Daytime in Ukiyoe-cho, at the Nura Clan's yokai mansion.
After the commotion of the Nura Clan's young master being kidnapped last night, the main house had gradually returned to a state of calm. However, beneath this tranquility, dark undercurrents were surging.
Following the return of the Grand Commander, the young master, and the Karasu-tengu, a wave of rumors had begun to circulate among the yokai of the Nura Clan, sparked by the unusual behavior of the Slippery Nura himself. Yokai of all sizes were currently whispering about the stories spread by the Karasu-tengu. Among these, the most heated and troubling topic of discussion was a single name.
On a long veranda beside a courtyard somewhere in the Nura Residence, a man with flowing long hair partially covering his face sat in formal kimono. He was composed and dignified, his eyes closed as he rested his spirit.
Just then, the scent of tea wafted through the air. A woman in a kimono with voluminous curly hair and a seductive aura approached the seated man, carrying a cup of hot tea.
"Here, Lord Gyuki, please have some tea~"
The yokai man known as Gyuki opened his eyes and looked at the beautiful, smiling woman. Completely ignoring the 'surging waves' of her chest before him, he replied indifferently.
"Is there something you need, Kejoro?"
"Ah... ahaha... it's nothing! I just thought you might be tired from meditating, so I brought you a cup of tea..." Seeing Gyuki's cold expression, Kejoro could only respond with a dry, forced laugh. Gyuki ignored her and looked past her proud figure toward the corner of the building nearby, his voice remaining calm.
"Come out... if you have something to say, speak plainly."
At Gyuki's words, a sudden scuffle broke out behind the corner. Several figures tumbled out: Tsurara, the Yuki-onna in a white kimono with ringed eyes; Kubinashi, whose head floated in mid-air; Kurotabo, dressed in black monk's robes and a bamboo hat; and a small, wet-haired Kappa with a pointed beak.
"Eh..." Kejoro's lip twitched at the sight, while Gyuki calmly took a sip of his tea.
After the initial chaos settled, Kejoro and the other yokai sat along the veranda in front of Gyuki. Having heard their initial intent, Gyuki responded.
"So... you wish to ask me a question?"
"Yes... because we thought that besides the Grand Commander, perhaps only Lord Gyuki could answer this. Right now, the Grand Commander and the young master are meeting in private... so we wanted to consult you. After all, among the cadres from the first generation of the Nura Clan, you are the most knowledgeable." Tsurara spoke respectfully, and the yokai behind her, including Kejoro and Kubinashi, nodded in agreement.
"Hmph... to most yokai, so-called knowledge is but a useless thing. You need not flatter me with such talk... speak, what is your question?"
Hearing Gyuki's answer, Tsurara and the others were delighted. Tsurara then spoke directly.
"Well, Lord Gyuki, do you know... who that 'Owl' actually is?"
Gyuki froze slightly. The tea he was about to drink stopped mid-air. Seeing his reaction, the others leaned in.
"Owl..."
"Yes, Owl! Apparently, he's the yokai who attacked us and kidnapped the young master yesterday... The Grand Commander seemed to recognize him. However, neither a modern yokai like me nor Edo-period yokai like Kubinashi and Kurotabo have ever heard of such a person. So, we wanted to ask you, Lord Gyuki, as a yokai from the Warring States period. Do you know anything?"
After Tsurara finished, the rest of the yokai nodded together. Most of the yokai present were born during the Edo period and had been brought into the fold by the second head, Nura Rihan. Gyuki, however, was a veteran who had followed Nurarihyon from the beginning.
Gyuki did not answer immediately. He sat still for a long moment before finally speaking slowly.
"Owl... it is only natural that you do not know that name. Yokai do not keep historical records like humans do; we only have various chaotic legends. In this world where the strong are revered and only strength and the present matter, names that are no longer active cease to be mentioned or passed down. Ancient, prestigious names are rarely known to the new generation, unless they exist in the memories of those who lived through that era... Many names of heroes have been buried in the sands of time." Gyuki spoke with a clear tone of lamentation. Tsurara and the others were stunned, and then Kubinashi spoke up in confusion.
