Me and the Tigress Volume 2 Chapter 4 part6

In the last update, Ara proved herself a dangerous adversary. But injured and newly armed, Sunghoon is going back to confront Ara. Will his strategy succeed? And what price will he have to pay for victory?

While I was writhing in pain in the kitchen, Ara had shifted the bottom half of her body into that of a snake and wrapped it around Chii. Not to stop Chii from running away, but to make her feel more pain. Chii’s face was contorted into a grimace. But she refused to make a sound. Ara held Chii’s hand, licked it, then opened her mouth. Beyond what any human mouth could have done.

“Stop!!”

I was sprinting toward them. Right now, I was faster than Usain Bolt! (tn: This isn’t me being colorful; the author really wrote this joke. Surprising, right?)

“Oh my?”

Ara closed her mouth and looked at me with amusement. She was so amused that she was even smiling. Yeah, go ahead and laugh. Because I’m going to turn this situation around.

Ara looked down at my hand. Her smile instantly turned to an expression of shock.

“What in the world?!”

Ah, so you finally noticed? To someone like me, it was just a simple kitchen knife. But a phantom like you should be able to tell, right? That this is a part of Rangii!

That’s right. I had in my hand a kitchen knife made from Rangii’s spiritual body.

I took advantage of Ara’s surprise and closed the distance.

“Ugh?!”

Three more steps. All it would take is one second. Ara tried to stop me, but Rangii’s tooth made any of her attempts disappear. Now just one more step!

“How about this?!”

Ara used Chii as a shield. She kept Chii extended towards me, but kept her tail in such a position that she could move her tail back at any time. This meant Ara’s grip on Chii weakened, and Chii struggled to escape. No. You have to stop. Don’t try and dodge. It was too late to explain what I was doing. I shouted at Chii as I ran toward her.

“Stay still!”

After I said that, Chii immediately froze.

She closed her eyes.

And then…there was a strange sound as I stabbed Chii, and I could feel the knife enter her body. The sensation was so revolting that I felt as though my insides were being tied into knots, but I was also strangely happy. Happy that Chii trusted me so much.

“What’s with that grin? Have you gone insane from guilt, young oppa?”

Ara sneered at me. I sneered back.

“Who knows?”

That day. The day when Chii nearly froze to death. Saehee wanted to use this kitchen knife to heal Chii. That’s right. According to Saehee, this was an elixir that was being used as a kitchen knife. An elixir invested with Rangii’s energy; a single stab can bestow the energy of a tiger!

Chii, who had her eyes closed in preparation to die, went,

“A-Awooo?”

Chii was confused at finding herself perfectly fine—no, at finding herself overflowing with energy. The blade melted into Chii. It permeated into her like snow in a summer day. All that was left of the knife was the handle that I was holding on to.

“…What?!”

Having realized something was off, Ara tried to swallow Chii immediately, but it was too late. There was a blinding light. As if a bolt of lightning had suddenly struck right in front of me.

When I opened my eyes, Ara had backed away, and…Chii had grown to about Saehee’s height. Come to think of it, Saehee said something like this.

“Although there is the possibility of there being an overflow of power, causing a phantom like Kkachi-nim to temporarily grow physically…”

I’ll skip the little details. Because my mind was already going blank from seeing Chii all grown up.

Now that she had grown, Chii was almost as tall as me. Her ponytail was untied and her hair fell to her back; her shirt, which was originally big on her, was now so small that it exposed the bottom of her breasts and clung to her body. Her skirt, which was originally the perfect size for her, had torn and fallen to the ground. Thankfully, her blue-and-white striped panties were still on. I guess it wasn’t just that green behemoth who has clothes that grow… This wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. But why did it feel like my wound was bleeding more now?

I shouted at Chii.

“Kick her ass, Chii!”

Chii shook off her initial confusion at her sudden transformation, and said,

“Okay!”

She did what I said.

Chii shoved Ara while she was still shaken by what happened. Even Ara’s hands were shaking as she took up a defensive position. Chii’s feathers landed on Ara’s face, blocking her vision.

“You little…!”

Blinded, Ara swung her tail wildly in front of her, but Chii was already gone. Right after she blinded Ara, Chii flapped her wings, burst through the ceiling, and flew in the downpour.

What the heck? You’re flying perfectly well. Were you lying when you said you were afraid of lightning? Your performance was phenomenal. Why don’t we share the award?

“What a cheap trick!”

Ara wiped away Chii’s feathers and looked around for her. But all she saw were the pieces of my house that she clobbered with her tail. There were tears flowing from her eyes.

