Don't force me to use my right fist.

Sawa was naturally not going to let this guy go so easily. He'd finally bumped into a human; he wasn't asking for anything else, he just wanted him to help him get out of this forest.

Sawa, who had just stood up, hadn't even had time to say what he was saying when the figure hiding behind the trees, like a startled rabbit, quickly rushed towards the forest.

Am I that scary?

Zuo You touched his face. He wasn't wearing diamond armor, nor did he have a pumpkin head, nor did he look like he had a second head or anything like that. Why was the other party so afraid of him?

Scratching his head helplessly, Saku instantly appeared behind the fleeing figure and grabbed his clothes.

The opponent wasn't particularly fast, perhaps not even an average person. But when Saya saw the person he had grabbed clearly, he understood why the opponent couldn't run fast.

A short-haired girl with black hair, who looked to be only a teenager and in junior high school, struggled to pull at her tattered clothes, but unfortunately, her thin arms, which seemed to be nothing but skin and bones, were clearly unable to break free from Saya's grasp.

Her already small face appeared thin and sallow, as if she hadn't eaten in a long time. The most striking feature was her pair of brown eyes, like two exquisite gemstones. Even though she looked like she was about to starve, it was quite an effort for her to run.

"Well, how about we eat something first and then explain slowly?"

Saya released his grip on the girl's hand, which could hardly be called clothing anymore. He looked at the girl, who seemed to realize she couldn't escape from his grasp but was still hiding behind a tree, and asked her a question.

Zuoyou was genuinely worried that if he chased her any longer, he might end up killing her, since she looked so weak that she might faint at any moment.

"You were attracted by the smell of the food, right? Then have some with me. I have plenty, even a dozen more wouldn't be a problem."

After thinking for a long time, Saya could only pull out an apple from his backpack and, like a creepy uncle trying to lure a little girl, hand it to the other person and said.

Chapter 379 You Don't Understand Anything

Sawa never imagined that a child could be so easily coaxed. Perhaps the legendary abduction of children is actually this simple?

The apple was snatched from his hand immediately. Watching the girl devour it like a starving ghost, practically swallowing her tongue whole, Sawa was speechless. Perhaps she was simply too hungry.

"Eat slowly, I have plenty of food, eat as much as you want, there's enough for everyone."

Sōyū is the kind of person who can't stand seeing the miserable state of the elderly and children. So when he saw the girl's appearance, he put aside his original intention to ask her about the world and just wanted to relax her first.

Pointing to the empty space where he had just cooked soup, Saya, afraid the girl wouldn't understand him, awkwardly made a eating gesture and then pointed to the apple in the girl's hand.

The girl, who had swallowed the apple that Saya had handed her in just a few bites, looked at Saya's face warily. But when she thought of the strange aroma she had just smelled, she couldn't help but look down at her stomach, which was clearly still not full after eating an apple.

She'd starve to death sooner or later if she didn't go. The boy in front of her looked a bit oddly dressed, but he didn't seem like a particularly fierce person. At least, his face didn't show the kind of disgust that the villagers usually displayed towards her.

So, after hesitating for a moment, the girl nodded and followed weakly behind Sōyū. Judging from the speed he had just displayed, as if he had teleported there instantly, if he really had any designs on her, he wouldn't need to be so polite, and she wouldn't be able to escape from this boy's grasp at all.

Rather than doing that, it's better to cooperate a little and see what he really wants to do first.

Seeing that the girl had finally lowered her guard a bit, Saya breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that they could still negotiate, even if it meant running away and encountering that girl again.

Leading the girl back to where they had just been, Sōyu occasionally turned back to look at the girl who seemed to have escaped from a famine.

Judging from her appearance and clothing, she didn't look like a modern person. Her thinness and the way she panicked while running away further proved she wasn't a native of this forest. There must be a village or some small town nearby, perhaps a bit far, but it definitely exists.

Having reached this conclusion through simple analysis, Saya stroked his chin. The next thing he needed to figure out was why this girl was here, and whether she could lead him to the nearby village.

For some reason, Sōyū felt a sense of familiarity about the girl behind him, as if he had seen her somewhere before. It was hard to put his finger on it, but he just had that feeling.

However, before Sōyū could ask her if she could understand him, he had just led her back to their temporary lodging when he heard a surprised cry from behind him.

Turning his head in confusion, Saya saw the girl pointing at the giant snake's corpse and covering her mouth with her hand.

Oh, so this child can talk? That makes things much easier.

"You call this thing a mountain god? Isn't it just a man-eating monster? What can it possibly protect?"

Zuoyou kicked the still-rigid snake head. He had tried to communicate with it before, and if it hadn't completely ignored him and only wanted to devour him, Zuoyou wouldn't have ended up with this guy.

"You...you killed the Mountain God?"

A look of utter terror crossed the girl's face; she didn't know what expression to use to look at the boy before her.

"If this thing really is the mountain god you mentioned, then it can only be said that it is."

Zuoyou took out a wooden bowl from his backpack, scooped a bowl of snake soup from the still-boiling pot, and handed it to the girl in front of him who looked extremely conflicted.

"Look, the soup your mountain god made tastes pretty good."

The black-haired girl looked down at the milky-white broth, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and couldn't believe that this was made by the mountain god, who was the faith of the entire village.

"You must be a bewitching devil or monster."

A rumble of hunger came from her stomach, and the girl, no longer caring about anything else, took the bowl of soup that Saya handed her and began to slurp it down greedily.

"How am I a monster? This thing is the real monster! Do you have some way to stop it from attacking humans?"

