Chapter 337: Hyakki Yakō.
"Now that's better." Nero nodded in satisfaction when she saw the outfit Ophis had now.
The former child who wore a gothic dress, now wore a black full body outfit that had a hood.
"These clothes are my reservations, you might feel a little uncomfortable in several areas, after all, it was custom made for me." Nero spoke as she remembered the man who had given her these clothes.
After all, enchanted clothing was stupid expensive. The price could easily reach the billions depending on the equipment, and Nero only had two outfits like it.
The first outfit she was what she was currently wearing, the other outfit was the one Ophis she was wearing.
Normally, she wouldn't lend these clothes to anyone, but since the man who'd given her these outfits was Ophis's father, she couldn't be mean now.
"..." Ophis nodded slightly as she looked at the outfit. Looking at an area of her body, she lightly touched her chest area and she felt the area deflating, causing her face to darken as she realized that the girl in front of her had more body shape than her despite being almost the same age.
"Smoke." Nero nodded in satisfaction when she saw Ophis check her clothes, even though she was wearing a full body outfit, she still looked really cute.
'Her face is a problem as expected.' Nero walked over to her backpack and took out a mask and handed it to Ophis.
"Take this, Ophis."
"...?" Ophis looked at Nero, and saw a black fox mask in her hands.
"Fox..." Ophis's eyes gleamed.
"An event is happening tonight, because of that, the supernatural world is quite busy and I was able to steal these masks quite easily." Nero laughed and explained as she pulled out an Oni mask, and put it on her face.
"Let's go?" Nero called out.
Looking into Nero's golden eyes that were the only things visible due to the mask,
Ophis nodded as she positioned the mask on her face.
She didn't know how to put on a mask, so she just imitated Nero.
She was quite surprised when the mask 'stuck' to her face, it was as if her face was a magnet.
"Let's get out of this place." Nero started to walk, she doesn't know if Ophis' power caught the attention of any being, but she didn't want to stay in that place and risk it.
"..." Ophis nodded and started following Nero.
It wasn't until Nero stopped at a window that Ophis stopped running.
"…Hmm?" Nero looked at Ophis curiously, she was standing a little way out of the sunlight.
"Oh... No need to be scared, this outfit is enchanted, it completely repels the sun's rays."
"..." Ophis didn't look convinced.
"Sigh..." She sighed visibly, and walked out of the window, she stood beside Ophis, and removed her black glove.
Ophis looked at Nero's pale hand, and was soon surprised when Nero put her hand in the sun, and her hand started to burn.
Nero quickly withdrew her hand from the sun, and the damage that was dealt to it began to regenerate.
"... Are you a Vampire?"
"Yes." Nero put on her glove and walked towards the sun.
And unlike before, her body didn't burn.
"Don't be afraid, the clothes will protect you."
Ophis nodded, hesitantly placing her feet in the sun, and the pain she expected didn't come. With a little more courage, she walked towards Nero.
When her entire body was covered by the sun, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She looked towards the sun, and thought: 'So bright...' She felt like she was looking at her father's firepower, it was very welcoming, and calming.
Nero smiled, she really enjoyed seeing Ophis' reactions, it was like watching a child who was discovering a lot of new things, which in this case was 100% accurate.
"Come on, don't fall behind." Nero positions herself at the window and jumped.
"Okay." Ophis spoke as she disappeared in a black cloud.
The moment Ophis and Nero left.
A few minutes passed, and a crow appeared where they were.
It's body transformed into a man who was wearing a black kimono with the words 'tengu' written in Japanese on the back of it.
He picked up some kind of talisman, and threw it in the air.
"... Remnants of a Noble Vampire's power..." He muttered to himself.
Soon another crow appeared at the window, and turned into a woman:
"Japanese Noble Vampires are protected by that arrogant Kitsune, they are foreigners." The woman knew that Japanese Noble Vampires were too afraid to leave the Kitsune's protection, the reason for this being the recent elimination of several important Clans caused by Mizuki.
The last living Onmyo mage.
Seeing her partner's face darken, she asked:
"What happened?"
"...It's nothing, I just think the talisman is broken..."
"Impossible, this item was given by our Lady, this cannot be broken." The woman quickly countered the man's words.
And those words only made the man's face darken even further.
"What happened?"
"...A Vampire with the blood of the King of Vampires was here until recently."
