Chapter XLIV: Sometimes I wonder if I am in a cultivation novel.

Hello niece and nephews its Uncle Author with finally a new chapter!!!

First of all I want to thank everyone who took the time to send me their best wishes when I announced the reason of why I was not able to upload a chapter in all these months. 

I know that i did not answered the comments but I read all of them, and from the bottom of my heart I thank every single one of you.

This novel has been an important part of my life for the last two years, and I wish that I could spent more time writing chapters hahaha, but the adult life is hard but it is getting a little bit better.

My thanks to the doctors my sister condition improved a lot, of course she still going to therapy sesions and all that stuff but she is fine now. 

So without further ado, please enjoy the new chapter.

Before the clash

[Death-Element] is pretty versatile, besides all the "Arise" and "And your brother" shit, it has plenty of uses, not to mention that I have Death itself as my tutor/more than a friend/maid(self-proclaimed) and plenty of inspiration thanks to Vandaliue-sama. 

"It is fascinating how many poisons I can create and how selective they can be." The latter was incredibly valuable since most of the time, it is the most difficult thing to do while concocting poisons. "And [Innovate Clear] allows me to virtually experiment with any race as long as the poison is not related to the soul as is the case with Basilisk venom since they do not have a soul."

However, the latter is just a mild problem since there is a lot of non-recyclable trash around. 

"So, it is finished?" Gramps asked since it is about time before departing to Edo(Tokyo). 

"Yup, the formula was finished yesterday but I had to prepare a new batch of the concoction." Thanks, Aqua, that Fuga gave me the [Body Double] skill, otherwise I would not have made so much progress in a short amount of time. 

"So you are going to give that to the controlled member of the Nakiri Clan? Aren't you worried about someone stealing it from said members?" Gramps pointed out his concerns since even if my actions will cause harm to them, it is not my objective to do long-lasting damage to them. 

"I thought in that possibility as well, so I will give them something else while one of the other me will spread it besides I customized it to only be viable for 6 hours and destabilize in contact with anything related with [Time Alteration], so even if by some miracle one of the members escape and somehow takes a sample, they will be unable to preserve unless by some other miracle they had access to [Death-Force]." 

Gramps looked at me and a little bit of nostalgia was present in his eyes. "This makes me remember when you tried to be civil with the wizards after Dumbledore's mess up, such a redundant method." 

"Hahaha, I cannot deny this." Those were the days when I thought that they had some strength…how laughable. "Sure I ruined his reputation and became practically my slave but it was a complete waste of my time. I could have done that in the first week if I had noticed that Fuga did not care about the plot, well I was still lacking experience at the time." Well, at least Harry has training dummies, so it was not a complete waste of our time." 

"So why are you doing this then?" 

"You could say that it is a little test for them." Gramps did not say anything implying that he wanted me to continue explaining. "You see, I have complex feelings about the Potterverse. The wizardry world has something that I loathe, decadence. Though they are weak by our standards it is not like they have no means to become smarter, faster, stronger, to become…better." So much wasted potential there, sure the British and American Wizardry communities are a special kind of idiots, however, I cannot say that the rest of the world is using all of their potential. 

"Some parallelism can also be seen here, from the information that I gathered from D-01 to D-04, the devil's "government" structure as well as their view in life are pretty much as I thought, the same could be said about Vampires and other Pantheons."

"So, I want to know if I am dealing with idiots made from the same cloth. Of course, I am not naive enough to think that this simple test would give me all the answers, but is a start nonetheless." 

"Make no mistake Gramps, I do not think that my way of doing things is the "right one" more often than not people will always think that what they do is the right way, no matter how many heinous crimes they commit as long is for "the greater good", Dumb-Ass-Door is just one of those imbeciles, there are plenty of examples of this in the omniverse." Like seriously almost every smart people in Marvel has done this, even when they are the "good guys", many of them had done worse things than many "villains" but they are forgiven because it was a "mistake". 

"I just do things because I want, sure I do not like to involve people not related to the supernatural world but I think that is just common sense, if I was just a normal person I would not appreciate some random guy casting a Zettaflare in my backyard." I mean I know what is to be involved in this out of nowhere. "But for the unlucky ones that involve themselves in the supernatural world and actively participate in it, I have no qualms. They know what they are getting to or at least they think so, especially those moronic supremacists, they act all high and mighty but they are nothing but idiotic animals…"

"So if they want to act like irrational beasts, well…." I could not help but laugh a little bit. 

"Who am I to deny the treatment that they long for?"

…

Going back to the ongoing event.

"Nurarihyon-sama," I said in a playful tone as I was not angry at all if anything that both did was just a slightly rough handshake by the supernatural world standards as both of us could have done something more violent. 

Reacting to my words, Nurarihyon undid his technique to make himself visible to the eyes of everyone, though his appearance is nothing like it was described/shown in the light novels.

There he is described as a short old man with a gourd-shaped head with little to no hair around his head, the same as is described in my previous world folklore which is a no-brainer. 

However, now he looks young as if he was at most in the middle of his 20s and he is rather tall even by my time standards, with 1.83. And instead of a bald head, he had long hair and protruded outward from the back of his head. Something that definitely stands out is his bicolored hair, with the bottom half being black and the top half being goldish white. 

"Ho? You know who I am and still dared to point your sword at me, I do not if you are audacious or plain stupid." Even if his words sounded aggressive his tone was rather playful as like I said this was just analogous to a handshake. "Nonetheless, it is impressive that a brat that has yet to grow some hair to locate me with such facility even if I was not doing my best." 

Though it could sound like a second-handed compliment for someone his whole "legend" revolved around how great his abilities are at going unnoticed, he was giving me a very good compliment since I look rather young and admittedly his abilities are not bad and he was using a [Magic System] which I was not familiar with, but he is not at Gramps level. 

I sheathed my katana and turned around to look him directly in the eyes. "It would have been impolite of me to not respond to you in the same way." I am pretty sure that I was doing the famous "close eyes smile" that would make Edowaga Rampo and Ichimaru Gin proud.

