My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 4 - Chapter SS1

Bonus Short Story 

The Dannoura Household 

On her way home from school, Tomochika passed through the gate leading into her family’s property, where she met eyes with a fox. 

“Huh?” 

Or was it? She had never seen one before, so she couldn’t really tell if it was actually a fox or just a dog that looked like one. But foxes were part of the dog family, right? 

As she wondered, the fox-like animal disappeared into the brush. 

“Whatever it was, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t here yesterday...” 

Of course, the Dannoura family’s property was incredibly large, so it wasn’t implausible that there were animals living there that Tomochika wasn’t aware of. 

“But I don’t think there are many foxes around here in the first place.” 

Tomochika recalled that there were red foxes up in Hokkaido, but thinking about it any more wouldn’t answer any questions, so she started walking towards the house. 

There was a considerable distance between the house and the front gate. Even though they lived in an enormous mansion, she didn’t think of her family as being all that rich. She didn’t receive any more pocket money than the average high school student, her parents were always trying to save money and chastising her for wasting it, and no one in her family gave off the impression of being more than common folk. Their expansive property and enormous house were the last vestiges of the historied martial arts school that their family was, for some reason, still trying to preserve. 

“Yes! Just like that! You’re so smart! Perfect! Now, spin!” 

As she made her way back to the house, she heard her older sister Chiharu’s voice. She considered ignoring her and just going straight in, but in the end she decided to stop by and see her. It was likely that Chiharu had noticed she was back, and if she just ignored her here, she would no doubt get an earful about it from her later anyways. That was the kind of annoying girl she was. 

Stepping off the path to the house, she went ahead to the outdoor training area. There was an extremely detailed doll of a person set up there, which was currently being bitten on the back of its neck and spun around by an Akita dog. Her portly sister was watching the performance contentedly from nearby. 

“Come on, don’t make Ginta do weird things like that...” 

“Oh! You have returned! This isn’t a ‘weird thing’! If he is to win against a bear, he needs to be able to do things like this! Good! Next, a vertical spin! As you’re spinning vertically towards it, land an attack!” 

Tomochika had long since gotten used to her sister’s strange mannerisms and bizarre way of speaking. “Don’t push him too hard. Also, if you ruin the target, Grandpa’s going to get mad at you.” 

The targets they used for the Dannoura School of Archery were shaped like people. Even in the present day, their household practiced shooting to kill, so their targets were all shaped realistically. While also useful for learning to target weak points, the main intention was to get the practitioner used to aiming their weapon at humans, or so her grandfather had said. 

“But we shoot it full of arrows all the time! It’s not my fault if its head comes off at this point!” 

“Those are completely different things! You want to try saying that in front of Grandpa?” 

“Urgh...now that you mention it, I get the feeling I shouldn’t be doing this. This is bad. I’ve already used up all my spending money, and if he makes me replace it...” 

“Did you buy some dumb thing again?” Tomochika asked, already disappointed. From her perspective, Chiharu was always buying useless stuff, so she figured it was another case of that. 

“What do you mean ‘again’?! I never buy useless things!” 

“Oh, really? What was that instrument you were playing again?” 

“I would never have a hobby as lame as playing music.” 

“Then don’t buy empty cello cases!” 

“But it’s cool! Are you saying there is a use for instrument cases other than as storage for weapons?!” 

“Apologize! Apologize to the person who made that case right now!” 

“I feel like I’ve heard the same thing before, but who exactly am I supposed to be apologizing to?” 

“So, you’ve actually been thinking about it...but wait, that’s not the point. What did you buy this time?” 

“My favorite store had a new shipment come in, and I figured if I didn’t buy it now, it would be gone before I could think it over...” 

“And that was?” 

“A fox.” 

“What? So wait, the thing I saw on my way in was actually a fox?” 

“Yes, it’s a fox.” 

“Don’t ‘it’s a fox’ me! What are you doing buying animals again?!” The Dannoura household was turning into a bit of a zoo. Chiharu was very fond of them, so she was always picking them up off the street and buying them, raising them on the family’s enormous property. 

“You say that, but if I didn’t buy it, some other freak might have, and then it would have been abused!” 

“Kind of jumping to conclusions, aren’t we?” 

“Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? Being free to roam around here is much better than being trapped in some cage somewhere.” 

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Tomochika was a little uneasy. But as much as Chiharu lacked common sense when it came to most things, taking care of animals was the one task she always took seriously, so maybe it would all work out.