The night spread, and the moonlight fell pale upon this wilderness outside Kaede Village.
The Tanuki Spirit's voice was very low, almost pressed against the ground as it spoke, as if afraid it would be scattered by the wind.
"Lord... we really... mean no harm..."
Behind it, demons of all sizes poked their heads out timidly.
Hitotsume-kozo, the fox-eared girl, the broken-legged Giant Rat... and several Miscellaneous Demons whose names could not be called were all covered in wounds.
All of them were looking at him expectantly.
Kanbe Hikaru counted; there were about twenty of them.
But not a single one exceeded the Second Transformation.
The strongest was that Tanuki Spirit, at about the level of one and a half transformations—it had transformed once, but the second time was incomplete, and the transformation was clearly in its brain; its combat power was likely only slightly stronger than an ordinary tanuki.
The rest were around the First Transformation, and they basically focused on intelligence development.
In the world of demons, these fellows were at the bottom of the food chain; except for those with naturally large bodies, even the most ordinary farmer could probably chase them away.
Seeing that Kanbe Hikaru did not respond.
The Tanuki Spirit's eyes couldn't help but turn red, showing a very human-like posture.
"Our three demon villages originally had seventy or eighty demons... After the Echigo army came, they burned two, and the third escaped quickly, but half died..."
"The rest scattered... only we are left..."
It sniffed its nose: "We ran south all the way and sensed the Demonic Qi here... it was very thick, yet not fierce..."
"Then we saw you, Lord..."
"We saw you alone, driving away that human army..."
At this point, the Tanuki Spirit fell to its knees with a thud.
"Lord! Please take us in!"
"Those human armies will come again! They carry the banner of 'exterminating demons' and kill any demon they see, regardless of whether we have harmed anyone!"
"We... we just want to live!"
Behind it, those small demons also knelt down in a row.
More than twenty extremely weak small demons were all kneeling before an Oni Samurai.
The scene was a bit comical.
It was also a bit... hard to describe the feeling.
Kanbe Hikaru looked at them.
The moonlight shone on these broken figures, casting shadows of various lengths on the ground.
They were very weak.
So weak they couldn't even defeat an ordinary samurai.
So weak that even if he took them in, they wouldn't bring any boost to his combat power.
In normal demon logic, these guys were worthless; at most, devouring them would yield a negligible amount of Demonic Qi.
But as mentioned before, Kanbe Hikaru was never a normal demon.
He looked at these small demons, and what he was thinking about was something else.
Kyoto.
Hagoromo Gitsune.
Kidomaru.
And what had been mentioned countless times—the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
In this world, truly Great Yokais were never alone.
The Great Yokai Shuten-doji, who once dominated the world, had four major subordinates and the demon horde of Mount Oe.
Hagoromo Gitsune had the hundred demons of the Kyoto underground palace, Kidomaru, and Great Yokai subordinates even stronger than Kidomaru, as well as countless unnamed monsters.
Even that fellow Nurarihyon, who went around freeloading everywhere, was busy recruiting subordinates.
His goal was to become the Lord of Pandemonium, and he was about to establish his own Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
Kanbe Hikaru knew that in the future, he would succeed.
And what about himself?
Kanbe Hikaru recalled that night when he was pushed to the brink by Kidomaru.
If he hadn't borrowed the favorability of the Kanto Region, and if not for Kikyo's help, he wouldn't have been able to stop him.
And what about next time?
Kidomaru was just one of Hagoromo Gitsune's subordinates.
As far as he knew, among the demons in Kyoto, although Kidomaru was considered an extremely strong combat force, he was far from the strongest—
Those stronger than him were not many, but they were no fewer than five.
Not to mention Hagoromo Gitsune herself.
She was an existence closely related to the Nine-Tailed Fox, Tamamo-no-Mae.
With just him and Kikyo, no matter how much stronger they became, there would eventually be a limit.
No matter how strong a person is, they cannot appear in all places at once.
Therefore—
Faction.
This word jumped into Kanbe Hikaru's mind.
He needed his own faction.
Not to become a king or hegemon.
But so that when facing the hundred demons of Kyoto, it would no longer be just him and Kikyo.
So that when he was away, someone could guard Kaede Village, and so that when facing multi-front battles, he would no longer be stretched thin.
Nurarihyon wanted to establish a Night Parade of One Hundred Demons and subdue the demons of the world.
So why couldn't he?
One must know, if inferred according to the world where the Nurarihyon exists, then the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons in this world holds a very special meaning.
He didn't need an overly massive organization.
He only needed a demon team that could follow orders, cooperate in battle, gather intelligence, and be of some use at critical moments.
Even if they were very weak.
Even if they were just trash at the bottom of the food chain.
But having something is better than nothing.
Moreover—
He has the favorability system.
He can conquer non-living entities and communicate with all things.
If he applied this ability to managing demons...
"Stand up."
Kanbe Hikaru suddenly spoke. His voice wasn't loud, but it was clear enough: "Go inside the Barrier first."
The Tanuki Spirit looked up, a look of disbelief on its face.
"My Lord... do you mean..."
"I said, go in."
Kanbe Hikaru turned around and walked toward the village: "Settle down for tonight. We'll talk about the rest tomorrow."
"But remember, you must not disturb others, nor frighten anyone, and certainly not harm or eat humans."
"Otherwise—"
These words made the group of demons tremble, but they were even more pleasantly surprised.
They had no intention of harming anyone to begin with.
They were very small and weak demons, yet they were enlightened demons who were not consumed by beastly instincts.
They understood that compared to demons, seemingly weak humans possessed terrifying strength; they had never killed or eaten humans, nor did they want or dare to do so.
The group of small demons stood there dazed for a moment.
Then, as if snapping back to their senses, they scrambled to get up and followed him, stumbling along.
Hitotsume-kozo ran while excitedly spinning its single eye.
The Fox-eared Girl tightly gripped the tail of the broken-legged giant rat, being dragged forward.
The Tanuki Spirit walked at the very back, looking back at the cold corpses on the battlefield being dragged underground by the undead remains summoned by Kanbe Hikaru, and the fading silhouettes of the Echigo Army that had completely vanished into the night.
It took a deep breath.
Then it turned and quickly caught up with the grey figure ahead.
...
The next day.
Noon.
Sunlight filtered through the shrine's window lattices, spreading a warm patch of light across the porch.
The wooden door of the rear hall opened.
Kikyo walked out.
Seven days of seclusion had brought a subtle change to her temperament.
Her white top was as clean as new, her red hakama swayed gently with her steps, and her jet-black hair was tied behind her head with a white ribbon, though the ends fell over her shoulders and a few stray strands hung by her ears.
That delicate and elegant face was even more serene than before her seclusion. In her pitch-black eyes, the light of spiritual power was restrained, no longer leaking out.
She was like a deep pool—the bottom could not be seen, but the power contained within could be felt.
She walked to the porch and saw Kanbe Hikaru.
He sat there cross-legged, the Reverse Scale and Nekomata Claws placed before him, with that red comb tucked into his robes.
But he wasn't conquering the demon tools.
He was waiting for her.
"Finished your seclusion?"
He looked up, his crimson eyes meeting her gaze.
"Yes."
Kikyo sat down opposite him, their knees about a foot apart.
Her gaze swept across the courtyard outside the shrine.
There were a few more things there.
To be precise, a few more existences.
But she didn't ask, because she knew Kanbe Hikaru would explain himself.
He also never concealed necessary matters.
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