As Haru and Aika prepared to meet some of the most important individuals in the whole Shinto Faction, there were other meetings being held.
In a golden temple located not far away from civilization, the Kinkakuji Temple, several youkai gathered before their master and leader. Their face was framed in shadows, making their features indistinguishable save for their glowing red eyes. They were obviously a woman, evident by their hourglass physique, though her lower half was not human. Rather, her lower body was that of a spider's; a ivory-white bulbous center with eight thin appendages pierced into the floorboards. The human half of her body would have belonged to a supermodel were it not for the pulsating black veins on her flesh or the ugly scar on the front of her chest.
The atmosphere was utterly dreadful and the air smelled foul. None of the youkai gathered before their mistress dared to move for they were fearful of their wrath. Thankfully for them, her anger was only directed at the two that failed in their task.
A youkai sat in front of their mistress. They were a yurei, evident by their transparent form with a shroud of darkness outlining their form. It was impossible to determine whether or not they were male or female, though that hardly mattered. After all, they would soon be killed for their failure. The other was the oni that chased Haru and Aika through the crowded streets of Kyoto, bound on the spot with stakes jammed through his ankles and wrists.
"... Tell me," Jorogumo seethed. Each word that spilled from her lips was full of hate and venom. "How is it that you failed in your task? Did I not send you to kill a worthless, insignificant human?"
"M-My apologies Lady Jorogumo!" The yurei stammered. "W-We lost sight of them in the crowd! We know not where they—!"
"Silence!" She snapped, her tone sharp and curt like a whip. The youkai stopped and obeyed. "I care not for your excuses. I question how it is possible for a youkai to lose track of and fail to kill a single human. I suppose the quality of youkai has degraded over the past generations of they are incapable of fulfilling such a simple task." Her red eyes, glowing like hellfire in the shadows of the temple, glared at the two incompetent fools before her with such disgust she must have thought they were trash. "By now, that fool Yasaka has already presented that false onmyouji to Amaterasu."
Jorogumo refused to believe that it was possible to resurrect someone as powerful and as divine as Tamamo-no-Mae, nor would it be possible for someone as insignificant and as weak as a human to perform such a task. Even before the Great War that drastically weakened their powers and shattered their power bases so awfully, humans were so terribly weak they may as well have been fodder. She could not understand why the Three Great Factions, the Devils, Angels and their Fallen brethren, held such a keen interest in their kind. At best, all humans were just tools to be used, as it was only humans that could wield the power of a Sacred Gear.
Over time, the prominence of humanity had inexplicably risen. She supposed it was because everyone was vying for more power—more tools to use in the event another war erupted. But to her dismay, even the Shinto Gods began taking an interest in humans. Worse, their chosen representative and avatar, had laid in bed with one of their kind. Perhaps once upon a time Jorogumo held respect for Yasaka, if only because she was a nine-tailed fox—the strongest of her kind. Perhaps because of that reason, because she was of similar strength to Tamamo-no-Mae, she was chosen by Amaterasu and made the leader of the Youkai Faction. Yet when news came of Kunou's birth, and the fact that Yasaka had previously taken a fancy with a human man—not even a Sacred Gear bearer—Jorogumo knew the Shinto made the wrong choice.
It was the first sign of the Youkai's decline. The others who still believed in Yasaka may have been blinded by their loyalty and faith, but she knew better. Their kind was dying out and rotting, falling to the new ways of the world. She refused to accept it. That they would be made to play peace with others who slaughtered their kind, rely on those pitiful humans and rely on the help of those weaker than them.
When the news reached their ears—of the revival of Tamamo-no-Mae at the hands of a meager human in Devil territory, the entirety of the Youkai Faction was ablaze. They were scrambling to discover more information and confirm if this was truth. The reports were varied and scattered, but the only thing that coincided was that the human was in the shared territory of House Gremory and House Sitri. A human who earned the interest of the Grand Master of the Mage's Association—a group of pathetic mages whose only worthwhile talent was their knowledge in the arcane arts.
A human by the name of Namikaze Haru.
This could not be allowed to stand. To hear that someone dared claim to have resurrected the pinnacle of power, let alone a human making such a claim, was not only an insult to Tamamo-no-Mae's memory and legacy of power, but also to all Yokai. Many shared in her sentiments, yet Yasaka and the Shinto wished to meet with this con?!
No. She would not allow it.
For the future of their kind, this interloper had to die for his arrogance.
She gave one last glare at the two failures before her. She thought they were the most skilled in their tasks, but clearly she was wrong. The integrity and power of yokai had faded considerably with time; yet another thing that must change for her to prove the Shinto Gods wrong.
Without allowing them to plead and bargain for their lives, unwilling to allow such trash the chance of being offered a second chance, Jorogumo raised two of her legs and brought them down upon them. They pierced their skulls instantly. They did not even realize this, not even in their dying states. She pulled her legs back and watched their corpses slump to the ground. In the case of the yurei, it began to quickly fade from existence as trash should.
She looked back to her vassals and soldiers.
"I care not if we shall be punished," Jorogumo said as green fluids dripped from her mouth and spilled down onto the floorboards. Upon contact, the boards began to sizzle and hiss, the liquid eating away at the floor. "I do not care if the Shinto disagree. For the sake of all Yokai, the false onmyouji must die."
If being burned alive was the price of their actions, so be it. Jorogumo would gladly forfeit all of Kyoto to complete her goal of reformation.
Even if she must die, she would kill Namikaze Haru before he had the chance of convincing the gods. And, perhaps, she would finally prove to Yasaka once and for all who was better suited to lead the Yokai Faction…