Different Belief (3)
"Ugh! Ugh!"
Shirone had been expelled through someone's intestines and ended up in a dark alley in downtown Laviette.
"Ugh, this feels really weird."
After twenty minutes of powerful intestinal contractions, he felt as if he himself had been turned into waste.
"Huh?"
Through cracks in the alleyway, smoke was rising from various parts of the city.
"What's going on?"
At the same time, a squad came running from the rear of the alley.
"The intruder isn't just one! Search everywhere and slaughter them! Show the power of the Stealth Corps!"
Beast-featured demons with distinct animal traits hurried past Shirone.
"Hey! You!"
A demon with a lion's face leapt down from a rooftop and landed in front of Shirone.
"What are you? You look like a demon—do you have any idea what the city's situation is right now?"
"Ah, well…"
The lion-faced demon's features contorted harshly.
"You—don't tell me you deserted?"
It was only natural the news would be shocking: one of the Seven Generals, Crusade, was a demon.
"You pathetic wretch! Even so—who deserts on the battlefield? Where have you seen a demon run away?"
As the demon bared claws sharp as blades and moved to cut his throat without mercy—
"What's all this racket?"
A woman with a cat's face approached the alley mouth, her fur standing on end.
"Ah, Captain!"
She was Oris, captain of the Stealth Corps—one of Laviette's Seven Generals.
"The city's in chaos; we need every hand, and you demons are fighting each other—what a disgrace."
"No, Captain. This one's a deserter. They say he panicked and ran."
Oris inspected Shirone and reached the same conclusion as her subordinates.
'Demon. And a sapient type, too.'
He didn't look like a combatant at all, and by his appearance he seemed quite young.
"The death of a captain is sorrowful. But Buddha hasn't come down—do we have to let demons be paralyzed with fear?"
"Ah, I'm sorry."
If being labeled a deserter would prevent suspicion that he'd come down from the mountains, he could accept it.
Oris ruffled Shirone's head.
"Don't worry. Even if Crusade was the strongest in raw power, war isn't fought by strength alone. Your intelligence will definitely be of use. Come on—I'll return you to my unit."
No sooner had she finished than Oris grabbed Shirone and shot forward like an arrow.
"Whoa."
Shirone could match her speed, but what surprised him most was her astonishing balance.
'Definitely different from humans,' he thought.
"Heh heh, no need to look so surprised. If you train hard you might run as fast as me someday. Although demons hardly ever bother—that's the problem."
Oris went on, wanting to leave Shirone with a flattering memory.
"You're a sapient. Overcoming instinct to run says something about your wit. But a demon must not flee from the enemy."
"Yes. I won't run anymore." He meant it.
If a deserter would stand out more than someone fighting, it would be less awkward to fight.
"Hoho! But don't worry. I, Oris, will deal with all the intruders."
Arriving in the city center where the Seven Generals' joint forces were assembled, Shirone joined the special operations unit.
"…Deserted, you say?"
Ishak, captain of the 7th Detachment, gave a contemptuous look after hearing the explanation from the Stealth Corps.
'Tch, what a weak-minded sapient,' he thought. He was the sort who hid behind desks and numbers when things weren't urgent.
"I ought to kill him on the spot, but out of respect for Captain Oris I'll let it slide this once. Move in!"
"Yes."
When Shirone slipped among the demons of the 7th Detachment, they looked at him like a child among giants and midgets.
"What's this runt? You expect to fight with that body? Even demons have limits…"
"Leave him. His head's already rotted—what's the point if he grew up?"
Ishak barked.
"Quiet! Reports say enemies were spotted two hundred meters west. Everyone ready?"
"Yes!"
The demons' responses were thunderous, and Shirone's own voice added to the roar.
"Let's finish them!"
To the 7th Detachment's rallying cry, two hundred demons charged forward at incredible speed.
'Who on earth is the intruder to cause this?'
Even as he kept pace, the question nagged at Shirone's mind.
At first they'd said it was a mine-type.
But one of the Seven Generals having been felled meant it had exceeded the limits of its species.
"There!"
Among barricades manned by armored Gimaras, a woman was rampaging.
"Squeak! Squeak!"
Shirone's face went blank.
'Son Yujeong?'
He hadn't expected the invader in Laviette to be an actual monkey rather than a mine-type.
"Ugh! So weak!" Each time she swung her twin clubs, constables' armor shattered to pieces.
"Attack! Finish her before she breaks the encirclement!"
Two hundred special ops troops surged toward her, following Ishak.
'This isn't right.'
Swept along by the army, Shirone felt the futility of the fight.
'Great-granddaughter of the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven.'
According to Omega, Sun Wukong had the record for the longest single combat against Imre as a war god.
'So why is she in Hell?' Above all, she wasn't even a true entity.
To Shirone's Ultima sense, she was a special signal—a precursor stage before being defined as a living being.
'A clone. So the original must be elsewhere…'
Her string-like ability resembled Hexa's, but differed in that she could never fully manifest.
'That lack of reality is everything, though.'
A half-powered force.
Still, Son Yujeong's nonchalant havoc was overwhelming the entire special ops unit and constabulary.
"Haha! Over here! Over here!"
Darting across the city, Son Yujeong changed course toward Ishak.
Ishak summoned electricity to his horns and swung, but his arm was sliced off instead.
"Ughhh!"
