Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 14 - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: And So the Cage Closes

Faced with the Dragon Jinguuji Tomoya as an enemy, Iino Yuna couldn’t be more shaken. The tip of her readied sword trembled pathetically, and the knife in her leg made her nerves scream in unbearable agony. Fortunately, Jinguuji Tomoya hadn’t attacked her yet. He looked at her apologetically, his eyes as friendly as ever. Despite this situation, he didn’t consider her an enemy.

“Hey, Iino. Can you throw down your sword? Any more of this will just cause you suffering.” His plea for her surrender even sounded like he held consideration for a friend. “I’m not gonna tell you to help us. You can just shut your eyes to what’s happening here.”

“You think I can?!”

Iino Yuna shook her head vigorously over and over. With each shake, tears spilled from her eyes. She also still considered him a friend. If he was working to get everyone back to their old world, she wanted to help him. Nevertheless, she was incapable of ignoring the plights of everyone else to accomplish that. That was why this conversation could go no further.

“Hey, isn’t that enough?”

One of the four masked enemies with Jinguuji Tomoya spoke up. She was the only woman of the group.

“There’s no point talking it out anymore, right?”

Despite being allies, her tone toward him was somewhat thorny. Her eyes glared at him through her mask. The other three didn’t say anything, but they were all giving the same impression.

“So you say...”

As for Jinguuji Tomoya, he looked somewhat stumped. The exchange between them gave Iino Yuna a sense of unease. They were supposed to be allies, but they all faced her with different attitudes. Was this simply discord between them? Or maybe...

“Jinguuji, it seems you don’t understand the situation,” the masked woman continued in irritation. “We must fulfill the duty charged to us as quickly as we can. He told us to kill Majima’s servants, after all.”

She spoke as if this duty was absolute. Just the use of this word offered a glimpse at how she viewed this incident. Rose and Lobivia stiffened up. The eyes the masked woman pointed toward them had a fanatical passion that wasn’t there when she was looking at Jinguuji Tomoya. The two of them didn’t know whom the woman was referring to when she said “he,” but it was crystal clear that she would wield her sword against them with glee.

“Come, it’s time to fulfill our duty!”

Rose and Lobivia couldn’t face the masked group alone. The woman’s words were a declaration of death.

“Lobivia...!”

“Fuck!”

The bloodlust facing the two girls suddenly swelled up. The masked woman lunged forward, casually wielding her sword against them. Rose swung her axe in response; unable to accomplish anything, she shattered to pieces. Witnessing her companion’s death in dismay, the little dragon’s transformed head fell to the floor. This future was basically set in stone—

“Like hell I’ll let youuuu!”

And what tore apart that hopeless future was a scream from the girl who was supposed to be severely injured.

“Wha?!”

Iino Yuna stepped in, her slender sword slamming against the woman’s blade. Having not expected the Skanda to move in such a state, the woman’s sword flew out of her hand.

“Guh!”

At the same time, Iino Yuna’s face convulsed spectacularly. This was due to the pain running up the leg she’d used to step in.

“Iino?!”

Rose called out to her in concern from behind, but she didn’t have the leisure to respond. Pain had her head throbbing and her breathing was a ragged mess. Nevertheless, she raised her head and glared at her panicking, fleeing opponent.

It would be so easy if she just gave up after suffering such a wound and being placed in such an inferior position. However, if she did, something that’d been so important to her until now would snap in two and never recover. She’d unconsciously come to that conclusion. Besides, she’d made a promise. She’d promised to protect Majima Takahiro’s companions.

No matter what happened, that was one promise she could never break. Knowing Jinguuji Tomoya’s intentions, as Iino Yuna’s entire world shook at its foundation, this was her one guiding principle that stood firm. As such, she wasn’t going to step aside.

“Eep.”

The masked woman gulped. Iino Yuna possessed something sufficient to make her recoil, despite her supposedly advantageous position.

“Aah... So it’s come to this.”

Seeing this, Jinguuji Tomoya groaned. He sounded like he’d known this would happen. He was the only person here who knew. This was the true power of the Skanda, the one who boasted of being the strongest in hand-to-hand combat among the entire exploration team.

