Tanuki Rise of the Yokai Clan

Unlike the protagonist's weirdly shaped head, his appearance was relatively normal.

His pointed ears, slanted golden eyes with slit pupils, a violet crescent moon on his forehead that could be seen beneath his bangs, two magenta stripes on each cheek, and a magenta stripe on each eyelid gave a unique charm to his appearance.

If he wanted to, he could also hide those features, making his feature wasn't much different from a normal human.

However, as the descendant of Nurarihyon, the protagonist's shape of his head was weird. He had this oval, pointed shape of a skull on the back, giving him a strange appearance.

In the battle of appearance, without a doubt, Tamazuki won.

'Still, as expected of the protagonist...'

He noticed a heroine that could trigger his system among the protagonist group, making him even more annoyed at the protagonist.

Yet, no one thought that Tamazuki was thinking such a messy thing. Instead, the members of the Nura Clan had cautious and dignified expressions on their faces.

Gagoze, while his power might be weak among the executive members of the Nura Clan, his power along with his group wasn't bad, yet they were all massacred by this young youkai.

Still, while they were cautious, their pride was hurt at this moment.

All of them here came under the leadership of their young master, who wanted to save his friends and also judged Gagoze, who wanted to assassinate him. The young master also despised Gagoze's act of kidnapping and eating children, so he thought to give him a punishment, yet, when they came, Gagoze and his group were killed by this young youkai.

They might come with the intention to kill Gagoze and his group, but it was a different matter if Gagoze and his group were killed by someone else. Moreover, it damaged their prestige and reputation since even if Gagoze and his group were already beyond saving, the one who had a right to punish them was the leader of the Nura Clan and also their young master instead of this young youkai that they didn't know.

However, they could tell this young youkai was strong from his appearance alone, so they were rather cautious, and their young master hadn't said anything.

With how strict the hierarchy in the Youkai world was, it wasn't their place to talk.

Yet, the young master of the Nura Clan, Nura Rikuo, also didn't know what to say at that moment. He had come with the intention to save everyone and also brought a judgment to Gagoze, yet when he came, everything ended.

More importantly, he didn't know how to treat this young youkai.

Yet, as expected, seeing how strong this young youkai was, he had the urge to invite him to his Hyakki Hyakkou, but before he could say anything...

"Are you also going to hurt those children too?"

Tamazuki asked loudly as he stood in front of Kana and the others. His voice was rather loud since he was afraid that no one would hear his voice.

As expected, the moment everyone heard his words, the group of children quickly hid behind Tamazuki in fear. Unlike the protagonist and his group, who appeared all of a sudden and seemed connected to Gagoze, who wanted to kidnap and eat them, Tamazuki had helped them and defeated the bad guy, so it was easy to tell who they should believe, right?

Even if the existence of the protagonist was favored by heaven, it was only working on the fight.

As long as he didn't fight Nura Rikuo and his group, he would be alright.

Moreover, most of the people in this world were stupid because of the protagonist's aura, so he, whose IQ wasn't reduced by the protagonist's aura, was a big trouble for Nura Rikuo, whose head wasn't good.

Rikuo, who watched Kana and his friends, who showed fear in this direction, couldn't help but flinch and hurt.

"What do you mean by that?! Rikuo-sama is coming here to save all of you! How can you say something like that?!"

As expected of the heroine, his love for the protagonist was so strong that she reacted so much, and as expected of the protagonist, the group of children was quickly affected by the words of Yuki-Onna in front of him.

Yet, Tamazuki was still calm and asked, "Do you have proof?" He knew it was impossible to get his hands on this heroine with gentleness, so he didn't need to be gentle. Instead, he had decided to become an enemy from the beginning.

"...." Everyone.

"Pr-proof?!"

"Gagoze told me that he was part of the Nura Clan, and he told me if he was killed, then I would receive the Nura Clan's punishment. Then, he even told him his action to kidnap the children was ordered by the Nura Clan."

"Wh-what?!"

The members of the Nura Clan were dumbfounded, but they could somehow see Gagoze would say something like that.

"There is no way that is true!" The heroine denied his accusation fervently.

"Really? So Gagoze isn't a member of the Nura Clan?"

"...that..." She was unable to say anything.

The group of children was already scared, and they could only huddle together behind Tamazuki since they knew he was the only one that could save them.

"As long as I am here, I won't let you hurt them."

Tamazuki stood in front of the group of children firmly as if telling all of them he would protect them from anything—even if he had become the enemy of the Nura Clan.

The group of Youkai from the Nura Clan couldn't say anything since they could tell that they had become the bad guy. Yet, unlike the core group of Nura Rikuo, who would follow him no matter what, those who didn't enter the screen in the original story were moved by Tamazuki's courage. Even if he was alone and facing all of them, he didn't flinch and courageously protected the children.

The youkai had always loved the strong, so when they saw Tamazuki, they couldn't help but almost fall for his charm.

Yet, as expected, as the members of the Nura Clan, it was impossible for them to say it, at least openly.

"Listen to me, Rik—"

The heroine still didn't want to lose and wanted to tell all of them that her young master wasn't the bad guy, but...

"Tsurara, stop!"

"But..."

"Enough."

Nura Rikuo knew that no matter what he was going to say, everything was useless. Everything was the fault of Gagoze, but this guy had already been killed by Tamazuki. No matter what he was going to say, it couldn't change the fact that Gagoze was part of the Nura Clan. When he thought such a lowly, foolish creature was among his clan, it made him rage.

However, the good thing was to know that everyone was okay. Even if he wasn't the one who saved them, it was okay. The only thing he was sad about was that everyone had misunderstood him, but he didn't know how to fix this misunderstanding.

"Let's go back."

He could only do this since he knew staying in this place would only make everything worse.

Hearing Rikuo's words, they hesitated since they still wanted to fix the misunderstanding, but the words of their young master were absolute, yet, suddenly...

"What are you doing?!"

An angry voice echoed through the tunnel when a few of the children suddenly fell.

"Huh?"

The group Nura Clan was dumbfounded, but they saw Tamazuki check the condition of the children, who suddenly fell and passed out before he told them everything was alright, causing the rest of the students to sigh in relief.

"It-It's the fault of that youkai!"

"Ah, I know it!"

"They're really bad guys!"

Before Tamazuki said anything, the group of children couldn't help but blame this matter on Nura Rikuo and the rest. They had been scared and tense, so they were quite sensitive. Watching their seniors fall, they thought it was those youkai groups' fault.

"...you little brat."

The youkai had never been good people, so they couldn't help but get angry at the accusation of the group of children. If Nura Rikuo didn't tell them to help, they wouldn't do something as meaningless as helping a human.

"AAAHH, HELP! THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US!"

Those words were enough to cause panic among the children.

Nura Rikuo could tell that the situation wasn't good, and he was going to tell everyone to leave first, but soon, many of them felt sleepy before they slept on the ground, turning the chaotic scene into a calm one.

"Tama...."

"Sleep first. Everything will be alright when you wake up."

Kana couldn't fight against the sleepiness but nodded as she heard his words. She knew as long as he said that everything was okay, everything would be okay.

When all of them slept, Tamazuki once again faced everyone, but he asked them coldly, "Can I take this as a war declaration to the Shikoku Youkai?"

"....."