"Good morning..."
So saying, Yasutaka ducked through the curtain hanging at the entrance of a certain shop.
Silence...
Inside, the shop was empty and quiet, not a soul in sight.
(Nobody here... that alone was strange.)
In this era, it was the norm for a shop and its owner's home to be one and the same.
But for such a shop to be utterly empty this early in the morning was plainly odd.
(Especially odd, in this particular shop's case...)
As Yasutaka was mulling this over...
"Oh my? Whatever brings you here at this hour?"
Kana, the serving girl, came out from the back with a bright smile on her face.
Seeing that same smile she always wore left Yasutaka momentarily thrown, but he kept his hand ready on his sword, prepared to draw at any moment.
"I've got a question or two for you. That all right?"
"Sure. Ask away, anything at all."
Kana responded without so much as a flicker of concern, even with the swordsman before her keeping his hand on his blade.
Right then, Yasutaka knew for certain.
"Why'd you hire us to hunt down the Dan Lizard?"
"To grow the Kamazuchi Mikan."
Kana answered without the slightest hesitation.
Her eyes were hollow, empty of any feeling at all.
(She's not even bothering to hide it... meaning she's that confident she won't lose.)
Yasutaka broke into a cold sweat but kept his guard up as he pressed on.
"The Kamazuchi Mikan... that's the orange demon that was flinging sickles and hammers at us?"
"That's right. Seems you managed to beat it thanks to that woman, Mani, but honestly, I'd meant for you to die right there..."
Kana spoke breezily, pressing a finger to her cheek with a look of mild trouble, as though discussing nothing more than the weather.
(So she really is the mastermind after all...)
The eggplant charm Yasutaka had picked up at the mansion had been attached to the hairpin he'd once given her as a gift.
From there, Yasutaka had grown suspicious of her, noting how often lately he'd run into monsters of frightening strength.
Because every job he'd taken these past several days had come with her explicit promise: finish this one, and she'd sleep with him.
That was why she'd sprung to mind so quickly, and why Yasutaka had been the first to catch on.
Without pause, Yasutaka pressed on with his next question.
"Next, the Sugar Man that showed up at Kan'ei Temple?"
"That one used to be a manservant here. He was useless, so I turned him into a Nue-type Monster."
"No wonder he looked familiar..."
Now understanding why the Sugar Man's face had seemed familiar, Yasutaka pressed forward with even greater caution.
Kana showed not the least sign of alarm, treating the man before her as though he were nothing more than an insect beneath her notice.
It was the sort of composure that betrayed absolute confidence: that she could crush him without effort, should it come to that.
"That time too, I set the Yatsude Panda on you, figured that'd surely do it... but that old swordsman fellow and the nun got in the way, so I couldn't finish the job..."
Kana said it as casually as commenting on the weather.
A restless rustling stirred outside...
Outside, the warriors surrounding the place seemed to have already grown certain a great demon lurked within, and killing intent began to stir among them.
Since every word spoken here carried outside, they were surely already discussing how best to bring her down.
Yasutaka, never letting his guard down, pressed on to confirm the last of it.
"Last thing... the boss behind the Anakonda gang, that's you?"
"That's right. I meant to use them as bait to wipe out the entire Arson and Theft Squad..."
For the first time, Kana's face twisted.
"That damn spider woman! She came at us out of nowhere! I let my guard down and it all went to hell! Because of her, I lost control of the Jaō Kuzu!"
(Thank you, Lady Mani...)
So there had been real meaning behind Mani's actions after all.
Still...
(Though ambushing someone out of nowhere is against the law, technically speaking...)
No doubt it had been the jealousy peculiar to a spider woman that drove her to attack her lover's mistress.
But of all people, that mistress had turned out to be a demon-touched human, and Mani had gotten the worse of the exchange for it. Still, thanks to that mess, the Jaō Kuzu had been defeated, so all's well that ends well.
There was just one thing that still nagged at him.
"Why'd you target me?"
It seemed she'd set the monsters on him purely to nurture her Nue-type creatures, in which case anyone would have done just as well.
Kana answered as though the question hardly deserved a response.
"Oh, it wasn't just you, you know. I had plenty of other men doing the same thing. You just happened to be the one who survived. Let's see, how many did I feed to them?... I stopped counting after about thirty."
In other words, there had been a great many other victims.
Kana spoke as though human beings were nothing but feed, but then, as though something had just occurred to her, she snarled bitterly.
"You only lived because that woman happened to be there... That bitch! This time I'll kill her for sure, I'll—"
"Ultimate technique! Twin-Handed Iai!"
Clang!
Yasutaka struck with both blades in a flashing draw-cut, but Kana, taking the full force of it, remained utterly unfazed.
(Wh-why...)
The blade hadn't even cut through her kimono!
Yasutaka might not have called himself a master, but his skill was undeniably that of a seasoned professional.
For his blade to fail to so much as nick her clothing should have been impossible.
Kana smiled, a leering, wicked grin.
"Aren't you making a little mistake here? Did you think I was just some ordinary demon-touched human?"
"No way..."
Something had just occurred to Yasutaka.
Kan'ei Temple stood near Senju, and naturally, if a monk went out for women, Senju was where he'd go.
And... the great demon Kōen, a monk of Kan'ei Temple, had vanished into hiding for some time now.
During all that time... where exactly had he been?
Kana grinned wide and shouted!
"I was the one hiding Lord Kōen!"
In that instant...
BOOOOOOOM!!!!
The shop the two of them stood in was blown to pieces!