Kawakita Saika, Someone from Qingqiu Back in the Day!

"Who?" The old man was startled.

He turned his head.

A young man in dress pants and a shirt stepped forward several paces.

A shirt button was missing, exposing a portion of his chest.

Many lipstick marks still stained the skin there.

A black tie hung loosely around his neck.

He fished around in his suit pocket, pulled out a crumpled police ID card, and hung it around his neck.

Fang Zuo, who had been standing off to the side, was long past the point of patience.

"Tokyo Exorcism Preparedness Unit, Fujino." Fang Zuo lifted the card hanging on his neck and flicked it casually. "These two girls are my maidservants. We're about to sign the contract."

"If you don't wish to die too horribly, you'd best put them down."

The old man narrowed his eyes, calculations running rapidly in his mind.

Since activating his divine abilities, he hadn't sensed another person present.

Just who was this young man?

Fujino? An officer of the Tokyo Exorcism Preparedness Unit?

Could an ordinary officer possess this kind of power?

Ridiculous!

"Ano… which Onmyoji family does the esteemed gentleman hail from?" The old man adopted an amiable expression. "This humble one is the Fifth Heavenly Man of Mount Asahidake…"

"Don't try to get friendly," Fang Zuo cut him off impatiently. "And what 'Heavenly Man'? A mangy cur like you has the face to call himself a Heavenly Man?"

"Unable to be a decent human, merging with a demonic carcass… now you're neither man nor demon."

"Three parts human soul, seven parts demonic spirit. A hybrid abomination like you dares call himself Heavenly?"

"You!" The old man's kindly facade cracked, revealing a ferocious snarl before slowly smoothing back over.

The young man had laid bare his origins with a single sentence, filling him with deep apprehension.

All the Onmyoji families believed him to be Tengu-born, a natural-born Demon King.

Only he knew the truth of his secret.

He was merely a monk hunted during Japan's Warring States period who accidentally acquired the corpse of a Tengu demon.

Desperate for the power to annihilate his enemies, he had chosen to abandon his human body and merge with the Tengu demon carcass.

His current state was precisely as the youth described.

Human soul and demonic spirit locked in a relentless, irreconcilable struggle.

Neither fully man nor fully demon.

Enduring the agony of his soul tearing itself apart daily, only consuming stronger demonic souls could finally suppress the human part and allow him to become a true Tengu.

A true Demon King.

The Tamamo-no-Mae before him was precisely such an opportunity.

A divine opportunity.

The reincarnated soul of a Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox was right before him.

The value of this demonic soul could shake all the demonic factions and Onmyoji families of Japan to their core.

Drive them mad.

Devouring her would propel him to the next level. He would become the First Heavenly Man, not the Fifth! All other Tengu would fall behind him!

The heavens favored him! This trace of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox had fallen into his hands!

The instant he received the news, he had rushed from Hokkaido.

Then… everything had proceeded so smoothly.

Except for this confounding young man.

He was only one step away.

"So ka! Take them." The old man suppressed his fury, forcing a smile. "Take them both."

He released his grip.

The catgirl sisters slumped to the ground.

"But her… I take with me." The old man pointed at Kawakita Saika.

"You can try." Fang Zuo shrugged. "With just your pocket-dimension divine ability?"

The old man's eyes sharpened. He waved a hand.

Nothing happened.

He waved again.

Still nothing.

"Care to try again?" Fang Zuo rubbed his chin.

The old man snorted coldly. Suddenly, his mouth gaped impossibly wide.

The corners of his mouth tore open horizontally, peeling back grotesquely to reveal the densely packed, razor-sharp teeth.

A blood-crimson tongue, thick with barbs, whipped out from his maw towards Fang Zuo.

Simultaneously, countless teeth launched from within his mouth like a hurricane of deadly projectiles.

A torrent aimed squarely at Fang Zuo's location.

Fang Zuo simply closed his fist.

Space quivered.

In the next instant,

Fang Zuo vanished, reappearing directly in front of Kawakita Saika.

At the same moment, the catgirl sisters disappeared from near the old man's feet, reappearing beside Kawakita Saika.

The old man snapped his head sideways.

WHOOSH!

The blood-red tongue cracked the air like a whip.

Its speed intensified mid-flight, curving sharply to strike Fang Zuo.

Fang Zuo pinched his fingers together into a seal. A beam of golden light shot from his fingertip.

Shooting forth like a blade,

It sliced the blood-red tongue cleanly in half.

