Chapter 74: Michiyo's Self-Blame
Before this apocalyptic scene, the village chief who'd had his front teeth knocked out by the teacher's punch was now kneeling in the ruins.
His face was covered in blood, but his eyes gleamed with an almost manic joy.
"Look! The prophecy was true! The Mountain God has been resurrected!! Our new era has arrived!!"
"As long as you've awakened, this world is ours! Eat! Feast to your heart's content! Those outsiders, those traitors—they're all yours—"
His hymn of praise hadn't finished.
Golza lowered its head.
It looked at this small, noisy, chattering thing beneath its feet. A flash of impatience crossed its eyes.
What was this thing babbling about?
Golza felt no gratitude whatsoever for these people's praise. Its brain contained only one thought:
Hungry.
So hungry that it wanted to sample even this worthless garbage that contained barely any energy.
So that giant claw casually reached down.
"Ahhh—!!"
The fanatical praise instantly transformed into horrified wailing.
The village chief didn't even register what was happening before he was already lifted into the air.
Immediately after, Golza flipped its wrist and directly tossed him into that mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
"CRUNCH."
Not even any chewing.
The old man's final sound wasn't praise, but a scream filled with bewilderment.
"ROAR—"
Perhaps because the old man's bones were too hard, or his meat too tough and stringy...
Golza shook its head in dissatisfaction, like it had eaten some disgusting junk food, and expelled a burst of scorching white vapor from its nostrils.
"ROOOAR—!!"
It was enraged.
This amount barely filled a gap between its teeth! It couldn't satisfy its hunger at all!
"THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!"
It began to walk. Each footfall was like a magnitude seven earthquake.
Like stepping on a rotten tomato.
Dozens of villagers who hadn't managed to flee yet, along with the shrine they'd been so proud of, all became meat paste together.
"AHHHHH!!"
"The Mountain God is eating people! Run!!"
Their faith utterly collapsed in that moment.
The remaining villagers finally snapped back to their senses and began fleeing in all directions, crying for their parents, only wishing their mothers had given them two more legs.
But for Golza, this was nothing more than a post-meal digestive exercise.
In the distance on the mountain road, the female teacher watched this hellish scene through the rearview mirror, too shocked to speak.
...
The perspective shifted back to the depths underground.
With the complete collapse of the rock layer above, that originally spacious underground cavity had been filled in.
Kazama Chiba and Urushihara Michiyo were now trapped in a cramped triangular space formed by several massive boulders supporting each other.
Above their heads were countless tons of rock. All around them were dead ends.
For Kazama, the most critical issue was this:
He'd already used both The Time card and The Move card today. His remaining magic power wouldn't support using The Move card again.
And while The Windy card was the type that consumed little magic but did a lot of work...
The problem was that he currently had only a tiny bit of magic left. The Windy card probably couldn't hold out much longer either.
"Cough... cough..."
Kazama leaned against the rock wall, feeling like his lungs were stuffed with burning cotton.
At this moment, only one path lay before him.
The Shadow Kingdom.
As long as he was willing, he could command the ninja soldiers to open a passage at any time and take himself away from this hellhole.
But the problem was—Kazama walking that route was fine because he wasn't an ordinary person. But if he took an elementary school student along, things became uncertain.
In the original series, Tohru—that top-tier hybrid powerhouse who wielded both magic and physical might—had only stayed in the Shadow Kingdom for a few minutes before becoming Tara's puppet. This showed just how powerful the corruption was.
And Michiyo was just a young little girl. With this kind of physical constitution, she'd probably mutate directly upon entering.
Take her and she'd become a monster.
Don't take her and she'd become a corpse.
How did this trolley problem end up falling on me?
Kazama's expression flickered uncertainly in the darkness.
Just then, an ice-cold little hand gently grasped the corner of his shirt.
"Um... big brother... you can... you don't have to worry about me..."
In the darkness, Michiyo's voice came through as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
Even in this desperate situation, this child still maintained that heartbreaking carefulness, as if her very existence was an intrusion on the air itself.
Michiyo said this because she was far too familiar with that expression in Kazama's eyes.
It was the look her father had given her before signing the divorce papers.
It was the look her teacher gave her when assigning group projects nobody wanted.
It was the look her classmates gave her when dividing into game teams and she was the extra person.
It was the signal of being troubled and wanting to abandon someone.
"Big brother, you have a way to leave, don't you?"
Kazama froze. Did this girl have mind-reading abilities?
Michiyo forced out a smile that looked worse than crying.
"I know... I'm a burden."
"Taking me along will be really troublesome, or something bad will happen. Either way, big brother only ended up like this because you saved me."
"So big brother, you can just leave on your own. You don't have to worry about me."
Kazama's tone became somewhat stiff.
"What kind of foolish talk is that?"
"Staying here is a dead end. Do you think being crushed into a meat patty is fun?"
Hearing the word "death," Michiyo's shoulders visibly trembled.
Large tears finally couldn't be held back any longer and surged from those eyes, sliding down her dirty little face.
In the end, she was only a seven-year-old child.
Thinking she'd never see her mother again, thinking she'd never be able to hide under her blankets listening to music—that instinctive fear of death made her entire body shake.
But even so...
Michiyo still struggled to sit up from his embrace. Although the cramped space made her head bump against the overhead rock, she didn't make a sound.
She curled herself into a tiny ball, trying her best not to take up space and not to touch Kazama.
"It's okay."
"I was extra to begin with anyway."
"Dad doesn't want me... Mom always sighs... I don't have any friends at school either... nobody cares about me... the teacher thinks I'm a gloomy freak too..."
"For a gloomy, unlikable child like me, even if I die here, everyone will probably just think 'Ah, finally don't have to deal with that troublesome burden anymore,' right?"
Michiyo sniffled, her voice carrying a crying tone, but it was quickly forcibly suppressed.
"So... big brother, please leave quickly."
"I'm not afraid of pain... really."
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