The Blue Fox of the Moonlit Night (1)
It was a clear day without a single cloud in the sky. The birds in the mountains were chirping beautifully, and for some reason it felt like a morning where something good was bound to happen. However, here at the Yokai Hunter Office in Jirisan National Park, the place had turned into an absolute war zone.
"Report the location! Margin of error within five meters—give me a precise briefing!"
"Sector four, point forty-five… Correction! Sector five, point one!"
"Damn it, why is it so fast?! What's the yokai energy reading?"
"It's moving too fast for an accurate measurement! Based on the scale of destruction, it's estimated to be at least a Rank 4 Yokai…!"
"This is completely fucked. Any word from the fourth squad?"
"…None, sir. We've lost contact since an hour ago."
"Damn it!"
Lee Han-ul, director of the Jirisan National Park Yokai Hunter Office and a Grade Four administrative officer, clicked his tongue and frantically scratched his head. His hair was already thinning badly, yet neither he himself, the team leader, nor the new Grade Nine civil servant who had just joined the office could understand why he kept attacking what little remained. The situation was simply that desperate.
And for good reason. It was a fox yokai that had reappeared after two full years.
Two years ago, when the fox yokai was first sighted in Jirisan, Lee Han-ul had let it slip away cleanly. The reason was ironic—his sense of duty as a public servant. The entire office staff should have been deployed to eradicate the creature, but he had held personnel back in order to follow that damned official manual.
After receiving a scolding from the higher-ups, he had swallowed his inner rage. If that was how things were, they should have revised the yokai extermination manual.
Yokai Extermination Manual #1
When dispatching personnel to exterminate a yokai, the dispatched force must not exceed half of the office's total personnel.
The intention was clear enough. It was meant to prevent the main base from being raided while empty, so roughly half the staff had to remain on guard. In any case, the fox yokai that had appeared again after two years had grown so powerful that it was unrecognizable compared to before.
Lee Han-ul made a firm vow. This time, he would definitely exterminate the fox yokai. It was not for the sake of his performance record. Just look at what had happened after leaving it alone for two years. A yokai whose energy level had been a mere Rank 6 had rapidly grown into a Rank 4 threat and revealed itself once more. If they failed to eliminate it this time as well…
It would be catastrophic. At this growth rate… it would return as a Rank 3 Yokai next time, not Rank 4.
Up to a Rank 4 Yokai, the office could somehow manage to take it down. But from Rank 3 and beyond, the threat far exceeded the office's capabilities. It was only natural—starting at Rank 3, full-scale disaster evacuation warnings would sound. They would need to summon at least a renowned Taoist master to have any hope of subduing it.
In that sense, as director of the Jirisan Yokai Hunter Office, Lee Han-ul reached a decision.
"…All personnel except non-combatants, prepare for armed deployment."
"D-Director, but according to the manual—"
"The manual? Screw the manual. I'll take full responsibility."
"D-Director…! Understood! All personnel, prepare for armed deployment!"
Indeed. He was the rarest kind of public servant in this era—one overflowing with a true sense of duty.
Having resolved to exterminate the fox yokai no matter what this time, he picked up the large-bore anti-yokai sniper rifle and strode outside.
Once upon a time, in the distant past when tigers smoked pipes and roamed freely, there existed a fox yokai that bared its fangs only beneath the moon. Its name was the Moonlit Fox Spirit—a blue-furred fox yokai of the moonlight.
In the sixth month of summer, a scholar named Lee Ho-sang, the son of a concubine who had just passed the civil service examination, set out on the long road home. He wanted to deliver the joyful news as quickly as possible to his mother, who had endured years of hardship as a concubine.
About two weeks into the journey, he stopped at a tavern to soothe his weary heart and asked the owner's wife for wine. That was when he noticed something strange. The woman's expression looked utterly exhausted.
Her face was darker than that of his friend who had failed the state exam, so Lee Ho-sang asked what was wrong. The tavern owner's wife sighed and answered.
