I, Hikigaya, the snake of the red world god's ritual!

As a food that is as sweet and greasy as max coffee, Hikigaya naturally has a certain passion for pineapple buns, so he bought them and stuffed them into his schoolbag as supplies.

"Then let's go."

After setting foot on the road, Hikigaya began to review the knowledge he gained from the ritual snake.

First of all, it is the worldview of the world they live in now.

This world consists of two parts: the red world and the real world.

The Red World refers to the world where the Red World apostles live. There is nothing there, neither existence nor life and death. It is a completely empty world.

In order to sense their own existence and realize their own desires, the apostles of the Red World decisively invaded the present world after discovering it.

The present world is a world mainly populated by humans. This world is filled with the power of existence that can be used by the Red World Apostles. It is called a paradise for the Red World Apostles.

In particular, the power of human existence can directly become the source of action for the Red World Apostle without transformation.

Just like the coffee milk that Hikigaya usually drinks can quickly fill his stomach, humans treat the Red World Apostle with similar food.

Therefore, when the Red World Apostle comes to the human world, he will immediately devour a large number of humans to maintain his own existence and gain substantial ability to act.

After devouring enough power of existence, the Red World Apostle will be promoted to the Red World Demon King. He will have extremely powerful strength in this world and will also win the surrender of many weak Red World Apostles.

Of course, all this is not without cost. The Red World Apostle's power to devour human existence is too much, which will cause the distortion of the world. The 'two worlds gap' between the two worlds will form a big storm that destroys both worlds at the same time.

In order to prevent the world from being destroyed, some Red World apostles chose to take action, signed contracts with humans and became Fire Mist Warriors to hunt down those Red World Demon Kings who wanted to seize the power of existence.

By the way, in the distant past, the [Creation God] Ceremonial Snake once longed to create a city with the power of countless existences called the 'Great Lock'.

But this incident aroused fierce opposition from the Fire Mist Warriors.

The two sides started a great battle, and the Sacrificial Snake was finally exiled by the Fire Mist Warriors using the secret method of no return, and was permanently sealed in the gap between the two worlds.

Now that thousands of years have passed, the Ritual Snake has been able to return his consciousness to the real world.

"So, why do the Fire Mist Warriors deny the Ritual Snake? What are the shortcomings of the new world that the Ritual Snake wants to create?"

Hikigaya couldn't think of the answer to this question based only on the one-sided words of the ritual snake.

But Hikigaya knew that this question was very important and would directly affect his views on the Ritual Snake.

Is the other party a 'Devil King' trying to destroy the world, or a 'Savior' eager to save the world?

At least, Hikigaya temporarily believed that there was definitely a sufficient reason for the Fire Mist Warriors to banish the ritual snake. After all, the Secret Technique of No Return was said to consume several Fire Mist Warriors as sacrifices.

Spending such a high price to expel the Ritual Snake shows that the new world that the Ritual Snake wants to create is a huge disaster for the entire world.

That is definitely not the 'heaven' that the ritual snake himself said.

Of course, maybe it is indeed heaven, but it is just the paradise of the Red World Apostles, and for humans, it will be called an absolute hell...

With complicated thoughts in his mind, Hikigaya found that he had reached the end of the shopping street without even realizing it.

The large number of threads of existence floating in the sky have now converged to a point, like a tightly wound cocoon that is constantly expanding.

"Tsk, tsk, using such complicated means just to devour a human... The monster behind this seems to be a bit low-level."

As he murmured like this, a pink-haired dumpling girl appeared in Hikigaya's eyes.

The other party seemed to have been affected by the thread of existence, and his behavior gradually became confused, like a puppet, taking sluggish and rigid actions.

...Hasn’t the mastermind behind the scenes appeared yet?

Hikigaya looked around, but still couldn't find the enemy's true face.

At this moment, he discovered that the power of existence in the girl's body began to be swallowed up bit by bit by the thread of existence, and began to flow out of the body like a spring.

Realizing that he could no longer hesitate, Hikigaya hurriedly stepped forward, grabbed a broom from the ground with his right hand and waved it over!

"Snapped!"

It seemed like an ordinary swing, but Hikigaya clearly noticed something like scales emerging from the end of the broom.

And relying on this strange scale weapon, he easily cut off all the threads of existence wrapped around the pink-haired dumpling girl, and even heard a "cracking" sound.

Is this what kind of firecracker went off?

Hikigaya was amazed at how easily he cut the thread, and while Miss Dango was stunned, he immediately turned around and left the scene.

"Oh, is this what it feels like to be a superhero, doing good deeds without leaving a name... Tsk tsk, it feels good. After all, romantic comedies have never been my thing."

After walking out of the shopping street, Hikigaya slowly exhaled.

After cutting the thread just now, he inexplicably felt that his steps became much lighter, and his whole body seemed to be inflated and began to glow.

Hikigaya still didn't understand what was happening, but found a panicked voice coming from behind him.

"Hey, wait!"

Hikigaya didn't look back. He didn't remember that he knew a girl with such a voice, or he knew only a handful of people of the opposite sex, so it couldn't be that a girl was calling him.

Hurry back home, my lovely Komachi is still waiting - huh? !

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Someone grabbed him by the collar inexplicably, and Hikigaya staggered for a while, and then started coughing violently on the spot.

This scene frightened the girl behind him, who fell into panic on the spot. While patting his back, he said: "Yes...I'm sorry, are you okay, A-Qi!"

"No...it's okay." Hikigaya recovered from his coughing, "By the way, who is Aqi?"

Hearing Hikigaya's complaint, the girl with the dough head was stunned for a moment, then took a step back in a panic, her face turned red and she became confused.

