The Tiger Folklore of Jangsan (萇山) in Busan (5)

Chug chug.

The train sped towards its final destination.

Ho Joon side-eyed the woman with fox ears and tails sitting beside him.

The more he looked, the more captivating her beauty was.

Distinct features.

Eyes a deep, azure blue like the Pacific Ocean.

Delicate lips.

A bosom ample enough to be called glamorous.

Lastly,

An inexplicable, entrancing charm that could bewitch men.

Were she not a yokai, he would have asked for her number outright.

…That’s how captivating the woman beside him was.

However, though unfortunate for Miho,

Ho Joon was not an ordinary talentless derelict, but a once-in-a-century genius derelict.

He drank, but not to the point of losing all reason.

No matter how breathtakingly beautiful this yokai was, suffocating his heart,

Ho Joon was not so base a man as to be easily seduced by a yokai.

First, he continuously engaged her in conversation to gather information on the yokai seated beside him.

0. 0. To begin with, this woman was definitely not human, but a yokai.

      Cosplay?

      An unconvincing excuse.

      Just look at those swishing tails and ears.

      How could anyone believe that was human?

      In fact,

      “Aack!”

      To confirm his suspicions, Ho Joon grabbed her ear directly with his own hand.

      …The effect was certain.

      “Wh, why are you grabbing my ear?!”

      “Ah, my apologies.”

      “Apologize, you bastard!”

      “Cosplay, you said?”

      “…”

      She seemed pained.

      …Ho Joon was starting to lose track of whether she was clever or dimwitted.

      At first glance, she seemed intelligent, but

      Openly swishing her tails and munching on dog chewing gum on a train like this,

      She didn’t seem to be a yokai clever enough to worry about.

 

0. 0. This yokai possessed an entrancing charm that could bewitch men’s hearts.

      It went beyond mere beauty.

      It was likely this yokai’s innate trait.

      Something the womanizing Ho Joon could discern.

      This woman… no, this yokai was different from any woman he had met before.

 

0. 0. This yokai was that exceedingly rare fox yokai, with the ability to conceal her yogi.

      She was likely a different individual from the ‘blue-furred demonic fox’ that appeared in Jiri Mountain weeks ago.

      Since the blue-furred fox was exterminated by the Martial Artist Lee Ha-neul.

      That this yokai could board the train was proof she possessed yogi-concealing abilities.

      It made sense.

      The Yokai Extermination Office’s yogi detection network spanned the entire nation.

      Without yogi-concealing abilities, there was no explaining how she could be on this train.

 

0. 0. This yokai’s objective was likely the ‘Jangsan tiger’.

      He didn’t know the reason.

      He had no evidence.

      Just an instinctive hunch, albeit an uncertain one.

      A matter of perception.

      Ho Joon was a perceptive Spell Master, so

      He decided to trust his instincts.

 

0. 0. While most of this yokai’s responses were lies, her claim to like humans did seem truthful.

      She was suspiciously knowledgeable about human culture.

      Not just surface-level knowledge, but an amount even Ho Joon inwardly found impressive.

      She knew about online communities like galleries, of course,

      But also OTT services like NewTube and HotFlix.

      She even knew internet memes well enough that such knowledge could only come from genuinely liking humans, just as she claimed.

      For a mere yokai to have such extensive knowledge of human affairs was extraordinary, but

      The ‘how’ wasn’t particularly important to Ho Joon.

      What mattered was the ‘so what’.

      So what if:

 

0. 0. Was this yokai friend or foe?

      Regardless of good or evil, yokai were unconditional extermination targets.

      Yet here he was, hesitating whether to kill this yokai before his very eyes.

      Ho Joon found his own wavering quite unfamiliar.

      A testament to just how benevolent towards humans she seemed.

      Though she grew irritated enough to swear at Ho Joon as he meticulously questioned her beside her,

      She did not display hatred,

      Superiority,

      Bloodlust, or any emotion a yokai should rightly possess.

An act, or genuine?

If this was an act, she was still a target for elimination.

If her emotions were real, then:

“…”

He wasn’t sure.

Ho Joon’s mind could not decide how to dispose of her.

For that reason,

He decided to observe her for now.

Ah,

The train had conveniently arrived at its destination too.

With a friendly smile, Ho Joon told her:

“Let’s disembark.”

“…”

She looked at Ho Joon with a ‘what is this lunatic saying’ expression, but

He paid it no heed.

His ‘derelict’ reputation was well-earned –

He had the shamelessness to tell Miho to piss off.

---

Stomp stomp.

Stomp stomp.

Trudge trudge.

Trudge trudge.

Woof woof woof.

Woof woof woof.

Aish, enough.

“Why do you keep following me?!”

“I’m just following an intriguing fox yokai, what’s the problem?”

“The problem is, I’m not a yokai, I’m a cosplayer!”

“The technology in this nation is impressive. Did they release fox ear headbands that can even synchronize sensations while I wasn’t aware?”

