A few minutes later...
"About done, I'd say?"
"Reckon that's the lot."
Having hunted the beasts down to the last stragglers, the pair set to work digging the monster cores out of the fallen Kuzuyo.
Now mind you, if a body doesn't pull that core out, a splash of water on the corpse and back it comes to life, good as new.
And while we're at it, that same core serves as proof of the kill, so until it's handed over to the Magistrate's Office, the job doesn't count as finished at all.
"Guess it's about time we headed back."
"All right then."
So spoke Yasutaka to Mani-hime, and it was just then...
Patter, patter...
Something like sand came drifting down from above.
"What's this now?"
Yasutaka peered curiously at the stuff and found a fine white powder, sand-like in appearance, clinging to his armor.
Something about it seemed familiar, so he gave it a lick.
"Sweet... Sugar?"
"Why the hell would sugar be falling from the sky?"
Puzzled, Yasutaka and Mōha both looked up...
"What's that guy doing?"
A strange man stood atop the temple roof, scattering sugar from a jar he carried.
"Weird fellow... but I feel like I've seen him somewhere before..."
"That so?"
Mōha found the remark oddly unexpected, and it nagged at him.
"That's right, it was..."
Yasutaka strained to recall it, but...
Thud!
Down he went, just like that.
"Hey, you all right?"
Mōha rushed over to him in alarm, and...
"Zzzzzzzz..."
"The hell are you sleeping for..."
For some reason, he'd fallen fast asleep, snoring away.
"Sleep in a place like this and you'll get eaten alive by some Kuzuyo, you know that?"
So saying, Mōha moved to shake him awake... and that was when it hit him.
"Don't tell me that man's... a Nue-type Monster!"
Having finally grasped the truth, Mōha froze stiff!
He scrambled to hoist Yasutaka onto his back and flee, but...
"Dam...n it..."
A wave of sudden drowsiness overtook him, and he too went down with a thud.
Watching from below, Mani-hime noticed at once that something was terribly wrong.
"Granny Moon? Could this be..."
"...That man up on the roof is a monster, my lady. Seems he's laid some manner of spell upon those two."
So saying, Granny Moon drew a mask from within her robes, and seeing this, Mani-hime hastily pulled a talisman from her own.
"Medea!"
Fwoom!
From the talisman emerged a beautiful spider-woman, and Mani-hime climbed astride her.
"Nnnnngh, ri-crystal power! Costume Change!"
Crack-bam!!
Granny Moon transformed into her battle costume, a daringly high-cut swimsuit trimmed with fluffy adornments.
Granny Moon leapt up on the strength of her own legs, while Mani-hime rode Medea's threads, and in a single bound the two of them reached the temple roof!
Tap-tap-tat!
Up on the roof, they took positions flanking Sugar Man, facing him down.
"Salt jar... no, a sugar jar, my lady. Mind whatever it is he scatters from that thing."
"I know."
Mani-hime sent her shikigami Medea forward and kept her own distance.
Sugar Man wore a vacant, blurry expression, yet his eyes tracked the two of them with unmistakable wariness.
"Granny Moon!"
"Hup there!"
Granny Moon swung her iron club at Sugar Man, meaning to flatten him in one blow, but...
Clang!
He blocked it cold with the jar in his hand!
"Granny Moon!"
"Seems it's not as soft as it looks..."
Granny Moon studied their foe with a cool, appraising eye.
Mani-hime, meanwhile, wasn't about to sit idle either.
"Medea! Do it!"
Fwoooosh...
A blade of wind formed before Medea and shot straight at Sugar Man!
But...
Whoosh!
Sugar Man flung a scattering of sugar from his jar, and the wind blade vanished in an instant!
"...Tough one."
Caught off guard by their foe's unexpected strength, the two of them found themselves at a loss.
Down below, meanwhile...
"Hang in there!"
"...Awakening Vow!"
Crack!
It seemed Shinnosuke and Chiho had come running to help, for they broke the sleep spell laid upon the two fallen men.
"I'm coming up now!"
So saying, Shinnosuke made to climb up, but seeing him, Granny Moon shouted out!
"Not that way! Look over there!"
"That way? Whoa!"
Shinnosuke looked where Granny Moon pointed and gasped in shock!