The moment she received the call, Kaoru snapped fully awake.
The urgent report said that the Kuhouzuka family had deployed its elites in full and launched a surprise attack on Shizuka Kusanagi's home. The elite kunoichi unit under Kaoru's command had suffered catastrophic losses against the enemy's overwhelming numbers and strange sorcery. They were nearly wiped out.
The news hit her like a bucket of ice water, pulling her out of the lingering afterglow of Akuto's touch in an instant.
"Kaoru, stay here. I'll go and come right back."
After hearing those words from Akuto, Kaoru's feelings turned complicated, and for a moment she did not know how to respond.
Of course she wanted to help him deal with the problem. But the ones moving against Akuto were one of Japan's old families, and she herself was also a member of one of Japan's Four Great Houses.
In theory, to avoid even the appearance of bias, she should distance herself and stop interfering.
But now that she had become Akuto's woman, she also wanted to do something for him.
Caught between those two emotions, Kaoru could not decide what she ought to do.
...
Akuto noticed the complexity in her expression. He released the hand that had been pinning her in place, while the other, which had been resting at her waist, slid down the smooth line of her body, over the taut thigh wrapped in white stockings, and finally came to rest on her white-socked foot still set in its wooden sandal, tracing the delicate texture of the fabric with a touch so light it was almost unreal.
"Kaoru, I know what you're thinking. Don't worry. I trust my women completely."
Only those whose affection had reached the required level could trigger the system's notification. And because of the succubus bloodline, affection that had already risen would never decrease. So Akuto had absolutely no suspicion that Kaoru might be a problem.
"I plan to have you and Erica jointly investigate and handle this matter. Any objections?"
"Of course not. That's only natural."
Kaoru let out a breath of relief. If Akuto had asked her to investigate alone, she would actually have felt more uneasy.
She was afraid she might fail to uncover an outcome that would satisfy both herself and Akuto, and that such a failure would create a rift between them.
At a time like this, someone like Erica, an outside power, was exactly what was needed. Only innocence established through a joint investigation by Erica's Italian faction could truly be accepted as innocence.
Just as Kaoru parted her lips to make a detailed report and ask for the next step...
"BOOM!!!"
A deafening explosion erupted without warning from far away.
It was no ordinary thunder from the natural world, but divine lightning filled with violence, sanctity, and destruction.
Even across that great distance, and through layers of steel and concrete, the terrifying pressure pierced through like something tangible, making the air in the room tremble.
Kaoru felt as if an invisible hand had seized her heart in a crushing grip, stealing her breath. Her body tightened again on instinct, and she pressed herself closer to Akuto's solid chest in search of safety.
Akuto narrowed his eyes. All trace of his lazy ease vanished at once.
After giving the unusually girlish Kaoru a gentle pat, he slowly withdrew from her warm body and rose.
Kaoru immediately felt lighter, that comforting heat leaving her. She instinctively curled her legs wrapped in stockings and watched as Akuto, his upper body bare, walked calmly toward the clothes scattered on the floor, his broad back and defined waistline fully exposed.
He dressed quickly, fastening only two buttons at random, just enough to cover his powerful chest.
The entire motion was smooth and decisive, carrying an unquestionable air of command. Then he turned, his gaze falling on Kaoru as she lay on the bed in disheveled shrine maiden robes, her stockings faintly wrinkled.
"I'll go and come right back."
Akuto's voice was calm and level, as though he were merely stepping out to handle some ordinary errand.
The moment the words fell, his figure vanished from the spot as if erased by an unseen hand.
Divine Incarnation: Vāmana, activated.
Kaoru stared blankly at the empty space before her. A few seconds later she snapped back to herself, struggled upright on the bed, ignored the disordered inner layers of her shrine maiden robes, snatched up the encrypted phone from the bedside, and began issuing orders at once.
"This is Sayanomiya Kaoru. Activate the highest-level emergency response plan immediately. Mobilize every force available. Target: the Kuhouzuka family. And get me Miss Erica Blandelli right now!"
Now that she had Akuto's permission, Kaoru had no reason to hold back. At the very moment she made her move, she also contacted Erica. That was partly to secure Erica's strength, and partly to secure moral legitimacy.
Because internal strife in Japan had never been something a single Japanese faction could resolve with unquestioned authority.
...
At the same time, on the edge of a relatively quiet residential district somewhere in Tokyo.
The once peaceful street had become a hellscape. The air was thick with the smell of blood and burned flesh. Broken kunai, torn talismans, and dark red bloodstains lay scattered across the ground.
Several female ninjas in black skintight outfits and masks lay in pools of blood. Most of their bodies were mutilated, clear proof that they had endured a brutally savage battle before dying.
The few kunoichi who remained stood back to back in a fragile defensive circle, desperately shielding a middle school girl in the uniform of Jounan Academy behind them.
The girl was Shizuka Kusanagi.
Her delicate face was pale as paper, her large eyes filled with fear and helplessness, her slender body trembling slightly from terror.
