“I became a twee. Geuru, Geuru really turned into Groot!”
“…….”
“…….”
Velak asked Mephisto with his eyes, as if to say, What’s “Groot”? But Mephisto didn’t know either.
“Mew-mew.” (She must still be half-asleep. Pat her diligently.)
“Pii.”
The two, knowing nothing, tried to soothe and comfort Geuru as best they could, but unfortunately, none of it reached her.
I have to find Dad!
Geuru put the upper half of her monk’s robe over her head like a head-covering skirt and tied the strings in a ribbon beneath her chin.
She meant to hide it, because she couldn’t let anyone find out she had become Groot.
With the sprout hidden and only her face showing, she sprang to her feet.
Dad will pull out the snow rabbit for me!
It was the moment she stepped out of the room to become human again instead of Groot.
Thudthudthudthudthudthud—
“Huh?”
It was the sound of helicopter propellers.
Above the halls of Yeonhamsa Temple, the helicopter door opened, and soon a rope ladder swayed down.
Armed special forces soldiers climbed down the ladder one by one and landed in the temple’s front courtyard.
The last person to descend was the only one wearing a suit.
Geuru hid herself behind a pillar.
At the loud noise, the people doing temple stay were coming out, rubbing their eyes, and a monk of Yeonhamsa was also approaching at a quick pace.
“Who are you! This is a place where we serve the Buddha! What is the meaning of this, without so much as a notice!”
The man in the suit glanced at the monk, then gave an order to the soldiers.
[“Please act as quickly and efficiently as possible.”]
[“Understood.”]
They were Japanese.
The instant the order was given, the special forces soldiers swiftly scattered.
At the ominous atmosphere, the surroundings began to stir.
“What’s going on in the middle of the night?”
“Are they some kind of special forces from Japan?”
“Did they come to catch that handsome yakuza?”
In Geuru’s mind, the only person connected to the Japanese was Master.
Geuru began running to find Jurim and Kazuki.
*
“Huff! Haaah! Huff!”
Following Mephisto’s guidance, Geuru ran until her breath reached her chin, and when she rounded the side of the hall, the main wooden veranda came into view.
Something was happening there.
In front of the special forces soldiers lined up with assault rifles aimed, the man in the suit took one step forward.
[“Hunter Amakusa Kazuki. I am Yamaoka Shun, an agent of the Public Security Department. I have come to escort you, so you will need to come with us.”]
“Mmm,” Kazuki said, picking at his ear.
[“I don’t remember calling a taxi. Who are you here to escort? And for what?”]
At that, Yamaoka Shun continued as if he knew everything Kazuki had intended to do.
[“Your life belongs to Japan.”]
“Hoo.” Kazuki blew on the finger he had used to clean his ear and grinned.
Had they been monitoring him all this time?
To think he couldn’t even decide the day he died for himself. Wasn’t this a state lower than a dog on a leash?
Because he was useful in far too many ways, they wouldn’t let him escape even through death.
So they had turned a blind eye to him going around lifting curses until now.
Then, suddenly, a fragment of truth brushed through his mind, enough to make every hair on his body stand on end.
……Don’t tell me Prime Minister Takahashi knew I couldn’t lift the curse?
If not, there was no way he would have simply left Kazuki alone while he roamed the world trying to break it.
He was the sort of man who claimed even Kazuki’s life belonged to the nation.
All at once, Takahashi’s background came to mind. Hadn’t he said he came from a family of onmyoji whose lineage had continued since the Heian period (794–1185)?
Onmyoji, who predicted fortune and misfortune, drove away evil spirits with spells, healed illness, and used sorcery to ward off curses.
Because of that, Kazuki had been able to receive help slowing the curse’s progression.
And there was one more thing they could do.
If they were onmyoji, then they would also be well versed in casting curses.
‘…….’
He had been played. Utterly stupidly.
The surging rage dyed his vision pitch-black, but Kazuki clenched his teeth and forced a smile.
[“Mr. Taxi Driver, would you tell Prime Minister Takahashi that even coercion has its limits? I just gained one more reason not to go back.”]
[“I am Yamaoka Shun of the Public Security Department. Hunter, you may go and tell him yourself.”]
The moment Yamaoka Shun’s hand grasped the air, a heavy sword hilt filled his grip.
