Chapter 52: Assault on Nijo Castle
Once Nurarihyon made up his mind, he wasted no time rallying the main combat force under his command.
Powerhouses like Gyuki, Karasu Tengu, Kubinashi, and the rest—each one more lethal in battle than the last—were quickly assembled, perfectly primed to unleash hell in the upcoming clash.
Nyanko-sensei and Natsume also joined the ranks. Nyanko-sensei in particular had been thoroughly harassed by Hagoromo Gitsune's underlings and then blindsided by Tsuchigumo, leaving him harboring a massive stomachful of burning rage from the start.
Now that a prime opportunity to vent that frustration had presented itself, he naturally wasn't about to pass it up.
That very evening, the moment the Nura Clan's full military might finished assembling, Yumesaki swung open a door, leading the Servants and the Nura Clan members straight into the heart of Kyoto.
The reason they chose to move under the cover of night was simple: only in the darkness could yokai unleash their absolute peak combat potential.
Initially, Nurarihyon had planned to utilize the Treasure Ship he had carefully stored away for years to transport Yumesaki's group to Kyoto.
However, Yumesaki felt the Treasure Ship's travel speed was far too slow. The Door-Door Fruit was vastly more practical than any mystical ship.
The moment the door opened, they were already there.
This feat left Nurarihyon utterly stupefied. He knew Yumesaki possessed the ability to manifest doors, but he never imagined it could be so utterly ridiculous as to bridge the massive distance from Tokyo to Kyoto in a single step.
In reality, let alone Tokyo to Kyoto, Yumesaki could just as easily open a gateway spanning from Japan all the way to America.
The sheer power of the Door-Door Fruit far exceeded the limits of Nurarihyon's imagination.
Upon stepping onto the soil of Kyoto, Yumesaki turned his head and asked Nurarihyon, "Do you know exactly where Hagoromo Gitsune and her underlings are holed up?"
Nurarihyon let out a confident chuckle, "Don't you worry about a thing. I can already catch the distinct, foul stench of that wretched fox Hagoromo Gitsune from here."
He and Hagoromo Gitsune were ancient, bitter rivals.
Even though one had been based in Tokyo and the other in Kyoto, the precise location of either party was something both knew perfectly well in their hearts.
The reason a massive, world-shaking conflict hadn't erupted before was partly because the overall environment didn't allow for it, and partly because neither side possessed absolute confidence in completely crushing the other.
As a result, despite knowing exactly where the enemy rested, neither had made a reckless move.
But everything was different now. Backed by such an overwhelmingly powerful array of allies, Nurarihyon naturally had no reason to hold back, immediately leading the massive host toward Hagoromo Gitsune's main headquarters.
In the original timeline of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Hagoromo Gitsune had nested within the subterranean depths of Kyoto's famous historical site, Nijo Castle, working tirelessly to give birth to Nue—the one known as Abe no Seimei.
Only to be unceremoniously cast straight down into the depths of hell to suffer by that very same son the moment he woke up.
In this massive crossover world, Yumesaki noted that as Nurarihyon led the charge, their path still headed directly toward Nijo Castle.
Looking at the situation, Hagoromo Gitsune truly treated that place as her own personal fortress.
At that exact moment, within the walls of Nijo Castle.
A thick, oppressive mantle of night completely swallowed the grand structure of Nijo Castle in absolute darkness.
Deep within the innermost chambers of the Ninomaru Palace, every single candle flame had been entirely extinguished.
Hagoromo Gitsune lay draped across fine brocade silks, yet sleep completely eluded her.
Her long, midnight-black hair spilled across the tatami mats like a dark waterfall, subtly twitching and writhing as though it possessed a sinister life of its own, while nine massive fox tails swayed restlessly behind her form.
For some inexplicable reason, on this particular night, Hagoromo Gitsune's heart was entirely seized by a profound, gnawing sense of unease that she simply could not shake.
She had no idea where this ominous dread stemmed from. Perhaps it originated from Tsuchigumo, or perhaps it was something else entirely.
Just today, she had received a troubling piece of intelligence: the moment Tsuchigumo set foot in Tokyo, he had vanished into thin air, all communication completely severed.
By all logical metrics, she shouldn't be worrying about Tsuchigumo. His raw strength was devastatingly immense; outside of her own son, there were precious few individuals in existence who could even stand as a worthy match against him.
Yet Tsuchigumo's sudden, absolute silence still cast a heavy, dark shadow over her mind.
What on earth was hiding in Tokyo?
Why was it that Kidomaru, Ibaraki Doji, Gairota, and now even Tsuchigumo could vanish one after another in such rapid succession?
