Chapter oni-15: Non-human

Oni 15 – Non-human

Author’s comment:

Summary up to the –

Vampire – Ate what was offered to her ?

Oni – What are you doing? Are you an idiot who wants to die? ?

Spider – Nothing to do with me ?

We glare at each other. The anger simmering in my chest boils up, and I somehow manage to contain it in desperation. If my anger explodes here, then it’s obvious that I will lose control of myself to Wrath again. That’s why, even while glaring at Sophia-san, I fully utilised my powers of reason and attempted to suppress the anger burning within me.

To me, what Sophia-san has done is not something that I can forgive. Charm magic, brainwashing and forced slavery. Those are the ones I detest the most. Then after calmly doing all that, Sophia-san used the excuse “because I’m a vampire” and became defiant – I will never be able to forgive that.

Coincident with that, in the back of my mind I realise that the point of the conversation has shifted. To begin with, this all started from when Sophia-san turned the demon called Waldo-san into a vampire. Furthermore, before that he was related to the charm magic that Sophia-san had spread everywhere, but let’s not go there. In that case, what’s important right now, is what Waldo-san thinks about having become a vampire I guess.

「Waldo-san.」

「Y, yes?」

When I call out to him, Waldo-san responds in a shrill voice. From his point of view both Sophia-san and I are pretty much monsters. With the likes of us two glaring at each other in this closed space, it certainly would have become a very uneasy place to be in. It’s not surprising that he couldn’t conceal the tension in his voice.

「Waldo-san, what do you think about having become a vampire?」

Remaining are just me and Shiro-san. I look at Shiro-san’s face. It’s as expressionless as ever. However, she seems somewhat displeased.

「Do you have some spare time?」

I call out to Shiro-san to forestall her as she appears about to get up. I originally came here because I had some business with Shiro-san. I just got dragged into Sophia-san’s mess. As for when I questioned her and the others, properly speaking I had no right to pry into that as an outsider.

「Why is Sophia-san like that?」

Yet despite that, that’s the question that I raise. Even though I have important matters that I must discuss. Because we’ve had a death battle in the past, perhaps I’ve developed some strange sentiment?

To my query, Shiro-san doesn’t reply for a while. I got used to it during the question and answer session in the other dimension, but a conversation with Shiro-san requires patience. Since she’s not standing up, I think she intends to reply. I think that if she didn’t intend to reply then she probably would have left without saying anything.

「Because she’s not human.」

The reply she gave after a lengthy pause, was a bit too plain for me to be able to understand. Because she’s not human, well, saying that, I’m not human either. However, even though we’re both non-human, I still don’t understand Sophia-san.

「A human cannot understand a spider’s feelings. A spider cannot understand a frog’s feelings.」

It seems my doubt showed on my face. At Shiro-san’s words, I understand somewhat. Even if we’re both non-humans, I am an oni while Sophia-san is a vampire. Though human-shaped non-humans may be grouped together, there is still a clear difference. Because of that, misunderstandings will occur, is what Shiro-san is probably saying.

Certainly, I don’t know anything about vampires. Neither the reason why Sophia-san obsesses about being a vampire, or how they live. Though she is clearly at fault, she was still so opposed to apologising, so perhaps there is something that a vampire is unable to conceed. Though even if I think that, I still cannot forgive her after all.

Though saying that, blaming her one-sidedly might be barking up the wrong tree. Maybe I need to know a little about vampires.

When I gather my thoughts and raise my head, Shiro-san is eating something. If I’m not mistaken, then that appears to be the leg of a huge frog. Shiro-san is expressionlessly stuffing that into her mouth and eating it. Ah, it certainly seems that my understanding of non-humans is lacking. I have realised that just from seeing this scene. Furthermore, not being in the mood to ask any further questions, and having not confirmed anything about what I had originally wanted to ask, I ended up leaving in dejection.