The Weight of Six Tails
The Jirisan National Park Yokai Extermination Office was in utter chaos, even though the blue fox yokai incident had more or less been resolved. It wasn't because the staff had started fangirling over the white fox. That had already become so routine it was embarrassing to even call it chaos. It wasn't the aftermath of the incident causing the mess, either. So why?
The reason was the sudden appearance of a black-haired woman.
"White fox here, white fox there… Wow, these people are really something, Director."
"Yes, well…"
"Do you fangirl over Miho too, Director?"
"I-I don't! And calling a yokai by name goes against the civil servant manual—it's unethical…"
"I'm not a civil servant, though? I mean, I am technically affiliated with the country, but… anyway, I'm not a civil servant. I can operate pretty freely. That's why I can just plop down here and stay, right?"
"…"
Well, that was certainly news he didn't want to hear.
"Besides, I heard you don't like the civil servant manual either, Director. The staff's been gossiping about it."
Haah. The director let out a sigh as he looked at the black-haired force master, Lee Ha-neul, who had suddenly become his colleague. The reason Lee Ha-neul had decided to stay at Jirisan National Park was, without a doubt, because of the fox yokai named Miho. Just like his own subordinates, she seemed to have been deeply moved by that white fox. She'd stuck around at the Jirisan National Park Yokai Extermination Office under the pretext of a dispatch, thinking, "If I stay in Jirisan, I might get to see her face at least once." And it was an indefinite dispatch, at that.
When asked when she planned to leave, she'd said she had no intention of going back until she met the white fox again.
This was troublesome. Of course, a force master was an asymmetric force, and from the perspective of the Yokai Extermination Office managing Jirisan's yokai, Lee Ha-neul was a valuable talent they would welcome with open arms. However, her obsession with the white fox was abnormal even compared to his subordinates, which left Lee Han-ul feeling exhausted.
At this point, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of conversation the two of them had shared alone.
"By the way, Director, you know our names are similar, right?"
"Yes, well… Lee Han-ul, Lee Ha-neul. Indeed. Quite the coincidence."
"A coincidence, yes. But Director, is it also a coincidence that two fox yokai appeared at the same time?"
"That's…"
"The fox yokai spotted two years ago… was identified as Miho, not the blue fox, right? But we missed her cleanly."
"…"
"When will she appear again? Will it take another two years? Were there any signs? The fact that two of those rare fox yokai appeared at once—was it just as much of a coincidence as our similar names?"
"I… don't know. We're still researching it."
"I'll help too, so let me know if you need anything."
"…Understood."
Lee Ha-neul's point was something the director himself needed to resolve as soon as possible. The mere appearance of a fox yokai after 500 years was enough to make one faint in shock, but two had shown up simultaneously. The timing was far too perfect to be mere coincidence. Lee Han-ul believed there had to be some causal connection.
Though her terrifyingly intense obsession with the white fox yokai Miho was exhausting, the Jirisan National Park Yokai Extermination Office had gained a significant boost in strength thanks to her. Lee Han-ul extended his hand to Lee Ha-neul and said,
"Anyway, I look forward to working with you, Ha-neul."
"Likewise, Director. Oh, and don't forget—if Miho is spotted, you have to tell me first, okay?"
"I was planning on it anyway. That fox yokai called Miho is estimated to be at least a Rank 3 Yokai, so we don't have the means to—"
"Rank 3 Yokai? What are you talking about, Director? You're wrong."
"…?"
Lee Han-ul couldn't help but be shocked by what Lee Ha-neul said next.
"Miho is at minimum a Rank 2 Yokai."
"…What?"
Regardless of the director's confusion, Lee Ha-neul continued her explanation.
"First of all, that blue fox yokai was a Rank 2 Yokai. Estimated to be Rank 3? No, absolutely not. I've taken down a Rank 3 Yokai with my master before, and that blue fox… yeah, it definitely wasn't Rank 3. But Miho took it down easily."
"Ah…"
"It's a good thing she doesn't antagonize humans. If Miho had been a crazy yokai like that blue fox, we'd already be in the afterlife interviewing with King Yama."