A small snort came out of Nurarihyon. "Either way I need to take care of my people, I hope that you and your guardian can wait a bit to give us some information." 

'Hmmm? How long has it been since a leader asked me something while actually asking me and not just ordering me with subtle words?.' Ragnuk and Oberon do not count as they are too emotionally invested with my "family" and I am not going to lie, it feels pretty fresh. 

"Sure we do not mind, but allow me to help you all a little bit," I said waving my hand to cast a spell using the [Magic Energy] of the ambient like most of the Wizards do. 

And soon after what I did was pretty obvious as the whole district started to get repaired at a considerable pace in front of everyone. As an enthusiast(Madman) for knowledge, sometimes(many times) I have broken one or two(dozen) buildings, so just these simple buildings are nothing complicated to repair. And soon after, the last destroyed building was repaired as if nothing had happened in the first place. 

"Good as new fellows." I looked at the baffled expression that they were making, curious indeed.

"Also, I am something of a physician myself, so if you want help with your wounded men I can give you a hand." Even if I already distributed potions to everyone, those were just some "minor potions", helpful but nowhere near to the point of completely healing all their wounds, I cannot show the good stuff before knowing how "clever" (read imbecile) his council or whatever he has is. Also, I could not call myself a doctor, since I do not have a Doctorate…in medicine. 

"*Sigh* Though I would like to say that you have done enough for my people, I would appreciate it if you could treat Zhu Zheng's wounds." Nurarihyon asked not being comfortable "owning me" more favors, but his people's health is a priority. 

"Nurarihyon-sama there is no need to care about me, please help the.." Zhu Zheng tried to say something but was stopped after being smacked by VERY convincing arguments. 

*SMACK*

The big guy fell over his ass. "Quiet you, a patient does not have the right to complain, look at you only a gentle breeze and are all over the ground." Of course, it was my VERY convincing argument, the name of my fist, if you forgot.

"But you were the one who…" Zhu Zheng tried to say something once again.

"Hush you, the faster you shut up the faster that I will help others." Though I doubt that others need my help, maybe one of the guys who had his wrist tendons severed, even if Youkai have sturdier bodies, delicate parts of the body still take time to heal without specialized treatment. 

"Do not be stubborn, Zheng," Nurarihyon said, looking at him. "I understand that you are worried about our people, but if you act like this, everyone will follow your example, making everything take more time than it should." 

While taking care of your people is important, taking care of oneself is equally important. Not only can morale drop but will keep the subordinates on their toes if their leader is injured, this is what Nurarihyon is trying to convey. 

Zhu Zheng made a complicated face understanding what he was implying. "Understood Nurarihyon-sama." He reluctantly accepted. "I will be in your care, Yozora-sama." 

Nurarihyon, seeing that his subordinate already saw the reason, decided to check his other subordinates as well as inspect the repaired houses.

"First, drop the -Sama, I am not your superior." In rank. "Second, I already started." While they were talking I already started to use acupuncture to treat him, his anatomy is different from the one of a human, but the other that was in charge of studying [Innovate Clear] already compiled the information of several Youkai and stored it on [Library of Heaven's Path]. As for why not use [Magecraft]/[Magic], it is the same reason as why not use the good stuff. 

"Jezz man they did a number on you, but fortunately they were capable of piercing any vital organ, although they were close to severing the femoral artery. Though a great deal of your internal damage was done because you overused [Touki], so you need to rest at least a week before returning to your post, well at least you did not strain your Dantian and crippled your cultivation…but you were close." I said with a serious tone, but internally I was making a herculean effort to not laugh. 

"What are you talking about?" Zhu Zheng asked both confused and worried. 

"Sorry, sorry, is just a terminology that I heard in one of my travels, I meant that if you overextend your body further there is the possibility that the damage would cause you to be incapable of using [Touki] or at the very least not using it to your previous limit." Even if I was joking with all the Xianxia stuff, if Gramps did not appear when he did, maybe he would have recurred to do something similar to what Nen Users do when they are at their limit. 

"Captain…" Some of his men whispered with guilt evident in their voices. 

"But as I said, it is treatable." I interrupted their Shounen moment since I wanted to finish this quickly. "The only bad news is that you will need to keep most of the needles in your back for a week so sleeping may be a little bit uncomfortable." Besides helping his body to repair that damage, I am controlling the blood flow so he does not bleed out before I stitch him, accelerating his healing factor a little bit and easing the pain. Though it seems that I am doing this rather easily, I doubt that there are many people with equal or greater ability than me with acupuncture. 

"Please accept my deepest gratitude, Yozora-sama." Zhu Zheng said still not dropping the -sama, but he seems to be the kind of person who is too strict with formalities, those kinds of people do not give an inch unless they are either ordered or have a long time relationship with the other person. 

"Do not thank me too soon, this is just the start," I said before taking my sewing needles with a roll of Acromantula silk. "I ran out of anesthesia (lie), but worry not, I am quite skillful so you will not even have a scar when I am done." I could not help, but make an evil smile. 

…

Nurarihyon P.O.V

"Kiba, report." 

"Yes, Nurarihyon-sama." My subordinate said without delay. "Approximately half of our district was destroyed in the ambush from the Nakiri Clan, there were 100 injured civilians, 20 which were humans, from those none had any severe injury, the worst cases were some broken bones. From our men, all suffered different degrees of injuries with Captain being the worst one, Asahi had his right wrist tendon severed and Aoi's leg was crushed, but there were no casualties." 

Those bastards, I do not how but they locked us inside our sub-dimension. They are the first ones to complain at the first instance where a Stray Youkai causes a mess inside their territory even when it was publicity marked as one, but always try to blame our faction. But now, they crossed the line, attacking my people in MY territory, they will not get scar-free from this…

"We tried to get a sample of the poison used by them, but to my utmost regret none of our specialists were able to get a sample even when some of our people decided to not take the antidote." 

