I Am Called Kongji (1)
Long ago, I had faced a certain yokai.
It was a fox yokai, the kind that devoured anything it could—whether it was snake or something even more elusive—but the atmosphere it gave off was nothing like that of an ordinary animal.
It brimmed with sly, malevolent energy and carried the faint stench of fresh blood.
Around it already lay the corpses of several animals, and it had just been about to swallow a snake whole.
I shot my arrow at the beast and swung my sword.
The reason was simple: I feared that if it entered the village, the danger would only grow worse.
I had chosen not to summon my father or any of the other adults.
If I let that dangerous-looking fox slip away now, I would never have another chance.
In the end, I managed to capture the fox yokai, and from that day on I trained as if it were something I would always have to face.
“Compared to that fox, the yokai who had taken the place of Patji… was far weaker.”
The yokai I had confronted back then had carried an even thicker aura of malice.
But the yokai of this village were not nearly as powerful.
If I had never come here or if I had simply failed to notice them sooner, they might have grown much stronger.
‘Therefore, I must finish this quickly.’
But defeating the yokai alone would not solve the problems of this village.
I had to wake every single villager who had been bewitched and bring them back to their senses so that everything could return to normal.
So what was the way to solve both problems at once?
It was simple.
I would have to deal with the yokai in front of the villagers themselves.
“…And a week later, a new magistrate would arrive, they had said.”
At first glance, that was exactly what the villagers were discussing.
In the original story, he would have helped Kongji solve her troubles.
But now Patji was a real yokai.
Instead, he would probably be swallowed without a fight.
‘At the feast when he arrives, Patji will likely try to torment Kongji first.’
That was only logical.
She would want to entice the new magistrate with her sweetness and charm.
So I had to act then.
‘…By the way, there was something strange.’
Why did Patji, or rather the yokai wearing her face, torment Kongji?
It did not seem like the best way to achieve some unknown goal.
And if tormenting her really was the goal, why did she never go any further?
If she really were a powerful yokai, it should have been child’s play to injure frail Kongji.
‘Is there something else at work?’
Why couldn’t the yokai touch Kongji directly?
Why did she torment her instead?
“…It doesn’t matter right now.”
Anyway, from my perspective, dealing with the yokai was all that mattered.
That was also what I had promised Kongji.
Thus a new morning dawned in the village.
***
I am called Kongji.
In this village, I had lived quietly with my father, happy and at peace.
My mother had passed away when I was young, and my father had raised me alone, but we had always supported each other and worked hard.
Then one day.
On the day I turned seventeen…
he appeared.
“Kongji, come and greet her. This is your new stepmother.”
“Hello, Kongji? Here is your new sister who will be… Patji, I think.”
My new stepmother had been overjoyed.
After all, even though my father had done his best, he had never stopped missing my mother.
Since he had brought her here himself, I wanted to live well with her from now on.
But my new sister… was strange.
“Hello, Kongji. I am your sister Patji. Please take good care of me?”
Somehow her body was much larger than mine, and she carried an unknown sweet, fishy scent.
I had simply thought it was just how an older sister should smell.
In the end, I had felt uneasy, but my wish to get along with the new family had been stronger.
…And time passed.
One day, my father began to grow sick and eventually passed away.
After that, my new stepmother changed.
Together with Patji, she started tormenting me.
Beating me with a switch or making me do hard work was something I could endure.
But I broke down the day I saw my new stepmother holding a switch in her hand and speaking to me.
Her eyes were empty.
Her tone was stiff, as if she had been charmed by something.
Clearly, before my father was alive, she had been a very kind woman.
She was blunt and not very good at expressing emotions, but she had always taken care of me.
But… now my new stepmother was like a doll.
So who was making my new stepmother move like a puppet?
I had felt a chill run down my spine.
At one moment, Patji had been staring at me from the corner.
I had instinctively pretended to sob as if I were being tormented, and the fierce gaze of my sister vanished…
…And then I realized.
Patji was actually a yokai.
I had wanted to ask for help from the villagers, but it was already too late.
Many people had already been bewitched by the yokai and begun to join in tormenting me, and even the magistrate had started ignoring me.
