The Meeting (4)
One day after the incident. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch crunch. I was chewing on dog treats while watching the TV news.
What a total shitshow. I mean, yeah. A yokai popped up right in the middle of Seoul. Around fifty people dead. Over three hundred with severed limbs. Chaos was inevitable.
The one silver lining was that none of the people with amputations actually died. All that spiritual power I dumped into healing them had been worth it. It would've been perfect if I could have regenerated the severed limbs too, but my reserves ran dry.
Given how urgent everything was, unlike back in Busan, I had no choice but to show my true form to the public. And boy, did they capture it. The news kept cutting to footage of me crawling on all fours and whimpering.
Ooh... I guess I've become a celebrity overnight.
"Haah... Miho, you could've at least walked on two legs..."
"I let all my instincts loose. How was I supposed to walk on two legs?"
"You were disguised as a human. I could understand if you were in fox form, but why crawl on all fours when you're supposed to be human?"
"Because foxes are quadrupeds, obviously."
"..."
Why ask something so obvious? I shot Lee Ha-neul a weird look from where I lay beside her.
We were both resting in a hotel room. Me to recover my spiritual power, her to recover her ki. Spending the whole day lying down would probably get us both back in fighting shape. Which meant one thing.
Tomorrow we could head back out into Seoul for more fun.
"Should we hit Myeongdong next?"
"What?"
"Or maybe not. Let's go to Gangnam instead. I've been dying to see that yokai movie."
"You're not going anywhere!"
Screeeech. After yelling at me, Ha-neul jabbed her finger at the TV and launched into a full-blown lecture.
"Miho, you've got eyes, don't you? Your face is plastered all over the city! Where do you think you're going? You're staying in this hotel like a dead mouse until the meeting starts."
"But that's so..."
"It's an order."
"Ugh."
This was a first. The first time I'd ever wanted to disobey one of Ha-neul's orders. Seriously, has she never owned a dog? Dogs need regular walks. At least once a day. Otherwise they get so stressed they start shitting on the floor.
I was the same way. I'd only just learned this about myself, but being cooped up indoors like this was driving me absolutely insane.
I decided to appeal to her with my suffering.
"I'm not joking. I might actually lose my mind."
"Still no."
"I'm gonna pee on the bed."
"Th-that's still no."
"I'll scratch the walls with my nails. I'll chew up the mattress."
"I said no!"
"Okay. Noted."
She must have thought I was bluffing. But I swear on the heavens, every word was the absolute truth.
I released my transformation, returning to my fox form.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrr..."
I bared my teeth at her, then immediately started gnawing on the nearest pillow.
"Grrrrrrrrr..."
"What are you doing?!"
"Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! Yelp!"
No matter how fancy the hotel, there had to be a limit to the soundproofing. I'd bark until the neighbors on every side started complaining. I'd bark like a dog.
"Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! Grrrrrrr..."
Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch.
Next came the wall. I started furiously raking my cute little claws across the wallpaper.
"Stop! Stop it right now!"
What? Even this wasn't working? Fine. I really didn't want to go this far, but...
If I started marking the bed like a map...
"F-fine, let's go out!"
"Whimper."
Negotiation complete.
Once the deal was struck, I transformed back into human form. I flashed her a bright, happy grin. Ha-neul's body started trembling violently.
Why was she acting like that?
"You know, there's an old saying," she muttered.
"...?"
"There's an old saying that the only cure for a disobedient dog is the stick."
"Y-yipe?"
"Present your butt."
"..."
Smack.
"Kyaaang!"
Smack.
"Yipe!"
Smack. Smack smack. Smack.
And so, as punishment for damaging hotel property, I received a thorough butt-paddling from Lee Ha-neul.
The next day, I finally dragged Ha-neul to the theater to watch that yokai movie. Of course I wore a hat and carried a bag to hide my tails as best I could, but...
"Hey, isn't that girl..."
"Isn't she the one from the news?"
"Yeah, that's the woman they showed on TV."
My face was apparently famous enough to draw a crowd. Ha-neul leaned over with a sour expression and whispered.
"See? I told you we shouldn't go out..."