"…"
"Anyway, I'm going to go train, so radio me if anything comes up. Oh, and by the way, where in Jirisan has the most concentrated spiritual energy…"
Lee Ha-neul's bombshell statement completely shattered the mental state of the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office director. He thought that they seemed to be involved in an incident far more serious than he had imagined.
"Miho, this feels awkward."
"…I feel awkward too."
"Awkward, awkward, awkward, awkward!"
"…"
"Turn back into the cute three-tailed Miho! You're gross, way too mature! Your chest is unnecessarily big too! Your yokai energy is so thick I can't even get close! Give me back three-tailed Miho!"
"Oh, shut up! It's not like I want to stay like this!"
After absorbing the yokai energy of the blue fox, for some reason, I could no longer return to my three-tailed state. Well, to be more precise, it wasn't completely impossible to revert, but my body trembled as if it were about to break apart. My body simply couldn't handle it. The yokai energy I'd absorbed from the blue fox was far too much for a three-tailed state to contain.
It had already been a week since I'd maintained my six-tailed state, yet I still hadn't adapted to my own body. I couldn't get used to my raised eye level, my heavier chest, or my six tails. That said, it wasn't all bad. With my yokai energy overflowing, I could freely use fox magic, which had definitely improved my quality of life.
As for when I used fox magic—
"Come back! You're gross! Not cute at all! Scary! Give me back three-tailed Miho!"
For example, right now.
"Squeeeak! What the— Miho! Let go, it's hot! I said it's hot!"
I could use it to torment a noisy little rat like this. Using foxfire, I grabbed Depo's tail and started swinging him around.
"Squeeeak, squeak, squeeeak!"
So you're finally lowering your tail. Yeah, yeah, a squirrel should squeak like a squirrel.
"Squeeeak, aigoo, I'm dying, I'm dying! I'm burning up, it's hot, it's hot!"
…By the way, why had this guy been exaggerating so much since earlier? I found it so ridiculous that I spoke to Depo.
"Hot? What's hot? It's not hot at all."
"Ah, hot, hot, hot…. Huh. You're right? That's weird! It's fire, so why isn't it hot? Isn't fire supposed to be hot?"
"How would I know? I'm just a two-year-old baby fox yokai."
"Oh yeah! Then you shouldn't be treating me like this, Miho! How dare you be rude to your elder!"
"If you're an elder, then act like one and show some maturity."
As I tormented the cute squirrel yokai Depo to pass the time, I fell into thought. The last words the blue fox had left me with were still bothering me.
[You… in this lady's eyes, it doesn't seem like you are fated to become an evil fox.]
[A benevolent fox… no, a heavenly fox. You are destined to become a heavenly fox.]
[Find the purpose of your life.]
The purpose of my life. Indeed, I currently had nothing I could call a purpose in life. Thanks to the yokai energy the blue fox had left behind, I no longer had to worry about dying from a lack of energy, so that urgent problem was solved. But thinking about it, ironically, I still didn't even know who I was.
I had enough sense to know that a fox yokai with multiple tails wasn't a common existence. But that was all. The vessel of Dalki? I didn't know what that was. Benevolent fox? Heavenly fox? Evil fox? I didn't understand what any of that nonsense meant. I also didn't know why the blue fox had called me "my lord."
In this state of knowing nothing, was it really the right move to hole up in the hidden world of Jirisan, chatting with Depo and wasting time?
Yeah. I think I'd roughly figured out what I needed to do. Setting a goal in life aside, I needed to figure out who I was first. In the past, I hadn't had the strength, and because I'd thought I was going to die soon, I'd had no will to live, so I hadn't been curious about my identity. But the situation had changed a little now. I had at least some will to live, and I had gained overwhelming power that meant I no longer had to fear going outside the hidden world.
"Put me down, put me down, put me down, put me doooown!"
"Depo."
"What, what do you want, you rotten fox yokai! Give me back three-tailed Miho! Give her back, give her back!"
"Hey, by any chance…"
After hesitating for a moment, I asked Depo,
"Have you ever heard of a book called the Taeja Shingi?"