The Tiger Legend of Busan's Jangsan (2)

The director didn't grant my request. It wasn't that he'd betrayed me, nor was he some petty man whose stinginess matched the thinness of his hair. The real issue was the major obstacle standing in the way of traveling all the way to Busan.

First, my appearance. I could assume human form using Fox Transformation, but there was no hiding these glaring fox tails and ears. Humans obviously weren't a species that walked around with such features. It was the kind of look that would draw attention no matter where I went, so I couldn't exactly blame the director for turning me down. Still...

Couldn't I just say it was cosplay? I wasn't familiar with this world's culture, but back in the Korea I'd lived in, the subculture scene had been flooded with multi-tailed gumiho characters. There had even been one sitting on Seventh Rank Kim Myung-ho's desk, so this world probably wasn't all that different.

Appearance aside, the real problem was my yogi.

"Is it that serious?"

I'd done my best to suppress my yogi, yet the alarm had still gone off. This was... going to be more than a little inconvenient.

"Yes, that serious. If you cannot suppress it... you will be unable to leave the Jirisan area. I am truly sorry about this."

"...I understand."

I did. From the director's perspective, simply accepting a yokai like me had already been an enormous risk. Sending someone who couldn't even manage her own yogi outside Jirisan would be tantamount to suicide and a clear dereliction of duty.

The conclusion was simple. I had to learn to control my yogi somehow.

Ever since I'd possessed this fox yokai, I'd never once trained properly. The reason was simple: I'd never felt the need to.

For the past two years I'd spent most of my time sleeping, so training had never crossed my mind. After absorbing the yogi from that blue fox, the sheer volume of power I possessed had made me confident I could handle most threats without any special effort.

But the situation had changed. If I wanted to leave the Jirisan area quickly, I needed to control my yogi no matter what. There was no time to waste. Who knew when that Jangsan tiger might be discovered by humans and exterminated?

With that in mind, I returned to the Hidden World and went around asking every yokai I knew about ways to suppress yogi. Their answer was always the same.

'Why would you need to suppress your yogi?'

It was something I had overlooked. Their mindset was fundamentally different from mine. The yokai who lived in the Hidden World had no reason to venture outside and risk exposure, so they had never needed to learn how to hide their power. Since the need had never existed, they didn't know the method.

Since I wasn't going to get any help from the Hidden World, I eventually turned to the humans. I was certain that suppressing yogi was possible. After all, that tiger terrorizing Jangsan had clearly managed it.

The training method went something like this: while I practiced suppressing my yogi, Seventh Rank Kim Myung-ho would monitor my energy levels in real time. That live data would then be relayed to me through—

"I didn't think I'd get to see Miho again so soon!"

—Lee Ha-neul, who was currently shouting into a radio.

She was the only human capable of withstanding my yogi, which was why she'd been chosen for the job. I did my best to ignore her loud chattering and focused on suppressing my energy.

It turned out to be far harder than it sounded. At one point I accidentally released every bit of yogi in my body at once, nearly overwhelming Lee Ha-neul until she almost fainted. Another time I accidentally shifted into my three-tailed form, causing her eyes to roll back as she charged over and started furiously petting my head.

Three hours after starting the training, I was beginning to feel exhausted.

...It really seemed hopeless. Maybe I should just give up, stay holed up in Jirisan, and wait indefinitely until some yokai worthy of ascension finally appeared.

Lee Ha-neul must have noticed my deflated state. She stealthily reached out to stroke my head and tails, then spoke in a gentle voice.

"Miho... I'm not sure if this will help, but I'll tell you how I trained my Force Arts."

Grasping at straws, I listened carefully.

"Force is a part of my body."

"...Come again?"

It sounded like nonsense, so I asked her to repeat herself.

"Fundamentally it's probably incorrect, but that's how I think of it. Handling your own body is as natural as breathing, so when I use Force Arts I give myself the suggestion that 'this is simply moving my own body.' In the same way, if you think of your yogi as part of your body and handle it that way... the results might be different."

Think of it as part of my body.

Her words sparked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠something in me. I relaxed every muscle, closed my eyes, and began the self-suggestion.

Yogi is like a part of my body. As natural as breathing. Release it. Absorb it again.

Exhale. Inhale. Release. Absorb.

Exhale. Inhale. Release. Absorb.

"It worked!"

"It... really did."

Why did that work? As expected, training was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a magnificent thing, and effort had not betrayed me.

After realizing how to control my yogi, I immediately began preparing to head for Busan.

"Are you sure you'll be all right on your own? Do you know how to ride the train and everything..."

"I'll be fine. I've got it all memorized."

The number of days I'd lived as a human far exceeded those I'd lived as a yokai. If there was one thing I was confident about, it was pretending to be human.

I thanked the director. Whether he realized it or not, sending me outside Jirisan had been close to a gamble for him. If anything went wrong, he could easily end up labeled as 'a traitor to humanity who formed an alliance with a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠yokai.' It was that dangerous a decision.

Of course, the head of the Yokai Extermination Office wasn't the type to make choices based purely on sentiment. He hadn't done this simply because he trusted me. He too had sensed that the recent string of events carried an ominous weight and desperately needed more information.

Besides, our alliance with the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office had always been unofficial. If things went south, the director would cut ties without hesitation and pretend he'd never known me.

I understood. If our positions were reversed, I would have done the same.

Still, for his sake as well as my own, I resolved to act with extreme caution.

Naturally, I would go to Busan alone. Taking the famous Lee Ha-neul with me would be the same as putting up billboards that read 'Cute fox yokai strolling through the city~' all over town.

Lee Han-ul handed me a card I could use freely along with a smartphone. It was probably so they could track my location in real time, but I accepted it with genuine gratitude.

As I descended the mountain, I immediately searched for 'Jangsan Tiger Yokai Appearance Incident.' It had been such a massive event that the search results were endless, but when it came to getting a clear picture of what had happened, nothing beat a wiki.

I closed the page, a grim expression settling over my face. Things had gotten far worse than I'd imagined.