"Just me is not enough," Hoderi voice grew firm as he watched the world outside through the hole he had torn. "Do you see?"
The subterranean world was lit by torches and the occasional flash of violet youkai light. Through the hole in the wall, Sū ěr group could see other Oni in the distance, talking and laughing maliciously. The only thing that had changed was the aura radiating from Hoderi; the place he watched was still filled with the alien Youki that gathered like clouds, appearing like faces on the surface—neither youkai nor god.
Hoderi turned to look at Sū ěr.
"Right out there, my kin are right out there... but they are still asleep, they haven't woken up." The black-haired Oni's sharp teeth clacked within his smile, and even the spiraling horn on his head grew slightly longer amidst the sound of cracking bone. "...They are not yet pure enough."
"That's your business, it has nothing to do with me," Sū ěr said expressionlessly. He didn't care about the Oni; he only wanted to know what was beneath this city, and about that Tenson.
"Ah, yes. What you want to know about is my father... at least, my father of the past." Hoderi guessed what he should say before Sū ěr even asked, nodding repeatedly. "I know."
"?"
If Sū ěr remembered correctly, Hoderi had just said he hadn't seen his father's face in a long time... Oh, he understood—the one who hadn't seen him was the Shinjin Hoderi, right?
"Exactly." Even his way of speaking was different from the Hoderi of moments ago. Sū ěr expression shifted slightly, and he began to smile. "In truth, he knows. He just couldn't accept it, so he wanted to forget, to bury it in the deepest parts of his mind."
To frankly refer to his self of a few seconds ago as "he"—this youkai Hoderi was startlingly direct.
"No problem, I can take you there," Hoderi agreed readily, then added, "In fact, even if you hadn't asked, I planned to take you—"
Knock, knock, knock.
Suddenly, the iron door behind him was struck, and Hoderi words were cut short. Along with the knocking was a very youthful voice.
"Uncle Hoderi? Uncle Hoderi!" The knocking stopped because the person outside had discovered the hole in the wall. "Ah, what are you doing, Uncle Hoderi?"
A small Oni's head—I mean, a child Oni's head—popped through the hole. He was clearly young, standing on his tiptoes to see inside.
"Youkai from... outside?" The child Oni tilted his head, looking at the group inside.
Unlike Hoderi horn, which was practically a work of art, the horn atop the child's head was crooked, with a sickly, malnourished yellow color. The entire horn was strangely withered—yes, the whole thing. It was nothing like "beautiful" or "majestic"; it was just an irregular cluster of tangled, crooked horns.
"Is that... Shin?" Hoderi voice held a slight hesitation, but it was a fleeting detail that a brat like this couldn't notice. He then broke into a bright smile. "They are indeed youkai from outside, but they are my friends. Can you keep it a secret for me, Shin?"
As he spoke, the Youki he was constantly emitting became turbid once more, returning to the state it had been in minutes ago. But for Sū ěr, who had witnessed the whole process, that unique aura could never truly go back.
No matter how well he mimicked it, the fine details were completely different. However, it was enough to fool a kid like this; in fact, the brat didn't notice such minutiae at all.
"No problem! Don't worry, Uncle Hoderi!" The brat named Shin thumped his chest firmly. It was actually quite cute how he disappeared from the hole the moment he thumped his chest.
"Hahaha, that's reliable. Truly my best assistant," Hoderi said with standard child-deceiving words as he opened the gate to let Shin run in.
"Did something happen? I heard a loud bang from far away!" Not at all shy, this brat was incredibly bold. He didn't treat himself as an outsider at all, throwing himself directly onto the wooden bed after entering. His large eyes scanned Sū ěr incessantly.
To be more precise, his gaze swept from Sū ěr to Yukari and Yuuka, then back again. Such an uninhibited, probing gaze made Yuuka eyebrow twitch; in all fairness, she was not a youkai with a good temper.
There was no doubt that this brat was also transformed from a former Shinjin. But unlike Hoderi—a first-generation Shinjin directly under the Tenson with a rich bloodline—Shin divine blood had been thinned to a pitiful degree after countless generations.
For that same reason, when he became an Oni, his weakness manifested in his horn.
"Ah, it was nothing. I just accidentally fell and hit the wall. I got a bit angry and tore it down, it's no big deal," Hoderi said as he walked back inside after checking the area to ensure no other Oni had arrived. He answered Shin question with a laugh.
"Oh, I see~" Shin swung his legs on the bed. Though the reason sounded completely nonsensical to Sū ěr and Think, Shin accepted it without a shadow of doubt.
After a moment's thought, Sū ěr group stopped being puzzled. Clearly, being so irritable that you tear your house down over a sudden accident or something not going your way was very common among the Oni. Perhaps for them, it was actually a way to brag about their strength.
"Right, right! I found the way to the top! Uncle Hoderi!" Shin quickly threw the unimportant matter aside and shouted excitedly at Hoderi. This was the reason he had run over at this specific time.
"...To the surface?" Hoderi wasn't as happy as Shin expected; instead, his face grew so grim it frightened the boy. "It's not that gang again, is it? Shin, I told you not to hang out with them!"
"...It's not like that. I just went to take a look," Shin said, cowed by Hoderi reaction. The previously excited brat was now subdued, muttering and trying to seek help with his eyes from Sū ěr group.
Strength aside, the kid was quite clever.