Butcher Demon

Chapter 133: In the rain 

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[TL's note]

 

Sanpaku (three whites) (三白眼) is a Japanese term meaning “three whites” generally referred to in English as “sanpaku eyes” and refers to eyes in which either the white space above or below the iris is revealed.

 

 

 

 

　◇◆◇ (Human point of view)

 

 

　In the pouring rain.

 

 

 

　The woman stopped moving, letting out a stream of white breath.

 

 

 

“–did you hear something just now?”

 

 

 

“Hmm?　I think it's a magical beast…….
This area is already a rather fuzzy boundary between their fantasy world and ours”

 

 

 

　The woman with the ennui in her eyes said flatly.

 

 

 

　Her hair was in a messy bun on the back.
The woman's eyes, which looked as if she was tired, shone sharply.
There are two large revolvers on the waist of the camouflage suit.
In her hand, she held an assault rifle with a foregrip.

 

 

 

　With her back to the wreckage of the helicopter, the sanpaku-eyed woman looked up at the cold rainy sky and listened carefully.
She stood up straight and listened to her surroundings, like a good hound looking for its prey.

 

 

 

　With her back to the wreckage of the helicopter, the blank-eyed woman looked up at the cold rainy sky and listened carefully.
She stood up straight and listened to her surroundings, like a good hound looking for its prey.

 

 

“……
By the way, what did it sound like?　My good lady little ears can't hear that.”

 

 

 

“Your old lady ears are beginning to rot with age.”

 

 

 

　The girl with the white hair said without reproach.
She had the air of a small animal running on the snow.
She was about the age of a junior high school student.
She was also wearing a camouflage uniform, but this one had short hair and wore a cap.
She was carrying a shotgun on her shoulder, which was disproportionately large for her size, but what caught people's attention more were the two hatchets hooked on her thighs.
Black from blade to handle, they were tactical tomahawk axes.

 

 

 

“Hohoho, you're right.
When I get home, I'm going to punish you by tickling you until you die laughing.
I'm going to show you the techniques of an older woman until morning.
……
nihihihi……”

 

 

 

　In fact, the sanpaku woman's age is about 20 years old.
She smiled a sloppy smile, wrung her hands and nuzzled the girl.

 

 

 

“If you do anything naughty to me, Rudra will turn on you.”

 

 

Her face is still expressionless as she shrugs her shoulders.

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman hissed and scanned her surroundings.

 

 

　–In fact, this girl's five senses surpassed her own.

 

 

　If she hears something, the enemy is there.
if she sees something, the enemy is also there.
if she feels something, the enemy is somewhere in the shadows.

 

 

 

　There was a clicking sound.

 

 

 

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　It was because the sanpaku-eyed woman had turned off the safety on her assault rifle.
At the same time as the safety was switched off, the air of goofiness disappeared from her face.

 

 

 

　The white-haired girl saw this and placed her finger on her shotgun and continued.

 

 

 

” 'Ahhhhhhhhh'  It sounded like the scream of a beast.”

 

 

 

　Another man was huddled close to them, surveying the ground with a keen eye on the surrounding forest.

 

 

 

　The man looked up from the muddy ground and gave a small sigh.

 

 

“—-The rain ruined everything…….”

 

 

 

　The man had the eyes of a hawk.

 

 

 

He wore an eye patch over one eye.

 

 

　A sanpaku-eyed woman looked up at the man with the eye patch who stood up.
The woman also had an above-average physique, but the man was a head taller.

 

 

 

　He wore the same camouflage as the other two and carried a large sniper rifle on his back, but his height made it look like a hunting rifle.

 

 

“It would have been more difficult if it had snowed instead of rained anyway.”

 

 

　The girl said, exhaling white breath into her gnarled hands.

 

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman cautiously placed her finger on the trigger, keeping an eye on her surroundings.

 

 

“I don't sense any signs of life nearby …….”

 

 

 

“I'll take care of the outside, you help him inside the helicopter.”

 

 

　The man said, and the sanpaku-eyed woman replied, “Ei” and walked into the helicopter.

 

 

“Oh, man.
His head is crushed.
This is terrible.”

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman took a glance at the body lying in the corner of the aircraft and said.

 

 

 

　The three men working inside the helicopter raised their eyebrows at the woman's casual remark.

 

 

 

　They were a small operations squadron hastily assembled from Fox and Echo.

 

 

 

　They had rushed out immediately to recover the crew of Echo Nine, which had disappeared the day before yesterday after a distress call, and had been here all night.

 

 

 

　While the Echo crew was inside the helicopter investigating the cause of the crash, Fox was supposed to be on the lookout for survivors, but unfortunately, all the occupants of the helicopter had died on board.

 

 

“So?　Did you find out what caused the crash?　I couldn't find any traces of an attack from outside.”

 

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“Yes, sir.
it looks like there's a bug in the engine.”

 

 

 

“Bugs?”

 

 

“It's hard to believe, but it looks like they got unlucky and ran into a swarm of bugs.”

 

 

 

　The Echo crewman then picked up the carcass of a moth.

 

 

 

“There's a lot of this stuff in and out.”

 

 

 

“In the engines?”

 

 

 

“It flooded the air intakes.
It was all over the crew's clothes.
I can even see the ……
remains in the back of their throats.”

 

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman held her gagged and frowned.

