The next day. The morning at the Kochou household was filled with a tense, orderly energy.
"Kanae! Hot water and clean towels, now!" Mrs. Kochou called out, her voice urgent but professional. "The contractions are regular and the intervals are shortening!"
Dr. Kochou performed a quick check, his brow furrowed. "Dilation is slow... only one centimeter. Madam, remember the breathing I taught you. In through the nose... out through the mouth... stay relaxed." He turned to his daughters. "Shinobu, sterilize the instruments again! Kanae, where is that water?"
"Coming, Father!" Kanae moved nimbly to the patient's side. "Madam, squeeze my hand. Follow my lead... breathe in... one, two, three... and out..."
The woman gripped Kanae's hand, her forehead drenched in cold sweat as she groaned in agony. "It hurts... Doctor... how much longer..."
The struggle continued into the night. Under the glow of the newly installed electric lights, Dr. Kochou finally let out a breath of relief. "Eight centimeters! Almost there! Kanae, the delivery kit! Shinobu, check the hemostatic forceps and the umbilical scissors one last time!"
He turned to the patient, his voice authoritative. "It's time. On the next contraction, hold your breath and push with everything you have! You can do this! Push!"
Just as the woman let out a scream of pure agony with the next contraction—suddenly, the loud, clear cry of a baby rang out!
Everyone froze. The woman was still in labor. The child had not yet been born... So where was the crying coming from?
Shinobu stood paralyzed. The umbilical scissors slipped from her hand, hitting the floor with a sharp clang. Her voice cracked. "A baby's cry?! From where?!"
The room fell into a deathly silence, save for the labored gasps of the woman on the bed. A cold sweat soaked everyone's backs. That loud, piercing cry, tinged with a chilling, deathly aura, wasn't coming from the delivery table. It was coming from... the closed door behind them!
An indescribable horror seized them. They turned their heads with agonizing slowness.
At the doorway stood a "woman." Her black hair was matted like dead grass, obscuring most of her face. Her slender body was hunched unnaturally, her head tilted at a grotesque angle. Long, pale nails glinted with a cold light. She wore tattered birthing robes stained with dark red, and her skin was a ghastly, powdery white. Despite the matted hair, one could glimpse features that were once delicate, but now radiated a bone-chilling, inhuman aura.
Eerily, she held a naked, wailing infant in her arms. Her parched lips moved soundlessly, over and over: "It hurts... it hurts..."
"Please... look at my child... look at him..."
Mrs. Kochou suppressed her terror, her voice trembling. "Madam? Do you... do you need help? Please wait, this patient is in a critical moment. Once the baby is safe, we will—"
Before she could finish, the "woman" snapped her head up, revealing hollow, lifeless eyes. She erupted into a shrill, ear-piercing shriek:
"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE MY CHILD?! WHY?! IT'S ALL MY FAULT! I DIDN'T PROTECT HIM! I'M USELESS! AAAAAHHHH!"
Like a maddened beast, she charged the delivery table with terrifying, supernatural speed. Her target: the most vulnerable person in the room.
"Get back! It's dangerous!" Dr. Kochou roared, lunging forward by instinct to block her.
The demon woman swept her withered arm casually. Dr. Kochou was hit as if by a massive sledgehammer. With a muffled groan, he was sent flying backward, smashing through a table of medical instruments. A sickening crack of bone followed as he collapsed, clutching a shattered arm.
On the other side, Mrs. Kochou was struck in the shoulder. She hit a heavy medicine cabinet like a broken kite, her head snapping back as she lost consciousness.
"Mother! Father!" Kanae screamed. In her terror, she found a burst of courage, spreading her arms to shield the patient. "You monster! Stay away!"
"Are you the killer?! Die!" Shinobu reacted with a ferocity beyond her years, grabbing her fallen dagger and stabbing with all her might at the woman's back.
CLANG—!
The sound of metal on rock rang out. The blade didn't even leave a scratch. Shinobu's pupils shrank. "It won't go in! She's a monster! Sister, run!"
But how could a fourteen-year-old girl escape with a woman in labor and her fallen family in seconds? Kanae could only stare in horror as the pale claws lunged for her throat.
"Thunder Breathing, Fourth Form—Distant Thunder!"
A clear shout tore through the air! A golden flash of lightning shattered the window. Tatsuya's figure cut into the battlefield like a bolt from the heavens!
In the blink of an eye, he scooped Kanae up by the waist, spinning her away from the lethal reach of the claws. Simultaneously, his gold-and-red Nichirin Sword cleared its sheath!
CLASH—!
The deafening impact echoed through the room. His blade accurately parried the demon's second strike aimed at the pregnant woman's abdomen.
"Made it!"
A member of the Kakushi reported in a low whisper: "Slayer Izumo, it is confirmed. All victimized mothers were attacked either during late-stage labor or on the very day of delivery. The Sato family is still four months away, the Tanaka family has two weeks left, but the Kochou family... their guest could go into labor at any moment."
"Understood. We focus our priority on the Kochous."
