Instant Death

Volume 6, Chapter 18: Let’s help them out there! As a human being!

It was a bad idea, Yogiri thought.

He had assumed all sorts of risks associated with traveling by ship, and it seemed that exactly what he assumed had happened.

So far, the situation had not worsened to the point of the ship sinking, but just stopping the ship in the middle of the ocean would be quite a crisis.

If the ship didn’t move, at this rate they would eventually reach a dead end. No matter how much food they had stockpiled, the final result will be a debilitating death.

If it was just him, he could do anything, but if he wanted Tomochika to be safe, he had to end this crisis as soon as possible and let the ship continue its voyage.

Yogiri walked along without haste, thinking about such things.

If he would run a little bit, he would get tired quickly, and overall, the time it took to meet up with Tomochika and the others would be the same.

He saw a huge tentacle through the window in the hallway. But if he thought about that it was created, it started to look like it.

There were stairs growing out of the tentacles in various places, so it must have taken over various parts of the ship at once.

He was still on the phone with Tomochika and the others, and they were able to understand each other’s situation.

If the pirates’ goal was ransom, then Tomochika and the others should be safe for now.

Yogiri came to the elevator hall.

He was at the tenth floor of the accommodation building at the rear of the ship. It was too much trouble to walk down, so he came here, but the elevator did not work.

Perhaps the pirates had already taken control of the elevator.

“A real pain in the ass.”

Looking at the ship’s map near the elevator, he saw that there were stairs a little further away. There were not many stairs on the ship, so he guessed they were just for emergencies.

He walked down the corridor again and opened the door to reach the emergency stairs.

He started to descend, but after three floors, he couldn’t proceed.

The walls were distorted, and the stairs had collapsed. Apparently, the tentacles’ had broken them.

“I guess they don’t care about the ship.”

If this staircase didn’t work, he would have to go to a more remote staircase.

Sighing, he walked out into the hallway. It was supposed to be on the seventh level, which was where the first class cabins were.

The atmosphere was hectic.

They were probably confused by the sudden arrival of the giant creature.

Some went out into the corridor to see what was going on, while others ran in panic.

Yogiri started walking towards the next staircase.

When he turned the corner, he found pieces of clothing in the middle of the hallway.

They were probably the clothes of the man who had just run away.

As he wondered if he had escaped while taking them off, three maids came running up to him.

He killed them before they could get close.

Because they had a sword in their hand and he sensed a clear killing intent.

“What the hell are you guys doing?”

There was a man standing over the fallen maids.

He was a gentleman with fake good looks and a dumbfounded, wondering look on his face.

“I’ve seen your face somewhere. Oh, you’re the guy who said something about a game.”

Yogiri remembered that he was the man they had met at the port before sailing.

He remembered that he was a strange man who claimed that this world was a game.

And even that man was trying to kill him, Yogiri used his power reflexively.

“Was this guy a pirate?

Yogiri tilted his head.

He had only talked to him briefly in the harbor, and he didn’t remember any reason for a grudge.

He wondered if he had been aboard the ship to guide the pirates, but the truth would never be known.

It was useless to think about it, so Yogiri started walking towards the stairs again.

After a while, he heard a scream.

It was coming from the door of the fire escape, Yogiri’s immediate destination.

“I have a bad feeling about this…”

If he wanted to avoid trouble, he should probably look for another staircase, but he didn’t want to take too many detours.

With determination, he opened the door and went inside.

I need help…“

A few people were lying on the staircase landing where Yogiri was looking down.

It was unclear whether they were alive or dead, but there were two people among them who were definitely alive.

A well-built gentleman was desperately reaching for Yogiri, and a woman was straddling his back and grabbing it as if to pull it out.

As Yogiri was wondering if he should do something, before he had time to do anything, the gentleman’s face was rapidly losing its vitality.

He was dead.

So much so that the gentleman’s face turned earthy, and the woman let go of his hair.

The woman stood up and looked at Yogiri. Her eyes were vacant, but she certainly recognized him.

Yogiri had sensed the killing Intent.

Yogiri used his power.

She tried to jump, but her legs gave way and she fell.

But she was not dead.

It was not that Yogiri had succeeded in restraining her, but that something inside her had been killed.

“It’s very small. Is it some kind of parasite?”

From his powers Yogiri knew what he had killed.

It was a very small thing in her head.

He thought that was what was controlling this woman.

