On Kawaji Island in Hyogo prefecture, south of Kyoto where the Hyakki Yagyo was held, lies a well renowned Ryokan– a famous traditional Japanese Inn that has been operating for decades. Although it appears ordinary from the front, the ryokan harbors a secret. It caters not only to human guests but also to Yokai.
The ryokan is owned by the Tanuki clan, who hold dominion over the majority of the land on the island, making it the clan’s main base. With their vast land, they can train troops and accommodate both human and yokai customers with ease.
While the ryokan functions as a legitimate inn, it also serves as a hub for gathering intelligence. Visitors from all over Japan that came to visit, whether they're regular humans, Onmyouji, or Yokai. They collect all sorts of information and sometimes sell it to those who seek it.
In the hierarchy of yokai clans, the Tanuki are considered middle-ranked yokai clan—not as powerful as the high-ranking clans, yet far above the lower class due to their strategic strengths.
Historically, the Tanuki were not known for their combat prowess. They excelled in illusion, transformation, and shapeshifting, skills primarily used to evade danger. Over the decades, however, the clan shifted its focus, developing more secretive and cunning methods.
As many Tanuki intermarried with humans and produced half-blood offspring, they began adopting human techniques for combat. They trained in the use of hidden weapons and traps, combining these with their shapeshifting abilities to confuse and outwit their enemies. A simple rock or a fluttering leaf could conceal a deadly weapon or trap.
This adaptability allowed the clan to grow exponentially, forging alliances with humans and even forming a rare friendship with the onmyouji. They were the first yokai clan to establish a positive relationship with exorcists. But their success is not only in that field, but they also create an undercover army that performs tasks secretly or as espionage and collects information from other yokai clans or factions.
Since then, they grew into a clan with impressive military strength and utility, even on par with the five greatest yokai clans. They recently started to spread their field of expertise and tackle more uncommon ways that Yokai might think. Like increasing their expertise in weapon and armor manufacturing, spreading their scope of influence on nearby regions, and up to training an Herbalist and Alchemists to make spiritual medicine that performs well.
The tanuki clan was so prosperous that they have never struggled financially, and the place they govern continues to spread, setting up branch offices in other regions.
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An eerie looking bus suddenly appeared out of the darkness, as it slowly decelerated on the empty bus stops. Creaking sound reverberates the air as the door opens, from within a girl comes out from the bus and walks straight towards the direction of her home.
As she strolled through a quiet suburban neighborhood with spacious backyards, her face still showed a sign of disappointment. Still thinking about the appearance of certain participants who got swarmed by rats, “Idiot…” she muttered.
Upon arriving at her home, she climbed the steep stone stairs leading to an extremely famous Ryokan of Kawaji island. The Mamedanuki-tei, or the meaning was, Little Tanuki Pavilion. It both serves as an Inn, Pavilion, tea house, and restaurant.
Exhausted, she went straight to her room and collapsed onto her bed. Her eyes closed as her thoughts faded. As if wanting to forget yesterday's event from her mind.
Meanwhile, an origami bird fluttered weakly toward the pavilion, expending its spiritual energy before landing in the garden. A guard dressed in black, resembling a ninja, noticed it and cautiously inspected it for anything dangerous. Finding only a charm and a message addressed to the daughter of the clan leader, she immediately rushed to deliver it.
But she finds none, only to find a charm and a message addressed to the daughter of her liege. Without a delay, she moved swiftly towards her room and knocked at her door while calling her.
“Young Miss, we found a message addressed to you. Please check the items if you recognize it, if not we will dispose of it.”
The room owner jolted awake as she carefully fixed her clothes and appearance before going out of her room.
When she was handed the charm, she flinched as if recognizing it almost immediately, she nodded to her guards and the guards forward the message to her.
As she read that attentively, she closed her eyes and rubbed it with her fingers, as if trying to process the content she just read.
“Where's my father?” ask her nonchalantly.
“Patriarch is attending important guests in the left wing of the third pavilion. How can I help you, young miss?”
“Inform my father, I want to talk to him, it's urgent.” said her with a serious unchanging stare.
The guard kneels in front of her and responds, “At once…” Then in a flash, she was gone, leaving no step nor sounds behind.
After her guards are gone, she also prepares her stuff and is ready to depart. Honestly, it's quite weird, she just saw him a few moments ago, and now she was requested to return and help someone.
With her preparation done, her guard returned and informed her that the Patriarch was waiting at the main hall of the first pavilion. Without delay she went there to have an audience with him.