"...." The woman's face darkened as well, and at the same time, she assumed a serious expression.
"One of his Sons?"
"Probably."
"Which Son are we talking about? The oldest, or the youngest?"
"I don't know, I just figured it out because of that." The man took the talisman and showed it to his partner.
And soon she saw half of the talisman's letters completely in blood red.
That was a sign, when the talisman took on that color, it meant that a Vampire from Vlad's direct bloodline had been here.
"I don't even know if this information is correct or not..." All his life the man had never seen such a reaction.
As one of the most dangerous beings in the world, every faction that had their hands on magical techniques had tools to identify this being.
The same was true for the Werewolf Leaders, and the Witch Queen, although in the Queen's case, it was more difficult to locate the woman herself, but it was not impossible to locate her 'descendants' through magic.
Though only the Pantheon of Gods had the tools necessary for that feat, and these Tengus were part of a Pantheon that served a particular God.
Explicitly speaking, these Tengus served the wife of Tsukuyomi, the moon god of Japanese mythology.
On the other hand, the woman was more experienced in this matter, she knew that when the talisman given by her master took on that color.
Problems would happen.
Anything involving the Noble Vampires of the Nightingale's top families always gave the woman a headache.
She was still feeling irritated when the daughter of the woman who caused the Crimson Nightmare arrived in Akihabara, and started acting like a Hooligan all because of a limited manga One Bikini.
And she got even angrier when that woman's eldest daughter just threw money in their faces, saying:
"I'm sorry for the trouble my sister caused, take this and forget about this trouble."
She had to swallow her anger that day, after all, she didn't want that Oni to visit her country.
She had too many problems now, she's a red-haired Vampire out of her league.
"We should go back to Lady Yomi, and tell her about it."
"Okay." The man wasn't against it, after all, she was his superior here, even though they were partners, a clear hierarchy existed.
...
Late afternoon.
Ophis and Nero were on top of a tall building in Tokyo, and they were looking at the ground, specifically speaking, the most famous intersection in the world.
Shibuya.
"Fox, don't get too far from me."
"Okay, Oni."
Nero spoke to Ophis using the name of the mask she was wearing, after all, she was quite sought after by certain individuals.
And Ophis was the same. Nero thought that people who were involved in international politics should somehow know about Alucard's daughter.
New Vamp Count or not, he couldn't completely hide that information… At least that's what Nero thought.
'So many people...' Ophis' eyes sparkled, she had never seen so many people before, especially humans.
It was very rare to see humans in the place where she lived.
FUSHHHHHH.
Beings began to appear on top of the roofs.
And that sudden appearance put Ophis on high alert, but outwardly only her brow twitched a little.
She looked at the beings and saw that these beings had various strange shapes, some seemed to have tails like blades.
Others were children with bear hands.
Even transparent beings that had no legs and were floating were present.
"..." Nero looked at everyone present for a few seconds, then ignored them.
This action looked like she didn't care about the individuals present, but far from it, she cared about all the individuals, and her guard was up, she was ready at any moment to take her revolver away from her and point it at any being's head.
"It's starting." The man with the sickle tail spoke up.
And the moment he said that, everyone felt their bodies being pulled into a place.
The white moon turned red, and the civilians who were passing through the Shibuya intersection disappeared as if they never existed.
Ophis looked around, and saw several crows flying in the sky, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.
Nero looked at a part of the sky, and saw two beings, a man and a woman. They were twins, and behind them were two large raven wings.
Suddenly all the crows began to transform into humanoid beings.
"Tsk, these bastards are here." The little boy with the bear paw complained.
"...?" Ophis looked curiously at the little boy, why was he angry?
"The crows are something like supernatural police, they regulate the supernatural world of Japan so that the supernatural is not exposed to humans." Nero explained in a low voice to Ophis.
"Oh..." Ophis thought they were similar to the Royal Guards of her world.
"They're annoying because they have a zero-tolerance policy against criminals, or people they consider criminals..."
Puh!
Someone spat on the floor of the building, and then in a deep, arrogant voice, spoke.
"They got arrogant because they were serving that woman who is Tsukuyomi's sperm store." He spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.
"!!!" Everyone looked towards the man, and saw a muscular man around two meters tall. He was resting a large mace on his right shoulder.
