Chapter 127: Inside Information

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Tokyo, Arakawa Ward.

Yuka, fashionably dressed and with exquisite makeup, emerged from Machiya Station and walked straight ahead, turning right at the first intersection.

She walked to the Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, turned right again, and entered a small alley.

Before she had taken a few steps, she ran into Fatty. He was parking his bicycle, which had an anime girl on the tires, in front of “Medium.”

“Fatty,” Yuka waved and greeted him.

Fatty was startled and almost fell to the ground.

“Sister Yuka! Don’t scare me!”

“Being too careful will expose you,” Yuka said with a laugh.

She stood to the side, waiting for Fatty to lock his bicycle.

“What’s this?” Yuka pointed at the character on the bicycle tire.

“Oh, this is Sawamura Spencer Eriri!” Fatty’s mood immediately soared.

“Sawamura S—forget it,” Yuka’s grades were not good, and her English was even worse. She had no way with foreign names.

“Petite! Blonde twintails! Flat-chested! Three sizes 79.9, 56, 86! A tsundere young lady!”

“Mmm~~~” Yuka made a perfunctory but cute sound, learned from the recent reality show “What’s So Wrong with Being a Little Scheming?”.

Becoming a cute woman with a little bit of scheming was her recent goal.

Glancing at Fatty, whose face was red with excitement, Yuka’s eyes darted, and she said in a soft voice:

“Fatty, if you look at too much anime and heavily photoshopped gravure photos all the time, in the future, when you’re faced with a real, living woman, even if she’s lying down, you’ll feel disgusted.”

“Eh?!” Fatty stopped locking his bike, his face snapping towards her.

“Re-really?” he asked cautiously.

“Mhm~” Yuka nodded affirmatively. “You know, I worked part-time at a hand massage parlor. What do you think?”

“…”

Seeing Fatty believe her, his round face showing a mixture of shock, fear, and conflict, Yuka couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“Honestly, Sister Yuka, you’re tricking me!”

“No, it’s true.”

Fatty finished locking his bike, and the two of them walked down the alley.

“S-Sister Yuka, um, how do you act more mature when you go to that kind of place for the first time?” Fatty asked in a low, secretive voice.

“Are you going?”

“No, no, just asking, curious.”

“Fatty, you can’t act mature no matter what.”

“Don’t look down on me! I-I’m not the same person I was before. When I go to a maid cafe, I can already lift my head and look at the maids’ chests! In another year or two, I’ll definitely be able to talk to them!”

“It has nothing to do with that. Fatty, you usually do it yourself, right?”

Yuka raised her hand and made a hollow fist.

Fatty’s face instantly turned red.

“See,” Yuka spread her hands, “you’ve exposed yourself. No way, no way. It’s better to be honest. Sometimes, acting a little naive can be popular.”

“Re-really?”

Although Fatty felt ashamed, he was also a little excited.

Being able to discuss such topics with a girl, and Yuka being very cute and fashionably dressed, was an experience he had never had before.

Long live the Shinto sect!

“No, no! I want to quit!” Ten minutes later, in a private room at a yakiniku restaurant in the same alley they had turned into from Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Fatty wanted to apostatize.

“Be quiet!” Horse Face frowned.

It wasn’t just Fatty. Except for Rabbit, who was in charge of communication and knew the news in advance, everyone else was very scared.

The Shinto sect had provoked the “Lord of Kyoto,” driving a yokai to Kyoto, and had finally angered that noble existence.

On top of the Kyushu Shinto Lord, six Kasen, and a group of experts, Minamoto Kiyomoto and the Ise Miko had also been dispatched.

The Divine Medium, who was inseparable from Minamoto Kiyomoto, had naturally also joined the extermination team.

The divine might of the Divine Medium evaporating the sea in Shikoku in July was still firmly imprinted in everyone’s minds.

The Ise Miko rarely acted, but in the battle of Hakone, she had killed a Kasen with one move. Who would dare to provoke her?

Even the most inconspicuous of the three, Minamoto Kiyomoto, was a monster who had defeated Ashiya Doman, become a Kasen in half a year, and could turn into a yokai.

The red-gold dragon that descended like light from the sky on that foggy night in Kyoto also remained in their minds.

And now, the Shinto sect was actually gathering everyone to take this opportunity to deal a heavy blow to the government, completely intimidate the “Lord of Kyoto,” and take Kyushu.

It was unclear whether the higher-ups’ plan would succeed, but they, the low-level practitioners, would definitely be evaporated one by one.

It was like when people eat fruit; they don’t check each one to see if there are fruit worms inside.

They were the fruit worms. No, maybe they didn’t even count as fruit worms—fruit worms could, on extremely rare occasions, cause diarrhea.

Such insignificant beings were actually going to participate in such a grand battle. Besides apostasy, what else could they do?
But, whether it was Fatty who shouted in fear or the calm and composed monk, they all knew that besides going, there was no other way.

This world no longer had a place for them.

“What about over there?” Yuka asked Rabbit.

Rabbit understood her meaning. Both of them had a crush on Turdidae and were always talking about what he looked like.

