“Aren’t you the interesting one.”

  Lila turned to see who spoke to her, and if it weren’t for his bizarre hair and the marks under his eyes, she would have mistaken him for a human. The marks looked like jagged lines that followed the natural contours of his face but didn’t go below his chin. His hair defied physics. His two-toned black and white hair went straight back except for the tip, which had a slight curve to it. When going straight, it went from the back of the head and kept going in the same direction.

  He clearly noticed Lila staring at his hair and chuckled at how he could have some fun with this.

  “Don’t tell me the noble fox has fallen for a lowly gangster like me.”

  He could see the gears light up in her head as she realized what he was trying to say. Her response was to simply roll her eyes and move along.

  “Come on now. Can’t I have a little fun with my words?” He asked as he followed Lila.

  He was drawn to her, not because kitsune were typically seen as nobles, nor because of her beauty. What truly captivated him was the unmistakable look of someone who had earned their place through hard work and perseverance. A look he often recognized in his own reflection. Her eyes held the determination of someone who had faced challenges and overcome them, mirroring the same tenacity he prided himself on. This shared resilience sparked his deep interest in her.

  “I don’t know you. I don’t even know what kind of yokai you are, so no, I don’t think you can have some fun words with me.”

  The self-proclaimed gangster laughed when he heard those words like it explained her origins far better than a conversation could. Though he wanted to have a little more fun before testing the water with what he learned.

  “Why does it matter what kind of yokai I am?” He inquired.

  “Maybe you’re a shapeshifting trickster. Maybe your kind is warm and cuddly or violent and belligerent. So, I guess it does matter.”

  “So, you were originally human then. I’m even more piqued by you now.”

  Lila stopped and stared at him in wonder with her purple eyes that drew him in. He wondered why her eyes kept changing color.

  Yellow to red.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Red to Purple.

  Most of all, he learned more about her from what she said but learned nothing from studying her movements.

  She walked like she wasn’t a fighter but had the gaze of a survivor.

  Her body said she was frail, but the calluses on her hands said she was used to heavy work.

  He was drawn to mysteries.

  “How did you know that?”

  “Well, you don’t dress like other kitsune. Instead, you dress how humans tend to. Secondly, you don’t have that air about you that everyone is beneath you. My name’s Nurarihyon Tetsu. Nurarihyon also happens to be the kind of yokai I am.”

  “What kind of yokai is a nurarihyon?”

  “We are thieves and gangsters. We usually help with the family business. Care for a tour.” Tetsu offered his hand as a token, hoping she would accept.

  “Pass.”

  Before Tetsu could process what Lila had said, she ran off.

  “I know I was a little pushy but damn she could have been a little more polite.”

  *

  Flying through the night sky, the tengu were searching for irregularities and kitsune to interrogate about the princess.

  No one yet knew what Lila looked like, but when these tengu saw Lila, they thought she was low-ranked enough that there wouldn’t be too many questions about her going missing.

  They mistook her shabby clothes as a sign of her being from a poor noble family or perhaps even a fallen noble. From their height, they couldn’t see that the fabric was actually of high quality, nor could they appreciate the effort she put into making them. Unbeknownst to them, she had sewn the garments herself, having just recently acquired the skills, resulting in an end product that bore the marks of an amateur's touch. She simply desired a change from the martial arts Gi she wore for training.

  They waited for Lila to be away from Tetsu before they put up a barrier, isolating her from the city.

  Lila noticed something was off as she watched the ambient spirit mana act in a manner she didn’t recognize.

  This startled the tengu into thinking that she had caught on to what they were doing. They thought they could take their time to toy with her, but if she sensed their illusionary kekkai skill this easily, they were worried about her real identity, yet believed she could give them their answers.

  Once the barrier was completed, they went to strike. Their goal was to pin her down and extract the answers by any means necessary and dispose of her afterward.

  So, when they swooped in to attack her, they didn’t expect Tetsu to show up out of nowhere like a fleeting shadow to stop them.

  Lila did not know where his sword came from, but even in this situation, she couldn’t help but marvel at the craftsmanship.

  They also didn’t expect Haruaki’s shikigami to attack them from behind. It sent lightning bolts to strike the tengu down. This shikigami was made as a bodyguard and not for warfare, but it was still enough to take on these tengu.

  As the old saying goes, if you focus too much on your prey, you will likely become prey yourself.

  To salvage this situation, two of the tengu decided to hold back the shikigami while another went down to take care of Tetsu and snatch Lila. As trained tengu warriors, one of them should be more than enough to deal with some lowly gangsters and lowborn noble

  “Seriously, who in King Yama’s Palace are you?!” He asked out loud as he turned to Lila. Her silver eyes shone with a vibrant purple hue, surrounded by an inky black sea. Both he and the tengu assailant were surprised to see this.

  “Akuma!”