Crossover anime, a daily life that begins with hunting supernatural beings.

It's just...

It was merely a monster that stole the Buddha's appearance while the Buddha was in a state of great enlightenment.

He's just as much of a scoundrel as the Yellow-Eyebrowed King of Little Thunder Temple.

However, the Yellow-Eyebrowed King has Maitreya Buddha behind him, while he only has himself behind him.

And Sakurai...

It was neither the heroic Monkey King nor the majestic Great Sage Equal to Heaven who escorted Tang Sanzang to the Western Paradise to seek Buddhist scriptures.

He's just a selfish guy, someone who targeted this beast in order to prepare self-defense items for Mafuyu...

Just a human being.

With his eyes narrowed slightly, Sakurai gripped the short dagger in reverse and stepped forward to meet the attack.

The dust obscured Sakurai's eyes, but it could not obscure his mind.

He had clearly memorized the appearance of the twisted beast and its location.

The sharp edge of the dagger grazed the beast's eyes, leaving a long, narrow gash.

"Humanity!!!"

"Disrespectful to the gods!!!"

The beast roared, twisted and howled, and two lines of bloody tears fell down from the wound in front of it.

It reeked of a foul stench.

With a piercing shriek, it punishes Sakurai for his crimes.

It is in...

Curse everything Sakurai has done so far.

"This country has eight million gods, you do the math..."

"Who do you think you are?"

"Not to mention..."

"You're not even a god."

"It's just a supernatural phenomenon. After pretending to be a god for so long, do you really think you've become a Buddha?"

The whipped tail pierced through Sakurai's chest, but it couldn't stop Sakurai's advance.

He grabbed the beast's jet-black tail that it had lashed out with his hand, and with a swift motion, he slashed off the tail with his short dagger.

Sakurai gave it no chance to retaliate, took out the tail from its chest and threw it aside, stepped forward, and bent down to dodge the beast's pounce.

He grabbed its head with both hands and pulled hard, flipping himself over to straddle the struggling beast's back. His legs, pierced by sharp hairs, were pinned to the animal like a vise, giving it no chance to break free.

He clenched his fist, which was holding a short dagger, and slammed it down on its head.

The sound of bones cracking rang out, proof that Sakurai had used too much force.

Ignoring this, Sakurai delivered another heavy punch before the bone had fully healed.

Bang! ! !

Another ear-piercing sound of bones cracking rang out, followed by a burst of pitch-black energy emanating from the point of contact between the fist and the head, gradually dissipating into the air.

Sakurai punched the beast's head repeatedly, driving it deep into the ground.

"You are too weak."

"Compared to other paranormal events I've encountered that are of similar renown to yours, this is far inferior."

"What's wrong? Are you satisfied with killing me once?"

"Have you been hunting humans by deception all this time, to the point that you've forgotten even the most basic fighting methods of a supernatural being?"

"As expected, a piece of trash is a piece of trash. Even if it becomes a supernatural being, it won't change the outcome."

Sakurai mocked the beast, punching it repeatedly in the skull.

It wasn't given the slightest chance to raise its head.

Punch after punch, until the beast's cries changed from resentment and hatred to a feeble whisper, until the beast's body stopped throbbing.

The beast twisted, struggled, and convulsed as it tried to throw Sakurai off.

Finally, it remained motionless.

It's dead.

The pitch-black aura finally dissipated, revealing the beast's true form.

Its head was flat, it had no tail, and it lay motionless on the ground...

An ugly, large fox wearing a monk's robe with human limbs.

Under Sakurai's gaze, the fox remained motionless as it turned into black mist and disappeared, leaving only its tail twitching on the ground, seemingly not quite dead yet.

"The fox borrows the tiger's power; the monks deceive the world by falsely using the name of Buddha."

"That's quite fitting."

Shaking his fist, Sakurai wiped the blood-soaked dagger on his body and put it into his shoulder bag.

He picked up the meter-long fox tail from the ground, pursed his lips, and after composing himself for a long time, he managed a forced, ugly smile.

He said...

"Old man, I kept my word and lived to the end."

A hoarse laugh seemed to reach my ears, and an old man was looking at me kindly, pushing up his reading glasses.

Behind the old man, teenagers called out his name.

It seems we've been waiting for a very, very long time.

So long that the old man could only remember their voices, but not their faces.

17. Kirisu Mafuyu couldn't refuse Sakurai.

After defeating the fox monks disguised as gods and Buddhas, Sakurai didn't waste the remaining two days of his vacation.

Traveling back and forth through the streets, large and small, centered around Ichinose High School, they cleared away any particularly noticeable supernatural occurrences.

And so came the three-day holiday.

This morning...

After a quick wash, Sakurai put the half-price bento she bought on her way home from school yesterday into her bag, picked up her shoulder bag, and left the apartment.

Arriving at school a few minutes early, which was unusual for me, Sakurai swapped his comfortable sneakers with the shoes in the locker. He overheard the students chatting in small groups around him.

"Did you hear that?"

"Thumbelina, the ingenious princess from Class 1-A, has been absent for the past few days. It seems she is sick."

Girl A, who was passing by, was telling Girl B, a piece of gossip that she had just overheard.

"I heard about it. Apparently, he caught a cold while doing deliveries for his family's noodle shop. He's clearly a genius. If it were me, I would never go out to do deliveries."

Girl B was somewhat envious of the other girl's talent.

"It's not that she's sick. I heard that Thumbelina is being targeted by one of those things."

Girl C, standing to the side, mysteriously joined the conversation.

"Really? Who told you that?"

Girl A and Girl B looked at Girl C in surprise.

"I'm only telling you this, don't tell anyone else."

“It was witnessed by one of my junior high school classmates. She saw Thumbelina’s father nervously taking Thumbelina to that glass shrine.”

"I heard that Thumbelina's face turned pale, as if her yang energy had been sucked away."

"It must be a ghost, otherwise why would a sick person go to a shrine?"

Girl C, whose vanity was satisfied, nodded seriously, and then whispered to them.

"real or fake."

The three girls, who were gossiping and chatting, dispersed with their gossip.

Then...

Even Sakurai, who didn't know anyone else, heard about it from her classmates during lunch break.

As more people learned about it, the rumors became increasingly outrageous, eventually even including the rumor that Thumbelina wasn't actually human and had simply been captured.

During the three days he was on leave, malicious and prejudiced "intelligence" without any basis had spread throughout the school.

Of course, Sakurai didn't care about such things.

For him, the only person he cares about right now is Kirisu Mafuyu.

Moreover, perhaps that person doesn't even exist anymore.

The thought of how he couldn't help but confront Mafuyu made him fall silent.

certainly--

This level of remorse is utterly insignificant compared to the possibility of Mafuyu being harmed by supernatural forces one day.

I wonder if Mafuyu-nee is wearing that amulet. What if she doesn't want to wear it?

The items to be exchanged are ready; now it's time to find a suitable self-defense tool.

Knowing that his blood could only last for a while, Sakurai pursed his lips.

Thinking about all sorts of random things, he casually crushed a butterfly on the way, stuffed the wing-shaped remnant into his mouth and chewed it. Sakurai then took out the chicken bento he had bought at half price last night from his shoulder bag.

He found a secluded spot under a tree, opened the package, and started eating by himself.