"Because I'm worried you'll do something stupid~" Think sighed, sounding like an exasperated mother. "Though it's unpleasant to say, the fact is you aren't the same race as Riku or Couronne either, yet you sacrificed everything for them, didn't you?"
"I just hope you don't do something stupid again."
Don't discard your flesh and blood again, leaving yourself a mass of scars.
Cherish yourself a bit more.
Swallowing the second half of her sentence, Think studied Sū ěr eyes. But before she could discern much, the man pressed her against his chest. Amidst the damp steam, Think could hear his strong, rhythmic heartbeat.
Steady, without a hint of panic, containing infinite power.
"It's still different," Sū ěr whispered, his fingers running through Think hair as she leaned against him. "That was also for myself."
"...Fine. Then let's say the last world was for yourself," Think sighed helplessly, her finger repeatedly poking Sū ěr chest. "So this world won't be like that, right?"
"The physical bodies in the real world are different, and even the illusory thoughts and wills are different. The words you speak, they cannot understand; the words they speak, you cannot understand... forget it, just remember this yourself." Sū ěr held her shoulders down when she tried to look up, forcing Think to continue her analysis from her position against his chest.
"Mm, don't worry, I know," Sū ěr chuckled, seeing Think rare moment of anxiety.
Think, worrying about him like this, was too adorable—so adorable he wanted to hug her even tighter. Unfortunately, even though the physical sensation was simulated to the limit, Think was still composed of condensed energy.
When Sū ěr started rubbing his face against hers like he was cuddling a cat, the Dhampir simply dispersed her translucent form and rematerialized on the other side of the pool.
"You know, in the past, showing such disrespect to the genius 'me' would have resulted in having your... extra parts... cut off and being sent into slavery," Think said with a thin smile, one hand covering her face where the heat of Sū ěr rubbing still lingered.
To use Think own logic, such a potent threat would have once made Sū ěr skin crawl, but now it only made his eyes light up.
"You're blushing!"
"You're definitely blushing! Absolutely!"
Sū ěr suddenly sat up in the water, shouting one sentence after another. He didn't even need Think answer; he was already nodding to himself in confirmation.
This was a rare sight indeed.
Whoosh!
Before Sū ěr excited brain could cool down, Think used physical means to force a cool-down—though could splashing scalding hot spring water really be called "cooling"?
After a bout of splashing that soaked the perimeter of the pool, the two of them leaned against the edge as if exhausted from play, enjoying the tranquility. Even the weight that had been pressing on Sū ěr heart dissipated significantly.
"So, the reason why that Nine-Tailed Fox fled from Yamato is quite clear now, isn't it?" Sū ěr said slowly, inhaling the scent of bamboo.
"Only a part of it. After all, the Tenson began falling into monstrosity hundreds of years ago, but the Nine-Tails stole the Magatama and left only a century ago. Plus, if she's been quiet for a hundred years, why has she suddenly become active, gathering subordinates to become the Youkai Overlord? That's still a mystery," Think noted, listing the unanswered questions.
"Yeah... too many mysteries." Sū ěr narrowed his eyes. "To this world, we are ultimately just guests... passing through, peeling back only a sliver of the surface..."
For Sū ěr and Think, everything that happened in Yamato was merely a journey taken on a whim. Even if it was a cataclysmic change for the humans and Oni there, Sū ěr felt no real impact, as if he were watching children play house.
He was, perhaps, different from who he used to be. It wasn't something as simple as "power corrupts" could explain.
Drowsiness gradually rose in his mind, and his speech became fragmented. Slowly, the hot spring returned to silence, save for the intermittent sound of the wind.
The Nine-Tailed Fox wandered through Ashihara no Nakatsukuni, recruiting youkai willing to follow her and slaying those who refused. She had no specific direction—sometimes north, sometimes south, east, or west—but overall, she was moving eastward.
The youkai she recruited followed in her wake, a grand procession marching across the land, truly possessing the aura of a Youkai Lord.
As one of the world's top youkai, Sū ěr believed she would naturally learn of the upheaval in Yamato. He was curious what this fox—who bore the divine mandate of Amaterasu but had abandoned it, yet possessed power that showed no sign of corruption—actually intended to do.
If she continued eastward at this pace, it wouldn't be long before Sū ěr saw her at his own doorstep.
This was Sū ěr judgment, and Think as well. However, reality seemed to want to play a joke on them. The first to appear at their doorstep was not the Nine-Tails and her horde, but another group coming from the east... an army?
It could probably, maybe, perhaps be called an army—if these physically weak and mentally drained humans could truly be called such.
In this era, there were no unified uniforms to identify factions. Sū ěr judgment that they weren't refugees came from the sharpened wooden spears many held. Even spears were scarce; more people clutched short, sharpened wooden stakes... or stakes that weren't even sharpened.
"What is this now?" Think raised an eyebrow, looking at the ground behind these humans, which was shrouded in dark clouds. If one were to be precise, that was the true "army."
Hordes of youkai.