Day three of walking to school. I have co to the realisation that no one can ever pull the 'back in my day, we had to walk blah blah blah' crap on ever again.
Oh, you has a two hour walk over a mountain to get to school grandma? Well I've walked over several for multiple days, and I don't even know how close I am.
It's not like I have Google Maps or anything like that. Hell, I don't even have an actual map.
I just have a vague, go that way, kind of direction.
I don't mind though. I can always ask for directions, as I have been doing, and I'm having fun.
One thing I have noticed though is that there are a lot more Cursed Spirits out here in the wild than back ho. It's only been three days and I've killed dozens already.
Well, my Shikigami have killed dozens. I only had to kill one myself because it was actually strong.
I probably could have just let my Shikigami gang up on it, but I wanted to get so practice in before reaching school, so I beat it up myself.
It didn't die in one hit like the others I've faced, but it was also pretty slow so it didn't hurt either.
I've only encountered two settlents so far, mostly because I haven't been sticking to the roads but traveling in a straight line instead, but still.
The first one was pretty welcoming, but the last seed pretty suspicious of . Apparently they didn't trust because I looked like a Sorcerer, according to so old guy who would actually hold a conversation with .
Purely out of curiosity, I then did confirm to them that I am a Jujutsu Sorcerer. I pretty much knew what to expect, so I wasn't surprised when they sort of subtly tried to get to leave as quickly as possible.
So, it turns out Sorcerers aren't very popular everywhere. That's good to know.
Still, I was pretty satisfied with the whole experience. I've never been treated so poorly before purely out of prejudice, it was an interesting experience.
It probably didn't help their opinion of that I was still smiling even when they kicked out, but I was too happy to care.
New experiences are what I'm looking for after all.
And there have been so many!
I've seen rice fields that go on for ages, I saw a field full of blood red flowers, a tree so big that it would take twenty of hand in hand to hug it. There was even this giant mountain that I was going to explore, but by the ti I got halfway up, I got this really bad feeling that if I took another step to the peak then I would die.
I'm not really afraid of that, but it didn't feel like the kind of thing I could talk my way out of, so I just resolved myself to go back when I'm stronger.
I can be patient after all. If sothing is too dangerous to explore, then I just need to get more powerful first. If anything, I just felt challenged.
The point is, I've been having fun.
Which brings to today.
The sun is at its zenith, shining down on through the leaves of the lush forest I tread. By my side is one of my Shikigami, Gentle Deer. It basically looks like one of the deer I grew up with, just that it's as tall as I am and the brown fur has darkened to black while the spots are more white and it has a weird symbol like an upside-down teardrop under its jaw.
This is probably my favourite Shikigami. Both because of personal bias, and because its special ability is that its Cursed Energy is backwards.
I don't know if there's a na for it, but I'm guessing it's sothing like Blessed Energy, since it seems to be an opposite to Cursed Energy. Either way, this version of energy actually heals, which is aweso, and though it took about a year, I did eventually manage to replicate the effect by myself.
I basically just smash my Cursed Energy against itself and it makes Blessed Energy. I don't know how it works, probably so double negative stuff, but it does work, so I'm happy with that. The old man was pretty surprised by my Blessed Energy too, so it doesn't seem to be sothing all that commonly practiced.
Honestly, I don't think I'll ever get tired of Cursed Energy. It's just so cool and interesting, not to ntion just generally useful.
It would be much more of a pain to walk through this untad forest for example, if not for the fact that I can literally just walk through it. Bushes and roots and the like aren't a problem when they're incapable of tripping before they tear.
Though, I did have to learn how to protect my clothes with Cursed Energy to avoid ending up naked all the ti. It's kind of energy intensive though, so I try to only use it when the foliage has thorns and stuff that will rip my clothes.
Pausing in my stride, I close one of my eyes and the next mont I am seeing the world through two perspectives. One is from my open eye and the other is through one of my Divine Dogs' eyes.
Near a decade of practice and experintation with my Innate Technique has opened a lot of doors for . My ability really does have a lot of potential, and I couldn't be happier about it.
I'd take versatility over overwhelming power any day of the week.
From my Dog's eye, I can vaguely see what I have been walking towards.
