Shota is surrounded by monsters!

"Yo, circle-eye ice cream~"

Shota subconsciously called out the nickname he had given the girl.

"Who, who is the round-eyed ice cream?!"

Perhaps the noise was too loud, causing many cadres to look in her direction. So she quickly hid behind the crack in the door, stared for a while, and then popped her head out again, saying to Shota, "Come out quickly, how did you get in there too?"

Shota pointed to the sign in front of him.

"What Taotie? This is a meeting of the Nura Clan executives. If you want to eat, come outside. I'll get it for you from the kitchen. Don't come and cause trouble during the most important time for young master Rikuo... Eh." Halfway through her sentence, Yuki-onna Hyōrei suddenly turned her head and asked Aotabo, "What kind of yokai is Taotie?"

"Perhaps it's the Chinese Taotie?"

Qing Tianfang scratched his head and said something uncertainly.

"What?! It's the Chinese Taotie! Eek ...

The snow woman screamed like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and was then grabbed by Aotabo and taken aside.

The person who disrupted the meeting was clearly herself.

Are all Yuki-onna (snow women) that interesting? Whether they are or not, Yuki-onna are incredibly useful!

"Hey, are you Taotie?"

There was no room behind Shota—but then a giant centipede head appeared. Due to its enormous size, the centipede clan chief had to drag his body outside the door. Sadly, he was one of the few yokai who hadn't eaten the red bean rice. Sitting to Shota's left was a ghost—no, in the Nura Clan, she should be called a demon woman.

Yuuko, the leader of the Oni-onna Group, is a yokai who only took over as leader of the Oni-onna Group during the reign of the second Nura Clan, a period of two or three decades. With long black hair, she wears an old Showa-era sailor uniform, has fair skin, and maintains a beautiful appearance that is always that of a good girl. In addition, she has a beautiful, voluptuous, and tall figure, making her seem more like an ordinary girl than an oni-onna.

No, an ordinary girl would never do that.

"Yes, it is."

Shota hadn't even finished half of his red bean rice when the ghost woman next to him brazenly hooked her arm around his shoulder. She seemed quite interested in him, scanning him from head to toe several times, and despite being a ghost, she still had a tactile sensation. This made Shota extremely embarrassed.

"Oh? Are you shy?"

Geng Xizi poked Shota's cheek with her cold fingers and said, "I thought Taotie would be a more ferocious monster, but I didn't expect it to be so shy. It's rare to see a monster other than those disgusting old men at the executive meeting. Shall we chat for a while?"

Sister, please consider the situation—at least let me finish my meal. Cats will scratch if they're disturbed while eating.

Do you want to serve this to me as a side dish?

"Is it delicious? Then you can have mine too."

Seeing that Shota was eating silently, the ghost woman pushed the food on her table in front of him and said, "I don't need to eat."

Let's retract the definition of "side dish" for now.

Shota accepted the food with a smile and said, "My name is Shota Kousaka, hello~ Ms. Geng."

"hello."

"uh-huh."

A few seats away from the demon woman, the one-eyed demon suddenly coughed in dissatisfaction, glanced at the ox demon sitting next to him, and said to the commander-in-chief who was sitting there slowly eating:

"What has brought us together today? As far as I know, it doesn't seem to be about eating celebratory red bean rice."

The one-eyed man's confusion is the confusion of everyone else.

"Hey, Ichimoku."

The abacus shopkeeper sitting next to him interrupted him briefly, but the one-eyed ghost continued nonchalantly, "I'm only saying this for the good of the group. The forces in the west are growing stronger, and our group is having an increasingly difficult time. Although it looks like a new person is joining today, before that, we should at least weed out some of the parasites, right?"

"Alright then. There's only one purpose for gathering everyone here today—it's for the reinforcement group."

After everyone looked at him, Nura Nurarihyon put down his chopsticks and said, "At this general meeting, Nura Rikuo officially becomes the successor of the Nura Clan—that is, the third generation."

"Hey, young master Lu Sheng isn't that averse to it..."

"The matter of the Ox Demon will also be judged by Riku. Riku."

The general interrupted the monsters below and handed the floor to Rikuo.

"On this auspicious day, I welcome everyone to the Nura Clan General Assembly." Rikuo said calmly, "I am Nura Rikuo, whom I just introduced. I'm really embarrassed to speak from such a high position."

As he spoke, he clenched his fist and braced himself on the tatami mat, bowing slightly.

“I did accept the position of leader.” He looked up at everyone and said:

"No matter what happens in the future, it will not be returned."

"But I am not mature enough yet. If I say anything wrong and offend anyone, please forgive me and point it out."

"How could this happen so suddenly..."

“Hey, Rikuo… why have you never mentioned this before?”

Hearing the murmurs of the people below, the Nura Clan advisor sitting next to Rikuo, the long, thin mustache-wearing Daruma, spoke up: "Lord Rikuo, let me explain the matter of the Ushioni."

Chapter 42. Nura Clan Headquarters (Part 2)

"Ah."