"Ancient names are rarely known to the new generation unless they were there...? Lord Gyuki, are you saying... that Owl is a great yokai from the Warring States period like you? An old subordinate of the Grand Commander?"
Hearing Kubinashi's words, Gyuki couldn't help but let out a dry laugh, sighing with a touch of self-deprecation.
"Heh... if I could have existed in the same era as Owl, it would have been a tremendous honor..."
The yokai before him were momentarily paralyzed. They never expected a veteran cadre of the Nura Clan to say such a thing... That it would be an honor just to have lived in the same era as Owl!?
"You—you mean... Owl and you... are not from the same era?" Tsurara asked, stammering. Gyuki adjusted his slightly moved expression and looked back at them seriously.
"You said earlier that you came to me because I am a Nura veteran, a yokai of the Warring States period... But what I must tell you is that regarding Owl... in this clan, besides me, it is useless to ask any of the other old-timers. Because Owl is not a yokai of any recent era... The name Owl... belongs to the Heian period of a thousand years ago..."
"The—the Heian period!?"
"A thousand years ago?!"
Tsurara and the yokai behind her cried out in shock, unable to believe Gyuki's words.
The oldest yokai present was Gyuki. Born in the Warring States period, he and the other veterans were roughly five or six hundred years old. The core cadres like Kejoro, Kubinashi, and Kurotabo, who were recruited by the second head, were mostly Edo-period yokai around two or three hundred years old. New-generation yokai like Tsurara were less than fifty years old.
The only one in the clan whose age exceeded a thousand years was the first head, Nurarihyon. A yokai from the Heian period a millennium ago was practically a legend.
Could it be that this Owl wasn't an old subordinate, but an old acquaintance from a thousand years ago? The group, including Tsurara, thought this with a sense of awe.
They knew exactly what kind of yokai the Grand Commander's old acquaintances were. They were the Grand Commanders of other Night Parades from all over the country! Figures like Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Provinces, Lord Inugami Gyobu Tanuki of Shikoku, the Queen of Arakawa, or the Lord of the Whispering Forest—each was a regional hegemon of their own divine realm!
Kejoro, Kubinashi, and Kurotabo stood there, their minds racing to process the information. Tsurara, in particular, had never imagined that the person she encountered yesterday was an ancient great yokai over a thousand years old.
Ignoring their shock, Gyuki took another sip of tea and continued.
"The reason I know the name 'Owl' is not because I have lived particularly long, nor because my knowledge is vast. It is simply because of the place where I was born..."
"Lord Gyuki's... birthplace?" Tsurara said blankly. On the other side, Kejoro, having just come to her senses, recalled something.
"If I remember correctly, Lord Gyuki's home was in the Kinki region of Yamashiro Province..."
"I was born in Kyoto, and that land... can never forget the name Owl..." Gyuki nodded, gazing toward the distant sky. Kubinashi asked curiously.
"Kyoto? Is Owl very famous in Kyoto?"
"At least he was five hundred years ago. Kyoto is where the legend of Owl began; it was once his main base. Even in the divine realm, which values the present and forgets easily, the legend of Owl is still constantly sung..."
As he spoke, Gyuki's eyes remained fixed on a bird flying in the sky.
"The legend of... the original Grand Commander of the Night Parade..."
Deep within the Nura Residence, in a simply decorated quiet room, the first Grand Commander of the Nura Clan, Nura Rihyon, sat in his aged form beneath a calligraphy scroll of the character for 'Fear'.
Before Rihyon stood an exquisitely decorated sword rack. Resting regally upon it was a black-gold patterned tachi—the very demonic blade retrieved from outside the Old Fukiage Tunnel yesterday.
