Read Online Demon City Shinjuku: The Complete Edition by Hideyuki Kikuchi - Free Book Online Page B

degrees of red-hot heat engulfed Doki. The waves of heat blew past him, cooking the walls to incandescent temperatures, turning the concrete back into sand.
    â€œNo good,” Doki laughed in a low voice. Not a wisp of smoke rose from his hood or mantle. The energy of the physical world had no effect on what came from the domain of the demons.
    Fear confused Cyborg’s judgment. Instead of retreating, he ran forward, aiming at Doki’s chin. He threw a right hook with all his strength. At the moment of contact, Doki’s body scattered into a cloud of dust and dirt. It swirled around like a tornado of tea and whirled at Cyborg.
    In the blink of an eye, Cyborg turned into a mud doll. “Welcome to my mystical mud inferno.” The last words Cyborg heard.
    Unimaginable pressures shattered the alloy metal frame and pulverized the life support systems. A space cyborg that could withstand thousands of g’s collapsed like a junked automobile turned into so much scrap iron in a car crusher.
    Big Man watched as Cyborg was squeezed to half its normal size. At the same time, the mud doll turned white hot. Doki’s “mystical mud inferno,” a trick crafted in the bowels of the Demon Realm. Millions of tons of pressure inside the film of mud trapped his opponent at the virtual center of the earth and crushed it to death. The fifty thousand degrees of heat reduced Cyborg to his constituent atoms, which were then absorbed into Doki’s body.
    The mud doll disintegrated and returned to Doki’s form. Though whether this was Doki’s true form was anybody’s guess.
    By now, Big Man was ready to scare his own self to death first. He’d picked a fight with a real monster. With a girlish shriek, he ran toward the turnstiles. A small puddle was in his path. When Sayaka had taken him down with the joint lock, a couple of beer bottles had spilled their remaining contents onto the concrete floor.
    The soles of his shoes touched the puddle. And then the floor wasn’t there anymore. Big Man yelped. With a concrete-colored splash, he sank down to his waist in the spilled beer. In that spot alone, the puddle had turned into an ocean.
    Still unable to move, Sayaka watched it all. Only demons could do such things . She had to get away. Only the part of her struck by the “ricochet” remained enfeebled, except it would probably take a good half-hour for the numbness to go away completely.
    From the puddle of beer that had suddenly swallowed a whole human being came cries reminiscent of a man washed overboard and drowning in the Arctic Sea.
    â€œIt has been a while since I’ve used my Poseidon spell,” said Suiki. “But what an awful-tasting person. The flesh is so stiff and hard.”
    â€œI was looking forward to a meal as well,” Doki complained in an irritated voice. “Except for his brain, that last chap was all machine. And that was utterly flavorless as well. I’m sure the same goes for the head. Leave me an arm at least.”
    â€œYou can snack on earthworms. Now this girl, she’s a pretty one.”
    â€œAh, our all-night search has not proved fruitless. It pays to listen to what’s going on underground. Once the rite is complete, I will have the heart and brains.”
    â€œFine. The liver and eyeballs for me. Well, shall we take her back to Sorcerer’s abode? Incidentally, what does this curious ring do?”
    â€œLeave it be. Nothing these humans prize is of any worth to us.”
    â€œTrue enough.”
    Doki hoisted Sayaka onto his shoulder. She could feel the damp chill of the earth through the mantle.
    What do they intend to do with me? It had something to do with a rite or sacrifice—that must involve meeting with this Sorcerer. But in this condition—and with these monsters hanging around—she wouldn’t be able to do a thing.
    Despair filled her heart. Of all things, she had to become a prisoner of monsters the