Yuka, with her rich experience—actually, only her hand experience was rich—had determined that Turdidae was still a virgin and concluded that he didn’t have a girlfriend yet.

“He’s the president’s responsibility,” Rabbit replied.

Now everyone knew who they were talking about.

“We’ll be able to see him this time, right?” Yuka asked again.

“Not necessarily,” Koi took a sip of beer. “He’s still in school, and he’s the heir to the ‘agency’. He might not have to participate.”

“No,” Rabbit smiled. “The president said he’ll have him come.”

“My little brother is coming too?” Fatty stuffed a large piece of meat into his mouth. “If he’s here, I might be able to survive!”

“Don’t get your hopes up. Give it your all,” Monkey took a drag from his cigarette. “In that kind of situation… even the president might not survive.”

The crowd fell silent.

Fatty cried as he ate large mouthfuls of meat, preparing to go to Kabukicho later.

It wasn’t just them. All the groups in the Shinto sect had received the news—they had to arrive in Izumo City, Shimane Prefecture, before the end of the month.

◇

The internal code name was ‘Kannazuki’, meaning that in this tenth month, besides Shimane Prefecture, there would be no Shinto sect personnel in all of Japan.

“Interesting,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said with a smile, placing the letter on the table.

As the great general of the subjugation, the inside information he received was even more detailed.

Not only did it have the gathering point and time, but also the step-by-step plans of the group leaders.

In the letter, Itomi Sayaka also mentioned that she had recently eaten the white jade red bean paste from in front of Izumo-taisha and found it delicious, recommending that he try it.

He even has a grasp on the group leaders’ meals!

“White jade red bean paste, huh,” Himegami Izayoi imagined what the dessert looked like.

“No wonder the Shinto sect has the confidence to be provocative,” Kamibayashi Miko picked up the letter and read it again.

The main point of the letter, of course, was not some white jade red bean paste.

The Shinto sect had obtained the “Demon Body Spell” from Hokkaido, secretly sponsored by the “Taiko.”

With the “Demon Body Spell” and the remains of the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon, they could create a degraded version of the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon without any intelligence.

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s two yokai were both ‘town-level’. Even so, fusing with one-sixth of them still gave him the strength of a Kasen.

The Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon was ‘prefecture-level’, a demon recorded in mythology.

It was said to be the incarnation of the Yellow Springs and had once ravaged Japan.

It was not until Izanami, who had learned the supreme thunder magic from ancient China and further developed it into the Eight Gods of Thunder through her talent, that it was killed.

Izanami, known as the mother goddess, had cultivation that reached the heavens and the earth. Her status in Japan was similar to that of Nuwa in China.

The act of killing the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon was like the legend of Nuwa mending the sky.

Not long after Izanami killed the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon, she also died due to the divine energy of the Yellow Springs.

Her husband, Izanagi—known as the father god—was left to guard Japan alone and without support. So he took out his left eye, planted a spell in it, and gave it to his daughter.

The daughter who received this left eye possessed incredible capacity and divine power. This was the first generation of the Divine Medium.

A yokai that could be traced back to such a distant era, even if it was just a resurrection of its remains, was a huge disaster.

The only good news was that, in order to forge the nails to control the yokai, only one piece of the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon’s remains was left.

Itomi Sayaka also brought another piece of intelligence: the person who had helped the leader of Group One, Sara Sanae, forge the nails was none other than Ama-no-ma-hitotsu.

It was said that a secret forging technique was exchanged.

This couldn’t help but make one think of the starry sky liquid that Ama-no-ma-hitotsu had presented at the Bon Festival.

“Where there is light, there must be darkness. Light and shadow are inseparable,” Himegami Izayoi said with a laugh.

Minamoto Kiyomoto glanced at her. Recently, he had learned that two of her subjects—the shrine maiden of Izumo-taisha and Ama-no-ma-hitotsu—were either members of the Shinto sect or had connections to it. He wondered how she, as Her Majesty, felt about this.

Oh, and there was the “Taiko” who had given the Demon Body Spell to the Shinto sect.

Half-dead old men were indeed sinister characters.

The “Taiko” was probably in Hokkaido right now, enjoying the snow scenery, eating freshly caught crabs, and watching the excitement in Kansai.

“Nine Kasen, one piece of the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon’s remains, and maybe a town-level yokai,” Minamoto Kiyomoto tallied the Shinto sect’s combat strength.

“The Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon and the yokai can’t be truly controlled. To avoid hurting their own people, the other side won’t use them easily,” Kamibayashi Miko said.

Even Minamoto Kiyomoto needed a little bit of luck to succeed, and that was with ‘town-level’ remains. Even all the people in the history of the Shinto sect couldn’t turn the ‘prefecture-level’ Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon into a demon body.

They could only let the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon devour a life and turn into a mindless monster—the raw material for the nails was the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon’s remains, so it couldn’t control the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon.

“Then shall we do as they say?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

In the letter, Itomi Sayaka had explained the Shinto sect’s plan.

Using the ‘town-level’ yokai and the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon as a threat, they wanted to hold a one-on-one duel with them—seven matches, the first to win four would be the victor.