Another concerning matter. The use of poison is not something new to us, many in our long history have tried to use this against us but failed, after all, many of my brethren are naturally affined to this. Sure, some things are "like" poison to us and we are not immune to strong poison, but this is the first time that they were successful in manufacturing something specific to us without affecting them, and worse even if to a limit, it was able to work in Ultimate-Class.

"But thanks to Yozora-sama's and Lee-sama's intervention, the worst possible scenario was avoided. If I could give my opinion, we were fortunate that none of our people were killed." 

Indeed, we were lucky…too lucky, extremely to the point that it was suspicious. 

With the precarious situation in which my people were, it would not have been surprising if half of them had perished, even if just a fifth of them survived after their intervention would still be called a miracle but none of them died and just a few suffered from severe injuries. 

"Everyone, what is your opinion about Yozora and Lee?" Even if the former had "good manners", it was after the heat of the battle was off, and as for the latter I do not have an image of him besides being strong and loyal to the youngster. 

"That lad Yozora is terrifying," Hanatarou said without hesitation. 

"Indeed," Kiba said, nodding at his companion's statement.

"The same applies to Lee-sama." Zhu Zheng said, including the older human. 

"Everyone, do not be disrespectful towards our saviors!" Rine said with an admonishing tone.

"I know that with your situation it is hard to say something slightly bad about the lad, but what do you expect us to think?" Hanatorou replied, shrugging his shoulders. "He came out of nowhere and dealt with the situation in a matter of seconds and admonished himself saying that "He was still lacking" after bisecting a dozen people from the Nakiri Clan and destroying a good chunk of the forest." 

While their surprise is understandable taking into consideration their strength, for beings that already stepped on the Ultimate Stage it is not surprising at all, however, maybe it is the fact that he admonished himself and their situation that made a rather big impression on him. 

"Lee-sama is not normal either." Zhu Zheng intervened. "His strength is not something that could be shrugged off. I am confident that under normal circumstances I would have been able to take care of all the members of the Nakiri Clan even if hardly, he just killed them all without a problem, but his speed is what truly terrifies me, I was not able to follow him at all, which makes me wonder why someone as strong as him is in a servitude state to Yozora-sama" 

This however is surprising, even if Zhu Zheng "recently" entered the Ultimate Class he is capable of handling people stronger than him but not able to react to his speed…it seems that the mystery behind Yozora's background is deeper than I initially thought.

"It is clear now that their strength is something to be respected, but how about their personality?" I wanted to know more about them. 

"My interaction with Lee-sama was just a brief one, but the little I got to see is that he is used to people with haughty personalities or people with some degree of authority as he did not seem bothered by Nakiri Shou's words, but he seems to be extremely loyal to Yozora-sama as he killed all the members of the Nakiri Clan since he deemed them as "Non-Recyclable Trash"." 

"Yozora-sama also seems to be a straightforward person, he admitted that he was the reason why the Nakiri Clan suddenly broke the pact without an apparent reason, but from what the member from the main branch said, it seems that they were persecuting him and somehow found him here." 

"Also he seems to have a disdain towards the Five Principal Clans or maybe towards people who try to impose their will on him. But It does not seem that he outrightly hates any type of authority as he did not have any real problem with you Nurarihyon-sama." 

This complicates things quite a bit, I have experienced both types of people and for the most part, it never ends well. The former is understandable as most of our kind suffered from those idiots with their "Sacred Mission" and with his "special" situation it would not be surprising that he faced adversities orchestrated by the clans. But if it was the latter case, things could get severely wrong if not treated with caution. 

"We are going to take a slow approach with both of them. We do not know the extent of their abilities nor with whom they are associated, not to mention that the West Faction might already know about Yozora." His existence is not just a problem for the Five Principal Clans. "Besides he seems to have a sense of responsibility or at the very least he is kind enough to aid our people when he has no real responsibility." For more than we try to blame him for what happened, it was not his that aimed his sword at our people, it was the Nakiri-Clan and he was nothing but an excuse, it was just a matter of time before any of the Principal Clans tried something as foolish as this. 

"Understood." All of them said at the same time. 

"Now, the problem is with our Clans Council." I can already feel the incoming headache, those idiots would want to either go straight to Nakiri's Clan main quarters or try something stupid with Yozora…maybe both, how in Tamamo's name they can be that old and at the same time that stupid. "We need to talk with both of them before giving any information to the clans, otherwise this will…"

*Bam!*

"Nurarihyon-sama! It is an emergency!" One of the maids yelled with an impassive tone.

"Hahaue?" Hanataro asked, confused. 

The maid in question raised both of her ears and looked directly at Hanataro. "My baby!" And faster than he could react, the seemingly young lady was already inspecting him from head to foot. 

"Are you okay? I heard that poor Aki almost lost his hand so I was worried sick this whole time!." For normal humans, the sight would be a strange one since by simple looks Hanataro looked as if he was Mitsuri's father. 

"Hahaue I'm fine as you can see…also don't treat me like a baby, I am already an old man," Hanataro said with a flustered face, it is always refreshing to see that look on the poor bastard. 

"You can be a thousand years old for all I care but you will always be my baby boy," Mitsuri said, hugging his son tightly. The happiness in her was evident as she moved her cat tail from side to side. 

"Mitsuri-san, as much as it amuses me to see Hanataro's flustered face." Hanatar let out an annoyed grunt that could be heard in the room at my words "What is the so-called emergency that you were talking about?" 

"Oh right." Mitsuri finally remembered that there were more people in the room. "Nurarihyon-sama the elders from several clans including the leaders of the Gyūki and Kyūso Clans had gone to where our guests were and started demanding things from them!" Mitsuri said very distressed and with a hint of hatred.

"Those insufferable idiots!" I stood from my seat and went directly to the door. "Follow me." 

Steadfastly we moved towards the room where Yozora and Lee were waiting for us and even before opening the door we could hear several familiar voices rising with indignation and they were not even bothering to hide all their negative emotions.

Before entering I hid everyone who was with me, to see how the situation was developing and at the moment saw many of the leaders ranting at the young and the old man. Neither of them seemed annoyed at all, Lee-san was just drinking a beverage with a passive look on his face as if there were no other people in the room as for Yozora…

"HAHAHA, What? Are you gonna jump on me? I thought that I needed to be in Kyoto to receive that kind of treatment." He seemed amused at the current situation and laughed like a madman at his own joke.

