After fighting Saito once at the family restaurant, Futaba, the two-tailed youkai fox chose to flee in the face of an enemy with overwhelming strength. She was shocked by the human who possessed incredible strength.
“What the hell is going on with that uncle …… I didn’t fully accept Momiji’s statement, but how could someone possess the same level of power as Yatsuha anee-sama …… It’s hard to believe that during the time we were sealed, humans had a sudden change …?”
In the past, there was almost no one who would possess that kind of terrible power.
At that time, the Onmyouji who was known as the strongest in Kyoto was only about the same as or slightly more powerful than the four-tailed or five-tailed sister.
Now there’s a human of the same level as the Eight Tails.
–I have to tell my sisters and mother about this before it becomes a big problem.
This time, it was just a monster-like uncle who happened to be born on the human side, Futaba thought.
She leapt from roof to roof as she assumed the form of a human and rushed to the place where the sisters were sealed.
There were only five of them, including herself and Momiji, who had broken the seal.
One Tail, Two Tails, Three Tails, Four Tails and Eight Tails.
The rest of the sisters seem to have no desire to break the seal and keep to themselves just like their mother.
The truth is, their youkai power is superior to the power of the seal.
Just like Futaba wants to appear in the real world, if they to get rid of the seal, they could just use brute force to escape.
So why don’t they all break the seal right away?
That is because there is an instruction from Nine-tailed mother “Tamamo Gozen” who is a superior existence of sisters.
Their mother was disturbed by Momiji’s sudden absence of signals and thought that she might have encountered unprecedented situation.
However, she was not sure whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. So she decided to investigate. To do so, she sent the sisters, who have only low-level power and do not irritate humans, and Yatsuha who assist them.
That’s why, Futaba was sent to human world to bring back Momiji with as little impact as possible, but she ended up in this situation.
What the hell is going on here?
“And that Momiji’s tail has increased to two for no apparent reason. That’s not right. In this world we have to be around our mother in order to evolve.”
No matter how I think about it, I can only assume that this incident has something to do with that strange uncle.
Originally, we sisters were all dependents of the Nine Tails, and all the youkai power we stored in this world would basically be levied by our mother and become her power. So it was possible for us to grow and evolve as long as our mother wanted us to, but conversely we could never evolve as long as our mother did not agree.
Obviously so, but Momiji managed to evolve and is a second tail like me.
That’s not normal at all.
“I’m not really interested in the sibling order …… but she’s my sister no matter what. If it’s true that that uncle forced Momiji to participate in some experiment and inflicted some onmyouji technique, magic or whatever on her to make her evolve by force, I must not ignore it. I’ll definitely kill him!”
Despite her brutal personality, Futaba had a heart for her family. Anxiety stirred in her heart based on her fear for her sister’s safety.
Immediately afterwards she moved across the mountain and the village at a speed unachievable by humans, arriving at the abandoned house deep in the mountain where Yatsuha was lurking.
Hastily running inside, she began to explain the situation.
“Yatsuha anee-sama!”
“Ara, Futaba you’re back. What’s wrong, why you so panic? And why don’t I see Momiji? No way…..”
With her eyelids closed, Yatsuha stood quietly in the interior of the abandoned house, sipping her tea.
While Onmyoji are eagerly searching for them, but Yatsuha is slowly enjoying the taste of tea in this place, but this is also a reflection of how powerful Yatsuha is.
Besides, in the first place this abandoned house was originally the place where the Yatsuha was sealed. She said it was fit with her taste, so she “borrowed” the house by brainwashing its owner, the onmyouji, into becoming her puppet.
By using the puppet as a companion to hide from other onmyouji, she is able to live her life in such a place so leisurely.
What is even more amazing is that she has been controlling a powerful onmyouji for so long and yet she does not see any loss of power.
If this was the magical power of Futaba, it would have run out of power immediately.
“Nee-sama, this is problem. I found Momiji, but she was imprisoned by a powerful human whose strength far exceeded mine, so I couldn’t bring her back …… and she evolved into a second tail without mother’s permission. Probably forced to participate in some sort of experiment, I think.”
“……”
After hearing Futaba:s report, Yatsuha’s youkai aura was slightly disturbed – at that moment the surrounding forest suddenly became noisy, and a flock of birds flew away in panic. It was just a little bit of youkai power leaking out, but the pressure emitted by the youkai power caused Futaba, who was a fellow clan member, to tense up and take a breath backwards.
“Are you saying that Momiji has fallen into the hands of humans?”
“I’m afraid so, I’m afraid so.”
“Tch …… never thought that coward would ……”
A tear flows from the closed eyelids of Yatshuha and drips from the cheeks.
Just like Futaba, she was equally worried about her family as the person in charge and as the eldest sister among her siblings.
In Yatsuha’s mind, this sister of hers, though she feared the power of her sisters, she will cheer up and collect tributes for them to eat. Obviously she doesn’t have much fighting ability, but she would hide and gather information for them. She would get carried away at the slightest compliment, but that in turn seemed cute.
Yatsuha recalled all about Momiji in a flash.
Then the eyes that had been tightly closed slowly opened, as if they were burning lava, and snapped out.
“I will report to Mother-sama about that human. Thank you for your hard work, Futaba.”
“But, Momiji she ……”
“I’ll handle Momiji myself, I’ll definitely do something. It might be a little harsh, but it’s also for her good.”
Futaba took another breath backwards as she heard her sister’s words.
If it had been herself or one of the other sisters, she would have been able to understand, but to think that the always calm Yatsuha would say such things meant that she was extremely angry.
After witnessing the demonic power capable of burning out her soul being released from Yatsuha’s crimson eyes, Futaba moved out of the way without a word.
As for how much damage the human world had suffered as a result of the misunderstanding between these two, again, that was a matter for the future.
And this is the story that Saito encountered only after he returned to reality.