"What's the big deal? They don't seem scared of me."
Unlike the demonic energy of yokai, spiritual power carried a holy quality that made people naturally feel favorable toward me, even if we'd never met.
"That's not the problem..."
"Then what is?"
"Your face is the problem! Can't you see them taking pictures?"
"Doesn't matter. Once the meeting's over, I'll just go back to living in the mountains at Jirisan anyway."
"Ugh... I give up. Let's just watch the movie and go back."
"Okay. Buy me a cola."
Cola was a magical potion. It went with chicken, it went with pizza, and it even went surprisingly well with dog food.
Crunch. Crunch.
I'd filled the popcorn bucket with dog kibble instead of popcorn. I munched away happily while watching the film.
After the movie ended, I turned to Ha-neul.
"That was absolute garbage."
"Eh? I thought it was pretty good."
"The historical accuracy is trash. There's no realism at all."
Just like that drama I'd watched before, the yokai depiction was horrific. I mean, come on. A story where a human and yokai get married, have passionate sex, and give birth to a half-yokai? If I directed a movie, I'd make it way more realistic than that.
While I was disappointed, Ha-neul looked genuinely moved.
"But it's so romantic! A love story between a yokai and a human! How beautiful is that?"
"Beautiful my ass. The whole 'love at first sight' setup is ridiculous. Some people get punched in the face the moment they meet a human. And it was an adorable little kid form, too. They still threw punches without hesitation."
"...You're talking about me, aren't you."
"No I'm not."
"..."
Baek Nam-hoon, Minister of the Yokai Hunter Department, sat in his office drinking tea with Lee Han-ul, Director of the Jirisan Yokai Hunter Office, and Hojun, the Taoist master from the Taoist Association.
It wasn't exactly a cozy chat. The topic was deadly serious.
Baek Nam-hoon pressed his fingers to his forehead and spoke.
"A goblin... haah, a goblin. The moment I saw it, I felt something was off, like it wasn't a yokai, but I never imagined it actually was one... Then that club Ha-neul was carrying..."
"Yes. It is a goblin club. More precisely, it was a goblin club previously in the possession of a yokai."
Director Lee and Hojun then explained everything to the Minister. About Miho. About her connection to the Jirisan Yokai Hunter Office. About how a formless shadow had taken the shape of a goblin.
Baek Nam-hoon didn't hold them responsible. After all, the spiritual beast named Miho that he had faced directly was clearly no enemy of humanity. She had protected humans and defeated the goblin even as her own body was breaking apart. His duty was to protect the public from threats. He could not label her as one. That would be a grave misjudgment.
He understood the situation, yet some questions remained unanswered.
"The appearance of a spiritual beast, the emergence of a powerful yokai, the resurrection of a goblin... This doesn't feel like coincidence."
"Lady Miho said the same thing. That it couldn't be a coincidence."
Why did all this have to happen while I was Minister? Baek Nam-hoon muttered to himself.
In the end, the only way to resolve these questions was to hold a meeting with that spiritual beast named Miho. The reason he had called the director and Hojun to his office wasn't to interrogate them. It was to ask them about Miho, since they were close to her, so he could speak with her smoothly.
What was her personality like? What did she dislike? What did she like? What was her reverse scale?
The director answered first.
"Her personality... how should I put it? In a word, she's like a dog."
Hojun nodded in agreement.
"You mean she's sharp. She didn't seem that way to me... Understood. We'll be careful not to offend her and..."
"No, I don't mean it metaphorically. She's literally like a dog. Like a dog that is loyal to humans."
"..."
Hojun continued.
"She doesn't seem to dislike much. Oh, but she does hate it when people comment on her figure. If you look at her face instead of her chest while talking, there shouldn't be any problems."
"...Sir Hojun."
"Ahem... My apologies. As for what she likes... She enjoys being petted, loves dog food, loves dog treats. Pretty much anything a dog likes, she'll like."
At their answers, Baek Nam-hoon asked with a dumbfounded expression.
"So... she's just a dog?"
"Yes. She's a dog."
"Didn't we tell you? She's like a dog."
"..."