kscans

Chapter 106 - I Want to Become a Star That Illuminates Everyone

"Satou-kun, shall we wrap things up soon?"

"Hm? Oh, you're right, it's getting pretty late."

I check my phone and see it's almost ten o'clock. We've been going around various places for nearly five hours. We've hunted quite a bit of good ingredients, so it should be fine to call it quits now. I nod at Suzuki's suggestion and teleport back to our secret base on Okutama Island. As soon as we return, Suzuki says he's going to take a bath and hurries off to the bathroom. Well, we did get pretty dirty. Just washing his hands probably wouldn't be enough to feel hygienically clean.

"I could really go for something to eat... no, I need to be patient. The more I hold back, the more delicious the meal will be when I finally get it."

I suppress my appetite and take a cider from the refrigerator. I'd really prefer a beer, but alcohol too... I still need to be patient.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

About thirty minutes later, Suzuki returns. ...Maybe it's because he just got out of the bath, but his sex appeal really stands out. He's wearing a plain shirt and shorts, a casual post-bath outfit. His slightly flushed skin is undeniably erotic. If you just focus on his appearance, he really does look like nothing more than an elegant, cute type.

"Well then, let's start by preparing the tiger pufferfish you were hoping for, Satou-kun."

He's probably planning to use his supernatural abilities full force in the cooking. An aura was seeping from Suzuki's body. I'm ready to help when necessary, but... tiger pufferfish, tiger pufferfish...

"...Lucifer."

"Let's cook it properly. That's the least we can do to show our respect."

This isn't the demon lord Lucifer who never fails to captivate the hearts of middle school boys. That guy's doing idol work now. The Lucifer I'm referring to here is the name that the mutated tiger pufferfish we hunted at our third location called itself. Do aberrations also get chuunibyou? Well... there was a reason why that guy named himself Lucifer.

"I was born and raised in this sea that you call the Seto Inland Sea."

As soon as we entered Lucifer's alternate realm and came face to face with him, he suddenly began telling his life story. Huh? What? Is this like an RPG boss battle or something? While confused, it seemed interesting, so Suzuki and I decided to listen silently.

"Many of my brethren were captured by hungry demons and disappeared, but I was cleverer than the others and blessed with good fortune as well. Therefore, I was able to spend nearly ten years safely without being caught by you... I thought I could live out my natural lifespan like this."

For a pufferfish, he speaks in a remarkably intellectual manner. I wasn't the only one who thought so. Suzuki also had a "what's with this guy" look on his face.

"That probably led to my complacency. And I also had bad luck with my opponent. I was captured by a human who could be called a special individual."

As I already explained, animals and plants that have undergone aberration transformation are delicacies for superhumans. So you can probably imagine, right? The special individual Lucifer is talking about refers to someone from the supernatural world. They probably planned to artificially induce aberration transformation by injecting power and then eat him. Such people aren't uncommon.

"But my fate had not run out. It seems I am indeed loved by heaven."

"A pufferfish loved by heaven."

"A pufferfish loved by heaven."

To cut to the conclusion, they messed up the adjustment. Furthermore, the people who captured Lucifer lacked prudence and, incidentally, luck. The changes that occur during aberration transformation are various. The body becomes robust, intelligence increases rapidly, and so on. Among these, what's most popular is the super-enhancement of that creature's "strengths." If a kangaroo undergoes aberration transformation, its leg strength could shatter rocks, and if a crab transforms, its claws would slice through steel like tofu. So what about a pufferfish? It's obvious, poison.

"With the enhanced poison that I could now freely control, those fools collapsed in an instant. At first, I thought about eating them. I wanted them to experience the feeling of falling from being the devourer to being the devoured."

But he decided against it, Lucifer laughed nihilistically (?). Like the first eel, strong queen-class creatures rarely eat people directly. Not for ethical reasons, but for efficiency and preference. They're picky about their food. Ordinary people don't provide much nutrition when eaten, so they leave them alone and feed them to their minions. Even among superhumans, the weak ones don't taste that good, so they tend to just steal their power and hand the dregs over to their minions. Even though they're dregs, they're still superhumans. They make good feed for strengthening the weak ones. To enhance themselves and the minions that form their alternate realms, it's more efficient not to eat poor-quality food. Lucifer also seemed to have the qualities to become queen-class judging by his current appearance, so I thought he might be a gourmet, but...

"I felt like I would fall to the same barbaric and vulgar level as humans. So I just stole their power."

It was apparently a pretentious reason.

"And so began my pilgrimage."

"What should we do, Satou-kun? This guy's dialogue is annoyingly cool for no reason."

"I feel the same way, but it's interesting, so let's listen a bit more."

Lucifer stole their power and escaped from that place. He thought there must be other special individuals besides the one who captured him, so he made the wise choice. If he had gotten cocky there, he would have been defeated by another person from the supernatural world. For the next twenty-some years, Lucifer apparently traveled from place to place, hunting people from the supernatural world and stealing their power.

"And this year, upon reaching the age of thirty-five, I returned to my homeland."

"He's the same age as us!"

Well, Suzuki is still thirty-four since his birthday hasn't come yet, but close enough. What is this anyway... is it like returning home in glory? In any case, Lucifer returned to the Seto Inland Sea, formed a large-scale alternate realm on the seabed, and became its master.

"For what purpose? It's obvious. To raise the banner of rebellion."

"Re...bellion...?"

To be honest, both Suzuki and I were starting to like this guy. Because he was just too interesting. Well, we were still going to eat him in the end.

"A place of peace here! My name is Lucifer! The one who defies fate and becomes the morning star for all my brethren!"

The long and arduous path of battle that lies ahead.

"As a prelude to that, I shall make you both a blood sacrifice! Come, sleep in my embrace!"

Setting aside the fact that he doesn't have arms, this was the origin of his name. He took the name Lucifer after the predecessor of rebels. Huh? The battle? We hunted him normally, of course.

"His aspirations were high though."

"Unfortunately, his actual ability wasn't quite there."

He was strong, but not strong enough to take us on. Basically, even though we're hiding our power, the fact that he couldn't see through it shows the difference in our abilities...

"Alley-oop."

Suzuki places Lucifer on the cutting board. What, you're asking if Lucifer fits on a cutting board? He does. He's about one and a half meters long and weighs several hundred kilograms. Since it's a big one that can handle large fish, he fits just fine. It's an extraordinary size for a tiger pufferfish, but isn't it a bit pathetic to call it Lucifer? Well, listen to this. This guy was actually a boss that could transform.

"He was ridiculously huge at first."

"He got smaller and the quantity decreased, but the flavor seems more concentrated, so this is probably better."

At first, he was a truly monstrous pufferfish, many times larger than a blue whale. It felt strange to go all out against seafood, so we were fighting while suppressing our power to just slightly stronger than the enemy. Then this guy, when cornered, suddenly transformed. He became this gaudy thing that wasn't even a pufferfish anymore. ...Following the conventions of boys' manga, might there be even more transformations? Driven by curiosity, we moderately cornered Lucifer and ultimately made him transform about seven times. And this is his final form. Unlike the previous ones, it's a simple form that returns to the origin, but that's what makes it good. I think it's a perfect transformation that follows the conventions of boys' manga.

"Well, I think it's good both from an eating perspective and in terms of boys' manga conventions, but... I wonder how it is as a pufferfish."

Lucifer in his final form was strong. He probably had the power of a high-ranking land god. But...

"The poison is completely gone..."

"...Well, yeah. It's ironic that in his struggle not to be eaten, he ended up becoming easier for humans to consume."

I can feel the impermanence of the world...