Chapter 12

When I came out of the teleportation with Tsubaki I was hit with a rank smell of rotting fish with the smell coming from the river she teleported us next to.

"Hmm, with the smell it's likely still in the area... If you need help tell me and I can give you some advice on tracking it." Tsubaki said as she folded her arms under her large breasts and I was reminded about how Tsubaki was actually a member of the Shinra clan which was a human clan of exorcists here in Japan before she get kicked out of her family for having a Sacred Gear.

I looked at the bounty paper and at the depiction of the Kappa youkai that looked pretty similar to the nasty old versions of the mythical monster but either way, I used my magic to gradually heighten my senses to follow the scent despite how overwhelming the stench was.

The Kappa was rated as being barely above the strength of an average human with the ability to breathe underwater and to spit out globs of water at decent speeds, as was typical for their race... Just typically Kappa's didn't drown a dozen humans in the course of a week and even fucking got caught on a security camera which made his bounty a priority target for his rampant stupidity.

It was one thing to feast upon humans... Some races simply were born with the need, but to actually get caught on camera was an issue for everyone.

So I just followed the smell of rotting fish and as I followed it I frowned as I smelled other terrible scents Tsubaki snorted at the scent as she recognized it and a couple of minutes later following the river bank we found a large wooden collection of sticks, branches, and stones that made up something like a beaver den.

"What the hell is that smell," I said as it smelled like roadkill mixed with more chemical smells.

Tsubaki softly spoke as she pulled out a large ornate Japanese spear I think was called Naginata. "Youkai can gain strength in two ways primarily other than very difficult training... One they make humans deeply fear them, and second the act of eating them. What you smell is the particular magical scent of a Youkai who all but stewed their victims in their fear before beginning to eat them to get the maximum gain from eating the human." Tsubaki explained with distaste before jerking her free hand to the burrow with a cold smile.

"Well, Jake why don't you give our Kappa a warm welcome."

At that welcome to blow up the monster home, and the explanation of what the scent was, I formed the Sitri magical glyph, and from it came a hail storm of dozens of fist-sized blocks of ice that smashed into the burrow every second with the rocks, bits of wood, and other debris exploding at the high-speed collision with the Sitri enhanced ice.

And we were right on the money as within moments the occupant obviously was pissed at us attacking as it screeched and broke through the walls of its burrow and I got to see the Kappa in reality aside from the crude drawing in the bounty paper and it was even uglier...

A bald peak of its head but with thick hair black oily hair that visibly dripped with water slowly, its skin was dark green like a turtle and although it had a bipedal form it was nowhere near human as its head was like a turtle in shape but with a duck's flat long beak for a mouth. And then on its back was a large turtle's shell with a softer-looking segmented shell on its front so it could more easily move.

The Kappa seeing us screeched furiously "Exorcists you dare attack Mundunga in his home! I will have Yasaka's forces kill you for attacking me unprovoked!"

In response, I held up the bounty paper with his name and depiction clearly upon it as I retorted coldly. "Sorry bud... But she has already signed your own death warrant." Seeing the filthy monster I knew I wasn't going to bother to stretch this fight out for some kind of training with how weak he was.

So with him clearly out of the water and standing upon a large rock on the edge of the river I combined two Sitri glyphs one below and one above the monster and as he was about to jump away I snapped my fingers as I overpowered the Sitri magical glyphs in its ice configuration to do one thing above all else.

Freeze all water between the two glyphs.

Even though the Kappa attempted to leap away from the dual glyphs with its frog-like legs with webbed feet, he wasn't fast enough. And with a rough cracking noise that made me shudder the frozen sculpture of the Kappa crashed into the rocky ground and partly broke into some pieces exposing the frozen nonbleeding internals of the monster that broke under its weight upon hitting the ground.

"Are you alright Jake?" Tsubaki asked me with some care in her voice as I silently eyed the corpse of the monster in front of me and I slightly nodded.

Honestly, even if the monster could talk, I was so far removed from caring for it, that I didn't feel bad at all in killing it. Like it was just a deer or removing a dead rat from a trap amount of emotional turmoil it brought to me as I used a pocket knife to cut off some of the frozen remains of the Kappa and place it onto the bounty page which glowed at registering the remains that matched the magical signature. "That was well done Jake, but I can tell you emptied more than half of your magic in that one attack... What would you have done if there were more monsters that were feasting or what if he simply dodged that attack?" Tsubaki questioned and I wryly smiled as she grilled me on the mistake I made.

"I have you for backup if there are more monsters but in the case of myself running out of mana I do still have my soulbound sword," I said and she paused and shrugged before smiling as I blinked as a small pouch fell out of a small portal above the bounty paper that I caught.

"Oh wow... I literally killed someone for seventy thousand Yen." I said dully as I did the mental math and realized this was about five hundred US dollars.

Tsubaki at my tone snorted and I felt her hand clap my shoulder as she used her other hand to create a magical glyph that created a pillar of flames that engulfed the remains of the Kappa. "Jake, this Kappa was being an annoyance and thus wasn't worth much due to even a human adult with a baseball bat having a good chance at killing it. But something like an Oni or a monster born of Fear that doesn't obey the Youkai laws who went into a killing frenzy would be worth a lot more even at the lower levels... That Kappa was just stupidly weak, so it wasn't worth much." Tsubaki finished before shrugging in a what can you do motion.

I nodded in understanding and with the money in hand I decided that doing these bounties would be good for my growth seeing as I already understood how Tsubaki used the teleportation sigil. I took perks in my Cyoa, to grow in battle as well as in lewd situations. I just needed to diversify my methods of growth as I doubted Sona wanted to be folded over into a mating press all day...

And speaking of which. I spoke up. "Well, Sona and Serafall wanted me to have dinner with them tonight so we better get back so I can get cleaned up and ready for whatever she wanted to talk to me about," I spoke with Tsubaki dismissing her spear seeing as there was no other threat around here.

"Very well, I will teleport us back," Tsubaki announced as below our feet formed a glyph of teleportation that took us away from the foul-smelling river and back home so I could get cleaned up.