Animals

At a certain intersection in Kyoto, atop the Guanyue Department Store Building, the bizarre yokai elder Minamoto Gorozaemon was trapped within a pre-prepared onmyojutsu trap. He stood there with a grim expression, staring at the young Onmyoji standing before him, who was calmly holding a cup of milk tea and a stack of documents.

'Why was my plan seen through so clearly?! Why did this guy predict almost all of my actions?! Where did it go wrong?! I must inform Lady Hagoromo Gitsune of this immediately! Is there a mole among us?! No! Even a mole couldn't have leaked such detailed information! Just what is—'

Minamoto Gorozaemon's face darkened as he gritted his teeth in thought. Regardless of the situation, he decided to send the information back first. He began to move his hand behind his back surreptitiously, preparing to use his demonic arts to transmit a message to Hagoromo Gitsune. However, after trying, he found that his demonic arts wouldn't activate at all. This caused Minamoto Gorozaemon to freeze within the magical array once more.

The young Onmyoji noticed the slight shift in Minamoto Gorozaemon's expression. He looked back down at the document in his hand and continued to speak slowly.

"Heh... look at that. According to the script, you're currently trying to use demonic arts to transmit information, aren't you? Sorry, but this binding jutsu-shiki trapping you was specifically modified with corresponding incantations to suppress that. So give it up. It's useless."

Ryuji continued slowly. Hearing his words, Minamoto Gorozaemon's eyes widened as he stood paralyzed on the spot.

"This... this..."

"Ah, you're surprised, aren't you? To be honest, I am too... Does such an accurate prophecy really exist in this world? This mission has certainly been an eye-opener for me."

As he spoke, Ryuji placed his milk tea on the ground and pulled several bamboo slips from behind him. The gaze he directed at Minamoto Gorozaemon began to reveal a hint of killing intent.

"Next, it's time to end this. The mission requirements stated that no survivors are needed, and as it happens, I don't like yokai either. So, farewell."

With those words, Ryuji swung the hand holding the bamboo slips forward, and streams of clear water were splashed out from them.

"Sprint, Word!"

Following Ryuji's call, the water he splashed transformed into a Water Shikigami. The flowing body of water surged forward through the air, rushing directly into Minamoto Gorozaemon's gaping mouth. Minamoto Gorozaemon fell to the ground and began to roll in agony. He clearly wanted to force the liquid-state shikigami out of his body, but he was completely unable to do so. After a moment of struggling, Minamoto Gorozaemon's entire body suddenly swelled up like a balloon. Reaching its limit, it exploded with a loud pop. The barrier generated by the magical array prevented the flesh and blood from splattering; instead, a heap of bloody sludge piled up on the cramped floor, motionless.

"Tsk. How miserable. But it's finally over."

Seeing this scene, Ryuji let out a small sigh and spoke slowly. After staring at the pile of rotten meat for a moment, he waved his hand to deactivate the binding jutsu-shiki's barrier. Just as the barrier dissipated, a bloodshot eye suddenly leaped out from the pile of meat and flew away at high speed. Clearly, this eyeball was Minamoto Gorozaemon's true body! The body that exploded earlier was just a decoy—a ruse of fake death to trick Ryuji into deactivating the barrier!

Realizing it had successfully escaped, the blood-colored eye split open on its surface to reveal a horrific, grinning mouth. The mouth let out a loud laugh, seemingly mocking Ryuji with utter contempt.

"Oh... truly impressive."

Seeing this, Ryuji's expression didn't change at all. He glanced at the document in his hand and then at the bizarre demonic eye with the fanged mouth flying away from him.

"According to the script written here... your next line is..."

"Haha! You didn't expect this, Onmyoji! This is my escape method!"

In that exact moment, Ryuji and the eyeball of Minamoto Gorozaemon spoke the same words almost simultaneously. After speaking, Ryuji's expression remained calm, while Minamoto Gorozaemon's eye-mouth gaped open, and the veins on the eyeball bulged. Even without a face, it seemed to exhibit an expression of utter shock.

'Terrible... I must escape!' That was Minamoto Gorozaemon's final thought. Just as the thought flashed through its mind, a beam of white light shot up from below. In an instant, it swallowed the entire demonic eye.

When the white light faded, not a single trace of Minamoto Gorozaemon remained in the air. On the rooftop of a building below, an Onmyoji with short chestnut hair and a cold face stood there, one hand raised toward the sky. The Onmyoji named Mamiru lowered his hand as he watched Minamoto Gorozaemon vanish into the heavens. He then pulled out his phone, held it to his ear, and spoke slowly.

"Threat point No. 24 on New Kujo Street has been cleared."

