South of the bonfire.
"Mmm..."
At the madam's shouts, Nijika was finally woken up.
She was still drowsy, but she slowly pushed herself up.
However, the spot where she subconsciously placed her hand to push up was right on Fumiya Jin's thigh.
Halfway up, her hand slipped on the outer fabric of his pants, and she tumbled headfirst into his arms.
"Oh..."
Fumiya Jin didn't seem to mind and caught her. "Awake?"
Nijika then remembered that she had been sleeping with her head on Fumiya Jin's lap.
Judging by the sky, she must have slept for at least a few hours. His leg was probably numb...
On top of that, accidentally falling into his arms like this looked as if she were deliberately being coquettish... She immediately felt very embarrassed.
"Mmm..." She rubbed her eyes and secretly glanced up at him, only to find him gazing gravely to the side... in the direction of the beach.
"Nijika, sit tight for a moment. I need to get up," Fumiya Jin said, his gaze serious. He didn't look at Nijika, but his voice was still gentle.
"Uh..." Nijika was still a bit dazed and didn't understand the situation, but she nodded obediently, moved out of his embrace, and sat down on the sand.
Fumiya Jin stood up and, along with the madam standing beside him, watched with a grim expression as a figure rapidly ran toward them... It was the fleshy-faced woman.
The fleshy-faced woman's torch had fallen by the seashore.
She seemed to be under some kind of threat and had bolted towards the campfire without taking the time to pick it up.
Fortunately, she wasn't far from the campfire, and the light from the flames covered a large area. She only needed to run a few more meters to reach the edge of the illuminated zone.
"Help me! There's something!! It's like some foul thing is chasing me!" the fleshy-faced woman yelled as she ran.
Fumiya Jin and the madam were startled.
Fumiya Jin focused his eyes...
Sure enough.
It looked like black shadows were darting past where her torch had fallen, rapidly closing in on her.
And there was more than one...
Just as the fleshy-faced woman was about to rush into the periphery of the campfire's light.
"Ah!"
Her foot suddenly slipped.
With a thud, she fell flat on the ground!
Three black shadows immediately gave chase and leapt at her.
Fumiya Jin immediately rushed forward to meet them.
Stepping to the edge of the firelight, he unleashed a horizontal Drawing Slash.
"Swish—"
The afterimage of the blade cut a perfectly straight horizontal line.
The fleshy-faced woman had taken a face-plant, which conveniently kept her out of his swing's path.
The edge of the horizontal slash passed about twenty centimeters above the back of her head, slicing toward the shadows behind her.
"Slice! Slice!—Splat..."
Two of the black shadows were cut apart simultaneously.
A large amount of black liquid splattered onto the sand, conveniently missing the fleshy-faced woman.
However, the third shadow, which was slightly farther back, managed to dodge the attack.
It slammed the ground and leaped high into the air.
Pouncing toward the sword-wielding Fumiya Jin.
"Still coming?"
Unequip weapon.
Equip weapon.
Drawing Slash!
"Shing!—"
The half-man-high shadow, now airborne, was sliced in two from head to toe, right down the middle!
"Splat!—"
Blood inevitably sprayed out.
Fumiya Jin immediately sheathed his sword and dodged.
But the fleshy-faced woman, still sprawled on the ground, got some of it splashed onto her right arm...
"Hiss—Aahh... It hurts!"
The fleshy-faced woman, who had been lying on the ground panting, seemed to be spurred into action by the intense pain.
Forgetting about resting, she used both hands and feet to scramble toward the inner side of the campfire.
Only when she had crawled to within one or two meters of the campfire, completely enveloped in the brightest part of its light, did she dare to prop herself up and glance back...
She saw Fumiya Jin standing at the edge of the firelight, the tachi in his hand emitting a faint red glow from its blade...
In the hazy darkness beyond, the blurry, densely packed black shadows, perhaps because they saw the firelight or feared the sharp blade in Fumiya Jin's hand, dared not approach any closer for the moment.
Even the small, scarlet dots gradually faded back into the darkness.
For now, it seemed... they were safe.
The fleshy-faced woman let out a small sigh of relief.
But soon, the burning pain from her arm made her grimace.
Looking down... she saw that her arm had been doused with a dark bluish-black liquid that was making a sizzling sound... It seemed to have some kind of corrosive property!
"Water! Get me water, quick!!" the fleshy-faced woman shouted at Nijika and the madam.
"Huh?" The madam had just run over and was squatting down to help her up. Hearing this, she was a bit confused. "You... want to drink water?"
"No, I..." The fleshy-faced woman was so frantic that her words became a bit jumbled.
Just then, in her peripheral vision, she noticed an aluminum can boiling water by the campfire... It didn't seem to be fully boiling yet, just starting to bubble.
She didn't bother saying more and scrambled over.
But just as she neared the campfire, a spark shot out from the burning woodpile.
It was normal for sparks to fly from wood that wasn't completely dry. They weren't very harmful to a normal person.
But when this spark landed on the black oil on her arm...
Poof!
It caught fire!
"My god!"
The fleshy-faced woman was frozen in terror.
She threw herself to the ground, rolling all over in an attempt to extinguish the flames.
But after rolling several times, the burning black oil on her arm was not put out.
The pain grew more intense, and she could no longer care about anything else, rolling frantically on the ground!
"Don't touch my fire!"
Fumiya Jin rushed over in a single bound and, just before she could roll into the campfire, sent her flying with a kick.
"THUD!—"
"AAGH!!"
The fleshy-faced woman was kicked three meters away, which did get her clear of the fire.
Nijika and the madam both froze, staring at Fumiya Jin in astonishment.
Seeing the campfire was fine, Fumiya Jin breathed a sigh of relief, then faced the gazes of Nijika and the madam. "Emm... Protecting the fire is paramount."
After rolling a few more times, the fleshy-faced woman's burning right arm plunged into the sand, and the flames quickly subsided... The intense corrosive pain also lessened for a moment.
But the spot on her waist and abdomen where she was kicked throbbed with a piercing pain, as if he had kicked right through her!
She took a few breaths, pushed herself up, and felt her head spin.
Shaken, yet overcome with fury, she looked at Fumiya Jin and said, "You... why did you kick me?"
Fumiya Jin looked at her without a trace of guilt or sympathy. "Who told you to nearly fall into the campfire? Of course I had to stop you."
"You..." The fleshy-faced woman gritted her teeth. "Even so, couldn't you have just pulled me away? You're definitely taking the chance to get revenge! I refuse to believe you would've kicked that woman if it were her!"
As she spoke, the fleshy-faced woman pointed at Nijika.
Nijika had a look of utter bewilderment.
She stared blankly at Fumiya Jin.
Fumiya Jin shrugged and answered with surprising honesty, "If it were her, I definitely wouldn't have. But are you and she the same?"
"You!!!!" The fleshy-faced woman felt deeply insulted and targeted, so furious she could have ground her teeth to dust.
"Let's not talk about that for now," Fumiya Jin said, his expression turning slightly cold as he stared at her. "First, you're going to tell us where Daniel and Maruyama went."
Hearing this, the madam also suddenly realized.
That's right!
A moment ago, seeing the fleshy-faced woman being chased by something, they had completely forgotten.
Only now did it occur to them. There were three of them... how come only she came back?
______
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