The Legend of the Fox Yokai of Jirisan

Sniff sniff.
Sniff sniff.
Sniff sniff sniff.
Smells nice.
Having emerged from the inner realm, I inhaled the mountain scents with a pleasant smile.
Overflowing with yogi, I had no need to fear humans, and unlike last time, there were no threatening blue-furred demonic foxes.
For the first time in two years since embodying a fox yokai, I could peacefully appreciate Jirisan’s natural scenery.
Unlike the gloomy inner realm, the nature of Jirisan was truly beautiful.
The entire world was verdant green.
The chirping of birds, the fragrant mountain aroma, and above all, the blazing sun shining down.
This was the world humans inhabited.
It nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Swish swish.
In my uplifted mood, the tails on my buttocks began swaying automatically as if possessing free will.
Perk perk.
Even the fox ears atop my head twitched.
I can speak the human language.
I act and think like a human, yet
Why must I express ‘I feel good’ by moving my entire body? It was a biological reaction incomprehensible to me.

Regardless, my mood was absolutely superb, so
I even hummed as I descended the mountain path.
Though I didn’t know exactly where the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office was located,
If I just continued down the mountain path, they would surely detect me, just like last time.

As I traveled along the path, something shining in the sunlight caught my eye.
A plastic bottle.
Some unconscionable person had littered a plastic bottle on the mountain trail.
Perhaps discarded by one of the hikers trekking Jirisan?
…No, why would any sane person risk their life hiking Jirisan, where calamities like the blue-furred demonic fox appeared?
This place was different from the world I knew.
It was likely dropped by a civil servant from the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office.

I picked up the plastic bottle.
Not out of any noble intention to protect the environment, but simply because the litter offended my eyes.

After descending the mountain path for a few minutes,
I finally caught sight of a large building presumed to be the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office.
The reason I assumed it was the Yokai Extermination Office was simple:
A radar.
A massive radar was mounted on the building’s rooftop.
It was the first man-made architecture I had seen in two years.

Delighted, I scampered towards the building, furiously wagging my six tails.
In the midst of this,
Human footsteps began approaching from afar.
Ten people.
Twenty people.
Thirty.
Over forty – an entire platoon.
Were they marching off to war?
No, they must have detected my yogi and were coming to capture me.
Click-clack, click-clack.
Judging from the sounds of chambering ammunition, they likely had no intention of conversing with me.
…Oh well.
While I preferred avoiding violence if possible,
If they approached me with hostility first, I had no choice.
I desperately needed information, so
I would have to threaten them and extract it by force.

Grasping Fox Fire in my hands, I prepared to confront the humans.
As I stood there waiting patiently,
I finally came face-to-face with the personnel from the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office.
As expected, they were fully armed, and
“Huh…?”
“Hick…!”
“Aaah…!”
The moment they saw my face, they gasped in shock.
It seemed
Combat was unavoidable.
However, I had no intention of killing or injuring the humans, so I generated the minimum amount of yogi needed to manifest Fox Fire.
I would let them strike first.
This was the least courtesy I could extend them.

“Mi… Mi… Mi…”
Someone began stammering.
What were they trying to say?
Lunatic?
Crazy bitch?
Barbaric yokai?
The words that eventually spilled from the human’s mouth were
“It’s Lady Mihooooooo!”
“Thank you for sparing our lives, Lady Mihooooo!”
Utterly beyond my expectations.

“What’s with that plastic bottle?”
“Ah, Lady Miho picked up that litter on her way here… She handed it to me and asked me to dispose of it.”
“…Pass it to the Yogi Detection Department.”
“Eh… B, but Director, this is a precious plastic bottle Lady Miho personally gave me! I was going to keep it as a family heirloom!”
“That’s an order.”
‘Stingy baldy, that’s what you are.’
For some reason, Director Lee Han-ul of the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office felt like he could hear that combatant’s inner thoughts.
…Must be his imagination.

Lee Han-ul folded his arms and carefully observed the six-tailed fox yokai obediently seated in the interrogation room beyond the glass wall.
Nicknamed ‘Miho.’
Indeed, no matter how many times he looked, her beauty was breathtaking.
Now he understood why his subordinates had been so infatuated by her appearance.

