Chapter 23

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After following the strange presence they arrived at an old temple in the forest. The roof had fallen down as if no one had been there for a long time.

The noise of the festival seemed very distant and quieter, maybe because they climbed up so many stairs.

“What could be in this place?”

Subaru, still on Shouma’s shoulder, was the only one who looked around cheerfully, surveying the place. He only answered with a “maybe” while still trying to catch his breath.

As he did so, suddenly the sound of bamboo leaves rubbing together could be heard. Shouma looked around but there was no bamboo nearby.

“Go away”

Shouma heard a hoarse male voice.

The voice of the stranger seemed to be speaking directly into his head, not his ears.

One of the broken down temple’s pillars, which had been torn in half, glowed vaguely blue and the figure of a person appeared behind it.

“Go away, please”

The figure gradually became clearer then the form of a monk appeared. In his hand, a white lantern hung.

The lamplight made the wrinkles on the man’s face stand out and look enlivened.

“I want nothing to do with people”

The monk’s face crumpled into a grimace as he said this, annoyance rang in his voice.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the monk’s body, which had been small in stature, grew about double his normal height. The next moment, he tripled his size.

By the time Shouma’s mind recognized the monk as the Mikoshi Nyuudou, it had become bigger than the trees around it.

The Mikoshi Nyuudou’s body hit the trees. The birds rustled.

Shouma looked up at the monk, dumbfounded. He looked up so far he thought his neck might break. The boy could no longer see the clouds, stars or the moon in the night sky. All that could be seen was the large body of the Mikoshi Nyuudou.

The giant kaii opened its mouth. Its exhaled breath shook the boy’s hair like a gust of wind. Drool fell to the ground.

The kaii’s neatly grown teeth aimed at Shouma.

“Shouma!”

The one who shouted was Subaru. He must have wanted to tell Shouma to run away quickly. But his body, stiff from the shock, wouldn’t move instantly.

(This is not good. If I don’t do something…)

“Hyaaa!”

Just as Shouma thought he heard that voice, the Mikoshi Nyuudou fell sideways.

A sound like the rumbling of the earth echoed and the birds flew away.

Losing his strength, Shouma fell on his backside straight to the ground. He darted his eyes about the girl who landed just in front of him.

“Eh, Fuyuka-chan?”

“Good grief. Looking up at a growing Mikoshi Nyuudou, such carelessness. If I hadn’t come along, you would have been chewed to death by now.”

Fuyuka brushed the dirt from her knees. However, her hands were not her usual hands.

Those hands were covered with brown fur. Her fingers were round. The palms of her hands were covered with soft and plump paw pads.

It was similar to a cat.

When he looked down at her feet, he saw that her legs were the same. She surely had been wearing geta clogs there until about an hour ago.

Fuyuka licked her upper lip then got down on all fours.

The obi of her yukata came off and softly danced in the air. It became her tail. Her tail, split into two parts that Souma had seen before.

“I still didn’t thank Shouma-san for the fried-chicken, so I’ll protect you here! I don’t have much choice.”

The face saying this changed. The next thing he knew, there was a big cat. The creature’s lower part of its face was white. While brown spots scattered on its white body.

It was the same cat with the two tails that had motivated him to visit Tendou’s office.

“Ehh, but…why?”

“Didn’t you notice Shouma? She’s a Nekomata!” [1]

When Shouma raised his voice in a hysteric manner, Subaru answered as if it was a simple matter of course.

The Tofu Boy wasn’t surprised either, so it seemed that it was only Shouma who hadn’t caught on instantly.

“Eh? But, she is Fuyuka Okuda. She even goes to High School…”

“There are those even amongst the kaii who slip into human society, you know.”

“Nyaan!”

With a high-pitched shrill, Fuyuka lunged at the other kaii. Although a little smaller than before, the Mikoshi Nyuudou was still as big as a tree.

Fuyuka bit into the giant kaii’s arm. The Mikoshi Nyuudou tried to shake her off, but the impact of her lunge caused it to fall backwards. The sound of the earth rumbling rose again, and clouds of dust and smoke danced in the air.

Fuyuka was at a huge disadvantage in terms of size, but she seemed to be the one pushing the other into a corner.

Perhaps because of the constant damage, the Mikoshi Nyuudou gradually shrunk.

It was then that a faint voice reached Shouma’s ears.

“Father…”

It was the voice of the Tofu Boy.

Shouma had been stunned by the spectacle of the Great Yokai War [2] before him, but the Mikoshi Nyuudou was the little kaii’s father after all.

It was too cruel to show him how his father was being hurt like this.

“Fuyuka-chan!”

Shouma called out to her as she flipped and landed beside him.

“Thanks, but I think I should be fine now.”

“I think it still has the power to kill someone like you, Shouma-san.”

She had a strange voice that sounded like a mixture of an old woman and a young child, then Fuyuka began to lick blood on her wrist.

The man in front of them, the Mikoshi Nyuudou, looked like it was in a state of shock. If left to its own devices, this matter would surely be settled sooner rather than later.

Although…

“I’m sorry, but still, let me talk with it a little.”

“I understand.”

Fuyuka sat down on the spot. Then, like a ribbon being untied, the body of the big cat disintegrated and a human figure, Fuyuka, whom Shouma knew well, appeared.

Her yukata was undisturbed, although there were a few scratches on her wrists.

“But, please don’t get yourself killed, Shouma-san. I think Tendou-san will be arriving soon, at least until then…”

“Tendou-san?”

“He’s walking up the stairs, casually complaining about how long it is.”

“All of this just because he doesn’t usually exercise.”

A wry smile appeared on Shouma’s face. How typical it was from his employer.

—–

Translator’s Notes:

[1] 猫又 ’forked cat’ This yokai is a type of Bakeneko but only the oldest, strongest and most intelligent could transform into a Nekomata. When this transformation happens their tail splits into two. They can shapeshift and control corpses. They are also able to speak human language but mostly loathe humans. (example)

[2] The author refers here to the 1968 movie Yokai Daisenso (Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare)

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