Vaguely, she could sense a creeping, lethal danger stealthily closing in around her.
Yet as to where this threat was originating from, Hagoromo Gitsune found herself temporarily unable to pinpoint it.
The only absolute certainty was that this danger definitely didn't stem from the Keikain Clan to the west. Those troublesome Onmyoji, while annoying, had already been completely bound hand and foot by her meticulous grand arrangements.
Hagoromo Gitsune utterly detested this feeling of blind uncertainty, because her lack of peace came precisely from this unknown variable.
Just what kind of existence is daring to oppose me?
Hagoromo Gitsune pondered deeply, names of potential enemies flashing through her mind one by one, only to be systematically dismissed.
Right at that exact second.
A thunderous boom shattered the silence!
Suddenly, a violent, deafening crash echoed from the direction of Nijo Castle's main gates.
The sound was so incredibly heavy and powerful, sounding as though a colossal drum buried deep beneath the earth had been struck with monstrous force. It blasted through wood, shattered stone, tore through soil and water, shattered defensive Barrier layers, and directly rattled the entire structural framework of the castle buildings.
Hagoromo Gitsune snapped awake in stark surprise, before she could even formulate a proper response.
Another thunderous boom reverberated through the night!
The second colossal crash tore through the air.
The polished wooden floors of the Ninomaru Palace began to violently shudder, rippling like a disturbed body of water throwing up frantic waves. The wind chimes hanging beneath the long corridors began to ring frantically on their own without a single breath of wind. The wooden ema plaques used for offering prayers came raining down from their racks one after another, the sound of splintering wood clicking together as thick and heavy as a downpour.
Hagoromo Gitsune bolted upright into a seated position.
Her massive fox tails flared out aggressively behind her, a dense, pitch-black torrent of Yoki erupting from her form like heavy smog, instantly choking the entire bedchamber in a thick shroud.
The entirety of Nijo Castle instantly erupted into a panicked frenzy as yokai after yokai jolted awake from their slumber.
From Kyokotsu to Gashadokuro, from Minagoroshi Jizo to Hakuzosu, the alarmed shouts of various yokai began to tear through the dark.
"What is that?"
"What's happening?!"
"An enemy attack! We're under attack!"
A third thunderous boom shook the world!
Simultaneously, the third cataclysmic crash descended, sounding like the very sky collapsing and the earth splitting wide open.
Every single door, every massive support pillar, every single tile lining Nijo Castle trembled violently within the wake of that sonic blast. The ornate gold decorations adorning the grand Karamon gate jingled violently, the calm waters of the protective castle moat suddenly exploded upward into towering geysers of water reaching for the sky, and the thick earthen walls surrounding the fortress rippled up and down like ocean waves, causing plaster and mortar to spray violently in every direction.
The grand Barrier shielding Nijo Castle shattered into absolute nothingness in direct response to that sound.
The colossal main gates disintegrated into countless flying splinters in a single instant.
Hagoromo Gitsune's silhouette blurred, and in a flash, she materialized atop the high watchtower of the Karamon gate.
The fierce night wind whipped her long black hair wildly about, her nine fox tails burning fiercely behind her like a shroud of black hellfire.
She glared toward the ruined main entrance of Nijo Castle, where across the distant horizon line, a massive, terrifying force was violently churning.
It was Yoki—a colossal, roaring torrent woven from the collective energy of countless yokai.
The mass was as pitch-black as ink, rolling forward like a monstrous tidal wave, pressing down toward her from the very edge of the sky.
Within that sky-high wall of Yoki, countless silhouettes of twisted, bizarre shapes loomed ominously.
The long-necked Rokurokubi, the alluring Kejoro, the Yuki-Onna radiating an icy frost, the massive, upright form of Gyuki, the floating head of Kubinashi, the Karasu Tengu soaring through the heavens, the Karakasa-kozo spinning its umbrella top...
The forms of a hundred different yokai surged up and down like a raging sea.
The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
This was a pure, authentic, unadulterated Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
And standing right at the absolute center of this roaring torrent was a short, elderly man.
The entire horde of yokai was massed right behind this single old man. Every single yokai was vastly taller than him, every single yokai was infinitely larger than him.
Yet strangely, this entire monstrous legion followed willingly behind his small form, making the old man radiate an impossibly grand, unshakeable pressure.
What was even more bizarre was that this striking image carried not a single shred of discordance.
It felt as though this was exactly how the universe was meant to be.
The old man casually slung a massive Tachi over his shoulder, the silhouette of his unusually elongated head striking a distinct, sharp profile beneath the pale moonlight.
Hagoromo Gitsune recognized the identity of the opponent in a single glance.