 

 

 

“What kind of unfortunate coincidence is that? ……”

 

 

 

“A sudden outbreak of insects can occur anywhere……, but after all, this area is half a different world already.
I've heard that even UMAs are common in this area.”

 

 

“Oh, they hunt and eat UMAs all the time.
They are valuable food.”

 

 

　The officer gave a subtle smile of amusement to the sanpaku-eyed woman who said this without hesitation.

 

 

 

“And also, would you mind taking a look at this one?”

 

 

 

 

　As he walked next to the woman and approached the corpse with the crushed head, he lifted the corpse's hand.

 

 

 

“This gentleman is Sergeant Adams, as far as I can tell from his dog tags–“

 

 

“Oh, so it was Sergeant Adams.
……
I'm sorry you had to go through all this.
……”

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman groaned.
Adams was an old-timer, someone who was well known to Fox.

 

 

“Yes, ……, and I thought it was a little odd that one hand had all the fingers broken off, so I thought I'd have someone from Fox inspect it.”

 

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman bent down, picked up Adams's dog tag and looked at it once, then checked the hand in question.

 

 

 

　All of the fingers were broken and bent to the opposite side.

 

 

“how is it?”

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman, who had been staring at the hand for some time, shrugged “……well?”  and dropped the dead man hand.

 

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“I think he broke his hand on the impact of the crash.　I heard that crash-landing a helicopter can cause the same amount of damage as being run over by a car.
That's your specialty, right?”

 

 

 

 

　As she stepped outside, a man with an eye patch stood up and stood still in the rain.

 

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman remained silent and bent her hand into a crook, moving it forward and tilting her head slightly.

 

 

 

　Seeing the hand signal, the man with the eye patch responded with a small shake of his head.

 

 

 

 

 

　Looking for the two of them, Echo's crew emerged from the helicopter.

 

 

 

“–Have you seen anything outside?”

 

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman turned around.

 

 

 

“….No?　The package was recovered.
The helicopter crashed in an unfortunate accident.
No survivors, over!　I can't believe how cold it is.
I can't wait to get home and drink Matthew's hot tapioca!　Now, Captain.
Give me your orders!”

 

 

 

“It's this weather.
It's hard to send a slow tortoise to retrieve the body.
There's nothing left in the surrounding area either.
Let's bury them, pick up their dog tags and belongings, and be done with it.
If we leave now, we can return home without the aliens noticing…….
Can you take care of blowing up the helicopter?”

 

 

　The man with the eye patch said.

 

 

“Sir.
Yes, sir.  Captain Wisley.”

 

 

“Hurry up.
If it turns to snow, it could leave tracks.
You don't want aliens chasing our ass, do you?”

 

 

　Echo's crew hurriedly retracted their heads and started preparing to blow up the helicopter.
slow tortoise are tough.
It was necessary to set the explosives properly.

 

 

　The woman with the sanpaku eyes walked up to the man with the eye patch.

 

 

 

　The two of them stood side by side, looking at the ground in silence as the rain tapped them on the shoulder.

 

 

　Then the sanpaku-eyed woman scratched her head and whispered.

 

 

“The body.
I'm not sure if it's just an accident or what, but it looks like he was tortured.
How'd it go over there?”

 

 

 

　The man with the eye patch gazed at her with his one and only eye.

 

 

 

“There were no footprints.
It may have been the rain, but it seems to have been erased before that.”

 

 

“…..well, That's not a very amateur way of doing things, is it? It's not like they're just going to erase all evidence.”

 

 

 

“It's a little different from the aliens.
The work is very careful.
It smells fishy.”

 

 

 

　Then a white-haired girl came up to her and whispered.

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“If you die getting involved in something that isn't your mission, you're just an idiot.”

 

 

 

　The girl stared deep into the forest and continued.

 

 

 

“It's not an alien, it's not a magical beast, it's a weird one.”

 

 

 

　The man with the eye patch gave a sigh.

 

 

 

“It's an unknown enemy.
We can't take care of Echo on our own.
There's nothing we can do about it.
For today, let's just get our asses off of here and go home.”

 

 

 

　The woman and the girl returned the salute pose.

 

 

 

“Yes, boss.”

 

 

 

“Yes sir, boss.”

 

 

 

　The man with the eye patch was about to turn on his heel when he looked back at them as if remembering.

 

 

When you return, one of you may be assigned to the escort duty.

 

 

 

“Escort? Escort who?”

 

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman asked back with a grin.

 

 

 

“Oh, that war maiden in the news article, she wants Fox.
I'm going to go pick her up myself.”

 

 

 

“What the hell? Is she going to choose us like a cabaret girl? Why us again?”

 

 

“Well, I'm sure she'll be in touch with you soon after we return.
so don't bully her.
Be polite to the public, you know.
Be professional.”

 

 

　The sanpaku-eyed woman scratched her hair as she was told, and the girl's expression still didn't change.

 

 

 

　At the back of these women.
Beyond the haze created by the rain, a black mountain shadow could be seen.
The man with the eye patch felt a disturbing sense of intimidation from it, similar to the bulge in the earth where a land mine was buried.

 

 

 

　However, he stared back at it without being pressured.

 

 

 

　–What are the countless gazes and murderous intent that surrounded this place? The air here was strange, even for my years of experience.

 

 

　The saliva he swallowed felt as cold as ice.

 

 

 

　The man with the eye patch shook his head and began to survey the interior of the helicopter once more to make sure nothing had been overlooked.