Why can't humans do it too?

His strength was far greater than that of the muscular man.

"Kilokinkada".

"Dramantslug".

"...Araragi Koyomi"

The priest and the burly man spoke in turn, and Araragi Koyomi also gave his name after a pause.

"It seems the three of you have already gotten to know each other. So, the stakes—the King of Monsters' right foot, left hand, and right hand—have all been delivered to me. Confirmed," Shinobu Meme began walking towards the outer edge of the playground, but his voice remained clear enough.

"I have already informed you of everything that is going on. The competition between the vampire hunter and Araragi Koyomi, Kiss-Shot's familiar... Don't forget that you are forbidden from killing each other, okay?"

No matter how frivolous Shinobu's voice was, it couldn't change the somber atmosphere in the middle of the playground.

"let's start."

The battle did not begin immediately; Araragi Koyomi was still hesitating whether to make the first move.

"Why stand on the side of the supernatural?" Father with narrow eyes, also known as Kilokinkada, asked calmly. To be honest, judging from his appearance alone, he looked quite kind. "As long as supernatural beings exist, they will harm humans. Only by eliminating those supernatural beings that should not exist can humans live in peace."

“Just a few months ago you were just an ordinary student, right? And now you’ve become a monster that needs to devour humans to survive… Can you really bring yourself to do that?” Kirokinkada continued.

“...It’s just that I can’t stand by and watch someone die,” Araragi Koyomi replied softly.

“Excessive kindness can lead to self-destruction, young man,” the burly, red-haired man, whom Araragi Koyomi had always been wary of, grinned. “But now that should allow us to proceed with the normal procedures, right?”

"The normal procedure?" he asked blankly, but there was no answer. At that moment, alarm bells rang loudly in Araragi Koyomi's heart!

Everything he learned under Nura Rikuo's command during those seven days allowed him to react even before his own thoughts could process it.

boom! ! !

With a light backflip, he dodged the sudden attack. When he saw the flying cement and stones, Araragi Koyomi even had the energy to feel sorry for the teachers and principal at the school.

Where he had just been standing, the red-haired strongman's hands had transformed into a massive flame-shaped greatsword, which was now plunging fiercely into the ground. If he hadn't reacted in time, this strike would have been enough to cut him in two.

Araragi Koyomi's pupils shrank to a point. He knew this technique, and he could even transform himself into this greatsword. This was a physical transformation that vampires could perform.

This giant red-haired man is actually a vampire!!

"Not bad, young man, you dodged that attack," Dramanz Lugi's red eyes lit up as he slowly drew his flame-shaped greatsword. "How about joining us? I don't think you're the type to act recklessly after gaining power. Wouldn't it be better to use this power to prevent ordinary humans from being harmed?"

It's hard to imagine that after launching that sudden attack, this burly vampire was able to casually extend a recruitment invitation.

Araragi Koyomi suddenly felt a sense of familiarity with this style of fighting and talking, exchanging skills to make friends, and then he felt the eager gazes behind him... Isn't this exactly what those yokai from the Nura Clan are always doing?!

"Vampires?" Araragi Koyomi asked calmly, bending down to speak.

“Like you, I was once a human,” Dramantslugi said with a grin, hoisting the greatsword onto his shoulder. “Now I’m just a vampire hunter.”

Araragi Koyomi had no idea what kind of heartache and experiences were behind those simple words. The only thing he needed to do now was defeat them. At the very least, these seven days of special training hadn't been in vain, starting from… um?!

Araragi Koyomi suddenly noticed something: the squinty-eyed priest had disappeared from the spot at some point. Was it the moment the red-haired vampire came forward to attack?

Where is he? To the left? To the right? Behind him?!

Araragi Koyomi had already reacted, but it was too late. Quirokinkada had appeared beside him at some point, and even the fist that had been coming from his left side, which he had already determined was safe, slammed hard into Araragi Koyomi's face!

At the same time, Dramanz Lugi, who had been observing every opportunity, suddenly turned into a cloud of mist and disappeared into the darkness. The next second, he appeared out of thin air in the darkness behind Araragi Koyomi. The pale mist instantly materialized, and the flame-shaped giant sword formed by his hands slashed down fiercely at Araragi Koyomi!

The match begins with the rule that you cannot kill your opponent.

Chapter 42 Cry for Help

Suer is very busy.

Araragi Koyomi, who had been "trained" for seven days, would be quite a spectacle to watch, even from a purely entertainment standpoint. So, the reason he didn't go to observe was naturally because he was preoccupied with something more important.

Rewinding time slightly, Su Er stared speechlessly at the middle school girl in front of her who had slammed her hand on the table. Although she looked small, she didn't lack any imposing presence.

