Sakaki Yui, seventeen years old. Her only wish was to greet each tomorrow quietly, without ever being hurt by anyone. However, her daily life—corroded by domestic violence and isolation at school—is completely trampled by the trap of a human trafficking organization, and her body is sold into an illegal underground pleasure district. Amidst violence, drugs, and endless exploitation, Yui's heart disconnects from emotion to protect itself, transforming the very act of "living" into mere instinctua
The Corpse Flower Blooms at Night - "The Corpse Flower Blooms at Night" Episode 7: "Chained Livestock, or the Fall of the Strongest"
I
It was like a chain of invisible dominoes falling, or perhaps an extraordinarily efficient pyramid scheme.
One midnight, the elite unit of the state-sanctioned anti-yokai special operations agency "Section Nine" was completely broken in body and spirit by Yui Sakaki's unreasonable "moral lectures," and expelled into society as harmless ordinary citizens. As a result, a catastrophic "blank zone" suddenly appeared in the spiritual defense network covering the Kanto region.
The ones who took notice of this situation were the mid-to-high-ranking ferocious yokai lurking in the depths of surrounding areas—Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama, and elsewhere. They completely misunderstood this as "the collapse of humanity's defensive lines and a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity to expand Tokyo's territory," and began a simultaneous invasion toward Shinjuku.
"Gigi... consume the darkness of Tokyo...!"
"Human despair is concentrated in that place...!"
The grotesque creatures, hidden in the night's shadows, thrust forth countless tentacles and claws as they attacked Tokyo.
However, they had no way of knowing the true nature of the existence awaiting them.
For Yui, it was merely an extremely mundane and unpleasant phenomenon—"recently, the number of suspicious people with bad attitudes bumping into her on night roads had increased dramatically, and it was incredibly annoying."
She gazed upon the multi-meter-sized aberrations that leaped at her head-on while commuting home or on patrol before work, her emotionless eyes fixed upon them, mechanically grasping their necks.
(... Eating them all would be too much trouble to clean up afterward. You all should just do your jobs.)
Yui seized the cores of the attacking yokai, sucking out ninety percent of their mystical power with the spirit of "leaving nothing on the plate"—to the very limit.
In the darkness, Yui's throat made a sensual, gulping sound as it moved, as if swallowing hot bodily fluid. The yokai's body, wrung to its limits, convulsed violently with fear and an exquisite pleasure from the inexpressible supernatural embrace. Black threads writhing beneath Yui's skin ravished their very existence from within with exquisite sweetness, carving the mark of their absolute master deep into their minds. Before the energy being consumed, Yui's chest stiffened with sensitivity, and hot breath escaped her lips. The obscene yet sweet inhuman union between devourer and devoured repeated itself countless times in the alley's shadows.
Their fangs pulled, shackled by the absolute chains of Yui's "discipline," the yokai were subjugated—not to dominate Tokyo, but within that single day to become "loyal hunting dogs (livestock)" gathering human negative emotions to offer to Yui.
The powerful provincial yokai who had invaded Tokyo were transformed one after another into harmless sheep before Yui, then sent back to their homeland mountains and cities, where they infected new companions with the "terror of the Demon King."
This explosive chain of domestication swept across Japan in an instant.
Within less than a month, Japan's shadowy ecosystem had completely transformed.
Save for a tiny handful of "harmless hermits" living peacefully in deep mountain recesses with absolutely no interest in ruling the mundane world or interfering with others, nearly all yokai existing within Japan found themselves, without realizing it, prostrating at Sakaki Yui's feet, diligently gathering human jealousy and resentment as her servants.
II
The current situation of the "Demon King" herself, Yui, was utterly peaceful.
A perfect system had been established where darkness (negative emotions) from across Japan automatically gathered like mist around the mixed-use building where she resided, leaving her stomach fuller than ever before.
No longer did she suffer those maddening hunger pangs that felt like her insides were being roasted. Her previously sallow skin had recently recovered some healthy pallor, and even her hair seemed to regain some luster.
"Yui, your skin's been looking really great lately. You started going to some expensive spa or something? The customers in your private room—they say it's 'the most sacred power spot in Japan' and leave tips while praying these days."
The shop manager spoke while blowing out cigarette smoke in the dim waiting room on the basement level.
Yui gave a brief "Yes," and quietly brought a cup of cold vanilla ice cream provided to her to her lips with a wooden spoon.
(... Lately, I don't even have to go on patrol—food just comes to me every day. It's really convenient.)
Internally, Yui was deeply satisfied with the completion of this wonderful life hack.
Clocking out on time, returning to her apartment undisturbed, eating ice cream in her cheap room, then sleeping peacefully. Her desired "minimal, modest peace suited to her station" should have been completely achieved.
However, the fact that Japan's shadowy ecosystem had undergone such rapid and complete unification became noise that awakened a sleeping "true monster."
That day, an ancient "strongest" existence that had shown no interest in the mundane world and had been sleeping endlessly deep within Japan's spiritual boundaries for hundreds of years opened its eyes.
It was a great yokai transcending even divinity itself—a creature that had never been wounded by even the combined efforts of countless heroes and sorcerers, a manifestation of natural disaster itself—the being known colloquially as "Hakumen" (White Face), harboring absolute violence.
Hakumen had no interest in power or humanity's petty emotions. However, it became aware of an anomaly: while it slept, all darkness across Japan had been completely unified under a single will, transformed into a massive "livestock pen." A pure curiosity stirred in it, along with faint displeasure.
