My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 7 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11 — Interlude: Smoke Bomb! All Rivers Lead to the Sea! Izuna Drop! Altered Draw, Invisible Slash!

For Ryouko, adapting to and continuing to live in this world was an attractive option. Her family was a terribly anachronistic clan of ninja, who were so despicable they sent their daughter on a life or death mission despite only being a child, even if she was a high school student. It was hard to believe she would have a happy life if she returned home. Even if she were to throw everything away and flee her family, she would be branded a traitor and hounded to the ends of the earth, and would never be able to find rest.

But if she stayed in this world, things would be different. Her family couldn’t reach her here, and she was finally free from the ancient and unchanging iron code of the ninja. She could live however she wished here.

That said, this world is just too dangerous.

In the end, her decision to return home anyway was one of self-preservation. There was plenty of danger in her home world, but that was a danger that existed within the realm of common sense, and that of a ninja. It was totally different from the horrific dangers presented by things here, like the Sages, Aggressors, and Dark Gods.

Of course, there was someone like Yogiri Takatou in her home world as well, but things like that were hidden beneath the surface, unknown to the general populace. Even if the reality was the same, its presence or lack thereof on the surface of society made a big difference. If it wasn’t made public, everything related to it would be shrouded in darkness, with considerable pressure to keep things as hidden as possible throughout the world. At the very least, there were no people like the Sages who could brazenly treat human life as being worth less than garbage. That difference was huge.

The problem would then be, even if I got home, how to explain what happened here...

Would they believe her if she told them what had actually occurred?

“What ever happen, happen, yes?” Carol spoke up in broken Japanese from her side, pulling Ryouko out of her thoughts. “You’re wondering what to do when we get back, right? Oh, I was just thinking the same thing. I didn’t read your mind or anything,” Carol added, meaning Ryouko’s surprise must have shown on her face.

“I assume so. If you could actually read my mind, there’d be no point in showing it off.”

It was the night after Yogiri and Tomochika had left the City of the War God. Having finished their preparations, Ryouko and Carol were about to leave the city themselves.

“If we get back, you can just tell them everything,” Carol suggested. “Even if you tried to hide it, they have ways of making you talk, right? It’ll just make you look bad if you try to cover anything.”

Since ancient times, ninja acted as intelligence operatives. It was only natural that they were skilled at interrogation and had any number of methods to extract information from someone.

“It’s complicated, isn’t it? While we excel in forcing others to confess what they are hiding, we also have techniques to avoid giving in to such torture.”

The idea of a ninja being captured by a rival organization was well within expectations. They couldn’t have a captured operative sharing any confidential information with their captors, so of course they received training to protect the information they possessed in spite of any sort of torture. Even if she were to tell her family everything, a ninja would doubt that honesty. If she told them she had been sent to another world or something similar, that would make them doubt her sanity, they would assume she had been brainwashed, and their interrogation would only intensify.

“Want to come back with me then?” Carol offered. “We’re pretty soft, you know? I also had the mission of watching Yogiri, but I never would have been forced to commit seppuku if I lost track of him.”

“Ninja don’t commit seppuku.”

“Ohh! Really?!”

Ryouko’s mission had been to observe and protect Yogiri Takatou. Though they could hardly have predicted something like being transported to another world, she had lost track of him. It was hard to believe they would let her off the hook for that when she had been right beside him at the start. There would no doubt be some sort of punishment waiting for her.

“We’d love to have a real ninja join us. Smoke bomb! All Rivers Lead to the Sea! Izuna Drop! Altered Draw, Invisible Slash!”

“What kind of organization are you?”

“If you join us, I’ll tell you.”

Ryouko had assumed Carol was part of some sort of American intelligence agency, but that wasn’t necessarily the case. At the moment, though, it didn’t really matter whether she knew or not.

Walking through the streets, they approached the city gate. Most cities in this world had walls built around them, and their gates would close at night, so they couldn’t just walk out through the city gate like this.

“Was there even a reason for us to leave at night?” Ryouko asked.

“Partly because it took us until nighttime to get ready, but don’t you think it’s not very ninja-like to sleep well and leave first thing in the morning?”

“I guess it’s fine. A wall like this isn’t much of an obstacle.” With some ninja tools, climbing such a wall would be easy enough. And with the Gift they had been given upon being summoned to this world, their physical abilities were boosted enough that they could have just jumped over it. Ryouko had planned to figure out exactly how they would do it once they made it to the wall, but as they approached the gate, they saw someone.

“Wait! Why are you trying to leave the city without saying anything to anyone?!”