Back in the present, Tatsuya used the momentum from his parry to spin, his blade instantly transforming into several dense, interweaving golden arcs of electricity that surged toward the demon.
"Thunder Swarm!"
The demon was forced back several steps by the sudden, violent burst of lightning, creating a temporary gap between her and the delivery bed. Tatsuya's gaze was as sharp as a scalpel, locking onto his enemy. The thick, sickening aura of demon energy and the stench of old blood instantly dispelled his last doubts—this was the monster targeting the mothers.
"Kanae! Shinobu! Ignore us!" Dr. Kochou roared through the pain, his voice strained to the limit. "Help her! The baby... the baby is coming! Quickly!" He struggled to crawl up but collapsed as agony flared in his shattered arm.
Kanae had been pushed aside by Tatsuya, still trembling from the shock. But seeing her father's desperate eyes and the twisted, pained face of the mother on the bed, she gritted her teeth and suppressed her fear. "Yes, Father!" She practically dove back to the bedside, her voice shaky but firm: "Madam! Push! Follow me! Inhale—PUSH!"
Shinobu glanced at her unconscious mother and her fallen father, then at Tatsuya's back as he stood as a shield against the monster. Her eyes welled with tears, but her small face was set with iron resolve. She grabbed a clean cloth and rushed to her sister. "Sister! I'll help! Hot water!"
By the bedside, Kanae and Shinobu engaged in a desperate race for life, sheltered by the shadow of Tatsuya's fierce battle. Tatsuya remained entirely focused, his gold-and-red Nichirin Sword glowing as the lightning flowed across the steel like a living thing. He stood opposed to the demon—a creature that cradled a weirdly wailing infant while sobbing self-reproach.
The shrill cries of the demon's baby, the screams of the mother in labor, the demon's weeping, and the whistle of the blade interwove into a chaotic symphony.
The demon clutched her wailing bundle tight, attacking with only one withered claw. Her figure was a blur, gliding across the floor like a wraith. She was incredibly fast, her movements bringing a foul wind as she lunged for Tatsuya's heart. "My child... you are not my child!"
Tatsuya's footwork was precise. Thunder Breathing exploded in his veins as he dodged the lethal strike by a hair's breadth. Simultaneously, his blade flashed—a "Thunderclap and Flash" thrust aimed straight for the demon's throat, seeking a one-hit kill!
The demon bent backward with impossible flexibility, the cold tip of the blade grazing her pale neck and only severing a few strands of matted hair. The infant in her arms seemed startled, its cries reaching a higher, more piercing pitch.
The failed attack seemed to enrage her. She stopped shielding the infant's front and leaped high, her claws whistling through the air like two heavy hammers swinging down at Tatsuya's skull!
"I couldn't protect my child... I... deserve to die..."
"Then go ahead and die already!"
Tatsuya didn't dodge. He swung his blade upward in a violent arc, lightning erupting as he used a powerful variation of the Second Form, Rice Spirit, to meet the claws head-on!
CLANG—!
The screech of metal on bone echoed as sparks flew. The demon was knocked back, and Tatsuya quickly retracted his wrist to block a sudden, low kick aimed at his legs as she landed. He used the tip of his sword for leverage, performing a backflip while tracing a perfect semi-circle of defensive light beneath him.
Failing twice, the demon's self-reproach vanished, replaced by a look of twisted "maternal love." She lifted the wailing infant slightly, offering it toward Tatsuya. Her voice became eerily soft, a mere whisper: "Look... my child... isn't he cute?"
Tatsuya had been wondering where the demon's baby came from. No remains had been found at the previous crime scenes. Was the thing in her arms a child stolen from a previous victim?
In the split second Tatsuya's eyes were instinctively drawn to the naked infant—the demon's eyes flared with murderous intent!
She thrust the infant forward as a decoy. The real killing blow—her other claw—shot out from the shadows like a viper, aiming for the opening in Tatsuya's chest! It was blindingly fast!
"My poor baby... go to hell with my child!"
Tatsuya's pupils shrank. Though his focus had been momentarily divided, the extraordinary perception of Silent Listening caught the faint whistle of air and the sudden surge of killing intent. His body twisted to the limit as his blade spun in a whirlwind parry!
RIP—!
The blade narrowly diverted the lethal claw, but the sharp tips tore through his haori, leaving a jagged rent.
Damn it! Is that baby... even alive?! I can't just swing blindly!
Tatsuya didn't let the anxiety slow him down. Seizing the moment the demon was overextended, he sliced down, severing her arm!
Simultaneously, a scream of final exertion erupted from the delivery bed, followed by Kanae's tearful, joyful cry: "The head is out! The shoulders are out! One more time! One last push! He's here!!"
A weak but undeniably real cry of a newborn, filled with the spark of life, suddenly pierced through the demon's eerie, vengeful wailing. It rang out through the bloody, chaotic room like the first ray of dawn!
The demon froze as if someone had hit a pause button. She stared at the new life, her eyes filled with a stinging pain. In a blur, she leaped out the window and vanished into the night.