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

The old legends of the island country widely circulate stories of yokai and deities imparting divine skills to humans, training mortals into powerful warriors.

There's the tengu who taught Minamoto no Yoshitsune the 'Six Secret Teachings' and 'Three Strategies'; the 'mountain god' who raised Kintaro, incarnated as a mountain hag; Yakushi, who underwent rigorous training in the Prajna Cave and received mantra teachings from the Kujaku Myo-o (Peacock Wisdom King); and the swordsman who, after receiving guidance from the deity Katori, created the Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu style.

In short, many stories where yokai or deities impart skills or teachings to humans have become widely known.

However, Hyakusuke never expected to encounter such a thing himself.

"You intend to give me special training?"

"I, Yuki Onna, am a deity. Even a little guidance from me can rapidly improve you."

The mistress of the lake smiled, sat back down, brought her pipe to her lips, took a puff, and exhaled a faint cloud of smoke.

"Whether it's physical skills, martial techniques, or spiritual arts and incantations, I can offer some pointers... For example, the thing you currently lack most: spearmanship."

Yuki Onna mentioned his spearmanship.

"Honestly, the spearmanship you've developed on your own can only be described as a complete mess. In Tang China, the spear is known as the 'King of All Weapons,' 'King of All Instruments,' and people respect the spear as the king of skills, mainly because no long weapon surpasses it... What you call spearmanship is just using the spear as a club."

Hyakusuke felt helpless upon hearing this. He hadn't received instruction from a renowned master. Half of his spear techniques came from his own experimentation, and the other half from experience in actual combat.

It was fine against yokai, who lacked any technique, but it was truly unsightly in the eyes of a real expert.

"But, don't worry, I'll guide you properly. Go!"

She extended her enormous hand and gently pushed him in the back—

Even though the mistress of the lake didn't use much force, Hyakusuke felt as if he had been sent flying by a huge force.

He fell forward, and the scenery before him changed in an instant—

"Wh-What?"

Hyakusuke, who had fallen to the ground, got up and found that the tea room had disappeared. Before him was a battlefield-like scene, and the air was filled with a nose-stinging stench of blood.

The cold wind blew across the wilderness, carrying a heavy smell of burning. Night surrounded the battlefield, with no stars visible, only a solitary moon.

As far as Hyakusuke could see, there were corpses piled everywhere... human corpses, horse corpses, and countless yokai corpses stacked into mountains.

A thousand, or even tens of thousands... he couldn't possibly count how many corpses there were. The blood from the numerous people, yokai, and horses covered the battlefield, and the dark brown bloodstains spread across the ground like dark tongues, filling the gaps in the earth.

Hyakusuke gasped. It wasn't that he hadn't seen corpses before—human corpses, livestock corpses, and yokai corpses.

However, he had never seen so many corpses. The tragically deceased people and yokai lay in the mud, their internal organs spilling out from their ribs, and arrows standing upright on their bodies.

Whoosh—

The wind slowly carried a hoarse sound, like rough gravel rubbing against skin. The brown blood was absorbed by the dry earth, and the ground was covered with reddish-black bloodstains.

In the distance, there was a giant spear, several dozen feet long, shaped like a totem pole. The head of the spear, pointing towards the sky, skewered the head of a red oni—a demon with horns and a mouth full of fangs, pierced through the mouth.

Dried blood left a trail of bloodstains on the spear shaft, dyeing the earth a dark brown color. The red oni still glared with lifeless, cloudy eyes, on which a fly rested.

It seemed to be staring angrily at the battlefield, its long hair behind its head fluttering like a lion's mane, rising and falling eerily in the wind.

"Wh-Where is this place?"

He muttered to himself.

At that moment, a woman's voice came from the void—it was Yuki Onna's voice.

"As you can see, young man, this is a battlefield."

The mistress of the lake said faintly.

"You should have heard of the great disturbance one hundred and fifty years ago..."

"The five demon king-level great demons, known as the 'Ten Evils and Five Rebellions Kings,' led the demon army called the 'Blood-Soaked Six Gates,' and had a fierce battle with the Yamato Court. This is one of the battlefields where the human-demon war took place."

Hyakusuke was stunned upon hearing this.

"Th-This is the battlefield reproduced with the Dragon God's mirage?"

"More or less."

"But, what's the purpose of sending me to this dream battlefield?"

"Of course, it's to properly learn spearmanship."

"Wait a minute, didn't you say that the mistress of the lake would personally teach me?"

"No, no~~ Kukuku, I never said anything like that from beginning to end. The one who will teach you is someone else."

Boom!

In the night, an expanding killing intent generated physical pressure, forming a gale—a killing intent that would paralyze and stop the hearts of the weak.

Hyakusuke's nerves almost froze, and his eyes widened in shock.

Under the waning moon, a figure slowly walked over from the other direction—a person wearing samurai armor.

