In Which God Removes The Serpent's Head 02 (Patreon)

"So, where should we start?" Yumizuka questions me as we walk around the city. "Do you have any leads to your identity or something?" Sadly, not really...

I sigh. "I'm afraid no..." And the things I have gathered about myself won't help with anything either. "I guess we could go back to that alleyway and see if there are any clues there?" I didn't see anything weird there, but it's worth a shot.

She nods. "Sounds good! I was afraid your plan was to start asking everyone on the street if they recognized you..." That was my plan, I changed it recently. I see that was a good idea.

I can only stay silent, which ends up flustering the girl. "H-hey, did you at least learn anything about that spear?" And here comes another complicated question.

I end up blushing. "Yeah, it can extend... and fire light blasts." Which makes the extending part a bit useless, but whatever. At least it's a very easy weapon to wield, it feels comfortable on my hands.

She tilts her head. "Cool." And then the gears in her head start spinning. "Wait, where did you get enough space to fire off light blasts? You didn't let normal people see you, right?" I didn't.

But I have committed a sin. "I practiced inside of your room." For a second I discover the feeling of death. "I didn't break anything with the light beams, so don't worry." I fired them off from the window. "The extending part surprised me and I left a big slash on the walls though. My bad." It couldn't be helped.

She immediately glares at me. "What were you thinking!?" That I couldn't find anywhere else to train.

I look away. "Sorry, as recompense for your sacrifice I'll save the world for you." What's that saying...? You can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs.

It's a bit sad I remember that, but nothing from my personal life.

Her eye twitches. "You know, you can't use that as an excuse for breaking my room." It wasn't an excuse, it was a genuine reason. "But whatever. I'll... find some way to explain that to my parents." Ah, I didn't think about that.

"Maybe you could say an wild animal did it...?" She quickly shoots down my idea.

And so Yumizuka and I leisurely make our way to the alleyway were I was born, while we make light conversation. Well, it's more like I listen to her complain about stubborn classmates and perverted teachers.

Once we get to the entrance, I take a deep breath and stop walking. "Is this place always this empty?" It's the first thing I notice. There is pretty much just one person in the alleyway, but that's it.

She nods. "Yep. I don't like huge crowds, so that's why I take this way home." That's another point to the naive spectrum. Why would a high schooler take a dark and empty path back home from school!?

I walk into the alleyway. "Start coming back through another route." I don't bother to hear her response, instead I start looking around, finding nothing unusual.

I didn't see anything weird when my birth happened, so I naturally won't see anything weird on my second try. It's not like I became a super detective in such a short amount of time after all.

Yumizuka is looking around too, but from her face it's clear that she isn't finding anything special either. I don't blame her, we don't even know what we are looking for in the first place after all.

And so I finally throw the towel, and approach the stranger, while Yumizuka keeps looking around. "Excuse me, sir...?" I'll ask him if he has seen anything unusual around here, I doubt I'll see much success though.

Still, if this fails, then what do I have? Should I just accept having zero clues about who I am? Yeah, there's no way I can do that. If this fails I will just wander around this city until I find something.

As I lose myself on my thoughts, the man approaches me, I finally see his face, and...

I summon my spear, in a second I run him through. And to create some distance between us, I extend it, taking his corpse all the way to a wall. Not that it matters, he stopped moving the moment the spear touched him, dead.

And then Yumizuka screams. "What the hell are you doing!?" I look at her face, she seems very stressed.

I suppose this is a natural reaction. "I killed him. He was an enemy." I return my spear to its normal size, the man's corpse falls to the ground. "He was definitely not human." I saw his face, it was the face of a corpse already...

I expected Yumizuka to keep freaking out. Even I understand that a human will not just easily accept the death of another being. Specially since she has no reason to believe my claims.

But... she calmly walks over to him. I raise a hand, a worried expression on my face. "Wait, it could be dangerous!" I think he is dead, but I don't know for sure.

