kscans

Chapter 105 - Predator

On August 16th, the fifth day of the Obon holiday, I was facing my ancestors, including my grandparents, in my family home's garden from early morning.

[Sorry to bother you so early in the morning]

"No, that's fine, but... you could take it easy on the last day at least."

[We're the type who like to relax at home on the final day of a long weekend]

The ancestors nodded in agreement. From my perspective as a living person, that made sense, but for the dead residing in paradise, every day was like a 365-day vacation.

[We're happy that you're reluctant to part with us grandmothers, but we can meet again next year... right?]

"I understand, I understand. I'll light the send-off fire for now."

Normally this would be done in the evening, but since they were already leaving, I needed to at least maintain the proper form. I quickly prepared the send-off fire and did a final check to see if there was anything left undone. After confirming that everyone nodded, I teleported to the gates of the afterworld.

[That was super quick]
[You're the world's fastest man]
[Thank you, Hero. We can go from here ourselves]

"Right, take care then."

I saw off my ancestors as they began walking toward the path to paradise, then returned to my family home. The time was just past 5 AM. I wanted to go back to sleep, but my schedule was already packed.

"You're here... come on in!"

When the intercom rang and I answered, Suzuki appeared on the veranda wearing comfortable training clothes.

"Good morning, Satou. Thanks for today."

"Yeah."

We were about to head out on a food hunt. Why? It was for a housewarming celebration. That topic came up yesterday, and we decided that if we were going to do it, we might as well go all out. So instead of buying ingredients normally, we'd get them with our own hands. And when people from the supernatural world use the word "hunt," naturally the prey isn't ordinary either.

"Satou, do you have the list?"

"Perfect. There are over a hundred. There might be some misses, but with this many, we should be able to get a decent number."

Monster cats, monster dogs, animals and plants that transform into aberrations over time or through exposure to miasma, there are many of them. And among those creatures, the ones that could originally be used as ingredients are generally delicious. Far more so than commercially available premium ingredients. That said, they don't suit ordinary people's palates. Even if they might taste good, they're toxic to normal human bodies. You could say they're superhuman-grade ingredients. Well, even among supernatural people, some can be dangerous depending on one's abilities, but we should be able to handle most of them.

"There are some from other countries mixed in, but... I'm here, so it shouldn't be a problem."

What we were targeting this time were "monster seafood." Suzuki had specified this. It was probably because he remembered what I'd said before: "I'd like to see you prepare a huge tiger pufferfish or something."

"Well, even if we're caught, it probably won't be a problem for you."

"Maybe. So, where do we attack first?"

The moment I handed him the list, Suzuki's eyes changed to those of a chef. No, that's not right. They were the eyes of a chef and glutton combined. His glittering appetite was making me hungry too.

"...Let's go with this one."

"Got it."

Strike while the iron is hot. I immediately teleported to a certain deep mountain in a certain prefecture. The moment we appeared in the mountains, a sensation like our skin being scorched welcomed us.

"...They're leaving something of this level alone?"

A massive alternate realm had formed spanning multiple mountains, including the one we were on. We hadn't stepped inside yet, but if ordinary people entered this mountain, they would be immediately absorbed. I judged this to be the highest danger class even among queen-level threats.

"Well, the only people who'd come to a place like this would be mountain climbers. If leaving it alone won't cause large-scale damage, they wouldn't want to waste valuable personnel on dangerous monsters. It's more cost-effective to put up 'No Entry' signs and call that a complete countermeasure."

That made sense. In terms of individual strength, it might be the highest class, but in terms of threat to humanity, it wasn't that significant. Well, thanks to that, we could enjoy a feast, so we should be grateful.

"Shall we go?"

"Yeah."

We entered the alternate realm together. Immediately, aberrations numbering like a night parade of a hundred demons swarmed us, but

"You're in the way."

Suzuki's repulsive force pierced their heads and chests, leaving them as corpses. If he released repulsive force carelessly, it would just blow things away, but when he focused his aim, it became a threatening penetrating force. The more he narrowed his target, the higher the output became, so when focused to the size of a pinhole, the penetrating power was seriously dangerous. I was riddled with holes during my final battle with Suzuki too.

"There are raccoons and wild boars mixed in, what should we do?"

"...I won't use them today, but secure them just in case."

"Roger."

I threw only the corpses of aberrations that looked edible into alternate space and moved forward. Various creatures attacked us again without learning their lesson, but they were all blocked by Suzuki's repulsive force barrier and sent flying. After walking for a while, we finally reached our destination.

"Here comes the main attraction."

A huge waterfall basin cracked open and "it" revealed itself.

[Heh heh heh, well well, what lively humans have appeared]

It was a giant eel that must have been several dozen meters long. At this point, it was less like an eel and more like a great serpent or dragon-like monster. The giant eel directed its sticky gaze at us, probably seeing us as delicious prey in its eyes. Just as we found aberrant animals delicious, aberrations also found powerful humans like us tasty. They had higher nutritional value and better taste than ordinary humans... While weak ones were one thing, strong ones actively tried to devour superhumans. This situation could be described as rare ingredient VS rare ingredient.

"Hey Suzuki, how many servings of kabayaki could you make from that?"

"...It could probably supply a restaurant for years."

"Hey, you're drooling."

"That's rich coming from you, Satou."

People from the supernatural world are basically big eaters. If you think about it, that's natural. We use energy that ordinary people don't use. And the stronger you are, the more you eat. To explain the structure of superhumans simply, imagine there's an invisible storage tank. And the stronger you are, the bigger that tank is. The more you eat, the more energy gets stored in that invisible tank, and you don't feel full until that tank is completely full. That's why we've learned techniques to block the path to that tank. Actually, people of moderate strength do this too. Strong people never feel satisfied no matter how long they eat, and moderate ones do it for financial reasons. But if you don't block the supply to the tank, you can eat endlessly... which means, well, basically...

"S-Suzuki... my stomach, the rumbling won't stop!"

"Ah! Ah! Me too! Kabayaki, shirayaki, hitsumabushi!"

"Th-there's also u-maki tamago, right?"

"There is! Tempura and fried food would be delicious too... sashimi would work too!"

"It's similar to fugu sashimi, right?"

"Yeah. I've only eaten it once, but that was good in its own way... heh heh."

"Heh heh, with a body this big... we could make all sorts of things."

"That's right."

We looked at each other and laughed.

"Heh, heh heh heh... uh heh heh heh heh heh..."

[Y-you bastards! You intend to eat me? This great me! What insolence!]

"Thank you for the meal!"

A few minutes later, the monster eel successfully changed careers to become an ingredient.