Standing on the rooftop of the department store not far away, Ryuji breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the scene. He picked up his milk tea from beside him, took a deep sip, and slowly exhaled.

"This really is quite delicious..."

Ryuji murmured. He recalled the "antidote" preparation process. The file recorded various ingredients in extreme detail, many of which seemed to have nothing to do with traditional anti-yokai-toxin herbs. For example, things like cheese powder were more like flavorings, and there were also many expensive materials like saffron. Preparing this batch of antidotes had indeed caused the Keikain Clan to spend quite a bit of money.

Ryuji, who was already proficient in medicine, was somewhat bewildered when he first saw the recipe. He didn't know if he was mixing spices or an antidote. He seriously doubted if those strange ingredients could actually serve a detoxifying purpose.

'Phew, whatever. The poison is neutralized anyway. Regardless of whether those strange ingredients actually helped with the detoxification, they definitely made this milk tea taste better. Yeah, I'll go buy another cup later. I must remember to have the shopkeeper take the base liquid from the vat that has the antidote but wasn't mixed with that guy's demonic blood.'

Thinking this, Ryuji took a massive gulp of his milk tea. He decided to buy a few more cups later; after all, it had cost a lot of money to prepare this batch of antidotes. He had originally thought that since the Keikain Clan had its own medicine gardens, they should have both common and rare herbs, so it wouldn't cost much. However, the "antidote" ingredient list provided by Inari included many non-conventional raw materials. Honestly, when Inari offered to reimburse the material costs, the head of the clan shouldn't have been so quick to decline just for the sake of pride! Who would have thought the final expenses for the ingredients would be so high!

While Ryuji was complaining atop the department store building, down below at the milk tea shop across the street, two girls were walking out with their freshly purchased drinks.

"Mmm~ this is so good! I never had milk tea this delicious back in Tokyo! Inaba, this shop you found is really tasty!"

Hayakawa Rin, dressed in light-colored wafuku, held her milk tea with both hands and spoke with a blissful expression.

"Mm... the flavor is indeed not bad."

Beside Hayakawa Rin, Miketsu, dressed in a yellow wafuku with a rice ear pattern, took a sip of her milk tea and nodded.

"It's worthy of its high price."

"High price? Doesn't it cost about the same as a normal milk tea? It's not expensive at all?"

Hearing Miketsu's words, Hayakawa Rin tilted her head curiously. Miketsu replied calmly.

"Mm, the selling price is about the same, but the production cost is very expensive."

"Eh?"

Hayakawa Rin was momentarily confused by Miketsu's statement. Generally speaking, shouldn't the production cost be lower than the selling price? Otherwise, how would the merchant make a profit? Ignoring Hayakawa Rin's confused gaze, Miketsu took another sip of the milk tea that contained the antidote but no demonic blood. After carefully savoring the mellow, delicious flavor created by the combination of various high-grade spices, she nodded with satisfaction.

'Mm, the flavor reached expectations.'

Miketsu thought to herself. But this was only natural, because ninety-eight percent of the production cost for the so-called "antidote" was spent on flavoring, while only two percent was responsible for the actual detoxification. Essentially, the Keikain Clan had spent a fortune to produce a seasoning that had a tiny bit of detoxifying function.

"By the way, Inaba, where are we going next?"

"Joyful Animal Street."

Kyoto, on the main road of Joyful Animal Street.

On the wide street, the lively float parade continued. The sidewalks were filled with children excitedly watching the strange and wonderful floats under the company of their parents. Many of these children held cute cartoon balloons and various other toys, all purchased from various adorable animal mascots wandering the street.

The shops on both sides of Joyful Animal Street were closely packed, and the entire street was filled with a fairytale-like atmosphere. The most famous feature here was the abundance of cute animal mascots. Because the animal mascots here gave lifelike and vivid performances, they had become a specialty of the amusement park, deeply loved by children from all over. However, such an environment also provided an opportunity for certain entities to quietly blend in.

Among the animal mascots selling balloons on the float parade street, there was one that looked like a gray wolf. It stared at the back of a young boy in front of it who was focused on the passing floats.

'Hehe. Human. Fresh... tender... human child's meat.'

Whispering in a voice so faint it was almost inaudible, the wolf yokai disguised as a mascot suit let out white mist from its mouth. The expression it directed at the boy's back was filled with greedy hunger. The white sheep cartoon balloon the boy held was one the wolf had sold to him earlier.

'I can't take it... there are so many children here, I can't hold back anymore. It's time, right? It's time! I'm going to start my feast!'

