Chapter 27 Chapter 27 The Monster on the Shore of Yokohama Port (End)...
Something strange happened.
"...I smell it, hehe...half-demon, and also human..."
The monster suddenly broke out from the waves, as fast as a star, and landed on the shore in almost the blink of an eye.
The person closest to the shore at this moment was Edogawa Ranpo, who was standing at the edge of the white line, followed by Nakajima Atsushi beside him. Tamane and Asami were a little further away from them, but still within the monster's attack range.
Although Nakajima Atsushi noticed the abnormality a little later than Yuyin, his actions were not slow at all. Almost at the same time as the monster pounced, he was the first to block in front of Ranpo. His hands instantly turned into half a tiger, and he used the sharp claws of the king of beasts to slap the attacking monster's body hard.
Compared to him, Yuyin had more time to react. While telling Qianjian to be careful, she blocked the people behind her and quickly took out a bow and arrow from her bag.
The monster missed its first attack and was injured by Nakajima Atsushi's sharp claws. It immediately retracted its long tongue and let out a sharp whistling sound that almost pierced the eardrum, making people extremely uncomfortable.
"Damn human, how dare you hurt me!"
The monster was enraged by its injuries and raised its head high. The sea surface surged and an extremely thick and long snake tail emerged from it, sweeping directly towards everyone.
Nakajima Atsushi was the first to be hit. He didn't even have time to strengthen his whole body and could only subconsciously block his body with his arms. However, the monster was so strong that even though he tried his best to resist, he and Edogawa Ranpo behind him were pushed back more than ten meters.
At this point, the monster's full appearance was revealed: a human body with a snake tail and very long hair. From the upper body alone, she appeared to be a very attractive and beautiful woman. Only upon closer inspection could one detect her unusual features, from her vertical golden pupils and her long, forked, snake-like tongue. Below her body was a thick, long, snake-like tail. Nakajima Atsushi's personal experience demonstrated its power.
It’s indeed a wet girl!
The guess came true. Yuyin drew her bow and arrow, aimed at Ru Nu's vitals, and was about to shoot.
In an instant, she changed her mind and shifted her aim slightly by a few inches.
With a "whoosh" sound, the arrow flew out from the bowstring, like a swift meteor, suddenly piercing the top of the Nunu's tail and nailing it firmly to the ground.
The second arrow was shot immediately afterwards, hitting the middle of Nunu's tail, making her entire snake tail unable to move.
"This spiritual power... is a demon slayer! Damn it—!"
Nu Nu struggled and swung her tail, trying to break free and escape, but Yu Yin's demon-killing arrows, which were infused with spiritual power, were not so easy to get rid of. No matter how hard she tried, the two arrows remained motionless.
“Good opportunity!”
With the help of her two arrows, Nakajima Atsushi immediately escaped from the predicament, and immediately seized the opportunity, raised his claws and turned around to pounce on the monster.
"ah……!"
Wherever his sharp claws touched, they were indestructible. Nu Nu's upper body was almost broken in two by this powerful blow. She fell to the ground, twitched a few times, and finally stopped moving.
Only then did Nakajima Atsushi stop transforming into a half-beast and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
It was so dangerous just now. If it weren't for that young lady's help, they would be in danger today. We should be very grateful to her. He thought silently in his heart.
"Ranpo-san, are you okay?" Nakajima Atsushi turned around and looked at Edogawa Ranpo, who was forced to sit on the ground due to the monster attack just now, and asked with concern.
"What on earth... happened?"
The most confused person in the whole audience was Detective Minoura. In his opinion, the sea breeze suddenly became stronger, the waves suddenly became more turbulent, and the young assistant following Edogawa Ranpo suddenly looked as if they were facing a great enemy, as if they were fighting something. But he didn't see anything and could only judge from their behavior that something had indeed happened.
"Oh my."
Ranpo leisurely picked up his hat, which had fallen to the ground in his panic. He brushed off the dust on it and put it back on his head. He had no reaction to the thrilling scene just now. After all, he didn't see anything.
Ranpo said to Nakajima Atsushi with understanding, "No wonder Dazai insisted that I bring you along when Officer Minoura came to pick me up. I thought he wanted you to learn more about solving crimes, but it turns out he was arranging you to be my bodyguard."
Nakajima Atsushi rubbed his head rather embarrassedly: "I didn't mean to hide it from Ranpo-san, but Dazai-san told me that since Ranpo-san can't see these messy and scary things, I shouldn't tell you, and asked me to secretly pay attention to protect your safety."
