I'm a demon in Tokyo!

Chapter 340: I'll leave whenever Uesugi Tetsuya arrives! Fushimi Inari, the gatekeepers are all six-tailed foxes.
Ririko stared silently at the woman standing in the doorway with her hands in her pockets.

I need to speak to Uesugi-kun on something important.
Is this the only thing I can say to him?

Ririko boasted that she knew Uesugi Tetsu very well.

From the beginning to the present, apart from a few unspoken secrets between the two of them, she knows almost everything that has happened to him, and can even recount it all from beginning to end.

Conversely, Uesugi Tetsu treated her the same way.

But Ririko didn't recognize the squinty-eyed guy who was looking down at her.

Not only did she have no recollection of this woman, but she could even say that she had never seen her before, not on any occasion.

But [Kenshin] told her that every word this woman said was completely true, without a single lie.

This whole thing has a strange feel to it...

“I know you, Tokugawa Ririko.”

Motonobu Okabe suddenly spoke, breaking the icy silence at the doorway.

However, even though she tried her best to keep her words calm, Ririko could still detect a hint of hostility from her.

This hostility wasn't because she had offended the woman somehow, but because of some more fundamental reason.

Ririko was even more puzzled.

She was quite certain that she had no memory of such a person.

Motonobu Okabe continued speaking.
“When you said on stage that Uesugi Tetsuya was yours during the seeding match, I was watching from the audience.”

audience?

A super-enthusiastic fan of Uesugi Tetsu? He even followed me to my house?
Ririko frowned.

Not like.

When the woman mentioned the name "Uesugi Tetsuya," there was not a trace of admiration or expectation in her eyes; instead, they were filled with a sense of accountability.

Her intuition told her that this woman had come to confront Uesugi-kun.

Thinking of this, Ririko asked calmly,
"May I ask your surname?"

“Ogasawara,” Okabe Motonobu began, the indifference and sharpness in his eyes softening slightly. “His full name is Ogasawara Nobumoto.”

Chisa, who was in the dojo, was startled when she heard the name.

—Was it Ms. Ogasawara who sat next to them on the day of the seeding battle?!

—No, that's not right!
Chisa glanced subtly and imperceptibly at the doorway out of the corner of her eye, and her heart, which had just settled down, jumped again.

—Nobumoto Ogasawara…that’s not her real name!

—【Motonobu Okabe】! That's the correct name for her!

Moreover, "Motonobu Okabe"... Chisa felt that the name sounded somewhat familiar, but upon closer inspection, she couldn't understand why she was familiar with it or what made it familiar.

Chisa didn't say anything more and told Ririko the news.

Because Okabe Motonobu, who was standing at the door, had already turned his gaze to her.

The cold, unfriendly gaze in his half-open, dark eyes made Chisa stiffen.

It's like being discovered by a natural enemy, unable to move an inch.

Just when he was about to catch his breath, a figure forcefully cut in, blocking the cold gaze.

It was Ririko.

"Ms. Ogasawara".

Lili Zi's expression was indifferent as she directly opened her sword domain, her tone revealing her sharp edge.

If it weren't for the possibility that he might have some important relationship with Uesugi Tetsu, she would have already kicked this guy named Ogasawara out.

"If you have any complaints about my apprentice, you can speak up. There's no need to resort to these underhanded tricks."

apprentice?

A flicker of surprise crossed Okabe Genshin's mind as he once again felt the familiar sense of being spied on.

Just her?

That girl didn't even have a basic breathing rhythm.

She's actually Tokugawa Ririko's apprentice?
"saved……"

Chisa, who was in the dojo, breathed a sigh of relief, patted her chest, and almost couldn't catch her breath.

"—I wouldn't say I'm dissatisfied."

Motonobu Okabe remained calm and composed: "It's just that on the day of the seeding battle, Ms. Chisa was sitting not far from me. I chatted with her and her sister, and she looked very familiar."

"In that case, be mindful of your actions."

