Chapter 23 — We Committed All Sorts of Barbaric Acts, So Hearing You Say That Hurts
All of the zombies had dropped to the floor.
“Just in case, I will inform you that these were merely dead bodies being moved around. It doesn’t seem like the boy minds either way, though,” Mokomoko announced.
But it did serve to soften Tomochika’s feeling of guilt. The fact that there were so many dead was still a tragedy, but it wasn’t like Yogiri had killed a group of passengers who were simply being manipulated.
“Are these the people you were talking about being controlled, Takatou?”
“I don’t know. They never really gave the impression of being dead bodies that were moving around before.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be looking around for pirates right now.”
“Hm. It’s not like we have many other choices. Actually, maybe we should just head to the pilothouse. There was a strange broadcast earlier. I believe it was from the head of the pirates.”
There was no guarantee that would be the case or that the broadcast had come from the pilothouse. But it was better to have a concrete plan than to walk around checking rooms at random.
While en route to the pilothouse, they were attacked by a number of spirits, but Yogiri of course dealt with them effortlessly.
“Are these guys stupid or something?!” Tomochika commented. “They’re not learning at all.”
“They possess only a craving for and jealousy of the living,” Mokomoko explained. “As spirits, they don’t have much of an ability to think for themselves.”
“That makes me wonder about you, Mokomoko.”
“I have ascended to the rank of Divine Spirit. I have no issues with retaining memories and performing calculations.”
After walking for a while, they reached the pilothouse at the center of the ship. Inside was a woman dressed in men’s clothes, lying on the ground faceup. No one else was around, so it seemed like the crew had fled.
“That’s her—the pirate leader.”
She was the one the intruders had referred to as “boss,” so there was no question about it.
“This is the one you played cards against, right?”
“Yeah. Her name is Degul, I think. I guess she’s one of them.”
“Looks like she’s awake.”
As Yogiri crouched down and stared into her face, she glared back at him. But she seemed to be paralyzed; she didn’t move from where she was lying on the ground.
“What the hell do you want?”
“Do you remember us?”
“Yeah, the cheaters. I hadn’t seen someone so obvious about it in a while, so I remember you well.”
“This situation is a bit of a problem for us. I’d appreciate it if you left and let the ship move on.”
“Ha. What do you imagine I can do in this state?”
“Do you know what’s wrong with her, Mokomoko?”
At Yogiri’s urging, the Dannoura ghost moved Enju forward to inspect Degul’s body. “Hm. The most I can tell is that she has no external injuries. Did something happen to you?”
“No idea. Some weird kid showed up, and then I was suddenly like this. I can’t move, but a bit earlier my body was moving and speaking on its own.”
Degul was surprisingly honest with them. She had likely realized there was no point in resisting when she was unable to do anything.
“Maybe she was being controlled. She could have those parasites in her as well.”
“What are you talking about? That sounds gross,” Degul replied.
“When I killed the parasites in other people, they were freed.”
“Can you kill them in me?”
“I don’t know. They’re not trying to hurt me personally, so I can’t say for sure.”
“Do it, please. If I can move again, I’ll gladly sound the retreat.”
“One more thing. Could you release the block on our powers?”
Degul thought it over for a moment, then nodded.
“All right, I’m going to kill the thing in your head. There might be side effects.”
“I don’t care. I can’t live like this anyway.”
“Okay, then I’ll try.”
Yogiri put a hand to her forehead, holding it there for a moment before pulling it back.
“That seemed pretty easy.”
“I tried treating it like a virus.”
Yogiri instinctively killed things like viruses when they got close to him, whether they intended harm or not, since they were dangerous just by existing. He had approached the things inside Degul in the same way.
“So, what, is your power a disinfectant now?”
As Tomochika sighed, Degul began to twitch. She slowly lifted her upper body, stretched briefly, then rose to her feet. It appeared that Yogiri’s improvised method had worked perfectly.
“Just so you know, if you turn on us, I’ll kill you,” Yogiri warned her as she picked up her sword.
“I’m not gonna do that. Even we pirates have morals. I’ll retreat, just like I said.”
“Then that means the ship will be back to normal...except not!” Tomochika exclaimed. “With no crew here, how will we get where we need to go?!”
“What do you mean?” Degul asked.
Yogiri gave her a brief rundown of recent events.
“Are you serious? What is with this ship? This wasn’t part of the plan!”
“Mokomoko, can you control the boat?”
“If it was about the size of a cruiser, perhaps I could manage it, but piloting a vessel like this single-handedly is impossible.”
“Then we’re stuck!”
“That’s why I had her release the seal. You should be able to make a boat with Furemaru now, right?”
“Hey, why don’t we just get on those tentacle things and have them take us somewhere safe?” Tomochika asked.
“They’re pirates, you know? That means they’re criminals. I don’t want to travel with them.”
“Are you serious?!”
“Sure, I kill people and steal things depending on the situation, but that’s different from throwing in with professional pirates.”
“I guess that makes sense...” Tomochika had initially thought it might be a good idea, but maybe she had just become numb to such things.
“Back when I was alive, we committed all sorts of barbaric acts, so hearing you say that hurts a bit...” Mokomoko muttered.
“Wait, are you saying my ancestors—”
“You can be depressed later,” Yogiri interrupted. “For now, let’s move somewhere else. There’s only one hallway leading to this room. If something shows up to block us, there’ll be no way out except to go through them.”
They decided to hurry and get out before that happened, but they were just a little too late.
“That’s him. The guy who did something to me,” Degul growled.
A group of people were standing in the hallway in front of them. In the middle of the crowd was the boy who had called out to Tomochika earlier: Hornet.
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