If Minamoto Kiyomoto won, the Shinto sect would destroy the nails.
If the Shinto sect won, they would hand over Kyushu.

“I’ll take one match, Miko will take one, and the Kyushu Shinto Lord can probably win one. That leaves two more. Are you confident?” Himegami Izayoi asked him with a smile.

“If we lose, we can just go back on our word,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said nonchalantly.

“Didn’t the letter say,” Kamibayashi Miko tossed the letter aside, “that the Shinto sect will broadcast this duel worldwide through the practitioner network?”

“Oh my,” Himegami Izayoi clapped her hands. “Then your little sister Yuki will be able to see you. If you lose, Brother Kiyomoto will be embarrassed.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto gave her an irritated glance, and Himegami Izayoi let out a cheerful laugh.

He said to the two of them:
“We will ‘inadvertently’ encounter the other side. It will be a sudden situation. If they really use the yokai and the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon to threaten us, we can only agree. As long as we win, it’s fine.”

“The other side will probably send their two weakest members to face me and Miko,” Himegami Izayoi said.

“They will most likely surrender immediately,” Minamoto Kiyomoto nodded.

“The situation with the Kyushu Shinto Lord’s match will probably be similar,” Himegami Izayoi picked up a pistachio and ate it.

“As long as they avoid the three of us, the other side’s top three group leaders can probably win three matches with 100% certainty.”

“Three to three, with one match left.”

“Since the other side dared to propose a duel, they should have a sure-win strategy for this match.”

“Does the Shinto sect have any other experts?”

The two looked at each other and laughed at the same time, understanding the Shinto sect’s plan.

At that time, the Shinto sect would just need to push someone up, teach them the ‘Demon Body Spell’ and give them the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon’s remains.

A yokai equivalent to a ‘half-town-level’ one… how could an ordinary Kasen be its opponent?

“No wonder the Shinto sect, despite having nine group leaders, is only holding seven matches,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said with a laugh.

“Even if they held nine matches, with a five-win rule, the other side would still be guaranteed four wins. Their win rate would still be higher than ours,” Himegami Izayoi put down the pistachio and took a sip of wine.

“Then let’s have seven matches. I’ll take the last one,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said proudly.

“No,” Kamibayashi Miko vetoed.

A spell is both power and a restraint. The ‘Demon Body Spell’ is the same.

It can give a person the power of a yokai, but it can only exert the power that the yokai should have.

Minamoto Kiyomoto could rival a Kasen with the remains, and with his own spells, he could even defeat the newly resurrected Ashiya Doman, but that was the extent of it.

The amount of divine energy in the remains was fixed.

His two pieces couldn’t compare to the Yellow Springs Demonic Dragon.

“If he wants to try, let him try,” Himegami Izayoi said with a smile, peeling a pistachio. “With us here, do you need to worry about him getting into trouble?”

“That’s right, that’s right, Miss Kamibayashi. Let me try? Besides, besides you two, which of the remaining Kasen can compare to me?”

“As you wish,” she said. “No matter what I say, you won’t listen anyway.”

She was angry.

“I do listen,” Minamoto Kiyomoto picked up the wine and poured it into her glass. “Aren’t I asking for your opinion? If I can’t convince you, I definitely won’t—no, I can’t participate.”

Kamibayashi Miko watched the purple-red liquid slowly fill the white wine glass.

“You’re willing to die for the people of the world. What’s it for me to take a little risk for the people of Kyushu? If I don’t take this risk, how can I be worthy of you?” Minamoto Kiyomoto said with great passion.

Kamibayashi Miko glanced at him, her expression saying—Are you doing this for Kyushu? I can’t even be bothered to expose you.

“I can’t hide anything from you,” Minamoto Kiyomoto put down the wine bottle and said with a smile. “I won’t say any more. If you allow me to participate, I will. If you say no, I absolutely won’t say another word.”

Taking advantage of the ten minutes when she couldn’t speak, he quickly peeled pistachios for her and cut some cheese.

“All you know is fighting and competing,” after ten minutes, Kamibayashi Miko chided faintly.

She gave him an irritated glare, picked up her wine glass, and took a sip.

“I’ve changed my mind. I won’t allow you to participate,” Himegami Izayoi looked at the two with a smile and put a shelled pistachio between her lips.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Aren’t we on the same team?” Minamoto Kiyomoto said.

“Among the three of us, are you and I on the same team?” Himegami Izayoi tilted her head and asked.

“In this matter, you and I are on the same team,” Minamoto Kiyomoto corrected.

“Then I don’t agree,” Himegami Izayoi turned her face away.

“Big sister~” Minamoto Kiyomoto massaged her shoulders and back.

“Hmph,” Himegami Izayoi tilted her head up, revealing her slender, swan-like neck.

“Good big sister,” Minamoto Kiyomoto leaned close to her ear, “let me go.”

“Pfft!” This code word made Himegami Izayoi burst out laughing.

She turned around, her face a little red, and punched Minamoto Kiyomoto’s chest.

“There are other people here. Don’t talk nonsense,” she said coquettishly.

“So can I go now?”

“Go, go.”

This time, it was Kamibayashi Miko’s turn to watch the two of them from the side, eating pistachios.