Chapter 49: The Bond Between Humans and Yokai
Nurarihyon smiled faintly, then gestured toward a few people sitting nearby. "Allow me to introduce them. These people are members of the Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Division: Yomi Isayama, Kagura Tsuchimiya, and Noriyuki Izuna."
"The Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Division? What's that?" Natsume asked, his curiosity thoroughly piqued.
Yomi Isayama set down the teacup she was holding and spoke calmly. "To be more precise, we are members of the Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation Bureau, Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Division."
"That name is way too long," Natsume commented blankly.
Yomi said, "Which is why we usually just call it the SDCD. Of course, you can also just call it the Countermeasures Division. I'm Yomi Isayama, a member of the Countermeasures Division."
"I'm Kagura Tsuchimiya."
"Noriyuki Izuna. Hello there."
Natsume quickly bowed. "I'm Takashi Natsume." He had always been a teenager with impeccable manners.
Nyanko-sensei suddenly snapped out of his daze and asked, "So, you guys are government folks, huh?"
The government?
Triggered by Nyanko-sensei's remark, Natsume suddenly understood. A name like the Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation Bureau, Supernatural Disaster Countermeasures Division sounded incredibly official. If anyone claimed they weren't part of the government, nobody would believe it.
"That's right. Although we aren't officially acknowledged, we are indeed people from the government's side," Yomi Isayama said in a calm tone.
"Not officially acknowledged? Why is that?" Natsume didn't quite catch her meaning.
Nyanko-sensei leapt up into the air and delivered a flying kick straight to Natsume's face. "You idiot! Do you want the whole world to know that things like yokai actually exist? We certainly don't mind, but human society could never openly admit to it."
Natsume was kicked right off his seat and tumbled onto the floor, his cheek swelling up instantly. "Ow! That really hurts, Nyanko-sensei!"
Nyanko-sensei merely snorted coldly, completely ignoring him.
Seeing this play out, Yomi Isayama realized that Natsume didn't seem to understand the reality of the yokai world very well, so she took the initiative to explain. "What that cat said is true. Humans cannot possibly acknowledge the existence of yokai."
"Even though we are an official organization, we will never be openly recognized by the government either."
"Huh?" Natsume was still left a bit confused.
Noriyuki Izuna tapped his fingers on the table, taking over the conversation. "Do you know how yokai are born?"
Natsume froze for a moment. Although he had been able to see yokai ever since he was a little kid, he had honestly never thought about how they actually came into being. In his world, yokai were just like humans—they had simply existed from the moment he was born.
Noriyuki Izuna began to educate him. "There are several ways a yokai can be born. One way is to be born directly from nature, such as animals turning into yokai. Another way is when a human absorbs enough malice and hatred to fall from grace and transform into a yokai themselves, just like Gyuki or Kubinashi."
"However, those two types are relatively rare nowadays. As time goes on, yokai born from those methods are becoming fewer and fewer."
"But there is still one more type of yokai, and they are born from human fear and various urban legends or ghost stories."
"This type of yokai has currently become the mainstream among the yokai population."
Hearing this, Natsume felt as though his horizons had been greatly expanded. Incredible, he thought, to think that the birth of a yokai involved so much deep knowledge.
But speaking of which, how was Nyanko-sensei born then?
He couldn't help but wonder, his eyes naturally drifting over to Nyanko-sensei's round body.
Nyanko-sensei felt Natsume's gaze and instantly knew exactly what the boy was thinking.
"I was born from nature. I'm a high-ranking yokai born from the natural essence of the universe."
His birth wasn't some sort of taboo topic, so letting Natsume know didn't bother him at all.
Natsume snapped out of his thoughts, but a lingering question remained in his heart. Why were humans so utterly unwilling to admit that yokai existed?
Yomi Isayama spoke up. "The vast majority of yokai can absorb human fear to become incredibly powerful."
"The moment the existence of yokai is made public, it will trigger a massive panic on a societal level. The power of yokai would swell to unprecedented heights, and an enormous number of new yokai would be born directly from that collective human fear."
"The delicate balance between humans and yokai would be completely shattered. We might even regress back to the Sengoku Period, an era where yokai ran rampant and ordinary citizens couldn't live a single day in peace. That is why the existence of yokai must never be made public."
"This is an absolute taboo. Anyone who dares to break this taboo will face the full force of our division."
As Yomi Isayama spoke, her gaze grew sharper than ever before.
It was as if if someone truly dared to cross that line, she would draw her sword and strike them down without a single shred of hesitation.
At the same time, her eyes swept over Natsume's body repeatedly like a sharp blade, sending a cold shiver running down his spine.
Right at that moment, Nyanko-sensei suddenly hopped in front of Natsume, blocking Yomi Isayama's piercing glare, and spoke with clear displeasure. "Don't get too arrogant, little girl. This isn't your Countermeasures Division."
Yomi Isayama looked at Nyanko-sensei for a brief moment before slowly withdrawing her intense gaze.
"How rude of me."
Natsume didn't mind Yomi's aggressive stance. As a human who closely mingled with yokai, it was only natural that people from the government's side would look at him with deep suspicion.
Even so, Natsume still looked at her and firmly guaranteed that he would absolutely never do such a thing.
Yomi Isayama didn't express agreement or disagreement, and it was impossible to tell whether she actually believed his words or not.
"Um, I still have one more question. If yokai being known to humans triggers a massive panic that drastically increases their power, wouldn't there be yokai who would intentionally try to do exactly that?" Natsume asked, his face filled with genuine worry.
