Gods and youkai rule together—but what about the humans?
The humans are ruled.
At the very least, before Yukari actually adopted Sū ěr suggestion and launched ninety years of compulsory youkai education, the vast majority of youkai could not be associated with words like "refined" or "civilized." They would only learn from the crude and overbearing kin around them and become even cruder. When they further breached the bottom line of etiquette, they would receive cheers from other youkai.
Fortunately, these youkai seemed to be bound by some constraint. At least, no matter how much they looked down on the humans serving them, they hadn't reached the point of grabbing a person and eating them on a whim. The situation was actually much better than Sū ěr had anticipated.
[To the left.]
Exposing her illusory body to the outside felt like being defiled, so Think simply retreated into Sū ěr body and gave him a vocal reminder.
To Sū ěr front-left, the blonde youkai was walking on the grass, talking to a burly man. The camp they were in was clearly separate from the mixed human-youkai camp; it was much cleaner, and that man was certainly not human.
'Likely a god of Izumo,' Sū ěr guessed internally.
[How interesting. They clearly don't expect these humans to play any role in this war, and they mock them constantly, yet they still brought so many along... I bet it wasn't easy to scrape together this many people in all of Izumo.]
'Maybe it's to fight the humans of Yamato?' Sū ěr said to Think in his mind. 'Or perhaps it's just a way of showing their stance.'
[A political gesture?]
Think, being no fool, immediately understood Sū ěr implication.
He had no intention of showing himself to Yukari or saying hello. After a brief loop around the Izumo camp, Sū ěr essentially fled the scene—he needed to regain his right to breathe, at the very least.
He didn't look at it with eyes that exceeded the era. In fact, compared to the humans of Yamato, whose lives were wretched and filled with dread due to their unknown fates, the humans of Izumo were significantly better off.
While they were far from "plump," they weren't just skin and bones. They had some meat on them, and they actually had meat to eat. They were also more vibrant mentally.
From the perspective of Sū ěr pre-previous life, the humans of both Yamato and Izumo were living in prison. But in this chaotic era, Izumo might well be the lighthouse for humanity in Ashihara no Nakatsukuni—provided that the scene they saw wasn't a deliberate act staged because Yukari knew of Sū ěr presence.
Sū ěr had realized this possibility.
He grew even more curious about the Izumo he had yet to see. What would that place be like?
When the night passed and the sun rose again, Yukari went to Sū ěr cottage once more, but Sū ěr and Think had already arrived in the West.
The place where the Nine-Tailed Fox resided.
In Sū ěr memory, when he first saw this fox—as beautiful as a glowing gemstone—in that river valley, she was constantly radiating light and warmth. Every movement exuded an inadvertent nobility, elegance, and supreme holiness.
But now, that holiness was significantly diminished. Don't misunderstand; the Nine-Tailed Fox herself hadn't changed. What had changed was her environment. All manner of youkai followed in her wake, their internal conflicts suppressed. The river valley, once filled with the breath of nature, was now crowded with the various nests of these youkai.
From this perspective, the Nine-Tails—famed throughout the land for defying Amaterasu and bearing the name of a demon—finally looked like a youkai. She was more approachable than the distant, untouchable figure from before; she no longer seemed like an illusory phantom.
Surrounded by a horde of youkai, with a mixture of different auras and the incessant sound of fawning chatter, where reverence and fear were held in equal measure—at this moment, she truly possessed the aura of the "Overlord of All Youkai" that Yukari claimed she was. This image was likely what the blonde youkai dreamed of becoming.
She chose not to live with her noisy subordinates. Her den was in a clean spot a fair distance away. It wasn't much of a den, really—just a layer of soft dried grass. Those nine fluffy, massive tails wrapped around her, making her look even more like a jade sphere.
She seemed to be sleeping. Curled up as she was, it was impossible to see where her head was beneath the shroud of tails. Sū ěr stood directly in front of her; he only had to reach out to touch this beautiful fox.
[Pull out a hair. It'll make a good souvenir.]
Think gave the suggestion without hesitation.
'...That's not great. It's still attached to someone,' Sū ěr replied mentally. Though his lips said it wasn't great, his hand was already raised. One more inch and he would touch that beautiful fur.
It emitted a faint, constant glow. It looked incredibly soft, as fluffy as a pom-pom. Just looking at it brought a sense of happiness—how would it feel to touch?
[Just touch it already! I want to try too!]
Having declared her undisguised love for the big fox long ago, Think was now directly urging him. In the next second, she impatiently manifested her form, intending to touch it with her illusory body.
"Hey, wait a second!" Sū ěr instinctively reached out to stop her. But when the words left his mouth, he realized they didn't need to worry anymore.
Between the layers of tails, a vibrant light flickered. Through a gap that had opened at some point, the Nine-Tailed Fox was watching these two uninvited guests with one eye, her gaze filled with curiosity.
When Sū ěr instinctively lowered his hand, the fox—covered by her nine tails like a silken veil—gracefully rose from her crouch. Without any grand display, the nine massive tails blossomed like a flower. The breeze blowing through the valley spiraled between her hairs in a beautiful vortex, then expanded according to the guidance of her tails, eventually causing ripples on the thawed river in the distance.
The Nine-Tailed Fox looked down upon Sū ěr and Think.