Even though this old man no longer possessed the upright, devastatingly handsome posture he had sported all those centuries ago, that exact same aura of looking down upon the entire world and utterly disregarding all rules hadn't changed a single bit.
"Nura... Nurarihyon!!!"
Her shrill, piercing screech instantly tore through the heavens above Nijo Castle, ringing violently in the ears of every single yokai present.
Nurarihyon naturally caught that furious roar. He lifted his head, seeking out the source of the voice, and locked his gaze onto the woman standing atop the high Karamon gate.
His lips parted, and his voice boomed forth, sounding as though it leaped across mountains and forests, slicing through several hundred years of time to explode right next to Hagoromo Gitsune's ear.
"Hagoromo Gitsune, I'm here, you wretched hag!!!"
The sound rolled through the air like a localized thunderclap, causing every major thoroughfare and traditional machiya townhouse across Kyoto to rattle on its foundations.
The surface of the Kamo River vibrated so intensely that tight, frantic ripples broke out across the water, the pine forests of Arashiyama shook free showers of pine needles, and the Senbon Torii of Fushimi Inari gave off a low, resonant hum.
Even within the ancient Shishinden of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, located seven cho away from Nijo Castle, the historical structure swayed slightly, startling a flock of roosting pigeons into flight as they scattered into a frantic blanket of white feathers beneath the moonlight.
Further out at the To-ji Temple, the ornate finial atop the Five-Story Pagoda let out a faint, metallic clinking sound in the night wind, as if answering that roar that spanned across time and space.
The entirety of Kyoto was violently jolted awake by this grand declaration.
Hagoromo Gitsune's crimson-gold pupils violently contracted.
She had genuinely never expected that Nurarihyon would launch an assault here at this exact juncture.
There was indeed a final battle fated between herself and Nurarihyon, but it absolutely should not have been tonight.
She wasn't fully prepared, and Nurarihyon shouldn't have been prepared either.
Yet against all logic, Nurarihyon had arrived, brazenly marching his Hundred Demons all the way from Tokyo to strike her home.
What made even less sense was that along this entire march, she hadn't received a single scrap of warning.
By all common sense, Nurarihyon parading a massive legion of a Hundred Demons through the open streets should have been absolutely impossible to hide from her network of eyes and ears.
Yet reality had just dealt a resounding, painful slap across Hagoromo Gitsune's face.
"Nura... Nurarihyon..."
She hissed the name once more, her voice a toxic slurry of ancient malice and furious shock, her massive fox tails lashing the air in sheer rage, each strike producing a sharp, whistling crack as it tore through the atmosphere.
In the distance, the tidal wave of yokai was rapidly accelerating, pouring toward the castle like a ruptured dam.
At the absolute vanguard, the old man with the relaxed stride slowly drew the long blade from his waist, the pale moonlight reflecting off the polished steel like a jagged tear ripping across Nijo Castle's night sky.
Aboard Nijo Castle, Hagoromo Gitsune's nine black tails reared high into the air, her dark hair swirling upward like a reverse waterfall, her Yoki erupting wildly outward in every direction like a crashing tsunami.
The very sky overhead looked as though it were being torn into two distinct halves as their respective pressures clashed violently from afar, triggering silent flashes of lightning to crackle across the Kyoto heavens.
Incredible. Yumesaki, who was taking in the entire spectacle from the sidelines, couldn't help but voice a low murmur of genuine praise. The sheer clash of presence between Hagoromo Gitsune and Nurarihyon actually managed to evoke the distinct, jaw-dropping visual sensation of a Conqueror's Haki clash.
It seemed that once powerhouses reached a certain pinnacle of strength, their battles would inevitably force a change in the natural weather phenomena.
The Four Emperors operated on this level, and Hagoromo Gitsune and Nurarihyon were clearly no different.
Yumesaki turned his head, throwing a brief word toward Medea and Serie, "The rest is in your hands, you two."
Medea offered a subtle, elegant smile, "Rest easy and leave it to me, Master."
Serie also gave a firm, quiet nod, "No problem."
The two powerful figures moved in perfect tandem. A massive grand Barrier and a tighter localized Barrier manifested at the exact same moment, resembling a colossal, transparent dome casting its shadow downward, completely sealing the entire expanse of Nijo Castle inside.
Watching the massive cage fall into place, Yumesaki couldn't help but let out a low chuckle.
The reason he had requested Medea and Serie to erect these Barriers carried two very distinct lines of thought.
The first reason was simply to prevent Hagoromo Gitsune and her underlings from scattering and fleeing the moment they lost the battle.
As for the second reason...
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