Humanity’s Extinction Happens During Summer Vacation?!

by Tsuyoshi Fujitaka

  Which meant Rion could fall into either party. Since she was with Aiko and the others, though, she was apparently part of the “to be eaten” group.

  “Offering virgins to gods is a custom all over the world, for some reason,” Mutsuko commented. “Well, personally, I think it’s because priests wanted to use their god as an excuse to get it on with some virgins. Then again, as a food source, women who have given birth probably have a different hormone balance, which might affect the flavor!”

  “Are we gonna get eaten?” Aiko asked nervously. The Head’s revival would take place when the full moon reached its summit. It had been evening when they were captured, which meant it could all be over in just a few hours.

  I guess I really do have to transform...

  Now that Nero was gone, Aiko’s power was all they had to rely on. She probably couldn’t beat that monster, but it might help them get away, at least. The only question was whether she could control it. The last time she had transformed, her body had moved on its own.

  And then there’d been the other day, when she had wandered into Yuichi’s room in a daze. If that had been an effect of the vampirization, then she definitely didn’t have control over those powers.

  “I personally think my big brother is going to come save us! Don’t you agree, Noro?” Yoriko addressed Aiko casually, apparently believing that very firmly.

  “Y-Yeah,” Aiko said. Now that she mentioned it, they hadn’t seen Yuichi for a while.

  Maybe Sakaki really will come to save us...

  Since she didn’t know if she could use it or not, gambling on the vampire’s power should be saved for a last resort.

  Yuichi would come. She believed in that.

  They were carried from the mansion into the basement, and then into a strangely-lit passageway. It was completely different from the Japanese-style mansion halls they had been in previously; a perfectly square corridor lit uniformly with dim light.

  “What is this?” Aiko asked, dumbfounded, to no one in particular.

  “This is the festival site,” Rion answered. “Weird place, huh? Some people say it’s like being in a spaceship, but...” Rion said that in a tone that suggested she didn’t believe it.

  “A spaceship! Maybe The Head of All is an alien! Of course! There are alien origin theories for plenty of yokai and gods!” Mutsuko looked around in great interest.

  “Are there?” Aiko did find it plausible that this could be a spaceship. The technology certainly looked extraterrestrial.

  From time to time, they came to a seeming dead end, in which a square hole opened automatically at their approach. It acted like an automatic door, except that it looked like an ordinary wall until they were right on top of it. She had never seen anything like this on Earth.

  Speaking of which, Aiko realized, Yoriko had been very quiet this whole time. She decided to check how the girl was doing. Yoriko’s face was pale, and she was cradling her right arm. She’d said she had the pain under control, but it seemed that had reached its limit.

  “Yoriko, are you okay?” Aiko drew up close to Yoriko. She didn’t know what to do except rub her back gently.

  “Noro... thank you,” Yoriko said.

  Aiko had never seen Yoriko acting so reasonable before. The pain must have been getting really bad.

  “Sakaki will come, I’m sure of it,” Aiko assured her. “Then we can go back home together. It’ll all be okay.”

  “Yes, Noro, I know that for a fact,” Yoriko said. “You’re the one who still doesn’t believe it, aren’t you?”

  If Yoriko still had fight in her, she must have been feeling well enough.

  They passed through wall after wall, until they came out in a round chamber.

  The first thing Aiko noticed within the chamber was that monster.

  It was sitting upon the highest point of the room, a dais at the far side. It appeared to be curled up and asleep, yet it projected an overwhelming presence throughout the room that was impossible to ignore.

  Three girls in under-kimonos crouched at the base of the dais.

  They were surrounded by a crowd of anthromorphs, all inhuman beings with various animal features, looking up at The Head in reverence. The girls weren’t restrained, but there was probably no way out of their current position, either.

  Aiko’s group was the same way.

  The water buffalo anthromorphs brought the palanquin to the center of the room, then stopped, and set it down. The anthromorphs stepped away from the palanquin and pointed to the base of the dais. It’s like they were telling them to go there.

  “I know you! You’re Sato, who lives across the street! Don’t think you can get away with this!” Rion shouted back.

  They must have known each other.

  Perhaps he was the stoic type, or perhaps it was simply a rule, but the buffalo didn’t say anything in response.

  “Well, let’s just do what they say for now.” Mutsuko got out of the palanquin without complaint. “We’ve got front-row seats, in a way! We get to watch a god’s revival close up! I mean, the fact that I saw it walking around earlier takes away from some of the excitement, but still!”

  After a moment’s hesitation, Aiko followed her.

  They walked, single-file, through the crowd of anthromorphs. Their kimonos probably weren’t see-through from a distance, but Aiko still hunched over as she walked, feeling self-conscious.

  As they arrived at the base of the dais, Aiko started in shock. “Huh? Konishi?”

  One of the girls present was Yuri Konishi, Aiko’s classmate.

  Yuri was one of the ones who captured them; why was she being treated as a sacrifice? The other two were Manaka and Akemi, the girls who had been in the prison with them before.

  “Aiko Noro!” Yuri glared at her.

  It was all baffling, but Aiko huddled down close beside her.

  “Excuse me! Could you not sidle up to me?” Yuri snapped.

