The Five-Legged Monster: Legend of Jomagu (3)
"What's the situation?"
"...Its body has grown even larger. Measuring it at this point is meaningless."
"Damn it, why is this taking so long...!"
Lee Han-ul, director of the Jirisan Yokai Hunter Office, was beginning to feel restless.
THUD.
BOOOOM.
Just how enormous had it become for the tremors to reach all the way here, thousands of meters away?
Kim Myung-ho, the office ace and notorious fox fanatic, spoke with a deeply worried expression.
"Director, shouldn't we go help Lady Miho..."
Of course.
What worried him wasn't the human Lee Ha-neul, but the fox yokai Miho.
The director gave Kim Myung-ho a disapproving look.
"Even if we dispatch combat personnel, you're staying behind."
"What? No, why!"
"Why? You're asking me why? Kim Myung-ho, is that the way to speak to your superior?"
"Ugh... I'm sorry. But still! I-I fight well, Director! You know that! When it comes to shooting, if anyone in this office claims second place, I'd feel bad for them. Excluding me from combat again this time just isn't right!"
"True. Your shooting skills are indeed phenomenal."
"S-see? Then this time..."
"But your waveform measurements are equally phenomenal."
"..."
"Kim Myung-ho, if not you, who else is going to measure the waveforms? Stay here and keep tracking them. That's an order."
"Yes..."
This fucking bald bastard. I want to stand shoulder to shoulder with Lady Miho and unload every round I've got.
Kim Myung-ho cursed his boss viciously in his mind.
But the director paid him no attention.
He scratched his ear, lost in thought.
The multi-tailed fox yokai known as Miho was estimated to be a great yokai of at least Level 2.
Lee Ha-neul's strength as a Force Arts user went without saying.
Though the pair weren't officially part of the Jirisan Yokai Hunter Office, it was no exaggeration to call their relationship a close collaboration.
That was why the director had trusted them with subjugating Jomagu.
But that had been a mistake.
The fact that they still hadn't taken down a mere Level 7 yokai like Jomagu proved something had gone wrong.
At the very least, he should have attached at least one combat agent from the office to their team.
The possible scenarios were too numerous to count.
One: Like the multi-tailed Miho, Jomagu's level had also surged dramatically.
Two: This yokai called Jomagu was a dangerous entity with low yokai energy but overwhelmingly powerful abilities.
Three: For some unknown reason, Lee Ha-neul and Miho couldn't use their full strength.
Or.
Miho had betrayed them.
No matter that she had saved their lives, she was a yokai, not human.
She could not be fully trusted. She should not be fully trusted.
"Uuuugh... Lady Miho has to be okay..."
...He could not allow himself to lose his heart to Miho like his idiot subordinate Kim Myung-ho.
As the commander of the Yokai Hunter Office, Lee Han-ul continued to suspect her.
Yet Miho's betrayal was the least plausible scenario of all.
Because if he were to summarize the yokai called Miho after observing her these past few days, it would be this:
An ordinary fox.
A pet kept by the Yokai Hunter Office.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Her intelligence was sharp enough to rival any human, but every single action she took was pure beast.
She would wag her tail excitedly when given food.
She would chew dog food with her ears perked up.
She would purr happily whenever Lee Ha-neul stroked her head.
She showed such complete defenselessness that even Director Lee Han-ul found it difficult to suspect her.
'I even stocked up on premium dog food, so please do something already!'
In his heart, Lee Han-ul had already begun treating Miho like a pet.
Crunch.
Crrruuunch.
Crack.
It wasn't the sound of me eating dog food.
It was the sound of Jomagu devouring trees.
Perhaps it had discovered the flavor of wood for the first time, because once its mouth got going, the creature began frantically consuming every tree around it.
There was nothing we could do to stop it.
My yokai energy was forcibly sealed, and Lee Ha-neul had been using her power for so long that she was on the verge of collapse.
Jomagu, swollen from eating the trees, had grown so massive we had to tilt our heads all the way back just to look up at it.
The one saving grace was that the creature, now embedded in a massive trunk, had lost interest in us and focused entirely on eating.
