CH 25.1

The half-youkai white fox girl... Shiro fidgeted and glanced outside through the oxcart's curtain.

There is still no sign of anyone at the entrance to the dark underground tunnels, even to her, a half-youkai, whose senses are far more acute than those of humans. It makes the girl's tail and ears wilt with a worried expression on her face.

"Oh my, oh my? Are you so worried that you won't eat the sweets I prepared for you?"

At the sound of her voice, Shiro turns her head. Inside the oxcart, which is unusually spacious compared to the size seen from the outside because it has been transformed into a "stray house," Shiro sees a girl sitting on a cushion in the center of the oxcart, picking a bowl of brown sugar from a bowl in her hand while sitting on the cushion and resting on the side of the cushion.

Kizuki Aoi... that was the name of the white fox's Lord, who was young, bewitching, and elegant in her luxurious clothes.

...and also the Lord of the young man whom Shiro is worried about right now.

"B-because...!! The one who's coming with him is... Hamu!?"

The white fox tries to respond to her lord's words as she rushes to the beckoning hand, but her words are blocked by the brown sugar that has been shoved into her mouth. The refined sweetness of the brown sugar spreads in her mouth. With a little dissatisfaction and a little more excitement from the sweetness, she bites into the brown sugar, swallows it, and spins her words again.

"That person, who is accompanying him, was with Tomobe-san the other day...!"

Shiro had noticed. At that time, at that meeting, that girl with purple hair was clearly wielding a sword with the intent to kill him. And if the Lord in front of her hadn't stopped the blade just in time...

"Hehehe, you're right. That was a bit much, was it? But that was partly because I encouraged her a little too much. So, forgive me?"

Aoi childishly says while covering her mouth with her white hand, which is already covered with the wound due to her original shallowness, the robustness of her body as an exorcist, and the many expensive medicines.

"U... Ugh..."

When she apologized like that, Shiro couldn't pursue it further because of the absolute difference between their positions.

She also somehow knew what was going on. The conversation after Tomobe was out of the room... the content of the conversation itself was one thing, but more than that, there was something strange about the tone of her voice, and she sensed from what might be called a sixth sense that the strange hostility at the last fight.

Though, there was no proof...

"Um... aren't you worried about Tomobe-san, Princess?"

Shiro asks fearfully. She has been serving this lord for several months now, and in that time, she has seen the Lord in front of her show her all sorts of meanness towards the young man, both major and minor. On the other hand, there is a strange softness to him, and she also understands that there is no clear malice in him. No, or perhaps it is...

That's why Shiro is puzzled. She wonders why she is so mean to him, then.

"...he's so mean."

"Huh...?"

Kizuki Aoi's words left Shiro puzzled. She did not understand the meaning of those words. At least as far as she could remember, the young man who looked like a big brother didn't seem to have any aspects that could be called that mean.

"Don't you think he has a bad character? He is the kind of person who doesn't feed the fish he catches. Moreover, he's always trying to get into someone else's heart, but he stubbornly closes his own heart and refuses to show it to others."

Shiro could only give an ambiguous expression to these words. Although she used to be a monster fox who had lived for hundreds of years, she had lived her life as a youkai, so she did not have a deep understanding of the subtleties of the human race.

No, she had been taught by her stepsister and lord, who was a calamity youkai, how to disguise herself as a beautiful woman and seduce a foolish man, but she had no way of knowing the reverse. Moreover, it was not easy for her to understand Aoi's words since her body and mind had regressed to her childhood, not to mention her memories.

"It's selfish of me, but he won't show me his true self. Then it can't be helped. I'll just have to accept his words like a child and let him do his best. Of course, I'll make sure he's safe, though."

Aoi giggles, covering her mouth with her sleeve again, and lets out a laugh. She looked like a young mischievous child, but at the same time, she seemed to be a lustrous and lewd adult woman, and a delusional maniac. Shiro gulps at the atmosphere and shivers.