Prepared to die, Son Yujeong seemed to follow a one-strike-per-person rule and slipped away.
"That bastard…!"
Ishak, furious at the monkey's game, turned only to go slack-jawed.
Two hundred of his men were being pulverized by clubs without landing a single coordinated blow.
"What the hell is that?"
As his men collapsed one by one, Shirone's figure stood out.
Ishak bared his teeth and shouted.
"You idiot! Fight!"
From his bloodthirsty perspective, Shirone looked worse than the intruder.
"You fool! I should've killed you myself—!"
As if echoing him, Son Yujeong swung her club toward Shirone.
'It's over.'
It truly looked that way.
But when the mirage cleared, an unbelievable sight registered in his head.
"Wha—what?"
A strike he hadn't even seen was evaded by Shirone twisting only at the waist.
'Quantum movement.'
The club failed to connect, and Son Yujeong's clone blinked with curiosity.
"Uki?"
Shirone recalled Magrite's mention of a 7 percent suppression rate.
'Get closer than 93 percent to Yahweh and the hidden code unlocks. Rete told me to stay in the city until she left.' The clone showed annoyance.
"Kiiiiik!"
No matter how it attacked, it couldn't even graze Shirone.
'As expected, clones are severely lacking in intelligence. They only mechanically replay a few lines.'
Without the cloud-summoning techniques of an avatar, clones were hardly worth much.
'What are demons' attributes again?' Just fire and electricity.
'Then I…'
Using quantum movement to shift position, Shirone made the clone pull a startled face.
Probably an animalistic sense—experiencing probabilities that shouldn't exist in nature and becoming wary.
He simply approached from behind, and Son Yujeong's clone howled.
"Kiiiii!"
With all its strength it twisted and swung the club.
A red afterimage passed uselessly above Shirone, whose head was bowed…
'Electric Photon Cannon.'
A blue orb crackling with electricity flashed in Shirone's palm.
'Eat this.'
He drove it straight into the clone's abdomen, and every strand of Son Yujeong's hair stood on end.
....
Unable even to cry out, the woman who had been standing mouth agape collapsed forward.
"Phew, what a hassle."
To find out how she'd ended up here, he'd have to meet the original—which would be another problem.
"You, you…"
Meanwhile Ishak stared at Shirone as if stunned.
'Fire and electricity are demon traits. But no matter how you look at it, that movement…'
It was not an ability granted to an ordinary demon.
"Your name—no."
Clutching his severed shoulder, Ishak dropped to his knees before Shirone.
"May I ask your name, Your Highness?"
"Huh?"
"I apologize for not realizing sooner. I spoke rudely to someone of a different order from us demons. I showed disrespect to one who inherits Satan's spirit rather than his flesh or blood." Ishak's words suggested it could only be explained if Shirone bore a hidden code passed down to a rare bloodline.
Ishak raised his head again.
"Please, honor us by telling us your name…"
Shirone searched the Omega logs for a name that suited him.
"Yupi."
"Oh! How splendid. Intellectual, and perfectly fitting for someone of royal bearing."
In Hell there were over four thousand words for "lie"; Yupi's nuance was that of a "short, little lie." The kind you use when someone asks how you are and you answer, "I'm fine."
"Yupi, please become captain of the Special Operations Unit. I pledge my absolute devotion in your service."
He hadn't wanted to be noticed, but he realized demons tended to behave opposite to mundane expectations.
'It'd be weirder to refuse here.' It felt like an employee shouting to keep working even after the boss told everyone to go home.
'Only the strong rule.' Hell's iron law.
"Fine. If there's no one stronger than me in the Special Operations Unit, I'll lead you."
"I can assure you. I'm no weakling in my detachment, but I can't so much as reach Yupi's toes."
Ishak abandoned his severed forearm without hesitation and led Shirone back into the city.
Clones of Son Yujeong had swept through, and demon corpses lay everywhere.
'What a mess. At this rate they'll annihilate Laviette in a few days.'
"Wait a moment."
Ishak spoke and stepped into the command tent hastily set up as a temporary headquarters.
"As of now, intrusions have been detected in Block 13, Block 27, and Block 66… Who are you?"
Chief Executioner Itaka cut him off, and three generals turned at once.
"Ah, I had an urgent report—sorry for barging in."
A huge demon whose skin looked melted and scarred like a burn blocked Ishak's way.
It was Moonom, head of defenses.
"If you know it's rude, don't do it. What's the matter? And what happened to your arm? You took damage?"
His face looked half-melted, leaving only one eye; his lips had burned away, exposing his teeth.
"Yes. But we did kill one of them."
Itaka's brow twitched at the portentousness of Oris's words.
"So report what you found…"
Oris cut in.
"Killed? You actually did it?"
If the incoming reports were correct, this was the only unit that had subdued an intruder by force.
"No, I didn't do it. By Satan's blessing, there's an outstanding demon in the Special Operations Unit."
Gimara asked, "Where are they now?"
"Waiting outside the tent—"
Before he finished, Itaka barked:
"Bring them in."
A moment later, when Ishak led the demon child inside, the tent fell silent.
'Small, huh? Demons are supposed to be physically powerful. How did someone this little defeat the intruder?'
At that, Oris's eyes widened.
"Oh? You?"
Everyone turned as Shirone gave an awkward little smile.
"Ha ha, hello?"