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“Unfortunately, I can’t be away for long, I still need to accompany the important guest. What do you want?” In front of her is an old man that appeared to be in his mid-fifties, a stern looking face with small narrow eyes and expressionless all the time, as if he was a doll. Small moustache and wears a Kamishimo, traditional clothes consisting of hakama on the inner side and a jacket with exaggerated shoulders, showing his persona as the Patriarch of the Tanuki clan.
Hearing his words, she got sick of it. Always to the points, short and clear, leaving no room for useless banter. Was it really hard to have a casual conversation with your daughter? But for him, time is money. The time used for useless chatter can be used to strike a deal with another clan and gain a huge profit from others. The Tanuki clan's meticulousness in terms of profit or loss has been known widely in the Yokai world. They were called many things, Calculating, Greedy, Miser, and profit-driven Yokai… and the center of all of it… is this man.
This is the man who prioritizes the well-being of the Tanuki clan over his own blood-related family, her presence was nothing, but a mere pawn used on his chessboard. She is sure that one day she will eventually be married off to another Clan, to enlarge the scope of his family. That is… until a year ago, her elder brother passed away.
Her elder brother, a genius young master of the Tanuki Clan. The man who will eventually succeed his father and become the clan head in the future, got assassinated by someone.
The perpetrator commit suicide upon successfully killing their targets, leaving the Tanuki clans in the dark. Even with the scope of their information gathering, they still can’t predict who is the main culprit of that incident.
They do have suspicion, but even if Tanuki is a clan with a good army and considerable power, they are still ranked in the middle of overall power, they can’t just easily point their finger at others without foolproof evidence. Besides… What if the opposing targets were a clan way ahead of their current power? That’s just bringing ruin to his well-established clan.
Since the young master died, he had no choice but to grieve without being able to resort for revenge, and once his elder brother died… she immediately got pushed to the front. From having no expectation of her, into being a full spotlight where she was expected to create miraculous results.
For one thing to another… she despises her father, how couldn’t she? He was never a father figure to her, and she was treated like a jewel, ready to be given to anyone with the highest bid or contribution to the Tanuki clan.
But she didn’t dislike her current state. Right now, she was definitely on the spot where she could control her fate… but not for long, she accidentally heard that he was planning to create another male to be the heir. And the moment he does, her position will return to her previous one.
And right now, she is desperate to gain achievement and power, she needs a position where he can’t control her as he will… and this moment came right at her doorstep.
“I want to mobilize the Shadow Corps immediately.”
Her father responded coldly, “What for?”
“Personal matter,“
“When?”
“The sooner the better,”
The Return?
“Huge, definitely worth the time… perhaps even more, depending on the negotiations.”
“Location?”
“Kyoto Region’s Hyakki Yagyo.”
“Risk and Danger level?”
“Big Risk… and Very dangerous.”
“The possibility of winning if a fight breaks out?
“...Without outside help…zero”
His eyebrows twitched once he heard his daughter say that, as the proud heir of the Tanuki clan, she knew the power of the troops of her clan was as good if not better than him. If she herself said that that means the opponent was very strong and offending them would be disastrous. The only possible clan that made their troops ‘that’ hopeless are…
“Was it one of the five greatest clans?”
…. She didn't answer, but the silence speaks for itself.
He took a deep breath and think it through. Even if it's dangerous and might endanger the whole clan, his daughter wouldn't just ask for this without considering the possibility of it, so he asked her further.
“Enemy awareness or Surveillance?”
“Not high, they have superb vision, but no one is an expert at detection or able to see through our technique, as far as I remembered. And so far no record of our troops getting caught by them.”
“Goal?”
“Escorting unconscious targets, out of their reach, any Hospital near Onmyouji branch should do it.”
He pondered it while stroking his small moustache,
“Hmmm…. Hospital in Kyoto works too, as it is closer to the Hyakki Yagyo spo, the problem is…”
Nervous about his decision, she adds more to convince him. “Whether we can sneak someone without them noticing.”
After thinking some more he agreed, “I’ll allow it, guards! Call the Leader of Shadow Corps immediately, and mobilize only the veterans from the first division, failing is not an option.”
“At once!” They knelt in response and gone like the wind.
“Ren, my daughter, I will leave this to you. Be sure to succeed and bring back prosperity to our clan.”
‘You were only thinking of the well-being of the clan, didn’t you? So, my well-being isn’t even concern for him.’ deep inside Ren was hurt, but he didn’t dare question him.
“Yes father, I will carry this task without fail.” She bowed down and left with sweetbitter feelings in her heart.
When he went outside, the troop member was already there, silently waiting for her order.
