"No, no!"
Short Tanaka Rō lowered his head, making it impossible to see his expression.
He swore solemnly, "There is absolutely no such thing!"
Uesugi Tetsu frowned in confusion. Someone had come to deal with the yokai for free, yet the village chief was hiding the matter and even seemed unwilling. Why?
He glanced left and right at Shiraishi, who was terrified that a yokai might spring out from somewhere, and asked, "Can't yokai appear in the village?"
Shiraishi blinked and knitted his brows, thinking deeply. By the time he had nearly bitten through the piece of grass in his mouth, he suddenly let out an "Oh."
"I heard that, a long time ago, there was a village where news spread that yokai could transform into human form. Then, because of that, that village apparently..."
Shiraishi waved to Uesugi Tetsu. After Tetsu crouched down, he whispered into his ear, "That village was later slaughtered to the last person. Apparently, the rumor originated from around Suruga and Mikawa."
After saying that, he shrank his shoulders and muttered, "Good grief. That bizarre legend might actually be true."
So that was how it was.
It seemed that even if the rumors about a yokai slaughtering an entire village were not completely true, the consequences had certainly been severe.
Still, this method could not exactly be called wrong.
If a yokai capable of transforming into human form infiltrated a major city, it would be like a drop of water merging into the sea. There would be no way to search for it.
Not to mention that Onmyoji had almost become nothing more than legends in this era. The odds of finding such a yokai were practically zero.
"There's no need to hide it any longer."
Uesugi Tetsu snorted. "I saw a mass of yokai