"Stop laughing!" 

"What else do you want me to do?" Yozora said, cleaning the tears from one of his eyes. "When someone says a joke, you are supposed to laugh, right? So go on, continue to entertain me like the buffon you are." 

"Youu!" 

"Are you sure that all of you are from distinguished families? For the last couple of minutes, you all have been babbling the same words over and over again as if you were infants, perhaps you should broaden your vocabulary instead of throwing jokes. " Yozora said, shaking his head with disappointment.

 "And you!" He pointed at the elder Kyūso. "You have been repeating for Tamamo's knows how many times to "take responsibility" as if you were a blustered young maiden, it is just disgusting to hear an old man as you speak like that" 

I do not know what to say…from my years of interaction with other Fox Youkai, I know that most of them tend to be mischievous and pranksters at a young age. In a way he is being plain disrespectful…even if there is some truth behind them.

And it seems that the surprise was not just on my side, it was particularly shared by those who he saved in the forest, but it seems that the one who was more surprised was Rine, not that I can blame him since for him Kyubi no Kitsunes are beings that are the cuspid of reverence, so it must be difficult to process that he is "just" a young man. 

"I do not think that you understand the severity of your actions." Someone behind all the elders said someone who could either make things simple or difficult. 

"Hoh? And you are?" Yozora said with a hint of amusement that for the first time it did not seem like sarcasm. 

"I am known as Gyūki, the leader of the Gyūki Clan, its founder if you want to be precise." He is one of my most loyal men and always has the best interest of the Faction in his heart, even beyond his interest.

"Then "Gyūki", can you enlighten me on how precarious the situation is?" Yozora made a strange sign when he said his "name", not in a mocking way but as if he knew that was giving a false name. 

But Gyūki did not seem fazed at his words and continued his explanation. "While I am aware that nothing that transpired was anything directly caused by the both of you. It does not change the fact that it was because of your incompetence in handling your affairs that our people suffered, so the least you could do is treat the situation with the seriousness it deserves." 

"Fine then," Yozora said, dropping the perpetual smile on his face. "But be aware that I expect you people to speak phrases longer than just three words, otherwise you will be wasting my time." 

Some of the elders looked outraged at his later statement, but with a single raise of Gyūki 's hand, everyone's complaints dyed out in an instant. "First, does the Kozō Clan have anything to say?"

"Nothing else other than I find degrading how all of you are acting." Kozō Nattō said not to throw a nasty glare at many of the elders present. 

"I share the same opinion." Neko Ryōta, the leader of the Bakeneko Clan said. 

"*Snorts* what a couple of youngsters that haven't seen a century would understand." Hebidayu the elder of the Hebi Clan said with disdain. 

"What else is there to understand? That you are trying to take advantage of a young man that barely reached adulthood and an old man?" Ryōta asked back to the elder.

"Not to mention that they saved our people." Young Kozō, the youngest of the leaders present said. He must feel very grateful as his brother was among the people saved by them. 

"Idiots, have you forgotten that they are the reason why the Nakiri Clan attacked us?" Kyūso, the elder of the namesake clan, said with disdain. 

"Boss is right, you people should take-" Tsubasa, one of Kyūso henchmen tried to say, but he looked at Yozora's smirk and paused for a bit. "*cough* You should be held accountable for your actions." 

"What... an… idiot." Yozora "murmured" to himself, but it was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. 

"You-" 

"Anyhow." Yozora interrupted him, ignoring Tsubasa's rant. "Hypothetically speaking, how do you all expect us to be accountable for?" 

Kyūso's greedy nature started to become more evident. "I got the information that you hold in your hand a variety of options, including restorative ones and antidotes." 

Yozora looked at Kyūso without changing his face and nodded slightly, informing Kyūso to continue as he gave a vicious smile. "Then give the recipes and the manufacturing process to us." 

"He also has a pair of swords worthy of praise, he should hand them to us." 

"They must retribute with a hundred years of servitude." 

More and more elders started to voice out unreasonable requests to the pair who did not seem to care, but something started to disturb me. It was almost indistinguishable but little by little with every comment it appeared as if the light on Yozora's eyes started to get dimmer. 

"Those bastards!" Rine was outraged beyond reason and was about to get in front of them, but I stopped him. 

"Nurarihyon-sama, why are you stopping me?" Rine asked with clear impatience in his voice. 

"I can understand how you are feeling, but your stepping in will help no one, and even more it will create further problems for you in the future" Impotence was clear in the face of young Rine. "However, I give you my word that I will step in before anything serious happens." While I have my doubts about everything that transpired today, it is the undeniable truth that they saved our people, the very least that I can do is give them the benefit of the doubt, and… 

"I see." None of Yozora's previous joyful tone was heard. "And what if we refuse?" 

"What?" 

"Why do we have to follow the whimpers of pathetic buffons which are so high with the modicum amount of power they have? That is nothing but nonsense." Yozora stood up from his place and so did Lee. "The only reason we are here is because Nurarihyon had some questions, we are not obligated to do anything for you."

"You think that you can do as you please?" One of the elders who couldn't read the mood, started to complain.

"And who is going to stop me?" Yozora's eyes were cold, as cold as someone who has seen death directly in their eyes. 

"You think that only the two of you can go against our whole faction!" The elder from the Kijin clan said it increased the heavy feeling in the room. "While you both are in the Ultimate Class, you are just two people." 

At this point I expected Yozora to already explode in anger towards the elders as his mouth started to get twisted, but different from my thoughts something different happened. 

"Kukuku Fuhaha HAHAHA!" A mad laughter full of amusement, scorn, disdain, and arrogance permeated the whole room. The weaker members started to feel an invisible pressure while the others including myself felt chills on the back. "As usual the weak tries to rely on the numbers to hide their own weakness, only having the guts to bare your jaws when you are in a swarm, just like the insects you are." 

