You've Been Kidnapped (2)
Ugh… Where the hell am I…? An unfamiliar landscape. An unfamiliar energy. And a man and woman who weren’t exactly strangers…? It seemed Hoya, who had been forcibly dragged here by the Heavenly Demon, still hadn’t fully grasped the current situation.
Uh…? Her appearance created a total gap from her first impression. Still, this look wasn’t bad at all. No—in fact, it suited her perfectly. Her base form already had that adorable quality, and it showed. The way her ears perked up, the fluffy tails that practically begged to be touched. As expected of a nine-tailed fox! She could charm people so effortlessly.
“Disciple,” Cheonma said. “Your expression is getting far too loose.”
“Sorry. I couldn’t help myself when I saw something cute.”
Smack.
“Ow!”
“Don’t walk around with that stupid grin on your face. You’ll look ridiculous.”
“I absolutely won’t.”
I rubbed my forehead and approached Hoya, who was still frozen in shock. She flinched.
“Are you… okay?”
“You’re… the person who came to the Ghost Lair that time.”
She seemed to remember me. Then she turned away from me to look at Cheonma. Her pupils trembled violently, like a frightened child.
“How are you in a place like this…? No, I suppose I’m the one who was brought here. Where exactly are we?”
Unlike her initial panic, Hoya calmly assessed the situation. The earlier flustered act vanished in an instant, replaced by her usual composure. Yeah, this was the Hoya I knew. Her previous demeanor had been refreshingly different, but the familiar version was much more pleasant to watch.
“This place is…”
“Disciple. I will explain.”
I had been about to explain since I knew this space better than anyone, but Cheonma cut me off and stepped forward to take over.
She trembled. And trembled again.
“What the hell is this all of a sudden?”
“Didn’t I tell you before? That I would come for you.”
“You did not! I have zero memory of hearing anything like that?!”
At Hoya’s outburst, Cheonma simply nodded.
“Now you know, so that’s enough.”
“Y-you crazy…!”
Hoya getting this angry is a first. The Hoya I knew was always a calm, calculating strategist.
Hoya instantly burned away the ropes binding her body and escaped. Her pupils had turned into the long vertical slits typical of beasts as she spoke.
“Explain yourself. Why did you kidnap me?”
“You left a mark on my disciple. That’s why I called you.”
“I definitely destroyed that…”
“Even so, the trace didn’t completely disappear. What do you think allowed me to find you and bring you here so easily?”
“The distance was too great for proper retrieval, I suppose.”
With a light wave of her hand toward me, the faint mark on the back of my hand glowed briefly before vanishing completely.
“There. It’s completely destroyed now. No trace left, so I’ll be on my way.”
“Safe travels.”
The Hoya who had just declared she was leaving suddenly stopped. She turned back to us.
“…How exactly do I get out of here?”
“Ah, that’s…”
“You’re asking for far too much.”
“Ugh! At least tell me how to get back!”
“If you help my disciple with his training, I’ll gladly send you back.”
Cheonma was using this opportunity to turn Hoya into my training assistant. What terrifying opportunism. I couldn’t help but admire how she seized every chance and shaped it to her will. Past me, who had once tried to tell her how to leave this place, should seriously reflect on that mistake.
“What about you?”
“I don’t know the exact method either.”
There was no way I would pass up the chance to have Hoya help with my training. I shook my head immediately. Since she couldn’t read my thoughts anymore, my lies might get exposed… so I needed to keep my words to a minimum.
“Haa… No other options, then. In that case, I have no choice but to help with the training.”
Hoya let out a deep sigh as the realization sank in, then asked,
“So what exactly am I supposed to help with? Oh, does that guy use talismans or something?”
“No.”
“Aha, then sorcery? I’m quite the skilled fox when it comes to that. After all, I am the one who—”
“That’s not it either.”
“…Then why did you even call me?”
She was clearly a little angry. She tried not to show it, but since I knew her character settings, I could tell she was irritated by Cheonma’s responses. Honestly, if someone kept saying “no” to me like that, I’d probably get mad too. Though if the other party was Cheonma, I might not be able to express that anger—like the Hoya right in front of me.
