The Mimic's Trap
After awakening my instincts as a fox yokai in Jangsan, Busan, I found myself dropping to all fours and sniffing the ground without thinking. Foxes were quadrupeds, not bipeds, after all. Crawling around on four legs until I caught the scent of blood was a crude method, but it was the only way to track the tiger yokai of Jangsan right now. Hojun knew that too, so he silently followed behind me.
"Sniff, sniff sniff sniff."
"Sss, haa."
"Sniff sniff."
"Sss, hoo."
Of course, while chain-smoking the whole time.
The smell was making it impossible to concentrate.
"Excuse me."
"What."
"Could you put out the cigarette?"
"Nope, can't do that."
"Grrrrr..."
"None of your business what I smoke. Why do you care?"
"The stench is stabbing my nose, how could I not care? Besides, this is a no-smoking zone. Who the hell smokes at a traffic light?"
"I do. And there's not a single person around anyway, so what's the problem? You're more human than the actual yokai..."
"Hey, hey, the light's red!"
"Exactly why it doesn't matter."
He was a complete law-breaking delinquent. This guy was supposed to be a Taoist master? My image of what a Taoist master should be was shattering.
About an hour passed while I kept sniffing around. When the tracking yielded no results, his patience finally ran out. He lit another cigarette and spoke.
"This isn't working. Hey, you lewd-looking fox yokai."
"Sniff... What did you just say? Say that again, you bastard!"
"Shut up and listen. How far can you smell?"
"..."
I thought seriously for a moment before answering honestly.
"I don't really know."
"Figures. Whether you even have the ability or not... Just wait a second. Keep sniffing."
With that, he vanished from my sight in an instant.
...What? He moved so fast I couldn't even see him. Maybe he was stronger than I'd thought.
Anyway, I focused on the scents like he'd told me to. I could smell cigarette smoke from far away. I couldn't tell the exact distance, but it was clearly very far.
...When the hell did he fly all the way over there?
A moment later, the smell faded, then I caught a faint trace of cigarette smoke from an even greater distance. Eventually, it disappeared completely. That must have been his limit.
Whoosh!
He reappeared right in front of me.
"How many times did you catch the smell?"
"Twice."
"Ten kilometers."
"...You flew that far just now?"
He ignored me and muttered to himself.
"Busan's total area is 770 square kilometers. If we have to do this on foot, sniffing the whole way... it'll take forever."
Sorry to say it, but this guy seemed far stronger than Lee Ha-neul.
After finishing his muttering, he spoke again.
"Does using yokai energy increase your range?"
"..."
"Drop the ridiculous cosplay already. We don't have time to waste."
The playful tone had vanished from his voice. No matter how much of a delinquent he was, he was still a proper Taoist master with a sense of duty. I agreed that time was short, so I answered honestly.
"...Probably."
"Probably? That means you're not sure."
"Yeah. I've never tried it before... Should I try now?"
"No. If you're not certain, it's better not to touch it at all. Using yokai energy recklessly will only cause more confusion."
Surprisingly sharp guy. So what was he suggesting instead?
"I've decided."
"On what?"
"We're flying."
"Huh? Flying? What do you— Aaaah, what the hell!"
I couldn't finish my sentence. He'd grabbed me around the waist and shot into the air.
...
"Whoa..."
Flying through the sky felt indescribably good. Even though I was dangling awkwardly from his arm, it was pleasant enough that I could overlook the indignity. Flying was simply wonderful.
Swish swish. Swish swish. Swish swish.
"...Can you stop wagging your tail? It's blocking my view."
"Oh. Sorry."
Swish swish. Swish swish.
"..."
"I-I can't really control it... Haha..."
Just like sweating when hot or bleeding when injured, wagging my tail when happy was a natural bodily reaction. I couldn't help it.
"Focus on the smell. If you don't concentrate, I'll—"
"...You'll what?"
What, drop me? I wouldn't die even if I fell from here.