  “If we stay pressed up together, they can’t see through our clothes.” Aiko continued trying to hide her body, embarrassed to be seen in the outfit.

  “Are you an exhibitionist, then?” Yoriko asked. “You have that kind of face...”

  Yoriko pressed up against Aiko as she sat down. Mutsuko and Rion followed suit.

  “Why? Why is this happening to me? All I wanted to do was kill Aiko Noro and reign over my own world of darkness!” Yuri complained.

  “I’m not sure how to respond to that...” Aiko said with a wince.

  “So, you were double-crossed, right? How stupid do you have to be to trust people like this?” Yoriko snapped. Her tongue had grown a mark sharper, perhaps due to the severe pain she was in.

  “Just calm down!” Mutsuko said. “Sniping at each other won’t help! Now that we’re here, we just have to wait for Yu to show up.” Even though they were on the verge of being sacrificed, Mutsuko seemed completely unaffected.

  “Um... I do believe he’ll come... but with the outfits we’re wearing...” Aiko murmured. The fabric was flimsy and nearly transparent. The thought of Yuichi seeing her in it made Aiko feel even more embarrassed.

  “He’ll come!” Mutsuko declared. “He’s probably already out there, just waiting for his turn! Planning the most dramatic entrance!”

  “That’s one thing I hate about Sakaki...” Aiko muttered.

  Their discussion was cut off as suddenly, everything went dark. The light from the walls and floor had gone out.

  Immediately after, they found themselves bathed in soft light.

  Aiko looked up at the ceiling to see that at some point, it had opened wide, allowing the light of the full moon to stream down on them.

  The monstrous Head began to tremble.

  It spread its eagle’s wings, stood up on its lion’s legs, fixed its man’s eyes on the moon, and let out a howl

  .

  “Oh, we’re all doomed!” Yuri scrambled her hands through her hair and wailed in despair.

  Rion covered her ears and bowed her he
ad.

  Manaka and Akemi hugged each other, trembling.

  “Reviving under the light of the full moon... you think it reacts to Blutz Waves? 17 million zenos?” Mutsuko pondered, casually.

  “Big Sis, those are fictional terms. He’s not turning into a Great Ape.” Despite her casual criticism, Yoriko didn’t sound at all surprised that Mutsuko had said it.

  “How can you be so relaxed about this?” Aiko asked. She was dumbfounded... yet also, somehow, not surprised. It was certainly terrifying, and they were all probably about to die. But she had begun to realize this was the kind of thing that just happened when she hung out with Yuichi and his family.

  The aura around The Head had changed now, too.

  When they had met it at Rion’s house, its eyes had been those of a wild animal. But now it was different. There was intelligence behind those eyes. The “revival” had been a mental one.

  The Head took a step forward. It thrust its giant face towards Mutsuko. “You’re not afraid, are you? You feel no awe towards me, nor are you my disciple.”

  Aiko was surprised to hear it speak. Despite the fact that it had a man’s face, for some reason, she hadn’t expected it to talk.

  The Head then looked at Aiko and the others. It seemed to be watching them intently, curious.

  “Why would I be afraid?”

  “Aren’t you afraid to die?”

  “Sure, I’m afraid to die,” Mutsuko responded. “But that’s not happening here. You can’t kill me!”

  “Can’t I?”

  “Because — and I’m sorry to say this after your whole big revival thing — you’re the one who’s about to die.” She hesitated. “Oh, wait, I guess I should ask... you’re not planning to stay on this island peacefully, are you? Because if so, it’s okay if you stay alive.”

  “What a stupid question,” The Head said coldly. “How much food do you think there is on this island?”

  By “food,” the thing probably meant humans. There weren’t many on the island at all.

  Mutsuko sighed, with a theatrical air. “Boy, I wish you hadn’t started talking! Final bosses always turn so small-scale the second they open their mouths.”

  “Is that all you have to say?” The Head demanded.

  “Mutsuko, why are you getting it angry?!” Aiko looked at Mutsuko in panic. She couldn’t figure out why anyone would go out of their way to provoke a creature like that.

  “I just think it’s not very god-like to lose your cool that easily!” Mutsuko exclaimed. “You’ve gotta be more above this kind of stuff!”

  The Head’s face had gone utterly blank.

  “Oh, well. I guess Yu’ll have to handle the rest!” Mutsuko proclaimed.

  “Hey! Don’t rile him up and then throw him to me!”

  Aiko turned at the sound of the familiar voice.

  Yuichi was standing right behind her. Beside him was Natsuki, dressed in black, skintight leather.

  The Head began to laugh. It guffawed.

  “That explains your confidence... so this is the man you were relying upon? I’ve seen him spying on me from that corner this whole time. I thought he was searching for an escape route.”

  “Sakaki... were you actually waiting for the most dramatic entrance?” Aiko asked.

  Then again, she could believe it. He was Mutsuko’s little brother, after all.

  “No way! I had stuff to take care of first.”

  Yuichi started walking straight to The Head.

  “You take care of the girls,” Yuichi added to Natsuki. Then he urged Mutsuko to step back, and stood face-to-face with The Head.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  It remembered this thing. They had met while it slumbered.

