Chapter 46: Mermaid's Call, Infinite Summoning?
"Th-That's just Lady Yuyuko spouting nonsense! I... I do like Haruto-sama... but our relationship isn't..."
Youmu instinctively tried to deny it, but the words caught in her throat. A part of her didn't want to refute the claim at all. Instead, she simply turned her head, her gaze quietly finding Haruto beside her.
"I mind, you know," Haruto muttered, his dark eyes clouded with dissatisfaction.
The simple phrase sent a tremor through Youmu's entire body. She nearly lost her footing, a sharp ache blooming in her chest and creeping upward until it stung the corners of her eyes. She was on the verge of tears.
"I'm very happy that you'd call me your boyfriend, but..." Haruto continued, his tone shifting to one of righteous indignation. "You said 'little' boyfriend! I don't like that one bit!"
Little? Him?
That was simply preposterous!
Sure, he might be significantly younger than Youmu in terms of age, but could such matters truly be judged by a number? If anything, the fragrant and delicate Youmu was far more suited to the word 'little.'
Had Yakumo Yukari been present to hear his thoughts, she would have undoubtedly jabbed a finger at his nose and shrieked, "Oh, so I'm just an old hag, is that it? You're discriminating against me, you brat!"
It wasn't until she processed the second half of Haruto's complaint that the tears clinging to Youmu's lashes retreated. She let out a soft, shaky sigh of relief.
With the misunderstanding cleared, Youmu took it upon herself to explain the situation to Komachi, recounting everything that had happened in the Mermaid Pension and the reason for their visit.
"So... you want me to help you look up information on this person named King Chen and his family?" Komachi summarized, her expression thoughtful.
"Is it inconvenient?" Haruto asked, noticing her hesitation.
"It's not a matter of rules... well, privately checking information on the living is technically against protocol, but that's not it..." Komachi's gaze fell on Haruto, a strange, inexplicable light in her eyes. "It's just... are you really sure this 'Death Game' thing exists? And that there are so many evil spirits causing chaos in the human world?"
It wasn't that she refused to believe him. It was that Haruto carried the heavy title of "Yakumo Yukari's younger brother," which made anything he said difficult to trust at face value. If Youmu hadn't been the one to corroborate the story, Komachi would have assumed Haruto had come all this way just to prank her. A certain Sage of Youkai had, after all, set a rather infamous precedent for such behavior.
"Of course. If you don't believe me, take a look at this."
Haruto reached into a nearby gap in space and pulled out a shimmering golden scale. It was one of the SS-rank rewards from the mermaid instance: the Mermaid Prince's Illusory Call.
Thus far, he still hadn't figured out its exact purpose.
Judging by the name alone, it was likely used to summon mermaids—the kind that would probably try to kill their master the moment they appeared. But now seemed like the perfect opportunity to test it. Youmu and Komachi, both specialists in suppressing ghosts and monsters, were right here. This was also the bank of the Sanzu River. If any summoned creature dared to turn on him, he wouldn't even have to lift a finger; the two of them could chop it into pieces and toss the remains into the river.
"Do you mind if I take a look?" Komachi asked, her professional curiosity piqued. She seemed to sense an unusual energy from the object.
Haruto handed the scale over. Komachi took it, turning it over and over in her hand with a curious frown.
"This is a reward item I got from the last instance, called the Mermaid Prince's Illusory Call," Haruto explained. "As for how to use it, I have no idea..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Komachi's fingers somehow brushed against the right spot. The golden scale erupted in a brilliant flash of light.
The next moment, three blurry, illusory shadows materialized out of thin air.
Youmu instantly dropped into a combat stance. The faint shing of her Roukanken being drawn from its sheath was the only sound. If those shadows displayed even a flicker of hostility, her blade would end them.
As the phantoms solidified and their features became clear, Haruto's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He had expected the summons to be either a copy of the Mermaid Prince or more of those terrifying, skinless mermaids.
He hadn't expected them to be neither.
The creatures before them... could generously be called mermaids, but they didn't quite fit the description. If the mermaids he'd encountered before were evolving toward a "human head, fish body" form, these were unequivocally "fish head, human body." Their grotesque, piscine heads sat atop humanoid torsos, their bulbous eyes staring blankly into the distance.
"This is definitely not an object from our world," Komachi declared, handing the scale back to Haruto. "This call can summon these creatures, but they're just illusory projections. They have no consciousness and can't be commanded."
The words had barely left her mouth when the three mermaids, which had been standing perfectly still, suddenly snapped to attention. Their gazes locked onto Haruto in unison, and in the next instant, they went completely berserk.
They charged at him with reckless abandon. But before they could take more than a few steps, a flash of silver light sliced through the air. Three fish heads hit the ground with a series of wet thuds, their bodies continuing to stumble forward for a moment before collapsing.
"Did you just give them an order?" Komachi asked, scratching her head in confusion. "Logically, they shouldn't have been provoked like that."
"I didn't order them," Haruto said with a shrug, pocketing the Mermaid's Call. "Remember that 'Fish Communication Master' ability I got? I just cursed them out a little. Didn't expect them to have such a short fuse."
Cursed them out a little?
Both Komachi and Youmu's eyes twitched.
Haruto then asked curiously, "Does this thing have a limit on how many times you can use it? And what's the maximum number of mermaids it can summon at once?"
"A usage limit? Probably not, at least I didn't sense one. There shouldn't be a numerical limit either; the more energy you pour into it, the more you'll summon. There is a time limit, though—about five minutes. After that, they'll dissipate on their own, even if Youmu doesn't kill them."
Haruto nodded, tucking the scale safely back into a gap. He had initially dismissed most SS-rank rewards as useless trinkets, but he hadn't expected to find a hidden gem like this. In theory, as long as he had sufficient energy, he could summon an infinite number of them. An item like that would be incredibly useful in the Death Game.
And that Fish Communication Master ability was clearly meant to be used in tandem with the call. He suddenly wondered if it would work on Hong Meiling. He recalled that she had only made it halfway through the Dragon Gate and was currently in a strange half-fish, half-dragon state.
"So, Komachi," Haruto said, getting back to the point. "Can you help us check the information on King Chen and his family now?"
"Oh, oh! Right, right!" Komachi jolted as if waking from a daze, finally remembering their main purpose. She quickly retrieved a slightly worn, leather-bound booklet from the pouch at her waist.
"What's that?" Haruto asked, leaning in curiously.
"The Book of Karma," Komachi explained. "Every Reaper has one. As long as you input the name, date of birth, or even just physical characteristics of the person you're looking for, you can accurately look up all their information, including every good and evil deed of their life."
"Holy crap! It's a doxxing tool!"
"Dox?" Komachi looked at him, completely blank.
Haruto gave a dry cough. "Nothing. I'm just surprised your prop is so powerful. We don't know King Chen's specific date of birth, but he's roughly between thirty and fifty years old."
Komachi nodded and lightly swiped her thumb across the pages of the register. As she did, brief snippets of information—names, faces, and dates—began to magically materialize and scroll across the parchment.
"There are a lot of people who fit that description," she said, her finger sliding down the page. "Take a look and see if the one you're looking for is here."
Half an hour passed.
The pages continued to turn, a seemingly endless stream of lives flashing before his eyes. Just as Haruto was about to give up, beginning to think that King Chen might not even be from his world, a familiar photo suddenly popped up.
"Stop! That's him!"
Haruto hadn't actually expected to find him. The Death Game clearly pulled participants from multiple worlds; the probability of two players coming from the same one was incredibly small. He had already been making contingency plans to visit Miko's world and try his luck there if this search turned up nothing.
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