"Very well. This mysterious Demon King who has painted the world's underside with a single discipline... I shall see its vessel with my own eyes."
The "strongest," tearing through dimensional space with its claws, wrapped in overwhelming divine aura and aura of tyranny, quietly descended upon the noise-filled streets of Shinjuku in the mundane world.
III
3:30 AM. The moment Yui, having clocked out, stepped into her usual desolate alley.
DOOM—the very atmosphere trembled violently, as if gravity itself had increased.
The building wind around her ceased abruptly. From cracks in the asphalt, an overwhelmingly pure white yet ominous curse power of absolute density erupted—something no product of this world.
Yui's livestock (yokai) hiding in the alley's shadows sensed the absolute superior presence, and from terror, their entire bodies froze, unable to move.
Space twisted with creaking sounds, and from within emerged a figure clothed only in a scrap of cloth—impossibly beautiful yet with the glint of a savage predator deep in his eyes. It was "Hakumen," the "strongest."
"Kkk... so you're the rumored 'Demon King.' How fragile, hardly a worthy vessel for a small girl."
Hakumen smiled arrogantly and took a step toward Yui. Merely by moving, the surrounding concrete shattered into powder beneath his pressure, swirling as dust. This was unmistakable proof of true supremacy—clearly a different "dimension of violence" from the underworld humans and lesser yokai encountered thus far.
"My name is Hakumen. I stand at the apex of this nation's darkness. Small girl, you've grown conceited in my sleep... but I shall grind your arrogant discipline to dust and—"
A declaration of war as overwhelming as the manifestation of natural disaster itself.
Yet the actual thoughts of Yui, standing opposite him, remained severely misaligned with the world's premises.
(... Ah, another weird person showed up on the night road. He's shining really brightly and his voice is loud and annoying. I want to go home and finish my ice cream...)
For Yui, the "strongest" before her was neither a great yokai nor a natural disaster. He was simply "a suspicious person shouting loudly on night roads, exceedingly annoying, and probably tedious to clean up after."
However, her inner discipline—"never leave anything behind"—moved her limbs without mercy. Though troublesome, she had to dispose of this suspicious person as usual and give him a thorough lecture, or tomorrow's peaceful sleep wouldn't be hers. With a small sigh, Yui took a quiet step forward.
It was precisely the moment the "strongest" was about to swing down his overwhelming claws.
IV
—CRASH.
What happened, neither the stationary livestock yokai nor Hakumen the "strongest" himself could comprehend.
By the time they realized it, Hakumen's beautiful face was literally "completely embedded" in the filthy concrete ground of the alley.
Yui had simply seized his face with overwhelming inhuman speed and mass, slamming it directly into the floor. The absolute divine aura Hakumen had worn and the spell formulas that could split space—none of it served as any defensive barrier against Yui's "simply hard, simply fast" primitive and overwhelming violence.
His vaunted curse power was sucked dry to ninety percent in an instant from Yui's fingertips, and Hakumen's body completely lost all strength, left crawling pathetically on the ground.
Truly, a two-panel instant defeat.
The fall from "strongest" to "pathetic loser" was completed in mere moments.
"... Um, I don't think you should shout loudly on night roads suddenly."
What descended from above was, as expected, a flat and irrational "moral lecture" as though read directly from a middle school ethics textbook.
Yui crouched down on the pavement, looking down at Hakumen whose face was covered in mud.
"It's a neighborhood nuisance, and if buildings break, who's going to fix them? Nobody praises you for being violent. My teacher at school said conflict solves nothing. So please, go home properly and live normally."
Within Hakumen's mind, the "pride of the strongest" and ethical framework cultivated over hundreds of years were completely crushed to dust by the overwhelming difference in actual power and the "terribly elementary yet absolutely valid logic" of the monster before him.
Fear. Awe. Confusion.
Yet from the depths of that despair, what surged in Hakumen's heart was an abnormal "admiration" and "love" unlike anything experienced before—the very emotions that had driven the anti-yokai agents to madness.
(Ah... with such overwhelming power, this being speaks of discipline so noble and pure...! In this mud-covered mundane world, does such an innocent and absolutely saintly maiden truly exist...!)
Battered and covered in mud, Hakumen's eyes flew wide, and he grasped desperately at Yui's hands, crying out.
"Magnificent...! You alone are worthy of being my true master—no, my wife! I beg you, small girl... will you become my wife? Together we shall rule this nation—"
A marriage proposal from the depths of his being, piercing the heavens.
But before Hakumen's zealous gaze, Yui didn't even twitch an eyebrow.
"... Um, I have to decline. I want to live normally and alone. Also, interfering with the shop and telling anyone about what happened here is forbidden. Please keep that promise, okay?"
The moment Yui's golden eyes gleamed coldly, iron discipline—"absolute secrecy" and "no interference"—was carved deep into Hakumen's very soul.
The strongest great yokai, rejected with a marriage proposal in seconds, visibly shook with shock yet had Yui's words (brainwashing) engraved as absolute law. He unsteadily rose to his feet.
Days later.
Kuze Reiji, who had witnessed this "instant defeat of the strongest and his subsequent abnormal mental subjugation" through a remote magical communication line, finally collapsed in his own room, frothing at the mouth.
"Even 'Hakumen'... felled in a single strike, mentally tainted by what she calls 'moral lectures' until he proposed marriage, and then she dumped him and made him her subordinate... That woman
Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.