The Dog is hidden behind the foliage, so the view isn't great, but I can still make out pretty clearly two forms in a recently made clearing, and by clearing, I an an area of the forest that used to have trees and now has broken trees and cratered earth.
You see, I started walking this way, despite it being in a different direction to my destination, because I felt a gathering of Cursed Spirits, each of which seed to be about as strong as that one I struggled with.
Naturally, I got curious.
However, as I was on the way, all of the Cursed Spirits seed to disappear from my senses, and then I felt even more Cursed Energy getting thrown around, likely by the battle that ruined this part of the forest, and I got even more curious.
Now, Cursed Spirits fade away when killed. Which is why it's interesting that my Dog is looking at a woman who seems to be resting, and what seems to be a Cursed Spirit's corpse a short distance from her.
Curious and curiouser.
Abruptly, a pale blue fire engulfs my vision and I flinch my eye open just as I feel my connection to my Divine Dog sputter out into the ether.
...Did this she just kill my dog?
What the fuck?
If I wasn't who I am, I'd probably be a lot more mad about that. But eh, it's just a Shikigami, not a real dog, so I don't really care that much. Still, I desummon all my active Shikigami just in case.
Okay I care a little bit, they're very fluffy. But I also have another dog, a bunch of rabbits and this cute deer among others.
Hmm. I keep walking as I try to decide if I'm mad or not.
"Co out! I know you're hiding!" I hear the woman yell and realise that I'm actually pretty close now, closer than my dog was.
"I'm not hiding actually," I return as I step around a tree and quickly step back behind it to avoid another burst of fire. "That was rude."
"Who are you!" The woman demands as I step around the tree again, my arms raised in surrender and a smile on my face even as she glares at . "What are your intentions here!?"
For a mont I don't answer, because this woman is just so beautiful that I forgot to.
Her hair is long and blonde, which stands out in this nation, though not as much as I feel like it should. She has hazel eyes, small eyebrows and a face so beautiful that no amount of description could do it justice with a body to match.
Damn, she's beautiful.
"Damn you're beautiful." Crap. I said that out loud. Coughing into a fist, I pretend that never happened and continue, "What I an to say is that I was rely coming to deal with a gathering of Cursed Spirits that I felt. Though, it seems as though you have done so for ."
The woman blushes slightly at my misspeak, but quickly gets back to glaring at with one hand alight in blue fla that feels weird to my senses held out threateningly.
"Do you expect to believe that?" She accuses, sounding awfully scornful.
"I would hope so, but ultimately the choice is yours. On another subject, how co that Cursed Spirit hasn't disappeared yet? Is it still alive sohow? Also who even are you? My na's Narauko, nice to et you."
"Don't change the subject, Sorcerer. If you have no ill intentions, then why were you watching and why have you been suppressing your Cursed Energy?"
"Eh?" My head tilts as I look at her in confusion before a lightbulb goes off in my head and I realise the misunderstanding taking place. "Ah! That. No, don't worry, I am not suppressing my Cursed Energy, it's just like that."
She seems dubious. I feel like I failed a charisma check.
"I don't believe you."
Damn.
Wait, this is an easy fix! "Alright, if I start actually trying to suppress my Cursed Energy now, will you believe then?"
She raises a brow and makes a go on gesture, so I shrug and focus on sucking all my my Cursed Energy away and into my gut.
Really, I should have seen it coming, but the mont that I opened my eyes, I barely got to see a blur of gold before I felt a heavy impact in my gut and then another on my back as I was slamd into the ground with a clawed hand squeezing my throat.
Right. Concealing my energy that much also takes away my active reinforcent.
Oops.
"Who are you," the woman demands once my head stopped spinning, and I try to answer, but just end up wheezing.
The woman takes, in my opinion, too long to realise I can't be choked and answer questions at the sa ti, before loosening her hold on .
"M-" I start, only to cough. "My na is Narauko, nice to et you. Could you please try and void tearing my scarf? It was a gift from a little brat and I think she will cry if it breaks."
The woman above glares even harder at , and I match her stare with a light smile of my own, looking her straight in the eye.
She really is beautiful.
