Shota is surrounded by monsters!

Shota recalled the purple-haired girl he had seen at school that day. She was aloof, elegant, and sickly. In short, she seemed like a sheltered young lady from a wealthy family.

However, it's not really appropriate to evaluate monsters from a human perspective.

Besides the crab girl in this building, there's another monster, probably smuggled in from abroad and placed here. As for its specific smell—Shota hasn't tasted it, so he doesn't know. Anyway, Shota has no desire to pay it any attention.

As a gluttonous beast, its sense of smell and taste are exceptionally keen, allowing it to easily distinguish between monsters and humans—just as easily as a human can tell what is edible and what is not. Moreover, its ability to conceal its presence is unparalleled, as the gluttonous beast can even devour its own aura.

Huh? Why is another monster walking towards me?

"Ding-dong-"

A monster that rings the doorbell can't be a bad person, right?

Shota stood up from the ground, transformed back into human form, walked to the bathroom door, hooked a towel with his tail, and dried himself as he walked.

"Waaah—"

Mashiro turned into a puddle of water and tried to follow Shota outside.

"Keep going to the bar, but remember to get dressed and turn into human form when you come out, otherwise the tatami mats will be hard to clean if they get wet."

Shota gave Mashiro a word of advice, then picked up his clothes, put them on, and headed for the door.

"Kosaka... Shota, right?"

A handsome blond young man wearing a scarf and a kimono compared his photo to the registration photo in his hand and said, "Kousaka Mashiro lives here too?"

"Ah, yes. And you are?"

"The Nura Clan."

The blond man pulled his scarf open, revealing to Shota that he had no neck and his head was floating in mid-air. He said, "Headless."

"Kubi" is a Japanese word meaning "headless monster." Shota thought the person in front of him seemed quite approachable—most importantly, he didn't look appetizing.

"Oh, hello, hello, what brings you here this time?"

Shota looked at the unexpected visitor with some curiosity. Could it be someone to collect a debt? The loan repayment was supposed to be due in three months. Besides, he and Mashiro didn't seem to have done anything wrong, did they?

"Let's check on the new monster's situation. We're all very busy, after all. By the way, do you have his phone number?"

"Sorry, no..."

Shota shook his head. Perhaps buying a rugged phone another day would be a good idea, since Mashiro often breaks electrical appliances.

"That's a bit troublesome. It's best to buy some as soon as possible, since we'll need to notify you if humans crack down on illegal activities. Here's my phone number."

As he spoke, Kubinashi handed Shota a business card, but it was blank.

"You can see it using demonic energy."

"Oh."

Shota nodded and tried to touch the business card with his demonic energy. The title "Nura Clan Head Family - Gensakushi Kubinashi of Changzhou" and his contact information appeared on it.

"I'm basically in charge of this area. You can talk to me directly if there's anything." Kubinashi took out a booklet from his pocket and said, "This is the latest issue of the Nura Clan's magazine, which introduces the general area of ​​influence in the vicinity. It's best to remember it and try to avoid any unreasonable or unruly humans you encounter."

Shota took the blank magazine. It seemed that this could only be viewed through supernatural powers.

"By the way, recently several demon-slaying families on the human side have been cracking down hard, and evil spirits have been appearing quite frequently at night. There are also quite a few monsters causing trouble along with them. It's best not to get involved, otherwise it'll be difficult to deal with them if they kill you along with the evil spirits." After adding this, the headless creature said, "It's 1000 yen in total. That's for the magazine."

"..."

They're still gangsters after all!

When Shota returned to the room with the magazine, Mashiro, completely naked, was sitting in front of the coffee table looking at her.

"Now that you've become human, you should dress properly."

Shota turned his head away, not wanting to look at Mashiro's body, after all, in human form... it was still a bit awkward to look at. He flicked his tail and draped the bathrobe that was outside over Mashiro's head, then sat down cross-legged, propped his head up with his hand, and started flipping through a magazine with his tail.

The opening scene features a picture of a hundred demons parading at night, followed by introductions of the Nura Clan members, from the Nurarihyon boss and his grandson to various commanders and executives. Of course, these introductions all seem rather exaggerated.

Aside from a few that looked quite appetizing, Shota didn't have any particular thoughts about these people. He casually flipped through some information about human organizations.

