[Hajime POV]
As Inferno Witch brought us up, I decided to ask some questions I had.
"Who's that boss you were talking about?"
Akeno and Tsubaki perked up hearing that and were likely curious as well.
"Can't say I'm afraid. The man likes to play 'mysterious leader in the shadows'. His identity is a bit of an open secret, but those who know usually keep it hidden for fun."
"Are you sure you can't say?" Akeno asked.
"I mean, I could, but I don't feel like becoming a janitor for the next month."
"Is there anything you can tell us then?" Tsubaki asked.
"Well..." Inferno Witch started. "He will occasionally participate in the ultimate-class raid boss matches- as the boss. He didn't get to be in charge of this place because he's weak. Technically, it's the only reason he's in charge."
"What?"
"As the boss of this place, he gets some minor benefits. Political power, decent pay, little work to do, but that's because he's strong enough to force fighters and spectators to follow the rules. Like the previous bosses, he will step down if you prove you're stronger."
"That sounds-"
"Dumb? Yeah, it is. There are dozens of people stronger than him who could come here and take this place over; the only reason they don't is that the arena's independence from any faction makes it so popular."
Before we could continue on the topic, I asked something else.
"You said you work here, right?"
"Mostly, yeah. I'm usually stationed somewhere around the city, though. Despite how it might look, Sekigahara is partly responsible for the defense of Tokyo. We, along with Nurarihyon's Night Parade and the Imperial Magicians, keep the city safe. Luckily, aside from dealing with a few troublemakers, we haven't had any serious incidents in decades."
"How did you join then?"
"I actually had no intention of joining originally. Like you, I joined the arena when I was pretty young. The boss noticed my potential back then, but I refused to work for him when he asked. Unfortunately for me, he kept asking, never taking no for an answer.
By the time I had become a high-class fighter, he was still going at it, so I made a deal with him. I was cocky at the time, so I said I'd fight him in a high-class match. We made a deal that if I lost, I'd work here for a year, but he almost instantly beat me.
After the first few months of working here, I realized how much I enjoyed it and decided to stay."
We talked for several more minutes before finally arriving at her boss's office.
"Before we enter, I need to warn you. While my boss isn't the most uptight person, he still demands the respect his position deserves, at least until he's familiar with you. Just don't be rude and you'll be fine."
*Knock knock knock*
Inferno Witch knocked on the door before a booming voice echoed from within.
"Is that you, Kailey? Have you brought the brats?"
Looking at her face, it was completely red with a scowl marring her features. Kicking the door open, yet somehow leaving it undamaged, she stormed into the office before screaming at the man inside.
"How many times do I need to tell you, old man?! Use my alias when I'm around others! UGH!"
Just as quickly as she stormed in, she stormed out, walking back.
While the three of us stood there, questioning what to do, the voice called us in. "Get in here, brats, she brought you here, didn't she?"
We saw a man at a tatami table doing paperwork as we entered the room.
The man looked normal if you ignored his giant gourd-shaped head.
Nurarihyon, ruler of Tokyo and leader of the Night Parade, and apparently the current manager of Sekigahara.
Unlike Yasaka, Nurarihyon was usually left alone.
The Night Parade, unlike the west yokai, were fighters. Most of them would join a fight in Sekigahara at least once a week if they were free.
The Night Parade was Nurarihyon's group of warriors. Following ancient yokai tradition, he challenged each of them to a match of their choice, beating each of them and gaining his Night Parade.
Others can do the same, but Nurarihyon has had the most success with this tradition. He's just like One Piece's Foxy except, unlike Foxy, he doesn't cheat.
"Come on, sit down. I've wanted to meet you three for a while."
We all sat across from him, Akeno to my left and Tsubaki to my right.
"I gotta say you kids sure are something else. Kids your age should be more concerned with getting toys than fighting for their lives.
I might not've cared about three kids joining Sekigahara, but you'd better believe I care that they beat a raid boss on a five-person team. Do you know how many times some people have tried raid bosses and failed? With any luck, at least a few of those Chinese young master brats will cough up blood. That'll teach 'em for being so annoying."
We hadn't even gotten a word out before Nurarihyon started ranting about China and cultivating, which is another thing DxD never mentioned.
In China, they were heavily isolated from the rest of the supernatural world.
Their society resembled the classic style of a cultivation world. They took in energy from outside and turned it into their strength.
Despite how it sounds, few have reached transcendent-class with that skill, with only the current and previous Jade Emperors reaching that level.
Their 'cultivation' took in mana and circulated it through their body alongside their mana, widening the veins that mana flowed through and increasing their reserves. It's an extremely slow process, but it does have a minor effect of practically doubling the average lifespan of a magician. The experience of circulating mana allows much higher control over it, allowing them to move it in a way that lets them manipulate their bodies to a minor degree.
It was much weaker than Senjutsu, which used nature chakra, something few could even sense.
By the time Nurarihyon finished his rant, I could already feel Akeno and Tsubaki were ready to leave, and I didn't blame them; I felt similar.
"Enough of my rambling, I invited you three here because I want you all to join my Night Parade."
"Sorry, but no, thank you."
"Oh? And why would you decline so quickly?"
"I plan to make a faction."
"That's quite ambitious for someone so young. I assume the others already joined you."
"Yes." "We did."
"Alright, then."
"You won't ask again? Inferno Witch said you asked her multiple times."