"You're not lying." She states, more than asks, though she does seem rather confused as she does. Probably because she seems to think I have sothing against her, but I haven't tried fighting back and don't intend to unless she's really going to kill .
"I try to avoid lying if possible. It's not sothing I like to do."
"Why did you reveal yourself to ?" She asks, and I get the feeling she's got so kind of lie detector thing going on right now since she's repeating questions.
"I was curious and wanted to see if you were up for a conversation."
"That's all?" She asks, seemingly struggling to believe at all.
"I've been told curiosity is my Curse."
She seems to take my answer with more weight than I intended, and after staring into my eyes a bit longer, her expression softens from a glare into that expression people make when they're kind of embarrassed about being wrong but don't want to admit it.
It's kind of cute on her.
"Oh." Her hand leaves my throat and she jumps to her feet, walking back to the rock she was resting on, though I notice she doesn't let out of her peripheral vision.
Sitting up myself, I rub at my slightly sore throat for a mont as I return my Cursed Energy to its usual flow and feel the light pain fade away.
Standing up, I pat myself down and check my scarf for any scratches and happily find none, then I walk after her into the clearing.
The corpse on the floor is so weird kind of bird monster. Kind of like a harpy, but with a really long nose. I kind of recognise it, but I can't quite rember what they were called. Sothing beginning with a T.
"He's not a Cursed Spirit," the woman says, clearly having seen eyeballing the thing. "He's a Yōkai. A Tengu, to be specific."
Turning back to her, I grin at the new source of information, even if she seems slightly bashful. Probably about the whole threatening thing, but I was over that before it was even over.
Still. Yōkai? The old man ntioned them as basically being Cursed Spirits with physical bodies, but he also admitted that he didn't know much about the subject.
But here is a Yōkai corpse! I kind of want to cut it open and see what its biology is like, but I'm not sure if this lady would appreciate that.
"I would like to apologise," the woman says, each word coming out slowly and with great difficulty. "However I was just in battle, so I feel it is perfectly reasonably that I mistrusted you, especially as you were spying on with a Shikigami."
Not the best apology but not the worst.
"Oh yeah, you just reminded . I want compensation."
"What." She levels a flat look at , and I just move my hands back to rest in their sleeves.
"That was a special Shikigami. Now that you've killed it, it's gone forever."
"Oh." She says again, looking a mix between regretful and annoyed.
She really doesn't like being in the wrong, does she?
I suppose I can understand. I'm quite prideful myself after all, even if my pride is a lot more difficult to wound.
"As compensation, please teach everything you know about Yōkai!"
I am not above using guilt to gain knowledge!
"Why?" She demands, looking suspicious once again.
"Rember that thing I said about being curious?"
"Shouldn't you be more focused on Cursed Spirits, Sorcerer?"
"Eh. I'm not technically even a Sorcerer yet, since I'm actually on my way to the school up in Edo right now, and I'm only attending out of curiosity in the first place. I don't intend on spending my whole life focused on nothing but Cursed Spirits."
We hold each other's eyes for a mont before eventually she concedes and lets out a sigh.
"Fine. As compensation for destroying your Shikigami, I will co with you and teach you about Yōkai until we near the city of Edo. Deal?"
"Deal!" I accept before moving a piece of broken tree over and sitting down in front of her.
"Well, where do you want to start?"
Bad question lady, I have so many places I want to start.
"What's with that Tengu? Why were there so many Cursed Spirits here? Why did you kill them? What separates Yōkai from humans and Cursed Spirits? Your Cursed Energy felt weird, is it different? How do Yōkai interact with Sorcerers? How co you're fine with sticking with all the way to Edo? What was that Tengu even doing here? What's your na anyway? What's a Yōkai's life span? Are Yōkai inherently negative like Curses? Do-"
"Okay! Okay!" She abruptly yells, interrupting . "Let answer before asking your next question!"
Grinning unrepentantly at her, I wait for her to calm down.
Clearing her throat and shooting another glare, she straightens in a way that reminds of when Kinoshita would lecture .
"First of all, Edo is only about one day's walk from here, so it is not far." She gives a deadpan look when I blink in surprise at that information. "You're going to Edo and you don't even know where it is?"