"Ungh!" The old man grunted, stumbling back several steps.

His monstrous mouth retracted the bleeding stump.

Black blood gushed from the wound.

The beam of golden light, its momentum undimmed, continued its trajectory towards him.

The old man blurred, attempting to dodge, but it was too late.

The beam sheared off half his head.

He howled in agony.

His remaining eye swiveling in its socket, he fixed his gaze on the middle-aged couple.

The couple had already stopped weeping. They were frantically stuffing blood-stained yen notes into bundles made from their discarded jackets.

The old man lunged, his massive jaws opening like a trap door.

He engulfed both in a single bite.

Blood sprayed violently as he closed his mouth on them.

Screams cut short, he tilted back his half-shattered skull.

He chewed brutally several times and swallowed.

The missing portion of his head reformed visibly before their eyes.

With a thunderous roar, the old man's body swelled violently.

His samurai robe exploded into shreds.

Muscles bulged, veins writhed like snakes under his skin.

He transformed into a ten-meter-tall, winged monstrosity: a savage, yellow-furred canine beast with a crow's beak.

Another earth-shaking roar erupted from his avian maw.

Dozens of invisible wind blades shot towards Fang Zuo.

Fang Zuo clenched his fist once more.

The wind blades froze in mid-air, dissolving harmlessly into nothing.

He then traced patterns in the air with his finger.

The ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth coalesced, forming a spiritual talisman taller than a man.

SHOOOM!

It plastered itself onto the beast's forehead.

"​​Restrain!​​" Fang Zuo commanded.

The talisman flashed. Solid ropes of condensed spiritual energy materialized, lashing around the giant yellow beast, binding it securely.

"I'll give you one chance." Fang Zuo raised a finger, ringed with swirling golden light. "Answer correctly, and I spare your wretched life."

The yellow beast whined, eyes filled with desperate pleading, nodding vigorously.

"Who taught you your Soul-Shedding Method?" Fang Zuo asked coolly. "This is a Taoist Soul-Shedding, Body-Seizing technique. You couldn't possibly know it. Who taught you?"

The yellow beast's eyes showed only profound confusion. It shook its huge head.

A needle-thin beam of golden light shot from Fang Zuo's fingertip.

It pierced clean through the beast's throat.

A wet, gurgling whimper was choked off.

The beast struggled feebly for a moment.

Fell.

Dead.

Fang Zuo extended his hand in a grasping motion.

A streak of black light and a fist-sized, glowing yellow orb burst from the beast's ruptured belly, flying directly into Fang Zuo's palm.

Snap

Fang Zuo snapped his fingers.

The cacophony of the city instantly slammed back.

Traffic roared, pedestrians chattered, neon lights blazed.

Reality snapped back into place.

Fang Zuo and the others found themselves inside the dilapidated single-story house.

The catgirl sisters, overwhelmed by the Tengu's demonic aura, remained unconscious.

Kawakita Saika lay pale on the floor, curled on her side.

Her fluffy white fox tail still pinned to the ground by the bloody half-tongue stub.

Fang Zuo flicked a finger.

The grisly remnant of tongue turned to ash and vanished.

He knelt beside her, carefully lifting the silky white fox tail in both hands.

It felt incredibly soft and voluminous.

He gave it a firm, testing squeeze.

Supple, yielding, and boneless. The texture was exquisite.

Like cotton. Uncannily like… a breast?

Fang Zuo paused. How could it have no bones?

Suspicious, he squeezed again.

Then again, methodically testing the tail, circling his grip from the tip upwards, inch by inch.

All the way up to the root at the base of her spine.

Finally, his hand lingered for a moment on the soft curve of her buttock.

The root of the tail was the most private and sensitive spot for a fox of the huli jing lineage.

Kawakita Saika's whole body jerked violently.

Her deathly pale face flushed crimson.

Her beautiful eyes glistened, pools of liquid, fixed intently on Fang Zuo.

Her red lips parted slightly, her breathing steadily deepening.

A single, slender, glistening strand of drool slowly dangled from the corner of her mouth.

Fang Zuo gently reached out and wiped it away with his thumb.

"Do you know why your name is Kawakita Saika?" His voice was low.

"'North of the River Si,'" he paused, his gaze unwavering on hers, "'in Qingqiu, there bloomed colorful flowers.'"

He gave her exquisitely carved cheek a soft pat.

"From now on, I'll protect you. Fellow countryman."

"I have many questions for you."