This figure seemed to have risen from the freshly slaughtered corpses. He walked slowly, passing through the pale, dismembered corpses, passing over the dead horses lying on their backs, walking slowly from the mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Hyakusuke was completely stunned. It was a samurai wearing armor, with a cloud-shaped helmet and an old man's mask on his face.

He wore a maru-kozane kusazuri armor, mother-of-pearl lockets, butterfly greaves, a sleeveless cape of golden silk satin, and a samurai sword at his waist.

The samurai wearing the old man's mask held a spear in his right hand, and the killing intent subsided at that moment.

The armored samurai simply stood there, his aura becoming serene, distant, and profound, but deep within, Hyakusuke seemed to see a Shura hell, full of death battles, severed limbs, and mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

This spear-wielding samurai stood in the center of the Shura blood sea, unshakable whether the sky fell, the earth cracked, or a thousand troops charged.

"To learn spearmanship, it's best to rely on the guidance of a renowned master."

Yuki Onna smiled wickedly: "Standing before you is the great hero who defeated the five demon kings one hundred and fifty years ago, the 'Spear Saint' himself, one of the 'Four Sages.'"

The Spear Saint himself?

At that moment, Hyakusuke realized what Yuki Onna was up to.

"W-Wait a minute?"

He hurriedly said: "Mistress of the lake, are you having me fight this guy directly?"

"Practical combat, of course, is the most suitable for honing techniques."

The benevolent god laughed "Ohohohoho": "Nothing can teach you how to fight faster than a real battle... Don't worry, don't worry, because it's a dream, it can only reproduce up to one-tenth... no, up to one-twentieth of the Spear Saint's combat power."

"But..."

"There's no buts. This is a dream, you won't die, but the experience of being injured here is real."

Ah?

At that moment, the armored 'Spear Saint' moved, his spear rising and drawing an arc pointing to the sky.

"He's going to attack."

Hyakusuke had no time to chat with Yuki Onna, his eyes fixed on the blade of the spear in the 'Spear Saint's' hand.

However, his chest seemed to be torn open, and a severe pain came, as if he had been hit by something. The pain and heat spread throughout his body instantly, and blood dripped onto the dry, thirsty ground—finally, it was absorbed into the blood-soaked earth.

"What?"

Hyakusuke looked down at his chest and saw a bloody hole... What, what is this...

It hurts, it hurts so much.

Also... when did this happen?

Not far away, the spear in the 'Spear Saint's' hand hadn't moved at all, but his chest had been pierced by something—

'It's a stone~~ Your attention was focused on his spear, so that guy kicked a stone on the ground, and then the stone flew over and pierced your chest...'

Th-That's too outrageous, right?

That was his last thought. The next moment, the tip of the spear pierced his throat, taking his life.

Hyakusuke's consciousness suddenly broke off.

...

Clack!

It was as if someone snapped their fingers.

Hyakusuke woke up again, and Yuki Onna's voice came into his mind again.

'Here it comes, here it comes... This is the second round, don't make the same mistake as before.'

What?

Again?

Hyakusuke raised his head again, and the Spear Saint walked over slowly again, the warrior from one hundred and fifty years ago still wearing his helmet and armor, fully armed.

The old man's face under the helmet's brim maintained a frozen expression of a grinning smile—above the mask that only covered the cheeks, only a pair of eyes could be seen, pupils that flickered with ghost-like light.

Hyakusuke could feel the sharpness of those eyes. The 'Four Sages' were the heroes of the great war one hundred and fifty years ago, each with superhuman combat power. Whether it was one-tenth of their power, or one-twentieth of the Spear Saint's power during his lifetime, it was still a strong person above ordinary people.

At that moment, the Spear Saint thrust out his spear, not at Hyakusuke, but deeply into the ground.

"Wh-What the hell?"

Hyakusuke was puzzled, and then he felt that the spear inserted into the ground was injecting a force into the ground.

The ground cracked open, and a wave of destruction was detonated from underground.

Boom! Mud and sand shot into the sky like a waterfall, and a violent air current blew over, countless sand and gravel sweeping like bullets.

Before Hyakusuke could even blink, he was riddled with holes by countless stones flying at bullet speed.

He died again.

...

What the hell?

Hyakusuke woke up again.

'That was a move called 'Dusting,' originally meant to insert the spear into the ground, raise dust to form a smokescreen, and kill the enemy in the chaos... but if the Spear Saint does this, it will cause the attack just now.'

Yuki Onna laughed happily.

'This guy is just so out of spec... so~~ you don't need to think too much, what you have to do today is to try your best to survive his first attack as much as possible. Being able to do this will make you stronger a little faster in actual combat, of course, it's best to be able to take his first attack.'

—Survive?

—Take his first attack?

Big sister, are you dreaming, or am I dreaming.

Hyakusuke got up from the ground, and the warrior from one hundred and fifty years ago still walked slowly, fully armed.

"I can only try."

He gritted his teeth, touched his belt, and took out a flashbang.

Anyway, he wouldn't die, so he might as well work hard.