"I've been asking for directions. I know it's that way," I say as I point the direction I was walking.
"It's not that way," she responds, still deadpan.
"Well, I'm sure there is soone in that direction who would have known the way."
"You're kind of an idiot aren't you?"
"I prefer the term carefree."
She sighs again and decides to just move on. "Yōkai are not Cursed Spirits, but they are not human either. You could think of them as sowhere in the middle. They have a physical body, instead of Cursed Spirits who are beings of negative energy. Like Cursed Spirits, Yōkai can be born from negative energy, but that is incredibly rare, and those born that way tend to be incredibly powerful and then beco ancestors to great lines of Yōkai, such as Tengu. Yōkai are not inherently negative like Curses, but they can beco incredibly powerful through negative energy, though most Yōkai just live peacefully in isolation."
Hoooh? That's interesting. Does that an I could find a Yōkai village?
"Are there Yōkai villages?" I ask.
"Don't interrupt ," she imdiately returns. "Yes, there are Yōkai villages. They have a civilisation, just like every other sapient species. As for your other questions, this Tengu has been terrorising a nearby village. He gathered up so Cursed Spirits and would send them to attack the village, then disguise himself as a human Sorcerer to fight them off."
Doesn't sound so bad, just a bit of an attention seeker.
"He would then use the fact that he saved them to demand that the people of the village do as he said, from bedding the woman to eating them if he felt like it. Sotis he would just skip the process altogether and fly in and steal away whatever or whoever he wanted."
Well, never mind. then.
"I'm sure the villagers will be happy to know he's dead then," I comnt.
"You don't seem that upset. No compassion for your fellow man?" The woman asks, her tone mocking.
I'm not sure if she's trying to get a rise out of of if this is just how she is as a person, but I just shrug and smile. "I'm not happy they have suffered, but it happens. People live, people die. People suffer, people thrive. Nature moves on, ti goes on. I do feel compassion, and I don't want to see people suffer, but focusing all your attention on the suffering of the world will make you blind to all of its joys. It's best to just think about what you can do to make things better and move on, than to just wallow in grief."
I don't look back to see her expression as I approach the Tengu and crouch down next to it.
"Are you so kind of monk?" She asks, making chuckle.
"No, but I was raised in a shrine. Did you have any plans for doing anything with this corpse, or can I take it to that village you ntioned? I'm sure it would bring them so closure."
"Why bother? I was just going to burn it."
"Because they will be grateful."
"So? Why care what they think? They aren't Sorcerers like you. Just a bunch of monkeys, they can figure it out themselves."
"Hmm. Why did you kill this Tengu?" I ask, and she goes silent.
Shrugging, I make the sign to summon my remaining Divine Dog, only to pause as I feel sothing strange in my connection to my technique that causes to freeze.
My Divine Dog... It's bigger?
Focusing closer, I realise what's happened. The dog that died, it's power seems to have flowed down into the other dog, making it even bigger and stronger.
So cooool~!
Making a different sign, I decide to leave the upgraded dog alone for now. "Gentle Deer," I intone and my shadow stretches out, allowing my Shikigami to burst free.
Grabbing the Tengu by its burnt, leathery skin, I haul it up and over my deer before turning back to the woman who's na I still don't have.
"I just realised that I never did get your na," I say as she looks at my deer like she's never seen one before, "Also, which way is it to the village?"
Shaking her head, she points an arm to the side. "That way," she says, and I start moving in that direction. "They won't show you any gratitude you know?" She asks, making pause and turn back to her with a raised brow.
"It doesn't matter if you tell them you killed him yourself. Just the fact that you're not a monkey like them will make them hate you. If you don't scare them into submission, they will co after you with torches."
"Maybe," I acquiesce, thinking back on that village that threw out. "I still think they will be grateful though."
"You're wrong. Humans aren't like that. They will hate you just because you are different. They won't thank you."
"Good thing I'm not looking for thanks then, isn't it?"
"You're a fool, but maybe this will be good for you. A wake up call to the true nature of those monkeys." Her scornful tone tells one hell of a story, but I'm not socially obtuse enough to call her out on it.
