The Protagonist Always Wants to Find Someone to Commit Suicide With - Chapter 8

Why did it call out Reiko’s name?

Natsume Takashi, almost out of sheer instinct, cast his gaze toward Madara beside him. The massive yokai, currently maintaining its small feline form, curled its torso across the ground, its narrow, slit-like eyes staring deathly at Natsume.

“Nyanko-sensei, just now…” He had merely voiced an opening before halting entirely. Bringing this up might cross into the secret of the Book of Friends. Even if Natori Shuuichi didn’t harbor a pathological obsession like Matoba Seiji, an item like the Book of Friends deemed a complete taboo among exorcists was better kept from other people’s awareness.

He didn’t want to drag Natori Shuuichi into this complication either.

“Alright, the request can be considered completed as such,” Natori Shuuichi held a roll of paper tape within his grip, looking exactly as if he had appended some incantation over it too. However, since the process proceeded far smoother than visualized, it didn’t end up being utilized.

“Does this item require being delivered over to the Matoba clan?” Natsume Takashi clutched that sphere sealing the yokai within his hands, his mind intensely preoccupied with what had just transpired, while simultaneously harboring a mountain of questions.

Since it recognized Reiko, perhaps that yokai’s name was also registered inside the Book of Friends. But why exactly did a yokai like this know Reiko?

…Merely auditing the miasma enveloping its frame verified it was absolutely zero gentle variety.

“Natsume seems a bit out of sorts,” Dazai Osamu pinched his chin, communicating to his system. “Did something transpire moments ago?”

“That yokai appeared to share some connection with Natsume Reiko,” the system recalled. “Furthermore, I discovered a highly crucial matter.”

“That yokai moments ago was likely being influenced by the miasma anchoring over its body.”

“Your phrasing indicates that the monster turned rampantly aggressive moments ago entirely because of the miasma layered over its frame?” Dazai asked. “The miasma wasn’t generated by its own being?”

“—Unknown,” the results generated from the system’s analysis of that yokai informed it that the surrounding miasma had warped the monster’s original temperament, yet the system couldn’t achieve a complete decryption of the phenomenon. It was merely performing an analysis based on existing parameters anyway.

“Let’s move out; we can depart right now,” Natori Shuuichi took the sealing sphere delivered over by Natsume Takashi.

Compared to its previous plainness, this sphere was currently engraved entirely with incantation formulas that automatically manifested upon the seal’s completion; paired with the paper charm affixed over it, its appearance looked rather mysterious.

“Is Teacher Dazai still returning to the Matoba clan’s estate?”

“Mm,” among the few figures present, surface-audited, Dazai Osamu was the character sharing the finest relationship with Matoba Seiji.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you to bring this item back,” Natori Shuuichi extended his hand to present the object before Dazai Osamu.

Hearing his words, Dazai turned his frame around. The golden sunlight leaking through the gaps in the leaves spilled over his frame, looking exactly as if a circle of golden thread strands were tracing along the boundaries of his slightly curly, deep brown hair.

“Perfectly fine,” Dazai let out a light laugh.

Boom! Accompanied by a massive crashing sound, a thick tree trunk was snapped right at its waist by brute force, kicking up a sudden cloud of dust.

“You absolutely performed that intentionally!!!” the system shrieked.

“He insisted on handing it over to me; it wasn’t an option for me to decline to take it, was it?” Dazai dodged the crashing tree trunk, sprinting toward the adjacent side with total innocence. “Furthermore, I completely hadn’t expected my capability to hold efficacy against a sealing array either.”

System: Believe you and it’s a ghost.

The exact split second it witnessed Dazai Osamu reaching out to take that sphere, it had instinctively felt something wasn’t right. The brilliant deepening of the smile across that garbage host’s lips looked thoroughly hair-raising in the system’s eyes. The moment Dazai’s hand collided with that sphere, the system couldn’t even restrain itself from delivering a mental “heh.”

It long knew that whenever this lunatic turned delighted, zero pleasant matters would follow.

No Longer Human the cheat-tier capability that rendered all supernatural powers invalid remained unbeatably absolute even inside the universe of Natsume’s Book of Friends.

Before it had been exactly to this image; a barrier the Matoba clan had anchored for those many years was broken the split second he touched it, completely defying all logic. Now things were truly grand—even a sealing array was shattered cleanly apart by him.

