Interview with the Yokai

Chapter 2

" You're a nine-tailed fox," Shoji said.

" You've aged me by four centuries, I'm only a five-tailed fox. Now get dressed and don't try anything foolish, I am far more powerful than these girls and they could easily handle you," Kurasawa-sama said.

Shoji decided that it was best to not test Kurasawa-sama, the aura that she was producing was almost suffocating, it had completely overpowered the others auras. Shoji went to get dress a task that proved quite difficult when it came to putting on his pants. Yayaka started to say something about helping him, but a look from Kurasawa-sama stopped her mid sentence. Still something felt off, Shoji felt as if there was something he should have noticed, as if an obvious clue was sitting right in front of him and he wasn't putting two and two together. Then it hit him, like an iron club to the back of the head, Shoji could almost kick himself for the stupidity.

" It was you, you lead me to the spellbook. I thought it was ghost fire, but another name for ghost fire is fox fire," Shoji said accusing Kurasawa-sama.

" You are quite bright and knowledgeable it seems Matsumoto-san. Now let's cut to your next question, it's almost time for dinner and I wouldn't be much of a principal if I kept you here during dinner. The reason I guided you to the spellbook is because you are the reincarnation of Monk Boitan, I know that name means nothing to you, but I will explain everything to you.

This story starts in the Edo Period, back in that Period, the Yokai world was in a constant state of war. Powerful battles were being fought by powerful Yokai and their armies, but no matter how many battles were fought, the Yokais always found themselves in a stalemate. You see powerful Yokai are almost Gods, most are basically immortal, so in the end it was only the weak Yokai who actually died and suffered, the generals being powerful Yokai were stuck in an endless cycle of meaningless battles. Now the battles in the Yokai world were so intense, that they caused shockwaves throughout the human world, leading to plagues, famines, and natural disasters. Monk Boitan was a human who deduced that these disasters were caused by the shockwaves in the yokai world and managed to enter the yokai world. Monk Boitan after making a pilgrimage through the yokai world saw the situation that the Yokai world and his world were in. By uniting the lower yokai, he got their leaders to come to a summit, where he pointed out the absurdity of all the battles being fought. Yet the yokai leaders, said that there must be war until there was a victor who would rule them, none would simply step aside and accept the rule of another. That is when Monk Boitan suggested something radical, he suggested that instead of using their impressive yokai powers to do physical battles, they should come to the human world to the Japanese Imperial Court and use their auras to influence humans. The one who could get the most human followers in the court would be pronounced King. The yokai leaders weren't for the idea at first, but when forced to see the futility of their war and their own subjects growing hatred, they agreed.

As time has gone on, we yokai have kept up the practice of deciding who gets what position of power within the Yokai world, by those who have the most influence over humans. Politicians, pop stars, movie stars, anything that involves a popular following amongst humans, yokai use to decide power struggles. These four girls, are all from noble families and are all learning how to influence humans. Since Monk Boitan is the one who put an end to the pointless wars of the yokai world, he is held in high regard and his reincarnations are always brought into the world of yokai. That is the job I was intrusted with, to make sure you understand the yokai world. You have a very special aura that will attract yokai, it will only become stronger as you mature, therefore before it becomes too much for you to handle I am to introduce you to the Yokai world and by that I mean these girls will introduce you to the Yokai world." Kurasawa-sama said.

" Just like a fox, to not want to work," Mari said.

" Did you say something young cat? Are you questioning my judgement when you've barely lived one life?," Kurasawa-sama said, dismissing Mari's words.

It all seemed unbelievable, yokai were not only real, but they pretended to be humans to win popularity amongst humans. The whole thing sounded absurd, but yet Shoji could not deny what he was seeing with his own eyes, or the fact that his whole life he had sensed and been attracted to the supernatural. Still being the reincarnation of some legendary monk, who all these yokai seemed to admire, felt like a little too much for him. Shoji was just a high school kid, who was part of the school newspaper, and had an odd hobby, he was not anything special. " What do you want from me?," was all Shoji could get out, his mind threatening to shut down again.

" I told you, all you need to is learn about yokai, you are as much a part of our world as you are a part of the human world. Simply spend time with these girls and get accustomed to yokai and ask questions, you're a journalist I shouldn't need to explain how to do research. If I have to take personal interest in your development, I will, though I think it be best if I didn't have to," Kurasawa-sama said, a chill ran down Shoji's back.

" I'm not trying to argue, but after today, these girls might not be so willing to spend time around me. You did give me a spell to stripped them all nude, it could make it hard for us to be around each other," Shoji pointed out.

" I thought seeing your female classmates nude would fulfill one of your adolescent fantasies. As for these girls, they will get over it, it is a great honor to be intrusted with the education of a reincarnation of Monk Boitan," Kurasawa-sama said. Shoji looked at the girls, Yayaka was staring at him with a smile on his face, Mari looked at him curiously, Noriko looked at him with some admiration, though looked away when she noticed him looking, Benihime though, still looked at him with anger and contempt.

" Well all of you be off now, it's time for dinner. Also Matsumoto-san, we yokai hold various positions of powers in the human world, you should be smart enough to have figured that out. I will warn you only once, reincarnation of Monk Boitan or not, if you try to expose us yokai, you will spend the rest of your life in an insane asylum, if you have a life that is," Kurasawa-sama said as she walked towards the stairs.

" Damn foxes always playing tricks. Oh well, all this talking made me hungry, let's go Noriko-chan," Mari said and her and Noriko made their way to the stairs. Benihime followed them, shooting Shoji a dirty look as she left.

" Well Shoji-kun, want to be my date? We can continue the conversation we were having before," Yayaka said as she grabbed Shoji's arm and pressed herself against him, leading him to the stairs.