My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 7 - Chapter 19

Chapter 19 — Is There Some Rule Where You Have to Come Out Saying “Good Grief”?!

Yogiri, Tomochika, and Mokomoko descended from the enormous tree on a glider built from Furemaru. They flew as far as they could manage, landing somewhere in the middle of the forest. They had made it quite a distance, but the center of the shape made from the six enormous trees was still far away.

“Good grief. This is such a pain, and I don’t really want to work in the first place.”

After walking for a while, they heard the voice of a young man as he appeared from the foliage.

“But we can’t just refuse a request from God.”

“Exactly! We’re talking about a villain who kills everyone they meet! If you don’t do something about it, the damage will just spread, Hiroaki!”

“You can just take him out like always!”

He had three girls with him. They had referred to Yogiri as a villain, so that probably made them apostles. That seemed to be how this god was referring to him.

“Just in case, can I ask how you got here?” Yogiri said.

“Sure. I can teleport anywhere. Nowhere is off limits. I don’t really want to do this either, but a promise is a promise. So let’s get this over with so we can head back and get some lunch.”

The girls hurriedly stepped away from the boy named Hiroaki as he began to glow with an intense light, forcing Yogiri to cover his eyes. The light didn’t seem to be an attack, judging from the lack of any killing intent. It soon faded, revealing that Hiroaki was now clad in golden armor. It was way too flashy.

“Now that I’ve got my armor on, your instant death ability won’t work on me.” In the next moment, Hiroaki vanished. “What? I had my hopes up since I heard you were strong, but I could have easily killed you a hundred times over by now.”

Yogiri turned at the voice coming from behind him, finding Hiroaki standing there. He was looking down at Yogiri, as if somehow disappointed in him.

“Don’t ask me,” Yogiri replied. “I can’t even keep up with Dannoura’s movements.” His physical abilities were nothing spectacular, so he had no chance of keeping up with the kind of people this world produced.

“What a letdown. If you’re this weak, I shouldn’t have even bothered.”

“He’s really giving it to you, isn’t he, Takatou?” Tomochika commented.

“Well, there’s not much I can do about it,” Yogiri answered.

The stranger vanished again. Guessing he was behind him once more, Yogiri turned to find the boy had moved a short distance away.

“Come forth!” the boy shouted. At his cry, an explosion resounded from the sky above them, prompting Yogiri to look up. It was hard to see anything through the forest canopy, but something above them was giving off a tangible pressure. It then descended, smashing through the trees in its path.

“Looks like a robot!”

“Hm. It seems to be a Universal Century type,” Mokomoko observed.

It was an enormous robot. Equipped with a beam sword and rifle, the fantastical machine stared down at them.

“I’ll kill you with this.” As if responding to the boy’s words, the robot leveled its rifle at Yogiri.

“Die.”

With a loud noise, the robot fell to the ground.

“What?!”

“You die too.”

Hiroaki collapsed. If he could teleport, there was a chance he could have taken them directly to the capital, but if he was going to aim killing intent at them, then Yogiri didn’t have a choice.

“Huh?”

“Uhh...?”

“What?”

The three girls stared, mouths agape.

“So, what are you guys going to do?” Yogiri asked.

“Hold on. Hiroaki? Stop messing around!”

“Exactly! This is too much for a joke!”

“Hurry up and stand up!”

The girls ran forward to shake the fallen boy’s body. It didn’t seem to occur to them that he was dead.

“All right, let’s go,” Yogiri said, turning to leave.

“We’re just going to leave them here?!”

“Why should I care about some people who randomly showed up?”

“Getting involved with them does seem like a nuisance,” Mokomoko agreed.

The three of them continued on their way. The forest was dangerous, but if the girls had gone out of their way to come out there, they should have been strong enough to take care of themselves. And even if they weren’t, Yogiri had no obligation to take care of them.

“Good grief... To send such an old, worn out man as myself, this god is truly rough with their subjects...”