"I had enough!" Kyūso dashed before I could do anything and grabbed Yozora by his yukata. "There is much disrespect that we are willing to endure, so comply with our demands or else…" A wide wicked smile adorned his face. 

"Nurarihyon-sama I cannot endure this any longer!" Rine yelled as he was about to jump towards both of them. 

I could not help but share the same opinion, though his words were beyond rude, the majority of the elders had treated him in the same manner. Moreover, he is my guest, and this has reached the point where it could ruin any goodwill that he has. 

But before I did anything I was greeted with a surprise, Lee looked in our direction and shook his head, telling me to not intervene with what was about to happen 

"!?" 

A crushing pressure enveloped the whole room as if the air started to solidify making most of the people get to their knees while having a hard time breathing, the weaker ones were already full of tears and snot as they were about to pass out. 

This pressure was difficult to withstand not only because of the sheer strength behind it but the dreadful feeling behind it. None of the people here are unaware of malice, death, hatred, or hostility, however, the aura that the young man in front of me is projecting feels so oppressive and ruthless as if we were staring at death itself. 

Kyūso, who was in front of everything had a pale expression, even if he was fairly strong among the elders, in front of the young man, his strength was none. 

"For how long do you intend to keep soiling my clothes?" With the young man's words, Kyūso unconsciously released his grip from the clothes, but Yozora did not seem to be content enough. "Your head is raised too high." With those mere words, the pressure upon Kyūso became stronger, making him almost fall to the ground just barely holding by pushing himself with his arms. 

"Perhaps you were right when you said that we cannot take a whole faction with just the two of us." Yozora's emotionless voice resonated in the whole room. "But your people are not here, aren't they? I could have easily torn your head out of your body before any of the insects that you call subordinates arrived into the room, then numbers would have no meaning." 

"If it was not for the goodwill that I saw on Nurarihyon, your insolence of trying to covet my treasures would have been rewarded with a destiny worse than death." A hint of hatred and disgust was clear when he mentioned his treasures, but I guess that it was not just his material possessions nor this was the first time that something like this happened to him. "You do not deserve such mercy, I used to have so much." 

Yozora and Lee started to walk in our direction before Yozora stopped and looked once more at the puddle of tears that is now Kyūso. "You get one warning, that was it…" After saying that, his sight wandered towards most of the elders with few exceptions before stopping in Gyūki's direction and nodding slightly before he did the same. 

"Shall we go,? Nurarihyon" Yozora said, looking in our direction, so I decided to finally undo the cover that did not work with either of them, at least the simple one….

Yozora's POV

'I am glad that everything went peacefully.' I thought inwardly, almost giving myself some pats on the back for doing such great work. 

'I bet that if someone could hear my thoughts, they would surely be thinking that I did the opposite of a peaceful approach, but I beg to disagree.' For one instance I could have killed most of them without a hitch, especially with my [Noble Phantasm] like [Colada] or the ones that I obtained thanks to Oberon, with my [Domain Expansion] I could have incapacitated the majority, …or slash them into tiny pieces, my partners could also destroy them, wither them with [Death Element]... The point is that I could toast them in so many ways since they were not strong enough, and I am confident enough to escape without a problem. 

"Yozora-sama." Rine, the Kitsune that I saved, said almost whispering.

"Did something happen Rine-san? 

"Was it necessary to antagonize the majority of the clan's elders?" Rine asked with a worried tone rather than being angered by my attitude. 

"While your concern is appreciated, it is unneeded." After all, it is all according to plan. "Otherwise either Nuraryhion or Gyūki would have stopped me, especially the latter as I could see a deep sense of responsibility with Nurariyon and the faction." However from what I could see with [Clairvoyance(Beast)], the elders are inconsequential to him, as long as their clans survive, he does not care on a personal level for them. 

"But that makes no sense! After this, they will gather the strongest people of their clans and will try to enact revenge upon both of you." Rine was still worried about my previous flaunt, but I could hardly understand his reason for thinking that way. 

"I can assure you that they will not. Not only are they terrified of me, especially that guy who had horrible breath, I would be surprised if he does not start shaking the next time he sees me…if there is one." 

I never had hidden my preference for using fear as a weapon and one of my favorite uses of [Nen] is [Ren] not to enhance myself but to project my own emotions. So after obtaining the top aptitude in [Enhancement], it was obvious that I would do something with it, so I created a [Nen Ability] that greatly increases the use of [Ren], the intrinsics of the technique are quite lengthy, and but it makes the pressure of my [Aura] heavier and denser while at the same time optimize the projection of emotions and as it is an ongoing project since I have not enough time since I was preparing for the travel and it was not something essential to finish. 

"And I am quite certain that Gyūki rather than me he was more cautious of gramps than me and will try to stop any foolish attempt against any of us, after who would want their faction becoming weaker because they wanted to commit an overcomplicated and many times more painful suicide." After all, he was just drinking tea while everyone was pissing their pants…badass. 

"You are being too optimistic Little Yozora," Gramps spoke after so long that immediately everyone's attention was on him. "How many times has it been that even if we beat them senseless they still refuse to follow their sense of self-preservation?"

"I can assure you Lee-sama that I will do everything in my power to prevent this situation from happening once more," Nurarihyon said with a definitive tone and he meant it, however…

"It may sound presumptuous of me to say the following, but I have lived quite a long life, for human standards that is. And I have met many kinds of rulers in my travels and you are one of the few that have said things without second intentions." Gramps said telling the truth, in both of his lives, before becoming a [Servant] he trained a lot of people that became important as well as with our travels in the Potterverse meeting several Magic Ministers from different countries. "However, as a leader, you must know that there are always rebellious weeds among their ranks, and no amount of words will be enough to discern them of not doing something extremely foolish and most of the time get away without consequences if they do not provoke the big factions, and as wanderers, we often are the target of said fools if we do not kill them." 