Instead I just chuckle and give her a wink before continuing my walk. "Humans are more complex than that, you know? You should give them more credit."
I make it a few steps before noticing that she isn't moving to follow at all, which isn't unexpected considering her earlier words. However, even if she doesn't follow , she does still call out.
"Tamamo. My na is Tamamo-no-Mae."
Smiling, I wave over my shoulder. "Nice to et you, Tamamo-Sensei."
It doesn't take long before the village is in sight. It's bigger than the one near my ho by quite a bit. About six tis as big, with over two dozen houses that I can see, and they're actually arranged near each other on a proper road. From what I know, most villages in this ti period are more just a few hamlets roughly near each other.
Before I actually leave the forest proper, I make another shadowgraphic hand sign, this one in the shape of a fox.
"Trickster Fox," I intone, and from my shadow erges a small white fox, about the size of my forearm, maybe a little bit bigger, with sleek, smooth white fur and glowing blue eyes that sohow just seem mischievous.
It also has a symbol between its ears of a triangle similar to the ones on my dogs, or dog now, except it's on top of another symbol that kind of looks like one of those stands I rember using to hold stuff over bunsen burners in high school.
When I first started training my technique, I struggled to even summon more than one Shikigami at the sa ti, and even now, I struggle to get four out at the sa ti.
Still, Trickster Fox's ability is the ability to project illusions. They're not physical illusions, and I have to make an illusion of a shadow when I use it because it doesn't block out light either, which kind of doesn't make any sense from a physics standpoint.
How can you see sothing if light passes straight though it? Is it weird of that this is the thing I find the most unexplainable in this new life? Probably.
Whatever the case, my fox climbs up my clothes and crawls into my scarf, hiding itself wrapped around my neck. It's very warm.
Then I have the fox project an illusion over my deer of itself. This way, the people of the village, monkeys, as Tamamo called them, will actually be able to see the deer, instead of just seeing a floating Tengu.
A short walk later, and I am approaching the village proper. I noticed so people spot earlier, so there's already sothing of a crowd gathered to greet , with even more people hiding around in the buildings and alleys watching.
Walking up to the group of not so subtly ard n, I give the one front and centre my best smile.
"Hello there! I have heard that you have been suffering attacks by this here Tengu. Rest assured, as you can clearly see," I gesture to my side before returning my hand back to rest before , "It has been slain. You needn't live in fear any longer."
Nobody responds for a mont, and then a whole lot of muttering breaks out. So much that I can't catch any words, but the tone doesn't seem particularly happy.
The guy I assu is the local leader steps forward and glares at , holding so sharp farming equipnt in a white knuckled grip.
"W-what have you done!" He yells at . "Now who will protect us from the Spirits!"
I make sure to keep my peaceful smile, even as the crowd starts to get agitated. I can actually feel the Cursed Energy in their bodies spiking as negative emotions flood the crowd.
"The Cursed Spirits are also dead. So much so that I cannot even bring you corpses."
"LIES!" Soone in the crowd yells out.
"It's just another trick!"
"Look at that deer! That's no normal animal!"
"We have nothing left to give!"
Having my deer step closer to , I grab the Tengu's corpse and throw it to the ground before the crowd before cancelling my technique and letting the deer dissolve into shadows. "This is not a trick, and I do not want anything that you have. You are safe now."
"That bird said the sa thing! Then it took my wife!"
"This is just another demon!"
"We're done being cattle!"
Looking through the crowd, feeling their negativity, I don't hate them. They're just people in the end. And they've suffered the worst poison of them all.
Hope.
First the monsters ca, and they felt despair. Then ca a man who said he would save them, and they felt hope. Then this man demanded food and drink and won, and they felt that hope shatter.
In the ti since then, they have just been getting hamred down, again and again by this Tengu. So much so that they gave up on fighting back. So much so, that hope now tastes to them like a bitter poison.
They want to accept it. To believe . To be free from despair.
They just can't bring themselves too. They're too close to the edge, too hopped up on emotions to be able to think rationally.
Too human to accept reality.
That's fine. I didn't expect them to.
Putting my hands back in my sleeves, I start walking. Edo is on the other side of the village after all, so I do need to go that way.
