Demon Hunter (Teramachi Akeho)

Chapter 24

HAVE YOUR MOUTH SHUT FOR ETERNITY

The first to go forward was Rebecca .

Raising her water covered sword, she charged at Riku . Riku defended the attack by parrying it in accordance to the orbit of the blow with her halberd . With her stance broken, Rebecca staggered a bit, and Riku wouldn´t let this chance go by . Riku swung her halberd upwards .

“N-not yet!”

Making the water that was enveloping the sword take the shape of a shield, she positioned it to protect herself . It was a shield that was made solid by compressing the water . But such didn´t matter to Riku . As if she was cutting paper, the halberd was cutting the water shield into pieces .

It would be good if she maintained the pressure until . But things wouldn´t end that easily . Just barely, Rebecca, who was at the other side of the shield, barely regained her posture .

“What!?”

“What´s the matter? Is all you´ve got only this much?”

As if having her shield destroyed being something regrettable, Rebecca twisted her face . She inflated her cheeks and glared at Riku .

“Uu… This stupid girl! Die for Rook!!”

Like a surging wave, she once again attacked Riku . If she was able to practice for ten more years, maybe she would have been able to become an exceptional swordswoman . But Rebecca was too young right now . As if she left her body to her anger, she kept swinging her sword . More than anything, there were many flaws in her swordsmanship . Although each of her strikes were full of power, by then, Riku had already seen through it .

“Is that so? Then, go die . ”

To the battle that was more boring that she expected it would be, Riku let out a sigh .

Rebecca became panicked and tried to take distance by jumping back . However, Riku didn´t let her escape .

“I caught you . ”

After she got right next to Rebecca, she held her down . Holding down both of her hands with her left hand, Riku pressed Rebecca down with her right foot at Rebecca´s chest . Just like that, using her weight of her whole body, Riku pinned her down . Groaning, Rebecca tried to get away, but it only ended in futile resistance . Riku looked down at Rebecca with uninterested eyes .

“Goodbye, young spiritualist-san . ”

Riku raised the halberd she was holding with her right hand . Rebecca was still struggling, but as if she had noticed something, she opened her eyes wide and stopped her struggle .

“It´s a shame, onee-chan . ”

In reaction to the out of place smile, Riku´s hand stopped . She frowned, puzzled .

“What?”

It was right at the instant she said that . Two knives Kurumi had thrown were flying through the air . The knives that were thrown at a speed comparable to arrows were rushing to her defenseless back . Because she was using her left hand to hold down Rebecca´s arms, she couldn´t use it, and by the time she could turn her halberd behind her, the knives would have already hit her back . If she got away from Rebecca, it was possible for her to evade the knives . However, in exchange, Rebecca would end up being set free . Perhaps at the instant she were to release her, Rebecca might attack Riku with her sword .

“Bye-bye . ”

Rebecca slipped out a smile .

But the knives didn´t reach Riku . The knives that seemed they would hit Riku´s back were deflected . With a metallic noise, the knives fell to the ground in vain .

“Hey, it would be a problem if you forget I´m here . ”( おっと)

The one that protected her back from the knives was Vrusto . And after that, he swung his sword aiming for Kurumi .

“Sorry, but your opponent is me . ”

“Tch, get out of my way . ”

Like a illusionist, she threw her knives at Vrusto as to disrupt his pace . While lightly deflecting the knives with his sword, he was gradually closing in to Kurumi in a steady manner .

“Stupid . Is there even anyone that would get out of your way just because you said so?”

With his sword, Vrusto slashed at Kurumi . And then, her arm was cut off and flew to the air . After raising a high-pitched cry, she groaned . With blood spraying off from her arm, the blood fell to the ground, taking a shape that looked as if there were many red caterpillars . *1

“Ku-kurumii!!”

Under Riku, Rebecca was screaming . Her face didn´t show the anger or the smile from before . What it was showing right now was fear . Looking at such Rebecca, Riku clicked her tongue in discomfort .

“That voice; it´s too annoying . ”

“N-nooo!! He-help me, Ro-…”

Rebecca wasn´t able to finish her words to the end . With her halberd, Riku cut off Rebecca´s head . Her wheat colored hair was now dyed in blood . Without caring about the hair being soaked in blood, Riku picked up the head .