An old man appeared next. His tattered robe and knotted wooden staff gave the impression of a wizened old wizard.

“Die.”

“We’re not even questioning them anymore?!”

“I can’t help it; he was going to attack us.”

“We didn’t even get to hear who he was or what he could do!”

The old man must have been an apostle. It seemed Malnarilna’s plan was to just keep sending more of them after Yogiri, regardless of the consequences.

“It’s going to be annoying if they keep showing up like this,” Yogiri complained.

“I guess this is what it means for God to have his eye on you...”

“If he’d just show up himself, we could settle things a lot faster.”

Yogiri’s power couldn’t reach this god if all they did was send apostles after him. If he wasn’t worried about the fallout, he could have done something about it, but he couldn’t guarantee that people unrelated to the problem wouldn’t die as well and couldn’t justify going that far quite yet.

“There is nothing for us to do but climb over the corpses and continue!” Mokomoko brandished Furemaru, cutting her way deeper into the forest.

Since they were outside of the warped space, they were making reasonable progress towards the cluster of buildings they had seen earlier.

“Good grief. To think I, the Jet Black Witch, would be called to handle such a trifling matter.”

“Is there some rule that these people need to come out saying ‘Good grief’?!”

Matching the name she had given herself, the woman wore a black dress. Her long, beautiful hair likewise did nothing to ruin the look. Unlike the old man earlier, she had nothing in her hands. Apparently, she hadn’t brought anything with her.

“I’ll ask just in case, but what do you want?” Yogiri said. “It’s getting kind of annoying with all the people showing up one after another.”

“I was told to kill you.”

“I think it’s kind of strange to happily kill someone just because you were told to.”

“I suppose. I have no particular reason to take your life either.”

“Then could you give it up?”

“I see. Very well.” Saying that, the Jet Black Witch vanished.

“Uh, what?” Tomochika exclaimed, confused. “With the way she was talking, I thought it would be another person who was killed while thinking there was no way they could lose!”

“I wonder what that was about?”

“Perhaps she is simply hiding somewhere?” Mokomoko suggested.

The three of them looked around but couldn’t find any sign of her. At the very least, there was no killing intent, so Yogiri had no intention of retaliating.

◇ ◇ ◇

“What was that?! That was terrifying!”

The Jet Black Witch. The Dimensional Wanderer. The World-Crossing Beauty. The Godslaying Scourge. The Omnipotent Stranger. The Ruler of Time and Space.

Known by all sorts of names, Miranda sat inside a subspace pocket she had created, clutching her knees and trembling. The moment she had seen that thing, she felt like she had been dropped in the middle of hell. Death itself had taken on human form. What confluence of coincidence and miracle had led to its creation? Even for Miranda, who had witnessed the birth and destruction of numerous worlds, it was a being that defied imagination. Her ability to maintain a haughty demeanor in front of it was raw willpower. If she had relaxed even a little, her soul would have smashed itself to pieces and ended its own life. The eternal darkness that would lead to would seem positively lenient compared to the true erasure that being could cause.

“Then could you give it up?”

The moment she had heard those words, Miranda had felt overwhelming relief. She realized she had been saved. If it had decided to kill her, she would have had nowhere to run. There was only one way to survive an encounter with that thing: to depend on its mercy. Beg for your life, and hope to be forgiven. The fact that it had a human consciousness was her only saving grace. If it had merely been a vortex of death, it would have indiscriminately and aimlessly devoured the entire world, bringing everything to an end. The fact that such a being was aware of her existence was cause for concern, but managing to escape for now was relief enough.

After she calmed down a little, anger started to bubble up within her. Not towards Yogiri Takatou, but towards the ignorant god that had sent her against him. They were happily yanking the tail of a tiger, with no idea what they were dealing with. They were dancing with their eyes closed through a minefield. She had no idea how much longer they could continue before provoking his wrath. If they wanted to die so badly, they were more than welcome, but she wasn’t willing to get herself wrapped up in it.

