Help! I changed the gender of the male protagonist in the yandere game

The next day.

Matsudaira Inomaro, an elderly retainer of the Tsukigahara clan, upon learning of Tsukigahara Yomei's ill health, decided to seek out the "Sword Saint" Kibune Kyounosuke alone.

"Miss Yomei, you need to rest well."

Matsudaira old man discussed with Hyakusuke.

"Let's just take a day off today."

Hyakusuke thought it was a good opportunity to deal with the items he had brought from the treasure vault.

"This thing is the Everlasting Fruit; honestly, it looks like a rotten orange."

Hyakusuke found a hidden spot in the nearby woods and took out the "treasure" he had obtained from the treasure vault of the lake lord, Yuki Onna.

The so-called "Everlasting Fruit" resembled a shriveled, withered orange, shrunk to the size of a thumb.

"...It even smells bad."

Hyakusuke felt disgusted and wanted to move the fruit away. However, after much consideration, he opened his mouth and ate the Everlasting Fruit.

Snap.

He crushed the rotten orange with his teeth and swallowed it. The Everlasting Fruit melted in his mouth, turning into a liquid-like substance that Hyakusuke gulped down his throat.

Suddenly, he felt as if his brain had been struck hard by a giant hammer, and his mind went blank.

In that instant of blankness, Hyakusuke vaguely felt his skin turn red and start to heat up all over his body.

In an instant, an extremely hot, extremely dry, terrifying heatwave burst forth from the location of his heart.

Boom!

From the depths of his heart, a surge of heat spread to every limb, filling him with power, overflowing to the extreme, making it difficult to make a sound.

"Ugh..."

Hyakusuke groaned lowly, sweat beading on his forehead, his body trembling, the veins on the back of his hands bulging, his palms clenched tightly, his muscles tensed to the limit.

After some time, he gradually calmed down and reached out to touch the area of his heart.

"The spirit core... should have been generated."

——Deep within his heart, a crystal of condensed spiritual power, known as the "spirit core," had formed.

The spirit core is the second spiritual power core generated within the bodies of a select few powerful individuals in this game's world, after undergoing various training and participating in life-and-death battles.

Spiritual power users with exorcist bloodlines can naturally refine life energy into spiritual power from their dantian.

In other words, the human body's dantian is the first spiritual power core, naturally capable of generating spiritual power and not requiring a second spiritual power core.

However, a very few powerful individuals can control spiritual power to such a fine degree that they can gather the spiritual power they unconsciously emit daily and regenerate a second spiritual power core within their body.

In this world, spiritual power users constantly emit spiritual power from their bodies, just like body temperature, gradually losing it. In other words, spiritual power is continuously consumed overall.

However, after opening the spirit core, the spiritual power naturally lost on a daily basis will also be collected and stored in the spirit core. In battle, powerful individuals can also release the spirit core to unleash two to three times their normal spiritual power to enhance their combat power.

"With this spirit core, I can not only better control my own spiritual power, but also naturally absorb the spiritual power that is normally lost into the spirit core... In times of crisis, I can also unleash twice the spiritual power."

Hyakusuke muttered to himself.

After opening the spirit core in his heart, his strength had improved somewhat.

Of course, he still couldn't compare to the powerful exorcists of this world. In a tokusatsu show, he had only been upgraded from a regular monster grunt to a slightly more advanced grunt.

"But there are also grunts in tokusatsu shows who can be promoted to executives, and some powerful grunts can even become monster of the week. I wonder if I can 'evolve' to that point."

Hyakusuke shook his head and checked the Earth Shrinking Amulet he had obtained.

This was a life-saving artifact in the early game.

"Earth Shrinking" is an advanced spatial magic in the game. The most basic use is to shrink the ground to an inch, increasing movement speed.

However, in the hands of onmyoji and other practitioners who truly master Earth Shrinking techniques, the uses of Earth Shrinking can be said to be ever-changing.

Among the "Twelve Guardian Saints" of the Yamato Court, the twelve strongest exorcists under the court's command, there is a powerful individual who is proficient in Earth Shrinking techniques.

In her hands, Earth Shrinking can instantly teleport an entire squad of soldiers to a location dozens of miles away, or throw powerful enemies in battle into the sky to fall to their deaths, or teleport them to deep water or the depths of a volcano.