In this world, monsters are a broad category. Ghosts, non-humans, and so on can all be considered monsters. But in essence, they can be divided into two types: one type is monsters born as monsters, like the Taotie, slimes, and Nurarihyon; the other type is monsters that are influenced by external factors—like the Kubinashi mentioned earlier, who is said to have been human in his previous life, killed by a monster, and turned into a monster to vent his resentment.

But monsters are ultimately a broad category. Some monsters have physical forms, while others don't—those are called spirits, or, as humans would say, ghosts or evil spirits. Most evil spirits are born without much intelligence. They might appear out of nowhere, and aside from the premeditated destruction by powerful monsters, humans spend most of their time dealing with these suddenly appearing evil spirits. Low-level evil spirits are good at possession but are useless, while top-level evil spirits possess incredible power.

Of course, some powerful demons, after death, have their souls controlled by humans—those evil spirits, or perhaps it would be better to call them spirit beasts. But sealing the souls of great demons is far more difficult than imagined. The chances of a gluttonous beast like Shota having its soul sealed are almost zero.

The line between evil spirits and traditional demons is blurred. A more obvious difference is that spirits don't have corpses after death, while demons do—for Shota, this translates to a difference in texture. Demons have a tangible texture when eaten, while spirits, except for some possessed ones, only offer taste and fill the stomach, without any real texture. Also, there's another difference: some demons can only be seen by those with spiritual power, while others, like the Taotie, are physical entities that can be seen by ordinary people.

Of course, these were all things that Taotie's father told Shota, and Shota wasn't really clear on the specific differences... As a Taotie, all he needed to know was whether or not he could eat something. He wasn't very knowledgeable about the specific ways in which they were created or the fundamental differences; perhaps those humans might know the real differences.

With that in mind, Shota began to look around to see who the powerful and unapproachable people were in his area.

[Ministry of Defense, Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters, Special Tactics Team] – A group of guys who use modern technology to eliminate monsters. The Nura Clan rates their strength as utterly pathetic, reasoning that they can only bully small monsters.

[Natural Disaster Countermeasures Office, Natural Environment Bureau, Ministry of the Environment] – A force composed of humans possessing spiritual power. The Nura Clan's assessment of their strength is that they should avoid them if possible, but they also cannot afford to provoke them. The reason is that many members are descendants of famous exorcist families in the Kanto region. For example, the Tsuchimiya, Isayama, and Iizuna families are among the most renowned and powerful exorcist families – all of which possess spirit beast lineages.

There is also an Onmyoji alliance, but they are not very powerful in the Kanto region. They are mostly just family members who come to train.

The headquarters of Onmyoji are all in Kyoto—the most famous of which, Keikain, has a history of over a thousand years, and they are not particularly proactive in joining the government. On the other hand, exorcists mostly submit to the government and establish their families in Tokyo.

In terms of strength, the Onmyoji is definitely stronger. This is because the exorcist's main partner—the spirit beast—can only be possessed by one person. The Onmyoji, on the other hand, is more flexible and has more combat tactics.

Besides the three groups mentioned above, there is another group of people with "superpowers." They can see spirits and occasionally take action to repel mischievous demons and monsters.

Shota turned the page and found that the Nura Clan had provided information on the strongest exorcist in their vicinity: Tsuchimiya Gagaku, the 27th leader of the Tsuchimiya family, whose spirit beast was Byakuei.

"Bai Rui? The Dog God? Dog meat hot pot would definitely be delicious."

Shota drooled and turned to the next page, which contained the human rating system for all monsters.

S refers to a monster whose strength or power makes it invincible to humans.

A. Requires multiple skilled exorcists (Onmyoji) to defeat the monster. Ordinary exorcists (Onmyoji) cannot defeat it.

B, plural ordinary exorcists (Onmyoji) can exorcise demons, ordinary people equipped with spirit tools are no match for them.

C, Monsters that can be defeated by a large number of ordinary people equipped with spirit tools.

D……

Seeing this, Shota glanced at Mashiro, who had her head resting on the table. It seemed that she must be a Category D monster—a level that could be destroyed by a single ordinary person wielding equipment.

"Ok?"

