Chapter 38: The Little Demon, Nura Rihan
The flames still blazed, the toad's massive corpse crackling within the inferno. Its fat burst and sizzled, sending plumes of greasy black smoke into the night sky.
But the villagers no longer cared about the grotesque pyre.
They swarmed around Kobe Hikaru and Kikyo, a chattering, weeping throng desperate to express their gratitude. Some dropped to their knees, pressing their foreheads to the dirt in deep kowtows. Others clutched their children, tears of relief streaming down their faces. A few even dashed back into their homes, emerging moments later with cured meats that had been hidden away for who knows how long, insisting on pressing the precious gifts into the hands of their two 'benefactors'.
The atmosphere was as chaotic and jubilant as a New Year's festival.
Hikaru stood motionless at the center of it all, letting the villagers circle him like a river flowing around a stone. He remained silent, his gaze fixed on a single figure lingering in the crowd.
It was the hunched village chief.
The old man stood at the very edge of the celebration, not a trace of joy on his weathered face. His eyes were cloudy and unfocused, staring at the still-burning flames as his lips trembled. He looked as if he wanted to say something, yet was utterly incapable of forming the words.
Hikaru understood that expression perfectly.
It was fear. The deep, gnawing fear of an impending, and far worse, disaster.
"Village Chief!" a young man cried, running over with a face flushed from excitement. "The God… no, that demon pretending to be a god has been killed! We're free!"
"...Yes." The old man's voice was a dry rasp, as if the words were being squeezed from his throat. He nodded slowly. "We are free."
He turned, his stooped figure appearing exceptionally frail in the flickering firelight.
"I'll go... prepare some food for our benefactors."
He left, his steps agonizingly slow, each one a heavy burden. Hikaru watched the retreating back, the corner of his mouth twitching almost imperceptibly.
Kikyo moved to his side, her voice a low whisper. "It seems he really knew."
He had known from the very beginning that this so-called 'god' was nothing more than a demon in disguise.
"Mm," Hikaru replied softly. "And he knows better than anyone what happens next."
Killing the 'god' was satisfying, a moment of cathartic release. But what would happen after the 'god' was dead? The offerings that were meant for it wouldn't simply vanish into thin air.
Someone would come to collect them.
And they would be far more ruthless in their collection.
Half an hour later, a broken wooden table was set in the village chief's small courtyard.
Upon it sat the very best this impoverished village could offer: half a wild rabbit, a small dish of pickled vegetables, and a little pot of cloudy, unfiltered rice wine. It was a pitiful spread by any normal standard, but Hikaru knew that this likely represented several months of rations for these people.
"Two benefactors, please," the village chief said, bowing low as he offered them a pair of chopsticks.
Hikaru didn't take them.
His eyes were fixed on the person already sitting at the table.
No. Not a person.
It was a creature that looked like a young man. His golden hair was slicked back, glistening under the torchlight. The long locks seemed to float in the air behind him, curving like an unsheathed scythe in the gentle night breeze. He wore a striped kimono, the collar left open to reveal a sturdy chest, and held a pipe between his lips, from which he puffed contentedly.
In front of him sat the largest piece of rabbit meat from the meager meal. It was already half-eaten.
"Yo," the stranger said, looking up and flashing Hikaru a grin. "You're here. That was a beautiful strike just now."
Hikaru's hand instinctively fell to the hilt of his sword. He could feel the Yao Qi radiating from this being—it was rich and arrogant, but clean, lacking the putrid stench of rot that had clung to the toad demon.
This was…
"A Nurarihyon," Kikyo's voice cut through the silence, calm but laced with a sharp edge of vigilance. "This aura is unique to the Nurarihyon clan."
Nurarihyon.
Hikaru dredged the name from his memory. They were a type of demon renowned for their ability to 'blend in,' to appear so silently and naturally in any situation that everyone simply assumed they were supposed to be there. They were masters of stealth and infiltration, phantom demons whose essence was as illusory as a flower in a mirror or the moon's reflection on water. In the legends of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, their leader was even said to be a mediator, a king who could settle disputes between other yokai.
A sufficiently troublesome demon.
And this one's Yao Qi… Six Transformations? No, it felt even higher than that. And his appearance… it was strangely familiar.
"Don't be so tense," the blond young man said, putting down his chopsticks and stretching languidly. "If I wanted to fight, I would have done it while you were busy with that toad. Why wait until now?"
He stood up. He was shorter than Hikaru, but not by much, and would be considered exceptionally tall among ordinary men. As he drew closer, Hikaru saw his eyes clearly.
They were gold, with pupils narrowed into vertical slits, like those of a cat or a snake. They gave him a cunning, almost deceitful air.
"Allow me to introduce myself." He pulled the pipe from his mouth and twirled it expertly in his hand. "Nura Rihan."
He paused, a smirk playing on his lips. "I am the… well, not just in this area, but for a few hundred miles around, the most handsome demon." He gestured vaguely at Hikaru. "You're the only one who poses a slight threat to my title—not much, just a little."
Hikaru said nothing. The style of this introduction was… a bit off-kilter.
And with that, it was confirmed.
He really did 'know' this guy.
Nura Rihan. Wasn't that a character from Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan? Another series he had watched before his transmigration.
So this world didn't just contain Inuyasha?
Though surprised, Hikaru's face remained a mask of indifference. He supposed that since they were both 'demon-themed' series, it was only natural for them to be mixed together… Yeah, right, he thought with a dry, internal sigh.
"What have you come here for?" Kikyo's voice remained steady, but the hand resting on her bow had not relaxed in the slightest.
If it weren't for the fact that the Nurarihyon, while eerie and dangerous, were mostly known for mooching food and drink from wealthy households and rarely harmed humans, Kikyo's personality would have compelled her to put an arrow through him by now.
"To eat, of course," Nura Rihan replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "There's a banquet going on, isn't there? I just happened to be passing by and got hungry."
He pointed with his pipe to the plate on the table, where the half-eaten rabbit sat. "This is wild rabbit, right? It's roasted well, though it could use a bit more salt."
"However…"
Suddenly, Nura Rihan's expression shifted. The playful grin vanished, replaced by something indescribable… was it regret?
"To be honest, what you've done is quite satisfying," he said, his golden eyes fixing on Hikaru. They reflected the distant, burning shrine. "Decapitating that toad with a single stroke, torching its nest, and letting these people see its true face."
"Clean. Decisive. Beautiful."
"A pity, though." He sighed, exhaling a thin stream of smoke.
"Your actions, to use a saying passed down from the Ming Dynasty in the Celestial Empire—"
He paused, letting the words hang in the air.
"Are what one calls treating the symptoms, but not the cause."
Hikaru's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by that?"
Nura Rihan smiled. There was no malice in it, only an uncomfortable, all-seeing clarity.
"You already know what I mean, Oni Samurai," he said softly. "I'm just the one saying it out loud for you."
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