Nurarihyon and Gyūk half-closed their eyes and steered at Gramps, not surprising though. He just bluntly admitted that if they become a nuisance we would kill them without blinking. In the Potterverse we had the luxury of letting people who antagonize us live on borrowed time, however, with the clusterfuck that this universe is, I normally would not allow such a thing to happen unless…

"Of course, we do not want to reach that point, otherwise we would have not accepted your invitation, since we were expecting that a situation like this would arise given the less-than-pleasant circumstances of our encounter, so we think that we can reach a middle ground." This is where the real plan starts. "But we can talk about this later, you asked us to stay so you must have some questions." 

Nodding at our words, Nurarihyon extended his hand inviting us to sit. "Indeed it is true that we have questions, so we will appreciate your cooperation."

"We will answer your questions without deceit as long as it does not involve some sensitive information that we want to remain hidden," Gramps said in a serious tone, of course, it would be meaningless to blatantly lie to experts in the use of [Senjutsu]. 

"Yozora, forgive me if this question sounds disrespectful, but were you born in this land?" 

"Given your question, I assume that you think that I may be a Jiǔwěihú, Hồ ly tinh, or Kumiho instead of a Kyubi no Kitsune, am I right?." Those are examples of Nine-Tailed Foxes in different parts of the world, while in essence, they are the same, in the Potterverse besides some habits they were regarded as the same with some subtle differences. Here however there are more differences between them, especially their legends and the gods that are often associated with them., but for the most part, the relevance that they held with their respective communities. 

"But fret not, I do not feel this offensive. I wandered among humans for a long time (Two lives worth time) and most of them think that my roots are from Zhonghua(China) as the majority of humans in the European continent are unaware of the existence of our land, so I am used to this kind of questions." The Portuguese merchants have yet to arrive, so just a minority of merchants and important people along with some random people in the west know about Japan. "However, my first memory is from this land." In my first life that is. 

"What about your family? 

"I do not know if I have a biological family whatsoever." I know, I no longer have…

"Can you elaborate?" 

"One day I just gained consciousness(When I transmigrated in the Potterverse). I was alone in an unknown place, without a name, there were no people as you describe as parents, moreover different from what I had seen in humans. I was not born as an infant but rather a young boy." 

"Perhaps you lost your memories."

I shook my head at his question. "No, well it would not be accurate to say that. I did know but the only thing I lack is a name of my own. At the time I woke up I did not have any injuries or something that implied something similar, I was just born(for the second time) like that." 

To their credit, on the outside their expression did not change at all, neither their heartbeat nor their breathing rhythm changed at all. They know that I have not lied so far and unless they are either too ignorant or braindead, that my story perfectly overlaps with many not only in Japanese mythology but hundreds around the world, and all of them have the same in common…divine intervention.

So, they must be thinking that a deity is backing me up, which is not untruth. Even if I do not take "The organization" into consideration, I have Death watching for me, in the Potterverse that is, perhaps even Fate. But since we are in Japanese land 3 main deities are most likely on their minds.

"And what about Lee-sama? We are not strangers to humans warding Yokais or the other way around, but someone as strong as you taking care of a natural-born Kyubi-No-Kitsune, would put a target on your back with your fellow humans." 

"If I feared something as tiny as the Five-Principal Clans, I would not be able to be called Gramps by this rascal," Gramps said pointing with his thumb at me. "I heard someone calling for help(The Servant Summoning Ritual) and I found him so I took him under my wing." 

"The Five Principal Clans are tiny in your views?" For the first time, he looked outwardly surprised.

"I fought on equal ground against one of Grigori's Cadre and he is only alive because we wanted to." As we planned, we revealed a little about our strength, if Gramps wanted him dead he could have used his Noble Phantasm and that would be GG easy. 

It is not to undermine humans of this world, but the majority of them are…weak. While they have a sense of urgency that allows them to improve "faster" than other races, for the most part, they have a limit on how much they can improve, not to mention that time is against them. 

I am not using the fools that we slaughtered as a measure for their whole clan, but a great percentage of them are likely around their strength.

And about their wannabe Jinchurikis? Pfff, one word, Durindana.

"It seems that you have doubts about our words," I said not with indignation but with a little playful note in my voice. "But that is understandable, as far as you are concerned we are nobodies," I said the last thing with a hint of irony, but my smile became a grin. "So what about a deal?" 

"A deal?" 

"As you know the Nakiri Clan, with their sorry excuses of brains, tried to kill me, and honestly I am a little pissed off, but since I already took care of the main culprits, however, I assume that you are not satisfied with this outcome, don't you?" 

While on paper, Amaterasu's words should be followed, the main problem is that she cannot(I think) oversee everything. So the endless dispute continues with more underhanded methods increasing the hatred between all parties. 

"So you want to eliminate them?" 

"Not quite, while I could do it without much of a problem that would create a power vacuum within the other Clans and the rest of the minor factions that are not with them, and inevitably that would come to bite you back." And people say that I am not considerate enough. "So I will just figuratively cripple them " Thanks Aqua that Daphne is not here.

"And what would you get in all of this?." 

"Besides the obvious war spoils since we will be doing everything, there are two things that we certainly want," I said while raising one finger. "The first one would be access to your records, specifically to the ones regarding [Touki], [Youjutsu], and [Senjutsu], and to be clear I do not ask about clans' secrets while enticing as they could be I am not asinine enough to think that you would let strangers get access to your deepest secrets, but it would be nice if you let me see the "advanced" material." I mean I can always sneak in the future. 

Instead of being annoyed or enraged, they looked more confused than anything, especially Rinne-san. "Why would you want such knowledge? From what Rinne and the rest informed me you are already strong enough." 

"I understand your confusion but my knowledge in those two branches is quite lacking as I never had formal training in them especially regarding [Youjutsu], as for [Touki] well while Gramps knows of it, he is more specialized in certain areas so we would like to broad our views in this area." I mean [Touki] is using life force so technically I am not lying. 

