Under Akisa Koetsuji's uneasy gaze, the black mist in the sky rapidly began to shift. By the ti it approached the Grand Shrine, it had transford into a world-blotting black cloud, with countless demonic forms flickering within it.
With such a massive convergence of cursed energy, even an ordinary person—as long as they looked up—could see the cruel and ferocious visages of the myriad yokai within the clouds. Hattori Heiji and Conan, for instance, followed Akisa's line of sight and saw everything with terrifying clarity.
Hattori Heiji's worldview, which he had struggled to patch together and glue back, shattered completely at this mont.
"Is this... a movie set?" Hattori clutched his hair frantically. "Where's the director! Where's the director!?"
Conan silently removed his glasses, shedding tears of grief in his heart—the logical worldview he had cultivated for so many years was officially unsalvageable. Mr. Science, you useless piece of junk!
"Children, lift your heads." Akisa initiated so preschool education without looking back. "Yokai truly exist; that is nothing. You have already seen even more terrifying powerhouses."
"Akisa, are we going in?" Shigure Kosaka gripped the hilt of the blade behind her.
"No. As shaful as it is to say, we cannot strike yet." Akisa sighed. With two children in tow, it wasn't as easy to act as originally planned; they would be a distraction. These yokai were Hagoromo Gitsune's subordinates, which ant they were man-eaters. Humans eat pork; would they stop just because it's a piglet? Suckling pig would tell you the at is only delicious when it's tender.
Though unwilling, it seed that in the matter of protecting Kyoto, the debut of martial artists would be carried out by Yomi.
"You're right, Akisa. I was worried you'd just rush up there." Another voice drifted from the darkness. Hattori and Conan jumped in fright and looked back.
What a ferocious face!
The newcor wore a leather jacket. Because his build was too burly, the jacket couldn't be buttoned and was left wide open, a large scar running across his face. Whether it was Hattori or Conan, it was their first ti seeing soone embody "brimming with muscle" and "the face of a murderer" so thoroughly.
An appearance like that, standing before others, practically shouted: "I love killing people, co arrest !"
'Big brother, looking like that, have you considered the feelings of the police?'
Conan desperately wanted to complain, but he was afraid of being beaten. Soone who looked that fierce likely wouldn't go easy on a kid.
"Akisa." Under Conan's "I've seen a ghost" gaze, another hulking man appeared—this one was even more excessive, wearing only shorts and a tank top. It was so tight it felt like he might end up naked at any mont!
"Sakaki, Apachai, you've arrived." Akisa's expression softened. Ryozanpaku had few people, but every single one of them was top-tier; otherwise, they wouldn't have beco the trademark of Japan's "Saving Fist." However, the lack of numbers was a major weakness, glaringly obvious in a situation like this.
"Of course. It's rare for the people of Yomi to do sothing good; how could we not co and watch?" the man in the leather jacket growled. "Besides, I heard that kid is coming too. I can't let him be the sole representative of Karate."
"Apa also missed Big Brother very much. It would be great if he could join Ryozanpaku together," the tank-top powerhouse added.
Conan thought to himself: Is it really this hard to be a good person these days? The mont these two spoke, they completely exposed their "good guy" settings, but how tragic must their lives have been to end up with such a look? Was the gap between their hearts and their appearances not too massive? They were basically driving in opposite directions!
Suddenly, Conan noticed their expressions beca incredibly fierce. No, that was just their faces; they had likely just turned serious. He also noticed that Hattori Heiji had suddenly gone silent.
He turned his gaze back to the sky.
An exquisitely beautiful girl stood in the heavens, nine fluffy tails swaying behind her in the wind. That wasn't the main point. The main point was that the girl's gaze was fixed directly on them!
"Martial artists?" Though she was far away, everyone clearly heard her voice. "You wish to block This Concubine?"
"Hagoromo Gitsune?" Akisa responded, though it was phrased as a question. Unlike the two children who knew nothing of power, Akisa confird the fox's strength with a single glance. She was an existence standing at the end of what humans could imagine or understand. Most importantly, this was the number one evil yokai of the Heian period, who, according to historical records, gouged out hearts and livers to feast on humans.
"This Concubine has no interest in you. Leave this place." Hagoromo Gitsune turned her head away. The black clouds gradually dispersed, revealing the true form of the yokai army.
Without the shroud of mist, the evil yokai hidden for four hundred years finally appeared before human masters once more. What kind of scene was this?
The silhouettes of the yokai were boundless, impossible to count. There were those with object-like forms like Itsumade, Karakasa-kozo, and Chirizuka-kaio; animal spirits like Tanuki, Nekomata, Kodama, Jorogumo, and Ubu; skeletal yokai like Hitodama and Hone-onna; and human-shaped ones like Rokurokubi. These were the ones barely recognizable. Many more were completely unidentifiable, varying in size.
The Ryozanpaku masters saw a giant insect a hundred ters long cruising freely in the sky, with countless black dots crawling densely over its carapace, a sight that was almost nauseating.
For the first ti in their years of pursuing the martial way, the masters of Ryozanpaku felt powerless. How could they resist this? The people of Yomi were also martial artists—could they truly stop a swarm like this? Unlike humans, everything about yokai was fundantally different.
Hattori and Conan were already catatonic, terror germinating in their hearts beyond control. Even more frightening was that many yokai in the sky seed to sense their fear, turning their heads to look at them with a covetous gaze. Fortunately, they didn't pounce; the yokai seed to be forcibly suppressing their desires.
"Do you see? If you do not leave now, you will never be able to." Hagoromo Gitsune's voice drifted past their ears, but her figure was no longer visible. "What controls them now is fear of the Rakshasa King and obedience to This Concubine. But you must know, they have not eaten humans for a very long ti, and you... are delicious."
The faces of the Ryozanpaku masters turned incredibly grim. Fearing was impossible; at their level, they wouldn't feel such an emotion in this environnt. Rage burned in their hearts, yet they felt helpless.
Then, they saw countless pieces of paper falling from the sky above the Grand Shrine like rain.
Accompanying it was a roar filled with fury:
"Kyoto Daimonji-yaki!"
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