Kagome Higurashi

Suer had almost forgotten that this person was even there. He felt a little guilty when facing her. He had already remembered that he had asked her to send a leave slip to the shop manager for him, and that he would bring Kagome some local specialties when he returned... Well, he had completely forgotten about the local specialties.

But there's nothing we can do about it! After the earth-shattering battle that happened after we went back, who would remember such a trivial matter? You have to understand that even he himself returned to this world severely injured and unconscious. So expecting Xin Ke to be in such a hurry to bring a gift to such a human little girl is really wishful thinking.

Despite saying that, Suer still felt a little guilty when facing such an upright little girl, having failed to keep his promise.

Wait a minute, so how did Kagome Higurashi find him after he had already quit his job at McDonald's?

"...How did you find me?" Suer asked with a strange look on his face.

"An older sister brought me here! But this isn't the time to talk about that!!" Kagome waved her hand haphazardly, offering a perfunctory explanation, her mind completely focused on something far more important: "A demon has appeared! A demon!!!"

The girl in the green sailor uniform with a skirt gestured anxiously with her hands, as if she wanted to conjure up the shape of the monster with her own hands.

"There's nothing wrong with having monsters, right? Now you know that there are many monsters living in human society just like humans. Don't make such a fuss," Su'er said calmly as she sipped her tea. "Besides, now that there are more spiritual energy for some reasons, you might see even more monsters in the future."

Suer really didn't have a good solution to the natural changes that the three of them had discovered were taking place in the world. It was just like the natural laws of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, and rain falling from high to low. Perhaps it was a fatal anomaly for life forms like humans, but for the world itself, it was just a normal stretching motion.

If it's not a disease, how should it be treated?

Xinke and Jibril's recent increased busyness is partly related to this change. What makes Suer feel gratified is that this more or less cooperation has improved their tense relationship to some extent. At least now their communication is not so strained.

"It's not that simple!!" Sour's indifference drove Kagome to frantic frustration as she tugged at her hair. She wished she could jump over the table and grab the male youkai's hair. "Those youkai came out of the well! Just like when you first appeared!!!"

"?!"

Kagome Higurashi's words made Sull immediately drop his nonchalant expression—could she be a monster who, like them, accidentally came from ancient times?

With just a slight thought, he summoned Shinko and Jibril. Without wasting any time, Sull grabbed Kagome Higurashi's arm, and the next second, they appeared on the back mountain of Higurashi Shrine.

At first glance, the situation was much better than Suer had imagined. At least the huge sacred tree was still without any damage, and the surrounding trees were lush and green, not the scene of demonic aura and withered grass and trees that he had imagined.

However, this beautiful scenery completely disappeared after reaching the location of the ancient well. The ancient well, which had been passed down for hundreds of years by the Rimu family, had been dismantled into pieces. Countless strange and large demons were baring their fangs and claws and expanding outwards, but each time they swung their claws, they created ripples in the air.

There were no fancy light effects or exaggerated magic circles. The well opening was a square, and the ripples that blocked these demons only appeared when they crossed an invisible line. They would disappear immediately after the blocking was completed. However, because there were too many demons and they were constantly climbing outwards, these ripples always existed, showing a square cage.

A gigantic centipede, its densely packed tentacles enough to make those allergic to arthropods or suffering from trypophobia want to gouge their eyes out on the spot, yet on the front half of this ugly insect's body is a naked woman, existing only on half of the body, as if she grew directly from the centipede's body.

Putting aside those two unmasked, wandering things, just looking at her glowing green eyes and the fangs she revealed when she opened her mouth to shout, you could tell what kind of person she was.

This centipede demon was one of the larger ones among the demons that emerged from the well. What made Suer frown even more was the pile of demons that looked like the corpses of many people connected together. The limbs that were not stiff but dead swayed in mid-air with the surge of the mountain of flesh, as if beckoning to people.

Suer also saw the occasional spears and armor fragments peeking out from among them, and he had already guessed the origin of this demon. Perhaps it was a demon transformed from the corpses of those who died on some tragic battlefield in ancient times... To be honest, such a thing does not seem to be uncommon in a world where cold weapon warfare was frequent in ancient times.

No wonder Kagome Higurashi, a little girl who has always been known for her bravery, was so frightened by these demons and monsters that she immediately sought help from Sull. At least in her young mind, this male demon, who even worked like a human, was indeed the strongest demon she knew.

Suer... feels okay.

To be honest, after witnessing the carnage caused by the Nine-Tailed Fox's fall in ancient times and the massacre of Takamagahara by Amaterasu, such bloody monsters no longer had much impact on his mind.

