The Aokigahara Forest at the foot of Mount Fuji, which was usually lush with exotic trees and home to various rare insects—a nature reserve nicknamed the beautiful 'Sea of Trees'—was now nothing more than a living hell.
The land was devastated. Lightning struck wildly in all directions, turning the ground into glass. Hundreds of old trees were consumed by flames, while hurricane-force winds created from the swipes of giant claws flattened whatever was left.
"Hahahahaha!"
Nurarihyon couldn't help but laugh. He leaped nimbly into the air, avoiding Tora's sharp claw slashes that split the air and were only inches away from his face.
"Stop laughing, you perverted geezer! Think of something!" Megari cried out in panic. In her white and black spotted cat form, she tightly gripped the kimono fabric on Nurarihyon's shoulder with her claws, as if the remaining of her nine lives depended on it.
This was a dangerous situation for sure, but surprisingly fun for Nurarihyon. It had been centuries since he felt the adrenaline rush of a real life-and-death battle. Even his clashes with Yasaka in the past felt more like a formal display of political power than a fight for survival.
However, for Megari, this was the end of the world.
Just as Nurarihyon landed on the ground with a perfect somersault, he summoned his walking stick. With one smooth pull on the handle, he drew a hidden sword (shikomizue). The steel blade emitted a sinister greenish light—glowing with potent poison and high-level Youki (yokai spiritual energy).
Without hesitation, he swung the sword upwards, slashing through the torrent of fiery breath that Tora had just spewed out.
The slash was so powerful that it split the sea of flames in two. Its air pressure shot forward like an invisible blade and cut Tora's giant cheek. However... the cut wound on the tiger demon's face hissed, then closed and healed in a matter of seconds. An absurd regeneration.
"Tch, too shallow," Nurarihyon clicked his tongue in annoyance.
There wasn't much that the Supreme Commander of the Eastern Faction could do other than make the monster in front of him even fiercer.
This was a frustrating dead end.
If he charged forward too closely, the creature would immediately detonate an electric shield with hundreds of millions of volts. However, if he kept his distance, the creature would bombard him with land-sweeping bursts of fire and windstorms that could shredded his body into minced meat.
This was a deadly cat-and-mouse game where Nurarihyon had absolutely no room for even the slightest error.
He had used every means to take down the monster. From deadly poisons, high-level illusions, elemental magic, to various ancient magical tools. However, all his efforts did not yield significant results. Moreover, he began to realize that he had taken a very fatal step by moving this monster to Aokigahara Forest.
"I should have just sent him to the Church's headquarters, let him run wild there," Nurarihyon complained, whether jokingly or seriously.
"Are you insane?! Do you want to declare open war on the inhabitants of Heaven?!" Megari snapped in annoyance. The white cat immediately bit Nurarihyon's ear hard, who seemed to be starting to ramble due to exhaustion.
"Ouch, that hurts, you idiot!" Nurarihyon winced while gently swatting his pet away. "Can't you see how much negative aura that creature is absorbing?"
In the midst of this storm of battle, Nurarihyon's aging eyes noticed a terrifying anomaly. The negative aura that had settled from the depths of the forest continued to gather and be sucked into Tora's giant body like a giant whirlpool. A negative aura so thick, which had given Aokigahara its other nickname: Suicide Forest.
The creature in front of him was apparently able to absorb pure Yin energy—the incarnation of humanity's hatred, envy, fear, and despair—to strengthen his body and accelerate his regeneration without limit. As long as they fought here, Tora was fighting with inexhaustible energy.
"Do... do I need to call for reinforcements from the Yokai Faction now?" Megari asked, her voice now shrouded in genuine anxiety.
"No need," Nurarihyon replied quickly. He leaped backward, parrying a barrage of Tora's brutal claw slashes that tore the land in front of him into large craters. "If I had a five seconds... no, just one second is enough. I can finish him off."
Hearing a glimmer of hope for the first time since this nightmare began, Megari immediately jumped down from Nurarihyon's shoulder and landed smoothly on the scorched earth.
"In that case, I'll give you that one second, Boss."
Seeing the little cat run nimbly away through the rubble, Nurarihyon chuckled softly.
"Heh."
The old man spun his sword, refocusing all his fighting instincts to avoid and parry Tora's rampage, ready to await that one golden second of opportunity.
Meanwhile, at a blind spot some distance away from the center of that deadly battle, Megari stopped. She closed her cat eyes, gathered all the Senjutsu energy flow in her body, and then channeled it slowly into the ground she stood on—preparing to hijack the earth's veins to create an absolute trap.