The system watched its host desperately dodging the yokai’s assaults. “What are you running for? Didn’t you desire a love suicide? Being slaughtered by a yokai looks like a decent option.”

“…” Offering zero response to its text, Dazai Osamu stared at the massive white canine yokai that suddenly manifested nearby. “That cat moments ago was actually a massive yokai after all. Truly marvelous.”

System: I audit your expression and see zero hint of astonishment anyhow. The system felt as if it had transformed into a dedicated commentary track ever since keeping this host company.

Moments ago, nobody had anticipated a bizarre variable of this nature would explode without warning. The sealed yokai suddenly manifested anew, scattering the un-premeditated figures completely apart, while Madara unloosed its true form to shield Natsume Takashi. Borrowing the shifting force across the ground, the white yokai leapt high into the empty air, lunging toward the enemy.

“Teacher Dazai, are you alright?” Taking advantage of the two yokai entangling in battle, Natsume Takashi bolted to Dazai Osamu’s side. “Suffered zero injuries?”

“Perfectly fine,” looking at his anxious expression, Dazai noted. He indeed was perfectly fine, his attire merely turning a bit untidy during the frantic sprint moments ago. Not a single trace of a scratch remained across his frame.

“Mr. Natori is preparing a secondary sealing array,” Natsume Takashi paused a fraction. “The previous seal likely suffered some error, but with Nyanko-sensei helping out this time, things will proceed without an issue.” His tone carried a touch of guilt; he had likely assumed the failure of the previous seal was his own doing, remaining thoroughly vexed over it.

“Ah, zero issue,” Dazai said softly. The wind waves whipped up by the battle rolled over them, flaring a corner of his trench coat. Dazai stared at the young lady before him with light brown long hair. “Natsume-chan completely doesn’t need to blame yourself.”

System: “I have never witnessed a character this thick-faced and shameless.”

“Is there an error inside the words I voiced?” Dazai countered.

System: You are motherf—ing spot-on.

“It was completely a disaster triggered by your own doing, yet currently you’re standing here accepting another person’s apologies,” the system criticked. “Are you truly trying to play the good person?” Stirring up complications was more like it.

“Do you know why I took that item?” Dazai caressed the bandages lined across his wrist. “Miasma isn’t an item to be sealed easily.”

“Foreign miasma blending together with the yokai’s intrinsic energy—Natori Shuuichi clearly failed to catch the anomaly, and his seal was bound to target solely that yokai.”

“A seal of that nature is intrinsically unstable; it might not even survive until it reaches Matoba Seiji’s hands before being shattered open by the monster.”

“Furthermore, if the seal managed to hold out until that juncture, an even more disastrous scenario would unfold the miasma diffusing across the Matoba clan’s estate, influencing the yokai originally sealed inside or the shikigami driven by them. Therefore, resolving it right here is far better.”

The system originally intended merely to commentate on him, completely un-premeditated that Dazai Osamu would actually voice a rationale that sounded entirely logical.

“And you noted before that the patch of miasma would warp a yokai…” Dazai lifted his eyes to track the two figures one black, one white entangling in battle above. “Looks like a genuine parameter.”

?!

The system followed his focus over. The white canine yokai’s perimeter looked exactly as if it were also being stained by a black mist that resembled fine silk strands. Though it was merely a faint layer, it clung to its frame like a shadow, completely refusing to loosen its grip.

“Natsume!” Natori Shuuichi finally tracked down the two of them, his brow furrowed. “The situation doesn’t look quite right.”

Natori Shuuichi had originally let out a sigh of relief when witnessing Madara lunge up, but he hadn’t anticipated the situation would develop to this image currently. Madara looked exactly as if it had lost its composure, tearing and biting against the black bird opposite whose madness was completely unmasked. This was entirely thanks to Madara’s intrinsic spiritual energy being exceptionally potent; otherwise, it might currently be attacking Natsume Takashi and the rest of them out of control.

“Nyanko-sensei ” biting his lower lip, Natsume Takashi watched the battle raging across the sky with immense struggle. He had already detected Madara’s anomaly moments ago, but currently, no matter how anxious they turned, they possessed zero capability to influence it.