“Young Miss, we are ready to depart.” Said a stern looking man with a tall slender figure, the leader of the troops. The group consisted of six people and most of them looked old, similar to her father’s age.
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“Okay, let's go!” They moved as a group, crossing the Akashi Kaikyo Suspension Bridge, which connects Awaji Island to mainland Japan. And keep going straight to Kyoto.
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Soon after, her troops reached tokyo, right before the Hyakki Yagyo ground, she signals the group to stop. “Stop, I will assign each of you some tasks. One member goes towards the city, contacts any of our family members who worked or have connections within Kyoto and arranges a room at the Hospital. Two of you will follow me to secure the targets and negotiate with the client, and three of you will secure the path and scout our enemies. And remember… don’t let your guard down.”
“We’re going against one of the top clans, ignorance means death, find out as much information as you can without getting caught, if the situations get dangerous, fall back.”
“This is a top secret mission and you cannot be detected or even get caught, the well being of our clan is at stake. And be secretive to ANYONE, you heard me, Anyone. The target that we have to be aware of is an Oni, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Oni wouldn’t hire other yokai to keep track of us… any more questions?” The troop was silent and understood their task, Rei smiled and dispersed the troops.
“Okay go!” The group separated, each doing its own task and Rei going straight towards the Hyakki Yagyo with two people behind her.
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Shun was on high alert ever since Daitengu left. Occasionally he'd see several Oni, hiding behind a tree or in the crowd, staring at the unconscious Ryohei.
And since Shun was beside him, he was also locked into Oni's vision.
Not long after… Karasu tengu returned from, “Oh hey, he's looking better now. I can't believe he can stand the purity of his blood.”
As he took his bident that was previously used to keep Ryohei in check. Then he saw Shun getting uneasy because of the staring, “Don't worry kid, they won't dare doing anything reckless after the last conflict. Nurarihyon's eyes as well as the other two clans' heads are focused on the Oni right now.”
“Yeah… I hope so,”
From afar, two Karasu tengu walk around, as if searching for something. Although they were similar, the presence and outfit was different. They are like the foot soldier, or just a regular guard, while the one beside him was a high ranking officer within the clan.
Then Karasu tengu narrowed his eyes. “Stop, you three! Come over here!”
They were astonished but immediately listened to his order and walked closer.
“Who are you? I don’t remember seeing you here.” As he asked the two-foot soldiers Karasu tengu, they stared at each other and were still silent, “Uh.. we are the new foot soldiers.”
“Ooh I see, no wonder me… the general never heard of you, care to tell me from what unit?” followed up by another question, he felt threatened and can only stay silent.
As the silence grew, they became more and more suspicious, as he raised his weapon and pointed it at them. But Ryhoei, who was behind him, got curious and took a peek. As he exchanged glances with them, his eyes widened.
“Wait! I.. I know them… When does a raccoon dog cross the bridges?”
The two of them immediately answered, “When the leaves whisper.”
Shun smiled, he was right. The two of them were Tanuki in disguise, “I was the one sending the message.” Said shun, then she asks where the one who leads them is.
They look at each other before turning back and call a single small Karasu tengu far in the back. After Ren came closer, shun twitched. Her disguise was immaculate, he can barely distinguish her from a regular Karasu foot soldier. The only reason why he can recognize the first two was because he used to study them.
Mujina power is similar to Tanuki, but the only difference is their physique, spiritual energy pool and have specific stereotypes going around them.
Tanuki have a more slender figure than Mujina, more agile and have a higher spiritual energy pool. They are known to be greedy, cheapskate and miser.
Mujina on the other hand, are more bulky, have higher muscle strength than Tanuki, but have a lower spiritual energy pool. They are also more known to be fat, lazy, and alcoholics.
Tanuki, being the best shapeshifter there is, naturally Shun also wanted to get stronger, so back then he tried to learn from them. As he was Ren's childhood friend, he was allowed to see them training before and noticed the faint patterns in their movements—a slight pause in their steps and the way they occasionally adjusted their sleeves, a habit common among first-division operatives when maintaining illusions for extended periods. They are the best at transformation, but the only transformation was their appearance, their voice remains the same. That is the reason why they rarely take undercover tasks or talk to other people during their disguise.
“Uh.. sir, don’t worry. They are here because I called them, sir Daitengu said we might need their help in…”
Before he continues, he finds it strange… Why did they need to disguise themselves as Karasu Tengu? Why can’t they just meet in their usual form?
Then Shun's eyes widened, he was aware of the eyes and ears of the Oni that were constantly keeping an eye on them from afar. As dumb as they are, they have excellent Physique including their enhanced vision and hearing. So he just points at his back, towards Ryohei who was still unconscious.
