NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7 – First Meeting
The west youkai walked to us and Yasaka greeted my old man.
“Nurarihyon-yo, it’s good that you arrive here in time.” Said Yasaka.
My old man put his left arm inside his kimono and picked his pipe from his pocket and put it on his mouth to inhale some smoke. He exhaled it in the air and answered Yasaka.
“Of course, well who do we have here? Is she your daughter?” My old man, biting the pipe in his mouth touched his chin as he leaned his head towards Kunou.
Kunou got surprised by my old man and hid behind Yasaka in fear. But she peeked her head sometimes because of his curiosity.
“Yes, she is. Her name is Kunou. I thought that I want to introduce her to you, but it seems that she’s scared of you.”
I approached my old man and use this chance to pay him back. “Look at her scared of you, old man. I guess your charms mean nothing in front of a little girl.”
He grumbled in displeasure and stood straight before he said. “It was because Yasaka’s daughter is shy!”
Yasaka, finally noticed my existence asked my old man. “Nurarihyon, is he your son? He certainly didn’t look like you, especially his hair.”
Oh, right. Because I was in my human form right now, my hair didn’t stand straight like my old man. Instead, it dropped down until it reached my back and I tied it using a rubber band to keep it tidy.
“Oi, Riku. Come to think of it, change into your youkai form!”
Although it was annoying to follow my old man’s word, I decided to follow his whim for now and changed into my youkai form. White smoke with a mythical aura appeared around me as I changed into my youkai form. Still in my stripped green and black kimono, my hair straightened and stood like my old man and my height increased a little. My bang also got longer and messier.
It’s strange, I am only 120cm in my human form, but whenever I changed into youkai form, my height increased by 10cm. I guess it will stay like that until I hit the adult phase. If I remember correctly, Nura Rikuo in Nurarihyon no Mago is also likes that.
After my transformation was done, I said to my old man. “Satisfied?”
Like my old man, I crossed my arms inside my kimono, letting my kimono’s sleeves wave around because of the wind.
“He’s really similar to you, isn’t he, Nurarihyon? Well, let’s proceed to our meeting because this time we faced something rather disturbing for our race.” Yasaka said in a serious tone as she put her hand above Kunou’s head.
“Kunou, can you play with the big brother over there? Mother has something important to do right now.” She said as she looked in my direction.
‘Wait a minute, lady. You wanted me to babysit Kunou when you have a meeting? We just meet though, how can you trust me that easily?’ I thought inside my mind.
Kunou peeked at me from behind Yasaka’s clothes as she gripped on Yasaka’s kimono. She looked up to her mother and said. “Un! Kunou will play with big brother!”
Oh, I see she took a liking to me immediately.
“It seems she’s not scared of me, old man. Are you sure you have the charm that you speak of?” I looked up to my old man and give him my biggest smile.
“Tch, you are popular with a little kid. Look at Yasaka, she heads over heel towards me!” Following what he said, I looked over at Yasaka who looked at my old man in disgust.
I looked back to my old man and tilted my head. “Really?”
My question hit him hard that he smacked my head with his fist. I shouted at him because of that. “Damn you, old man!!”
I called my katana and unsheathed it and was about to slash my old man before I stopped because I heard a giggle from Yasaka’s direction.
I saw Kunou giggling from behind Yasaka and we stopped immediately to look at her.
“Mother, he’s funny!”
I looked at my old man for a second before looking at Kunou again. I approached them slowly and I crouched in front of her to match her gaze as I extended my right hand.
“Let’s play together, Kunou.”
Kunou shyly extended her left hand and grabbed my hand after stepping out from behind her mother. I walked in hand with Kunou and approached Tsura then I said to my old man.
“Old man, I will play with Tsura and Kunou. You do your meeting without me.” I saw him nodded and we walked away from their location.
Because it was still dark, I asked Kunou where she wanted to play and she said that she wanted to play in her room. I asked her to bring us to her room and she happily nodded before running while holding my hand.
The three of us were playing in Kunou’s room for hours until the sun has risen. We changed our play location into the back of the shrine. We play tag with Tsura as Oni and chased Kunou and me. Unfortunately for her, I used my Fear to hide from her.
I know it’s childish of me, but I don’t want to lose while playing tag with a child. Tsura managed to tag Kunou and she purposely run towards me.
‘Did she use her Senjutsu to feel my location? This is bad!’
Realizing that Tsura somehow managed to know my location, I run away from them and went into a mountain near the shrine. After entering the mountain deep enough, I stopped on my track and looked back only to see no one behind me.
It seems that I run faster than I thought and left Tsura and Kunou alone in the shrine.
I run back to go down the mountain, but I can’t seem to remember the location of the shrine.
“Could it be, I am lost?”
This is a situation, all right. For now, let’s go down the mountain and ask someone the location of the shrine. I hope I can find a kind youkai below the mountain that knew the location of Yasaka’s shrine.
When I was about to run down the mountain, I heard a weak voice calling out from the bushes in my left.
“…help.”
I turned around instantly when I heard the voice and rushed towards it. I parted the bushes that were in the way and found a girl with black hair and a pair of cat ears laid on the ground weakly.
I observed the girl carefully and saw 2 black cat tails from above her butt. At that moment, I realize who was laying in front of me.
‘Kuroka!’