In front of the sword rack, Rikuo sat upright in his human form, looking at the serious Rihyon. After hearing his grandfather's narrative, Rikuo swallowed hard and spoke.
"Grandpa... you mean that Owl... is a yokai from a thousand years ago... and is... the original Grand Commander?" Rikuo spoke slowly, his face full of disbelief. Rihyon answered solemnly.
"Yes... to be precise... Owl is the source of the title 'Grand Commander of the Night Parade'. Therefore, he is the original Grand Commander..." As he spoke, Rihyon looked up at the ceiling, his voice tinged with nostalgia.
"You likely know that the title 'Yokai General' was extremely common during the Warring States period when many yokai rose to power. Any yokai leader with a bit of strength who ruled a territory would give themselves a title like 'Yokai General of such-and-such place'. Even today, the heads of large yokai groups across the country generally like to use the title 'Grand Commander'...
"Yokai flock under the name of 'General', joyfully worshiping the strong leader they have chosen to follow. However, almost none of the yokai from the Warring States period or the present day know where this title originated. Who was the first to receive it? And how was it obtained? Hmph... you should know that a thousand years ago, the lords of the divine realm had a different title."
Seeing his grandfather's slightly dazed, nostalgic look, Rikuo's mouth hung open as he spoke in shock.
"A different title from a thousand years ago? Were the yokai rulers back then a different group?"
"Indeed. You might often hear the veterans in the clan brag about how powerful the yokai of the Warring States period were, but you must realize that the battlefields where those heroes rose were only made available because the older generation of hegemons from a thousand years ago had retired or stepped down."
Rihyon lit his pipe as he spoke, blowing out clouds of smoke as he told his grandson about the long-buried past.
"The so-called Warring States period was not just for humans; it was for yokai as well. The old hegemons of the divine realm left the stage of history for various reasons during that time. New-generation heroes, including myself, targeted the resulting power vacuums and launched war after war. After centuries of bloody conflict, the map of the divine realm as it stands today was forged, and we became the hegemons of the new era.
"To be honest, if those old hegemons were still around, neither I nor any of the other current Grand Commanders would have stood a chance. The hegemons of a thousand years ago possessed terrifying power that even the great yokai of the Warring States period could hardly reach. They were fully capable of destroying an entire province single-handedly. The hegemons of that era were bestowed the title of 'Yokai Lord' by their generation."
"Yokai... Lord. So that Owl is a Yokai Lord?" Rikuo murmured. He suddenly felt that Owl's background was far more significant than his initial guess.
"Correct. The hegemons of the divine realm back then were called Yokai Lords, and Owl was one of them... He was also the most mysterious and powerful among them." Taking another puff of smoke, Rihyon looked at the stunned Rikuo and continued.
"Owl's origins and true form are unknown... He appeared alone in Heian-kyo a thousand years ago, a place where it was most difficult for yokai organizations to survive, and created a massive following as if out of nowhere. He led his Night Parade of One Hundred Demons through the main avenues of Heian-kyo, the heart of human power at the time. Following the path of ninkyo, he slew all manner of evil and brought order to both the human and demon realms.
"After Owl saved Heian-kyo during a great calamity, even the human imperial court sought his protection and bowed to him. The Human Emperor even bestowed the title of 'Great General for Subduing Evil' upon a yokai, who were previously considered mere wicked spirits. Thus, the Yokai Lord Owl became known to the world as the 'Yokai Grand General' and the 'Grand Commander of the Night Parade'." Rihyon exhaled a long plume of smoke, sighing with emotion.
"That is the source of the many 'Yokai General' titles used today. To put it bluntly, those who use the title now were originally just performing a poor imitation of Owl. However, after it became so widespread, very few yokai still remember the meaning and reason behind it. Most of them just heard it sounded imposing and took it for themselves... Hmph..."
Coldly laughing, Rihyon tapped the ash from his pipe. Rikuo sat frozen in place, his mouth agape, unable to recover his senses for a long time.
Rate on N.U.
