Returning to the World

25+ Advance chapters on Patreon

Facing Scathach's challenge, Yuto stepped up with a grin, though inside, he couldn't help but marvel. 'Wasn't she a Lancer? Yet here she was, handling riding skills like a seasoned Rider.'

 A warrior who'd lived for thousands of years, she started off a bit stiff, but once she found her groove, even Yuto had to admit he was being pushed back.

'Guess age really does sharpen the blade,' he thought, chuckling to himself as he learned that lesson the fun way.

…..

Another night slipped by. Golden specks of sunlight crept through the window, painting the room with warm, shifting shadows. The time for spirit particle transfer had come.

"Archer, you're… leaving?" Artoria's voice wavered, her green eyes shimmering with unshed tears. The other girls had said their goodbyes last night, leaving these final moments to her. Having lost her parents young, she'd come to see Yuto as her rock. Losing him now felt like a crack in her world.

"Hey, Ria, I'll be back before you know it," Yuto said, his tone light but kind, a playful edge softening the pity in his eyes as he looked at the teary blonde. "You know I can pop into this world anytime I want, right?"

"Mm." Artoria nodded, steadying herself. She wasn't one to cling. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her damp eyes and eased out of his embrace. "Archer, don't forget me. I'll wait," she said, her voice rough but firm.

"Promise," Yuto replied with a wink. After a quick thought, he pulled a 'Lion Plushie' from his inventory and handed it to her. "Here, a little gift. I tweaked it myself. It is packed it with magecraft and carved some runes into it. It'll hold up against servant-level hits for a good while."

Artoria's small hands took the fluffy lion, clutching it close as she watched Yuto's figure fade into the swirling spirit particles, her heart heavy but hopeful.

......…

Back in the night was shrouded in darkness. A moonless, windy night, the perfect time for killing and burying bodies. In a dimly lit underground parking garage, Isayama Yomi gripped her sword, tracing a graceful arc through the air. In an instant, she cleaved a charging corpse in two.

Splat… Crash…!

Beneath the blade's razor-sharp edge, a torrent of viscous blood sprayed out like a fountain. Foul-smelling entrails spilled across the floor. The girl's sword was so swift that even in death, the zombie maintained its forward lunge, only collapsing under inertia moments later, its bisected body dragging across the ground.

"Yomi-nee!"

At that moment, an anxious cry rang out, accompanied by the rapid tapping of small leather shoes against the concrete. Yomi turned to see a short-haired high school girl in a sailor uniform; pretty and breathless rushing toward her. Tsuchimiya Kagura's fair face glistened with sweat from her sudden sprint, her slender legs trembling faintly from the exertion.

"Kagura, didn't I tell you to stay hidden in the corner? Why did you come running out?" Yomi's tone was stern.

Though Tsuchimiya Kagura was her adoptive sister, her strength wasn't particularly impressive. Sealed within her was a spirit beast called Byakuei, the divine dog. If she pushed herself too hard, the seal could break, unleashing chaos. Thus, she excelled more at support than offense.

"I was worried about you, Yomi-nee…"

Being scolded by the sister she revered left Kagura feeling a bit wronged.

"Kagura, your combat experience is lacking. Didn't we agree I'd handle close-range fighting?"

Yomi had always doted on her little sister. Though she was annoyed that Kagura had risked coming out, seeing her sulky, puppy-like expression softened her heart.

"Right now, the opening of the Bone Eater's Well connecting the modern and ancient eras has flooded the city with demons from the past. These creatures have bizarre abilities, so we need to be extra cautious."

"Mm, I understand," Kagura said, nodding obediently.

She gazed with admiration at Yomi, who sheathed her sword with a flourish. Over the past six months, her sister had truly shone. Leading the Onmyoji team under Yuto's organization, Yomi had propelled them to the top rank, earning a fearsome reputation in the supernatural world that everyone knew and respected.

Just as the sisters began to relax and prepare to leave, the fallen corpse suddenly stood up without warning. A bone-chilling screech erupted from its shattered chest, echoing through the empty garage and raising goosebumps.

"Gah… Gah…!"

In the horrified eyes of the two girls, a black bird with three bright red eyes burst from the zombie's chest. Covered in sticky, putrid blood, it shot toward the distant night sky.

"Is that… a Corpse Dance Bird?"

Kagura's sharp eyes quickly identified the creature. The Corpse Dance Bird, a yokai from the Sengoku period, sported pitch-black feathers and three crimson eyes. Named for its ability to manipulate corpses in battle, it was an aggressive, human-eating demon. Though its base strength was modest, it could bolster itself by parasitizing bodies.

Clearly, this was one of the yokai that had slipped into the modern era via the Bone Eater's Well. Yuto's organization had been thrown into disarray by these surging demons. Before departing, Yuto had left his girls an arsenal of projected Noble Phantasms, but the sheer number of yokai overwhelmed them. The creatures sent scouts ahead to monitor the girls wielding these treasures, making it a grueling guerrilla war. Despite their skill, wiping out these sly demons entirely was a tall order.

