General that Inspire Fear - Nura Rihan, Part 1

Right after passing the ward a wooden style portal stands with its wall surrounding the Nura Clan home. On the other side was a Japanese style house in the format of a square with its middle hollowed. Two wings exited from the right side with one of them having a connection to another building.

As the group walked in silence, Damon and Jeanne took the sights, marveling about the colorful trees and small ponds that filled the residence.

"We're here, this is a good place to drink." Rihan points to a patch of grass shadowed by a large tree next to a bigger pond. He sits down and servers sake in three sakazukis (small ceramic cups).

"Thank you!" The couple answers at the same while sitting down to enjoy the quiet atmosphere.

It continues like that for some time until Rihan starts talking again.

"So, what would you like to know about our clan?"

"We were just interested in the Night Parade," Jeanne says.

"Truthfully, we heard that youkais went around killing and eating humans in other regions but nothing like that about your activities. The only thing you guys do is scare people."

Damon knows that the Nura Clan don't condone the killing of innocents, what he wants to know is why it was happening in other cities while Kyoto and Osaka are completely safe.

"Well, there's a reason for that. It's true that decades, maybe even centuries ago such a thing was normal. My father never participated in the wantonly killing of humans but never went out of his way to stop others from doing," say Rihan with the same carefree expression from the beginning. "That changed however when my father met my mother. You see, I'm half-human."

"Oh, that's interesting. However, you feel completely youkai," starts Jeanne, before continuing. "Does your Youkai blood suppress you human blood?"

"No, when I was younger I had problems with my youkai form. I spent the day as a human and the nights as a Youkai," Rihan pauses to sip on his sake. "However, that was long ago. I fully combine my youkai and human forms together and this is the result. But let's go back to the story.

So my father, Nurarihyon, fell in love with my mother, Yōhime and as a consequence banned the killing of innocent humans and the hunting of them. It wasn't easy, there were those that didn't want to follow this order. A group of youkais at the time had the brilliant idea of kidnaping my mother and well, it didn't end up good for them. Thanks to this incident no one else questioned the order.

Now, there were still those that didn't follow what my father wanted but those people left the clan before doing so or weren't part of it, to begin with. In that case, there wasn't too much we could do for they were outside our authority.

At that time the title Supreme Commander only worked for those of the Nura Clan and our vassals. If a youkai caused trouble in our territory we could deal with but outside of it... However, that changed again a few years ago.

You see, a decade ago a Kyuubi youkai, named Yasaka, came to visit us and she brought with her a decree from Lady Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun."

'Ah, I see where this is going...' Thought Damon while Jeanne expressed her awe in knowing that another person received a Divine Message.

"In that decree, it stated that the Nura Clan were to help the Yasaka Clan in creating the Youkai Faction. This organization would span the entirety of Japan and every youkai that wanted to live here in peace would have to abide by the Faction's laws. As a recompense for helping, the Head of the Nura Clan would continue to be the Supreme Commander but this time it would be of all the military might of the youkai faction while Yasaka-san would be the Faction Leader and deal with the day-to-day operations.

My father of course accepted and banned the consumption and killing of innocent humans. Those that break the law become known as ayakashi and lose the faction protection, meaning anyone from any faction can hunt them down.

Now, about the Night Parade. Just because we kill humans doesn't mean we can't have fun scaring them. However, that's not the only reason for the Nura Clan to do it. You see, every youkai has chakra and the powerful one gains specific attributes to their chakra. Kitsunes and their Fox Fire are one example.

We of the Nura Clan have the attribute of Fear. The stronger the fear around us or of us, the stronger we get. So the Night Parades, besides a fun activity, also help us getting stronger."