Chapter 5: Foxes are Actually Very Dangerous
Even in the Land of Eight Million Gods, it is not easy for a yokai to turn their own story into a myth. Among them, those who become legends not as a collective group, but as unique individuals, are even rarer.
The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, Tamamo-no-Mae—who in mythology "brought ruin to families and nations"—is a prime representative. In works like the Edo-period Illustrated Biography of the Evil Women of the Three Kingdoms and the Records of Tamamo-no-Mae across Three Kingdoms, she is hailed as the "Greatest Yokai of the Three Kingdoms (China, India, Japan)." She stands alongside Shuten-doji, the native Japanese yokai who also caused great chaos and mass panic, and the Great Tengu manifested by Emperor Sutoku, as one of Japan's Three Most Evil Yokai. Rumor has it that her nine tails possess powers over lightning, fire, wind, earthquakes, floods, summoning the dead, and creating small fox spirits. Each tail represents a soul; unless all are severed simultaneously, they can regenerate.
Compared to Shuten-doji and the Great Tengu, Tamamo-no-Mae's popularity is on another level. If Shuten-doji and the Great Tengu harvested only human fear, Tamamo-no-Mae harvested human adoration through her beauty and erudition. Furthermore, in later creative works, she is often conflated with other Japanese fox deities like the Inari god and Kuzunoha.
Then there is the famous Sessho-seki (Killing Stone). While everyone in the mundane world knows of it, and some temples even point to a specific rock claiming it to be the stone, anyone in the Japanese sorcery world with a modicum of heritage knows that is complete nonsense.
In true history, Tamamo-no-Mae was the undisputed Queen of the Night in Heian-kyo. The Emperor ruled the day; she ruled the night. An army of eighty thousand hunting her down? Impossible. The one who made her leave Heian-kyo wasn't Abe no Seimei either, but her own boredom. Interestingly, after she left, another fox demon took her place to continue ruling the nights of the capital; many modern stories of Tamamo-no-Mae actually originate from this second fox. Some rumors even suggest this fox was the mother of Abe no Seimei, the fox spirit "Kuzunoha." Others call her Hagoromo-Gitsune.
None of that matters now. What matters is that Tamamo-no-Mae is a great existence at the pinnacle of the Japanese fox race—a demon, yet approaching the status of a god.
At this moment, facing the peerless great yokai who had manifested right before them, the crowd nearly stopped breathing.
The girl stood before them with silver hair and red eyes, her hair styled in a "koi fishtail" braid. She had triangular fox ears and was dressed in a blend of white and red silk; a ritual treasure knot rested on her chest, and a layered, soft white skirt was tied at her waist. She wore white satin light clogs, and nine tails with silver fur swayed behind her.
Looking at her face—an oval shape of incomparable prettiness and extraordinary spirit—her red eyes were moist and shimmering, adding a touch of demonic enchantment. Her hair,
eyes, nose, mouth, neck—every movement of her body wove together into a complete, harmonious melody. Her almost aggressively high chest, her slender waist that could be spanned by a single hand, and the firm curves below made everyone present, male and female alike, gasp.
What a magnificent yokai!
The moment they saw Tamamo-no-Mae, the crowd felt their various troubles blown away like dust by a fresh breeze. At this moment, they felt that an ideal beauty should look exactly like this: with a straight yet slightly convex nose, those large eyes, long black eyelashes, and that soul-stirring gaze. Looking at her, one couldn't help but feel a desire to say something to her—something extremely pleasant, sincere, and as beautiful as she was.
A faint sorrow stirred in their hearts—a drifting, hazy feeling like a dream. They felt a strange sense of regret, as if they had all lost the most important thing in their lives.
Directly opposite the crowd, behind Tamamo-no-Mae, Hikigaya waited patiently for a full ten or twenty minutes. It wasn't until he saw their gazes becoming increasingly vacant—looking exactly like roommates who had played games all night and refused to sleep, sitting on their beds smoking—that he lost his patience.
"Wake up!" He slapped the wooden floor. "Come back to your senses!"
Startled, the crowd snapped out of it. Many Onmyoji's first reaction was to squeeze their eyes shut to calm their racing hearts.
What a terrifying yokai!
Don't be fooled by how pathetic these Onmyoji look compared to their ancestors; they still stand at the higher tiers of Japanese society, respected and revered by wealthy merchants and politicians. What kind of lavish scenes hadn't they witnessed? Tall, short, voluptuous, slender, long-legged, "baby-faced giants"—if it existed in this society, they had seen it. To put it bluntly, some were so jaded they barely felt like touching a woman anymore.
Yet they were instantly defeated by Tamamo-no-Mae.
Even more shameful was that Tamamo-no-Mae hadn't actually done anything. Look at her—even after transforming, she still looked completely pissed off. If not for the Rakshasa King's presence, she probably would have stepped forward and beaten them all up. (Though for some, that might have been quite pleasant...)
In short, they had behaved like a bunch of greenhorns. All their years of experience had been thrown to the dogs. How embarrassing!
"As expected of Lady Tamamo-no-Mae..." Grandmother Seishuin lamented, offering a bit of face to her fellow locals who were currently trying to bury their heads in their laps.
She was a woman, an old lady, and even she had barely held her ground. Tamamo-no-Mae's beauty had transcended the boundaries of mere physical appearance; it was an assault on
the soul. Therefore, those Onmyoji who had moved against her in the past—whether they were strong or not was one thing—definitely weren't "normal" people. How could a normal person ever bring themselves to lay a hand on her? Even the thought was inconceivable.
With the bridge built by Grandmother Seishuin, the men of the Kansai Branch hurriedly followed suit. Their words were nothing but a stream of praise, the central theme being: It's not that I haven't seen enough of the world, it's just that today I realized I've been living in a wasteland until now.
With the mindset of "why should a man make things hard for another man," Hikigaya sat through their efforts to salvage the last scraps of their dignity. Then, he felt someone poking his waist.
Truly a bold and wicked person, attempting such indecency in broad daylight.
"What is it?" Hikigaya looked confusedly at his two "wings," who were currently eyeing him with scrutiny and suspicion.
"Hachiman, you actually live with such a dangerous creature?" Liliana spoke quite euphemistically.
In contrast, Ena, having known Hikigaya for longer, was much more direct: "You didn't even spare a fox, did you? She's a fox! Not a human!"
Hikigaya: "..."
Liliana aside, Ena, haven't you seen this "fox-dog" every single day? You can't just ignore the facts just because someone's chest is bigger than yours!
If he were to sleep with this fox, where would Komachi sleep? In the middle? How psychopathic would that be!
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