The Ninja Realm

The sky was clear, and the sun shone brightly.

It was currently time for morning classes, and the daytime campus was a picture of peace and tranquility. The students, who would usually be incredibly boisterous during breaks, were now all confined within their classrooms, enduring various lectures. In a certain first-year classroom in the high school building, a middle-aged Japanese teacher squinted his eyes, bringing his textbook close to his face as he struggled to lecture the students. Due to a moment of 'carelessness,' this teacher had somehow lost his glasses in his office earlier, and this was the only way he could conduct his class.

Behind a high 'mountain of books' and a large, propped-up open book, a girl lay face down on her desk, sleeping soundly. This was Miketsu, who had stayed up late playing games the night before. Outside the window, a pair of eyes was fixed intently on the slumbering girl.

'Heh, she’s sleeping quite soundly. To sleep so deeply in plain sight... she has no sense of vigilance at all. Is this really the Miko of Inari?' Outside the teaching building, a tall tree stood directly opposite Miketsu’s classroom. Hidden within its dense canopy was the Nura Clan officer, Headless Yokai. Using his superhuman yokai vision, he stared fixedly at Miketsu as she napped in the distant classroom.

'Kurotabo tried to use deception to get the target to drink the medicine... Hah. That foolish method leaves the choice in the opponent's hands. A single accident ruins the whole plan. He doesn't understand that only pure technique can keep the key to success in one's own hands.'

As he spoke, Headless Yokai pulled a small black pill from his pocket. His eyes locked onto Miketsu’s mouth, which was slightly open as she slept, her head turned toward the window. His objective was clear: he would use a throwing technique to accurately launch the pill into the target's mouth from a distance of over a hundred meters.

The difficulty of this move was extreme. The requirement for precision was peak; it was a feat neither a human nor an ordinary yokai could perform. But Headless Yokai was different. He was the famous 'String Slayer of Joshu' of Edo, capable of using thin silk threads to decapitate enemies with exquisite finesse. His control over precision was superlative. To him, hitting a designated target a hundred meters away with a tiny pill was child's play.

'Only a light breeze... it won't have much impact...' Measuring the wind speed with his fingers, Headless Yokai murmured. He raised the hand holding the pill, his eyes fixed on the target, fully manifesting a posture of poised readiness.

"Hit!" With a soft whisper, Headless Yokai whipped his arm forward, throwing the pill with force. The tiny black orb tumbled through the air at high speed, flying straight toward its intended target without a hair's breadth of error. Seeing this, Headless Yokai felt a surge of joy.

Suddenly, from the distant baseball field, a ball was hit out of bounds amidst a chorus of shouts. The stray ball flew rapidly toward the teaching building, happening to collide mid-air with the black pill. Under the massive force of the interaction, the pill was launched directly into the sky.

"What?!"

Headless Yokai couldn't help but cry out in surprise. He watched as the pill soared high, only to be snatched out of the air by a passing crow. The crow then flew directly over his head.

"Dammit, give that back, you beast!" Panicked, Headless Yokai immediately shot a red thread toward the crow. The thread accurately struck the crow's head; it let out a pained cry and loosened its beak. The pill plummeted straight down. Headless Yokai’s expression tightened as he reached out to catch it.

However, by some stroke of bad luck, the pill struck a branch in the canopy during its descent. It deflected and bounced in another direction, then hit another branch, changing its trajectory again. For a moment, the pill began to ricochet between the branches with erratic, flashy movements. Headless Yokai found it difficult to track its position. Amidst the darting shadows and the rustling leaves, it sounded as if there were movements and ambushes coming from every direction.

In a careless moment, one of the pill's accidental ricochets actually sent it charging toward Headless Yokai. He tried to grab it but failed. The flying pill grazed his cheek, leaving a thin scratch and a trace of blood. It was like being cut by a ninja's shuriken.

'Dammit... is this still a normal trajectory?!'

Headless Yokai screamed internally. Facing the pill as it moved at high speed using the surrounding branches, he felt for a moment as if he were facing a peerless master of maneuverability! If he had to make a comparison, it felt like being back in the Edo period centuries ago, before he joined the Nura Clan. He felt as he did when he was the String Slayer of Joshu, facing an elite Jonin of the Iga Ninja clan who had come to assassinate him—an elite who had single-handedly created the sensation of a ten-fold ambush.

'...It’s been a long time since I felt like this. My blood is starting to boil!' Feeling the atmosphere around him, Headless Yokai’s fighting spirit was ignited. He was confident he could win this 'match.' After all, he had been the victor in that duel with the elite Jonin.

"I admit you're strong! From a ninja's perspective, you have at least the strength of a Jonin, but that’s not enough to beat me!" Pulling out his red threads, Headless Yokai behaved as if he were facing a truly powerful and troublesome ninja.

Closing his eyes, he began to seriously sense the rhythm of the pill's flight. After a moment, his eyes snapped open. He looked in one direction and immediately manipulated several red threads to shoot toward it simultaneously.

"Right here! You can't run!"

The dozens of red threads lunged at the flying pill, intending to bind and retrieve it. However, due to the slightest deviation in the angle, the pill wasn't bound. Instead, it used the new round of elastic force provided by the red threads to bounce off a branch near Headless Yokai, then used that branch to rocket toward his main body. The angle was so cunning it was like a shuriken fired from a defensive blind spot by a master ninja. It was nearly impossible to defend against.