"My lord, it is a bizarre matter. The whole village has been thrown into chaos because of one eerie fox. That blue fox is so wicked that even the son of the miller—the best hunter in the village—fell victim to it… What are we to do…"
Finding her words strange, Lee Ho-sang asked, "Did you report it to the magistrate? I heard the magistrate of this county is an extremely benevolent man who looks after his people well."
"It has already been five days since my husband left the village to report to the magistrate. I am worried sick that something may have happened to him, leaving this poor woman behind."
It was indeed a strange affair, just as the tavern owner's wife had said. Having taken the civil exams in hopes of becoming a benevolent official, Lee Ho-sang could not ignore this bizarre incident. He gathered the village's strongest hunters and laborers and set out to exterminate the eerie fox. In the end, every single one of them—including Lee Ho-sang—had their livers devoured and died. Not long afterward, the village was wiped from existence.
In the ninth month of autumn, the benevolent magistrate set out along the mountain range to hunt the fox. During the hunt he discovered the extremely rare blue fox. The magistrate and every constable under his command fired at once, yet not a single arrow touched the blue fox. Finding the phenomenon strange, the benevolent magistrate suspected it was the same eerie fox yokai that had attacked the village and led the entire police force in a full-scale extermination effort. Indeed, he was a magistrate who truly cared for his people.
However, even after searching the mountain all day long, the bizarre fox never showed itself again. The extermination of the blue fox yokai ended in failure. Some time later, the benevolent magistrate was found dead with his liver devoured, eyes wide open and blue.
In the twelfth month of winter, a scholar who had gone into the mountains to chop firewood for the cold season discovered a blue fox shivering violently. Taking great pity on the creature, he asked if it wanted something to eat. The fox replied,
"Give me your liver. Give me a fresh liver. Before I enter hibernation, I must eat a liver."
The fox looked terribly ill, so the scholar could have easily run away. Yet, as if possessed, he gladly offered his own liver. The fox ate roughly half of it, but the scholar did not die. Finding this strange, the blue fox asked him,
"I clearly ate half your liver, so why have you not died?"
The scholar answered, "According to the medical texts, a human liver possesses exceptional regenerative power. Losing merely half of it will not cause death."
Having gained unexpected knowledge, the blue fox sincerely thanked the scholar. Then it said,
"However, that does not seem to be a reason for me to spare your life. I am very hungry right now, and I will need an entire liver if I am to hibernate…"
After that, the blue fox finished eating the scholar's liver and entered hibernation.
That was the final record concerning the eerie blue fox.
Crunch. Crunch crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch crunch.
"Grrrrk… Grrrrraaaaargh…"
The gruesome sound of bones being chewed and a human groan filled with agony echoed through Jirisan. Removing the ribcage was not optional but mandatory for smooth liver harvesting, and the blue fox paid no attention to the man's soul-wrenching moans as it greedily devoured his liver.
How delicious. Truly a feast after five hundred years.
"Grrrrk… Just kill me, you son of a bitch!"
At the man's desperate curse, the blue fox paused its feeding and asked with genuine curiosity.
Why should I kill you? As far as I know, a human liver has excellent regenerative power. As long as you do not die, I can harvest it endlessly.
In the past she had not known this and simply killed her victims first, but she had learned new knowledge from a certain scholar. After speaking, the blue fox resumed eating the man's liver. She did not devour it completely. If she ate the whole thing, the pathetic human's life force would be exhausted and the liver could no longer regenerate. So she ate exactly half.
"Ghk. Grk. Ghk."
The man whose liver had been taken no longer had the strength to scream, yet he still did not lose consciousness. The blue fox was probably using some technique to keep him awake.
Ahh… how beautiful…
The blue fox smiled eerily as it gazed somewhere. At the end of its line of sight were dozens of humans hanging upside-down from the trees, their internal organs completely exposed.
"Grrrrraaaaargh…"
"Mom… Mom… Mom…"
"My guts… my guts are spilling out…"
They screamed in agony. For a five-hundred-year-old fox yokai, keeping humans from dying was not particularly difficult. If she left them tied to the trees and continued pouring yokai energy into them, she would be able to harvest fresh livers again within a month at the latest.
The blue fox let out a pleased hum and spoke.
I need more livers.
She had only one tail.