"Have you finally been unable to hold it in and spoken up?"
Asakura looked at the twig in his hand, which was still trembling all on its own.
The one that had just made a sound was not this thing in his hand, but a much more powerful existence.
However, if it was only of this level, it was far from being his opponent.
"At this point, you surely don't expect to just say a few nice words and have me let you off, do you?"
"Please forgive my rudeness. It is not that I do not wish to pay my respects to Your Excellency in person, but rather that I am unable to do so."
The voice resounded once more over the airspace of the woods, its tone sounding quite sincere.
"What exactly are you? A Jibakurei?"
Asakura asked in a loud voice.
"It is a long story. If I must perceive it through Your Excellency's definition of mankind, I ought to belong to the category of Yōkai." The voice replied.
Asakura noticed that the little girl beside him trembled slightly, seemingly extremely shocked by the answer given by that voice.
"But please believe me, we are not Yōkai who delight in doing evil; we are simply living beings residing in this forest who, just like you humans, wish to pass our days in peace." The voice continued.
"Is that so? So you intend to say that the one who snatched two people from the campsite wasn't you, then?" Asakura narrowed his eyes, lightly waving the twig in his hand while speaking in a detached tone.
"Someone was snatched?"
At this, Tsurumi Rumi could not help but speak out.
"...That was indeed the doing of us, but Your Excellency must believe that this is merely a misunderstanding."
"Then that really is too much of a misunderstanding." Asakura gently stroked the twig, and the trembling of the twig grew even more violent, "If I snap this thing right here, could it also be described as a misunderstanding?"
"I must still ask Your Excellency to stay your hand." That elderly voice sounded a fraction more urgent: "Even if just a little, please have a fraction more patience and grant us some trust."
"I don't feel like I need to grant even a single shred of trust to a fellow who is still hiding his head and showing his tail even at this point."
Although Asakura did not directly snap the twig, he spoke in a tone that was completely devoid of the slightest politeness.
"Since that is the case, please follow the guidance and come ahead... Once again, I offer my sincere apologies to Your Excellency. Unlike the little fellow in Your Excellency's hand, an old fellow like me does not possess the ability to move..."
Accompanying that elderly voice, the darkness of the woods was lit up before anyone realized it.
At first, it was just sporadic glimmers emerging from among the low shrubs, like forgotten stardust; immediately following that, the points of light rapidly multiplied as countless fireflies—which were actually quite rare in this day and age—rose from the depths of tree roots, hollows, and moss, slowly gathering in the air.
They did not fly around in a chaotic mess; instead, they spontaneously aligned into a wide, flowing river of light, the band of light undulating and winding like a Milky Way in the night sky that had been pulled down into the forest.
Asakura gazed out, but he was unable to see the end of the river of fireflies; he turned his head to look at the little girl beside him, then extended his hand toward her.
The girl curled her body up in fear.
As it turned out, Asakura merely pulled her up gently from the ground.
"Do you plan on heading straight back to the campsite right now, or are you coming with me?" Asakura asked the girl.
"I... Can I?" Tsurumi Rumi, who had expected to face scolding or even harsher treatment, was stunned for a moment, staring blankly at Asakura.
The light of the river of fireflies fell upon his body, making him look as if he were suffused with a faint white glow.
Even though there was no change whatsoever in his outward appearance, for some reason, the girl felt as though the person before her and the Greater Demon King who had been hunting her down earlier were completely different people...
"I don't mind, personally."
Asakura shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
In any case, no matter which option the little girl chose, he would end up burning away her memories in the end anyway.
"I," the girl hesitated for a moment, then glanced at the twig in Asakura's hand before gathering her courage: "I want to go over there with you!"
"Are you really not going back?" Asakura said, looking back, only to find that the small path he had burned out while chasing his way over earlier had been refilled by trees and shrubs at some unknown point, leaving not even a single trace to be seen.
"Alright, then keep close to me."
Asakura smiled and tossed the twig back to the little girl, who was looking at him expectantly.
There was no point in him holding onto this thing anyway; it had originally been used just as bait to fish out the true culprit behind this incident. Since they were now going to meet face-to-face and bump into each other directly, this thing was no longer of any use.
"Aren't you going to... ask me anything?" Tsurumi Rumi flusteredly caught the twig thrown over by Asakura, and only after letting out a sigh of relief did she look at Asakura with a bit of disbelief.