Ririko emphasized each character, warning, "Don't do anything to a little girl who hasn't even entered the door yet."

Okabe Motonobu stared at Ririko, who was blocking the doorway, for a while. He thought about how difficult she had been in the seeding battle, and then he thought about Uesugi Tetsuya, who might be back soon.

So, he nodded slowly.
"clear."

After a long pause, Ririko spoke calmly.
"Come in, Ogasawara."

"Should I take off my shoes?"

"Ah."

The two did not exchange many words and walked into the first-floor meditation hall.

The tense and oppressive atmosphere spread, making it difficult for Chisa, who had already run to a corner of the dojo, to breathe.

"sit."

Ririko casually pointed to a spot, tossed over a small wooden table, and then took a bottle of chilled barley tea from the refrigerator upstairs.

—Tamamo went out on business, while Yagyu Akira returned to Shizuoka Prefecture to work with the teacher to digest the results of the seed war.

So at home, it was just her and Chisa.

Ririko's mind was entirely focused on swordsmanship, so naturally she had no time to ponder the art of tea.

Chisa, who was huddled to the side, didn't dare to speak. She was holding her phone and trying to figure out the name "Okabe Motonobu," so she didn't notice anything else.

Motonobu Okabe looked down at the barley tea in the plastic cup.

She was very familiar with the color and smell.

"Drink."

After pouring the tea, Ririko raised her chin.

This Ogasawara was quite rude, so naturally she wouldn't give him a friendly look either.

"After you finish drinking, you can leave."

Lili said calmly,

"Uesugi-kun has gone on a mission and may not be back for a while."

Motonobu Okabe pulled his gaze away from the barley tea and widened his eyes even more.

She gazed at Ririko and said,
"Then I'll wait until he comes back."

Snapped!
Ririko threw down the empty plastic cup in her hand, her face turning genuinely cold: "This isn't a hotel or inn, nor is it a place for random people like you to stay!"

Motonobu Okabe remained unmoved.

"I'll talk to Uesugi Tetsuya whenever he arrives, and then I'll leave."

Upon hearing this, Ririko finally asked in confusion,
"Ogasawara, have I been too kind to you?"

……

In the steadily moving MPV, Uesugi Tetsu recounted his experiences at Yunge Pavilion, half-truthfully and half-concealingly.

Sitting opposite Yuan Jingshui, he appeared calm on the surface, but was inwardly deeply shocked.

Does this sword saint truly possess such power?
"With just one word from the Sword Saint, you've endured so much in just a few minutes, Uesugi-kun..."

Yuan Jingshui murmured.

When she and her elder sister went to see that sword saint, he was far from being able to do this.

"No wonder... Uesugi-kun, you've changed."

Yuan Jingshui gazed at the man, who still possessed a gentle and calm demeanor.

Even though Uesugi Tetsuya remains "ordinary," and she can't see through or understand him, he has become much more substantial in essence.

The sense of crisis that Uesugi Tetsu brought to her was even greater.

Yuan Jingshui could still sense this.

And all of this happened in just a few minutes.

Sword Saint...

"Lord Che."

In the back seat of the car, the two-foot-tall man suddenly asked weakly and pointedly, "Was that the Sword Saint just now?"

Uesugi Tetsu understood that she was referring to the time she had just entered the Heartstring Channel.

"Yes."

He nodded helplessly and began to study how to add another "firewall" to his heartstrings.

This way, at least there will be a warning if something like this happens in the future, and at least people won't overhear what you're saying before you've even finished speaking.

"too horrible……"

The tiny two-foot-tall adult squeezed his legs together, even getting a couple of inches closer to Karu.

Her legs were trembling, and she said in a slightly embarrassed voice, "Just now... I was almost scared out of my wits... there were a few drops of that... um..."

"Ms. Yuan, I'm so sorry..."

“It’s nothing.” Yuan Jingshui shook her head in surprise. She had fought against Erchi Daren on the Seed Battle stage, and Erchi Daren was the key to her defeat.

