The Final Mission

"Are you here to read at the Library again?"

"Ah... yeah, the library at school is still under construction, so I come here to read whenever I have free time."

Kobeni Higashiyama actually loved reading extracurricular books, but due to her family situation, she had no money to buy them.

"Can't you just borrow books? Do you need to come to the Library every single day?"

"Borrowing... requires a library card. Since I'm a minor, getting one is a bit troublesome, and all the required documents are at home, plus Mom and Dad..."

Kobeni Higashiyama hesitated for a moment and still didn't mention her family matters.

Though Kobeni Higashiyama didn't spell it out, Asaba Kotone had a rough idea.

It was obvious that her family restricted Kobeni. In the original story, they simply forbade Kobeni from going to university so she could earn money instead, but what surprised him a little was that even reading books was restricted, forcing her to sneakily read in the library during after-school hours.

Just as Asaba Kotone was about to say something, the phone in his pants pocket suddenly rang.

He answered it, and Aki Hayakawa's voice came through.

"Are you done with your business? If you're done, get back here quickly. There's a multi-person mission over here."

On the other other end of the line, Aki Hayakawa's tone was somewhat hurried, because as long as he could complete this very last mission, he could enter Tokyo Public Security.

"Alright, I'll be right back."

After hanging up the phone, Asaba Kotone said to Kobeni Higashiyama, "Something urgent came up, so I can't chat anymore."

"Mhm, mhm."

Afterwards, Asaba Kotone hurried into the library to pick up a Past Exam Compilation, bought it, and directly teleported himself into the Kamui Dimension, then transferred to the Guild Hall where he had left a "coordinate" long ago.

Seeing Asaba Kotone suddenly appear before his eyes, Aki Hayakawa, even though he knew Asaba Kotone possessed this ability, was still somewhat surprised. "You came back really fast."

"Aki Hayakawa, is this your partner? Looks like his ability might be pretty impressive?"

"Whoa~ It seems he's even younger than Aki-kun, he must be a newbie, right?"

One could see two other people beside Aki Hayakawa, who should be teaming up for this multi-person mission.

"Ouchihara, Ryoko Yamada, these two are partners, and they'll be acting with us for this mission."

Aki Hayakawa introduced the two people to Asaba Kotone, who were respectively a tall, rugged, flat-topped man and a young woman with bandages wrapped around her right hand.

Then Aki Hayakawa introduced Asaba Kotone to the two of them. "This is my partner, Asaba Kotone."

"I really didn't expect this, you actually agreed to find a partner, guy. I bet your partner's strength isn't half bad either?"

Ouchihara patted Aki Hayakawa's shoulder with a rather hearty laugh.

"His strength is very strong, this mission won't be much of a problem."

Aki Hayakawa said indifferently.

"Oh? To be able to get such a high evaluation from you, it looks like this brother isn't simple."

Ouchihara's tone was somewhat surprised.

"Then I'll just ride on your coattails this time~"

Ryoko Yamada said with a smile.

Of course, it was in a joking tone; nobody could afford to lower their guard on a mission of this difficulty.

Since Ouchihara and Ryoko Yamada had only returned in the past few days from their vacations, they didn't know about Aki Hayakawa and Asaba Kotone's battle records over the last couple of days, and thus weren't clear on just how strong Asaba Kotone was.

However, since Aki Hayakawa could rate him as very strong, they knew what to expect in their hearts.

A so-called multi-person mission referred to a mission of relatively high difficulty that required multiple people to act together, and the four of them immediately took a car to the target location.

While in the car, Aki Hayakawa finally recounted the mission details to Asaba Kotone.

"According to the mission description, a Carp Devil has appeared in a nearby river. Even though it should be a very ordinary devil based on its name, the destructive power it's displayed is abnormal. Let's hope it hasn't eaten any pieces of the Gun Devil's flesh, otherwise we'll have to request reinforcements from Public Security."

"..."

Asaba Kotone was somewhat speechless.

This was undoubtedly a Carp Devil that had eaten pieces of the Gun Devil's flesh; true to being a classic flag, running into such a powerful devil on the very last mission.

If he weren't there, Aki Hayakawa might have been fine, but it was hard to say for Ouchihara and Ryoko Yamada.

"Then we'll have to prepare for the worst. Let's assume that Carp Devil has eaten pieces of the Gun Devil's flesh, you guys need to be careful."

Asaba Kotone's words were mainly spoken for Ouchihara and Ryoko Yamada to hear.

Ouchihara and Ryoko Yamada nodded with serious expressions; deep down, they also knew the level of danger this mission posed.

At that moment, the four of them arrived at the target location.

This was a small river, and the ordinary people around had long since fled in all directions, terrified by the devil's commotion.

However, the Carp Devil was no longer in the river, but standing on the ground by the riverbank.

The Carp Devil took the form of an unusually massive carp, with only a single large eyeball on its head giving it an extremely wide field of vision. The dorsal fin on its back had turned into a series of sharp spikes a full one to two meters long, and it had grown many bone-like human legs at the base, granting it the ability to walk on land.

It was currently chewing on a human corpse, seemingly preying on humans.

Devils that had eaten pieces of the Gun Devil's flesh like this one didn't suddenly reincarnate from Hell into the Human World, but had been lurking in the Human World for a long time, otherwise they wouldn't have possessed pieces of the Gun Devil's flesh.

It had probably been hiding somewhere at the bottom of the river usually, coming out from time to time to prey on humans.

"Human blood... truly delicious...! Hm? Is there more food delivering itself to my door?"

Hearing the Carp Devil's voice, Aki Hayakawa remained completely silent, performing Hand Seals with his right hand to prepare to use the Fox Devil's power.

"Snap!"

The Fox Devil's huge head abruptly appeared, biting the Carp Devil's head directly off.

"I'll accept this head..."

Leaving behind those words, the Fox Devil vanished.

Looking at the headless Carp Devil, which was spurting blood endlessly and had stopped moving, Aki Hayakawa said with a hint of surprise, "It was resolved so easily... It seems this guy didn't eat any pieces of the Gun Devil's flesh after all."

"Huh... Is it really this effortless? I thought we were in for a bloody battle, we didn't even need to make a move."

Ouchihara scratched the back of his head. The mission difficulty was nothing like he had imagined; it completely lacked the difficulty a multi-person mission should have.

"Isn't it better if it's easy? We can sell this corpse for a good chunk of money when we take it back, and we can slack off for a while longer."

Ryoko Yamada stretched her waist, her upright curves particularly eye-catching, and turned around ready to leave.

She had already figured out that she would go soak in a Hot Spring and enjoy herself after heading back this time.

Yet Asaba Kotone was still staring intently at the Carp Devil's corpse; he felt something was off.

Only he, with his extremely sharp perception, could notice that the Carp Devil's caudal fin was still twitching slightly. This did not look like post-mortem spasms.

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