The Legend of the Fox Yokai of Jirisan

Height: 1,915 meters.
Area: approximately 483 square kilometers.
Excluding Hallasan, Jirisan is the highest mountain in South Korea, and countless yokai reside within its vast expanse.
No matter how capable the nationally accredited Jirisan National Park Yokai Extermination Office might be, it was impossible for them to completely eliminate the myriad yokai lurking in Jirisan.
Yokai were naturally birthed with every passing hour and minute, so it was physically impossible for the understaffed Yokai Extermination Office to cover all those countless yokai.

Hence the introduction of a classification system that measured a yokai’s power level, or ‘grade’, to assess its threat.
While the source of a yokai’s power – yogi – was a mystical force, fortunately it was an energy that could be measured by converting it into waveforms.
Low-threat yokai were subject to minimal monitoring but otherwise left alone.
High-threat yokai were unconditionally exterminated.
This was the best approach the understaffed Yokai Extermination Office could adopt.

A yokai’s grade, determined by its yogi level, was divided into nine total levels:

Grades 7 ~ 9
Potential Damage: No known cases in the past 5 years, but caution advised
Response: Monitoring required
Grade 7~9 yokai required minimal monitoring but did not warrant investing precious manpower for extermination.
As long as they did not cross the threshold set by the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office, they would not be exterminated.

Grades 5 ~ 6
Potential Damage: Significant risk of casualties
Response: Monitoring required, potential extermination depending on situation
From Grade 6 onwards, yokai were considered threats capable of harming humans.
Monitoring Grade 5 and 6 yokai was the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office’s primary task.
Unsurprisingly, Grade 5 and 6 yokai comprised the overwhelming majority.
Fortunately, they were not particularly powerful, so the office’s personnel could exterminate them without significant casualties.
Notably, the fox yokai ‘Miho’ who appeared two years ago was initially classified as a Grade 6 yokai, but due to her ‘fox yokai’ nature, an unconditional extermination order was issued.

Grade 4
Potential Damage: Significant risk of hundreds of casualties
Response: Unconditional extermination
From Grade 4 onwards, it would be no exaggeration to describe it as a war between humans and yokai.
Grade 4 yokai possessed formidable yogi that even an ordinary Yokai Extermination Office would have to brace for significant casualties to exterminate.
However, as an exceptionally capable nationally accredited institution, the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office could handle any Grade 4 yokai, no matter how powerful.

Grade 3
Potential Damage: Significant risk of thousands of casualties
Response: Issue emergency evacuation order for nearby residents
Dispatch nationally certified Martial Artists and Taoists
From Grade 3 onwards, yokai essentially fell outside the Yokai Extermination Office’s jurisdiction.
To exterminate a Grade 3 yokai, ‘Martial Artists’ and ‘Taoists’ were absolutely necessary.
While not entirely impossible for the office’s personnel alone to exterminate a Grade 3, they would suffer near-annihilation levels of casualties.
Officially, there had never been a single instance of a Grade 3 or higher yokai appearing in Jirisan.

Grade 2
Potential Damage: Significant risk of tens of thousands of casualties
Response: Issue emergency evacuation order for the entire administrative district
Dispatch at least four nationally certified Martial Artists and Taoists
Transfer jurisdiction to military forces
All non-Martial Artist/Taoist personnel strongly advised to evacuate unconditionally
From Grade 2 onwards, yokai were classified as national disasters, with jurisdiction transferred to military forces.
Beyond this point, grading the threat level became meaningless.
They were living calamities that demanded extermination at all costs, even if it meant staking the nation’s survival.

As for Grade 1 yokai, there had been no official or unofficial sightings recorded.
Hence, their potential damage and response measures were impossible to assess.

…

…

…

…

…

[I’m hungry.]
Here, amid Jirisan’s middle slopes reeking of rotting wood,
Someone was lamenting their hunger to the heavens.

[I’m hungry.]
It was a deep masculine voice.
No.
Upon closer listen, it was not a masculine voice.
Nor was it feminine.
It was an eerie voice that seemed to whisper directly into one’s brain rather than ears, sending chills down the spine.

[I’m hungry.]
‘It’ was a Grade 7 yokai.
Since Grade 7 yokai did not necessarily require extermination, the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office acknowledged ‘its’ existence but did not invest manpower to exterminate it.
‘It’ was an insignificant existence unworthy of concern.
To humans and yokai alike.