"W-what's going on?!" Kagome Higurashi grabbed Sour's arm from behind. If Sour were a delicate person, his arm would probably be bleeding from her fingernails by now.

The situation was more serious than before she set off to find Suer. At least she clearly remembered that when she heard strange noises coming from the back mountain of her family's shrine, she ran over out of curiosity, and there weren't so many monsters before she set off.

In less than half a day, the number of these emerging monsters had grown to this extent.

Chapter Forty-Three: Clear Distinction Between Reason and Fact

As if something was pushing and crowding, the small well opening seemed to be connected to an unknown pipe, and the monsters were sausages squeezed out of the pipe.

Disgusting—just the thought made Kagome gag. She felt she had no desire to eat sausages for at least the next year.

"It's alright, don't panic," Su'er said, patting the little girl's head reassuringly. "It's thanks to the protection we set up around the area to safeguard the sacred tree and this well. Otherwise, it would have been a huge problem if these monsters had just rushed out of the mountains."

In fact, Xin Ke set up this protection as a precaution against any other beings that might emerge from the well besides themselves. After all, they could travel through time and space, and who could guarantee that there wouldn't be a second example in such a long period of time from ancient times to the present?

Just as animals in nature will kill each other when they don't have enough space to live, the monsters confined to a small space by the spell set up by Xin Ke are the same, not to mention that other monsters are appearing in the place where they just arrived.

The big ones eat the small ones, and the small ones share the big ones. In the few minutes that Suer and the others watched, the blood flowing from the monsters killing each other had already accumulated to a height of more than ten centimeters, and much of it had already been devoured by the other monsters as it flowed down.

Kagome Higurashi's eyes had already been covered by Sul beforehand, and the little girl who always clashed with Sul didn't make a fuss at this moment. Instead, she quietly hid next to Sul, thus avoiding witnessing this scene that would give the child nightmares at night.

The sounds she heard were enough to make her fantasize and tremble.

In those few short minutes, Suer had seen many of the little monsters who had survived by chance grow one or several times larger after devouring the limbs and flesh of other monsters. Their original bodies also underwent further changes, such as growing new claws or having their carapaces become darker and harder.

“…Is this what a monster is?” Jibril sighed deeply as she slowly walked to the edge of the wall formed by the spell.

Compared to the yokai she encountered before returning to the modern world with Sull after defeating Amaterasu, who became somewhat timid after witnessing her power, Jibril experienced for the first time the savagery and bloodshed of the yokai race.

The ripples created by the struggling monsters were only a few centimeters away from her; she could even touch them with the tip of her nose if she moved forward just a little more. Of course, she might have touched something else before that. But even these ripples couldn't stop her from seeing the struggling monsters who were almost face to face with her.

Fighting, plundering, and devouring each other, with the victor taking everything from the loser—these ancient yokai, who only think about winning and living, are more to Jibril's liking than the modern yokai of the Nura Clan that Sullenberger finds quite friendly.

"Can it be restored to its original state?" Kagome's voice sounded somewhat muffled because her face was covered by Sue.

"Uh, I guess it should be okay?" Suer said, sounding somewhat conflicted.

Putting everything else aside, the land around the well, which has been soaked in the blood of monsters and corrupted by demonic energy, will definitely not be able to grow any grass or trees. Even if some plants do grow, they will probably be man-eating plant monsters. But it should be fine to remove and purify that area of ​​land and then fill it with soil and grass from other places... That should be considered restoring it to its original state, right?

"Just in case, let me say this in advance: your family's ancestral well and tree have this unique ability. Even if I don't come, it will still be like this. Or rather, if I don't come and these monsters appear directly, that would be a bigger problem. You understand, right?" Su'er said casually.

“Yes, I didn’t mean to blame you, Mr. Sue,” Kagome addressed Sue so seriously for the first time. “I’m really grateful for your help.”

It wasn't a misperception; Suer realized that the little girl, who had just been trembling and clinging to his arm after witnessing the ugly monsters killing each other, had calmed down in such a short time.

"Soul, how are you going to... deal with these monsters?" Kagome asked again, her polite address of "sir" only fleeting.

"Kill them," came the reply from Sull, not Kagome, but from Shinko. It wasn't even a reply specifically for her; Shinko was simply suggesting to Sull, "Have you noticed? Those monsters are still popping up one after another. Although we don't have to worry about our spells being broken here, it's still disgusting to see them keep piling up like this."

If a cube of flesh and blood is left unattended, then this kind of scene, which only appears in horror games, will eventually appear in reality.