There were some parasitic organisms that could manipulate their hosts, Yogiri had heard.

“Are you okay?”

He crouched down beside the fallen woman and asked her if she was okay.

She was still alive, but seemed to be unconscious.

He was a little worried, but he couldnt just sit here and wait for her to wake up.

Yogiri decided to hurry ahead.

＊＊＊＊＊

“Let’s help them out there! As human beings!”

Tomochika and the other hostage passengers were gathered in the lounge.

The two entrances and exits had been sealed off by the pirates, but there were no restrictions on what they could do inside.

So, even if she was secretly communicating with Yogiri, she would not be found out.

From an outsider’s point of view, it looked as if Tomochika and Enju’s manipulator, Mokomoko, were talking to each other.

『That’s what I’ve been told. I don’t think we need to worry so much about the guy who attacked me. 』

“I think that’s where popularity begins, you know?”

“You can’t be a harem king then.”

“Takato-kun, I’ve never said I want to be one!”

『Besides, I can’t take care of everyone, because the same kind of people keep popping up.』

“Keep popping up?”

“Yeah. Yeah, there’s a guy who seems to be controlled by something, and he’s attacking people indiscriminately. Of course, they’re attacking me too when I walk by.”

“That doesn’t sound like pirates to you?”

The pirates said that they were not trying to harm the passengers at the moment, and that their goal was ransom.

Tomochika also thought that this was unnatural behavior for pirates.

“They all look like rich passengers. They don’t look like pirates.”

Tomohika looked at the pirates in the room.

Each of them was dressed in their own way, and there was no sense of unity, but they had a dangerous atmosphere. At least they didn’t look like the passengers of a luxury cruise ship, so there was no mistaking them.

“So you’re saying there’s something else out there besides pirates?”

『I think we’d better keep that in mind. 』

“But, well, we can’t get out of here, so I don’t think it matters much. ……”

Considering the other passengers, Tomochika and the others did not try to force their way out.

So, unlike their original plan, they waited here for Yogiri to arrive.

If Yogiri came, it would be easy to neutralize the pirates while ensuring the safety of the passengers.

“Hmm, not that there’s anything wrong with it, but I’d like to change out of my swimsuit ……”

She had her fair share of stares by the pool, but they were being discreet.

However, the pirates’ stares were so blatant that she was getting tired of it.

As she was thinking about requesting something to wear, someone entered the lounge.

It was an old man with glasses.

He seemed to be one of the pirates, and even those who were blocking the entrance and exit were letting him through as if it were a matter of course.

“Well. I told you from the beginning that our goal is to hold you hostage for ransom. However, in order to do so, we need to correctly judge the value of our merchandise.”

The man who spoke up was the knightly-looking man who had first boarded the ship.

“Your assessment will be conducted by this man. He knows every noble, royal, and wealthy person in the world, and he knows their finances, so please rest assured.

-Huh? Well, the Boss woman isn’t here…

The woman in male attire who came later was not here. It seems that she did not follow the passengers when they were brought to the lounge.

“No, what do you want me to reassure you about? …”

As Tomochika blurted out, the older man began walking through the lounge with his companions in tow. He was probably checking and assessing each of the passengers.

In the meantime, the old man came in front of Tomochika and the others.

“Hmmm, not listed in my gentleman’s book, worthless since there’s no one to get ransom from!”

“Oh!”

Tomochika was in a delicate mood. It’s not that she didn’T want to be appreciated by pirates, but she didn’t think she could call herself worthless.

Hey, what’s going to happen in this case?”

“Okashira said to kill the combatants, right? That rule is absolute.“

“But this girl’s a passenger. She’s worthless to Okashira.”

“That’s the point. You mean you don’t care what we do to him, what happens to him, right?”

The pirate stared at Tomochika with vile eyes.

It was the man who had killed the mercenary girl at the poolside.

“Didn’t you say that you can’t afford to deal with women who can’t pay you?”

“Don’t worry about it, girl. Look around you. We’re not doing anything special right now, we’re just waiting here. That means we have a lot of time on our hands right now!”

“You’re taking things too far!”

As soon as she said that, Tomochika hit the man in front of her in the jaw, heart and groin.

It was a technique to strike the three vital points in the midline, and didn’t allow the opponent to counterattack.

Tomochika decided to play the game before the man could pull out his cutlass[1]. She had to make the first move.