Editing Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 15===

It was down at the dark water’s surface.

A skull was caught among the splashing waves.

The egg-shaped object was covered by a large object almost like a hat. That was the rotting scalp with a woman’s hair growing from it. She must have had short hair in life.

The skull wasn’t carried away by the waves because it was caught on one of the thick retractable spikes used to stop mid-sized cargo ships. That made the actual depth less than 2cm, making a fall from the bridge 10m above quite fatal.

And by now, that skull was not alone.

The inky ocean canal parted as something emerged: a hand of muddy-colored bones. And not just the one. More and more bony arms parted the waves in a chain reaction. Like a sea anemone or an antlion. Resembling a great maw gaping up toward heaven as it awaited its prey.

The records had been wrong. The single digit number of victims only counted those who had been accidentally crushed by the bridge mechanism, not the suicides who had been overlooked by the records. If the Ghastly Crusher had taken a double digit number of lives, then its rank was in fact Double Dread Star. And the more victims, the fiercer and more difficult to defeat she would be.

“C……..o……..m……..e……..”

The shrill unsteady sound was like a distorted ringing in the ear.

By traveling through every possible wavelength and narrowing its width, it finally became a physical voice capable of vibrating human eardrums.

It formed the voice of a woman who had only been able to find amusement in destroying humans.

“Come, come, come at me!! Hee hee hee ha ha, let us settle this. This is now one-on-one, so let us fight it out until your life too is taken. All because you insist on preventing me from meeting him someday somewhere!!!”

Something fell toward her.

A festival-size firecracker bundle longer than a pants belt.

That was all.

“Huh?”

Her gaping mouth seemed to welcome it in.

A moment later, well over a 100 firecrackers erupted within the massive maw and the Ghastly Crusher was shredded from within like thin paper wrapped around an explosive, leaving nothing at all behind.