Hoya's Return - Ta-da! I'm Back!
It was the evening of the day after Cheonma had uncovered the truth. Hoya, who had taken a leave of absence under the flimsy excuse of needing rest and recuperation, had finally returned.
“Ta-da~ I’m back!”
“Huh? Why’s the atmosphere so weird? Oh, so you’ve returned. Do you even realize what’s waiting for you here!”
“Hehehehe……”
Hoya must have sensed that something was off, because her expression began to shift. The frigid air and the sight of Cheonma sitting in her chair with her back turned, quietly laughing to herself, created the distinct impression of a horror movie scene.
Spotting Cheonma, Hoya leaned in and whispered to me.
“Why is that woman acting like this?”
“Go apologize to her right now.”
“Pardon?”
“If you want to live, do exactly as I say.”
I had spoken up for her sake, but unfortunately Hoya ignored my desperate warning.
“Master is going to—”
Smack.
“Urk!”
“H-huh?”
“Watch your tongue.”
As payment for addressing Hoya, I took a direct hit to the forehead from an invisible strike Cheonma had launched. The sharp sting bloomed across my skin. Normally I would have jumped right up, but the terror of what was about to unfold kept me lying there with my eyes squeezed shut.
“D-did he die?!”
“Fox.”
“W-what’s with the heavy mood all of a sudden?”
At Cheonma’s calm words, Hoya finally realized the atmosphere was anything but normal. Her trembling voice was met with Cheonma’s still ice-cold tone pressing down on her.
“Confess the truth while you still can.”
“Y-yes? The truth? What are you even talking about?”
“…Now that I think about it, it feels wrong to demand a confession from someone who won’t even show her face.”
Crackle. Ting.
“Hmm.”
Purple lightning surged forth to bind the space, but it rebounded as if striking an invisible wall and fizzled out in an instant. Cheonma frowned, clearly displeased, but quickly smoothed her expression back into perfect blankness and turned her gaze toward me.
“Disciple.”
“Come here.”
“Yes, Master!”
I had been pretending to be unconscious, but the moment Cheonma called I shot upright and sprinted to her side at light speed. Pure instinct told me not to test her patience, so my movements were even sharper than usual.
“Show me the hand that still carries the trace.”
Without hesitation I extended my hand. The trace she spoke of was obviously the back of my hand where Hoya’s energy still lingered.
Her fingers brushed lightly across my skin. I felt the faint tickle of her touch and, flowing beneath it, the familiar surge of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Rumble.
Crackle.
The thundercloud-wrapped energy moved. Using the remnant of Hoya’s power on my hand as coordinates, it twisted through the air like coiling ropes, rapidly forming a single passage. The far side remained closed, so for now it looked like nothing more than a simple circle drawn in space.
Cheonma reached out, grabbed the circle as if seizing empty air, and pulled.
Riiip.
Reality tore along her fingers. The hidden space beyond gradually came into view.
“H-huh?”
Hoya’s flustered voice echoed from two directions at once—one ringing inside my head as usual, the other coming from beyond the forcibly opened passage.
Crackle. Snap. Crackle.
“Tsk. So you’re not as relaxed as you pretended.”
Cheonma muttered a complaint, stood up, and stepped through the portal she had created.
Crackle.
“What the—! Why are you coming out from there?!”
“Be quiet. Hurry up and come out.”
“Why would I do something that danger—wait, could you please let go of my tail first?! No, stop for a second—”
Crackle.
“Kyaa?!”
“Such dramatics.”
“It’s not drama! My tails are reacting to the electric current—!”
Cheonma emerged from the passage once more. In her grip was a very familiar bundle of fluffy tails.
“Hup.”
“I’ll come out myself! So let go already! My tails have been tingling strangely since earlier—if you’re not careful you’ll actually rip them off!”
Hoya’s tails were slowly dragged into view. With every additional inch that appeared, her screams grew louder. Yet the delicate Cheonma, whose feelings had been wounded by the lie, simply ignored the shrieks and kept pulling with steady, merciless strength.
“T-tail!! It’s going to fall off! It’s really going to fall ooooff!”
“It’s not coming out easily. Disciple. Help me.”
“…Yes.”
“Ughhhk! Don’t help, stop it! I’m coming out! It’s seriously going to rip off!!”