Sōyū scratched his head, looking at the girl's disheveled eating posture that didn't resemble a girl at all, and decisively served her another bowl.

"Of course there is a way. We just need to offer it sacrifices every now and then."

Her voice was slightly hoarse, but even so, Saya could still hear the feeling of being abandoned in it.

"So, the sacrifice you're talking about, is it yourself?"

Sōyū quickly realized what was going on after a moment's thought. Judging from her reaction and the current situation, it was quite easy to guess what was happening.

"So you are definitely a bewitching devil. Now I have eaten the corpse of the Mountain God and bear the same sins as you. Tell me, what do you want to ask?"

As if she had given up all hope, the girl took a deep breath, raised her head, and looked at Sōyū with her eyes, which had always been as clear as a spring, and asked...

Sōyū was stunned by her chuunibyou-esque remarks. Was she really that good at Chinese? With that kind of reading comprehension ability, it would be a disservice to her if she didn't get a perfect score of 100.

"What I really want to ask is where this is, and where the nearest village or town is. Do you understand?"

Saya explained to the man with a helpless expression, "Where would he get so many other thoughts?"

"Your goal is other humans? I understand."

The girl nodded at Sōyū, as if she completely understood what he wanted to ask.

...You don't understand anything at all.

Chapter 380 Numb

After that, no matter how Sawa explained, the girl would only nod or shake her head silently, never revealing a single word about the village she lived in.

"What I find strange is this: if you were chosen by the villagers as a sacrifice to this so-called mountain god, you should hate them, right? Even if..."

Zuoyou looked at the girl with a puzzled expression as she finished the third bowl of snake soup and lay down, patting her lower belly with satisfaction, and asked her a question.

She was clearly lying down and ready to die a sumptuous death. Saya was certain that even if he pulled out his knife and stabbed her, she would only say something like, "I have no regrets about this month of my life."

“I do hate those who forced me to become a sacrifice, but at the same time, my parents and relatives live in that village. If what you say is true, then for revenge, would I even betray my parents?”

The girl, who seemed to have a sudden and profound realization, did not make any saintly remarks. Instead, she rationally analyzed with Saya why she did what she did before turning to look at him.

"I think you can make your move now, Mr. Monster. Am I no longer of any use to you? Thank you for letting me have a good meal before I die." whl

"So how should I explain this to you so that you understand? I'm just a passerby, I don't have any particular interest in the village you mentioned, I just want to ask for directions and, of course, some questions."

Seeing her completely resigned to her fate, Zuoyou felt even more troubled and could only offer this helpless explanation.

"If you really don't want to take me to the village, that's fine too. In return for my treating you to a meal, could you at least answer a few questions for me?"

Seeing that the girl still acted as if she were a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, Saya had no other choice but to ask her the question.

"If Mr. Yokai is so polite, I can only feel that you have ulterior motives."

Although she said that, the girl still sat up and faced Saya, clearly waiting for him to ask a question.

It's clear that although she looks down on her luck, she's probably still a very well-mannered and polite girl.

"I might not choose to answer the question Mr. Yokai asked. Is that alright?"

Still wary of any actions by Saku, who was clearly a monster in human skin, that might threaten her family, the girl could only reply in this way.

"Sure, of course you can. It's your own personal choice."

Sawa nodded decisively. He was already quite content as long as he could figure out where he was. As for her not being able to answer, surely she couldn't answer a simple question about the year and location?

"So first, I'd like to ask you, what's your name? Is that alright with you?"

Anyway, there's plenty of time to ask her about these things. Sōyū definitely wants to get to know her, and having a name will make it easier for him to address her.

"Love, Shibata Ai."

The girl nodded and slowly answered Saya in a slightly hoarse voice.

Sawa paused for a moment after hearing the name, feeling as if he had heard it somewhere before, but after thinking carefully, he couldn't recall where.

All that could be said was that no one knew if there would be characters with strange prototypes like those in the previous world. Without much thought, Sawa asked the most crucial question for him.

"So, the next question is, where is this place? Is it still Mi Hong?"

Saku had just noticed that although the girl spoke with a slight accent, it was definitely Japanese. In other words, it was indeed possible for people from another world to speak Japanese in the world of anime.

"Why would Mr. Yokai ask such a question? This is of course Japan, and the region it belongs to is also the Eastern Country region."

The girl seemed puzzled as to why a monster who could even kill the mountain god wouldn't know such a question.

"Hiss, what kind of shitty place is the Eastern Kingdom anyway?"

Sawa scratched his head in frustration. His knowledge of the names and regions of Japan mainly came from anime. Asking him to know anything else was asking too much.

Only then did he finally realize Huiyin's good intentions: "Read more books and go to school. Teachers won't harm you."

"Alright, let me ask one more question, a really crucial one: what era are we living in now?"

Having at least confirmed that he was in Japan, Saya pursed his lips and asked—the question he least wanted an answer to, yet had no choice but to hear.

"Peace, the Heian period."

The girl, even more confused as to why Sayu asked this question, tilted her head and suddenly remembered the stories that the old man in the village used to tell them.

Legend has it that the ancient, extremely ferocious monsters were beings that ordinary Onmyoji (yin-yang masters) could not contend with. Even the power of the gods could only seal them away, and one day they would break free of the seal and bring disaster to the world.

Could it be that this handsome, dark-haired boy in front of me is the vicious monster that my grandfather spoke of?

But this time, Saya didn't have time to complain about her. After hearing Heian period's answer, Saya, who didn't know what to say, covered his head and sat down.

Even if he doesn't know much about the history of Japan, he still knows what the name means.

"What the hell? The Heian period, - a thousand years ago?"