VOLUME 1

Chapter 3: Part 6

Ding Dong!

The doorbell rang, and with an “I’m coming!” I stood up. When I opened the door, I saw a man standing there, wearing a trench coat and a hat in spite of this stifling heat.

“h.e.l.lo, my name is Kerberos Wansard.”

He took off his hat, and underneath was the head of a black dog. It seemed like the head of a Doberman, with a long nose and very little fur.

Could it be that he was here because Yuu had let out emotions? And had changed my fate?

“What do you want?”

“I am the guardsman of the underworld… ah, and don’t say ‘oh, how can you be a guardsman if you’re a dog?’ I guess you could call me a guardsdog or something… right?”

Even if you say “right?” I’m not going to bite. Just get on with it.

“Although, even though I call myself a guardsman my role is somewhat the opposite… I let anyone in who comes, but don’t let anyone out. Of course, it’s because it’s the underworld… yes. You came to the underworld once but then you returned back here, right? So I thought I would come over here and devour you.”

“In other words, you came here to return me to the underworld?”

“Ah, so you understand? I’m thankful that you understood so quickly. Well then…”

He ripped into my shoulder. Kerberos… no, I’m just going to call this thing “dog.” The dog bit right through my shoulder. He tore through my shoulder as easily as if he was eating a piece of bread. I kicked the dog with 310% power, and ran back into the house.

Because of the gaping wide hole in my shoulder, I couldn’t move my arm. Putting pressure on my tattered shoulders as my arms sw.a.n.g side to side, I ran towards the living room.

Yuu had the power of healing. It would take time for a wound this terrible to heal on its own. So I would ask her to heal it.

“Yuu! Sorry. This is a bit a sudden, but heal me!”

When I told that to the necromancer who was watching television in the living room, she didn’t even look my way and pulled in her chin. I sat next to Yuu, and showed her my wound.

Yuu took off the gauntlet she was wearing on her left hand, and touched her pale, snow-like hand to my chest. Just with that, the blood stopped flowing from my shoulder, and it was healed.

Ooohh, so that’s the power of healing… amazing. She didn’t even have to touch the wound.

“You’re being quite stubborn, Aikawa-san. Please just die. Right away-“

The dog stepped foot into the living room. Sera watched the dog carefully with her crimson eyes, and Haruna bounced up from her collapsed position on the table. With an expression of shock…

“The dog talked!”

What? The Megalo also talked, didn’t they? Like that crustacean thing.

“Oh? I was just thinking that it’s been a while since I’ve seen you, and you’ve been here? h.e.l.lscythe-sama… ah, I see. This was your doing, wasn’t it? It must have been. There’s no reason a normal human would be able to escape from the underworld, yes. Come on, tell me.”

For some reason, the dog sat down, and we all sat around the table. Oh? Was the battle already over?

As everyone sat around the table with puzzled expressions, Yuu picked up the ballpoint pen that had been thrown by the table and wrote something on her memo pad.

Tap tap.

I forgot. = “Teehee. Yuu forgot! Sorryyy.” (1)

“Well, I guess this was a wasted trip, then. How bothersome. You really should have told us before you called his soul back to him. If I knew this was your doing, I wouldn’t have come in the first place…”

The dog shook his head in a resigned manner. I had no idea what was going on… for now, there was one thing I had to figure out.

“So, you’re not going to fight with me anymore?”

At my question, the dog put on a strangely refreshed expression.

“I won’t. This is something h.e.l.lscythe-sama did, right? She can do anything she wants. Even the kings of the underworld kneel before h.e.l.lscythe-sama. It’s just… hmm… how do I put it… she’s quite amazing.”

“Yuu’s that amazing?” I muttered, and the dog continued to speak.

“Yes. ‘The Center of Everything,’ the kings of the underworld call her.”

The Center of Everything, huh? It was clear that Yuu was an incredibly important person, but it’s not like that mattered to me… it did really weigh on my mind though.

“But more importantly, this has been bothering me, yes. The wound on your shoulder from before was pretty serious, yes? Could it be… well, I’m sorry if this is false, but could it be that you made h.e.l.lscythe-sama use her abilities?”

I heard a tap tap.

It’s alright. The pain is bearable.

Pain… ah, I had completely forgotten. In exchange for using her abilities, she had to suffer through pain. A headache, I think…

The dog sighed with an “I knew it,” and punched me across the face. (2)

What the h.e.l.l… before I could object, the dog began to speak. He seemed to understand what I had wanted to say by my expression.

“h.e.l.lscythe-sama holds in her hands the power to heal things. It is the power to fix a target object wherever she wants it to be healed by just touching it.”

“Hmmm, that’s amazing beyond my expectations. She can fix anything?”

Quite out of character, Haruna seemed interested.

“But, in return, she must bear the pain that she heals.”

“So you mean, just now, Yuu took on the pain of getting her shoulder torn apart?”

“Precisely. Because of you, h.e.l.lscythe-sama is feeling pain, you know? I know how much pain h.e.l.lscythe-sama has come to feel through the use of her abilities. That is why I punched you.”

“Yuu, I’m sorry. You really should have told me that you would go through this.”

I don’t mind. = “It’s fine! It was for my oniichan, after all!”

At that one word, the dog’s round eyes became even rounder, and he lightly opened his mouth while gazing at Yuu.

“Is that… right? Ah, I really must be returning home soon. I apologize for the inconvenience this time… ah, there are some humans being killed near here, so maybe I’ll take their souls with me and leave.”

“Wait just a second! I can’t just overlook what you said about people being killed near here!”

“Why is that? It’s a murder that has nothing to do with all of you, though? Could it be you want to help the humans? Could it be…?”

It wasn’t just that I wanted to help them.

There were people being killed near here? The one who was trying to kill them was probably…

The one who had killed me!

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) “I forgot?” “No, Yuu forgot!” “But I didn’t forget anything.” “No, Yuu forgot!” “Grrrr….” Alright, this was a stupid author’s note.

(2) Literally, “punched me like a cat.” I’m not really familiar with how a cat punches. Enjoy this live demonstration.