The wolf yokai thought excitedly. The balloons it was holding were released and flew into the sky one by one. The wolf yokai was about to transform into its wolf form and pounce on the fresh, young prey before it.

It was about to go on a killing spree and dye the street crimson. It would rip open the bodies of every child and feast on their fresh and tender meat. This was the desire of its nature! The wolf's eyes were already clouded with a layer of blood-red light.

Just as the wolf yokai was about to cast off its ridiculous disguise, a furry brown paw was placed on the gray wolf yokai's shoulder. A thick, jovial voice came from behind it.

"Hey, big brother! Your balloons almost flew away."

Hearing the voice, the gray wolf yokai turned its head. It saw a physically fit, adorable brown bear mascot standing behind it, holding a large bunch of balloons. It looked just like another animal mascot selling balloons nearby, likely a normal human inside.

Seeing its bloodlust interrupted, a surge of rage rose within the wolf yokai. A clear killing intent surfaced in the gaze it directed at the brown bear before it.

'A human in a ridiculous mascot suit! How dare you interrupt me at a time like this! You'll pay the price right now! I'll start with you!'

Thinking this, the wolf yokai decisively turned around and swung its claws. The sharp claws aimed straight for the brown bear's head, as if they would tear through the plush mascot suit and shred the human actor inside in the next instant. However, at that very moment, the bulky brown bear took a light step back, narrowly dodging the wolf yokai's sharp claws by a hair's breadth. The wolf yokai's strike hit nothing but air.

'What?!'

Faced with this, the wolf yokai's eyes widened in shock. But in that moment, the cute and adorable brown bear had already raised its furry fist high, smashing it toward the wolf yokai's face with extreme speed.

"Kuma!!!"

In an instant, the wolf yokai's face felt as if it had been struck by a massive boulder. It thought it heard the sound of its skull shattering. The immense power made it lose consciousness before it could even let out a scream, and its entire body fell backward.

The commotion momentarily attracted the attention of nearby tourists. The boy closest to them turned his head and looked confusedly at the gray wolf yokai, which was now being held up by a tiger mascot and had lost consciousness.

"What happened to Uncle Big Bad Wolf?"

"Ah, the weather has been very hot lately. Uncle Big Bad Wolf probably fainted from heatstroke. It's okay, kid. We're going to take Uncle Big Bad Wolf to the infirmary right now. He'll wake up soon."

"Oh, I see. Then Uncle Big Bear, hurry up and take Uncle Big Bad Wolf! You must make him wake up!"

"Hehe, you're such a good kid for caring about others. Uncle's going now. See you later~"

As they spoke, the bear mascot and a tiger mascot carried the wolf yokai away. Watching the mascots disappear and then looking at the sun in the sky, the boy's father beside him couldn't help but sigh quietly.

"Wearing such a thick suit on a hot day... no wonder he'd get heatstroke. These actors don't have it easy."

In a dark corner of Joyful Animal Street, the wolf yokai lay unconscious on the ground. Suddenly, a bucket of cold water was splashed over it. Jolted by the shock, the wolf yokai slowly woke up.

"Ugh... where am I?"

"Hmph. Finally awake? You despicable, shameful outsider yokai."

A familiar voice reached the wolf yokai's ears. It was taken aback and looked up sharply. Standing before it was the tall brown bear mascot—the very one that had knocked it out! This brown bear mascot now displayed a serious expression that a plush mascot should be completely incapable of expressing. He was even holding a cigarette, with smoke drifting from it.

"Y-You... you're the human in the bear suit?"

"Hmph! Do you think a human would have that much power?"

The brown bear gave a cold laugh as a trace of demonic power began to emanate from his body. Feeling this demonic power, the wolf yokai's eyes widened.

"Y-You're the same as me! A yokai?!"

"What else did you think?"

The brown bear mascot blew out a puff of smoke. At that moment, a group of animal mascots—rabbits, tigers, and lions—emerged from the shadows. Behind their cute appearances, traces of demonic power emanated from each of them.

They—or rather, all the animal mascots in Joyful Animal Street—were real yokai.

"What... all of you... every one of you is..."

The wolf yokai stammered in terror. It had never imagined that these animal mascots, which it had assumed were human disguises, were actually real yokai just like itself!

"Hmph! To think you wanted to attack innocent, cute children on the turf of our Joyful Animal Group... such a sin is unforgivable! Everyone! Beat him to death! Every brother gets a turn to vent!"

"Oh!!!"

Amidst the wolf yokai's despair, countless animal mascots swarmed over, drowning the wolf yokai within their numbers. In a nearby corner, a fox mascot watched the scene, pulled out a walkie-talkie, and spoke.

"Joyful Animal Street, threat point No. 34... cleared."