"Hehehe, there's nothing to be afraid of. He won't be taken away and eaten. Just..."

Just, that means you are just a prop for his foil, though she didn't go as far as to say so. She knew it would happen anyway, even if she didn't say it.

Yes. Because she was sure of it, seeing the expression on the white fox girl's face when she was protected by him from the vicious and cruel monster fox. Though she was still too young to be aware of it, she was sure that it was...

"...he's really a terrible man, isn't he?"

The girl's mouth was twisted into a smile of amusement and ecstasy as she cursed him.

...correctly, it was the smile of a woman madly in love.

* * *

The original game 'Firefly of the Dark Night (Yamiyo no Hotaru)' has a wide variety of bad endings, but to be honest, if only the main character and her surroundings suffer from the bad endings, it is quite heartwarming.

In almost half of the bad endings filled with despair, which are said to reach three digits, not only the main characters suffer from death, but also Fuso-kuni itself collapses.

In some of these endings, a large number of "youkai" who have simultaneously emerged from the underground water supply contribute to the collapse of the country. If some countermeasures are not taken, more than ten thousand youkai will rise up here and there in the capital from the underground waterworks at the end of the game. The Inner Palace and the Inner Capital are well defended by the Imperial Guard, the warriors, and exorcists who are in the capital, and they will eventually exterminate the youkai despite the damage they cause... but the majority of the residents of the capital, in other words, the lower-middle class people, will be devoured by the uprising in considerable numbers.

...rather, I don't think it's necessary to make a movie in which the people fleeing one after another is brutally eaten and killed. It's not even erotic, it's grotesque violence. Why do they make that part of the movie in theatrical quality?

And in this attack, a large number of youkai were gathered together by one of the top leaders of the former Kuuban's army who had been hiding in the underground waterways of the capital for many years, a being with the ability to give birth to, raise, and subdue youkai, referred to in the movie as 'youkai mother'.

The identity of this creature, whose name is given only as "youkai mother," has been a matter of debate among fans for many years, even though it is visually represented in side stories and other media. According to the few descriptions, it is said that she originally came to Fuso-kuni after being defeated in battle from the distant Empire of the West in Nanban, that she was originally a being who fell from a higher divine position, and that she was one of the first youkai to emerge, etc. Therefore, without mentioning her abilities or personality, it has been suggested that her model might come from Gaia of Greek mythology.

...regardless of her true identity, her power is wicked, and her personality is one of the most outrageous in the work. She is also a pure enemy character without a heroine flag.

No, there are many service scenes. To begin with, she is always in a service scene since she is completely naked. But, speaking paradoxically, that is the only service scene.

When the original main character is involved with this horrifying monster, it is almost certain to be a grotesque scene in which he is munched from the head while being spoiled by youkai mother through hypnosis. Even if the situation is a little better, the main character is forced to have a b*stiality, bug-r*pe, gang-r*pe, and humiliation party by her children after being played with tentacles by youkai mother, and is degraded to a b*tch even though he is a man. Yikes, who's gotten benefits from this?

And the most outrageous thing is her character. Her maternal love is genuine, but the form of her love is so distorted, bizarre, and horrifying. She seems to be able to communicate with others, but she is not at all. Her sense of values is at a level that makes one think of Blue Demon and White Fox as being relatively sane. Thanks to this, even in the doujin industry, only works with too maniacal tastes are being created... So, stop it, don't let her distort your taste.

Now, the question is what is going to happen next. While I'm thinking about it, the group of me, Ako Murasaki, and the three guides who were going deeper into the underground tunnels... a total of five people, naturally, it was too unrealistic to do anything about youkai mother in this state. That's exactly what I’m saying...

"Haaa...!!"

Right in front of me, Ako Murasaki slices a huge worm-like creature that emerges from the sewage into small pieces. The creature, which was as close to a medium youkai as possible, would normally have required at least ten soldiers to take it on, but it was powerless against a girl of only thirteen years of age. But still...