Chapter 9 Fire Mist Warrior’s Bait

Chapter 9

"A-Qi is A-Qi..."

"Is it possible that Aqi is referring to me?"

Seeing the girl with the dumpling head shaking her head like a rattle, Hikigaya Hachiman's expression suddenly became a little confused.

"This...do you know me?" Hikigaya suddenly noticed a blind spot.

"What, after all, we are classmates..."

"Oh, you also have the kind of personality that memorizes the names of everyone in the class?"

"Ah...is there really such a person?"

After a brief conversation with the girl with the dumpling head, Hikigaya gradually became confused.

Mainly because he didn't understand why the other party came over to stop him.

I shouldn't have interacted with such a beautiful girl of the same age who has good looks and a top-notch figure.

Hikigaya used his brain, which knew nothing about men and women, and after some rational analysis, he finally came up with an answer that he thought was very possible.

"Are you here to sell phone cards?"

"That's not it!!!"

The dango-headed girl seemed to have been completely defeated by Hikigaya's slowness. She forced herself to overcome the shyness and shame in her heart and mustered up the courage to speak: "I, I am Yuigahama Yui, from Class 1 F."

"Uh, Hiki Valley Hachiman?"

Although he didn’t know why Yuigahama suddenly started announcing his name, Hikigaya followed suit.

"Why is it a question?" Yuigahama asked confused.

"What's wrong with that?"

"No, there's no problem..."

After a brief chat, Hikigaya felt that he was almost embarrassed to the point of leaving the three rooms and one living room.

What's going on with this young lady? Don't you see that she has social embarrassment?

Every minute I spend here now will consume the time I spend returning home to be intimate with my beloved sister. Please look at the air, the air...

"If it's okay, I'll go home."

Hikigaya turned around and started to leave.

As a result, before the legs could be opened, the collar was grabbed by a pair of soft hands.

"Can...can I ask you to help me, Aki?" Yuigahama Yui lowered her head, turned her eyes upward, and spoke in a pleading manner, "I have some worries that I want to discuss with you, and I will definitely find a way to repay you later. your."

"This……"

That's why I hate women of my own age.

This kind of trick is really foul.

There is no way to refuse...

Sighing, Hikigaya finally nodded, and he and Yuigahama came to the bench by the roadside, where they sat at a considerable distance apart.

"Specifically, what happened to you?" Hikigaya asked bluntly, "Is it possible that one of your family and friends suddenly changed his temperament and became completely different from before, and he said some strange things from time to time? ?"

"..."

No reply was heard from Yuigahama.

Confused, Hikigaya turned his head and saw Yuigahama's dull face.

"Aqi, are you a person with super powers?" Yuigahama came over in disbelief, his pupils suddenly dilated, "How do you know what I am thinking?"

"Too close, too close..."

Hikigaya's heartbeat was accelerated by Yuigahama's sudden attack, especially the two pairs of bulges on the opponent's chest. Such a close distance would have an irresistible pressure on any young man of the right age.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Realizing that his behavior was too reckless, Yuigahama quickly sat back, "It's just like what you said, Aqi. I have a female friend of the same age. Because she lives nearby, I used to go there on vacation. Sometimes we play together. But recently, she suddenly became completely different from before. In the first two days, she just started to be in a daze from time to time, often distracted, and then suddenly her personality changed significantly. She forgot some things from the past, and often showed signs of Some very strange behavior, wandering around the city late every day from time to time."

"I see."

Hikigaya probably realized something when he heard Yuigahama's words.

If he guessed correctly, Yuigahama's friend should have had his power of existence swallowed up by the Red Apostle and turned into an empty torch.

Under normal circumstances, the other party may completely disappear within a few days.

But since Yuigahama has not discovered the problem until now, and has described so many weird situations, it can only mean that Yuigahama's friend was forcibly replaced by a Fire Mist Warrior and became someone else.

This is a common situation in the lore described by the Ritual Serpent.

In order to kill the Red World Apostle, the Fire Mist Warriors will first disguise themselves as ordinary people who have been swallowed up by the power of existence. While searching for clues bit by bit, they will then attack the Red World Apostle unexpectedly.

Hey, then there is a problem here!

Hikigaya suddenly found a serious flaw in his reasoning.

If Yuigahama's friends are possessed by the Fire Mist Warrior, why can Yuigahama Yui's body be entangled with so many threads of existence?

Wait, could it be that the Fire Mist Warrior didn't notice Yuigahama Yui's problem, but deliberately ignored her problem in order to find the Red Apostle in this city.

Yuigahama became the bait for that Fire Mist Warrior to fish for?

Oops, I cut off the fishing line midway, so that Fire Mist Warrior won't come to trouble me then!

Hikigaya Hachiman finally realized a serious problem.

In just a few minutes, various thoughts flashed through his mind, including taking his sister Komachi and running away from the city immediately.

"Aqi, what's wrong with you?"

Yuigahama Yui's voice sounded confused.

"Ahem, in any case, your friend may have reached puberty. Ah, children of that age often do this." Hikigaya randomly found an excuse to fool him, "If you are really worried, just have a good time with her. If we talk about it, we might be able to understand her true thoughts.”

"Really?" A smile appeared on Yuigahama's face, "That's great. I should have discussed it with you, Aqi. I feel much more relaxed now."

After saying that, she stood up and said with a smile:

"I'll make some snacks for you next time as a thank you gift."

"Snacks? It's not necessary."

"It's okay. Although I've never done this before, I will definitely try my best!"

Saying that, Yuigahama Yui waved vigorously to Hikigaya, and her figure gradually disappeared under the sunset.

Then, go home...