“Those little bastards.”

Angry to the point of wanting to hit something, Miranda stood up.

◇ ◇ ◇

The person with the ability to call forth Japanese food was defeated by Yogiri Takatou.

The person with the ability to work well with their hands was defeated by Yogiri Takatou.

◇ ◇ ◇

“So in the end, simply being strong isn’t sufficient...”

Hiroaki was a boy who had come here from Japan. Hanakawa didn’t know where he had obtained his power, but he had the ability to freely create anything he could imagine. Since they were born from his imagination, the armor and robot he had created exhibited exactly the same power as from wherever he had first seen them.

Since picking people at random didn’t seem to be having any success, the plan had been to pick someone who was already strong. Upon becoming an apostle, one boy was allowed to have basically any power he wanted, but he ended up asking for the ability to create Japanese food. Apparently, he wasn’t good enough at imagining it himself, so the powers he had couldn’t create very good food. His one complaint upon being brought to this world was about the food, so it had seemed like a real lifesaver to him.

The other had been an old man named Ugurz, who had been known as the Demon of Catastrophe. There were many anecdotes about him doing incredible things with his enormous magical power, such as destroying an entire kingdom and raising its people as zombies, destroying entire islands, sinking them into oceans of flame, and enclosing them in walls of eternal ice, but lately he had hidden himself away deep in the mountains. His wish had been to be skilled with his hands so that he could make stuffed animals for his grandchildren.

“Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to Lady Miranda?”

The Jet Black Witch, Miranda. She was a powerful being from the start. Deciding there was no need for any extra powers in order to help with dispatching Yogiri Takatou, she had instead asked to be told the location of a certain person as a reward for her help. After consulting with Malnarilna, they agreed to her terms and sent her after Yogiri.

“Ah, perhaps since she was not granted any powers, the typical announcement upon her defeat was not played.”

“Why are you always muttering like that? It’s creepy,” Yoshifumi said, sitting on his throne.

As before, Hanakawa was standing on the palanquin beside the throne. He had a habit of mumbling to himself, so Yoshifumi didn’t pay any attention to the contents of his speech.

“By the way, doesn’t it seem like our progress has slowed to a halt?” Hanakawa asked.

“Yeah. Looks like the slaves carrying us were wiped out.”

“Are you some sort of fool?! Of course this would happen if you brought a palanquin all the way out here!”

“Shut up! I didn’t think they were that weak!”

“They were nothing but men in loincloths! On top of that, they were wide open to being attacked while carrying the palanquin! Why didn’t you have some way of protecting them?!”

Getting to the Elven Forest hadn’t been a problem, but all of the slaves carrying the palanquin had been killed, devoured by the insects that ran rampant there.

“Hey, Shigeto. What do we do now?”

“I guess we have to walk. The space in the forest is looped, so if we don’t follow a certain path, we’ll end up going in circles. While it is something we must be careful of, the correct route is recorded in my Book of Prophecy.”

Shigeto had become totally obedient. Rei’s domination of him didn’t necessitate any sort of loyalty to Yoshifumi, but it appeared he had already given up. In a way, that was like being defeated by the Sages, but if he was loyal to Yoshifumi, he might have a chance at a rather comfortable life. At the very least, it would be far better than running and hiding, constantly terrified of the threat of the Sages.

“Walking, huh? This sucks.”

Though he complained, the Sage seemed to understand that acting all high and mighty wouldn’t improve the situation. Reluctantly, he rose from his throne and jumped down from the palanquin.

“This situation is no better for me, I assure you,” Hanakawa said, moving to climb off the palanquin himself.

But the black-clad beauty Miranda was standing in front of him.

“Huh?”

Her appearance was so sudden that Hanakawa could only gape in shock. Miranda stretched out a hand, her fingers clenching around his flabby neck.

“Wait! Please, wait! Actually, how do you even recognize me or know where I am?!”