"Your demons are dead," I say, even as they all back away from my approach, keeping a distance with their bodies but not with their words as they curse at . "You may rest easy, knowing that your suffering has been avenged."
A rock bounces across the ground in front of , and then another bounces off my hip.
I ignore it and keep walking.
"Monster!" They yell as another stone hits as I continue to walk, not changing pace or expression.
"Liar!" They scream, as so rotten fruit splatters against my shoulder, getting so gross juice on my cheek.
"Sorcerer!" They accuse, as a sharp rock smashes into my forehead, leaving a faint mark but nothing more.
I don't react to any of it, I feel no need to.
Physically, they cannot hurt , and words definitely can't hurt . I'm going to have to clean my clothes, but that's sothing I do anyway, so it's no bother.
Nothing they could possibly do to , would have any kind of lasting effect. More than that, I understand.
They are angry. They don't hate . They are just angry at the idea I represent.
All in all, this whole interaction, this whole day? To , it is just another day.
I learnt so new things, which I always enjoy. Had so new experiences, which I love. But ultimately, none of this could have happened, and my life would not be any different for it.
To , today has hardly been significant.
To them? To them, their entire lives have just turned on their axis. Everything has changed. It is so much more significant for them, so I just ignore the rocks and the fruit. Because it ans so much more for them to throw it than it does for to clean it off later.
Eventually however, I do leave the village behind and walk back into the forests, headed for Edo.
Humans are so interesting to .
"I told you they wouldn't thank you," a voice calls out ahead of , and I turn my smile up to Tamamo, sitting on a tree branch.
"Tamamo-san. I wasn't sure if I would see you again."
"I am not one to flake on a deal made, and drop the -san." Tamamo hops down from the tree and starts walking alongside , giving a strange look that has raising a brow.
Reaching a hand up, she uses her thumb to wipe the bit of juice off my cheek. "There's a lake this way," she says instead of whatever is actually on her mind, and I nod gratefully.
The walk to water is done in peaceful silence. Well, peaceful for . She seems rather frustrated for whatever reason.
When we arrive, the first thing I do is take off my scarf and look it over. It's not that bad, luckily. The fact that it's poor quality actually did it so favours, since it's actually sturdy, instead of better looking silks are.
It doesn't take long to scrub it clean, and I hang it on a branch to dry before taking off the outer layer of my kimono and doing the sa. I don't bother with the hakama pants, because they're just going to get dirty again walking through weeds.
"Why did you let them do that?" Tamamo eventually asks once I've hung up my clothes to dry and pulled a spare set out of my shadow, sounding like she's really trying and failing to understand.
"You sure make repeat myself a lot," I tease with a smile, continuing before she can be offended. "They needed closure. They needed to see that the Tengu was dead."
"They threw rocks at you Narauko. Rocks and rotten food. I was right. They weren't grateful at all. They Cursed you and spat on your kindness." At this point, she is pinning under a glare like she's accusing of a cri or sothing. "You don't seem that strong, but you're better than those monkeys. You could have slaughtered them all. Why would you let them treat you like that?"
Sighing, I take a seat on the grass next to the lake as I think about how to word this.
"Most humans don't really stop being children. They struggle with maturity. Perspective. In the end, they are an emotional people, and those people down there? They are the downtrodden. They have been suffering for so long, with no possible outlet for their pain. It's not good to bottle up your emotions you know? It's bad for your health, and that goes for and you too, for everyone and everything capable of feeling. If you bottle your emotions up too much, eventually you will start to crack. That's why you should smile when you're happy and cry when you're sad."
Pausing as I look at my reflection in the water, I consider what I'm saying before continuing.
"Those people have been bottling up their emotions for so long that they started to crack. That kind of wound isn't sothing that can be easily healed. Ti will eventually dull the pain, but the scars will likely be with them for the rest of their life. However, even if there isn't really a treatnt for that pain, the worst thing you can do is keep bottling it up. They needed a release. They needed to vent those feelings, or the cracks would just keep growing larger and larger."
Finding myself smiling, I turn back to Tamamo, feeling like I'm better understanding my own feelings by saying this all out loud.