“…”

Dammit!

I knew he had seen through me as a yokai from the start,

Just as I had immediately pegged him as a ‘Spell Master’ upon seeing his appearance.

It seemed he too had concluded I was a ‘yokai’ upon seeing me.

However, there was a big difference between me admitting ‘I am a yokai’ myself

And stubbornly denying it to the end.

Justification.

I had no justification, that’s what.

Yes, my outward appearance was unmistakably that of a fox yokai.

So then, was my yogi detected?

Did I harm any humans?

Were there extermination orders issued?

By some astronomically tiny chance of one in a million,

What if I wasn’t actually a yokai?

Then he would have no justification to exterminate me.

The proof was that despite disembarking, he only followed me without attacking,

…So then,

Just how long did he intend to tag along?

It seemed he had also come to Busan to exterminate the Jangsan tiger, like me.

The more we stuck together, the more time we would waste, wouldn’t we?

I tried giving him a hint, and he shrugged his shoulders before speaking:

“Hand over that fox ear headband of yours. Then I won’t follow you anymore.”

“…You bastard.”

It was basically saying he would follow me for life.

“Ah, didn’t you say earlier that I had crap in my mouth? Looks like it’s you who has crap in their mouth, yokai.”

“Shut up!”

Conversation was getting nowhere.

It seemed he had already decided to follow me for life.

I didn’t know the reason.

Wasn’t he going to exterminate the Jangsan tiger too?

We headed towards the plaza after disembarking, but the evacuation order must have extended this far from Busan, as there was hardly anyone around except us two.

What rotten luck.

If not for this guy, I could have exterminated the Jangsan tiger without being detected, then leisurely returned to Jiri Mountain.

So,

While I had arrived near Busan,

With this person openly monitoring me, tracking the ‘Jangsan tiger’ would be no easy feat.

As he lit a cigarette, he told me:

“Don’t mind me, just do what you were going to do.”

“…But you, don’t you have something urgent to attend to?”

“Hoh, finally showing some interest in me, I see. Well, do men’s eyes judge yokai and humans the same way?”

“No, that’s not it… Whether I ask you not to follow me or not, you’ll just keep following, right? Is that renowned Spell Master dignity of yours really fine with wasting time here like this?”

“Don’t try to act clever, yokai. Even a passing five-year-old would know I’m a Spell Master.”

“Myeong Jung.”

“…”

“Ho Joon.”

“…!”

“It’s Ho Joon, isn’t it?”

When I mentioned his name,

He suddenly broke into a cold sweat,

Taking out some paper from his pocket as he eyed me warily.

What was that about?

“What’s wrong?”

“You wench… how did you know my name?”

“I saw it on the wiki.”

“…Ah.”

Seeming a bit flustered, he scratched his head and formally introduced himself:

“I’m Ho Joon.”

“I’m Miho.”

“…Come to think of it, your very name is basically bragging that you’re a gumiho. I know this is weird coming from me, but if you don’t want to get found out, you should start by changing your name.”

“I’m not a gumiho, I’m a 6miho. Not a yokai, a cosplayer. By the way, don’t you have a surname?”

“Spell Masters don’t have surnames by default.”

“Then what about Woosa Uchi’s surname?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“No, I wasn’t really curious anyway.”

“…A vexing fox yokai, aren’t you.”

I exchanged these inane banter with him, but

Unexpectedly, this conversation was an extremely important process for me.

Through our exchange, I could clearly discern that he bore me no ill will.

Human emotions cannot be concealed no matter how hard one tries – they are purer than anything else.

In any case, since things had come to this, I resolved to trust him and track down the Jangsan tiger together.

Having him tag along might provide a bit of help, slight as it may be.

“How will you track it down? Do you yokai have some means of tracking each other’s yogi?”

“…”

“No, never mind. Come to think of it, I heard that Jangsan tiger has the ability to conceal its yogi like you.”

As expected.

He had figured out my objective from the start, hadn’t he?

No point hiding it any further.

So I told him:

“You reek of alcohol and cigarettes, so keep your distance.”

“Fair enough. And it’s not ‘you’, it’s Ho Joon to you.”

Unexpectedly, he obediently followed my words.

It seemed he had no other means to track the Jangsan tiger either.

There was only one way to track the Jangsan tiger without using yogi:

By following the stench of blood.

Eventually, I began heightening my senses.

Not by using yogi,

But by awakening my instincts as a ‘fox yokai’.

I didn’t know how far my sense of smell could reach, hundreds of meters perhaps.

From here on was a test of patience.

“Sniff, sniff sniff. Sniff sniff sniff.”

All I could do was keep sniffing until I caught the scent of blood.

“Indeed, befitting of a canid yokai tracking by scent!”

“Sniff sniff, sniff sniff, sniff sniff sniff.”

“But did you really need to walk on all fours? It does rather suit you, though.”

“Grrrrr… Want me to bite you?”

“…Understood. Still, you really are like a dog.”