It can be said that he was exceptionally brave.

But it couldn't even get up there; it was terrified into this state simply because of the connection between the shikigami and its master.

Even though she found it strange, she still didn't ask any questions.

—Hasn't Uesugi Tetsu already told her everything he could? If she keeps asking, she'll only be asking for trouble.

At this moment, Xiao Jia spoke up in a serious tone: "Anyway, we haven't said a word since we went in, we haven't seen anything, heard anything, or known anything."

Faced with the Sword Saint who brought great terror, Xiao Jia chose to bury his head in the sand like an ostrich.

"Little Jia, you don't know the Sword Saint..."

Uesugi Tetsu flicked the hilt of Kaga Kiyomitsu's sword and smiled, "He definitely knows about you."

!

Kaga Kiyomitsu trembled in his scabbard.

"However, Lord Uesugi."

After the two "kids" finished their remarks, Qingcai slowly spoke up: "In the past thousand years, I have seen many sword saints and have also spent decades in the mortal world."

"But the one you just met, who reached such a profound and mysterious level, is someone I have never truly seen before in my life."

"Perhaps I've been fortunate enough to live in a good era."

Qing sighed with rare emotion.

After a pause, Qing, who already knew quite a bit about the current state of affairs, added another sentence to himself.
"—Or perhaps, we just encountered an era that couldn't be worse."

Even with a sword saint of such stature presiding over the present world, the mortal realm still emerges step by step with the rising tide.

Beside the two-foot-tall man, Ge Liuduo listened to the conversation with a serious expression but a hint of confusion in his eyes.

Although she had written lines of elegant handwriting in her notebook, she couldn't understand a word they were saying.

She was sitting in the car with this little Erchi who she disliked and who rejected her but wasn't a bad person, as well as the two swords of Lord Uesugi.

Kaguru always clearly felt like an outsider.

Just like back then.

A flood of thoughts overwhelmed Karuta, causing her to unconsciously stop writing furiously in her notebook.

The little ears of the two-foot-tall man twitched, and he glanced at Karuta, whose eyes were glazed over, with an unfriendly look.

hum... hum...

The phone vibrated.

When Uesugi Tetsu took it out, he discovered that it was a very rare phone call from Nanjo Manami.

Without much thought, Uesugi Tetsu answered the call directly.

"Hello? Is the signal okay? Uesugi-kun, can you hear me?"

“I understand, Nanjo-nee.”

"call--"

Nanjo Manami breathed a sigh of relief: "The communication base station is finally back up and running. That electromagnetic ghost story from this morning is really haunting. Even after it self-destructed, it still caused me so much trouble."

On the phone, after venting her frustrations, Nanjo Aimi first sincerely and with an extremely satisfied tone thanked Uesugi Tetsuichi profusely—who had tricked Manatsu, Akatsuki Ran, and a whole bunch of "enthusiastic young men" into going along with it.

—This includes Kitano Runa, who wants to collect more rice and get more benefits, and a large group of operators protecting her, as well as Hattori Ayako, and even some "enthusiastic" operators who "rushed to the scene after hearing the news".

"Uesugi-kun, this has really relieved a lot of my work pressure!"

Judging from her voice, Nanjo Manami was almost grinning: "Now I even have time to make random phone calls."

"That's good."

Uesugi Tetsu, keeping his eyes down and his mind at ease, naturally wouldn't admit that this whole mess was his fault.

He was just a messenger.

If he truly didn't suppress the demon of "progress" within him, going to Hokkaido to work as a slave would have absolutely nothing to do with him.

Uesugi Tetsu didn't want to continue discussing topics that were detrimental to unity.

"Has the situation over there improved?"

"Well... although the five-person group had some minor complaints about me before, they didn't nag me."

Upon receiving the news, they immediately dispatched one Wild God and thirteen Demon Gods, a total of fourteen high-level combatants, along with many lower-level staff, and the cleanup work was handled very well.