He had two big horns on his forehead, a big beard and messy hair. He had a huge smile as he looked at the crows in the sky.
"Ibaraki Douji..." Nero and several people spoke at once.
All the crows looked at the man with an angry look, but then ignored him when they realized who it was.
Fighting that battle maniac was just madness, especially when he was an Oni with insane regeneration.
And this exchange was relatively common for them, this man was just unbearable, he looked for a fight wherever he went.
Sigh...
"I swear that one day you will get us killed, Ibaraki." A calm voice resounded around and a 180 cm tall man appeared next to the muscular man.
Unlike the big man, this man had a more elegant appearance. He was in a red Yukata with black details, while holding a pipe in his hand.
"Tsk, Tsk. Shuten, I told you not to follow me."
"If I don't hold your leash, you will bring chaos to our faction." He visibly sighed.
'Even Shuten Douji is here.' Nero swallowed hard, she was seriously considering getting out of this place.
She looked around, and saw several famous Clan leader figures.
"..." Feeling someone's gaze Shuten looked towards a building, and saw a face he didn't want to see.
"Geh, Gyuki, you're here too..." He made a disgusted face as he looked at the bearded man who had a physique similar to Ibaraki.
Just like Shuten and Ibaraki,
Gyuki was an Oni, but from a rival faction, he controlled Oni's who were violent and who enjoyed causing massacres among the innocent .
He was the direct rival of his faction.
"Of course I would be here, all the important leaders of all Factions are here, after all, it's not every day you see a big parade like this, hahaha~"
Just hearing his booming laugh, Shuten felt like throwing up, he really hated this guy.
"You did a good deed when you came to this place, I can finally kick your ass, Hahaha~." Ibaraki shouted, boisterously.
"I doubt it will happen anytime soon, HAHAHAHA~." Gyuki replied, just as obnoxiously.
They seemed to be competing to have the loudest laugh.
"Ugh." Shuten put his hand on his head like he had a headache; having one loud guy was a problem, but now having two?
"Hmm?" Sensing a fixed gaze on their group, the two noisy men looked towards a child wearing completely black clothes, and who had a fox mask.
"What is it, Fox-kun?" Ibaraki was the first to ask.
"... It's nothing, you just reminded me of my father."
'Oyyy!' Nero felt like strangling Ophis now, the girl had completely forgotten about keeping a low profile, and getting the attention of men like that was a big no!
"I see, he seems like a guy I would get along with, HAHAHAHA~." Ibaraki laughed even louder.
"Mm." Ophis nodded, then looked toward the street.
And as if timed, a gigantic pressure descended on everyone, and a gigantic portal appeared.
Two small Yōkai with big heads came out in front holding a black flag, and soon everyone heard the sounds of footsteps.
Step, Step.
Soon a pale white leg came out of the portal, and everyone could see an ancient Japanese high heel, and soon the woman's entire body appeared.
"She's here..." Ibaraki's smile grew when he saw the woman. She was wearing a black kimono that looked more like a skirt which couldn't completely hide her sinful body.
She had two fluffy black fox ears on her head, and nine long tails that seemed to move as if they had a life of their own.
The woman flashed a big, distorted smile, and shook her long hair back, and in that little move, as if it was planned, several Yōkai appeared behind her.
"The leader of the Black Kitsune Clan. The moonlight fox, Haruna!" Ibaraki tightened his grip on the club he was holding. The only reason he didn't just jump in to fight her was because his Clan leader was holding him back.
The woman started the parade, more and more as she moved away from the portal, people could see thousands of Yōkai who were following her.
The Yōkai were of different clans and species, each of them was different, and strong in their respective areas, and they were all servants of that woman.
What is a Hyakki Yako?
Just like the name says, it's a parade of supernatural creatures, but it's not just that.
It is the proof of a ruler.
When a Yōkai achieved the feat of having several Yōkai from different Clans under its own flag, that Yōkai would meet the requirements to perform a Hyakki Yakō.
And just for her to present herself to everyone while being accompanied by various creatures, it was a gesture of strength, and of power.
She was respected by everyone for her strength.
The interesting thing about the Hyakki Yakō was that all the Yōkai present who were subordinates of that woman became her strength.
Everyone looked at the woman with different emotions, respect, fear, curiosity, etc.
But only one person, a little girl, actually looked at the woman with a strange look.
"...Mother?"