However,
Unlike the other staff, Lee Han-ul was not so easily swayed.
He did not attain the director’s position at the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office through mere luck.
He constantly harbored suspicions towards the fox yokai before his eyes, doubting her again and again.

Yet,
As if mocking Lee Han-ul’s wariness, she was being extraordinarily cooperative.
When he proposed having a conversation, she readily accepted his offer.

Tick.
Tick tick.
Tick tick tick tick.
Watching her repeatedly press the fan button like a fascinated child, Lee Han-ul thought:
‘For now, she appears to be a yokai with benevolent intentions…’

Using honorific speech with everyone.
Picking up litter on her way down the mountain.
Above all,
She was the benefactor who had spared the lives of the civil servants working in Jirisan.

However, there were too many unanswered questions to simply judge her as a benevolent yokai.
‘She lacks any sense of caution. Shouldn’t she be wary when facing humans?’
A sense of dissonance.
It felt like interacting with a human, not a yokai.
Was this too part of her cunning ploy?
He would need to converse with her directly to know for sure.

Though Lee Han-ul was itching to enter the interrogation room and speak with her,
As a capable civil servant, he suppressed his urges.
To converse with her, he absolutely needed the Martial Artist Lee Ha-neul present.
If Miho harbored ill intentions and attempted to bewitch Lee Han-ul with yokai sorcery,
As an ordinary human, he would have no means to counter it.

While advanced scientific technology could handle up to Grade 4 yokai,
The six-tailed fox yokai yawning listlessly in the interrogation room was presumed to be at minimum Grade 2 – a great yokai.
Bluntly put, if she wished to exterminate humanity,
Even if the entire Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office mobilized, they would be annihilated within a minute.

So he needed to stall for time until the Martial Artist Ha-neul arrived.
As a martial artist, she could resist the yokai’s malicious sorcery with her mystical ‘martial force.’

Then, it happened.
[Is she still not here? I’m bored to death…]
Miho complained with an exaggerated yawn.
Oh no.
An emergency.
If her mood was disrupted, this entire Yokai Extermination Office could be blown away.

Lee Han-ul wiped the cold sweat beading on his glistening scalp with a towel and spoke into the mic:
“It should only be another 30 minutes, so please bear with us a little longer.”
[Mmm… Okay…]
“…Phew.”
[Ah, by the way,]
“Yes, yes! Is there anything you need, anything uncomfortable?”
[Nothing much, could you bring me something to drink?]
“Ah, of course, I’ll…”

Oh no.
A second emergency.
Lee Han-ul clamped his mouth shut.
Something to drink?
If she were human, he would have brought soda or coffee, but
Unfortunately, she was not human, but a yokai – a fox yokai, no less.
What did fox yokai drink?
Could it be human blood?
He had no information.
Should he ask the yokai fanatic Grade 7 employee Kim Myeong-ho? As he agonized over this,
Miho, who was in the interrogation room, seemed to realize something and stood up, saying:

[Ah, that’s right! There was that!]
Seeing her sudden movements, Lee Han-ul tensed up.
[Coke!]
“…Pardon?”
Lee Han-ul dumbly repeated after her.
[Coke, please bring me Coke! The really cold kind that stings your tongue!]
“…”
[If you bring me a Zero Coke, I’ll burn this whole place down, you know.]
“Ah… Understood, I’ll bring it right away!”

From Miho’s perspective, it was clearly a joke,
But from Lee Han-ul’s perspective, it was a vicious threat.
He promptly ordered a subordinate to fetch a Coke.

However, Miho’s demands did not end there:
[And chocolate too! Bring me chocolate, and that other thing… ah dammit, I forgot the name since it’s been so long… Ah, right! Do you have any Honey Butter Potato Chips here by any chance?]
“We… probably do, I suppose.”
[Bring them to me. No, just bring me all the snacks you have here. Hehehe, eheheheheheh!]

Though he did not understand why she was making such outrageous demands,
There was no time to ponder it further.
To fulfill Miho’s requests,
Lee Han-ul, with his hairless head flapping in the wind, sprinted at full speed towards the convenience store five minutes away.