Within minutes of Captain Yuzaburo's report reaching headquarters, several armored support vehicles thundered into Ukiyo-chō. From them stepped a group clearly composed of professionals—and not the ordinary kind.
Among the arrivals were an elderly man wearing full shrine attire, a mature shrine maiden with a long sword at her waist, and even a monk clutching prayer beads.
The shrine maiden—whose waist-length black hair, sharp features, and curvy figure made her presence impossible to ignore—knelt beside the corpse of a rat demon, inspecting it closely before speaking to the onmyōji standing behind her.
"Mr. Kamishiro, these are low-grade rat yokai. Their demonic power measures only around D to E rank, so ordinary firearms can kill them," she said calmly. "But with this many…"
The woman was Yamato Kuka, the most gifted shrine maiden of her generation in the prestigious Yamato family—and a newly recruited member of the Unnatural Countermeasures Division.
Mr. Kamishiro, the man she addressed, was also with the division, as was the monk. Unlike them, however, Kuka was a newcomer on her first actual field mission, leaving the two veterans in charge of tonight's assessment.
Kamishiro surveyed the countless rat demon corpses strewn across the ground.
"Indeed… the numbers are alarming. And more importantly, aside from a handful killed by gunshots, most of these weren't taken down by firearms."
He crouched beside a mangled body, noting the clean, decisive cuts.
"A pistol couldn't possibly slice through the hide of a rat demon like this. Not to mention…" He gestured at the ground. "These blade marks everywhere. Whoever fought here—whoever killed most of these—was using a sword. And they were good."
Yamato Kuka's gaze drifted across the battlefield, tracing the overlapping arcs and gouges left in the pavement. She tightened her hand around her sword's hilt, eyes narrowing with burning excitement.
"With a swarm this large, even if they were all low-level—E-rank, as you said—even if I were surrounded, I wouldn't escape unscathed."
Her tone hardened.
"The person who fought here must be at least C-rank, probably higher."
Kuka wasn't a typical shrine maiden who specialized in purification and prayer. She was an anomaly—one who adored swordsmanship and showed outrageous talent from childhood. At only twenty, she was already D-plus rank, making her the youngest member of the division.
Her sword technique was said to rival that of veteran swordsmen.
So though she didn't know who the mysterious blade-wielder was, the very idea of such a person set her blood boiling with anticipation.
Kamishiro exhaled through his nose.
"Even calling them C-rank might be an insult. Come look at this. I refuse to believe a C-rank could bring down something like this."
He led Kuka toward where the old monk, Master Hakuba, was standing.
The moment they arrived, both she and Kamishiro froze.
The corpse before them—massive, bisected cleanly from head to tail—radiated residual demonic energy even in death.
The Rat Demon King.
"Master Hakuba… could it be…?" Kamishiro asked.
"You see it as well," the monk replied gravely. "With this size and this lingering demonic power, it is undoubtedly the king of the rat horde. At the very least C-plus rank. And to cut it so neatly in half… leaving behind battle scars this severe…"
Master Hakuba looked up, expression tightening.
"The one who killed it must be at least B-rank."
If the smaller rat demons had merely startled them, the Rat Demon King's bisected corpse filled the members of the Unnatural Countermeasures Division with outright horror.
If this beast were alive and standing before them now, even combining the strength of all three specialists might not be enough.
Yet someone had defeated not only the massive horde, but also the Rat Demon King single-handedly.
And none of them had even known such a person existed in this city.
Unable to identify the mysterious warrior, Kamishiro and the others summoned Kujo Hinano and Captain Yuzaburo for questioning. Judging from the traces of battle, the detectives had clearly fought here as well—they might have seen the unknown swordsman.
However, before the division arrived, Yuzaburo and his team had already agreed: do not reveal anything about Ren Kuroda.
Ren had made his wish clear—he wanted to keep his peaceful life untouched. And more importantly, Ren had saved them. Betraying him was unthinkable.
And now that they had overheard snippets of the division's discussion, they understood something else:
Ren's strength far surpassed even these so-called "professionals."
They had originally assumed Ren was a shrine prodigy. Now they realized their estimate hadn't even scratched the surface.
He wasn't just a prodigy.
He was a monster-slaying powerhouse.
So when Kamishiro questioned them, Yuzaburo and the others claimed ignorance.
They insisted they hadn't seen the mystery fighter. They said they had only handled a smaller group of rat demons… and upon finishing, discovered the scene already like this.
And given the distance between their location and the battlefield where Ren had fought, the lie slipped by without issue.
In the end, the Unnatural Countermeasures Division collected and disposed of all the rat demon corpses. The two halves of the Rat Demon King were loaded onto a large transport truck.
At this level, parts of its body could be used to craft specialized exorcist weapons—materials worth a small fortune.
Though they didn't know the identity of the powerful fighter who had cleared the horde, the authorities immediately designated the area around Ukiyo-chō as a priority surveillance zone.
Not because they wanted to arrest Ren Kuroda.
But because the division was desperate.
Desperate to recruit someone with strength like his.
In recent years, the world had begun to shift in subtle but unmistakable ways. Paranormal incidents had risen sharply across the globe.
To combat these threats, the government had formed this special task force—the Unnatural Countermeasures Division.
Its members came from renowned shrines and temples, along with a handful of civilian spiritual practitioners. Their accomplishments were impressive.
But their casualties were devastating.
Monsters possessed inherent biological advantages humans could not match. High-level yokai could wipe out entire squads. Even success often came with heavy losses.
Someone strong enough to defeat a Rat Demon King alone—a B-rank powerhouse—was an asset they could not ignore.
Whether that person lived here or was simply passing through, one thing was certain:
From tonight onward, the abandoned district of Ukiyo-chō would be under constant, watchful surveillance.