Toasteful: Chapter 11, Part 1

　It was a memory of a distant day. A girl was running frantically through the dark forest, out of breath. From behind her, the sound of several people running after her.

　The girl's pretty, young face is distorted by suffocation and fear, and her eyes are filled with tears. There was despair, sadness, and frustration at the absurdity of it all.

　Why must I suffer like this? Why do I have to face the threat of death? Why do I have to go through this horror? Why, why, why...?

　"Aaaaah...!?"

　She must have gotten caught on a tree root or something. The girl falls with a sprained leg. And perhaps aware of the sound, footsteps, and angry voices approaching her. Immediately, the girl hides in the grass and gasps for air.

　"Hey! Where the hell did that monster run off to?"

　"It can't be that far away with that body! Find it! Find it and kill it!"

　Slowly she peeks out from the grass to see her pursuers. There were men with machetes, hoes, or maybe even hunters with flintlock rifles.

　"I didn't think that girl, that monster brat was here..."

　"Yeah, I was thinking it's hilarious. She got lost in the mountains. But then, she came back a month later. It said that brad was rescued in a mountain village, but it smelled like some kind of animal. I never thought we'd be mixed up with that monster!"

　One of the pursuers shouts in a tone of deep disdain and there was a sense of hate in his voice. At that time, only a few decades had passed since the Great Human Youkai War, and the Imperial Court was eagerly engaged in clearing away the remnants of the defeated forces. They marched their troops into the open road and killed the monsters without mercy, even babies. They also put a bounty on the monster's head to make the people actively hunt in the mountains, and finally invade the territory of the monsters who did not participate in the great uprising.

　There is no mercy for the weak. Neither is there any mercy to be given to the monsters. After all, if human beings compromise even a little, if they give them a little mercy, the past wars will be reenacted again. Then, Fuso-kuni and human beings, who have barely won the war after so many sacrifices, will not be able to endure another great war in the future. Therefore, the seeds of unrest must be killed before they sprout.

　And in such a time, there is a tragedy that a half-Youkai girl was killed in an unknown way, but in a sense, it might have been inevitable. That is the trend of history, and the tragedy of a single individual has been swept away and forgotten in the vast sea of memories.

　...Yes, even if she had seen her mother, the only family she had left, brutally murdered as a traitor to mankind while hiding in a gap in the storeroom...

　"Sob... Sob... Mommy... Save me..."

　The girl cries out as she crouches down, sobbing uncontrollably. She wishes she could wake up from this terrible dream as soon as possible. But it is an unfulfilled wish. Reality is right in front of her.

　"I found you!"

　The girl's distinctive "fox ears" were jerked back before she could even let out a small scream at the sound of that voice. A forceful pull that almost shreds the ears, sending the girl to the ground. If her fox-like tail had not killed the impact, she might have hit her head.

　"I've got it! That's it!"

　One of the farmers shouts and the farmer's men gather in droves. All of them are furious.

　"Eeek...!?"

　A girl's legs tremble with fear, and she can't even stand up.

　"White hair, tail, and ears, I knew it! It's the monster fox!"

　"You're a monster for taking the form of a human!"

　"You planned to disguise yourself as a human and eat us alive, right!?"

　The girl's ears are pulled back from her head and her tail falls limply as she is shouted at in a fury of unintelligible words. The girl's literal fright like a small animal may awaken in some people a desire to protect her. But for those who have heard the horror of monsters from their parents and grandparents, it would have seemed like an act to catch them off guard. Or those who saw that it was not an act would have felt superior seeing the frightened half-Youkai.

　...However, some of them also had other feelings because of the girl's motherly beauty.

　And one of them was the man who had first dragged her out of the room. He suggested to the others around him with a sneering look on his face.

　"Oh, come on, are you serious?"

　"With a monster like this? Are you out of your mind?"

　"Are you fucking perverted!?"

　Some of the men frowned at the suggestion. But then again some of them looked at the girl with curious eyes. The girl, who had not yet reached her secondary sexual characteristics, instinctively sensed a frightening and dangerous future in their licking glances.

　Then, the man who started it all approached the girl, seized her hands and feet, grabbed her clothes...

* * *

　"Noooooo!!?"

　"Aaaah!?"

　"Aaagh!!?"

　The girl screamed as soon as she woke up. Several startled little voices followed at the same time.

　The girl is drenched in sweat and out of breath, remembering the dream she had just had.

　But what was it about? Dreams are quickly forgotten once they are awakened.

　Therefore, she was already forgetting what exactly it was, though she was aware that it was very frightening, and clasped her hands around herself. But perhaps it is the fact that she has forgotten what it was that makes it all the more terrifying.

　"Haah... haah... haah... haah... Huh?"

　The frightened girl suddenly notices an even smaller hand on her small hand. Then she turns her head in the direction of the hand.

　"Sister, are you okay?"

　The young girl with a lizard-like tail mutters, looking deeply worried. Behind her are several children peering at her as if to observe her...

　"This place is...?"

　"This is an orphanage that I run. It's not very well run, though."

　The girl's question was answered by a strange woman with raccoon dog ears and a tail who appeared from behind the children.

　"Umm..."

　"I'm Azuma Hibari from the Kawahara Orphanage. The girl there is Akane, the youngest one in our family."

　The lizard girl smiles with a grin.

　"I was surprised to find you in the city. You were all in tatters, and there was a guy with a spear right next to you... I've never seen you around here before, I wonder if you were born outside the city?"

　Azuma asks the half-Youkai girl about her identity. But...

　"......"

　The girl looks stunned as if she is about to say something but then turns her face down as if she realizes something is missing.

　"...? What's wrong?"

　"...Umm, I'm sorry. Who am I?"

　With a look of deep confusion on her face, the girl confessed that she did not even know who she was...

