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Last Embryo Volume 8 Chapter 4 Part 1

CHAPTER 4

The Outer World, in front of the second building belonging to Everything Company.

It was a particularly stormy night where the dark grey rain clouds were covering the entire sky and even the gusts of cold wing were clinging to people’s skins. Its roaring gusts blew across the streets overturning all of the city’s signboards and ruining the beautifully maintained flowerbeds were flattened into the ground by it.

In the middle of such a crushingly bad weather, two people from the Ying-Yang Division appeared on the streets while being assaulted by the elements which left them soaked to the bone in no time flat. After confirming their destination, the two of them entered Everything Company’s second building and they gave their names to the receptionist at the front desk.

「Excuse me. My name is Tsunoda Shogo, detective from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and this is Tsuchimikado Shinpei, also from the same department. We have been scheduled to meet with Miss Kudou Ayato, so can you tell us which way do we need to go?」

「Ayato-ojousama… Why yes, you have been scheduled to meet with her today indeed. Now then, if you could please go wait for her to the reception room on the fifteenth floor…」

After being guided to the elevator by the receptionist, the two men let out big sighs from their mouths.
「Well damn, who would have thought that it was going to rain this heavily, huh?」

「You can say that again. If it wasn’t for the summons from Ayato-ojousama and Tokuteru, I would have absolutely refused and not moved a muscle.」

「Yeah, that is what I was wondering about as well. Putting aside the young lady and Everything Company, who is this Tokuteru person supposed to be anyway? I mean, he has to be some kinda bigshot, since there are not many people who can directly contact the Ying-Yang Division, which specializes in handling all sorts of occult cases behind the scenes.」

The younger of the two detectives, Tsuchimikado Shinpei from the Ying-Yang Division asked Tsunoda Shogo, his senpai at work. Tsunoda Shogo scratched his head and wondered how exactly should he explain that to his kouhai.

「Let me see… for starters, have you ever heard about the organization known as 『The Twelve Devas』?」

「『The Twelve Devas』… are you talking about that one rumored free agent company?」

「That’s right, those guys. It’s an organization with a silly name, but when it comes to the personnel that they employ, then it can be said that they have a small number of elite specialists who are pretty well-known both inside and outside of Japan. They also seem to be the reason why the Ying-Yang Division has been revived from the Bureau of Onmyou after being inactive for almost 140 years.」

Tsuchimikado Shinpei frowned at the explanation given by his senpai, Tsunoda Shogo.

「… If that information is true, then that is absolutely amazing. That also means that their leader was the one who ordered my master to rebuild it, right?」

「That’s what it all seems to be coming down to. The thing with these guys is, they pretend to be a regular private organization like any other, but its members are absolutely not human. My personal guess is that this Tokuteru guy must be either a well-known Divine Spirit or an incarnation of a God. In any case, it’s best to assume that the people we’ll be meeting today are not the decent bunch in the slightest.」

Tsunoda Shogo took out a document from his wet shoes. Tsuchimikado Shinpei scratched his head with a vague expression, and gave him a hollow smile in the end.

「A genuine God, huh? Well, for me it probably wouldn’t be anything too unusual. My master could be said to have been a monster in his own right, but the two people responsible for pulling me into this world were also outrageous monsters who could give him a run for his money.」

「You have a lot of guts to be saying such things, I’ll give you that. As expected of the Ying-Yang Division’s only working unit.」

「What are you talking about? A working unit is just an empty title, and all that I’m doing is just being made to run all over Japan by myself, isn’t it?」

I complained with plenty of irony while curving his lips in a wry smile.

Tsunoda Shogo is his primary boss, but other than that, Tsuchimikado Shinpei is in charge of all of his actions and activities on site whenever he is delegated to travel somewhere. Tsunoda Shogo, who is about to reach the age of retirement simply accompanies Tsuchimikado Shinpei because of how young and inexperienced he is.

「Hmph. If I hadn’t met you, I wouldn’t have been confronted with the truth that the occult really exists in this world. Thanks to that, even now I can’t let go of my wife’s hand at night.」

「Kah! You’re being as lovey-dovey as ever, and it is so annoying! After graduating from high school, all I did was studying hard and training in hell, so I never had any time to really get it on with any of the girls from my surroundings! Damn it, why couldn’t I meet someone nice while stull in high school?!」

Tsuchimikado Shinpei said so while grinding his teeth in frustration. It was just then that the elevator reached the fifteenth floor, their destination.

Tsunoda Shogo, who was led to the reception room by the receptionist, lit up a cigarette and looked at him with curiosity.

「Actually, I’ve been wanting to ask you this for a long time. Who or what caused you to get involved in the Yin-Yang Division?」

「Huh… Have I never told you about this before, Tsunoda-san, too?」

「Not even a single word. But knowing you, it was probably either a man or a woman, without any other alternatives. So whoever that was, were they at least human?」

「It was a human. Actually, well, they seemed to be much more than a humans, but they were definitely human.」

Tsuchimikado Shinpei gave a clear and immediate answer to the question of his senpai.

He lit a cigarette and shuddered as if it was frightening for him to even remember these people. He breathes the cigarette smoke in with a big sigh and spoke the name of his nemesis as if he just remembered them.

「Sakamaki Izayoi and Canaria. Those are the names of the people who got me into this industry in the first place.」

「Huh?」

「Well, to be honest, he was my kouhai during the high school years, that bastard Sakamaki Izayoi I mean! If I hadn’t met Izayoi, I would have never met Canaria, and if I didn’t meet Canaria, I would have never met my master! In other words it’s no exaggeration to say that the person who dragged me into this industry was that bastard Sakamaki Izayoi after all!」

Tsuchimikado Shinpei cried out with a lot of resentment while taking on the face of a demon.

Apparently, he thinks that Sakamaki Izayoi was the cause of everything bad that went wrong in his life.

Tsunoda Shogo asked Tsuchimikado Shinpei once again while showing a thoughtful gesture with blinking eyes.

「Sakamaki Izayoi, huh… is this some sort of coincidence, or is there perhaps something more behind it?」

「Huh?」

「Oh no, don’t mind me, I’m just talking to myself out loud. Looks like we still have a little time left before the meeting, so if you don’t mind, please do tell me a little story about that guy called Sakamaki Izayoi and the woman called Canaria.」

「Well sure, I don’t mind, but it’s not a very interesting story, you know?」

「Is it now? Well I for one think that it might actually be plenty interesting, since it’s going to be a story about a man and a woman meeting whom have caused your path to cross with mine.」

Tsunoda Shogo urges Tsuchimikado Shinpei with a grin. Tsuchimikado Shinpei showed an irritated grimace, but he quickly regained his composure and extinguished his cigarette.

The story that he was about to tell him happened while he was still in high school, so naturally it took him a little time to remember all of the details.

Leaning against the back of the sofa they were sitting on, he began to talk about his lifelong nemesis: Sakamaki Izayoi.

* * *

Six years ago, during the springtime.

At the high school that I went to, there was this one underclassman who could be called nothing other than a monster: Sakamaki Izayoi.

He was a freshman that year, so the rumors about him became popular for a while.