"It doesn't matter. When you want to tell me, you will say it yourself." Asakura turned around and walked away indifferently.
The girl hesitated for a moment, then also set her pace, following closely step-by-step behind him.
Asakura and Tsurumi Rumi moved forward along this river of fireflies.
As their footsteps fell, the points of light automatically extended forward, and the darkness ahead was gently rippled away.
The fireflies flowed slowly by our sides, neither coming too close nor moving too far away, as if maintaining a polite distance.
Quite gentlemanly, actually, Asakura complained in his heart.
He reached out his hand, wanting to catch a firefly to observe it, since this thing was quite rare in the city, whether in his past life or his current life.
As a result, the moment he extended his hand, the fireflies scattered with a whoosh, forming an absolute vacuum zone around him.
Whether it was because the fireflies left or the night had grown deeper, Asakura's face looked a bit dark.
On the contrary, when the little girl curiously extended her hand, fireflies immediately landed in her palm, easing the girl's originally tense emotions by a lot.
Tch, loli-con, Asakura cursed in his heart.
The light from the river of fireflies reflected onto the tree trunks, causing the rough tree bark to reveal layered, overlapping patterns.
Because there was no need to obstruct Asakura's advance, the surrounding woods no longer appeared so full of hostility; instead, the air between the forest carried a slight warmth, making even one's breathing become steady and deep.
This is probably what they call a natural oxygen bar, right?
Asakura didn't know much about this kind of thing, but his body didn't show any abnormalities. Even when aiming at things like 'poison' or 'harmful substances' and using [Candle] on himself, the curse was not triggered. It seemed there really wasn't any problem.
The two of them walked deeper and deeper, yet they did not feel lost.
The trees along the way seemed to be gently pushed aside by this river of light (of course, it was also possible that the existence behind it chickened out, so these trees all silently backed away) to yield a path that was just right.
The ground beneath their feet became smooth, with fallen leaves and humus cushioning into a thick natural carpet; the feeling of walking on it was even better than a sandy beach, as if they were currently not walking within a forest, but rather traversing through some soft layer.
Just at the instant the river of light gradually grew thin, the surrounding air suddenly underwent a change.
That was an unspeakable sensation, like passing through a thin veil soaked in water, or like stepping back to the edge of reality from a dreamworld.
Asakura had experienced a similar feeling before; that was the sensation produced at the exact moment he entered the shrine from reality back when he and Fujiwara Chika were searching for the 'Invisible Shrine'.
So that's how it is. From now on, this place can no longer be treated as a scene in reality, can it?
The fireflies quietly dispersed behind them, their light rapidly dimming, while the scene ahead stabilized accordingly—the forest came to an abrupt halt here, revealing a small, tranquil clearing.
Standing prominently in the center of the clearing was a colossal banyan tree.
Its mere existence weighed down the surrounding sky, its thick main trunk resembling an ancient stone pillar, its surface covered with overlapping layers of moss and creeping aerial roots.
Those aerial roots hung down from high places and looped back up in mid-air like a frozen waterfall, breathing slowly in the dim light.
The canopy was broad and low-hanging, with branches and leaves interlacing into a dome, completely enveloping the clearing and thoroughly isolating this place from the outside world.
If such a massive tree existed in reality, it certainly would have been discovered and reported by humans for standing far taller than the other trees in the forest; it might even have been protected as some kind of miracle or something.
Right in the center of that tree trunk, which was covered in the marks of time, grew an old man's face.
It was not an alien object abruptly embedded inside, but a texture that seemed to naturally surface from the wood itself.
The contours of the face were outlined by tree rings and cracks; the brow bones were deep, the eyelids drooped low, and wrinkles extended naturally along the bark, merging with the texture of the trunk—everything was seamlessly formed by nature.
The old man's expression was serene and composed, with the corners of its mouth slightly downturned, yet it did not appear sad; it looked more like a calmness after having witnessed all the affairs of the world.
The aerial roots swayed gently around its face like a long white beard, rustling slowly with the imperceptible air currents in the forest.
"So that's how it is," Asakura then nodded as if confirming something: "It's a tree spirit."
If measured solely by the magnitude of supernatural power, the existence of this colossal ancient tree in front of him would probably far exceed that of the fox aberration in the Invisible Shrine.