Following Cheonma’s order I grabbed Hoya’s tails as well. One might wonder how I could touch a spirit, but with Cheonma beside me the word impossible simply didn’t exist. At her light gesture I too became able to make contact.
I doubted my addition would change much, but unexpectedly the speed at which Hoya was pulled through increased. All nine tails were now free, and her hips were beginning to emerge.
“You too. Put some strength into those hips and come out backward.”
“To make me do something so humiliating! I’ll come out on my own, so take your hands off!”
Cheonma, of course, refused to release her grip. And having received her command, neither did I.
Crackle!
Pop.
After what felt like an eternity, Hoya finally tumbled completely out of the passage. In the process quite a few strands of her silver fur had been… acquired by our hands, but we quickly shook them off and disposed of the evidence before she could notice.
“Y-you barbaric human. I never imagined you’d literally tear dimensions apart in the real world.”
“You still seem lively enough.”
“I thought my tails were going to be plucked clean off because of you!”
“All of this is something you brought upon yourself.”
“No, what exactly did I even do wrong?!”
Hoya shouted as though she were dying of injustice. I quietly retreated and watched the two of them in the role of silent bystander.
“I recently heard a rather interesting story. Apparently yokai recover from most wounds in a single day?”
“Y-yes? Where did you even hear that…”
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you dared to lie to my face and then ran away.”
At the clear anger in Cheonma’s voice, Hoya broke into a cold sweat and trembled. She looked exactly like a fox standing before a tiger—one that ruled an entire mountain, at that.
“Why did you lie? If you had simply told the truth, I would have accepted it without issue.”
“…How was I supposed to believe that? I was dragged here by force too, you know.”
Hoya let out a disbelieving chuckle. From behind them I nodded quietly, feeling deep sympathy for her words. After all, she really had been forcibly dragged here by Cheonma. Of course, Cheonma had only lost her temper because of the mark Hoya left on me, and since Hoya hadn’t actually intended to harm me…
“Sigh… Still, my lie is the root of the problem, so I’ll apologize first. I’m truly sorry.”
“You admit your fault faster than expected.”
“Knowing your strength, only an idiot would keep defying you.”
Hoya shrugged, proudly declaring herself a very wise yokai.
“Since I’ve come out into the present world like this, I won’t be able to return as I please anymore.”
“If you wish, I can tear open the dimension again.”
“The crossing process itself is the problem, so no thank you. Besides, I already prepared countermeasures for while I was gone. Since things have turned out this way, shall we just relax and enjoy ourselves?”
“You’re incredibly positive about all this.”
“That’s one of my strong points, you know?”
Hoya winked at me with one eye.
“By the way, there weren’t any problems while I was away, right?”
“Problems, well… um……”
“If there were, there were. If not, there weren’t.”
“…Just what exactly happened in that short time I was gone?”
We told her the whole story about Karne and the thought-form of the first Arbaana family head. The revelation that it was the original matriarch’s thought-form sparked deep interest in Hoya’s eyes.
“Even if it’s only a thought-form, for that old hag to personally conceal her power…”
“You speak as if you know her.”
“Well, yes. We had a bit of a connection during my lifetime.”
Hoya gently stroked one of her tails as she spoke.
A grudge, huh. The intriguing topic pulled me forward and I asked,
“Could you tell me what happened?”
“I massacred that old hag’s entire family.”
……What?
“What do you mean……”
“Such a wicked fox……”
Both Cheonma and I narrowed our eyes at her. Cheonma’s gaze carried open contempt, so heavy that even I felt myself shrinking beside her.
“A-ah, no! Listen to my side first! That old hag’s family members were literal trash, lower than human! The conflict started because she stole the person I was going to kill and we fought over it!”
“It’s a little questionable, but if that’s the reason then I guess it’s fine.”
“So? Did you win?”
Master, is that really what’s important right now?
Even after hearing the explanation, the fact that Cheonma immediately asked about victory or defeat was just… so very like her. She truly never changed.
Hoya, recalling the past, smacked her lips with clear regret and shook her head.
“I got completely crushed, obviously. Back then I only had three tails and was still an immature little thing who couldn’t handle her power properly.”
“And if you fought her now?”
“Hmm… I still might lose? That old hag was a real monster, you know.”