“Have your mouth shut for eternity . ”

Saying only that, she looked at Vrusto´s direction . Kurumi wasn´t able to hold a sword any longer . Even though she still had some things similar to grenades hidden, because she didn´t have arms anymore, she couldn´t use them . Without her being able to resist anymore, finishing her off was easy . But Vrusto didn´t kill her yet .

”Really, what are you doing?”

After glaring at Vrusto, she lightly swung her halberd, sending Rebecca´s blood that was at her halberd flying . She was going toward Kurumi, who was doing her drama at the ground . *2 But Vrusto stopped her .

“Don´t kill her, ojou-chan . ”

“…What are you talking about?”

She wondered if she had heard correctly . Because she had been together with Vrusto for these ten years, she knew his personality . Vrusto should have been angry at Kurumi´s actions . That´s why she had no idea why Vrusto still didn´t kill her . Riku pointed the axe-blade of the halberd towards Kurumi .

“This is one is guilty, you know? Didn´t she by herself declared she had connections to Rook Barusak and also tried to kill us? Or what? Is it because she flattered you that you don´t want to kill her?”

“Stupid, there is no way it is that . ”

Vrusto plainly declared . His eyes were unusually cold .

“Try to think . This guy is from the intelligence division . There is a need to investigate what information she leaked to the spiritualists or whether there are other traitors around .

“That…It is like that, but…”

Riku hanged her head down a little .

She understood what Vrusto meant .

Kurumi wasn´t a spiritualist, but from the demon lord army . And what´s more, she was from the intelligence division, which worked with varied secret information . In result of the leaked information, that recent battle took a complete different shape from what it should have been . And besides, there might be other demons that has connections to spiritualists besides Kurumi . It wasn´t Riku´s job to meddle in this case, but the job of an interrogator .

“…But if she is going to die anyway, then it doesn´t matter if she dies here . ”

Riku muttered while biting her lips .

She just couldn´t leave a demon that had connections to spiritualists, and moreover, to the Barusak, alive . Even if she were to mow her down, smash her and cut off all of her limbs, it wouldn´t be enough .

But even Riku knew she shouldn´t do it .

“Control yourself, ojou-chan . Taking this guy prisoner is for the sake of the army… For the sake of captain Leivein . ”

Vrusto put his hand at Riku´s shoulder . He was putting a strength that felt like his claws that would often be used to cut people would sink in her skin . It was as if he was straining himself to hold an unbearable anger back . Vrusto also must have wanted to kill her right away, but he was desperately enduring it . Riku quietly looked at him .

“…That´s right . The information she leaked might affect the captain in the future . ”

“That´s the case . ”

After Riku lowered down her halberd, Vrusto released his hand from Riku .

“Then, after we deliver this guy to Roppu, let´s rethink on our plan to invade that residence .

Vrusto went back to his usual tone of voice . Riku was finally able to wholeheartedly agree with his suggestion .

“Now that I remember, I´m actually a bit worried where that ladder goes to…”

“Is that so? But let´s go back for now . ”

“Also, since it will be a pain to carry her, shouldn´t we also cut off her legs?”

Upset about the situation, she looked at Kurumi .

“…k…Do . ”

Perhaps because it was hurting so much, she was mumbling random things out of pain . Because it was too muddled, it wasn´t possible to know what she was saying .

“Yes, that´s right . But, shit, I completely forgot . Stop her bleeding . If she ends up dying, there would be no meaning to it . ”

“I know that . ”

Riku approached Kurumi .

After she got close to her, she started to hear more clearly about what she was mumbling about . Riku was very annoyed by that . While she was hoping that Kurumi would lose her consciousness, right at the moment when she was next to her…

“…I will do it . For Rook… will . …For Rook´s sake, I will kill everyone . ”

Riku noticed . She saw that inside Kurumi´s clothes, there were many explosives attached closely to one another .

“That´s bad!”

A bad feeling went through her . Because Kurumi didn´t have arms anymore, there were no signs of her activating the bombs . But there was still the possibility of something unexpected happening . Throwing away her halberd, as if to get away from Kurumi, Riku pushed Kurumi away from her . *3

“I´m sorry, Rook . ”

But Riku was one step late . While having tears flowing from her eyes, she clenched her teeth . In that instant, crossing both of her hands to protect herself, she received the shockwave . But this much wouldn´t be enough . Right at the moment she prepared to be sent flying by the explosion, everything was already over .

All sounds had been drown out by the thunderous explosion and white light completely covered her eyesight .