* * *

　'Firefly of the Dark Night (Yamiyo no Hotaru)' character Kitsuri Shiroki is a character who is supposed to be a former Calamity Youkai of a half-Youkai. She is cruel and self-centered like other youkai and appears on the fourth mission of defeating a youkai when certain conditions are met in the game. In this mission, the good people of the village where the main character stays and interacts with her are devoured by her hordes of Youkai, including women and children. She is known among her fans for her fleshy, flabby body and erotic thighs and buttocks.

　She craves power and sees humans as either food or insects, but at that time she is defeated in a battle with the main character and is forced to flee for her life. It was a serious blow to her pride.

　Depending on the route, the main character and she go through several battle events after that, but she is overwhelmed by the growth and power of the main character, even though she plays dirty and outrageous tricks every time, and she becomes attached to the main character out of hatred. Then, she will contact one of the elders of the Kizuki family, or the gorilla princess or the old hag, or the remnants of the old Kuuban faction 'Rescue Youkai' and be used by them, which is also a branch route.

　The heroine flag is triggered when the main character (or rather, the main character was her true love), who was trapped with her, succeeds in rescuing her from being used and left for dead.

　...or more precisely, she survives, but due to her weakening and the resulting loss of much of her Youkai Energy and her memories. This makes Kitsuri Shiroki unable to maintain her original form, and she turns into a young child. But then, she comes to love the main character who is kind to her for the first time in her blank memory, as if he were her own parent, and can be used as the main character's familiar, whose initial stats are low but whose growth rate is very high.

　However, don't let your guard down here, because "Firefly of the Dark Night (Yamiyo no Hotaru)" is a terrible thing. Many players have grown her into a Lolita (and a good one at that) for the sake of story progression or to collect stills for service scenes, but if they grow her too much at this point, they fall into the pitfalls of the producers' malicious scheme.

　In fact, if her status is raised to a certain level, the players will be forced to enter a bad ending. After all, she would regain her power and her memory. And depending on the route, the Kizuki family would be attacked by surprise and half destroyed by her betrayal. moreover, several heroines who are highly favorable to the main character are killed as if they were targeted.

　If those of you who have a bad feeling about this is right, your feeling is correct. Her goal is, of course, to monopolize the main character whom she has been obsessing over since she regained her memory and her original personality. She may also have memories of being rescued and of being a child afterward, which are intertwined to make her a very troublesome and sickly character.

　Although the details of the situation depend on the flags that are set, in most cases, the main character is made to be a statue and put a collar on his neck to prevent him from escaping. The end of the story is a gruesome one, in which the fox monster violently rides the protagonist in a cowgirl position and makes the main character eat the flesh of a human who has spiritual power, including a member of the Kizuki family (and whom the protagonist knows well) who was killed to make him a Youkai like her. Yes, the still image of this scene is so shocking that it distorts many people's sexuality.

　Moreover, in this case, the main character drops out in the middle of the story, so that the "Youkai group" achieves their goal and the capital falls into the hands of the Youkai group, and Fuso-kuni is destroyed. Ah, this is not funny!

　Well, one of the short stories of the prequel to the start of the original story of Kitsuri Shiroki is 'Kitsune-ji Tragic Tale (The Tragic Tale of a Fox Child)'. It's a d*mn story about how she got enough power to fight with Aoko-sama at the start of the original story, though she had only enough power to attack the capital in good humor and get avenged. It is known to fans as a devilish work in which the evilness of the female fox is described to the hilt. And if one follows the content of the story, then...

　"Well, well, this has become more than a little troublesome."

　A new city in the capital... a messy city not protected by walls, wards, etc., on the roof of the tallest building in the city, I hide myself and my presence with a cloak cursed with concealment and recognition blocking... a mysterious gorilla's parting gift... and cluck my tongue.

　The novel describes how, just before she died, the fox monster divided her soul into several incarnations. If things are to proceed as in the novel, those incarnations will cause many incidents in the capital, especially in the new city where the Imperial Court is not so careful. Then, the monster foxes will gradually regain their power, gather, fuse, and finally resurrect as even more powerful Youkai with the main dish of tragedy.

　From my point of view, I wanted to prevent this resurrection from happening later. And to do so, I needed to deal with the core of the resurrection, the portion that would be the catalyst for the main dish to be devoured...

　"D*mn it, there's nothing I can do at this point, huh? I guess I'll just have to start with the easy part."

　Once she's under the protection of that Azuma Hibari, I should avoid any contact with her. Still, regardless of the fact that I have no choice but to stay out of it in the end, I think I should start with the task at hand.

　"In other words, let's go hunting for small fry...!"

　The next moment, I throw my spear as hard as I can toward the target that I have caught by sharing my vision with my shikigami's bat.

　The spear, which was thrown with my physical strength strengthened by spiritual power, was of slightly better quality than the one I had used when I was a lowly soldier, and the tip of the blade was covered with spiritual power. With a sound of cutting through the air, the spear thrust forward and smashed the head of the monster fox that was about to devour the drunken man from behind. The top half of the head is reduced to a piece of meat, and the corpse falls down with its four legs wandering aimlessly. The drunkard staggers down the dark street, unaware of what has happened behind him. Sigh, he is a carefree man.

　"It's a hassle to deal with the carcass... but I can't just leave it there..."

　I muttered to myself as I leaped from my hiding place and ran soundlessly along the roof. The carcass of a monster will only attract other monsters, and if a human eats it carelessly, he or she may become a monster as well. So, I can't just leave it there.

　Of course, it is also true that I don't have the time or ability to handle all the corpses of at least dozens of them, as they are described in the novel. Then, I would have to ask...

Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!

Previous CH. All Chapter Next CH.

Report Error!