“Teach him how to handle Ghostly Qi.”
So that’s why she brought Hoya here. Only now did I fully understand Cheonma’s intentions. It must have been because of the technique I used at the end during the fight against the lake servant.
“…Do you understand what that means?”
Teaching a human how to wield Ghostly Qi essentially meant forming a contract. After all, humans couldn’t handle Ghostly Qi without contracting with a yokai. There was no way Cheonma didn’t know that. But I was the exception. Since I already possessed Ghostly Qi, I didn’t need a contract. Both women knew this fact.
“Just to be sure, you’re not telling me to form a contract, right?”
“Of course not. You know about my disciple’s special nature.”
“There’s no way I wouldn’t know. That’s exactly why I left my mark in the first place. So everything started because he could handle Ghostly Qi?”
“Haha.”
“Don’t laugh.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you scaring my disciple?”
“Ouch!”
After that brief commotion, we moved on to the training for handling Ghostly Qi.
“First, try drawing out your Ghostly Qi.”
“Yes!”
How do you draw out Ghostly Qi? Simple. Just use a skill that consumes it.
“Hoo…”
The only Ghostly Qi skill I currently possessed was Formless Slash. As I prepared to use it, familiar purple Ghostly Qi began wrapping around my sword.
“Oh? Looking closely, it seems to be the same power as that old man’s.”
“Right? You think so too?”
While I activated Formless Slash, Hoya and Cheonma chatted as if the sight was familiar to them. They were probably talking about the original owner of the skill I was using—the Ghost King. The only real question was how Cheonma knew about the Ghost King’s existence.
“Stop right there!”
Just before Formless Slash could explode into the empty air, Hoya’s shout made me forcibly halt my swinging arm. The Ghostly Qi, stopped midway and prevented from flying toward its target, swelled up as if furious. Hoya looked at the agitated energy and spoke to me.
“Try controlling the Ghostly Qi in that state.”
“Do I really have to maintain this posture?”
“Ghostly Qi is different from ordinary mana. And if my guess is correct…”
Hoya closed her mouth at that point. She wanted me to focus on controlling the energy. Even if this training had been forced on her through someone else’s scheme, Hoya wasn’t the type to half-ass anything. She approached the lesson with genuine seriousness.
“Mmm… My prediction was correct after all.”
After a while of training to control the Ghostly Qi, we took a short break. Hoya looked at me with a serious expression and shook her head.
“In this state, you’ll never be able to handle Ghostly Qi properly.”
“Why not?”
“Because the Ghostly Qi your disciple uses doesn’t recognize him as its master at all.”
“What do you mean?”
Hoya released Ghostly Qi into her palm as she explained.
“Ghostly Qi is different from mana. It recognizes its owner and moves according to their will. It’s easier to think of Ghostly Qi itself as having its own personality.”
“And how does that relate to Zeon being unable to use it?”
“Didn’t I just say? The Ghostly Qi doesn’t recognize him as its master at all. At first I thought he was simply containing and using the Ghostly Qi, but that wasn’t the case.”
Hoya, with a different kind of energy—beautiful silver—wrapped around her hand, swished her tail as she continued.
“This man converts mana into Ghostly Qi to use it. I’m curious how he converts mana into Ghostly Qi so perfectly, but the problem is that the conversion is too complete.”
“Then isn’t that a good thing?”
“Like I said, it’s easier to think of Ghostly Qi as having its own personality. This man converted it so perfectly that he even brought over the personality of the Ghostly Qi itself. From the Ghostly Qi’s perspective, some strange person is trying to control it, so of course it resists.”
“But the technique works fine, doesn’t it?”
“That’s because the technique belongs to the old man… in other words, the original owner of the Ghostly Qi. So it unconsciously allows it. You can imitate the technique, but moving it according to your own will is impossible. That is my conclusion.”
So the problem was that the imitation was too perfect…
“Then is there no solution to this problem?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say there isn’t one.”
“What is it?”
“Mmm… That would be…”
She hesitated. What was this? She had been speaking smoothly, so why the sudden pause? As I waited for her answer, Hoya’s hesitant response finally came.
“…Forming a contract with me. That way, you can use my Ghostly Qi.”