Burp. Hungry... Still... still so hungry...!
Huh?
Did that thing just burp...?
Lee Ha-neul snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Mi-Miho, don't you have any good ideas?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Then do something already! At this rate that lunatic is going to swallow every tree on Jirisan!"
"Request backup."
"...Huh?"
"Grenades, guns, rocket launchers, tanks. Anything with heavy firepower. We picked up a walkie-talkie earlier, so use it to call for support."
Physical force definitely worked. I'd learned that from Lee Ha-neul's heartbreaking sacrifice.
What we needed to defeat this yokai wasn't yokai energy or Force Arts, but raw destructive power.
Yet for some reason, instead of pulling out the walkie-talkie, Lee Ha-neul scratched her head awkwardly.
"Well... hehe... hehehe... it broke..."
"..."
"D-don't look at me like that! It broke when you told me to hit Jomagu with my Force!"
This was troublesome.
Having assessed the situation, we quickly formed a new plan.
The swift-footed Lee Ha-neul would run to the office and request reinforcements directly.
In the meantime, I would stop Jomagu from eating any more trees.
"Can you hold it back?"
"Yeah. Probably."
"Good. I'll be back soon, so just hang in there. Don't push yourself too hard!"
With those words, Lee Ha-neul vanished from sight.
Perfect.
The nuisance was gone.
I recalled what had happened moments ago.
It had burped.
If I hadn't imagined it, Jomagu had definitely burped after swallowing the tree.
Burping meant the wood that slid down its throat wasn't digesting properly.
The proof was how noticeably slower it had become at devouring the trees.
Snap.
Crackle.
Crrrrackle.
I focused power into my tails and gathered my yokai energy.
Only then did Jomagu, which had been obsessed with the tree, finally look down at me.
Food... It's food. Tree... not tasty.
Fox yokai... tried to eat... forced to eat tree instead.
Fox yokai... tasty.
Never tried it before.
But probably tasty.
Give me the tasty food.
...Look at this bastard.
I thought it had a bird brain, but it seems smarter than I gave it credit for.
So the reason it was munching on those tasteless trees was to build up its appetite for me, the real delicacy.
If it wanted to eat me that badly...
I would grant its wish.
Fox Fire - Fox Spirit
My six tails burst into blue flames.
Countless orbs of blue fox fire emerged from them one after another.
Soon they gathered behind me, forming a shape.
A shape that looked exactly like.
The blue fox yokai who had given me her yokai energy before disappearing forever.
It resembled the fox spirit of Wol-ya, the Moonlit Night.
The fox spirit formed of fox fire grew until it matched Jomagu in size.
Jomagu opened its mouth in clear panic.
That... can't eat that... that...
Not tasty...
"How can you say it's not tasty if you haven't even tried it?"
For Jomagu, who remained hungry no matter how much it ate, this was a special dish I had prepared myself.
So please, enjoy it.
...
...
...
...
...
...
Glurk... gluuuurk...
Jomagu swallowed the blue fox spirit whole, but it couldn't digest my yokai energy. It immediately began vomiting everything inside its stomach.
When it spat out the trees, the mass was as large as two elephants combined.
When it vomited the rotten corpses, it shrank to the size of a single elephant.
It seemed determined to expel everything it had ever eaten in its lifetime.
Next came what appeared to be human ribs.
Then it spat out ancient wooden clogs.
It even regurgitated an old-fashioned iron cauldron.
Judging by the antique objects coming from its belly, this yokai had lived for a very long time, much like Mangtae Grandfather.
My guess was that its unique trait, growing in body size rather than yokai energy no matter how much it ate, had allowed it to survive this long.
What it vomited next was a horn.
...A horn?
It didn't look like any cow horn I'd ever seen.
It carried an unmistakable sense of otherness, clearly not from an ordinary animal.
Perhaps the horn of another yokai it had devoured long ago.
Then, at the next object Jomagu spat out, I froze in shock.
It was a single page from an ancient book's cover.
Record of the Great One
I reached for it as if possessed.
It was an unbearable temptation, an irresistible impulse.
The moment my fingers touched the page, someone else's memories tore through my mind like a storm.