"I'll grab your tail and fly like that."
"..."
"Why are you flustered? Oh, is your tail an erogenous zone? Now that I think about it, I've seen something like that in doujinshi. Fox girls with tails usually have sensitive—"
"No, you crazy bastard..."
God, he was impossible to deal with. Still, I focused on the scents like he'd said. The smell of blood was impossible to miss, so if the tiger yokai was nearby, I'd definitely detect it.
After flying around for a few minutes—
Sniff. Sniff sniff.
"...I found it. The smell of blood."
"Where?"
"Over there, in the direction of the church cross."
The blood smell was getting stronger. It was so thick it felt like my nose would burst. As we got closer, I started picking up the pheromone scent of the yokai covered in blood. Naturally, females had a female scent and males had a male scent. Humans had extremely dulled senses of smell and couldn't detect pheromones, but foxes were different.
"It's a male yokai, for now."
"I see. What does it look like? Is it actually a tiger?"
"I can't tell that much. I've never smelled a tiger before."
"This is a different question, but how old are you exactly?"
"Two years old."
"What the actual fuck, I've never thought of myself as a pedo before—"
"Wait a second."
Sniff. Sniff sniff.
The pheromone scent... had changed.
"...Female?"
"You just said it was male."
"It changed to female. No... it changed again. Male... no, female..."
What on earth was going on? I didn't understand the situation, but I could tell something was very wrong.
"...Let's go faster."
"Right."
* * *
The "bait operation" proposed by the chief of the Jangsan Yokai Extermination Office was simple. After analyzing the tiger yokai's behavior patterns, it appeared in densely populated areas, devoured people, and then vanished without a trace. Since there was no way to track it, the only option was to set a trap and lure it in.
Every single civil servant from the Jangsan Yokai Extermination Office was mobilized for the bait operation. Of course, that included the chief himself. He wasn't the type to cowardly run away to save his own skin. Since he'd proposed this inhumane operation, he intended to take responsibility for it.
That didn't mean they'd decided to throw their lives away just because they were acting as bait. Three force arts users, one Taoist master, and an entire military battalion provided more than enough firepower to back them up. Even a Rank 2 yokai wouldn't be able to withstand the combined assault of three force arts users and one Taoist master.
While they were preparing for battle in the middle of the city to lure the tiger of Jangsan—
[Everyone, retreat!]
"Chief...?"
From somewhere, the chief's voice rang out. That was strange. The chief was clearly right here, yet the voice was coming from inside the building. Realizing the situation, the chief shouted to his subordinates.
"Don't fall for it! It's the yokai's ability!"
This was new information. The tiger of Jangsan could clearly mimic human voices. It moved too fast to track with the eyes, could imitate voices, and had the form of a tiger. It was truly a powerful Rank 2 yokai.
"It's here, now!"
They still hadn't pinpointed the yokai's exact location, but at least they knew it was nearby. The chief quickly radioed the force arts users and the Taoist master. He would've preferred to wait longer before calling them, but without their support, his subordinates would only die in vain. Even in a bait operation, he didn't want to sacrifice his men's lives.
One minute until the force arts users, the Taoist master, and the military forces arrived. They had to hold out for that one minute. That was their role as bait.
"Everyone, don't be deceived by the yokai! Cover your ears!"
"C-Chief...!"
"What!"
"Th-there's a child... It's a child!"
At his subordinate's words, the chief frantically looked toward the second floor of the building the man was pointing at. There really was a girl who looked about ten years old. No matter how he looked at her, she didn't seem like a yokai, so the chief rushed toward her to protect the child.
"I'm going alone! The rest of you, stay where you are!"
"Yes, sir!"
When he reached the second floor and found the girl, the chief approached her to pick her up.
Thud!
That was the chief's final memory.
The last thing he saw before dying was the little girl's face transforming into an exact replica of his own.
It wasn't a tiger yokai at all.
It was a doppelganger...