Chapter 176: set me back for about 3 days, for this alone...

TL quick edit: I was re-reading the translation and found so many things go wrong, Grammarly you biatch, why did you change hopeless to homeless, wtf.

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Tl note: I wrote the original Oni-tribe as Onizoku to make the translation have more flow. Which, by the way, literally following how the author called them too. Also, I don't know the ancient Sukuna gender, but I'm using 'she' because of the obvious reason.

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The story goes back to the time of creation, even before the Era of Gods.

A divine beast called the [Origin Beasts]{ 獣の祖} had a child with a human. And the child that was born is the first [Ajin]{demi-human} in this world.

The offspring of this man and beast were called [Jyuujin]{Beastmen} because they possessed both characteristics of man and beast, and their descendants prospered to become the current Jyuujin.

Today, humanoid races such as Elves, Yousei, and Dwarves are roughly lumped together as [Ajin] but strictly speaking. This is not true.

To put it simply, those who have human blood in their veins are [Ajin], and those who don't are simply different species, nothing more and nothing less.

That's right. The human race is the only one of all races that can crossbreed with other races and make their blood interchangeable.

Instead of diluting the blood of the race, they crossed with. They have the potential to create a whole new race.

And as such, the Kijin{Oni-folk}, as the name implies, is a race that inherits the blood of both the Onizoku and Human races. They appear much later than Jyuujin, almost at the beginning of the Era of Gods.

The Onizoku was a race with a major flaw in that all of their magical statuses were fixed to one point from birth.

MP, intelligence, and magic defense were all fixed at 1, with no increase through growth.

This was a fatal flaw in the Age of the Gods when magic held its supremacy.

As a result, Onizoku are discriminated against.

Especially by the Vampires and Dragons who excelled in magic, Onizoku were persecuted and treated like slaves by them.

And the persecution did not occur only to Onizoku but also to Jyuujin, who could not handle magic and the weak human races. They were persecuted by the strong in the Era of Gods.

Avoiding slave-hunting, Onizoku lived in seclusion deep in the forest, but one day, an Onizoku princess fell in love with a man from the human race and had a child with him, and after many twists and turns, the child was born as a Kijin, a child between an Onizoku and a human.

This is how the Kijin came to be.

Conveniently for the Onizoku, as a result of taking in human blood, it was discovered that Kijin indeed has magical status, even if it was only a little.

Furthermore, they realized that they were born with talents that could further support their growth.

"So, the Onizoku, which had been persecuted for their lack of magical status, continued to produce Kijin as a survival strategy. In the end, the number of Kijin increased, and they came to be known as the Oni tribe, while the original Onizoku number keeps decreasing because of old age."

One by one, the Onizoku decreased, and in inverse proportion, Kijin steadily increased in number and strength, but this did not solve the problem of being weak against magic.

In the midst of all this, the birth of a certain Kijin at the late Era of Gods shakes the world.

That person is the Kishin, Shuten Douji. She is a child born with two abilities that will allow her to overpower others.

At that time, she was neither a Douji nor a Kishin but a mere Shuten.

"Kishin-sama was literally the strongest being in the world. In front of her, immortality and indestructibility were meaningless, regeneration was disabled, and all attacks and defenses were nullified. She had the power to destroy the world all by herself, without needing to be consumed by anger."

The survivors of the persecuted Onizoku and the new Oni tribe rejoiced at the presence of such Shuten, thinking that they could now take revenge on their persecutors.

"However, Kishin-sama herself was not interested in such things. She had a friend who was more important than her family. And that was the last of the Onizoku, Ryomen Sukuna-sama. She was called as the [Last Oni] by other races."

☆☆

Listening to Hakuyo's explanation in one breath, I felt as if I had solved a mystery that had been bothering me for a long time.

"... Our name is the same after all, huh?"

It was probably just a coincidence.

Just like my player name, Sukuna, this world's 'Sukuna' must have been named after the real world's double-faced Kishin, Ryomen Sukuna.

But I was convinced that that was the reason why Gold the Siren's knight raised his eyebrows when he heard my name. So I think this info is quite meaningful because I can confirm why he reacted like that.

However, the fact that I knew Shuten had an acquaintance with the same name was something I already knew.

The fact that she wasn't Kijin was quite a surprise, but if I believe Kohaku's story earlier, unlike the [Sealed] Shuten Douji, 'Sukuna' is already dead.

What Hakuyo had just told me is the history of the Origin Oni, and that in the process, Shuten was born and became friends with an Onizoku called Sukuna.

Apart from my thoughts, Kohaku closed her eyes for a while and then asked Kokuyo a question.

"Why did the vampire try to kill Kishin-sama, to the point they resort to taking 'Sukuna'-sama as a hostage?"