"Emotions are not so simple thing. When I say they needed to vent their negative emotions, that doesn't an they can just scream at the sky and feel better. For sothing like that, they need a target to throw all of their hatred, all their grief and their frustrations upon. They don't hate , they were just so full of hate that they took it out on the first available target."
Tamamo is starting to look at like I'm an alien with two heads.
"But why would you let them? You only showed them kindness, what right do they have to choose you as the target of their hate? How could you accept such an injustice?"
"Because it is a good thing for them," I answer honestly. "It is progress. If they truly thought that they were still in the sa bad spot they were in yesterday, then they never would have had the courage to Curse . That they could even do that much, shows that they feel safer already. And I don't mind if they return my kindness with malice. I don't show kindness with the expectation of receiving gifts in return in the first place. I just do what I want to do. Besides, better they target than soone who will punish them for their feelings."
"...You are a strange man, Narauko, and an even stranger Sorcerer. Aren't your kind supposed to be selfish?"
"I would say I am pretty selfish. I selfishly love the world, no matter how it treats those that walk upon it." I glance at the scarf drying nearby. "I selfishly pursue my desires, no matter who I leave behind."
"You are the strangest Sorcerer I have ever t," Tamamo says, eyeing like I'm sothing completely foreign to her before she continues in a softer tone, "But that is not necessarily a bad thing."
"Thank you." I grin at her.
"I still don't see the point."
"Give it a year," I tell her. "Give it a year and then co back here. By then, their frustrations will have faded. By then, they will have accepted that they are no longer in danger of Curses. They will have had ti to feel safe again, to feel free again. The wound will never fully heal, but if you co back in one year, you will see the difference for yourself, and by the ti the next generation rolls around, the wound will fade into ti."
Tamamo shakes her head, but I can tell that she's not as confident as she was before.
"I still think it was pointless," she says, and I just shrug.
"You are entitled to your own thoughts. You don't have to agree with to understand my motivations."
"And you are okay with finding your motivations to be foolish?"
"We've only just t. It would be strange if you started accepting my own opinions over ones you have held for however long before we t."
"You really are strange," Tamamo mutters, making chuckle.
Seeing as we're going to wait for my clothes to dry, I make a shadowgraphic of a rabbit and summon my most populous Shikigami.
"Rabbit Escape," I intone and the clearing is flooded with tonnes of fully balls of white fur.
Letting myself fall backwards, I close my eyes and let out a contented sigh as I am caught by and enveloped in a pile of fluff.
Using magic superpowers for mundane lifestyle stuff is the best, and having an on demand super fluffy army of bunnies ready to act as a beanbag is amazing.
Cracking an eye open, I et the deadpan stare of Tamamo's with a grin. "Do you want a cushion, Tamamo?"
She doesn't answer so I make her one anyway and ignore the way she glares at when I snicker at her obvious comfort.
"So," I say after a mont of comfortably enjoying the peace. "Do you know much about current events? My information is a few decades out of date."
"A few decades?" She asks. "How old are you?"
That makes laugh. "I'm only fifteen," I say with a chuckle. "My teacher is old though. I only left ho for the first ti a few days ago, so everything's pretty new to ."
"Human politics aren't sothing I'm interested in," Tamamo answers, and I choose to ignore how she keeps separating herself from humanity. "I only know the broad strokes."
Smiling, I give her my undivided attention.
"Teach ."
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A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!
You rember when I said this fic is going to be a lot of side-quests? Yeah, I wasn't joking.
Let know what you think, cuz feedback is appreciated. Also, if you have any myths or legends or historical figures from around the year 1000 (for humans, if they're sothing with a longer life span then they just need to be pre-1000 at least) you want to include, let know and I might.
Also, cuz it's set so long ago, expect to see characters, both mythological and fictional, who are not very in line with how they are famous, because these characters will be t while they are young and have not yet turned into the people we all know them to be.
I'm sure I don't have to point out who I'm referring to. That said, I'm probably going to keep introducing well known figures. Like Kinoshita, him and his wife were both well known, and I really want soone to figure it out, so I'll even give a hint that Kinoshita isn't his birth na.
Also, if you want to read ahead, I do have a patreon, Kevin the Bored, with five chapters ahead currently.
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