"Good question." Noriyuki Izuna took over the conversation with a light chuckle, subtly dissolving the tense, sword-drawn atmosphere that had gripped the room just moments ago.
"In reality, the vast majority of yokai don't actually have the capability to do that."
"You should already know this, right? Ordinary people can't actually see yokai."
Natsume nodded slowly. When it came to this particular point, he felt it deeply in his bones.
When he was a child, because he could see yokai that no one else could, he had suffered immensely. He was treated as a weird liar by everyone around him, and his relatives tossed him back and forth like a football from one household to another.
Although he was later adopted by Uncle Fujiwara and Aunt Toko and finally felt the warmth of a real home, the lingering trauma of those early years was something he would never forget for the rest of his life.
Noriyuki Izuna continued his explanation. "Ordinary humans can't see yokai, but weak yokai also lack the power to manifest themselves before humans. Because of this, humans and yokai manage to maintain a natural balance."
"Only those high-ranking yokai possess the strength to appear before humans at will and cause widespread chaos."
"But those kinds of yokai are kept under strict surveillance by us. The moment we detect any risk of public exposure, they will immediately face a relentless assault from our entire organization."
"The current era belongs to humanity. Any yokai who wishes to destroy this reality will be eradicated by us without a single shred of mercy, no matter who they are."
Natsume was caught off guard by the sheer weight of those words, and his eyes subconsciously drifted toward the Supreme Commander of the Nura Clan.
Hearing such bold claims made his blood boil a bit, since he was a human after all. But the problem was, this was the main headquarters of the Nura Clan. Uttering such harsh words in this place felt a bit inappropriate, didn't it? It almost sounded like an open provocation to the yokai living here.
It was incredibly bold.
Noticing Natsume's worried glance, Nurarihyon took a slow drag from his pipe, exhaled a cloud of smoke, and said casually, "Why are you looking at me like that? I have absolutely no objections to what he just said."
"Huh?"
This response struck Natsume as incredibly strange. One had to remember that Nurarihyon was the Lord of Pandemonium, the supreme leader of the yokai, yet he unexpectedly agreed with that sentiment completely.
Noriyuki Izuna chuckled softly. "It's fine, it's fine. The Supreme Commander is a yokai who stands on the side of humanity."
Ah, I see... Natsume's expression grew even more bewildered.
Nurarihyon spoke calmly. "You just learned about the three ways a yokai can be born. Why don't you take a guess as to which type I am?"
Natsume knew that Nurarihyon was a nurarihyon. Nyanko-sensei had mentioned this to him before.
The earliest depictions of a nurarihyon appeared in the yokai artwork of Sekien Toriyama during the Edo Period. In those paintings, the entity was visualized alongside a palanquin to satirize people who acted completely self-indulgently.
According to the legends, a nurarihyon would sneak into a wealthy person's house while the master of the house was away to freeload on their expensive food and tea.
"So, Supreme Commander, are you a yokai born from urban legends and stories?"
Nurarihyon nodded, a look of genuine praise appearing on his aged face. "Exactly. I am indeed a yokai born from the collective imagination and tales of humans. Unlike your Nyanko-sensei over there who was born from the raw essence of nature, my very existence depends entirely on humans."
"If a day ever comes where humanity completely forgets about me, then no matter how powerful I am, I will gradually fade away and vanish as time marches on."
"The vast majority of yokai born from stories and fear are exactly like this."
"We are brought into existence because of humans, and once we are forgotten by humans, we cease to exist."
"Therefore, from the very beginning, we share an inseparable bond with humanity."
"The existence of humans is an absolute necessity for us."
"When humans were weak, we ruled over them. Now that humans are strong, we coexist and rely on them."
"It's really as simple as that."
"The current era belongs to humans. Human footprints cover every single inch of land in this country, and the power of yokai has grown weaker than ever before. If our faction of yokai wants to avoid being completely wiped out, it's only natural that we reach a mutual understanding and agreement with humans."
If it weren't for that very reason, the Nura Clan could never have occupied such a massive estate as their central headquarters right in the middle of Ukiyoe Town.
This was the very first time Natsume truly understood that the relationship between humans and yokai was actually so incredibly complex.
Noriyuki Izuna spoke with a light laugh. "By the way, I heard you guys mentioning earlier that you crossed paths with Tsuchigumo today. Could you tell us a bit about what exactly happened over there?"
Just as Natsume opened his mouth to speak, Nyanko-sensei beat him to it, cutting in instantly. "It's no big deal. We just happened to run into Tsuchigumo on the road. I had a bit of a personal grudge with that bastard from a long time ago, so we ended up locking horns for a round."
Yomi Isayama leaned forward. "And where exactly did this happen?"
Nyanko-sensei shot her a sideways glance from the corner of his eye. "Why are you asking so many questions?"
Yomi explained, "The truth is, our division detected a massive clash of high-level yokai energy within Tokyo today. We assumed some dangerous yokai was trying to stir up trouble, so we immediately rushed over to put a stop to it. However, by the time we arrived at the scene, the battle was already completely over."
"We were a step too late."
"Other than a thoroughly destroyed highway and lingering traces of powerful Yoki, there was absolutely nothing left at the site."
"The reason we came to visit the Nura Clan today was also to find out from the Supreme Commander if he had any inside information regarding the matter."
Nurarihyon nodded slowly. "That's right. They did come to ask me about it. However, I didn't know what had happened either. After all, the battlefield was far too distant from the Nura Clan estate, so I didn't sense a thing."
Noriyuki Izuna pulled out his smartphone, pulled up a photograph, and slid it across the table.
"Your battle with Tsuchigumo... did it take place at this location?"
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