The golden pin was just as pathetic as its owner. Gold was such a weak metal—so worthless compared to iron and steel. There was no chance for this piece of gold to even scratch Shin.
He relaxed in that knowledge—just a little, just for a moment.
"I hope you… DIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!"
With that shout of rage, Ara Jun swung her fist. The golden pin gleamed brightly in the sunlight—
Before Jun stabbed it into her own eye. Her body contorted with pain one last time, before the pale, smooth, and bloodied hand fell limply to the girl's side.
The pin was so deep in her left eye that all Shin could see of it was a bloody golden flower. The sharp end of the pin pierced Jun's brain, killing her instantly.
A few steps to the side, Sarara howled in pain from the death of its Contractor, but Shin could barely hear it.
"How dare she… how dare she!—" he shook his head.
He had to think, and he was too angry for that. Way too angry and emotional.
With effort, Shin pulled himself from that anger, and from the being it belonged to. The steel armor returned under his skin. Jun's body fell to the ground when Shin's bones shifted, returning him to his normal state.
Tetsu stepped out of Shin's body to kick Jun's corpse.
"That bitch! Who does she think she is? We were going to grant her an HONOR! Those ungrateful people who don't understand how GOOD they could have it—"
"Tetsu," Shin called out, but the demoness ignored him. "Tetsu!"
Her head snapped to him. "What?!"
Shin frowned. "Are you going to eat Jun's demon, Tetsu?"
The demoness still scowled, but now her anger switched targets. "Of course… That demon. Sarara, was it? Since it's still here, it will have to pay for its human's actions."
Tetsu straightened and went to the writhing demon. Shin turned away, but he still heard another painful wail, which soon cut off. Sirens of firefighters and police sounded in the distance, almost drowning the wet sounds of tearing flesh and chewing.
Shin took a deep breath and focused on thinking logically about what had happened. He kneeled next to Ara Jun's splayed body, feeling no anger and no sorrow about her death.
'Aratanawaru must've sent her, probably by lying a lot. It's a good thing she didn't find me BEFORE I cleaned the stash of those cultists—then I'd be in trouble. She might've been the strongest of all the transmigrators in this world. So all the remaining ones won't be much of a problem, no matter what Aratanawaru tells them. I just have to keep picking them off, and better hurry with it.'
The conclusion made Shin smile as he checked Jun's pockets for anything useful. Sadly, she really spent all her talismans in battle.
He wiped his bloody hands on a clean part of her robes and stood up. Where did he leave his stolen books? Oh, there they were—thankfully no one touched the box yet.
Good. With Tetsu's power and the knowledge from these books, Shin was going to create spells that will do all the job of finding and capturing other transmigrators for him.
"Tetsu! Hurry up, we better leave this place before authorities actually show up."
***
Deep in the city's sewers, Iashkawa grit its teeth and kept crawling. Away… away… away.
A part of its soul died together with its Contractor, and the rest hurt more than the wounds on its physical body, but the demon refused to give up. Not until he took back what was taken from him… with interest.
A sound of quiet skittering caught Iashkawa's attention. Its snake-like eyes zeroed on a rat running past it over the slimy concrete floor. The careless creature was only a meter away.
With a burst of speed that pushed its wounded body to the limit, the demon lunged for the rat. It let out its last squeak and fell silent when Iashkawa's claws crushed its organs.
The demon's jaw opened, and it swallowed the rat whole. A bit of meat was barely a nourishment, but it still made the demon feel better.
"I ssswear, Kugutsu Shin and Tetsssu… I ssswear, I will destroy you like you destroyed me."
***
By the time Shin got to his 'home', Tetsu calmed down noticeably. She spent most of the drive playing with the living painting stolen from the cultists. The demoness viciously poked holes in the painted people and watched them squirm with childish delight until she was too tired to stay outside of Shin's body.
Back at home, Shin made himself a late lunch and tried to relax. He still had no inspiration for writing, so he made himself a bath instead.
It really was as relaxing as people said until Shin heard strange slurping sounds coming from the bathroom pipes.
Shin stood up, splashing bathwater on the floor, and wondered if he heard things. But with the way his "extra's curse" acted recently, he couldn't relax anymore.
The slurping sounds became louder, until yellow slime began to seep out of the pipes, from the shower and the tap. With a gasp, Shin got out of the bath.
He stared at the encroaching yellow slime with wide eyes. His fists clenched at his sides.
"I can't fucking believe it. That damned toilet slime… did it crawl all the way from the school just to get ME?!"
Tetsu emerged from him with a scowl on her mouth. "Don't worry, my friend, I will explain to that thing how wrong it was to appear again!"
"No," Shin said, pushing her aside by the shoulder and pointedly ignoring his state of nakedness. "This time, I want to deal with it myself. Just make me a sword, please. I don't want to break any pipes here."
Tetsu paused for a moment before smiling brightly. "Of course, partner! Here you go!"
She outstretched her hand, and the armor from it fell over into pieces. Those pieces moved together, bending into one crude but sharp broadsword that flew right into Shin's arms.
He smiled and tested how it fit in the hand. Next ten minutes Shin spent releasing his stress by beating up the disgusting toilet slime until it slunk back where it came from.
That was relaxing in its own way.