Chapter 46

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The next day, Shouma woke up on the same pipe chair he had been tied to yesterday. Since he slept in a sitting position, his body ached all over. Every muscle in his body became firm from the lack of movement, and he felt a stinging pain to his core.

One night had passed, and the ropes still hadn’t slackened, biting into the wrists and ankles of Shouma. There must have been some wounds since it tingled and hurt.

Looking out of the window he saw that the sun was already high above the buildings. He didn’t have a clock with him, so he couldn’t tell what time it was, but it must have been past noon.

“You’re up at last. We’d better get moving.”

The next thing Shouma knew, Amanojaku was in front of him.

The cord around his wrists remained in place, while the one’s connecting him to the pipe chair around his ankles had been removed. For a moment, he thought about running away, but there wasn’t any opportunity, Amanojaku’s gaze covered all the chinks. Even if Shouma broke into a run, the chances of him escaping were scarce.

“Where are you taking me now?”

Amanojaku raised one of his eyebrows at Shouma’s words.

“Huh, curious, are we? You shouldn’t be.” smiled the kaii wickedly.

The place he had been taken to was on a small hill, on top of it, stood a lattice tower, painted in red and white. A residential area stretched out at the bottom of the hill.

At the top of the hillock’s tower, where one could see anything and everything, Amanojaku suddenly took the protection charm on Shouma’s neck in his hand.

“If my hopes are right, as soon as I take this off from you, the kaii will come. But since a small amount of that guy’s scent will still linger on you, we will have to wait a bit more for our bustling crowd.”

He plucked the amulet and took it, then threw it out of the tower.

The charm fell in a loose circle. Shouma couldn’t see where it had fallen.

“But in a few hours, all the small kaii’s in the area will gather at your feet. I’m looking forward to this.”

Amanojaku laughed, smiling widely.

“Oi, tell me, why did you decide to do the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons?”

“What do you mean, why?”

“Don’t you have your own purpose for it?”

At his words, Amanojaku burst into laughter. He then shook his head and, as strange as it seemed, smiled wholeheartedly.

“A purpose? To wish for something this catastrophic… but this is pretty much already decided, isn’t it?”

His silvery hair fluttered in the wind.

“It’s because of revenge. I want to take revenge.”

“Revenge?”

“I was once a god. But the faith of men! The rumors! The thoughts! I had been declined from a god to a mere kaii!”

Amanojaku shouted with a completely different amount of zeal than before. His eyes were bloodshot as he peered through the gaps of the masked cloth in front of his face.

“And at the end, I had been locked in that book, spending who knows how many decades or hundreds of years as a kaii amongst the mob! Hundreds of years! You can’t possibly be able to understand this humiliation! My dignity as a god was gradually gone, and the days when I couldn’t even recognize myself as a kaii…! How painful it was. How many times have I clawed at my own neck, trying to replace myself!”

He continued in a voice, which was more emotional than ever.

“This is my revenge against humans! The sin of humiliating me, me who was once a god, is heavy. I have waited for this moment for decades in the depths of that book! Soon, my desire will be fulfilled!”

Amanojaku was not the man who could be easily comprehended, just like how the Gyuuki was. Though, Shouma thought he would be able to persuade him, but from the looks of it, it would be difficult to do so.

It is likely that the words of Shouma will not reach him now.

(If I can’t persuade him, I’ll just have to get out of here somehow.)

But with no help expected and his wrists still bound, there was nothing he could do.

His only hopes, Subaru and Enishi, had been walloped. Even if he would call them again, his weakened friends surely wouldn’t stand a chance against Amanojaku.

(I wonder if they are okay…)

Shouma had been kidnapped soon afterwards, so he had not been able to confirm if the kaii’s were safe. He didn’t think any substitution had occurred, but they were probably heavily injured.

Amanojaku said that Tendou would have been able to stand a chance against him, but he, too, didn’t think that Shouma would be on top of a tower.

(If only I could somehow tell Tendou-san about this place…)

As Shouma pondered, his employer’s voice came back to him.

“If anything happens to you, call me. Promise me this and nothing else.”

(Why now… by calling, he meant…ah!)

As soon as he realised this, he felt as if his whole body was burning with a new determination.

It might be a misunderstanding, but there was a certainty in his heart, saying it wasn’t. It was trust or it would be better to say, confidence.

The kaii must have started to notice Shouma’s presence, since creatures began to gather under the boy’s feet. The smaller ones were more sensitive to his presence, that’s why those were the ones to first assemble around the tower. But soon, the bigger one’s would start to gather too.

“When this city is done for, the nearby one will be the next in the line, and so are the following cities. Wretched humans, prepare yourself!”

“It’s you, who should be prepared, Amanojaku!”

From the top of the tower, where even his footing was uncertain, Shouma faced the kaii.

Amanojaku simply narrowed his eyes at his captive’s hasty, audacious attitude.

“Do you really think you’re in a position to talk like that, to me? All I need is your body. If you talk too harshly, I’ll just kill you, you know?”

He stared straight into the face of the threatening Amanojaku.

Now, there was no fear in the boy’s eyes.

“Amanojaku, you can’t kill me. The only reason why Tendou-san doesn’t interfere with the Night Parade of Hundred Demons is because you have me as a hostage. If it wasn’t for that, you would have killed me by now. The only thing you need is my blood. A sentient doll is just a distraction.”

“…”

“I’m more valuable to you alive than dead. Especially as a hostage to keep Tendou-san away from here. That’s why you can’t just carelessly kill me. Isn’t that right?”

“Even if what you say is true, it’s just that it’s slightly more convenient for me to leave you alive than to be dead. That’s no reason why I shouldn’t kill you.”

“But, this is somewhat more convenient, I guess?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“So I’ll do this!

Shouma threw himself backwards from the top of the tower. For a moment, Amanojaku’s hand reached out to him, but the boy quickly ducked and avoided it.

“How dare you choose suicide!” Shouted the kaii in frustration.

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