  But that was all. This thing was nothing: a human, weak, lacking even the power of its disciples.

  With but a single stroke, it could reduce any human to lifeless meat. That would be easy, but also boring.

  Yes, it thought. It needed a way to drive the female who had confronted it into despair.

  Death could come after.

  It would tear into the sacrifices, sink the humans into an ocean of blood and viscera, and then take its time toying with them.

  First, it would crush this male that the female relied on, the one standing before its eyes. If it crushed the male effortlessly, the female would realize how foolish she had been.

  The male merely stood there, unafraid, smiling with perfect confidence.

  How irritating.

  It would crush him with a single step.

  It planted its left forefoot, and struck out with its right. It did not matter where it hit. It would end the male’s life, regardless.

  But its claws caught air.

  The male had moved.

  It was only after that point that it noticed something amiss in its own body, and it realized he had pivoted.

  It could not tell immediately what had happened, but there was something long, narrow, and hard now buried in its body.

  Pierced.

  The male took one step closer, holding a long, metal something in both hands.

  A spear? A primitive weapon, but practical enough to have lasted throughout all of human history.

  At last, its mind registered what it had seen.

  The male had dodged its claw swipe, and had taken one step forward while pivoting. As he had, the tip of the spear had wobbled wildly, making the thrust unstable and hard to predict.

  But the moment the spear had pierced its chest, all rigidity had returned, focusing the entirety of the weapon’s power into a single point.

  “You...” It tried to speak, but realized it could no longer even control its own voice.

  Its core had been pierced.

  Questions ran through its mind.

  Where had the spear come from? That had not been in the male’s hands when he had first approached. Where could he have hidden something so long?

  How had the male known the location of its core? The core was its central control point, and its weak point. It was well aware of that. That was why it did not keep its core in any one place, but moved it freely through its body.

  Yet the lance had impaled its core. There had been no way for the male to know where its core was, yet he had impaled it with perfect precision.

  The core that had kept its body united was beginning to lose its grip. The flesh it had taken into itself and made its own began to escape its control.

  A single, lethal blow.

  ✽✽✽✽✽

  Yuichi confirmed that the blow was fatal, then he pulled the spear out and stepped back.

  He kept the point of the spear pointed towards the monster’s head, his posture cautious.

  “That’s a face with ‘but how?!’ written all over it...” he commented.

  The monster was indeed frozen, with surprise written over its face.

  “Well, I’ll let Sis handle the explanation,” he added.

  Yuichi climbed up on top of the monster, still holding the spear.

  “I killed this thing! If anyone’s got a problem with that, you can climb up here and try me!” Yuichi howled as he brandished the spear.

  The anthromorphs clearly did not have a problem with that. They had all fallen to their knees where they stood.

  Even the island’s chief, Dogen Kukurizaka, was groveling, powerlessly.

  It was just as Rion had said: Anthromorphs instinctively served the strongest in the room. Which, Yuichi had decided, meant that the best way to resolve what was going on on the island was to defeat their god, The Head of All.

  He jumped down again as he felt the surface beneath his feet begin to break apart.

  The monster’s form was changing. It writhed, then expanded, then split apart. All that was left behind was a mountain of anthromorphs.

  “So it was made up of fused anthromorphs, huh?” Yuichi mused.

  The core that Yuichi had struck must have been what was keeping them all held together. Now that it had stopped functioni
ng, they had returned to their original forms.

  “Um... what’s going on here? I don’t think I followed it at all...” Aiko said to Mutsuko, looking extremely confused.

  “Okie-doke! Allow me to explain!” Mutsuko said cheerfully. “First, Yu used the spear as an ‘anqi,’ a hidden weapon. It’s a fundamental martial arts technique for keeping your opponent from noticing your weapon until the very last second!”

  “Huh? Um, but Sakaki was clearly holding the spear the whole time!” Aiko protested.

  “From our point of view, sure. But he was holding it behind himself. The enemy was in front of him, so it couldn’t see it!”

  Even if it hadn’t been able to see the weapon, there was a chance his opponent could have told there was something off about his balance. That was why it was important, in that technique, for the wielder to mask his center of gravity.

  “Um, so where did he get the spear?” Aiko asked.

  “That’s the beach umbrella we were using the other day! It’s an umbrella-spear! You remove the umbrella part, and it’s a liu he da qiang, 3.2 meters long, made from a special alloy! It’s super bendy, and really heavy!” Mutsuko proclaimed.

  Yuichi had brought the spear as a weapon, and packed it away in the mini-truck when they had first headed to the festival site.

  “After that, it was simple,” Mutsuko added. “Just strike the weak point! Well, as for how he did that, I think Yu had a hunch about what his opponent didn’t want him to do!”

  A hunch.

  That was a vague way of putting it, but it was the only way of expressing it. Yuichi had guessed its weak point via an instinct — on a hunch. He had been able to tell what his opponent didn’t want him to do through observation and intuition. He could unconsciously process all the information he’d taken in, then make a snap judgment based on that.

  That was why Yuichi had spent so much time sizing up the monster, right until the very last instant. That was why he had remained hidden, watching.