But if it were compared in terms of miraculous traits, that fox aberration would far surpass this towering, gigantic tree.
After all, the fox aberration was a 'deity', whereas this tree, no matter how massive or how ancient it was, was still just a tree as long as it did not receive the faith of the people.
At this moment, the twig in Tsurumi Rumi's hand snapped upward abruptly, falling out of the girl's hand onto the ground all at once, and then transformed into a slender little wooden person with a flower bud growing on its head. It ran swiftly toward the massive tree spirit, then used both its hands and feet to climb up the other's body, slipping into the beard formed by the aerial roots and vanishing from sight.
"Ah..."
The little girl subconsciously reached out her hand, wanting to call it back, but looking at the silhouette of it running away, Tsurumi Rumi ultimately said nothing in the end, merely watching the little wooden person disappear into the old tree spirit's beard.
That's true, this place is its home. It must have many other friends here...
A faint sadness welled up in the girl's heart.
"Alright, explain things to me properly now."
At this time, Asakura's voice interrupted the girl's thoughts.
She looked up at him, only to find that Asakura showed no reverence or fear whatsoever toward that massive tree with a human face that looked completely full of divinity; he still had that same vibe from earlier, completely not taking it seriously at all.
Is this kind of attitude really going to be okay? No matter how you look at it, we are inside someone else's territory, you know?
Tsurumi Rumi couldn't help but worry.
The tree bark cracked slightly, the tree rings rippled like waves, and the old tree spirit's mouth slowly opened on the trunk, its aerial roots trembling slightly like a beard.
It said.
"The matter must be told starting from five hundred years ago..."
"That's way too long ago, hey! Are you the monkey who wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Palace?!" Asakura complained loudly.
"Does a Heavenly Palace truly exist in the world?" The old tree spirit was shocked instead.
"Yes."
Asakura nodded with an air of seriousness.
After all, the space station of Todai (Tokyo University) is called by this exact name.
"More importantly than that, why did you snatch the humans from the campsite?" Asakura pressed on with the question he cared about the most: "Where are they now?"
"Due to certain reasons, our most precious descendant went missing." The old tree spirit said, and the little wooden person poked its head out from its aerial root beard and waved its hand, "Through investigation, we discovered that it was right inside the human campsite... Originally, we only needed to bring it back directly, but within that campsite, there existed a taboo that we dared not approach."
"A taboo?" Asakura was startled. Could it be that there was some side plot line he hadn't discovered?
Then he noticed that the old tree spirit was staring directly at him while saying this.
Dammit, so it turns out I am that taboo, hey!
"Your Excellency's aura is far too dangerous; even in my brief five-hundred-year lifespan, I have never encountered a presence as terrifying as Your Excellency. We do not wish to have a frontal conflict with Your Excellency... Just at this time, a human male entered the woods carrying a flame source..."
It's Tobe, ah...
"So you caught him?" Asakura asked.
"No, because of his operational error, he ignited a massive forest fire." The old tree spirit shook... uh, probably the place where its head was. Only a rustling sound was heard as a great many leaves fell from the sky-blotting canopy, resembling a green rainstorm.
Asakura, whose body was covered by [Scale], was fine, but Tsurumi Rumi on the other side was in a wretched state, piled up by the fallen leaves into a green Yukinon-man.
"...Ah, this." Asakura couldn't help but greet Old Tobe in his heart once again.
Do you absolute-fucking-ly want to roast marshmallows that badly?
"We extinguished the massive fire, but because we exposed our miraculous power in front of that human male, in order to prevent him from going back and letting the terrifying taboo existence—"
"Alright, I know the one you're talking about is me. You don't have to stare at me dead-on every single time you mention this."
"Yes, I understand—in order to prevent him from telling the Terrifying Taboo Lord about our existence, we had no choice but to catch him..."
Asakura: ...
So this 'terrifying taboo' is an adjective that absolutely must be added?
"In addition, although it is immature, a part of us also hoped we could exchange him with the Terrifying Taboo Lord for our precious descendant. Therefore, using human communication equipment, we sent an exchange message to you, the Terrifying Taboo Lord."
"So that was an exchange (in Japanese, the pronunciation for 'exchange' and 'incense ring' is identical; it seems the tree spirit is half-illiterate), ah..."