Iapetus was, to put it mildly, feeling like a slimy truck carting corpses stuffed with acid had just barrelled over her. It was sort of similar to how what the Queen chicky had done in the Hallow’s dimension felt, only not as strong. So… officer or something else? She would have to check.

Whatever had made her decide to patrol through the more derelict side of town seemed to be vindicated. Something was out here and she was going to take care of it. Hopefully. She didn’t exactly have backup if it was something really bad. Though, gross as whatever it was felt, it really wasn’t that strong. It almost felt like it could even be a little bit weaker than her. Did the Negaverse have a rank below a lieutenant?

Guess I’m ‘bout to find out, she thought.

When she reached the area that the feeling seemed to emanate from, she didn’t see anything aside from broken, rotting walls and crumbling masonry. Slowing her pace, Iapetus explored every nook and cranny, trying to find the source of her unease. After a full circuit of the area, she still didn’t see anything and had been about to give up and go home when she heard a weak, rasping noise coming from under a mound of dirt and twisted, dead roots. Creeping over, she nudged at the mound with her toe, wondering if she was about to unleash a wasp or spider nest upon her person.

What she got instead was something that trundled out of the earth that was about the size of a small cat, but shaped like a mole on steroids. Huge claws, squintchy red eyes and wriggly snoot. It might have been cute had it not been for the patches of scale along its furred body and the far too long for its mouth teeth. Honestly, the way it was glaring up at her and hissing, she might have felt sorry for it.

Except it was, y’know, a youma. She was certain of that based purely on how being in the thing’s presence made her feel. And mole shaped… Which might explain why she’d felt it when she hadn’t been that close to the mound. It probably had a series of tunnels that went under a few city blocks. She took a step back to watch the thing and felt another wave of pity for it. Sure, youma were monsters, but this one was just pathetic. It moved like an arthritic old man. Sounded like one too. It was just a poor, dumb animal. That, you know, happened to be a soul eating monstrosity. It wasn’t even fast. It kept trying to get to her and simply couldn’t keep up. Could youma age like animals did? Signs were pointing to ******** me, you’re harmless to anything faster than a snail”, she muttered. “But I can’t leave you here and risk you actually hurting someone.”

Senshi were meant to kill youma. If she turned around and walked away, leaving Ol’ Slobbery here alone, she’d risk it actually managing to cause harm. Even if it couldn’t directly get someone, it could still tunnel. It was mole based after all. Tunnel enough and whole buildings could be destroyed. There were lots of ways to harm, after all.

With a sigh, Iapetus called up her magic and breathed in the mist, feeling her resolve strengthen and all thoughts not relating to this problem fade back.

She would do what had to be done.

Finding a particularly large chunk of concrete, she hefted it and held it above her head. The youma, seemingly realizing that it was in danger, began to scrabble at the hard ground. Now or never, if it got away, she’d be furious. With a scream, she brought the concrete down on the youma’s head and neck two times, three, four. As she raised her weapon for a fifth strike, the youma shuddered and then turned abruptly to dust. And then, even the dust faded.

Dropping her makeshift bludgeon, Iapetus sagged to the ground, magical mental buffering gone. She would go home and probably lay awake all night thinking about this. But once all was said and done, she knew that she’d do the same over and over again.

Senshi were meant to kill youma, after all.

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