A young girl and a woman with dark skin. Risley and Euphemia. Risley was a clone of the Sage Lain, while Euphemia was a half-demon who had been one of Lain’s victims and thus turned into a vampire of her lineage. Ryouko and Carol had only heard rough details about them, but it seemed right now that Euphemia was acting as Risley’s servant.

“We weren’t that close, so I thought we could leave whenever we wanted.” Though they had been together for a short time, Ryouko couldn’t think of why Risley or the half-demons would object to them going anywhere.

“That’s true, but...”

“You are leaving in search of Yogiri as well, correct?” Though Risley puffed up her cheeks in frustration, Euphemia continued calmly on her behalf.

“Yes, we are. Does that mean you intend to do the same?”

“Indeed. Risley said she wanted to search for him no matter what.”

“I see. So you were waiting here for us?”

Ryouko and Carol had acted rather covertly on their way out of the city, but Euphemia was a vampire. Her senses far exceeded those of normal humans, so it wasn’t surprising she had found them.

“Yes. We thought it might be more convenient if we were to work together. You know where Yogiri went, do you not?”

Ryouko and Carol shared a look. Should they answer? Should they travel with these two? Ryouko didn’t mind. She doubted they had any ulterior motives. Risley just wanted to see Yogiri, and Euphemia only wanted to respect Risley’s wishes. Two people with the Gift should have been able to travel in this world without issue, but there was no telling what would happen. It could be advantageous to have someone as powerful as a vampire as an ally. Apparently, Carol felt the same way, as she gave a light nod.

“Yes. We don’t know precisely where he was headed, but we can track what direction and how far away he is.” She then shared that Yogiri and Tomochika had headed east. “They were looking for Sages, right?”

“I heard they were searching for Philosopher’s Stones. Would you happen to know where the Sages are, Euphemia?” asked Risley.

“Unfortunately, I only know what is common knowledge about them. If you say east, the first thing that comes to mind is the Sage in the Empire of Ent, I suppose.”

Euphemia had inherited part of Lain’s memories and power, but they were only her memories and powers as a vampire. Her knowledge of things about the Sages was extremely vague, as if they had been blocked out somehow.

“If Takatou’s information is the same as ours, then he’s probably headed to find the Sage Yoshifumi in Ent,” Carol suggested.

Considering the information they had found after reaching this city, Ryouko also figured that was likely the case.

“If they have already boarded a ship heading for Ent, it may be difficult for us to catch up,” Euphemia replied. “There are few ships that go there. It may be a number of days before another sets sail.”

“Oh, maybe we should have been in a bit more of a hurry,” said Carol. But setting out after him with no preparations wouldn’t have been smart. There was no guarantee they would have caught him, so the possibility of a long journey meant they needed to prepare some sort of supplies.

“I suppose we will need some form of transportation,” Euphemia remarked.

“The only thing I can think of in this world is carriages. Is there something else we can use?” For a time, Yogiri and Tomochika had used an armored truck, but that was very much an exception for this world. The chances that they would find something similar were incredibly slim.

“Lain had hidden refuges throughout the world,” Euphemia told them. “I have memories of there being teleportation devices inside of them.”

“What?!” Risley exclaimed, shocked. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it! What was the point of all our traveling?!”

“The mansion you awoke in was especially isolated from her other properties, so it wasn’t equipped to allow for teleportation to and from it.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Also, it’s not like they exist everywhere, so they can’t necessarily take us wherever we please.”

“Is there one nearby?”

“Yes. It would require us to take a more roundabout path on our way to the port, but if there is a possibility we can teleport to Ent from there, I believe it is worth taking the time to check.”

“I agree,” Ryouko said. “If we’re not going to catch up to them right away anyway, we should probably go check it out.”

It was hard to believe there was something as convenient as instant teleportation that they could use, but Sion had used something similar to get around as well. It may have been a technique that was possible in this world.

“If he had just talked to us before leaving instead of sneaking away, it would have been easier...” If he had done that, they might have made it to Ent much faster. That seemed to be what Risley was thinking, and Ryouko couldn’t help but agree.

“He must have really wanted to get away from you, Risley,” Euphemia replied.

“Th-That’s not true at all! He just said his priority was the Philosopher’s Stones!”

“But he’s going to use them to go back to his home world, right? If that’s the case, then he would never be able to meet you again, which makes it seem like he doesn’t care about you at all.”

“Don’t say that! I’ll never be able to recover!”

“You two are master and servant, aren’t you?” Carol asked, confused.

Euphemia seemed surprisingly merciless.