Chapter 96: It's Time Again for Everyone's Favorite Segment (Patreon)

"All right, let's get out of here first. Ryo's still out cold."

Daniel hadn't said much. It was enough that Sakayanagi Arisu and Kamuro knew such things existed.

With the Mark of the Beast on them, even a first-generation species couldn't do more than touch them.

The other women of the Advanced Nurturing High School couldn't come into contact with hybrids for now, either. The school sat on its own island, so their safety was reasonably assured.

As for the heroines he hadn't met yet, they'd all lived perfectly well before Daniel learned the truth about this world. He didn't need to worry about them for the time being.

An occasional Mental Power Scan to check on them would do.

If Daniel hadn't Marked the two girls today, the vital essence leaking out of them would never have drawn the attention of that rampaging hybrid. They most likely wouldn't have been attacked by a creature that had just finished eating a person.

Then again, they were heroines, and heroines carried fortune with them.

Otherwise, what Daniel's Mental Power Scan turned up today wouldn't have been their presence, but news of their deaths.

He laid the unconscious Ryo Yamada in the car. Then Daniel climbed in with the two girls, who had just seen a corpse for the first time, and used Hypnosis on the driver, who was starting to sense something was off.

"Drive. Find us a hotel."

"Yes, sir."

The stretched Maybach rolled slowly away down the road and vanished.

A short while after Daniel and the others left, a man and a woman in suits came riding up from the end of the road on motorcycles.

The man had a cold face and fierce features. The woman was tall, with a clear, icy beauty, her hair tied in a ponytail.

"It's somewhere near here. I smell blood!" the girl suddenly warned.

Yasha stopped his bike and drew a submachine gun engraved with unfamiliar runes from inside his jacket, staying on guard.

"Can you pinpoint where, Sakura?"

"In that alley. But it isn't moving."

Yabuki Sakura turned her gaze to the alley. Her Speech Spirit, Yin Flow, controlled wind to form fine channels, which let her lock onto the location directly.

Yasha lowered his muzzle toward the alley and said, "The fallen Oni's Speech Spirit is Dark Illumination. Use yours to search for it. I'll handle the rest."

"Okay."

Sakura didn't object. She grabbed a handful of alchemical metal shards she carried with her, lit her Golden Pupils, and chanted her Speech Spirit.

The next instant, the shards she threw were swept into the alley by the channels of wind and burst outward.

Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!

The shards blanketed nearly every spot in the alley where a person could stand. But they struck no invisible figure. They simply embedded themselves in the walls.

"It's not in there?"

Sakura froze. She got off her bike, drew a pistol in one hand, and switched on a tactical flashlight with the other.

The beam lit up the dark alley. A heap of human-shaped flesh and blood lay splattered in a pit in the ground.

"What is that?"

Yasha frowned and stepped into the alley. After making sure there was no danger nearby, he crouched to examine it, then answered.

"Black blood, dragon scales, and about an adult's worth of flesh. It could be the fallen Oni."

Sakura was surprised. "Someone beat us to it? But it looks like it was crushed to death by something."

Yasha shook his head. "Apart from the pit that was smashed out, there are no other traces around it. It's actually a bit like the Young Master's Speech Spirit."

"Maybe a similar Speech Spirit. We have no record of a hybrid at this level. Probably a newly awakened high-risk hybrid, or someone from a foreign power."

"It's unlikely to be the Fierce Ghosts. They rarely move against fallen Oni."

Sakura let out a soft "Oh?" "Seriously? The Young Master carries the Emperor's bloodline. Is there really someone else who can use a high-grade Speech Spirit like Majesty?"

"Why don't we give the intel to Kaguya and let her analyze it?"

"Anyway, as long as he's in Japan, finding whoever dealt with the rampaging Oni won't be hard. If he's a foreigner, we take him out. If he's local, we pull him into the Family."

Yasha nodded. "Good idea. Let's go. Call someone to clean this up, and have someone ask around at that shop while they're at it."

"So there really was something to find."

Through his Mental Power Scan, Daniel watched the two hybrids from the Serpent Eight Families inspect the scene, looking exactly as unsurprised as he'd expected.

The Serpent Eight Families might be decrepit, with a mole in their ranks who held real power. Even so, they still had a grip on Japan at this point.

At the very least, fallen hybrids like this one were their job to deal with.

The ones they couldn't handle were those who'd joined the Fierce Ghosts and enjoyed Herzog's protection.

But the Serpent Eight Families could at least still maintain order among Japan's hybrids.

Still, to start with "take him out" or "bring him in as a dog" right off the bat. These little dragonlings were hilarious.

Daniel and the girls hadn't hidden their faces. Tracking them down wouldn't be hard, and with the AI Kaguya on the job, it was only a matter of time before they found him.

"Still, no big deal. I'll treat it as entertainment."

Daniel was rather curious how those little dragonlings planned to handle him. He had no intention of being anyone's dog, so he might have to stretch his legs.

"What's wrong, Yoru-kun?" Sakayanagi Arisu asked curiously, noticing the change in his expression.

"Nothing. Just a few hybrids who've had too much to drink. They might come after me."

"Don't worry, though. They're no match for me."

Daniel answered offhandedly, without taking it to heart. Rather than waste time on that, he'd sooner think about what knowledge to put to use tonight.

"That's good, then." Seeing how confident Daniel looked, Sakayanagi Arisu didn't ask further.

The driver stopped the car in front of a five-star hotel.

Once the car had come to a halt, Daniel stepped out carrying Ryo Yamada. With Sakayanagi and Kamuro beside him, he walked into the hotel and booked a presidential suite.

The money was naturally paid by the little heiress, Arisu, since Daniel's hands were full.

He had to admit that a five-star hotel lived up to its name.

At the very least, the front desk didn't give him a strange look for carrying an unconscious girl.

Either the staff were well trained or they'd simply seen it all.

They rode the elevator up and entered the presidential suite.

Daniel laid Ryo Yamada on the large bed, then pulled Kamuro off to the bathroom to take a shower.

Sakayanagi Arisu was assigned to look after Ryo Yamada. Once she woke up, Arisu was to bring her in to join them.

Given Ryo's condition, she should be waking up about now, so it wouldn't take long.

Sure enough, the moment sounds of battle drifted out of the bathroom, Ryo Yamada blinked her eyes open in a daze.

"An unfamiliar ceiling."

Sakayanagi Arisu chuckled. "You still have the spirit to quote memes. Miss Yamada must be rather thick-skinned."

Ryo Yamada shook her head, remembering what had happened before she fainted. "So it wasn't a dream," she said, still shaken.

"Don't worry. That thing only looked fierce. It was no match for Yoru-kun, and it's over now."

"But perhaps you should pay some attention to yourself first. Take a shower, for instance?"

Sakayanagi Arisu glanced meaningfully at Ryo Yamada's skirt.

"..." Ryo Yamada's cheeks flushed red. She'd noticed the discomfort in her legs, too.

It wasn't her fault. It was purely a physiological reaction. After drinking so much water and then getting scared out of her wits, there was no way she could have held it.

She had just gotten up to ask Sakayanagi Arisu to take her to the bathroom when she heard lewd sounds drifting from not far away.