I Was Reincarnated as a Nameless Combatant in a Japanese-style Fantasy Depressive Erotic Game, but the Women Around Me Are All Dangerous, and I Have a Bad Feeling about It

…But all her efforts were in vain.

　”No…
No, no…
I want to go home.
Save me.
Please, save me…”

　To whom did she beg for her life? Was the desire to live fueled by the wish to meet someone? Her thoughts had become a jumbled mess, and she couldn't even understand that anymore.
Her entire body grew cold, and her consciousness became muddled.

　Nevertheless, she didn't want to die.
Even though she had always been burdened with the lowly task of exploration for survival, she couldn't bring herself to accept her fate without a fight.
Especially when there was no one by her side to accompany her…!

　Yes, she knew.
She knew this would be her end.
But even so, she wanted to meet him, just one more time.
She was afraid of death.
To die alone, particularly so.

　Her voice was choked with tears, her eyes blurred, her breathing faint.
The darkness enveloped her vision, and the grotesque beings surrounding her.
They were the signal of the end, the finale, and…

　'Kukuku.
Pitiful humans, are you afraid of death?'

　In her blurred vision, from among the crowd of monsters, something appeared and uttered those words in broken speech…

* * *

　Upon opening the unremarkable door, the scene that greeted me was another Japanese-style corridor.
If there were any differences, it was that this one was not as dilapidated as the previous one.
It appeared more simple, and the entire hallway was brightly illuminated.

　…And there, a welcoming assassin for the intruder leaped out right away.

　'RoaAARRRR!'

　A one-horned giant bear roared, charging forward.
Its path was blocked by an expanse of wriggling 'hair' that filled the passageway.

　'Roaa…
Kuun!?'

　The assault of the onikuma ended abruptly.
It had rushed in, attempting to tear through the countless hairs with its own weight, but it easily passed through the hair wall.
The bear, having penetrated the wall with ease, was now perplexed, shaking its head left and right, trying to comprehend the situation.
The hair wall had been a deception, a decoy.
The real body was…

　”Above us?!”

　Along the ceiling, it stealthily approached right above us.

　'Keukegen,' a youkai composed entirely of hair, was said to be inspired by a breed of foreign dogs with an exceptionally hairy appearance in my previous life.
In this world, it seemed to be the result of a compromise between that and the current form.

　In other words, it took the shape of a beast constructed by countless strands of hair.

　'OooOOOHH!'

　”Ah…”

　”I won't let you!”

　The mass of hair that had crawled along the ceiling like countless earthworms merged into one and leaped towards us.
Reacting instantly, I stepped forward to shield Tamaki and cut the creature with my dagger.
The high-quality dagger created by Gorilla-sama cleanly sliced off one of the creature's front legs.
However…

　'OooOOOHH!'

　”Agh, sh*t! Well, of course it'll regenerate!”

　The hairy lump, whose front leg had been cut off and thrown into the floor, immediately began to regenerate.
Being a mass of hair, losing one or two legs wasn't a problem.

　”Watch out! Oh no!!”

　Then, several tentacles…
or rather, braids, extended from the body of 'Keukegen' like whips or snakes, attacking us.
I quickly cut two of them, but one wrapped around my neck as I tried to sever another, and in the brief moment it took, another captured my ankle.
I was then pulled forcefully, rolling and dragged.

　”Tomobe-kun!! Youuu…!!”

　Tamaki appeared to rescue me.
Stepping on the braids, she stabbed her Wakizashi into them.
While it was a good weapon, it might be of slightly lower quality than my dagger.
She managed to slice two-thirds of the braid, but the sword got tangled in the hair.

　”Huh? Wh-What…? No!! No!! Aaah!!”

　Struggling to cut through the entangled hair, Tamaki couldn't escape the impending attack from the youkai.
Creeping across the floor, 'Keukegen' came from behind and covered her.

　”Ah! Cough! Cough! Gaaah!!”

　The youkai tried to strangle Tamaki by restraining her limbs and tightening its grip around her throat.
She desperately resisted, but the hair's hardness was resilient, making it difficult to cut it with human strength alone.

　But before the strength of the bear, Keukegen was helpless.

　'Roarrrr!!'

　Growling, the demon bear forced its left arm into 'Keukegen's' body.
The right arm of the bear youkai had already been broken, and its left hand was crushed.
That's why it used its left 'arm' to seize the hair and tore it apart in one swift motion.

　”!? !?”

　The hair youkai screamed in a voiceless agony.
At that moment, I joined the fight and cut off the braid that was wrapped around Tamaki's neck.
Coughing, Tamaki managed to escape the swarm of hair.
I looked at the demon bear and nodded.

　The bear captured the hair youkai and held it in its grasp.
I found a nearby door with the sign 'Fire caution' hanging from it.
Opening it, a blast of hot air erupted.
The hair youkai panicked.
But it was too slow.

　'Guaaah!'

　'( ・`д・´) Got you!'

　The bear hurled 'Keukegen' into the room filled with flames.
Cries of pain echoed from within.
Several braids extended, trying to wrap around the edges of the door and the bear.

　”Tamaki! Close it!”

　”Y-Yes…!!”

　Cutting the desperate braids with my dagger, I shouted.
Tamaki, with teary eyes and coughing, responded.
She closed the door, making a rattling sound.
Immediately, a particularly thick braid got trapped in the door that was about to close, thrashing around.