She ignores my warning, and kneels down besides him... And then she breathes a sign of relief. "Yeah, you're right, this guy is definitely not a normal human... I mean, he looks like he's already rotting. I think I might vomit..." Even though she says that, she looks just fine.

Isn't this strange...? I expected she would have a big argument with me, or that she would pass out, or that she would cry, but... She seems strangely calm.

Well, if she's calm, then I shouldn't change that. "If you want to, that's fine. I won't judge you." Maybe she's just the type who doesn't show her dark emotions, but still feels them. Yeah, that's probably it.

She takes a deep breath. "N-no, I can hold it in..." And then she starta... searching the man's body?

Maybe she's freaking out after all? "What are you doing?" I start walking towards her. I don't really know how to calm down someone, but I suppose I will just have to learn. Perhaps [■■■■■] was good at it, who knows.

She takes out the man's... monster's wallet from his pocket. "Searching from clues. I mean, this guy was some weird... zombie, who just happened to be here... There's no way this is just a big coincidence, right?"

I nod. "Seems like solid logic to me." For all I know he could even be related to the thing that wants to end the world. "Still, the walking dead, huh...?" It's not something I'm unfamiliar with.

Much like how I know about cars, and trees, and everything else, I know what this creature is...

She raises an eyebrow. "Are you referencing the show...?" She looks back at the undead's face. "Well, I did call him a zombie." I have no idea what show she's talking about.

This may get troublesome. "I'm not talking about some show. I'm referencing the fact that this man is a undead. This means a Dead Apostle must be in town..." A dangerous being. I would rather avoid it.

She opens the wallet and starts looking through it. "Generic name, generic driver's license... Oh, he has some cash, nice." Even if she says that, she doesn't take it for herself. "What do you mean by Dead Apostle?" So she doesn't know...

I should have expected that, it's not common knowledge. "A vampire. He must have sucked this man's blood and turned him into a monster." If the Holy Church doesn't come to this city, this whole place could become a graveyard.

Her eyes widen. "Vampires are real...!?" And then she pales. "S-so he wasn't a monster?" Now that's a normal reaction. Or at least that's what I think until Yumizuka rapidly calms down again. "That's horrible..."

I nod. "Indeed, Dead Apostles are monsters of the worst kind. It also most likely means this is not connected to me." It's a shame, but now I have no leads. My plan of asking random people in the street if they recognize me will now be put in effect.

She gets up, and tilts her head. "How can you be so sure...? Actually how do you know about these Dead Apostles in the first place? Did you remember something about yourself?"

I look away. "I haven't remembered anything... the knowledge of Dead Apostles must have been common information for me, that's all." And for the other part. "And for the other reason... I can't be sure, but I don't want to get involved with Dead Apostles."

She pouts. "That's...! So you're just gonna ignore a obvious route to figuring out who you are due to fear...?" That's the normal thing to do in this situation. Yumizuka just doesn't understand how scary Dead Apostles are.

She continues. "Besides... people are in danger! Aren't you supposed to be the guy who saves the entire world from some super mega threat!?" Yes, but I'll have an entire year to figure that out.

First, I obviously want to find out about who I am. I just don't know if I would be willing to sacrifice my life for it, that's all. I think people have warned me that Dead Apostles are dangerous for my entire life.

Secondly, why I do want to protect people, because they could be kind and naive like Yumizuka, there is the chance of me failing and dying. If that happened then the world would be doomed for destruction.

That said, with both of these things happening at the same time, the balance is tipped one way. "Fine, I'll hunt down this Dead Apostle, but don't think it will be easy." I wish I had a way to contact the Holy Church.

For my resolve, I receive a smile from Yumizuka. "Awesome, I knew you would see my way!" I was this close to disagreeing with you though. "Now we just need to find this guy, and kick his ass with your cool lance!" Hopefully the light blasts aren't just made out of normal heat...

Before I can shatter her dreams, and explain how boring hunting a Dead Apostle can be, she slowly starts getting paler and paler. "Ah, I just realized something..." That your parents will kill you because of me?