In the last policewoman murder case, Nakajima Atsushi learned from Dazai Osamu that Ranpo-san did not have any special abilities and therefore could not see those things, but everyone in the detective agency kept this matter a secret. So when Dazai Osamu asked him to do it, he immediately agreed.
"What exactly is the standard for being able to see those things?" Edogawa Ranpo fell into deep thought, muttering, "...No wonder lately, the president, Kunikida, Dazai, and the others have been constantly walking through thin air. The president sometimes even gives me a slightly surprised look, but when I ask him if there's anything wrong, he doesn't say anything...I see."
"Ranpo-san?"
Seeing that Ranpo looked a little dazed, Nakajima Atsushi asked worriedly.
"Nothing much," Ranpo smiled and stood up, his usual lazy and unconcerned look. "So, did you deal with that monster?"
"That's right..." Nakajima Atsushi rubbed his head, turned around and pointed at the monster's remains on the ground. "But what should we do with this thing? We can't just leave it here, right?"
"I don't know either," Ranpo said matter-of-factly. "It's none of our business anyway. Let's leave it to the police. He'll report it, and someone will come and take care of it."
Nakajima Atsushi nodded and was about to leave with Ranpo, but his beast instinct instantly sensed the danger, but it was too late to dodge.
At the critical moment, a glowing arrow came rushing over and hit the monster's chest squarely, but it still kept going.
Suddenly, the arrow exploded into a ball of spiritual light. The woman who had gathered her last strength to launch a sneak attack on Nakajima Atsushi screamed miserably under the bathing of this spiritual light and eventually turned into nothingness.
Nakajima Atsushi stared at the scene with wide eyes until the girl who had saved him passed him by, picked up the two arrows that had fallen to the ground (the third had disappeared with the monster), and turned to warn him, "Next time you fight a youkai, never let your guard down. Youkai have strong vitality. Even if they receive a fatal wound, they won't die like humans. They'll recover in a short time, and they have all kinds of unique life-saving secrets."
"Um, thank you for saving me," Nakajima Atsushi said halfway through his words of thanks, but when he heard what the other party said, he was suddenly shocked and said, "Y-Monster?!"
"Yes," Yuyin glanced at him curiously, as if wondering why the boy was fussing over it. After all, he had already fought a battle with a monster. "This monster is called a nun, also known as an iso-onna or a sea-woman. It's an amphibious monster that often appears on the coast and in rivers. It moves swiftly and feeds on humans and blood. It's a very aggressive monster."
Nakajima Atsushi was in a trance: "...So there really are monsters in this world."
"Excuse me, young lady who knows a lot about monsters, what is your identity?"
Edogawa Ranpo asked suddenly while maintaining a smiling expression.
From the moment Nūnō appeared and attacked everyone, Yuyin knew this matter wouldn't end peacefully. It was inevitable that Edogawa would become suspicious. That's why she changed her mind after firing her first arrow, holding back and deliberately using it as a diversionary measure, leaving the silver-haired boy the lead attack. If she hadn't harbored suspicions about Nūnō's death, she would have snuck away with Asami.
"Well, don't worry about me. I'm just a small demon slayer who received a commission and came to check on the situation." Yuyin took Asami's hand and gestured, "Now that the demon has been eliminated, my commission is completed. You can handle the follow-up matters. That's it, bye~"
After saying that, she pulled Asami up and ran away.
"Hey, wait!" Only Officer Ji Pu, after his worldview had been completely overturned, still remembered his duty. He chased after the two men and shouted, "You haven't left your name or phone number yet. We need to take a statement!"
However, the girls ran like the wind and soon ran a long way away. Even an old detective like Officer Minoura was caught up with them for a while and fell behind so far that he could only see their backs from afar. He had to hold his breath and catch up with them.
Only Nakajima Atsushi and Edogawa Ranpo were left on the coast.
"Ranpo-san, what should we do now?" Nakajima Atsushi said, touching his head. Officer Minoura ran away, so should they take the train back?
Ranpo, however, said in a tone that seemed to confirm something: "Sure enough, that girl knows me."
Nakajima Atsushi: “Huh?”
"Although I'm the world's number one detective, it's not surprising that someone knows me," Ranpo said complacently, "but that girl's understanding of me is different from that of ordinary people. She knows my abilities and is afraid that I'll see through something."