"However, this is just an Earth Shrinking Amulet."

Hyakusuke sighed.

Fortunately, this Earth Shrinking Amulet can also help him perform short-range spatial jumps.

Of course, the "Earth Shrinking" activated by the amulet, that is, spatial jumps, has a cooldown time and consumes more spiritual power.

But just thinking about it, you know how heaven-defying this thing will be in battle.

"Next is the 'Baku Egg,' which requires feeding blood and providing spiritual power for seven days. It will hatch in three to seven days..."

The stone egg will take at least three days to hatch, so let's not talk about its function for now.

"Then, there's this thing, mermaid flesh."

Hyakusuke took out the small silver-inlaid lacquer box, like the kind used to hold face powder, with a white paper cinnabar talisman pasted on it.

"Eating it will grant powerful regenerative abilities... For a weakling like me, it can be said to be the greatest guarantee. No wonder the lake lord called it a 'bonus.'"

He peeled off the talisman and opened the silver-inlaid box. Inside was not the fish meat he had imagined, but a wriggling severed finger—this finger was clearly not human, with a black, slightly curved nail.

Upon closer inspection, traces of blood remained on the severed surface of the finger.

"...Can it still move?"

Hyakusuke looked bitter. He poked the severed finger a few times, and it bent slightly, as if still possessing the will of its former life.

"But I have no choice but to eat it."

He reached out, took out the severed finger, and put it in his mouth.

...

"Wuuu... I feel so uncomfortable..."

In the oxcart, Tsukigahara Yomei curled up, tears welling up in her eyes. On the one hand, she still felt extremely ashamed of what happened yesterday, and on the other hand, she was in so much pain from the physiological pain in her abdomen that she wanted to roll around.

"This is dysmenorrhea."

Her younger sister, Ayaka, sighed: "Brother, I've brewed some medicine. Drink it later, and you should feel better."

"Noo~~ I don't want to drink anything bitter."

She shook her head.

"Don't be so willful."

Ayaka pouted unhappily, her hands on her hips.

"If you don't obediently take your medicine, just wait to continue feeling uncomfortable..."

"Th-then how long will I be in pain?"

"It usually eases up in a day, but some people take two or three days. The specific duration is also affected by individual constitution and the cause of dysmenorrhea."

"Wuuu... Why is it so hard to be a woman."

Tsukigahara Yomei moaned.

"Brother, you finally understand, right~~ Being a woman is not a good thing. This is just menstruation, it's nothing. If you have children, you might die."

Ayaka sighed: "It's not that Ayaka wants to scare you, but we should find a way to undo this 'curse' as soon as possible."

"Y-yes."

Yomei replied in a listless tone, her voice conveying a feeling of weakness.

"Brother."

Ayaka knelt down and cupped Yomei's face in her hands.

"Don't forget the responsibility you bear... You are the eldest son of the Tsukigahara family and the next head of the family."

"Of course I know."

Yomei puffed out her cute cheeks.

"But it's not my fault that I turned into this~~."

"Is that so? Ayaka doesn't intend to blame you for this."

Ayaka sighed wearily.

"But... what's going on between brother and that guy named Hyakusuke?"

"Eh? What do you mean?"

Yomei tilted her head in confusion.

"...Does brother really not know, or are you deliberately playing dumb?"

Ayaka glared at her.

"Last night, in the middle of the night... why did Lord Hyakusuke bring you back? What is your relationship?"

"N-no... that... actually—"

She was stumped by the question, her eyes darting around as if in a panic.

"N-nothing, we just happened to run into each other."

"You can happen to meet outside in the middle of the night?"

Ayaka's eyes turned gloomy.

"A lone man and a lone woman, running to the strictly forbidden lake in the middle of the night... Brother, you're not secretly meeting that man, are you?"

"Secretly, secretly meeting... n-nothing of the sort?"

Yomei shook her head desperately.

Ayaka became even more suspicious, sensing Tsukigahara Yomei's wavering.

"Brother... you haven't fallen for that person, have you?"

"Fallen, fallen for him!"

Her cheeks instantly flushed as if she had a fever, and her eyes became erratic.