Prologue: From Here on Out

Prologue:
From Here on Out

Rolling face up, Yomi gazed at the endless blue sky.

Only then did she truly feel as though it was all over.

Has the world been destroyed?

Yomi shook with fear, her body pushed to the very brink. She couldn’t move a muscle, so she let her thoughts wander.

It felt as though it had worked. Or at least, she thought as much.

She and her friends had managed to corner the powerful demon king. With its back against the wall, however, it had sacrificed its own life to revive that…thing. Yomi and her companions recognized the horrific monster as the dark lord—the very deity that the demons worshiped.

Although newly born into the world, the dark lord was far more powerful than any demon king they had bested. It was truly worthy of being called a god.

However, it seemed to lack consciousness. The life force simply ate and ate, as though intent on consuming the world itself.

Yomi had struck the foul beast with the cursed demon blade crafted from a fang of the long-gone Black Overlord, ruler of death and darkness. Only then did she feel one of her attacks finally make it through. She poured every last bit of dark power into the blade. If the attack didn’t work, Yomi was certain that the world would be consumed.

There’s no point in thinking like that.

Yomi had no way of knowing whether her final strike defeated the dark lord or if the being consumed the world. Evidently surprised by the pain she had inflicted upon it, the dark lord—a creature that lived purely on instinct—moved as far away as possible.

It swatted Yomi like a fly, through the very fabric of space-time, and all the way to another world—ensuring that she would never be able to return home.

Yomi found herself floating in an endless ocean. Wherever she cast her gaze, all she could see was a blue line on the horizon.

She discarded everything that would get in the way of her survival, aside from her Sigil and clothes. For seven days and nights, she swam with the current, eventually arriving at a beach of sorts.

Now that Yomi had avoided death, she thought about her companions.

I just hope those three survived, if nothing else.

There was Alto, whose knowledge and magical abilities surpassed Yomi’s own. Then there was Alex, who boasted of his superior swordsmanship and filthy lifestyle. Last but not least, there was Leo, whose blessings from the Lord of Light exceeded those Yomi had received from the Goddess of Darkness.

Yomi was an irregular. She had been “created” with ogre seed. (The ogre was said to have been the strongest one sighted since the Mountain Nation’s borders had opened.) That seed was bestowed upon a maiden of the Shrine of Darkness, who had been born with an incredibly strong blessing of darkness despite her weak body. Upon Yomi’s birth, the shrine maiden had passed away.

As far as Yomi was concerned, the world meant nothing to her, aside from the three comrades with whom she had traveled and defeated countless demon kings.

The most important thing is figuring out my next move.

Switching gears, Yomi thought about her situation. The Shrine of Darkness had created her with the specific purpose of slaying demon kings, but now that mission was over.

She was certain that nobody would complain about her efforts. She had only failed against one king and had managed to battle the very deity the demons worshiped.

In other words, the warrior no longer had a reason to live. The future that stretched out in front of Yomi was as empty as the sky she gazed upon.

Perhaps I should just wait for the end to take me. Hmm…?

A shadow fell over her, making her blink. A man’s face appeared before her eyes.

Huh. So, I suppose there are humans here, too.

The tanned man looking down at her had a short haircut and a slightly sad expression. He was close to her age, judging by his appearance. His thin face resembled those of the Mountain Nation’s inhabitants, whom Yomi hadn’t seen since crossing over from the Western Continent so many moons ago. The man began to speak to her in an unfamiliar, otherworldly tongue.

Next to him was some kind of wooden bucket full of stone-like objects.

Yomi could tell that the man had no murderous or evil intent, so he most likely wasn’t some kidnapper or thief. She realized that he was probably just worried about her, since she was lying basically naked on the sand. Yomi relaxed, staring up at the man blankly.

He opened his mouth and said something. Yomi knew both the Eastern and Western Continents’ languages, so the fact that she couldn’t understand his words reminded her that she really was in another world.

I haven’t the slightest idea what he’s saying. Oh well.

Yomi focused her energies and began casting a spell.

She used a special technique Alto had created during their travels. It permitted the caster to connect their consciousness directly to someone in front of them for communication.

Yomi wouldn’t be able to read the man’s memories or emotions, but she would see his intentions. The spell allowed its user to express themselves to creatures that couldn’t speak and understand what they wanted to say. It was quite useful while negotiating or when asking for guidance or watering hole locations.

“Yer gonna catch a cold lying out here like this, young lady. Crap… You don’t understand a word I’m saying, do you? Chinese and English don’t work… Damn. I don’t know German.”

As she read his intent, Yomi could interpret what he said. The man in front of her was apparently speaking not only his otherworldly native tongue but also those of other regions.

“It’s…okay. Can understand…words.”

Passing her own intentions to the man’s mind, Yomi spoke in the Eastern Continent’s dialect, which caused him to interpret her words as his own country’s language.

“Oh, you speak Japanese after all!” His eyes shone as he whispered to himself. “Thank goodness. Seriously.”

He let out a sigh of apparent relief.

“In any case, you really oughta be more careful,” he continued. “You could catch a cold! And, I mean, look… The war’s over, right? You’re mighty beautiful, so I’m sure you got things to look forward to! Oh… I know! How about grabbing a bite? My place is a western diner in Dalian. Before the war, I worked as a western chef in Shanghai after I got into a fight with my old man and left home. Just yesterday, I went pretty far out to find ingredients! Got my hands on some real good pork. So, how ’bout it? It’s on me. You know what they say—treasure each and every meeting, right?”

As he strung together a seemingly endless number of words, something about his smile seemed almost…rushed.

Yomi’s stomach growled in response.

“Food, huh…?”

Yomi had gone seven days without consuming anything but salt water. Her stomach was empty.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to take you up on your most generous offer.”

Now that she thought about it, her purse had sunk to the ocean floor, leaving her with no money. She wasn’t fond of killing people just to feed herself, so she decided it was best to accept the man’s kind offer. For now, she’d focus on surviving and getting something to eat.

Yomi stood up, and time slowly began to flow once more. Wrapping herself in the overcoat the man handed her, she started walking.

“Oh, that’s right. I completely forgot to introduce myself. I’m Yamagata Daiki. My family name is written with the kanji for ‘mountain’ and ‘direction.’ My given name’s written with the characters for ‘large tree,’ from that saying about seeking shelter in the shadow of a large tree. My dad named me that way because he wanted me to become a tall, reliable man.”

“I see. Well, my name is Yomi. I’m sorry to cause you so much trouble.”

As she exchanged words with Daiki, Yomi’s feet dug into the ground of the other world.

Why is he being so kind to me?

Daiki didn’t know her true nature. Still, it was hard for Yomi to comprehend why he was being so kind to a woman once feared as the “Demon King Slayer.”

Years later, at a government office, Yomi learned that Daiki had thought she’d lost a lover or family member in the war, as he had. He’d feared that she was about to throw herself into the ocean and was desperate to stop her. Daiki explained this after Yomi told him that she had been born on the Western Continent and that her parents were long gone, leaving her alone in the world.

Afterward, she changed her name to Yamagata Koyomi.