Seemingly noticing Shota's gaze, Mashiro looked up at him.

No, no, even if it's Mashiro, she should be classified as a C. Slimes are masters of escaping. It would be quite difficult for one person to catch her.

However, this rating system is completely meaningless. Shota sighed. Someone like his Gluttonous Father is clearly an S-rank, with no human being able to rival him, but ordinary S-ranks are no match for him either. The only ones who can fight him are some ancient ferocious beasts of his level. Humans really do define the world based on their own perceptions; everything they can't beat is called S-rank…

However, for myself, I'm definitely not at the S level; at most, I'd be classified as A level.

Shota tossed the now-useless magazine into the trash can, memorizing some things and forgetting others, like the ratings. Then he said to Mashiro, "Go to sleep."

"Oh~"

Mashiro stood up, walked over, and grabbed Shota's tail.

"My own room!"

Mashiro looked at Shota and shook her head.

This is really troublesome. Even though I left a room for Mashiro, she always likes to sneak over in as a slime in the middle of the night, leaving the floor and sheets all wet. Is it really too difficult for her to stay in human form all night?

"Hey."

Shota scratched his head in annoyance, then took out several cardboard boxes from the storage room, disassembled and reassembled them, and finally put together a cardboard box that Mashiro could lie down in alone. He then covered it with plastic wrap, made sure it wouldn't leak, and placed this makeshift "bed" next to his own bed.

"You can sleep here. You can turn into a slime or a human, it's up to you. Just don't climb into my bed at night."

Shota pointed to the box, and Mashiro immediately threw off her yukata and crawled inside naked. Then she transformed back into her slime form and happily slid around on the plastic wrap.

Shota lay down on his bed, turning to his side, ready to sleep.

Ten minutes later.

Mashiro poked her head out of the box, seemingly wanting to climb up to Shota. However, before she could make a move, Shota, who had his back to her, seemed to notice her, flicked his tail, and shooed her back into the box.

"Waaah—"

Mashiro let out a low whimper in displeasure, then suddenly noticed Shota offering his tail to her. She became happy again, grasped the soft tail with her wet hands, and drifted off to sleep with a smile.

"Good night."

…………

In the middle of the night, Shota suddenly opened his eyes. His pupils, which were originally human, suddenly contracted and turned into vertical pupils like those of a feline.

The smell of food that appeared out of nowhere... Is this a mischievous monster? Or a newly born evil spirit?

So hungry...

Chapter Six. Hunting

I'm so hungry I can't sleep.

Shota swallowed hard. He had just sensed a sudden aura emerging from the distance, which he figured was probably some kind of evil spirit that had suddenly appeared.

Should we eat it? Should we eat it? Should we eat it? Should we eat it?

Shota has to fight a brutal battle with his instincts every day. Like today, whether he went to the cafeteria or the burger joint, if Mashiro hadn't been by his side, he probably would have lost control and manifested his true form. After all, ever since his father gave him a big meal before he died, he hasn't had a proper meal. Eating compressed biscuits every day hasn't filled him up at all. Once hunger overcomes reason, Shota doesn't even know what he might do.

Legend has it that the Taotie is a man-eater.

To prevent this undesirable outcome, he had no choice but to ignore the Nura Clan's warnings and hunt for food in the darkness. Only by keeping his bottomless stomach half-full could Shota maintain his clear-headedness.

"Ok?"

Mashiro suddenly felt a change in the tail she was holding, so she climbed out of the box and looked at Shota strangely.

"Hey, I'm going to get some late-night snacks. You stay home and behave yourself, okay?"

Shota sat up in bed, looked at Mashiro who was looking at him, and said, "I'll be back soon."

Mashiro refused to let go.

"Just a little while, just a little while. If I bring you along, you'll be easily discovered by humans. How about I give you a milk bath tomorrow?" Shota patted Mashiro's head and said, "It'll feel very comfortable, a milk bath."

Mashiro hesitated for a long time before finally nodding.

"Then you go to sleep first. I'll bring you some juice when I get back so you can have it for breakfast tomorrow. It's 100% pure juice."

Shota casually threw on a jacket, and after seeing Mashiro sleeping peacefully, he opened the window. Noticing that no one was below, he jumped out of the window.