Ranpo saw through it from the beginning. Even though the other party concealed it very well, people's micro-expressions are difficult to control and are the most difficult to deceive. The other party did not know Officer Minoura or Atsushi, but she was definitely familiar with him, which meant that she had come into contact with him or his information, so it was very likely that she belonged to or had belonged to a powerful force in Yokohama.
Is it the Port Mafia or the Special Ability Agents Division? These two are the most likely suspects.
There is no dark aura around her, so she is definitely not a member of the Mafia. In other words, the most likely possibility is that she is from the Special Ability Department.
She knew me, but she didn't know about Nakajima Atsushi, who had been making waves in Yokohama with the "Tiger" rumor recently. This meant that he had been out of contact with Yokohama and the Butei Club for some time. Did he defect or was he sent on a mission?
In just a moment, Ranpo summarized a series of clues in his mind and came up with the answer.
After arriving at the answer, as if he had solved a mildly interesting puzzle, Ranpo suddenly returned to his usual listless state. He stretched and said, "That's probably it. Anyway, it has nothing to do with us, so we can just ignore it."
"Ah, Ranpo-san, are you saying that we can just ignore this matter?" Nakajima Atsushi, who was completely unable to follow Ranpo's thoughts, thought he was talking about the monster case.
Ranpo walked to the Toyota, opened the back seat, took out a small cake and started eating: "Hmm...you can go, you take these food, otherwise wait until I finish eating and see if the officer has returned."
Nakajima Atsushi sighed: "This is the only way." Mr. Ranpo didn't know the way. He had just arrived in Yokohama and was not familiar with the road conditions.
The sea breeze gently blew across his face. Nakajima Atsushi smoothed his bangs and looked out at the now calm and peaceful sea. He couldn't help but sigh, "The sea changes so quickly. When that monster appeared just now, the whirlpools and waves were terrifying. Now it's completely unrecognizable from what it was back then."
"Young man, are you talking about monsters?"
"Yeah..." Nakajima Atsushi replied casually, then suddenly realized, "Who?!"
He turned his head suddenly and saw a young man in a black kimono walking towards the shore, and a "person" wearing a strange mask was floating beside him.
"Oh~ So you can see it too."
When the handsome young man saw Nakajima Atsushi's gaze fall on the Shikigami beside him, he immediately realized that the other party was also someone who could see monsters.
"In that case, can you tell me what just happened?"
The young man smiled slightly, and it was such a pleasing smile, but Nakajima Atsushi subconsciously took a step back.
"Oh, am I really that scary?" Deba Shizuka sighed, "I just want to know about the monster that was causing trouble here..."
However, before he could finish his sentence, Chang Jingsi, who was about to walk to the place where Nu Nu had just disappeared, suddenly froze with a smile on his face.
Feeling the demonic energy that was about to dissipate in the air and the familiar spiritual power mixed in it, his tone suddenly changed and he demanded, "Who was the person who just eliminated Nu Nu? Where is he?" His tone was unusually anxious.
"ah?"
Before Nakajima Atsushi could react to the other party's "change of expression", he heard Mr. Ranpo's lazy voice.
"It's a young girl~ She ran over there." Ranpo pointed with a cake fork.
"Thanks."
Dechang Jingsi hurriedly expressed his thanks, then remembered something, took out a talisman from his arms, closed his eyes and chanted a spell. After throwing it away, the flying talisman suddenly turned into a white butterfly, flapped its wings a few times in the air, circled for a while, and then flew away in the direction indicated by Ranpo.
“How amazing…”
Even though he had experienced enough "novelty" today, the fact that the talisman paper turned into a butterfly still made Nakajima Atsushi open his mouth in surprise.
After a long while, when the young man who had suddenly appeared suddenly left again, Nakajima Atsushi finally remembered something and protested to Edogawa Ranpo, "Wait, Ranpo-san, why did you tell that guy? That girl saved us after all."
"You don't understand this," Ranpo said, holding a fork in his mouth. "They know each other, and they're very familiar with each other."
"Is it someone you know?" Nakajima Atsushi rubbed his head. "Is that so? That's fine then."
Ranpo sat in the back seat, biting the cake happily, his eyes narrowed in happiness.
As for the fact that the girl doesn't want to be found by acquaintances, there's no need to tell Atsu-kun.
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The author has something to say: Haha, I didn’t expect that =V=
*Note: The setting of the nun is based on the description of the island folk legends, and the reference materials include Toriyama Sekien's "One Hundred Demons Night Parade" and Fujisawa Mamoru's "The Complete Works of Yokai Gatan: Japan"
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