(Yes, even if there were real exorcists like Ako Murasaki, there's no way...)

While appreciating her power, I bitterly assert that.

Ako Murasaki is indeed strong. Even if she is far from her family, even if she lacks experience in actual battles, still her power is something that no exorcist family with a few generations of history, not to mention defective or stray exorcists, could ever compete with her. But even so... her physical and spiritual strength is far too weak to take on the army of the crazy youkai.

In fact, when the main character and Murasaki explored this underground waterway. There were many video clips uploaded on video sites showing how to complete this quest with max level, max equipment, and max items possessed, but in the end, it was all in vain.

The large army of "youkai" kept appearing even after defeating them, and the following groups became more and more powerful, and by the end of the verification video, a lot of enemies whose parameters were almost the same as those of the main characters began to encounter the main characters. Some of the players found a hidden route to get to the front of the "youkai mother" at once, but that is also within the malicious intention of the creators. Yeah, I don't understand the point of having a bad ending movie start without even being allowed to fight (and the quality of the movie was high and erotic for nothing).

"What are you waiting for? Let's hurry up and go."

The voice of Ako Murasaki ahead of me brought me back to reality. In front of me is an exorcist girl looking at me with a grim expression...

"...I'm sorry. I was just thinking."

"Thinking? You've got some nerve. I am surprised that you have time to think about something else when you are competing with me and you haven't even defeated one of youkai since a while ago. I've been underestimated...!!"

Murasaki is in a bad mood at my words. No, she's the one who always makes the first one-punch kill every time she sees an enemy. Besides, I'm not strong enough to kill youkai with one hit, okay?

"Please don't be mean. There is no way for me to move at a speed so fast that I don't even have time to move. In fact, I think that the game was decided at that time."

What I'm going to mention is the incident at the Oumi family's house the other day. To be honest, she was at too much of a disadvantage in that battle.

Even though she had better equipment, including a youkai sword, she had too many restrictions in that fight. I could give my all, but she could kill me if she gave her all, and she could cause a lot of damage to the people around her. But it would be a disaster if her attack hit an unrelated person in the house. After all, if she had done her best, the damage would not have been limited to the garden of the mansion.

Nevertheless, I had some, but not direct, prior knowledge of her fighting style, habits, and weaknesses, and she used only a sword while I used a series of small tricks. So, the difference in experience in actual combat goes without saying.

Still, the scary thing was that even then, I was clearly outclassed by a girl of only 13 years old in terms of physical strength. Even with all the advantages I had, I was on the verge of getting my head smashed in. As expected. Exorcists aren't human.

"No, the match has not been decided since my cousin ordered us to stop before the last game. Or do you disagree with your Lord's decision?"

Ako Murasaki looks at me accusingly.

"No, but... without wishing to slander the honor of my Lord, I doubt if we should take her words at face value."

"That's for me to decide. It is not for you, an uneducated and illiterate servant, to decide. Am I wrong?"

"...I agree."

It is true that the exorcists do not expect their servants to play any more than a chore, hunting small fry, or even a litmus paper against monsters with unknown abilities... These are not the words of a man who is so eager to get his hands on someone like that.

(It was the same with the original main character...)

It is not that she does not know where the main character comes from... but nevertheless, he is only the son of a local village headman, with no history as a family of exorcism. And because of that, she seems to look down on him, but in fact, she is desperately looking at him as her rival.

After all, she is a person who cannot afford to lose. Even though her abilities are far superior to those of the numerous exorcists, she is surrounded by many exceptional monsters, which only makes her feel inferior to them. And because of this, she strives hard, and at the same time, she is proud of her inferiority complex. But it is because of fear and impatience. She is afraid that those who are supposed to be below her will threaten her own abilities. On the other hand, it also means that she lacks self-confidence.

(And that is fatal to this route... now, what to do?)