Only I had noticed Patji’s true identity, and the outsiders who occasionally entered the village had begun to disappear one after another…
I could do nothing.
No matter whether it was the outsiders coming to the village, the villagers themselves, or my new stepmother.
Everyone was being deceived, yet I could not do anything at all.
It had been so unbearably frustrating that the last time I had cried, thinking of my parents who had passed away in the gravel field.
…Then another person had entered the village.
“Excuse me.”
I had almost fallen on my backside in shock—I still felt ashamed.
The seonbi wearing a black lacquer hat and a white dopo coat had apologized, reaching out a hand in embarrassment.
Most outsiders who came to the village had been poisoned by the yokai’s aura and had started ignoring me.
That was probably why the hand the seonbi had extended had felt so warm and large, just like my father’s.
Later the seonbi had asked me why I was weeding the gravel field with a wooden hoe.
I knew it was impossible, but it was one of the few moments I could escape from the yokai, so I had cherished it.
And the kind seonbi had warned me that this place was dangerous because a wild boar might come down.
I already knew the boar had disappeared from this mountain.
But because I had been crying, the seonbi had joked.
“If your strength is higher than mine, it does not matter. But even a strong archer turns back from dung.”
The image of a proud archer fleeing from dung made me smile without realizing it.
“You look very pleased.”
“Hm?”
“The smile. It looks better than crying.”
“Ah…”
The sudden words left me unable to look at the seonbi’s face.
My cheeks were burning so hot—I had never known.
Later the seonbi had wanted to enter the village.
I had hoped he would not come, but I had no reason to stop him.
So I thought that if I stayed with him, at least it would be better.
If I could see the yokai approaching from afar, I could help him avoid it.
But for some reason the yokai wearing the face of Patji had been waiting at the village entrance, staring at the seonbi with strange eyes.
And she had watched him lick his lips.
The yokai was hunting the seonbi.
More intently than any outsider she had hunted before.
So when the sister took the seonbi in as a guest at her house… I had secretly gone to him and warned him.
“You must not stay here.”
“May I ask why? The daughter of the house’s master would not suddenly chase away a guest who has been given permission to stay.”
She was right.
Would the seonbi understand if I told him Patji was a yokai who was hunting him?
If I simply revealed that I had noticed she was a yokai, it would only make things worse.
I had been afraid, and just as I was about to run away, I realized the yokai was looking my way and fled without explanation.
I should have said something.
Instead, I had tried to find a way to save the seonbi.
But I had been the one helped.
“Lady Kongji, come from the end of the field. Ready? Begin! By the way, the one who weeds the slowest receives the reward.”
Using the bet as an excuse, he had helped me weed the gravel field and given me rice cakes as a reward.
The kindness had reached me so deeply that I wanted to stop the seonbi from getting angry.
But the next day, through my new stepmother, the yokai had lured the seonbi into the mountain… and I had tried desperately to stop him by giving him the armlet I had woven from beans all night long.
I had only wanted him to protect the seonbi.
But the yokai had stopped him, and in the end the seonbi had gone into the mountain.
Despairing that I had failed, I was about to return home when the seonbi came back from the mountain.
He looked calmer than ever, his eyes soft and steady as he spoke.
“I understand what you want to tell me.”
Hearing that, I almost told him about my sister’s true identity, but the seonbi’s large, strong hand had covered my mouth.
He had shaken his head slowly, and the next day he had summoned me to the valley.
Only then had I understood.
—You wanted to tell me Patji is a yokai?
‘Ah.’
The seonbi had really understood.
I had nodded vigorously.
Knowing a secret together was more thrilling than I had imagined.
…Perhaps it was because he was the seonbi.
I had thought of escaping the village with him and asking for help in another village.
But the seonbi had insisted on defeating the yokai himself.
He said he had a way I did not know.
I had tried to stop him, but his eyes had left my mouth speechless.
“Trust me. And for one week. Wait exactly one week. Then I will defeat the yokai and bring peace to you and the village.”
Why?
My heart had calmed after hearing his words, but my chest had still been pounding.
And from the next day, the seonbi had begun preparing something.