
As the blade pierced Huzuka’s heart.
The next moment, in the twilight’s afterglow.
Her body was enveloped in the golden glimmer of the setting sun.
The wound healed rapidly, along with the torn fabric and mask.
It was as if someone pressed the rewind button on a video, and time rewound itself for Huzuka.
Until she returned to that strange and bizarre “White Spirit Shrine Maiden.”
However, this time, she did not lose her sanity.
“Thank you.”
The restored Huzuka said softly.
“Now then, let us go to the shrine and rescue those children.”
Huzuka’s eyes, hidden beneath the mask, met with DD-chan, who was floating in mid-air.
The two exchanged a tacit nod in their hearts.
