Nura Clan
now with that, let me introduce myself. my name is nura ryouma, heir of the nura clan. the place that this meeting was being held was my home also function as the main headquarters of the nura clan. this place is a traditional Japanese mansion that you can find in a history book. after all, this mansion was built in the Sengoku era when my grandfather established his clan at that time and settled down with his wife, my grandmother.
this mansion is located on the outskirt of Tokyo. this mansion is surrounded by forest and to reach the mansion, there is a staircase made from stone. that staircase had the same feeling as the staircase found on the shrine. in fact, there are several shrines that are in the vicinity of our mansion dedicated to several land gods that are famous for this area. but the real reason why our mansion was located in the forest in the first place is because of our clan member's true nature. yes, our clan member including me was youkai.
youkai is an apparition or spirit that brings bad or good fortune to the human that crosses us. what we doing was in the area of neutral. we are doing the bad and good things. the bad things our clan always do are flipping the table upside down, draw a doodle on human's faces, swap their footwear with another human footwear. well in short we just play a prank with humans because their reaction is funny to watch. the main culprit of this action is me, my father, my grandfather, and in the past, my little brother nura rikuo. rikuo is my half-brother that being born from wakana okaa-san. in the past, when wakana okaa-san came home with oyaji, then oyaji announced to all of us that wakana okaa-san was pregnant and he was going to marry her. everyone was surprised by the announcement and i was happy because I had another mother. but when i saw my mama, she had a look that she saw trash. i didn't know why mama wasn't happy. then, she ordered oyaji and wakana okaa-san to talk about the marriage. when oyaji saw mama expression, he had the expression of warrior that readied for deathmatch, and wakana okaa-san had a nervous expression follow mama to oyaji's room.
well, in short, mama approved wakana okaa-san and oyaji marriage. wakana okaa-san at that time was elated that she hugged mama. on the other side, oyaji had wound all over his face and a tired expression. when i asked what happened with him, he just said that i needed to grow up to know it. i was pissed at oyaji's word at that time but seeing his serious face for the first time i unconsciously nodded his word. well after that incident, rikuo was born into this world. i always wonder where the hell baby was born with, so i asked mama about my doubt. but, mama with a serious face told me that it's too early for me. well it is mama we are talking about so i believe her word. after rikuo turned three years old, me, natto kozo, tofu kozo, ko-oni, and sannokuchi invited him to prank some member of my father hyaki hyako. he with a happy face agreed to join us. that time was fun for us, we pranked aotabo, stealing nenekirimaru to play smash watermelon, sometimes we prank humans to saw their reaction. because of that we always got scolded by mama and wakana okaa-san about our behavior.
but after rikuo go to elementary school in Tokyo, he started to take his distance from us. after i ask him about what happened, he said that youkai was an evil being and when he argued about that. he was teased by his classmate as a weirdo. well, i never going to school because my body was unable to use tokii. instead, i was being taught by the member of grandfather hyaki hyako and of course my parent and grandfather himself. one of the lessons that were taught by them was that we youkai was evil being because of the majority of youkai in the past hunt human regularly that human became to mark us as evil. i asked them about them this area why the human in here didn't afraid of us. the one that answered me was my grandfather.
he said that at first human came to this place mistaken it as the shrine. when he saw the member of our clan strolling around the headquarters, he became panicked and despaired because this was a den of youkai. but before he took a flight, my grandmother, yohime with a smile asked him to calm down. she said to the men that the youkai in here was a good one. the man asked the proof of her claim. she said that she herself was proof.
the man didn't believe my grandmother as he said that she can be a youkai too. then my grandmother asked him to stay with her for the night. if in the next morning he was still safe then it proof that youkai in here didn't mean harm to him.
well long story short, that man survived and believed what my grandmother said. my grandmother asked him about his home and the man with a conflicted look said that his village being attacked by man-eating youkai that reside near here. he asked her with him prostrated to her to help his village. at that time, my grandfather with some of his members of hyaki hyako listened to the conversation. when he heard the man plead, he slid the sliding door with gusto and said to the man that he was going to answer his request.
the man asked grandfather why he helped him. grandfather said that because of his creed that was to protect weak living beings regardless of human or youkai. then without waiting for him, he ordered his hyaki hyako to subjugate that youkai. after he and his hyaki hyako subjugated the said youkai, he came to the man's village to meet with the villagers armed to defend their village. the man that later my grandfather know as the village chief came from the direction of the forest to order the villagers to cease the opposition.
one of the villagers said to the chief that he was being brainwashed by the youkai. the man with a resolute expression on his face prostate to the villager and said to them that gave my grandfather group a chance to prove themself. villagers became shocked because of the chief action. so with a doubtful look, they put down their weapon. but after that, villagers didn't believe their ears heard because grandfather said that they should hold a party to the success of subjugation of the said youkai.
after the party was done, the villagers and members of the nura clan of the past became closer and all of the villagers with resolute look prostate to grandfather and asked him to become their guardian deity. at first, grandfather refused that request because he wasn't god and just ordinary youkai. villagers didn't give up and still asked him while prostrated. when grandfather wanted to reject their request, suddenly a woman started to come from the village. that woman had black hair with ponytail style and wore a hunter garment. the woman was surrounded by 3 wolves that seem obey to her. villagers became surprised because this woman was the land god that resided in the shrine in the center of the village and never helped when it is not the emegercy.
when that woman showed up, grandfather became wary of her because she was a strong god that excelled with the art of war. seeing grandfather's action against her, the woman that grandfather later know as okamihime just smiled at him and started to prostrate to him asked to become guardian deity to this village together with her. he knew that okamihime was serious so while he pressed his forehead and sighed. he agreed to the villagers' request with one condition. he just asked the villagers to move okamihime's shrine to their headquarters and build some shrines for the land god that follow him at that time.
the villagers became happy and agreed with grandfather's request. after that incident, grandfather with his hyaki hyako swept the area around the village to negotiate or subjugate youkai in this place, and my late grandmother, yohime taught all of the children at the village some of her knowledge in the headquarters. this relationship between the nura clan and the village now a town was spanning to my generation that there is some half youkai that born between our member with humans in this town. because of that, this town is warm to us youkai.
when i heard rikuo's word, i just said to him that yes there is some youkai that doing evil deeds but our clan was a clan that protects every living being be it human or youkai. so I just ask him to keep that to his heart that he should proud of our clan. he said that he had some doubt but he nodded at my word. in the end, rikuo had still taken some distance from us but when i called him for some fun, he with a tired face followed me.
after the meeting, i ask mama about the last talk that they talking about. mama with a meaningful smile says to me that i should wait 2 days from now to know about that. well, it's mama we are talking about so i believe her. after all, she never lies to me.
but for some reason, i have a bad feeling about this day. I hope nothing bad happens.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
on the road to the local shrine in the outskirts of Tokyo.
there are many sakura trees on the side road that trees always bloom sakura flower all the year. that make a good view of picnic and any other recreation you can found in this place. because of the abundance of sakura trees on this road until the front gate of the shrine of this town. this road is being called the eternal sakura road by local people.
today is march 27th and you can see sakura flower flying through this road even though the season still far off. It should make a good feeling about the people that cross this path but some group of student had heavy atmosphere around them not befitting of this place.
one of those students is rikuo as he thought about the incident that happened in his school a few hours ago.
'why this happened?'