I fired a little of my [Fox Fire] playing with it in my hands. "I do have a great grasp of my inherent abilities, and my sensitivity over Ki is greater thanks to my race I cannot do much without the knowledge on how to properly start, right? Sure if I put my "all" in, maybe I can figure it out, but I have many things to do, so it is not an option for me." To be more honest, I am certain that I could do this by myself in just a month or so, however, it would be nice to have this knowledge in the [Library Of Heaven's Path] 

"I understand, as for your second request?" 

I smiled lightly as this was the most important part of the deal. "You see before coming here, I passed by an unpopulated land which gained my interest, so I would like to gain ownership over them," I said as I took a map and handed it to him and he started to inspect it. 

"The Lay Lines, while not the best in the mainland, are quite decent. There is no local deity attached in that place so there will not be any problem, you can send your people to verify the information if you want." 

"And why do you want the ownership of this place specifically? I have an idea of where that place is and it is not something special, otherwise, I would already have my people starting a town there, so what is so special in that place that you would risk your and Lee-sama's life to get it?" Nurarihyon asked. 

Risking…my…life? Did he actually say that? That is…..

"Kuhahaha that is so hilarious hahaha." My stomach is hurting on how hard I am laughing and tears are starting to form in the edge of my eyes. "Gramps, did you hear that? Hahaha" 

Gramps was not as amused as me, however, I could see a light smirk forming on his mouth. 

"Sorry, sorry." I half-heartedly apologized, cleaning the tears of my eyes. "They are "quite" strong I am not going to deny that, otherwise you would have eradicated them from the face of the earth but mostly because they had the advantage of being capable of using your weakness and numeric advantage, but for us? It's just another Thursday." Sure the others were way far weaker but a bigger worm still is a worm. 

I do not need [Clairvoyance(Beast)] to know that some feel a tad bit angry at my statement and others think that I am just arrogant but would not vocalize that…meh It is not as if I was stating that I would kill Great Red. However, Nurarihyon was different, there was thinking Aqua's knows what, but at least I think that is something good for me. 

"Before denying or accepting your "deal", I have three questions for you," Nurarihyon asked and I just nodded at him.

"Since you are not killing everyone from the Nakiri Clan it is bound that some might recognize you, how are you going to prevent the aftermath from reaching us? If someone informed Amaterasu-sama or some other deity that a Yokai especially a Kyubi-No-Kitsune destroyed one of the Five Principal Clans" 

"A valid concern indeed, but fret not as this Fox has the solution." After I said so, a "poof" sound was heard and dust-like clouds appeared around my body, and after dispersing "I" became visible. 

My clothes were still the same, however, instead of my long silver-white hair, I had medium black hair. My facial features were a little bit rougher than before and instead of having heterochromatic eyes, they were deep blue eyes. I basically borrowed Noctis' appearance when he was 27. 

"As you can see I am also a master of disguise," I said with my voice being deeper than before. "However, just a cosmetic change would not be enough, right?" I asked while touching my left piercing.

And with that action the Aura that I was emanating changed. 

Instead of being the same as any other Youkai, it felt more as if I was human, and touching it again, changed to imitating the one from a devil from this world. 

"I am also proficient in several esoteric arts not associated with Youkai, so I will just use these to fool them and maybe blame another faction for this." And obviously, I will plant it all to the Devils hehe

Nuraryhion said nothing and acted normally, but I could feel that he was trying to find any weakness in my change of Aura, but me being me there was no possibility that some of my equipment to have a flaw so desirable. 

Finding no use on keeping inspecting me, he readied himself and asked his second question. "What about the god or goddess that is behind you? Would they intervene in your actions?" 

I shook my head in denial. "While they do request things from time to time they care too little about what I do as I was already informed of what I cannot do, and believe me causing a little massacre is not one of them." I did not bother playing the whole "How do you know?" thing or whatever, I implied it myself so it would be stupid, however not answering his question I give him the idea that saying their name is. 

"Would you have killed all the Clan Members that wanted things from you?" 

"Absolutely," I answer without doubt, though I am confused about how this is relevant to the deal. 

"May I ask why?" 

"Because they are weak." 

"So you follow the law of the jungle." 

"Not at all, I think that such a concept is idiotic and unrealistic.

 Why would a scholar who does not know how to fight would be on the first line of battle? If just were "strong" who would take care of the menial tasks? If just brutes existed who could take care of the ill or wounded? If a strong person gets injured would he become weak just because no one can heal him? It is just pointless violence that will not leave room for improvement." 

"So why then?" 

"Because they were weak and demanded things from me like it was their birthright," I said with an almost bored tone. "They think that just because they are a little above the social ladder they can do as they will, weaklings like them have no right to demand anything from me, even if they begged for the sweet embrace of death, I will deny it." Especially in the Potterverse, I cannot allow my cute Death to see such filth. 

Nurarihyon looked as if he was meditating on my words, I cannot blame him though, my views of the world are severely biased and screwed(allegedly), but well so does everyone in the world(s). And for someone immortal(I cannot die from old age, but that is a story for another day) I still have my views about time as the ones of a normal human, even if I am not either of them. 

"I see that you are hesitant about accepting my deal, though I cannot blame you," I said with sincerity. "So in the good spirit of making a long-lasting relationship, what about if I do not take the down payment?" Even in the supernatural world, there always has to be an "insurance" while doing a deal, especially if you are not using some kind of ritual or contract, speaking of that. "Also against my better judgment, I will not make any formal "contract" between us so you will not be tied by it." 

And for the umpteenth time of the day, they looked at me as if I was crazy, which is not untrue(All Magus are crazy). 

"Yozora-sama, do you realize what you just said?" Rinne my latest fanboy(Blaise is my first fanboy btw) 

I shrugged my shoulders at his question. "I just want to build some trust between us, if such a menial task is what it takes, it is a win in my books. And even if you do not follow the part of the deal, well a pity, it just means that I have to ally myself with the other branch." 

I mean I only want that place to flip the bird to the Devils in the future, if I can't get that place, well, I have other means to tell them to fuck up. And besides, I can literally build my base anywhere in Japan, I just wanted to be in the eye of the storm. 

"So in the hypothetical case that we do not keep our part of the deal, would you retaliate?" 