"Didn't the diary tell you about that? Well, royalty is a bunch of hopeless people, so they might not have written their true motive."

While saying, "Good grief," Hakuyo answered Kohaku's question.

"...In the end, they were afraid of reprisals. The Onizoku and Kijin planned to retaliate, and those who were persecuting the Onizoku, including the vampires, feared it... And that's why they can't leave Kishin-sama out of the equation."

"She was not Kishin yet, right? Wasn't she just a normal Kijin at the time? Why a lot of races were afraid of one Oni?"

"As I told you, she had the power to destroy the world. It didn't matter if she was a god or not...; she could literally destroy everything if she wanted to. It's not just the hostile races. Kishin-sama had so much power that she was an object of awe and fear from all beings, including her own relatives."

Listening to Hakuyo's story, a pain stings my heart.

Maybe it was because I once had a similar experience. I know that people don't accept monsters, and they will choose to exclude them.

As for why Shuten almost destroyed the world after losing one person called 'Sukuna' I can understand her feeling.

Because I, too, have someone so irreplaceable that I'm willing to give up everything in the world.

That's also the reason why I came into contact with the forbidden skills left behind by Shuten.

This is just selfish sympathy, but Shuten is very similar to me.

I'm sure that Shuten's 'Sukuna' was Rin-chan for me.

"There's no one to rival her, and without a similar power on both sides, she becomes the sole object of fear, and that is the beginning of the closing curtain of the Era of Gods."

"I see..."

Suppose Shuten was the type of person who supports the Onizoku as a whole in their revenge. Perhaps the world could be turned out completely different.

Maybe more races would have perished, or maybe more domains would have been scorched.

"The discrimination against the Oni was still there when I was born a little over 300 years ago, but now, after centuries, it has faded away. I didn't want to pass on the bitterness of that time to the children of this peaceful era, so I collected and hid the old literature in this village as much as I could when I became chief."

"So that's the reason why Kohaku didn't know about this story."

"It was a bit pitiful to tell Kohaku-sama the truth since she been fascinated by the story of Kishin-sama since she was a child. Even so, the older generation in this village had a hard time telling her many things. And as a result... the village was half destroyed...."

"Uuuh, I'm sorry about that..., but it can't be helped. That thing was not something that can be stopped by reason alone."

"A-Ha-ha-ha! That was a joke."

Hakuyo laughed happily while Kohaku stained her cheeks in rosy color.

Because of the emotional value accident a while ago, all skills that trigger the activation of [emotional value], including [Furious Rage] have been officially explained.

I think the "thing" Kohaku invoked is the [Anger's Ecstasy] {Bouga no Ikari} skill exclusive to Kijin.

The effect is a degraded version of [Furious Rage].

Once it's activated, aside from increasing your status significantly, you'll lose control of your avatar until the time limit is up, and you'll fall into a state of frenzy where you'll try to destroy anything and everything, regardless of whether it's friend or foe, living or non-living.

Compared to [Furious Rage], which gives you enormous power while still maintaining your will, this skill was completely opposite, except for the fact that [Anger's Ecstasy] won't give you a curse afterward.

If you take the official explanation as it is, even the [Anger's Ecstasy] requires a level of emotion that cannot be triggered by normal means, so you can only guess what kind of emotional level the higher-ranked [Furious Rage] will require.

"However, looking back, Kohaku-sama has grown up, hasn't she? You used to be wild and more reckless."

"I was thinking about that a lot after Sukuna showed me a part of the Kishin-sama's power. It was the first time I had seen her rage, and all I could see was that it was a terrifying force that could scorch even your own heart."

"It's a power that could destroy the world after all.... And don't you ever use it again, Sukuna."

"Yes, I understand... Well, I couldn't use it even if I wanted to. There's no reason for me to be angry anymore."

Anger at the killer of my parents.

Anger at the unreasonable world.

Anger at myself for not being able to save them.

I've been pretending to ignore it by forgetting about it, but a lot of that anger flared up in the wake of Rin-chan's death and exploded out of control.

To put it another way, that was the release of the resentment I had accumulated for six and a half years. And that accumulated energy now has been burned up and completely empty.

I remembered all the things I had forgotten that day, faced them properly, and still decided to stay next to Rin-chan.

So I don't think I'll ever be consumed by anger again.

As long as no one hurt Rin-chan, that is.

"I wonder how 'Sukuna' died..."

I kind of understand this world's history, and I also understood why they wanted to kill the world's strongest (Shuten), using Sukuna as a hostage.

But the important part of the story, the cause for Sukuna's death, which triggered Shuten's Wrath, was still not clear to me.