"Not a chance!"

Yomi pulled a silver-white longbow from her backpack, its strings dense like a zither's. Aiming at the soaring Corpse Dance Bird, she fired a single, precise shot. This was the Bow of Certain Hit, a Noble Phantasm of Tristan, a Knight of the Round Table. In a blink, the three-eyed bird was struck down.

"Ohhhhaaaahhh!" Pierced through the chest by Yomi's arrow, the Corpse Dance Bird wailed in agony. It plummeted, crashing hard onto the ground, rolling wildly and leaving charred streaks on the pavement before going still.

"Kagura, go retrieve the Shikon Jewel inside."

Yomi stowed her bow with calm confidence, a slight smile tugging at her lips as she nodded to her awestruck sister.

"Mm, leave it to me, Yomi-nee!"

Kagura's cute face puffed up with determination as she rubbed her hands together eagerly. She dashed to the bird's corpse, pulling out an enchanted knife. With practiced cuts, she soon extracted a pink crystal shard from its chest: the Shikon Jewel. Like the Killing stone, this artifact could grant demons immense power or vanquish evil. Recently, Miss Kikyo, a priestess from the Sengoku era now working at the Onmyo Agency, had been tirelessly gathering its scattered fragments since arriving in the modern world.

"If we bring this back, Miss Kikyo will be thrilled, right?" Kagura thought happily.

The supernatural realm was far from peaceful. Beyond the yokai spilling from the Bone Eater's Well, the fox demon Hagoromo Gitsune had allied with the infamous Sengoku period yokai Naraku, forming an organization to amass both the Killing stone and Shikon Jewel.

Rumors claimed an evil god named Taisui backed them, fueling their brazenness. Lately, the chaos had sparked frequent firearm-related terrorist attacks, flooding the streets with weapons and amplifying human fear. This birthed the Gun Devil, a terrifying entity that had wreaked havoc in just a month. 

Miss Makima, leader of Public Safety's Devil Extermination Special Division 4, was now hunting it down. Kagura knew bits of this shadowy intel but didn't grasp it fully. She was, after all, a first-year at Shuchiin Academy, with school starting soon. Yomi wouldn't let her keep risking her life in these perilous exorcisms.

Rumble…

As Kagura's mind eased, a violent tremor shook the distance. So massive it felt like a dragon stirring, it rocked the underground garage like a magnitude 7 quake.

"Oh no!"

Yomi raced to Kagura, who stumbled unsteadily.

"Several powerful yokai are closing in fast. Kagura, I'll make an opening for you to escape. Seize it!"

"What? Yomi-nee, I won't–-?!"

Kagura's anxious protest was cut off as a massive white skeleton erupted from the ground.

Rumble…

Cracks spiderwebbed across the floor amid deafening noise, dust and sand clouding the already dim space.

"Ranguren!"

"Byakuei!"

Under mounting pressure, Yomi and Kagura summoned their true-name shikigami. A colossal red lion roared, its tail a writhing mass of snakes, lunging to strangle the airborne skeleton. A white-furred dog god, its head dragon-like and body chained, leaped up, shielding the girls.

"Hahaha! What luck today I've snagged the unguarded 'divine child'! Take her alive, and Lord Hagoromo Gitsune will shower me with rewards!"

The skeleton yokai, Arakune, cackled, its body pulsing with fearsome energy. Unfazed by the snakes coiling around it, it swung a mountain-sized bone arm, shredding them to pieces in Yomi's anguished gaze.

"Hmph, puny yokai dare challenge me?!"

Arakune's decayed eyes glinted with disdain beneath its pale frame, its massive hands pummeling the shikigami into retreat. A Sengoku period great yokai, its power dwarfed theirs.

"Ah, save me… Please, someone save me…!!"

A sudden, desperate female cry startled them all. Yomi looked up to see a trembling girl with golden eyes and long black hair hiding in the rubble.

"Oh no, when did she?!"

Kagura's gut screamed danger. They could barely protect themselves, rescue was impossible. Sure enough, amid the girl's screams, a lithe, short-haired female yokai leaped from Arakune's frame, clutching a tough, thin strand of hair. Her eerie eyes gleamed with cruel intent.

"So you fled here… Bad luck running into me, little sister."

Yura of the Hair (a demon from InuYasha) whipped her dust-fine strands toward the golden-eyed girl's form, poised to snap her apart. But then, a sharp magical pulse rippled from the void above.

'What's that…?'

The familiar sensation lit Yomi's face with excitement. A black-red sea surged from a spirit particle channel, forming a bloody hand that snatched Yura upside down in an instant, halting her mid-strike.

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━━━━━━

patreon.com/DUKE3500 for advance chapters for all the novels i translate for 2$