Ara looked at me. I casually shrugged my shoulders.

“Should you really be paying attention to me right now?”

After what I said, Ara turned her head to the hole in the ceiling.

At that moment, Chii descended like an arrow and kicked Ara square on the face. It was the flying kick that Chii used when she first tried to kill me. I couldn’t even fully see it because she was as fast as lightning.

[————!]

I heard the sound of something breaking, and dust flew into the air. Moments later, I saw Ara in a crater in the floor and Chii standing proudly on top of her.

…I added Chii to the list of phantoms I absolutely couldn’t piss off.

“Big Brother!”

While I was having these strange thoughts, Chii suddenly ran forward and hugged. Hey, no, wait! What are you doing?! Your newly ample spiritual body, no, how should I put it? Just what the heck am I thinking right now despite the situation I’m in, but I absolutely need to savor this amazing sensation and use this opportunity to feel her up as much as I want and—it just felt so good that I was thinking these ridiculous thoughts! Th-This feeling, this sensation, on my chest was s-seriously going to bring me to a whole new world! These thoughts threatened to overwhelm me as I wanted to hug her tight as well.

“Are you okay, Big Brother? Are you…are you hurt anywhere?”

With superhuman self-control, I pushed Chii away and showed her my left hand. The dishcloth was already dyed red with blood. Now that I was beginning to relax, it started to hurt terribly, incredibly, mind-numbingly badly. The pain was going to drive me insane.

Chii was aghast and her hair was raised. How come your behavior was the same even now?

“O-Oh no! There’s blood! You’re bleeding!”

I repeated what I told Chii before.

“It’ll heal after I rub some spit on it.”

The gag didn’t register. Even though there was nothing to worry about. Chii’s hair was flapping, and I was going to jokingly ask if she couldn’t use any healing magic to heal a wound like this when I saw something moving behind Chii! I didn’t even have the time to think as Chii suddenly pulled me away. Something hit me on the back.

It hurt. So bad that I thought I was dying. I thought I was going to die.

“Gah!”

“Big Brother?!”

I looked down as I leaned on Chii. There was a large rock on the floor. Who threw it? Was there another phantom trying to kill us?!

“…Don’t look down on me.”

It was Ara. Chii’s attack must torn Ara’s clothing, because her skirt was torn, exposing her thigh, and parts of her shirt were torn up; but I didn’t have the time to enjoy the view. Ara looked much more menacing now.

“Seeing a magpie getting worked up just because you have a little more power sickens me. If this were enough to take me down, then I would have just died centuries ago!!”

Her voice was deafening.

“You’ll die too if you relax just because you have a part of the Tiger-nim’s spiritual body. You’ve only survived this long because I held back to test how strong it was.”

I thought hard for some clever trick. So that meant…the tooth could stop the phantom energy stored in the rock, but it couldn’t stop the kinetic energy that kept the rock moving?

Hey, hey. What do I do? Should I really have asked for a larger cauldron lid so I could use it as a shield? Chii, shocked that Ara could still stand, stood in front of me.

“Big Brother, stay behind me!”

I retreated to stand behind Chii. And who was it who said everything would be okay, that he would protect Chii? Shit! Did I really have the spare energy to tell jokes?

Ara spoke with a snarl on her face.

“Yeah. That’s right, magpie. I’ll kill you first.”

She swiped a pile of rocks at us with her tail. A dozen rocks flew at us. Strangely enough, they were all heading directly for Chii…no, for me.

“Ugh?!”

Unable to dodge, Chii either blocked or brushed away the rocks with her wings. The rocks she couldn’t stop hit her body. In that time, Ara closed the distance.

“You two are going to die!”

“Awooo!”

With a typical Chii-like shout, Chii slapped Ara’s tail away with her wing. Ara avoided Chii’s swipe and tried to grab Chii’s legs with her tail. Chii…huh? Chii dodged Ara by flying through the ceiling with me in tow. Yet another hole appeared in the ceiling.

“I’m going to be flying fast, so grab tight!”

“Okay!”

The pain in my hand was almost unbearable, but it was still better than falling to my death! I grabbed Chii tightly by her chest.

I discovered an unknown world. Rangii and Saehee couldn’t hold a candle to her.

“Wh-What do you think you’re touching! Even now you want to do this? Kyawoo! Don’t move your fingers, ah, no that’s, awoooo!!! You perverted big brother!”

Chii spread her wings and flew with a scream. I quickly moved my hands to her waist.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!”

