Well, it's Japan, right? Seeing a monster gnawing on a human being is totally normal…
"No it isn't!"
Yuuki crushed the absurd thought immediately. Reality didn't allow denial: the moment the damned thing noticed him, it moved like a panther spotting prey—eyes blazing red—launching straight at him.
Aimed at his neck.
It was going for the kill.
Its speed was panther-like too—far beyond what a normal person should be able to react to.
And yet Yuuki not only reacted; he made a clear judgment in his mind.
I can't beat this thing. Run!
But ever since a moment ago, Yuuki had felt something wrong with his body—like a string that should've existed had snapped. He wanted to flee, but his movement betrayed him.
Instead of retreating, he surged forward.
As if he wanted to destroy the thing in front of him.
Bang!
Thud!
Naturally, he was slammed to the ground.
Yuuki instinctively twisted to avoid a fatal bite, but he still ended up pinned. Blood splashed up from the wet red ground; his bag flew aside. His uniform was immediately soaked through. He didn't even have time to feel disgust at the sticky, damp sensation spreading across his back.
Am I insane?!
Cold sweat poured down. The split between reason and instinct made no sense—but the danger was immediate. In that razor-thin moment, Yuuki shoved the monster's dry face away with his left hand and jammed his right forearm across his throat to protect his neck.
What a revolting texture…
Its face felt like dead wood. It looked like the kind of ghoul you'd see in manga—something between a cannibal and a zombie—but to the touch it was stiff and hard, more like a dried corpse.
Unable to reach Yuuki's neck, the thing tried to grab and crush it instead. Yuuki managed to block with his wrist before its fingers found purchase.
"Kah… gh… kk…"
"Guh… this thing… it's… strong…"
The monster clamped down on Yuuki's forearm, forcing it upward toward his throat. Pinned to the ground, Yuuki's face flushed as he fought with everything he had, inch by inch pushing the creature away.
He didn't notice that his body temperature was rising rapidly. He didn't notice his strength slowly increasing. He only felt like the monster was weakening—like if he pushed a little harder, he'd break free—
Then a sudden, vicious pain tore through his left hand.
"Aaah!"
The monster bit into the web between his thumb and index finger. Blood burst out. The agony made Yuuki's strength falter.
He knew it. The monster reclaimed control instantly.
Still biting, it drove Yuuki's right forearm back against his throat with both hands, pressing so hard Yuuki couldn't breathe. His eyes rolled back.
This is it…
In Yuuki Asagami's mind, everything he'd lived through flashed past like a carousel.
In his previous life, his sister fell ill. To make money, Yuuki dropped out before finishing high school and went south alone, suffering through endless hardship. Just when life finally stabilized, misfortune kept striking.
Then he transmigrated, wanting to forget everything. He faced unfamiliar "family," lost and forced to pretend he understood. Once he grasped his situation, he decided to dedicate everything—living even harder than his past life—to prevent a destruction flag from claiming a family he didn't truly know.
And this was how it ended?
The memories he'd struggled to bury grew sharper. Even his student days before reincarnation—staying up under the blanket with a phone to binge anime—came back with startling clarity.
Back then, he'd especially loved that girl in a kimono…
So… before I became a corporate drone… I was a shut-in nerd…
…
I don't want to die!
The advantage of having reason and instinct split became apparent. That long "life flashing before his eyes" was only an instant.
Feeling the pain and the crushing pressure at his throat, Yuuki's instinct snapped—he kicked hard into the monster's abdomen. The blow was enormous. The creature was light; it flew sideways into the wall.
In the process, it tore off a chunk of flesh from Yuuki's left hand. His right arm was raked with several cuts too.
"The hell is wrong with you?! You got guts biting people, huh?!"
But Yuuki didn't run.
Eyes bloodshot, he pounced instead—pinning the fallen monster to the ground—and without hesitation bit into its neck.
It felt like biting rancid, dried cured meat.
The sudden reversal seemed to stun the creature. Then it shrieked—louder, messier than Yuuki's earlier cries.
Ignoring the screams, Yuuki tore and chewed, swallowing anything that came—liquid, chunks of flesh—forcing it down all at once.
The monster's resistance weakened. It stopped struggling.
At last, it went completely still.
"Hah… hah… hah…"
Yuuki released his bite, panting as he staggered upright. His overheated body cooled. The earlier mismatch between instinct and reason faded.
Looking at the wrecked ground—and at the humanoid monster whose neck he'd nearly chewed through, leaving the head connected by only a strip of shredded flesh—Yuuki wondered if calling the police would even matter.
Then the foul taste in his mouth hit him fully, like a spike into his skull.
"Ghk—!"
Yuuki doubled over and vomited violently. Not only the filth he'd swallowed—he even brought up the instant noodles he'd eaten at lunch.
He failed to notice that, within this alley space—hard to enter without climbing walls—another figure had appeared.
"Interesting. To defeat a corpse demon alone, relying solely on the impulse rooted in one's blood…"
The sudden voice startled Yuuki so badly he nearly fell over. He turned and saw a tall, powerfully built man.
The man looked in his forties. He wore a black coat. His expression was stern and burdened—so heavy he felt like a boulder.
No… a boulder wasn't enough. The pressure was too overwhelming.
More like a mountain.
The man had appeared without a sound, yet he made no effort to hide. In this dim alley, Yuuki couldn't see his face clearly, but he could feel the man staring at him—as if even his "origin" would be seen through.
And Yuuki could do nothing.
Whether it was intimidation, a binding, or simply his legs going weak, he couldn't move at all.
As silence hung, the corpse demon—supposedly dead—suddenly began twitching again, making a low, beastlike rumble.
"Hmph… forget it. We'll meet again. Not yet."
The man stopped looking at Yuuki and turned his gaze toward the corpse demon about to rise.
"I see. Because it was preyed upon in turn, it mistook you for a higher predator and entered a temporary feigned death… Injuries of that level cannot fully eliminate a corpse demon."
As he spoke to himself, he raised his left hand.
Before Yuuki's eyes, golden light bloomed in the man's palm. Several characters—almost like Chinese characters—linked together into a circular disk like a spell circle, rotating slowly as it approached the corpse demon.
A moment later, the corpse demon dispersed completely—like wood burned down to ash—leaving only cinders on the ground.
At the same time, Yuuki's vision blurred. The world spun.
Then everything went black.
With a dull thump, he collapsed and lost consciousness.
In the last instant before he passed out, Yuuki recognized the man's name.
The man was Souren Araya.
-------
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