After feeling that her preparations were complete, Megari immediately sent a telepathic signal straight into the Supreme Commander's mind.
"Boss, now!"
Tora—who had been busy chasing, clawing, and pouncing on Nurarihyon like a tiger gleefully playing with a new toy—now stared at the old man with an expectant look. He waited for the wrinkled hand to reach for something from inside his kimono, hoping to see a new weapon or magic.
However, his expectations instantly evaporated when he saw Nurarihyon only bringing out his wooden smoking pipe again.
"Have you run out of tricks, Old Man?" Tora sneered with a contemptuous roar.
Hearing the taunt, Nurarihyon only smiled thinly. He inhaled deeply from the end of the smoking pipe, then spewed out a suffocating cloud of smoke, once again blinding the monster's vision.
"Useless!" Tora roared.
However, just as Tora puffed out his chest and was about to blow a storm to clear the thick smoke screen, his movements came to a forced halt. The monster suddenly screamed in pain.
"AGGH!"
From within the scorched Aokigahara soil, giant roots infused with Megari's pure Senjutsu energy shot out. The roots wrapped tightly around the two feet and hands of the 12-meter monster, an absolute restraint. At least, to hold the monster for one second.
And that one second was more than enough.
Having obtained the golden opportunity he had been waiting for, Nurarihyon now stood firmly a dozen steps right in front of Tora. The Youki (yokai spiritual energy) radiating from his body was incredibly dense.
The old man gripped the handle of his shikomizue sword tightly with both hands. Taking a stance with his right foot stepping forward, he raised the glowing green blade high above his head.
All his strength, thousands of years of combat experience, and the rest of his spiritual energy were channeled into that one attack.
"Ittō Tenretsu (Single Blade: Heaven Split)"
It was just a simple-looking vertical overhead slash. An attack without any wasted movement, purely a perfect sword swing without flaw. However, just as the tip of the green sword blade touched the ground...
For a moment—there was no sound. Then the night sky and the Aokigahara land as far as the eye could see were completely split in two.
"Nice to meet you, Kid. Now... die."
Fooossh!
Like a storm surge, the cloud of smoke was swept away by the sword swing, revealing the giant monster's body that had been completely split in two vertically.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Nurarihyon plunged his sword into the ground, using it as a support cane to keep his body from collapsing. The attack just now had drained all of his remaining strength and spiritual energy. His bones creaked painfully, and every muscle fiber in his frail body screamed in pain.
"We did it, Boss!"
Nurarihyon turned weakly towards Megari, who was running closer from a distance with a relieved expression. However, suddenly, the Supreme Commander's sensitive ears caught the sound of something moved where it shouldn't.
Srak... srak... srak...
He raised his head slowly. His eyes widened in horror as he saw that the two pieces of the giant monster's body had not collapsed. Instead, the giant pieces of flesh were being pulled and reattached. Its long orange fur maneuvered wildly like thousands of surgical threads, wrapping around and sewing its own split body like a living cocoon.
"Kehkehkeh... kehkehkeh... Kid? You just called me a kid?"
The hoarse and heavy voice echoed, vibrating the air around them.
"I had spread bloody terror in the Qin Dynasty era, long before the small land you stand on even had a name!"
Nurarihyon's blood seemed to freeze. His eyes narrowed, his breath stopped for a split second.
"...so that is what you are."
He watched as the monster in front of him tore apart its own 'cocoon' of fur, standing upright perfectly again, without leaving a single scratch, after freeing himself from the roots that bound his feet and hands. The creature then turned its savage face away from Nurarihyon, puffed out its massive chest, and immediately spewed a vortex of pure hellfire towards Megari, who was still frozen in absolute horror.
"Damn it!"
Ignoring the limits of his body, Nurarihyon forced himself to cast teleportation magic once more. He darted to grab Megari's body, dragging her away moments before the sea of fire engulfed the land where his subordinate was standing.
The flash of teleportation magic sent them far out of reach of the giant monster. After feeling safe enough, Nurarihyon lowered Megari, who was still shivering violently from pure terror.
"I-I thought I was going to die..." Megari muttered, gasping for breath.
The white cat slowly turned around and raised her head. However, to her shock, that made all the fur on her body stood on end stiffly, she found Nurarihyon standing with half of his kimono gone, burned away. The old man's left hand and left side of his face were severely burned, blackened like still-burning charcoal. Earlier, in order to save her from that fire blast, her boss was willing to sacrifice part of his own body.
"Boss, your hand?!" Megari shrieked in horror.
Nurarihyon only chuckled in response to his subordinate's panic. He leaned his frail back against the trunk of a large tree, then slid down to sit on the ground.