“What do you mean you didn’t mean to?! You told me before that you like big breasted women!”

Even though you kept calling me a lolicon!

“Is now really the time to be talking about that?!”

The truth was, it wasn’t. Because Ara was throwing furniture and other objects like an anti-aircraft gun. There were really all kinds of things flying through the air. From bricks to pipes, cabinets to window panes. Chii skillfully dodged them all, when,

“P-Please lose some weight! You’re too heavy to dodge any…kyawooo!”

Chii was unable to freely move because of my weight, and she plunged to the ground after getting hit in the head by a roof tile.

“Uwaaagh!!”

I suddenly thought of the saying that falling birds don’t have wings. I was about to fall to my death. But right before we impacted the ground, Chii came back to her senses and unfurled her wings. Water flew in all directions with a flapping sound.

She did this right before our feet touched the ground. W-We survived.

“Chii! We have to run!”

“How can I just leave you, Big Brother?!”

At Chii’s idiotic retort, I flipped back my bangs that were stuck to my forehead and spoke angrily to her.

“Just fly outside with me!”

“If I go outside with you, I’ll have to kill you! Please use your head a little!”

Crap! That’s right!

“Can’t you just forget about that?”

“Swearing on your name isn’t something that convenient!”

But that doesn’t make any sense!!

“Then just you go! I can use the cauldron lid Saehee gave me to escape!”

Thankfully, Chii didn’t ask about the cauldron lid. Instead, Chii responded with a tell-tale look of dread in her face.

“I told you to use your head a little! How can I possibly fly in this weather without Big Brother with me?!”

And what the heck does that mean? Do you plan on throwing me into the clouds and using me as a lightning rod if lightning’s about to strike?

“Then why don’t you run?”

“…I’m a slow runner.”

This was bad. I was thinking desperately for a solution when Chii spoke to me.

“Big Brother.”

“What?”

“Please don’t worry about me and…”

I didn’t want to hear the end of that sentence, so I raised my hand and hit her on the head. It was difficult now that she was taller.

“Awoooo! That hurt!”

“Say something like that again and I’ll spank your butt. You got it?”

I stuck my tongue out at her and smiled. Though I put my tongue back in my mouth because of the rain.

It didn’t help our situation, but joking about that day was enough to calm her down a little.

No, I’m not really that perverted. I didn’t remember Chii’s pale butt or anything. And I definitely wasn’t staring at Chii’s newly exposed rear. Seriously.

“…Big Brother.”

Chii continued.

“Do you want to spank me that much? If you want to that badly, then even though it hurts…“

“How much longer are you going to keep me waiting?”

I didn’t have the time to say anything. After wrecking our house, Ara walked out into the courtyard.

“Regardless, if you want both of us to live, then the only thing we can do is defeat that woman, Big Brother.”

The problem was that I couldn’t figure out a way to defeat her. Chii and Ara looked to be about equal in strength. There was the innate disadvantage a magpie had against a snake, but Rangii’s power seemed to have leveled the playing field. But Chii was weighed down by me. Because of me, Chii couldn’t move freely. If Ara throws a rock with phantom energy and it connects, then I’m dead. But she could do any number of other things besides throwing rocks. Rangii’s tooth could stop phantom energy and magic directly, but it couldn’t stop things that were affected by phantom energy. And Rangii only gave me her tooth as a stalling measure. If Chii tried to take on Ara while protecting me, then…

Huh?

A sudden glimmer of hope sparked inside my head. Something that could give us the edge we needed. Something about my plan bothered me, but I doubted it was important since I couldn’t put my finger on it. The heck? Could I actually be a genius at coming up with clever solutions? I thought back to the things Ara threw at us. It wasn’t there. That meant it was still in the room. It wasn’t that far away. Because Chii flew up, not away.

I flipped my wet hair out of my eyes. Will this work? Even if it didn’t, I had to make it work. The pressure was driving me mad, but, strangely enough, a smile formed on my face.

“Chii.”

“Not now, Big Brother.”

Contrary to Ara who was slithering leisurely towards us, Chii was visibly worried. With it in my grasp, I grabbed Chii’s hand.

“—Big Brother?!”

Chii was surprised, but I gave her a wink to signal to her to keep quiet. I doubt Chii would appreciate my attitude, but I didn’t want Ara to think something was up. Because it was vital that Ara not use her phantom energy directly on me.

“I have a plan.”

I pointed at myself with my thumb to calm her down.

“Just trust me. I’m your big brother.”

Chii looked as though she was on the verge of tears, but quickly nodded her head.