Nanjo Manami's tone was much more relaxed than it had been two days ago: "Now, almost all the ghost stories and monster tales in Hokkaido have been cleared away."

"There are only a few who are hiding very well, like cowards. Overall, everything is in a state of disrepair."

Uesugi Tetsu: "Just like the Arakawa Ward after the first wave?"

"They're pretty much the same."

"However, there are some places... that are a bit special."

"Special? How is it special?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Nanjo Aimi stopped the conversation, smiled, and said, "By the way, Akatsuki Ran and Kitano Runa hate you to death..."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a chorus of strange screams came from the background.

It sounded like... the angry roar of cattle and horses?

"I'm not saying anything more, I'm hanging up now." Nanjo Manami lowered her voice. "If they find out that I, their boss, am slacking off by calling you, I'll inevitably get a lecture from Manatsu."

"it is good."

Uesugi Tetsuya had only said half of the word "okay" when a busy signal came from the speaker.

He shrugged and put his phone back in his pocket.

The expression on Yuan Jingshui's face was rather strange.

"The person opposite me is the current Grand Yin-Yang Attendant... Grand Chancellor, Nanjo Aimi?"

Uesugi Tetsu nodded.

"She's really down-to-earth."

The surface of the still water was complex.

"Nanjo-nee has always been like this... Is there a problem?"

"nothing."

Yuan Jingshui seemed to remember something, and slowly exhaled.

"I just think it's pretty good."

“We’ve arrived,” she said.

The large MPV then stopped in front of the iconic bright red torii gate.

The torii gate is new and clean, and looks like it was recently renovated and painted.

Although it's not a holiday today, there are still quite a few tourists around.

When the tourists saw the MPV arrive with its extraordinary presence, the surrounding area immediately cleared out.

Instead, a large number of curious eyes focused on them.

Yuan Jingshui looked out the window.
"The scene isn't cleared now, how are you going to get off the bus?"

As soon as he got off the bus, the huge crowd squeezed the current celebrity, Uesugi Tetsuya, into a pancake.

"Just get off the bus."

Uesugi Tetsu smiled at her: "All you need is some basic knowledge about optics."

Extremely subtle spiritual energy fluctuations, resembling natural ripples, rose up.

Then, under the watchful eyes of Shizumi Minamoto, Uesugi Tetsu opened the car door and got out of the car.

The anticipated uproar did not materialize.

The tourists were amazed, but they only made a few comments saying, "Look, these are the Celestial Dragons," before dispersing.

So amazing...

She wondered why she hadn't seen the spell light up...

Yuan Jingshui blinked and tentatively got out of the car as well.

At this moment, Uesugi Tetsuya was already standing in front of the bright red torii gate, staring at the two newly placed fox statues in front of it.

To be precise, he was staring at the two fox phantoms who were holding long naginata and watching him warily.

Uesugi Tetsu looked up at the black plaque with gold lacquer, then looked behind the fox phantom and nodded simply.

I couldn't help but sigh.
"This Fushimi Inari Shrine is truly powerful."

Even the fox guards at the gate all have six tails.

This bloodline is truly of unparalleled nobility.

"Let's go, Miss Yuan."

In the fox's phantom eyes, six large, snow-white tails popped out from behind Uesugi Tetsuya and swayed in mid-air, while he smiled kindly at them with his extremely approachable face.

The wariness in the two security guards' fox eyes vanished instantly, replaced by stiff smiles as they nodded at Uesugi Tetsuya.
"Go inside and pay your respects."

Uesugi Tetsuya exclaimed in surprise to himself.

Unexpectedly, his identity as a wild six-tailed fox and his face were surprisingly useful.

Besides the basic worship, we should also take the opportunity to visit and interact with the dragons and foxes at Fushimi Inari Shrine...

The question is what specifications and materials should be used to build the future shrine for the man named Nisha-daijin.

(End of this chapter)