Read Online The Psyche Diver Trilogy: Demon Hunters by Baku Yumemakura - Free Book Online Page A

continue this either,” Biku noted.
    “I’ve got no interest in rape at a place like this, but I didn’t see any reason to stop these two from having their fun. Now that you’ve shown up, I think we’ll cut our losses.”
    “Iba...”
    “If you want to take this guy on, go ahead. Personally, I’d rather not injure myself before we’re done with our work here.”
    Hiroshi fell silent, Yajima looked devastated, but they didn’t seem ready to oppose him. The two of them stared at the ground, sulking.
    “Okay, we’re leaving,” Iba said. He spoke quietly, but there was something final in his tone. Iba turned and the other two followed him. Until that moment, when he turned his back to walk away, Iba had not once looked away from Biku.
    “Thank you so much,” Ishida said after the three men had gone, his voice was full of relief. The girl had put her torn-off clothes back on. She sat on the ground staring vacantly down in silence.
    “It was nothing, but I do have a few questions.” Ishida cocked his head to one side, suddenly suspicious. His eyes flicked briefly to the girl and back. He was still worried about her. Biku ignored the gesture and continued, “I overheard the men saying you were chasing a rabbit that had been caught in a snare.”
    “Yes.” Ishida nodded. He started to look around for something. “Here,” he picked a small branch up from the undergrowth nearby, “I’m not sure if it’s a snare, but this was cutting into the rabbit’s leg.” Ishida and Emi had strayed from the path while trying to catch the rabbit when they stumbled across the three men. Ishida’s face was wrapped in bitterness.
    Biku took the branch. The thread hung from the center; it had been tied in a loop. Part of the loop had been torn, but it still held the shape of a noose. So it’s you, Hosuke Kumon, Biku thought. He was in this area after all. He would have laid more than one rabbit snare. All Biku had to do was find one of them and wait until Hosuke came to him.
    “I’m looking for someone. This snare is probably his work.”
    A frightened look crossed Ishida’s face. “W..would that person’s name happen to be Hosuke Kumon?” he stumbled over the words.
    “How do you know that name?”
    “Those men...that was who they were looking for.”
    2
    Biku ambled through a forest of birch and silver fir.
    The mountainside slanted off to his right. He scanned the area as he brushed through the knee-high undergrowth, mostly bamboo grass. If Hosuke Kumon had left even the slightest trace, he was intent on finding it. There was not much time. Like Biku, the other men were out here looking for him. He had to find Hosuke before them.
    It was unclear how much information they had regarding his whereabouts. Most likely they knew as little as he did. He was almost certain that they were the same men that Gensai Sakuma had mentioned back at the Odawara coast. Gensai had warned Biku about a man with a scar on his jaw; that such a man was among them confirmed his suspicions. They had not been carrying anything, which meant that they had set up camp nearby, and they would be using that as a base to scout for Hosuke Kumon. There could be more of them back at the camp.
    The question was whether they had made the connection between Hosuke and the rabbit. It was hard to be certain. He recalled the coldness of Iba’s stare. He had not looked away, even once. He might have caught on to the snare, and he would have his suspicions about Biku as well, having suddenly appeared in the middle of nowhere. It had been pretty obvious that he was not a regular hiker. Who were they? They would want to know the same of him. Biku knew they were looking for Hosuke Kumon, but they would not know that he was here for the same purpose. That, at the very least, gave him the edge.
    Why were they looking for him? They were probably here to recruit him, just as he was. Hosuke Kumon was one of a very small number of unlicensed, but incredibly talented