[I’mhungryI’mhungryI’mhungryI’mhungryI’mhungryI’mhungry…]
‘It’ began moving.
It was a bird.
No.
A human?
A bird with a human face.
Moreover, despite its measly Grade 7 yogi, ‘its’ sheer size was unbelievably enormous.
Its tailfeathers alone were five feet, nearly 7.5 meters long.
Its beak was also five feet in length.
With its massive bulk, it flapped its gargantuan wings while drooling, leering at something.
Its target was a corpse.
Killed by a yokai, perhaps?
Or by a carnivorous animal?
A rotting carcass of a dead goraal swarmed by flies lay sprawled.

This was not food.
Even as an instinct-driven beast, it should have recognized this was inedible.
Any scavenger would know as much.

Yet,
This five-foot yokai, despite not being a scavenger,
Perceived the corpse before its eyes as food.
Soon after,
Chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp chomp.
Crunch crunch crunch crunch.
Crack, crackcrackcrack.
‘It’ began devouring the goraal’s carcass, bones and all.
A sickening display that induced revulsion and nausea.

After several minutes had passed,
The five-foot yokai had completely devoured the goraal’s bones.
Why, though?
The five-foot yokai’s body seemed to have grown slightly larger,
Despite having consumed that massive goraal carcass.

[I’m hungry.]
It was still,
Lamenting its hunger to the heavens.

“I’m hungry…”
I lamented my hunger towards the gloomy ceiling.
Were these people really civil servants?
Wasn’t this dereliction of duty?
Just when were they going to bring me breakfast…

After shattering the clock, a frantic civil servant came knocking on my door, politely requesting that I wait a little longer as they prepared my meal.
Graciously, I responded that I understood.

So I went down to the lounge area to wait for 5 minutes.
No, 5 minutes and 30 seconds.
Yet breakfast had still not arrived.

Although not quite breakfast, various snacks were arrayed on the lounge table.
They seemed to have been prepared in advance for me.
Was this implying I should make do with these snacks instead?
Who in the world filled their belly with snacks from the morning?
Of course, I was not human but a yokai, yet my insides were human.

Speaking of which,
Putting the snacks aside,
“…”
Why were there dog food and cat food laid out?
There was even a neatly written note:

Please mix 30% dog food with 70% cat food before eating!
*

You’ve got to be kidding me.
Was this an appropriate time for me to get angry?
Not that I was labeling anyone as animals, but why would I eat such things?
I’m human, human.
Have you ever seen a human eat dog food?

“…”
Gulp.
However,
Contrary to my negative thoughts, my body was slightly more honest.
Why did the thought of trying it seem strangely appealing?
Just one…
Maybe I could try just one bite?

Now that I recalled, I had once read a post in an online community.
Someone had run out of food at home, so they ate dog food mixed with milk, and it was surprisingly palatable… something along those lines.
It was quite well-known that dog food was harmless for human consumption, after all.

Maybe I could try just one bite without issue…

“Huff, huff, huff… La, Lady Miho, my apologies for the long wait!”

Fortuitously timed, just before I crossed that line,
Someone approached me with an American-style breakfast.
A moment before my human dignity shattered.
What a relief.

As I heartily consumed the meal provided by the civil servant,
For some reason,
My gaze kept drifting towards the dog food.

“Miho, good morning!”
“Yeah. Good morning.”
Munch munch.
Munch munch, munch munch, munch munch.
Watching her happily munch away, Lee Ha-neul thought to herself:
The more she looked, the cuter Miho seemed.
Of course, her current appearance paled in comparison to her utterly adorable child form around 10 years old, but her present self was still plenty cute.

Lee Ha-neul was overcome with the urge to caress those perky fox ears and languidly swaying tails.
But she restrained herself with great difficulty.
To suppress her impulse, Ha-neul deliberately addressed Miho:
“What are you eating? Snacks? Choco Balls?”

“Ah, this…”
In response to Ha-neul’s question, Miho blankly gazed at the unidentified snack in her hands before continuing with a slightly startled expression:
“Um… Yes, Ch, Choco Balls…”

“Can’t you spare me just one?”
“No.”
“…”

Ha-neul was rebuffed by Miho.
For some inexplicable reason, she felt gloomy.