Book 8: Chapter 9: Wives On the Go (7/9)

Youko was about to be crushed by the dark, negative emotions.

Kill the humans.

No.

Those humans killed Mother. Don’t leave a single one alive.

The adventurers who killed Mother are already dead.

The current [Me] can annihilate all of those humans.

Stop it, don’t do this, stop.

Two consciousnesses fought within Youko.

One of them, the Youko that desired revenge against the humans, wanted to release the mana that had been stored in her tails. 

She wanted to morph back to her nine-tailed fox form and obliterate the human village located at the foot of the Sacred Mountain. 

Youko’s other consciousness didn’t have the slightest desire to go on a rampage, but she was helpless and she didn’t have control over her own body.

However, the mana wasn’t released.

“What’s happening?”

When she tried to unleash her mana and transform back to her nine-tailed fox form, she felt an intense pain on the back of her right hand.

The contract that she formed with a human prevented her from going on a rampage.

“This thing!”

In order to destroy the contract, Youko was about to cut her hand off — 

Someone’s words resounded in her mind.

‘Then, Youko, you can never launch a malicious attack against other people.’ 

“Ah, Master…”

With Halt’s words, control returned to her consciousness that didn’t have the slightest desire to go on a rampage.

This bloody human! 

Let’s kill him first!

Master is impossible for you.

[I] am the perfected Nine-Tailed Fox.

There’s no way I will lose against a mere human.

It doesn’t matter even if you already achieved the perfect body, you will never win against him.

S-shut up!

Don’t you loathe humans!?

Indeed, humans are abominable.

Then, all the more!

Mother’s foes are already dead.

Then just kill all the other humans!

As if Master will allow that.

It doesn’t matter if you want to take over my body, Master will definitely stop [me].

See, just an echo of his order and you can no longer control my body.

N-no!

You must blame those humans more!!

If you do so, [I] will be able to annihilate all those humans.

It’s impossible for me to blame and resent them.

That’s because I love Master.

She loved the human Halt, so she couldn’t bare her fangs against the humans.

That was not all.

Youko had been watching over Halt all this time, and she witnessed the abnormal power and various abilities that he possessed, so she believed that most things would be alright if entrusted to him.

She held onto the hope that it will be solved somehow.

“I…will ask him to revive Mother.”

T-That’s impossible!

Mother’s dead, she was murdered!

190 years ago!

“That’s right. However, I had immediately sealed Mother. At the same moment that Mother took my memories away, she gave me all the remaining power that she had. I couldn’t control that power so I unwittingly used the sealing technique that could even bind the soul.”

Youko touched Kikyou’s seal.

“Mother’s soul is sleeping here.”

It was faint, but she could sense Kikyou’s soul that had been caught in the sealing.

“Mother, I’m sorry for leaving you locked up in this place for such a long time.”

It may have been unintentional, but she still apologized from the bottom of her heart for binding her mother for around 200 hundred years.

“Still, because of that, Mother can live again.”

E-even if her soul is still there, there’s no way to return a soul that have been separated for more than a hundred years to its body!

“What, so you’re still there? You can disappear now, you know? I don’t have the slightest wish to go berserk now.”

Silence! Mother returning — that’s just a pipe dream! 

There’s no way you can do that!

You do know how much mana you will need, and how complicated that mana manipulation is to revive somebody else from the dead, right!?

“Of course. On the contrary, do you know what is required to revive Mother?…Well, yeah, that’s right. You’re not me, after all.”

Yeah, that’s right!

Besides, you casted that sealing spell without grasping your own power.

Because of that, it has become a seal that the current you can’t undo!

“Hmpf. This is just a shoddy seal that I made. Master will definitely break it easily.”

Wha!?

B-but, even if the seal is broken, it’s not guaranteed that he will revive Mother.

A colossal amount of mana is needed.

Even your mana, in your complete form, is not sufficient for this! 

Besides — Mother is a calamity, a nine-tailed fox…

“Haa. You don’t know anything. Master’s mana is that of a genuine behemoth. On top of that, he’s a matchless Casanova. He’s not the type to reject any woman. That’s how Master is, so I’m sure that he will not refuse especially when he sees how beautiful Mother is.”

Youko placed her hand on her own head.

“That’s it, so I have a lot of things I need to do from here on. My “evil self” that’s wishing for the destruction of humans, you should sleep first.”

Wha!? Sto-

Youko brainwashed herself, and sealed her malicious alter ego that threatened to go on a rampage.

“Alright, time to go home.”

Youko easily lifted the ice pillar that contained the sealed Kikyou and she went outside the cave,

There were several books that Kikyou left inside this cavern, so Youko came here to check them if they contained any hint about the Bunshin Magic.

However, if it was possible to revive her, then it would still be the best course to ask the person who left the books herself.

Youko left the cave and morphed back into her nine-tailed fox. 

Afterward, she reverently wrapped the seal of Kikyou with her tail, and she soared back to the sky, leaving the Sacred Mountain behind.