"No, as I see things it would mean that you are just unreliable business partners, so I will not bother to waste more time on you," I said nonchalantly as if I was just talking about selling some cabbages. 

'Not to mention that if that happens I will raid your libraries without a single bone of guilt, but you do not need to know that.' 

'Mmm Ichiban, as much as we love to do inner monologues like a third-rate villain, you really need to come back to the main base, but I found the reason why the Ley Lines here were abandoned.' Niban said with clear elation in his/my voice, he could have sent me the memories but he did not ... interesting.

'Gramps we are leaving.' I said as I stood from my seat.

"I know that this is something that you need to take time to consider accepting the deal, moreover since you are conceding a part of your land, so I will come in three days as for the moment I have something important that has to be dealt with." As soon as I said that, two tatami doors appeared behind us and steadfastly opened themselves. "Hopefully you will choose wisely."

Without saying anything more, we jumped at the door without waiting for an answer. 

…..

After leaving Nurarihyon's chambers, I stepped outside of Edo and opened another portal towards the main base and as soon as I set foot on the base, I felt something particular. The [Purgatory Flames] started to get excited even more than when I was in Tenochtitlan which was close to Mictlan, however, this time is something different, they feel .... competitive? 

I saw Niban(me) looking directly at the "screen" that displayed what one of the "golems" was seeing through an application of [Displacement Magecraft] but the details are not important for the moment. "Ichiban we hit the nail." 

I raised my eyebrow, looking at the people on the screen. "What is so amusing about a couple of Native Americans? Well, just Native in this period of time ... .are those Serei(Spirits) following them?" 

It is not strange that ghosts or other spectral entities hunt the living, in Japan(Edo) is quite normal however they mostly only chase people with low [Magic Energy]. However, Serei is totally different, while I would not call them the equivalent of Elementals(Nasuverse) or Servants their existence is on a higher plane than a simple ghost. 

"Yup," The other me said with a wide grin on his face. "And now it is clear why Michael switched his personality with Azrael for a moment after we used [OverSoul]." 

Now that he/we said that, this scene feels vaguely familiar 4 men walking in the middle of the desert spirits close to them. All of them have tribal paintings of different colours over their skin, one of them an obese man has a ponytail holding two short swords, a man with trimmed hair, a muscular man with hair resembling to dreadlock wielding a bow, and another with a similar build and curly hair with a gunstock war club and the last one having long straight hair wielding a club.

My eyes widened at the realization after analyzing their weapons. "Da fuck!" I brightly verbalized. 

"I know right, however, the time seems a little bit off, either with the whole crossover thing and how the interactions with other factions may have deleted the event for a bit." The other me said with a pondering face. 

"There is also the mess that Celes-Chan and the rest caused when they sent us to the Potterverse instead of this world, but that does not matter at the moment, so…." 

"Should we save them?..." The other me said

"...or not?" And I finished the sentence

…

""Nah"" We said at the same time

"I know that our motto is "Fuck the cannon" but let's keep this "cannon event" like it is." After all, interfering does not bring me any benefit to change this. 

"Besides I am curious if they will be overwhelmed like in the manga or will give a decent fight." The other me said also not caring, after all, he is me. 

"What do you think, Gramps?" I asked Gramps who was drinking some tea that the other me brewed. 

"They are warriors, not innocent bystanders, so they must be prepared to die at any moment, so I do not care if they die," Gramps said in his opinion.

"Watch, he is already here." 

Interfering the path of the 4 warriors a fifth person appeared apparently from out of nowhere. A tall man around his late 20s with tanned skin and long brown hair braided with two long bangs on each side of his face that reached the middle of his chest wearing a white cloak with some traditional patterns and a star symbol in the middle.

"Good evening, my name is Hydro and I come here to give you the Semiona Warriors a proposal." The self-identified "Hydro" said with a calm tone; however, his presence was everything but calm.

And even if this is the "first time" that I see him, I perfectly know who he really is. 

The strongest Shaman from the Heian Era.

Formerly known as the protector of Kyoto and founder of a branch of Onmyodo. 

A man equally feared and respected by many in Japan.

Asakura Hao.

…..

So Yozora had a "conversation" with some of the elders….well I do not know why anyone would expect anything different hahaha.

Yozora is cursed(by me) to find the most obnoxious nobles in every world, as he said in the chapter, the reason of why he gets along with Ragnuk and Oberon is because of his background. However in the novels Nurarihyon is an okay guy, besides I did not wanted to make it that the faction that he "likes" are all good people and something unreasonable, in DXD for what I remember most of the nobles are idiots in all factions, of course excluding the ones who get along with Issei because of plot. 

As why he made a deal with them instead of "borrowing" (Stealing) their knowledge…well the guy needs to have some fun hahahaha. But being serious, even if he does not have qualms at stealing things or now just copying it in the [Library of Heaven's Paths], the guy already pulled a fast one on them, the least he can do is offering a little bit of revenge hahaha. 

And lastly so it is officially confirmed that the crossover of this world is Shaman King….well one of them hahaha. I know that it would seem impossible/unrealistic to make it work since how the Great Spirits works and how there are Spirits of Gods, but hehe, sometimes I am surprised by my genius. The weeb knowledge that I have been accumulated for decades will help me with this hahaha. 

So how do you expect that the interaction between Hao(Hydro) and Yozora will develop? Would they talk like best buddies? Will they hate each other? Or simply will act like bussiness partners? Leave a comment with your thoughts. 

Side comment, he wouldn't get along with Yoh, Horo Horo and Chocolove once they saw how ruthless he is. Ren, Lyzerg and Faust wouldn't care that much and depending if he meets Ryu before Yoh, they maybe can become buddies, in my mind he is the one from the main cast that has the highest chances of becoming a close friend with Yozora.

So that's everything I wanted to say, and with anything else to say…

Thanks you for reading this chapter.

If you like this ff so far, please make a review on the main page, this will help me a lot so more people get interested in reading it.

Also, leave a comment with your thoughts on this chapter and maybe drop a stone or two(My precious) hahaha.

See you again in the next chapter!