"I'm centuries old, I can wait months before needing to ask again. I don't expect you to change your mind so quickly. It's better to let you gain more knowledge of the world before I stand a chance at convincing you.
Besides, I already tried that tactic before. My recovery was not pleasant."
A quiet settled over the room before Tsubaki spoke up.
"Not to offend you, Nurarihyon-sama, but why would you wish to invite us? Akeno and I are both from the principal clans. They've hunted yokai for centuries. I can't imagine you like them."
"You think I care about their petty hatred?
The fact of the matter is that they are nothing compared to me. Their strongest members are ultimate-class and almost all are approaching their deathbed, while I've been a supreme-class fighter for centuries. It isn't the first time I've outlived all the clans' best fighters, and it won't be the last.
I've lived long enough to recognize how childish their hatred toward yokai is.
Can either of you girls tell me the reason they hate yokai?"
"Isn't it because yokai are known for eating humans?" Akeno asked, remembering old books her mother had read to her.
"Yes, but not quite. Yokai used to eat people, though in recent centuries, only a few continue doing it, and all of them are considered criminals because of that.
No, the reason why they hate yokai is because of the gods. Let me tell you about the origin of yokai.
-----
When the gods still frequently descended, they created the first yokai. These yokai were mindless beasts who would go toward the nearest source of food, people. The gods would then step in and kill them, causing humans to pray to them for safety.
Eventually, though, one yokai did something the gods didn't expect: they ran away.
The god tried to follow after them, but their connection with nature allowed them to hide from the god's senses.
The god left in frustration, while the first yokai kept running until it felt safe.
It took centuries, but eventually they gained some intelligence from watching humans and tapped into their innate magic, learning to blend in among them.
One day, that yokai fell in love with a human woman. They loved each other and eventually had a child with her, but the gods found out. He went out to his job as usual, and on that day, a god snuck down and killed his wife and unborn child.
When he returned to the scene, his heart couldn't take the pain of what he saw. Vowing revenge, he stormed into Takamagahara and killed the god who slew his family.
The other gods were furious, but before they could do anything, he killed himself as well. Though not the most experienced in magic, he used himself and the god in a ritual and cast it over all of Japan. The ritual was meant to bring his wife and child back to life, but it went awry. Rather than bringing them to life, it brought parts of their essence to life. Her grief created the first Ubume.
From there, other yokai manifested in different forms. Some were the personification of the land, others were human emotion given form.
What all of them shared in common was a deep hatred for the gods. They rampaged across Japan, killing thousands, until the gods had had enough.
Five gods, Kagutsuchi, Ame-No-Mahitotsu, Suijin, Okuninushi no Mikoto, and Kukunochi, banded together and blessed a different family. The gods trained these families and sent them to hunt the rampaging yokai. Most of the yokai died, but so did a few of the original clan members, and thus started the feud.
Since then, thanks to the constant purification done to the land, yokai don't go into a frenzy like that anymore, even in the presence of the gods, but after so many millennia of fighting us, it's all they know.
I long ago realized just how pointless it all was.
Thousands of their clan members have died at our hands, as have thousands of yokais killed by theirs, and yet look at where we are now.
My grandfather was one of those first yokai. He raped a human woman, who gave birth to my father. Both of them hated the gods with a passion, but both died in their pursuit of 'revenge'.
My grandfather died to the second generation of the principal clans, shortly after they were given their patron beasts.
My father died back during the Roman era after accidentally finding a god's shrine in the middle of the forest and messing up the place while staying the night there.
I wasn't born with their hatred. I've tried to understand why they felt how they did, but though the gods are annoying as fuck, I don't truly have anything against them.
Though I'm upset they died because of the gods, that was their choice, and this is mine. I see nothing to be gained from going against them or the clans.
Nowadays, the gods barely leave their paradise unless it's for their own amusement, and the principal clans haven't posed a threat to me in years."
We all sat there in silence, unsure of what to say.
Eventually, I asked a question I had on my mind for a while.
"Nurarihyon, if that's why the Shinto gods and principal clans hate yokai, what about everyone else?"
"That? That's simply because they can.
Aside from the rare nine-tailed fox, like Yasaka over in the west, few yokai can reach ultimate-class in a few decades. Most yokai have spent most of their lives in low-class, maybe mid-class if they learned how to fight. Thanks to pocket dimensions like Urakyoto, there's never been much of a need for yokai to engage with the other races.
Most of those who frequently interacted with humans gave in to their instincts and tried to fight against the gods. Any stories about how yokai love eating people come from them, but most yokai lived in those hidden dimensions, peacefully farming spirit fruits.
Once the Shinto gods learned more yokai existed, they were immediately ready to go to war. Luckily for the yokai, Yasaka stepped up. She connected herself with the ley lines in Kyoto, and once the gods descended, she talked with them about trading their fruits for peace.
The gods accepted, having understood the value of the fruits, and Yasaka became the leader of the yokai. Other factions found out and went to negotiate, but Yasaka originally declined. They attacked and threatened other yokai across Japan, slowly causing other yokai to move to Kyoto for protection.
Yasaka made a similar deal with other factions so that the yokai could be left alone, but several factions have been trying to get more of an edge over other factions over time. Now, ironically, greed is the only thing stopping other factions from outright dominating the yokai."
After talking with Nurarihyon for a little longer, we eventually left.
While I don't know what Tsubaki or Akeno were thinking, I could only think about that story Nurarihyon told.
I need to think about some things.
__________
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!