Unlike the black, crude hilt embedded with a magic stone, the white, sharp blade was engraved with the distinctive pattern that signified the Amakusa Series.
The first-generation model of the Amakusa Series.
Tsurugi “Kagehira影比良 (S+).”
[“Taking out my baby right in front of me like that? How cruel~”]
[“…….”]
Looking at the expressionless Yamaoka Shun, Kazuki twisted his lips into a long smile and drew up his mana.
[“If Mr. Taxi Driver comes at me like that, I get stubborn too.”]
A crack formed in space, and subspace opened like a zipper being pulled apart.
[“Try escorting me.”]
As the things glittering within the darkness of the subspace revealed themselves, Yamaoka Shun took an iai stance and went on guard.
Countless sword tips that pierced through the darkness aimed at Yamaoka Shun and the soldiers.
[“If you can, that is.”]
The sharp blades were utterly menacing.
The numerous failed products of the Amakusa Series.
But that very fact meant they were S-rank blades that could have become part of the Amakusa Series.
Yamaoka Shun’s expression hardened.
‘To think he could do something like this…….’
Had he only revealed his production-type abilities all this time so he wouldn’t appear to be a dangerous individual?
This was why Hunters who did not belong to the government were dangerous.
Yamaoka Shun struggled to calm the tension that prickled at his core.
He trusted his weapon.
Kagehira, one of only four Amakusa masterpieces.
As if responding to his will, the magic stone embedded in Kagehira began absorbing his mana.
Amplified mana surged.
Whooooosh—
“Everyone, stop this at once!”
As the atmosphere turned fierce, Monk Hyeongak moved to stop them.
He didn’t know what was going on, but he could not allow high-ranking Hunters to fight at Yeonhamsa Temple, where civilians were staying as well.
Countless people would inevitably be harmed!
However, Kazuki was about to fire the first attack in order to counter Kagehira.
He was already beginning to lose his reason to rage.
“Layman Amakusa! You mustn’t!”
“Master!”
Following Monk Hyeongak’s plea, a child’s voice rang out.
‘Geuru?’
As the child, whose head was tightly wrapped in a monk’s robe, came running, the unit captain who had been holding back the civilians quickly grabbed the child in his arms.
Clangclangclangclang!
Clatter!
In an instant, the prototypes of the Amakusa Series lost their will to fight and tumbled to the floor in a heap.
“Geuru-chan!”
“Masteeer……!”
Seeing Geuru reaching out her arms while held by the unit captain, Kazuki growled with a savage look on his face.
[“Let her go. Unless you want this to become an international dispute.”]
[“If you come quietly, we will release her.”]
[“Don’t try to make a deal. You seem to know who that child is, don’t you?”]
They were Public Security, handling all kinds of information both domestic and foreign. There was no way they didn’t know who the child was.
In the end, Yamaoka Shun nodded and raised a hand as if to stop the unit captain.
When the puzzled unit captain released the child, Geuru came pattering toward Kazuki.
“Master…….”
Looking past Geuru at the civilians watching the confrontation, Kazuki chewed over a deep regret.
To think he had been about to start a fight in a place like this. Had rage blinded him and made him lose his mind for a moment?
Geuru had almost been caught up in it too.
Right now, he was a dangerous person to Geuru. Before he repeated inappropriate behavior, he had to leave this place.
Kazuki bent at the waist, met Geuru’s eyes, and grinned.
“Geuru-chan, go back inside. Master has to go to Japan for a little while with these men.”
“J-Japan?”
“Yeah. There’s something Master urgently has to do.”
“What is it……?”
“It’s something you don’t know about, Geuru-chan. Sorry. I’ll explain next time……. Let’s go inside, okay?”
Geuru lowered her eyes and glanced around once.
Because a battle had almost broken out, tension still hung in the air.
In the middle of the night.
With a helicopter.
Bringing a whole crowd of people carrying weapons.
Geuru stared fixedly at Kazuki’s awkwardly smiling face.
The taut tension and precarious atmosphere.
All of it gave even the child a sense that something was wrong.
‘Master is a liar.’
At this rate, something bad seemed like it would happen to Master……
But adults never told children anything clearly……
Then there was only one way to check.
[Registering “Amakusa Kazuki” as a guardian.]