To my murmur, Hakuyo also looked a bit confused.

"The hearsay is complicated about that matters, but it is said that she either committed suicide or died protecting Kishin-sama. In any case, since all the people who were there were dead, we were forced to conclude from circumstantial evidence that Sukuna-sama has perished."

"So, there's a possibility that she's still alive?"

"I don't think there's a single chance for that possibility since Kishin-sama was, in fact, consumed by her rage, but let's say she might have been alive at that moment, considering that the Era of Gods was more than a thousand years ago. She would have died of old age by now."

"Is that so?"

I don't know how long the life span of the Onizoku is.

If Hakuyo, as Kijin in front of me told me earlier that she has been alive for 300 years, there's a possibility that Onizoku is a species that can live for more than 300 years.

Even if that's the case, it's unlikely that she has a lifespan of 1,000 years.

Otherwise, the trend of Onizoku decreasing in number as they reach the end of their lifespan while the number of Kijin increases would be an incredibly long-term process. That would be an event that lasted for thousands of years.

I don't think they have that kind of lifespan. And there's also a possibility that their lifespan would be shorter than that of the Kijin.

"Well, if you want to hear more about Sukuna-sama, I'll tell you again later. It's getting late, so let's get down to the main topic."

While I was thinking about various things, Hakuyo abruptly cut off the flow of conversation.

Come to think of it, the reason Kokuyo called me here wasn't to listen to 'Sukuna' story, nor to listen to the story of Onizoku, was it...?

It was just that I was called here by Kokuyo, and as a result, I ended up listening to such a story, but the main topic seemed to be something else.

"Sukuna, You must be thinking that the reason why Kishin-sama interfered with you is that your name is the same as her friend's, right?"

"ee... Well, yeah. I was wondering if that was the case."

I nodded honestly in response to Hakuyo's question.

It's hard not to think so when you hear her story.

Of all the players who have disclosed information, I am the only one who has been interfered with by Shuten at this point.

I don't know the exact reason at this point. But if the story I've just heard is true, I felt that the fact that my player name matches with other Sukuna's would be enough reason.

After all, Shuten was such a person who had brought enough destruction to an end an Era because of the death of her friend.

To his surprise, however, Hakuyo strongly denied my words.

"I can assure you. It is not true. The reason why you were interfered with by Kishin-sama was not such a vague one."

After a pause, Hakuyo pointed at my chest and said,

"It's because you are a Douji and a Named Solo Subjugator. That's the reason why you can meet Kishin."

Her finger pointed at my chest, where I kept one piece of my equipment that I had never taken off since I got it. It's the [Proof of Named Solo Subjugator].

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A note

Shuten is, simply put, a bug character.

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Tl notes:

And here is the problematic chapter. This chapter set me back for about 3 days, for this chapter alone...

So many terms, so many revelations, by the way, Jyuujin{獣人} can be directly translated to English as [Beastmen] or [Therianthrope], but I choose not to since this [人 = Jin] words will be crucial for this chapter.

And here comes my problem. Btw TLDR: that's my mistake; for this chapter, I am reverting to Kijin since that is the most common one to pronounce this. Sorry for the mess.

Introduction :

Original Oni wrote using one word: 鬼 = Oni.

And their human-oni descendant was written using 鬼人 = Oni-jin, Kijin, Onihito, etc.

As you might know, I was so persistent to translate 鬼人 = Kijin as Oni/Oni-folk, right?

One of the reasons is that I was afraid there's an evolved version of Oni that differs from Kishin, which in the end came back to bite me. I did not predict that the author would throw me off using their ancestor instead.

The second reason is that the hidden village, was called [Oni no Sato], which will literally translate as [Village of Oni]. This all will make sense in Japanese words since they use kanji to write that but make less sense in English. I mean... the resident is now all Kijin, but the village itself is still being called Oni Village, not Kijin village.

鬼人, can be translated and pronounced as Onibito, Kijin, Onijin, Onihito, and any of this would be right, but the most common one is to translate and pronounce it as Kijin. It's all up to the author's wish, but the problem is, I don't know if the author specifically wrote furigana for this, so that left me confused.

And this is why I was choosing 'Oni folk' {Onijin} for my translation because I had a hunch back then that the author would use a lot of wordplay in his work.

Which, by the way, really happen, [the last Oni] is the author attempt to throw the reader into confusion since Oni-tribe still prospers to this day.

Tbh, I don't think my decision is the best one because it still leaves so much strangeness in my translation, but at the very least, the wordplay works.

Anyway, I don't seek justification for this, but I want to let you at least know my reason.

And after you all know why I did that... I want to ask... should I keep using Kijin from this point? Or keep using Oni folk?