Please to Kitsune-sama!

Chapter 181 : Kitsune-sama Who Knew Nothing

“Hm. So that’s how it was.”

Only then did Tsukiko look satisfied. It was true she had built a device capable of detecting otherworldly mana and provided it to the Awakener Association. But it had been tuned specifically to resolve the Toshima incident; it was not meant to indiscriminately catch every kind of otherworld. In other words, it pointed to a single fact.

“This isn’t the same as Toshima. It isn’t that Toshima’s otherworld revived. It is most likely some other urban-legend-type ‘something’ created a different otherworld. And, very likely… it dislikes the intervention of ‘Kogami Inari.’”

“Eh? That sounds kinda cool.”

“Shut it. Anyway… how to put it… I suspect the root is the same. There’s some ‘something’ that keeps showing up across this whole chain of events. That’s how it feels.”

Tsukiko had only known it through the written report, but in the previous Toshima case Inari had defeated a monster calling itself a tatari-gami and dispelled Toshima’s otherworld. If someone understood that—and wanted to keep Inari away—then the sudden appearance of a “moving otherworld” at this timing could be explained.

“Still, that part we can handle. I can retune the machine, and if there’s residual mana at the Toshima problem site, we’ll be able to find the new otherworld.”

“Ohh, I see. By the way, where is that machine?”

“Huh? Where? There’s only one place you’d keep something like that.”

Just then, a ruckus rose from beyond the room. Sounds and shouts as if someone were jamming the works—and even the wail of alarms.

“W-What now!?”

“Attackers? Here—at Japan HQ?”

“Good grief. I’ll go look.”

Kouya stood, opened the conference room door, and an unsheathed blade of white light swept past over his head. At the same time, something small slipped through alongside it.

“Eh!?”

“You’re kidding!?”

“What!?”

“Wha—!”

Their surprise was justified. A heartbeat behind that white-glimmering sword, the one who burst in was “Kogami Inari”—who was already in the room. Startled, they snapped their gazes to the Inari who had been there all along; her outline wavered with an evil grin.

“Seeeeei!”

“Hyah-hah!”

As the false Inari dissolved into something like a white shadow, the real Inari—gripping Kogetsu—brought the blade down, and the fake vanished from the spot in the same instant. That alone sufficed to prove the one here moments ago had not been Inari.

“This way!”

“There—found the fake!”

“Pin it down!”

“Wha—!”

When the rushing security staff lunged, Inari leapt clear and slipped behind Aoyama.

“Do something! These knaves heed me not even when I tell them I am the real one!”

“Er—ah. Hey, security folks. I’m pretty sure this one is genuine. Didn’t we have an identity check procedure?”

As Aoyama spoke, he checked the awakener card Inari proffered with a brisk “Here.” The guards scrutinized her with doubtful faces.

“Of course we do. Entry logs already showed she was inside, and the cameras confirmed the real person had entered, so… which means, where is the supposed genuine one who should be here?”

“That one is the fake. It seems some method spoofed our authentication.”

“What—then—”

“Return to your posts. And—”

“Emergency, emergency. Anomaly in Lab, 23rd floor. Security to respond immediately.”

At the same time, a voice crackled from the guard’s radio—apparently from the team already en route.

“Security Unit Seven, now on site at 23rd-floor lab. Interior’s been blown out by magic or something. We’re starting a detailed damage check; dispatch medical teams as well.”

“Security Command. Roger.”

Hearing this, both Aoyama and Tsukiko grimaced. The 23rd-floor lab—precisely where Tsukiko’s device was kept.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. They found the place that fast!?”

“No… I think that stunt just now was to check whether we had a spare. Which means—”

“They’d been infiltrated all along…!? No, more importantly, right now—”

Aoyama turned toward Inari, who still held Kogetsu.

“What on earth is going on!?”

The Inari they had been speaking to had been an impostor. True, she had seemed oddly quiet—but there had to be a reason the real one had “arrived late.” Could it be that—

“Mm. The bus I rode upon was attacked by a fearsome fleet-footed crone. I reckon it was the sort folk call a Turbo Granny.”

She had defeated it, but the bus had been disabled, delaying her. She had tried calling ahead… but because “she” was supposedly already there, they had flagged it as a prank. Proper checks should have verified the call was from the real Inari, but perhaps something had meddled there as well. In any case, convinced “something is afoot,” Inari had hurried over, ignored the fussy security for the moment, and used Nenekirimaru to track down the source—thus her dramatic entrance.

“To think such a bake-danuki (shapeshifting raccoon) sort should come to beguile folk in this modern age… even I did not foresee it.”

“…We’ll need to review our security posture… Nenekirimaru. ‘Tracking the cause,’ you said…”

Aoyama exchanged a nod with Tsukiko, then called, “Miss Kogami.”

“Mm? What is it?”

“If you have something like that, tell us.”

“Indeed. With this, we should manage.”

As the others nodded in agreement… only the security staff—who had heard nothing—and Inari wore the same puzzled look, understanding none of it.