"I... just touched a corpse. I left my fingerprints all over a corpse... I'm going to rot in jail..." She's shaking like a leaf. How is this the most freaked out she has looked so far? How weird is this girl?

Well, I might as well alleviate her concerns. "You won't, don't worry. There are people who work to keep the existence of the supernatural hidden. Since this man became one of the dead, his death will be brushed under the rug." Anything to keep the masquerade going.

She seems to slowly calm down. "For real...? Who does that though?" She makes a thinking pose. "If they have kept the supernatural hidden even though it's 2014, they must be crazy competent." Well, if something went up online then pretty much everything would be over.

Still, it's 2014? "Mages mostly, but many more factions wish to keep the supernatural hidden. Even Dead Apostles." If they didn't they could easily reveal it. Hell, I could easily reveal it if I wanted to. It's kind of a miracle the supernatural is still a secret.

She gasps. "Mages exist...!" And then she chuckles. "Oh, who am I kidding? Of course they do." She then takes a deep breath. "Anyways, since I'm not gonna rot in jail... Let's hunt vampires!"

Her dreams will soon die.



/////////////////////////////////////////////////



"I hate hunting vampires..." She's already complaining. "Is this really the best method for it? Just wandering around place where there aren't tons of people and checking alleyways and stuff?"

I shrug. "I don't know, I'm not... I definitely wasn't a vampire hunter. If specific tools exist to find them, then I don't know how to obtain or make them." I have to admit however, I'm getting frustrated too.

I asked Yumizuka if she could think of any place where a vampire could set up a lair, and she said no. Which essentially meant I have no idea what to do next. I know the Dead Apostle is probably avoiding crowded areas though, so I am as well.

She pouts. "Ugh, if you weren't a vampire hunter then what were you? If your spear is shooting light attacks, that obviously means it has the holy element." I have no clue what she's talking about.

However, I am indeed hoping my spear is holy. "The spear might have been something I got recently, since is definitely related to my mission of saving the world. My previous profession could be totally unrelated to it." For all I know I was just some random mage.

"And Miss Yumizuka... even if we don't find the Dead Apostle, eliminating whatever undead we do find will still slow it down. Maybe enough for the Holy Church to intervene. That is to say, you are not wasting your time." She's just not being very efficient with it.

She looks down. "If you say so..." And then a blush appears on her face. "By the way, all my friends call me Sacchin." That's a cute nickname. I don't really understand if it is supposed to have any deeper meaning however.

I nod. "I'll do my best to earn the honor of calling you that then, Miss Yumizuka."

Her previous pout returns. "You're clueless, even more clueless than the most clueless guy I know." Does that mean I have dethroned him? Well, I don't think that's something I should feel competitive about.

Yumizuka and I keep our search, passing through area after area, and for a long time we find nothing. At least that's until we walk by a foreigner with a voluptuous body, blonde hair, a cheerful smile and most importantly... red eyes.

I whisper in Yumizuka's ear. "Don't be alarmed, but we just walked by the Dead Apostle." I want to trail her, but she would probably notice us. There are also a decent amount of people here, so it would be a bad idea.

Sadly, Yumizuka does not listen to my advice, she does get alarmed. "What do you mean we just walked by the Deap Apostle...!" She's doing that thing when one whispers, but still speaks really loudly.

It also doesn't help that she stops walking, and turns around to stare at the vampire's back. Without a doubt the foreigner now knows we ar aware of what she is. Though she doesn't stop walking...

I sigh. "That women had the red eyes of a beast, and so she is a Dead Apostle. Admittedly maybe there are multiple in the city, or she is a... child of the one running this operation." She is at least evolved enough to not be decomposing.

Which means she is evolved enough to kill me in a blink, the only way I could kill her would be with a sneak attack. An even then, I would need to keep kicking her while she's down, until she ran out of magical energy and her regeneration ended.

That is to say, now that Yumizuka has definitely made the vampire be on guard, I have no chance of winning. It's a shame, but at least we know what we are looking for from now on, and so we should go back home and be done for the day.