"Don't worry, it's just a scratch," he said, taking a long, heavy breath. "Looks like that attack really drained all my energy. Good thing we still had time to escape."
Hearing Nurarihyon's words, Megari could only bow her head weakly. She felt that she was only become a burden in this deadly battle. Without saying much, she jumped and curled up in Nurarihyon's lap.
"Let me help heal your wounds, Boss."
Megari then enveloped Nurarihyon's body with warm, healing Senjutsu energy, stimulating the Daiyokai's natural recovery so that his wounds would heal faster, even though the process still took time.
"Then... what should we do next, Boss?" Megari asked softly.
Nurarihyon only smiled thinly and began to gently stroke Megari's fur. A touch that Megari usually avoided like the plague because she refused to be touched by this perverted old geezer. However, for tonight only, Megari allowed it.
"Just like Yamata no Orochi... it seems that monster really has to be killed many times until the core of its life is completely exhausted," Nurarihyon sighed in resignation. "Unfortunately, this old body of mine is no longer able to perform the sky-splitting attack repeatedly."
Suddenly, Nurarihyon's sensitive ears caught a roaring buzzing sound from a distance. He raised his head to the smoky night sky, and from between the tree branches, he saw the spotlights of several helicopters flying crisscrossing towards the center of the destruction.
"Damn it," Nurarihyon cursed softly. "Looks like the human authorities are starting to realize the massive damage that's happened in this forest."
In the distance, Tora, who was sniffing the air searching for the location of his escaped prey, was suddenly startled by a familiar smell that suddenly appeared right beneath his body. He jumped backward, channeling high-voltage electricity through his body, preparing to launch a deadly attack.
But unexpectedly, he instead found the old man standing with both hands raised high into the air. The little cat on his head also raised both front paws as a sign of surrender.
"We surrender. You win… for tonight."
Hearing the resigned words, Tora's body froze. The electricity enveloping his body disappeared instantly in shock, before finally exploding back to life in frustration.
"Surrender my ass! You split me in half earlier!" Tora growled, unwilling to accept it.
Nurarihyon frowned. "You also burned half of my body and almost killed my subordinate! Besides, look up, the human security forces are heading this way."
Tora also frowned in confusion. "So?"
Tora's short, innocent answer successfully made Nurarihyon and Megari's jaws drop.
"Do you want our existence to be known to humanity?!" Nurarihyon burst out, unable to comprehend.
Tora snorted arrogantly. "Heh, I don't care. I've even been on television before," he said, puffing out his chest proudly.
"You're really mad! Then what do you want so this battle can be over quickly?!" Nurarihyon was starting to panic.
Ignoring the Supreme Commander's panic, Tora's ears slowly caught the sound of familiar noisy propellers. He looked into the distance, towards the line of helicopters that were slowly approaching through the smoke.
The noisy flying object immediately reminded him of a news reporter. A human with the size of a rat in his eyes, but with courage as big as a mountain. Moriya. The human and his crew who stubbornly accompanied and broadcast their last battle against Hakumen no Mono. A decisive battle that united the yokai and humanity.
"Yokai and humans..." Tora murmured softly.
Remembering that moment, Tora's chest felt warm. He felt that his long journey and struggle with Ushio had not been in vain. Although deep down in his heart, the monster felt a little regretful that he didn't get to see his own cool action on the television screen.
Tora turned his gaze away from the sky and back to the old man. The crackling of electricity all over his body slowly subsided. Accompanied by puffs of hot steam, the giant 12-meter-tall body began to shrink rapidly, until finally stopping at its normal size of no more than three meters.
"I want you to find someone... and something," Tora said absolutely, without the slightest hint of a request.
Hearing the unilateral demands from Tora, Nurarihyon sighed a very long sigh. An overwhelming sense of fatigue suddenly fell upon his frail shoulders.
"Alright, we'll discuss the details at my residence," Nurarihyon replied resignedly. As the loser, he realized he had no choice but to accept the monster's request for the sake of his faction's survival. He then looked up at the top of his head.
"Sorry, Megari. I hand over the matter of restoring the forest and manipulating the memories of these humans to you."
Hearing the order, Megari jumped down from Nurarihyon's head and landed firmly on the still smoky ground. Ignoring how troublesome the massive clean-up task would be, she nodded obediently.
"Leave it to me, Boss!"
Nurarihyon then turned around, hobbling towards Tora. Without hesitation, he placed his uninjured hand on the monster's furry body, activated the spatial magic glow, and instantly teleported them both back to the residence of the Eastern Yokai Faction's headquarters.