“How can you ask me to trust you, perverted Big Brother?”

You brat. I grinned, and Chii stuck her tongue out at me.

After I told her my plan, Chii’s face first went stony, but she quickly nodded her head again. And then we ran. As we planned, Chii ran directly for Ara. But before Ara could direct her full attention to Chii, I said,

“Hey, you old hag! You a bit out of breath, you hag?! I’ll be the rain’s making your knees ache!”

I provoked her.

“Why you little…?!”

Making fun of a woman’s age secures her attention immediately, it seems.

Ara struck the ground with her tail. From underground, she lifted a large rock and flung it at me. I didn’t expect that. At worst, I thought she’d have access to only small stones in the courtyard, but a sizable rock was suddenly flying at me!

I couldn’t dodge it. I could see it, but I couldn’t move my body in time! But at that very moment, my foot slipped on the mud and I tripped as I slid across the ground. The rock flew above me, just grazing my forehead. I heard the rock hit a wall with a loud bang before falling to the ground. What unbelievable luck. Because I didn’t die! Was it because this was Rangii’s home ground?! I continued to run, using my previous momentum to propel me faster! Because there was no way I’d get that lucky a second time! And when I made it to the viranda, (tn: I didn’t know that the word viranda better describes a Korean porch than the word porch. You learn something new every day…)

“What?!”

“I’m not letting go!!”

I heard them shouting behind me. I turned around. Ara, no longer able to use her phantom energy, had human legs once again, and clinging to her legs was a slightly smaller looking Chii.

“How do you have the Tiger-nim’s spiritual body?!”

She noticed.

She noticed that I gave Chii Rangii’s tooth!

Rangii’s tooth could nullify phantom energy. If I were Ara, I would have thought it was a no-brainer that I would have it. Because if Chii had it, then she couldn’t use her phantom energy either. But that also meant that for as long as Chii could cling to Ara, neither of them could use their phantom energy. And that small window was plenty!

I went into the ruined master bedroom and opened the first drawer of the untouched cabinet. It was inside. I grabbed it, and,

“Kyaagh!”

At that moment. I heard a blood-curdling scream. With an inexplicable dread settling in my heart, I sprinted out into the courtyard.

My breath caught in my throat.

I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Chii was utterly motionless, covered in mud yet still holding Ara’s ankle. Somehow, Chii had turned back into a child.

“Let me go! You little shit!”

Ara was stomping on Chii’s head with her free foot. Mud sprayed everywhere. From the lightning, I could see a reddish hue in the mud. Why? Why was it red?

“If you’re dead, then just let go! Honestly, you clingy runt!”

…Wait. What did she just say? Did the sound of the rain make me mishear her?

“Determined brat! You’re a bother even in death!”

Ara stomped once more. Chii didn’t even scream. Her body just jerked back, as if she were twitching. No, her body was simply being moved my Ara. Yeah. As if postmortem spasms were starting to take place. Which meant she was dead. She was already dead.

I killed her.

Whom?

Chii.

Please, no.

How could Chii have died?

Don’t look away. Chii was dead. She died trusting me, believing in me.

I didn’t think of this. I ignored it. I knew that there was a chance that Chii could go back to her original form because Rangii’s tooth ate up phantom energy, but I ignored it. And then Chii died.

Because of me.

I killed Chii.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

I ran at Ara, my vision turning red. The falling rain blinded me, but I continued to run forward.

“Get your dirty feet off Chii—!!”

“—?!”

Ara turned her head.

“Wh-Why do you have that?!”

Ara shouted, shocked at what I had in my hands. Yeah. I expected as much.

Just yesterday. When I was looking in the cabinet for a first-aid kit, I found what Saehee had put in the top drawer. And just now. I remembered what I found, and tried to get it to save us both.

Saehee told me. That this would let even a human like me kill a human. She told me I only needed to avoid great phantoms like Rangii. Yeah. I had in my hands Ungnyeo’s Bone Club!

“Die!!”

“Tch!”

Realizing the danger she was in, Ara tried to dodge, but Chii still had a hold on her ankle.

“Wh-What?!”

Ara was taken aback.

Yeah. Even in death, Chii hadn’t let go of Ara. Because she promised. Because that was my plan. So Chii didn’t let go before her death nor even after it. She kept our promise.

That was why you couldn’t run away.

Realizing she couldn’t run away, Ara tried to turn her body away. But I didn’t miss. With all my strength, I sung down at Ara with the Club. The Club flew true, and hit her on the chest.

[——————!]

Chapter end