Hanakawa had met Miranda in a dream. He had been in his little girl form as always, so he should have been unrecognizable to her now.

“It seems you underestimated me. Though limited somewhat, I am effectively omnipotent and omniscient. Reaching you was hardly a challenge.”

“Th-Then what are you doing here?! If you know all, you should understand I am nothing but an errand boy!”

“Yes. That’s why I came to you, to take out my anger on someone of no consequence.”

Slowly, she strengthened her grip. Her slender arms possessed an unbelievable strength, not budging in the slightest as Hanakawa tried to shake her off.

“Who the hell are you?!” Yoshifumi noticed what was happening from where he was standing on the ground.

“P-Please, help me!” Hanakawa begged, although he knew it was like clutching at straws. It was just as likely that Yoshifumi would laugh as he watched Hanakawa die, but the emperor was his only hope for survival.

Yoshifumi didn’t move an inch.

“Wh-What are you doing? Judging by your response, shouldn’t you be like, ‘What the hell are you doing to my jester?!’ and jump up here to rescue me?!”

“Dealing with the Sages of this world is a nuisance, so I just stopped time.” Miranda said.

Now that she mentioned it, everything did seem to have stopped. Yoshifumi had, in fact, jumped into action, but after leaping a few inches above the ground, he had frozen.

“N-Noooooo! Why is this happening to me?! And what do you mean, taking out your anger on me?! If that’s what you want, why can’t you pick someone who can offer more resistance?!”

“Even if I am just venting my frustrations, I am not so boorish as to inflict such harm on someone unrelated. Do you understand so little of a maiden’s heart that you don’t realize why I would look for someone at least a little bit related to my anger?”

“Tormenting a weakling like me is plenty boorish!” Hanakawa complained, but Miranda’s grip was only getting tighter.

I-I’m going to die! Though he was constantly using his healing magic on himself, he was starting to lose his grip on consciousness. If he were to pass out now, he would never wake up again. I need to do something...

He desperately had to find some clue in their conversation so far. What had made Miranda angry in the first place? If she was still alive, that must have meant that she hadn’t fought Yogiri yet, so she should have had no reason to be angry.

Perhaps she did indeed meet him? And then fled, being unable to do anything? If that was what she was upset about, it must have meant she understood how much of a threat Yogiri was. In that case...

Hanakawa had little time left. He wouldn’t be able to try more than once. If he made one wrong move it would all be over, but he had no choice but to bet everything on this.

“I-I am a friend of Sir Takatou, you know!”

“What?”

Her grip on Hanakawa’s throat loosened. It was enough for him to finally shake her hand off, and he fell back onto his backside. His desperate gamble seemed to have paid off for the moment.

“I suppose if I were to be killed,” Hanakawa continued after a short coughing fit, “Sir Takatou would be heartbroken!”

“Friends, are you?” Miranda’s gaze was full of suspicion.

“I-It’s true!”

“You hardly seem like someone on friendly terms with him. Yet it is true that he hasn’t killed you...” She looked away. If she was omniscient like she claimed, it was possible she was reviewing the details of his relationship with Yogiri.

“A-At the very least, we are members of the same class! Look! If you know all, then you should be able to confirm that! Even if we are not friends, surely it would pain him to learn a classmate of his had died?! If you wish to avoid earning his displeasure, you should avoid taking my life!”

“Fine.” The pressure Miranda was giving off vanished. Realizing that he was saved, Hanakawa felt a wave of relief wash over him. “But in that case, I won’t be able to calm down until I get revenge against Malnarilna directly.”

“I-Is there any way you could accomplish that?”

“Malnarilna is the official god ruling this world. Of course I couldn’t do anything to them directly, but that’s none of your concern.”

With that, she vanished.

“The hell?! Where’d that woman go?!” Yoshifumi finally appeared beside him, shouting. Time was moving again.

“I-I have no idea. I wonder what just happened...” Hanakawa was at a loss for words.