"A few days ago, Ushioni used Rikuo-sama's classmates to lure them to Ushioni-gumi territory, Mount Nezumi. At that time, he thought about killing Rikuo-sama. He also controlled the old Rat Group, which had already been expelled, and forced Rikuo-sama to retire. That's roughly what happened."

Shota's attention kept lingering between the two people directly involved in this matter—Rikuo and Gyuki. To his surprise, Rikuo seemed completely unconcerned, while Gyuki remained expressionless, as if they weren't talking about his business at all.

"Now, the demon has no choice but to commit seppuku on the spot."

The female demon sitting next to Shota glanced at Gyuki and said in a tone of watching a show, "The struggle between the Nura Clan's longest-serving executive and the next successor looks quite interesting."

"Ok?"

Shota was a little confused. Was that Gyuki really that unpopular in the group?

"I'm new here, and I'm not that familiar with the older generation."

The ghost woman placed her hands behind her back, changing her sitting posture from upright to a more languid one.

"Innocent!"

Just as Shota was about to ask a couple more questions, Rikuo Nura, sitting at the very top, loudly proclaimed, "Innocent!"

"what?"

"To do such a thing, is one not guilty?"

This looks even more interesting. Shota watched with great interest the senior executive who was reacting so strongly and Rikuo who remained calm on top.

"General, isn't this a poor way of handling things?!"

General Nurarihyon turned his head away and picked his nose.

"No, no, this approach was my judgment. He did it because he wanted to train me, didn't he?"

Nura Rikuo's imposing manner vanished instantly, and he stood there waving his hands like a little boy. Ichimoku, who had been shouting the loudest, walked right up to him and said, "This won't do!"

Do you have any complaints?

"Of course! At the very least, they need to be disbanded."

"It's alright, because the heir of the Ushioni Clan has already stayed at the main family to show his loyalty. Ushioni is really a good person."

Riku smiled at Niu Gui, then Ichimoku's face moved even closer to him.

"You're oversimplifying things, Young Master Lu Sheng!"

"However, if the Ushioni Group is disbanded, the western defenses will collapse."

"Damn it, that's a problem too."

Nura Rikuo smiled brightly and said, "Besides, Ushioni and I made a promise that if I become more capable, he will work even harder, right?"

"Isn't that the most problematic part!"

Ichimoku retorted, "I will not admit to this kind of Third Hokage. If this can be considered innocent, then the Nura Clan will inevitably decline sooner or later."

"One glance."

"What? You brat, you want to support him?"

Zhen calmly looked at this senior colleague who was also doing it for the good of the group and said, "Look around you."

"what?"

Ichimoku turned around and looked around, only to find that the other senior officers had already returned to their seats, and he was the only one still shouting at Nura Rikuo.

Are you being isolated?

"you……"

"Ichimoku, no matter what, you're doing this for the good of the group, right?" The air around Nura Rikuo suddenly tightened, and he looked at Ichimoku with an unusually sharp gaze, saying, "So, you want to test me too? Like Gyuki."

The One-Eyed Great Demon is actually quite a timid demon...

"Just kidding!"

Lu Sheng's expression changed instantly, and he transformed back into a sunny young man. He patted Yi Mu's shoulder and said, "That's settled then. Go back and joke around."

"Then I'll announce it."

Seeing that everyone else remained silent, Mokuyo Daruma took out a piece of paper and faced everyone, saying, "Article 2 of the Nura Clan Rules: Nura Rikuo is officially appointed as the third-generation candidate to succeed the leader!"

"The age of adulthood for a yokai is 13 years old. If there are no other candidates or changes before then, he will officially become the third head of the Nura Clan!"

Rikuo Nura is 12 years old (13 in the traditional Chinese age reckoning) this year, which means that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will officially become the leader of the Nura Clan within a year.

"I'm somewhat looking forward to it. The Nura Clan is much weaker than it was at its peak." The demon woman looked at the young leader candidate with interest and said, "I wonder if he can restore the Nura Clan to its peak, or even surpass his father, the second generation."

"Perhaps."

Shota only gave a casual reply. However, to some extent, Shota was very jealous of the fact that he could become an adult at the age of 13.

“Lu Sheng, you can now talk about the second thing.”

"Yes."

Rikuo Nura glanced at where Shota was standing and said, "The second thing is that we have another powerful yokai executive in the Nura Clan."

After resolving the biggest issue of succession within the Nura Clan, all the yokai's attention shifted to Shota. After all, the Taotie wasn't exactly a mainland-origin yokai—although many yokai have a single lineage. But a bloodline that has been passed down for thousands of years is still very rare.

The sudden appearance of a Taotie here is like the sealed nine-tailed fox or the Qiongqi that was severely injured and then defeated by humans and joined the Nura Clan—a monster of this level is almost comparable to the power of the Hyakki Yagyō (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) at its peak.

Shota was a little embarrassed by being stared at by the other yokai. Fortunately, Rikuo introduced them to the others without him having to say anything.

"Taotie. The general's apprentice, and also my sworn brother."