The general of Kotengu Faction immediately understood, as he was also a part of the undercover Karasu team. “Aaah, I see… a new recruit! Why didn’t you report to me earlier! Daitengu has been waiting for you. He just returned from his short trip. Come and follow me.”
As he leads both of them, he glances back and asks Shun to come with them. “But… he?” as he pointed at Ryohei’s body, saying that no one would guard him if the off chance that Oni barges in with force and attacks him. Then he assigned nearby foot soldiers to stand guard and proceed in leading them towards Daitengu.
As they move from Ryohei, the eyes that stare at them begin to decrease, until no one pays them attention. “As expected of the General of Kotengu Faction, your eyes managed to catch me off my disguise. I apologize for my rudeness in impersonating your soldier.”
Karasu tengu general just laughed it off, “Haha, no need! Besides, I didn't recognize you at all! I just have some suspicion because I remember all the troop members we have. So, no need to be modest, the saying Tanuki's skill as the best Shapeshifter yokai was true.”
They continue to complement each other up until they finally meet Daitengu.
“Oh, you’re finally here.” Said Daitengu casually.
Ren who was still in disguise came forward and pay respect, “Greetings Lord Daitengu, the Supreme leader of Tengu–”
Daitengu stopped her, “Enough enough, you don’t need all that formality stuff. Let’s just get to the point. Time is of essence here, once the Hyakki Yagyo ends, and the celebration party disbanded, they will eventually make their move.”
Ren was flustered, “Ah.. right, first let me apologize, but we need to set this up.” She threw a clump of leaves around and it exploded creating a poof noise and glitter surrounding them.
“This is just an assurance so that they don’t find our conversation suspicious, I have set up an illusion barrier surrounding us and now we don’t need the disguise anymore.”
*Pooof!
The sounds of her shapeshifting became undone, revealing her slender figure with black bob cut hair and in a black undercover garbs.
“Oooh nice trick lass. Then... I’ll also add this.” with a flick of finger, the air surrounding them moved in a circular way, compressing the thin air around them.
“There! I have locked the surrounding air, now no one would hear our conversation.”
The three of them were speechless, as expected from the leader of the great clans. Their control over elements was immaculate.
“Right, so we have already secured the path and resolved the problem with the destinations. Will the Kyoto Hospital be okay? Since it’s the closest one.” Ren nervously as she strikes a deal with Daitengu.
“I don’t mind, do as you please. As long as the Oni clan can’t get his hands off him.”
Ren was curious, why did he go so far just to save him? “If I may ask, who is he? Why did you..”
Daitengu's eyes narrowed as he glared at Ren, making Ren stop her lines midway.
“Lass… didn’t your father ever tell you not to meddle in the clients affair? Trying to pry more information from your clients is rude.” as he taps his sake bottle.
Ren's face was pale and immediately bowed down and apologized, “I am sorry for my offense!”
“Haha, it's fine~ I like courteous lass like you, so young yet composed in front of me. You’ll do just fine in the future.”
“T..Thank you sir,” Ren was flustered, she couldn't believe she just got praised by someone else before her own father. “Well then, how will you resolve the payment? Is it fine if we write this off as ‘Owing a favor to the Tanuki Clan’?”
Shun eyes immediately shot open, “W…Wha..? Wait! I am the one who called you! Why are you..”
“It’s fine lad, thanks for your consideration… I’ve just got a loss from saving the Weasel brat, one more wouldn’t hurt.” reply Daitengu with a stern tone.
“No, it's not fine! The one who’s asking for a favor is me, it's just wrong that you’re asking a favor from him.”
Shun felt uneasy, a favor from one of the greatest yokai clans is not something so small and trivial to the point where anyone can have them. This small favor are far from being able to obtain it, that is why he felt like he should step in.
Ren glared at her with a disgusted look on her face. As she sighs, she continues…
“Do you really believe that I came here because of you? You have nothing to offer.”
“But you’re here, didn’t you come because of my message?”
Ren was pissed because of his mindless question. “Asking a favor from friends is normal, but there’s a limit. Asking me for help and making me mobilize my family forces for free!? What were you thinking!”
“And asking for a favor from one of the greatest clans isn’t cheap either! What made you think you can strike that deceptive deal huh!?”
The calm and civil talks turned into a child argument, Ren has always had a short temper, it's not a surprise to see her like this. While Shun, who was calm and composed all the time, snaps when it comes to her.