The hem of her dark blue sailor uniform had been sliced open in several places. The black knee socks wrapped around her slim calves were stained with dust, and her round-toed leather shoes were scuffed and dirty. Worst of all, she had twisted her ankle while running in panic moments earlier and had nearly lost the ability to keep moving.
Shizuka bit her lower lip hard, doing everything she could to keep herself from crying, but the fists she clenched at her sides had gone white.
She had long been mentally prepared for Akuto stepping into the hidden world and becoming a Godslayer, but when she was truly forced to face the consequences of that reality, fear still rose in her despite herself.
"Give up resisting, you lapdogs of the Sayanomiya family!"
A middle-aged man in traditional hunting robes stood at the front of a group of sorcerers and ninjas. His face was shadowed and vicious. He was Kuhouzuka Maru, the Kuhouzuka family's great sorcerer.
A cruel grin spread across his face, full of certainty.
"Is it really worth throwing away your last few lives for one ordinary little girl? Hand her over, and I might consider giving you a quick death!"
"In your dreams! Protecting Miss Shizuka is our duty! Unless every last one of us is dead, you won't touch her!"
The lead kunoichi's voice was hoarse, but her gaze remained unwavering.
"Stubborn fools! Move in! Seize that girl!"
Kuhouzuka Maru snorted coldly and gave the signal with a wave of his hand. Behind him, the sorcerers began chanting once more, while the ninjas spread out like ghosts, preparing to launch the final fatal strike.
And at that critical instant, a black shadow broke through the kunoichi's collapsing line of defense and appeared directly before Shizuka Kusanagi. It was a tall, gaunt sorcerer, savage light flashing in his eyes as his claw-like hand shot straight for Shizuka's narrow shoulder.
"Ahhhh!!!"
Shizuka squeezed her eyes shut in terror.
And yet the pain she expected never came.
The instant the shadow crossed within two meters of her, the tiny Colosseum pillar hanging at Shizuka's chest burst with golden divine light.
It was a miniature stone column barely over ten centimeters tall, ancient in shape, as though time and history had been carved into its surface. Wrapped in that golden radiance, it began to expand at a rate visible to the naked eye.
In the span of a single breath, it transformed into a gigantic stone pillar more than a meter thick and over three meters tall.
"Aaah... pghk... BOOM!"
First came a scream cut short, then the wet crunch of shattered bones and ruined flesh, and finally the dull, heart-stopping impact of great stone slamming down.
Shizuka opened her eyes with a shiver. The sorcerer who had lunged at her only moments earlier had already become a mangled heap of blood and flesh, crushed beneath the enormous stone pillar that had appeared from nowhere. Only one twisted hand still jutted out from under it, twitching unconsciously.
A pillar from the Roman Colosseum.
Nominally, it was a souvenir Akuto had given Shizuka. In truth, it was also a divine tool into which he had poured his own godly power. The moment it sensed Shizuka under threat, its defensive mechanism had activated instantly.
This sudden bloody reversal left everyone stunned. The Kuhouzuka family's assault faltered at once.
But the pillar's slaughter did not stop.
It was as though it had come alive, or rather, as though Akuto's overbearing divine power had granted it a simple combat will.
The enormous pillar suddenly swept sideways, carrying a screaming gale and overwhelming force, effortlessly smashing apart every technique and every body in front of it.
Wet impacts burst one after another.
Like several fragile melons being smashed open, the foremost ninjas did not even have time to scream before the pillar struck them at the waist and blew their bodies apart in an instant.
Then the pillar crashed into the ground.
THOOM!
With that single massive impact, every spell in preparation instantly collapsed beneath the divine shockwave flowing from the pillar.
"What... what is that thing?!"
"Fall back! Get back!"
The Kuhouzuka formation descended into chaos. Cries of terror rose one after another.
The Colosseum pillar's attacks were brutally simple, yet they carried unmatched strength and speed. Every swing stirred up a storm of blood.
Even the surviving kunoichi stared in dumbfounded shock, almost forgetting their own pain.
The grin had long since vanished from Kuhouzuka Maru's face, replaced by horror and disbelief. The elite force he had brought with him was as fragile as paper before this bizarre stone pillar.
And yet, at what should have been the darkest moment, a divine artifact on Kuhouzuka Maru's person suddenly erupted with a crack of lightning, and his terror transformed into wild ecstasy.
"Haha... hahahaha! Success! It worked! Oyakata was right!"
Kuhouzuka Maru burst into crazed laughter, utterly indifferent to the horrifying sight of his subordinates being pounded into bloody pulp one by one around him. He yanked a strangely shaped bronze hand mirror from inside his robes, its face carved all over with ancient symbols.
Now, stimulated by the pillar's divine power, the bronze mirror was shaking violently, dazzling white light pouring from its surface.
An indescribably ancient, majestic, and violent presence began to seep from it, growing stronger and stronger with every second.
(End of Chapter)
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