Back when they first found themselves in the Woodlands, when a horde of monsters had attacked them, what’d unified the disorganized cheaters and saved them from the crisis had been the overwhelming strength of the Sword of Light and his charisma. However, what’d barely maintained the battle line before that had been the Skanda’s unbreakable heart and obstinacy, fighting at the front the entire time.

If one stopped to imagine it for a moment, it was plain to see how great a feat that was—and depending on one’s outlook, how unreasonably abnormal it was too. It’d been their first battle after being dropped into another world from peaceful Japan. Caught in a hopeless battle against an army of rampaging monsters, she hadn’t been paralyzed with fear. She had instead held her ground, gritted her teeth, and continued to fight. Of the visitors who’d gone out into the Woodlands, the only ones who’d held their ground were the Skanda and the Beast of Darkness.

Her nature didn’t change just because she couldn’t move one leg. If anything could make Iino Yuna capitulate, it would be smashing apart the righteousness within her. Jinguuji Tomoya sighed, then grabbed the overawed masked woman by the shoulder.

“Hey, we’re pulling out.”

The other four masked enemies turned to him.

“Wh-What’re you saying?!” the woman yelled.

“I’m telling you to give it up,” Jinguuji said, shaking his head. “I know how you feel, of course. You guys are different from me. You’re not helping them out just ’cause your interests align. However, now that it’s come to this, Iino will resist us to the death. We can’t stop the Skanda when she’s serious and we’re holding back.”

There’d been a level of moderation to this battle. Iino Yuna had at most been protecting those with her, standing firm to suppress all attacks from her opponents. Jinguuji Tomoya had considered this a fight against a friend. However, now that things had reached this point, if she began a struggle to the death, they couldn’t hold back any longer. One wrong step would have them killing each other. Jinguuji Tomoya couldn’t allow that.

“I can’t kill her. Rather, if you guys try and kill her, I’m gonna have to stop you.”

His objective was getting all surviving visitors back home safe and sound. That included the girl he was crossing swords with now. In contrast, he didn’t care what happened to anyone else. This was the other side of the coin. No matter how unfavorable things looked, his conviction wasn’t going to falter. That was what his behavior now indicated.

There was one thing that was made clear by their exchange. The four other masked enemies had different motives from Jinguuji Tomoya. Back when they last met, he’d opened up to Iino Yuna that he was gathering comrades who’d left the exploration team for the sake of finding a way back to their own world. However, the four masked enemies here clearly weren’t the comrades he’d been referring to at the time. Unlike him, they were cooperating with the enemy without any personal interests at stake.

Who could they be? It was only natural to ask that. However, before she could press him for answers, Jinguuji Tomoya got the conversation moving again.

“Ever since the failed teleportation, there have been so many irregularities to this plan. The fact that Iino ended up here is the most extreme case. We were supposed to be the ace in the hole here, but we’ve been totally shut down. She was the one person who wasn’t supposed to be here. That’s the kind of opponent she is.”

“That’s...”

“We should step aside for now. It’s no big deal. Everything is in place. We can just all join forces and clean up those Iino is protecting after everything’s over, yeah?”

“Understood...”

The masked woman reluctantly nodded, convinced by his words. That said, listening to them from the side, Iino Yuna couldn’t possibly ignore the concerning contents of their conversation.

“W-Wait. What do you mean by...”

And just as she started questioning them, an abnormality occurred.

“Wh-What?”

The corridor began shaking violently. Underground tremors had started somewhere nearby.

“What’s happening...?”

“Like I said, it’s over,” Jinguuji Tomoya answered. “The sector Majima’s in is sealed. Unfortunately for you, he’s not getting any reinforcements now.”

“Wha...?!”

That was the true nature of these tremors. Jinguuji Tomoya had mentioned that everything was in place. When Kaneki Mikihiko’s escape route had been created, in that same instant, all routes to get to Majima Takahiro had been shut off.

“Hey, Jinguuji,” another one of the masked men cut in. “Don’t go blabbing about stuff you don’t need to mention.”

Unlike Jinguuji Tomoya and the masked woman, his voice was unnaturally deep. Still, even with an altered voice, it was clear that he was criticizing how loose-tongued they were being toward an enemy.

“My bad,” Jinguuji said, honestly apologizing. “I just don’t want Iino to suffer. It’s better for her to give up sooner rather than later.”

There was real consideration in his voice.

“The cage is closed now. All that’s left is for the most loyal of us all to bring it to an end.”