Using yet another high-speed ricochet, the pill shot toward Headless Yokai from an even more bizarre and cunning angle. At this point, his previous dodge had forced him into a corner where it was difficult to maneuver. Facing this immediate second strike, he had no way to evade.

Finally, amidst Headless Yokai’s astonished expression, the pill shot with abnormal accuracy right into his mouth. Unsteady on his feet and filled with shock, he tumbled backward from the tree canopy. The ultimate cause was still underestimating his opponent. This combination of a pill and branches... its strength wasn't that of an elite Jonin; it was a Grandmaster Ninja!

"I... I lost..."

"Meowaaaaah!"

Suddenly, a strange sound echoed from outside the classroom window. Hayakawa Rin, who was bored out of her mind, looked toward the distant tree and tilted her head, murmuring to herself. Meanwhile, in front of Rin, Miketsu was still sleeping soundly on her desk. Beside her lay a manga with a cover depicting a ninja performing hand seals under a full moon. The title of the manga was 'The Iga Ninja Scrolls.'

Later that morning, in a small grove on campus.

"Woof woof woof woof! Woof woof!"

"Meow meow meow! Meow meow!"

"Aaaah! Headless Yokai, Kurotabo, stop fighting! Ao, help me pull them apart!"

"Understood, Young Lord!"

In this small grove, Kurotabo, now with dog ears and a tail, and Headless Yokai, now with cat ears and a tail, were both in tatters, their faces covered in scratch marks. They glared at each other with murderous intent, looking as if they wanted to tear each other apart. Rikuo and Aotabo were each holding a rope, desperately trying to keep them from clashing again.

"Sigh... how did it turn out like this..." Watching the scene, Kejoro leaned against a tree and sighed, rubbing her forehead. This was a scene she had never imagined.

Elsewhere, in a quiet spot away from the commotion, the Snow Girl, Tsurara, was crouching in a corner alone, seemingly researching something.

'This pill... it seems very hard. Usually, it needs to touch liquid to dissolve. Normal hitting and tapping won't break it...' Crouching under a tree, Tsurara murmured as she held the pill given to her. At that moment, she pulled another object from her sleeve. It was the mysterious white object she had been trying and failing to drill a hole into for days.

'I wonder which of these two is harder...' As she spoke, Tsurara held the white object in one hand and the pill in the other, then began tapping them against each other. The more she did it, the more interested she became, and the harder she tapped.

'...I have to say, the sound of them clashing is quite pleasant. Ouch!' Just as Tsurara said this, the objects she was clashing suddenly underwent an anomaly. The pill struck by the white object suddenly shattered, turning into powder that threatened to scatter. Seeing this, Tsurara was startled. She quickly blew a breath of ice to freeze the fragmenting pill before it could turn into useless dust. However, this action also froze the mysterious white object into the same small block of ice.

'Aw... man... it's over! My pill broke! What—what am I going to do?! What will I do when it's my turn?!'

Looking at the scene before her, she clutched her head in frustration. At that moment, a voice sounded behind her.

"Hey, Tsurara, can you help me with something?"

"Ah, aaaah! What help! What help!" Hearing the voice, Tsurara hurriedly hid the ice block and stood up, turning around. She found that the person calling her was none other than Kejoro, who was looking at her with a smile.

"It’s nothing much. It’s just that my plan is about to start. As a support item, I wanted to ask you to make some ice."

"Ice?" Tsurara asked, confused, looking at Kejoro.

Time passed quickly, and it was soon nearing noon. It was currently time for Class 1-B's PE class. The students were wearing their gym clothes, running along the track as requested by the teacher. At the edge of the field, a small tent had been set up. Inside were Kejoro and Tsurara, dressed in human civilian clothes. They stood behind a table upon which sat a large cooler filled with ice. Tucked into the ice were several bottles of chilled cola.

"Hey, Kejoro, do you think this will work?" Standing beside Kejoro, Tsurara spoke with some trepidation. Kejoro, however, was confident.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. I went in disguise earlier and talked to the owner of the shop at the school gate. That Fushimi Inaba’s favorite drink is this stuff called... uh, cola! Right! Cola! And she likes it iced! So this will definitely attract her!"

"But... your plan doesn't seem that different from Kurotabo's."

"Of course there’s a difference. Kurotabo had too many varieties of sugary drinks, and that’s why things went wrong. This time, I have nothing but cola; no one is going to swap with her. Shh! Be quiet! Look!" As Kejoro spoke, she pointed into the distance, where the students of Class 1-B had dispersed and begun their free activity time.

Taking this chance, Kejoro began to shout.

"Cola! Cola! Ice-cold cola! We have free promotional ice-cold cola right here!"

As soon as she finished the first shout, Kejoro heard a light, crisp voice.

"Is it really free ice-cold cola?"

Hearing the voice, both Kejoro and Tsurara were startled. They turned their heads to find a girl with short black hair in a PE uniform, her pale legs exposed, standing before their stand. She was looking at the wonderful iced cola with great enthusiasm.

Tsurara and Kejoro had barely even noticed the girl moving toward them. Kejoro felt as if the moment she finished her sentence, the girl had appeared right in front of her.

'Is this the speed of an Inari Miko?!'