Ren starts to get annoyed as her tones are getting even more sharp. “Fine then! What CAN you offer!?”
Shun wanted to reply but he realised that he had nothing he can offer. Ren continues to attack him with relentless sharp words. “What? Got nothing to say? What can you offer? Gratitude and Owing a favor? From the Mujina clan? That is the most useless favor I have ever heard.”
Bulges started to appear on Shun’s face, feeling offended by her as she brought up his clan.
“You’re going too far!” Screamed Shun in reply.
“Me? Going too far? Then what about you!? Have you ever thought about the risk I took for this!? If we fail, not only the person you wanted to protect is in danger but the Whole Tanuki Clan safety is at stake!”
Shun was silenced, unable to retort.
“What can you do if the Tanuki clan got attacked by the Oni clan!? Can you save us? Nothing! You can’t do anything! Even if we got attacked by the oni clan, I am sure that we will still survive by disguising ourselves. But what about the regular people of Kawaji Island? The moment Oni took over our place, the regular human will just be their food, day by day, another person will be gone, eaten as their snacks. Yet you still think our work is not worth the favor from the Tengu clan!?”
After their fight the place goes silent, increasing the tense moment. “I am sorry lord Daitengu for my unsightly behavior.” She bowed and apologized once more, but Daitengu just laughed and brushed it off.
“The truth is… even without your help I can still manage to take him away from the Oni clan and bring him straight to his home… But in order to do that I had to fly far above the Oni clan’s surveillance range, carrying a dying patient is just a bad idea. If I fly at a lower altitude, it would just give them a clue where the lads live. Since I lost a lot just to save him, I want to do it properly.”
“I understand the danger you took, if you found out and offended the Oni clan, your clan's well being is at stake, and we are not close enough to the point where I protect your clan at the risk of starting a war with them… So I accept your terms, but I do have a card to play… How about I give you a tiny bit of info and you consider it as the Tengu clan owe you a ‘small favor’ how about that?”
She wanted to chuckle as she heard that, but refrain from doing so, as it was impolite. “My apologies if I sound arrogant, but you wanted to offer some information? To the Tanuki Clan?”
Any yokai know that Tanuk Clan intel is one if not the greatest information gathering, but Daitengu was confident.
“Why not? Even with the best information-gathering network, there are bound to be pieces of information you can't obtain."
Ren was curious at Daitengu's sheer confidence in this matter. She asked, “Which is?”
The power to collect information from the perpetrator himself…” Said Daitengu with a big grin on his face.
Ren was taken aback, but she of all people understood what he meant. Even if the Tanuki clan scope of information gathering was great, they can’t collect any information about the great clans or any stronger foe, only through rumor and gossip. They have no power to subdue someone and torture them to make them spill information off their mastermind.
But so what? A tiny piece of information cannot be compared to the favor she was about to obtain, there’s a big difference between small favor and favor. She was keen on refusing the information, but once she heard it was about the assassination of her elder brother, she stood there frozen.
“So how about it, lass?” Ask Daitengu mischievously, not giving time for her to think. Then… she agreed,
With it the deal was done, Daitengu shared the information he got and she listened to it all, she had various expressions throughout the session, until it ended and they disbanded.
On the way back, Shun felt bad for saying all that stuff to her, he wanted to apologize.
“...Hey…” Shun called her nervously, but her mood was down ever since she heard that news about the perpetrator of her elder brother.
“...Yes?”
“Well… I’m sorry about the things I said… It’s kind of true that I didn’t think it through…”
“It’s okay… I forgive you…”
Shun was staring at her, expecting her to return the favor and apologize for talking down about his clan… but she never did.
“...What? I will not apologize for what I said, okay? I really meant it.”
“What!? Screw you woman! What makes you think you can talk down to my clan?”
“Well… what do you think they’re worth? I am not hating nor talking down on them, it's just stating a fact. I admit that we Tanuki were meticulous when it came to profit, but what about Mujina Clan? Their members were disoriented and spread-out all-over Japan, without anyone to control or lead them. All they did was sleep all day, drinking alcohol and singing like there’s nothing to care about. You think so too, don't you?”
Shun's face turned sour… what she said was indubitably the truth. Compared to the Tanuki clan who was united and resided in Kawaji Island, Mujina was all over the place, without a place where they could call home. And the Young master of that Clan was him. His clan exists because several Mujina families decided to stay up in one place, too lazy to move and find another spot to sleep. And that is the beginning of the Mujina Clan.
With the lack of support nor anyone to be his teacher in wielding Mujina power, shun was left stranded, trying to be stronger by himself. Even when he had to carry them as baggage.