She grins. "Let's follow it, then we can find out where her lair is." And she starts walking in the direction the vampire is walking. At least she's keeping a respectful distance. More points towards her being naive...

I follow Yumizuka, of course. "She is definitely aware of us. I doubt she will lead us to her hair, though even if she did, entering would be foolish." A standard lair would be crawling with the dead. I would get overwhelmed and die.

Yumizuka waves me off. "How could she be aware of us, we have been super stealthy." Even now we are making close to zero effort to hide our presence. "Besides, didn't you want to find her lair?"

I shake my head. "I wanted to find her. Most vampires are mages, and everybody knows a mage is invincible at their home. They had the time to create all sorts of traps and the like." And most importantly, I'm just one guy.

Normally when the Holy Church is hunting a Dead Apostle, they have enough people to send to the meat grinder that some dying to threats doesn't really matter. If I die however, Yumizuka would be in danger... Also, I obviously don't want to die

Yumizuka clicks her tongue. "Got ya, that makes sense. Still, she's like right here... and we are behind her, so like... improvise. Stab her with your spear or something." If she's aware of us she will stop me in my tracks.

And most importantly... "Too many witnesses." There are a few people around. Not a lot, which is why we were in this area in the first place, but them seeing me kill a woman with a spear would still be troublesome.

However... "If you so desperately want to take this chance, go convince her to follow you to an alleyway or something. Then I'll come from behind while she's distracted and take her life." There is a big chance we both die. I hope she understands that.

Yumizuka gulps. "I don't think I can do that...!" I agree, it was just an idea. "I mean, what am I supposed to say, come up to her and ask if she thinks I'm cute or something? How do I even convince her to follow me to an creepy, dark alleyway?" Why do you go through one everyday if they're creepy?

I tilt my head. "Just ask her to follow you, say you have something cool you want to show her." This obviously wouldn't work, hopefully she will realize how foolish this is. "Alternatively, we could go back to your ho-." I end up silencing myself.

Mostly because this idiot reallt did walk towards the vampire...!

She waves at her with an embarrassed smile and the two... start talking. The blonde vampire is smiling too, and not the type of while who says she is arrogant and will kill Yumizuka, it's the type of smile that is just... normal.

I take a deep breath and prepare myself as Yumizuka points at an alleyway. They begin walking towards it, the blonde not even hesitating for a second. Perhaps she herself plans to kill Yumizuka there.

I follow the two, I follow my target. Now that I decided to kill her, she won't escape, I won't let her escape. It's strange, this feels almost natural to me. I instinctively hold back my presence, I instinctively make my steps silen.

I enter the alleyway, the vampire is still chatting with Yumizuka. Either she is truly arrogant, or she genuinely hasn't noticed me. There is no Dead Apostle who is that dumb however, so I can only hope she is arrogant enough to let me hit her.

Once I'm close enough...

I summon my spear, and run her through, aiming at her spine, and using a light blast at the beginning. I am met with no resistance, and with the sick sound of flesh being teared I penetrate her.

The blond grunts in pain, and while I can't see her expression, she slowly raises her hands, touching the tip of the spear. "A-again? What's with this tow-!" I don't need to hear her babbling, I must not give her a chance for her to fight back.

I raise my spear, and the weapon easily cuts her upper body in half. She falls to the ground, leaving a horrible cadaver behind. This scene would be gruesome enough to make even the most evil of people sick.

And so, Yumizuka who was painted with the girl's blood from head to toe, ends up laughing. "You just... Wow...!" I have heard some people laugh when they're nervous. I'm sorry for showing her such a gruesome scene.

I look to the vampire's corpse, expecting her to start healing, to get up for another round. She doesn't however, she stays as a dead unmoving corpse.

"Well, it seems we have gotten rid of the Dead Apostle on the same day we found out about her. How lucky." [■■■■■] must have been an efficient person.

Nice.



/////////////////////////////////////////////////



AN: Roa watches from his cuck chair in hell while his previous host penetrates his crush from behind with his long spear until she can't take it anymore. He even shot his white stuff inside of her!