View source for The Zashiki Warashi of Intellectual Village:Volume5 Side B

===Part 20 (Hishigami Mai — Day 10/03 23:28 - 23:45)===

The forest was quiet and the mountain was sleeping.

A clawless and fangless human that had given up its fur was an outsider there. It was said a soldier with their senses honed to the extreme could detect the scent of shampoo from four hundred meters away. If they knew the general direction, they could turn all five senses toward their surroundings and find the person hidden there.

At any rate, I was lucky to get the first attack in.

''Does it hurt to have a knee digging into your cheek? Then how about I push you down and finish you off!?

“Tch!!”

Dry gunshots rang out, but I moved just my upper body around to avoid the bullets while still sitting on the maid’s stomach.

Or that’s what should have happened.

“?”

Something warm trailed down my cheek.

Once I realized it came from the scrape of a bullet grazing my temple, I quickly made a change of plans.

I forcefully jumped back to put some distance between us and the maid fired more bullets.

This time, I was sure I had dodged them.

I kept my body entirely away from the straight line running from the muzzle of the handgun.

Yet in reality, the bullets opened dark red holes in my right shoulder and side.

“What…is going on!?”

“That is not what you should be surprised about. The true surprise is that you still haven’t been fatally wounded.”

She threw aside the old magazine and replaced it with a longer one that was twice the length of the gun itself. She then pulled the slide to load the first bullet.

“I am using the same resources. I could not prepare a new Youkai. Just think back to Sid Clouds’s method.”

“He was boosting his muscular strength with the Ubume’s baby. Did that leave the Ubume itself available!?”

I had lost a fair bit of blood, but my bones and organs were untouched. I relied on my speed and rushed back in toward the maid to swiftly get in a fatal blow.

But…

“!?”

Once I was in range for a certain kill, the maid’s body vanished like fog or an illusion and I heard dry gunshots from the side. I was far too slow to react to the sound, so one arm was destroyed and the bullets stopped just before reaching my organs.

''This woman!!

“The Ubume appears on a road at night and she prefers intersections of multiple paths, be it at a crossroads or a bridge. That is of course because the common point between a number of paths raises the odds of more victims encountering her.”

By the time I heard the voice, the maid was already gone.

“I have made a broad interpretation of that trait. In other words, I can freely control the probability of an ‘encounter’. I connect to the surrounding space, bind all of the paths together, and divide that which will meet from that which will not meet. Just like the Ubume meets her victim and separates that victim form any witnesses to ensure their death.”

It sounded like we were in an echoing cave. The source of her voice was dispersed to the point I couldn’t pinpoint a direction.

“You will not meet me.”

Only the dripping of my blood on the ground was clear.

''Not good! Really not good! As long as I’m caught in her technique, I’ll be killed in a completely one-sided game!!

“But my devilish attacks will always meet you.”

The voice was directed straight toward me, just like the sights of the gun.

“After all, bullets follow a ballistic path, so I can freely bind them to you.”

Gunshots rang out.

The multiple lead bullets flew like lightning and accurately pierced my body.