May 12th, 7 p.m

"That's it, the boss said whatever you want, as long as you don't kill too many people," said Cunning Shen on the other end of the phone, "but are you confident that you can solve this matter today or tomorrow?" ”

"You and I both know very well that if you don't have sufficient preparation and confidence to deal with the "grotesque", Chong said indifferently, "I roughly know what the other party is, the four people it killed are not far from the east side of the street, and I already know where its nest is from the time it took to skin and escape"

"Wouldn't it be too dangerous to go alone?"

"Who do you think took down the head of the cat that is now in Ise Jingu?"

"You didn't even say it, did you get lucky because of the sneak attack?"

"But that was three years ago, and I'm already myself three years later," Chong Leng said, "Besides, there is no such thing as a sneak attack in front of youkai, only kill or die"

"Okay, but I'll be ready to help, you represent my future"

"In the same way, you also symbolize my ears" hung up the phone

(The book says that the blood used to draw out the fox is the blood of chickens, dogs, and people, and the sword used to cut off the fox's tail is an unopened sword, isn't it possible that the corpse with eight tails wants to reproduce the original scene) But there will be no moon in these days, and how can bamboo be compared to Baosteel

"It's not at this time" There was already an ancestor of a fox living in the house, but Tamamo went to the castle tower to do a check, and at the same time, as a heroic spirit and a big monster, she had to go for an inspection every once in a while, after all, there was no evil under the feet of the Son of Heaven, and the rules that should be used still had to be there, and she had done her best, otherwise she would have been limited in her ability to move

"Point A, Point B, Point C, Point D, Point E" took out the map and looked at it, and there were many points E on the drawing, which symbolized the nest of the monster

"That's right" threw the map directly into the furnace and explored the past one by one, the streets of Tokyo had already been written down by himself, and besides, it was not the time to get lost, he was waiting for a night

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――― the dividing line of the nest

As soon as I stepped in, I stepped on a puddle of mud, accompanied by a biting cold, which was chilling

"But for the corpse, this place should not be suitable for habitation" This was originally a botanical garden, but then it was closed due to an accident, according to the Oriental people, the corpse belongs to the yin soil and the plant belongs to the yin wood, although there is no zài connection between the soil and the wood, but it can be used to breed wood, could it be that he used to be a gardener? But speaking of wood, it should be the most suitable for the survival of foxes, could it be that it is really a dead fox corpse?

After cutting a piece of glass, he reached out and pulled the doorknob of the pavilion open from the inside, and then Chong glanced at it for a moment and walked straight to the bonsai on his right

"I didn't expect to dig such a big hole" After uprooting the trunk of a dead tree, a pit underneath was revealed, which could only accommodate one person, but this person must be a sumo wrestler weighing more than 100 catties

(Because of the leather jacket it was wearing?) Chong thought as he tried to get into the hole, but where did those eight tails come from? Doesn't the book say that it is used to make leather clothes?

"--" Along the tunnel all the way to a large storage room, Chong felt even more strange, in this case, why did he deliberately dig a hole in the botanical garden, shift his position, or always be ready to escape?

"Woo" There was a fox cry in the dark, is it coming!

“？” He set the wood on fire and threw it forward, then held a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, but in the light of the fire was a tiny fox cub with a tail dangling behind it, seemingly incapable of attacking

After thinking for a moment, he turned on the light of his phone and swept it nearby, then pressed the light switch

Chong soon found his target through the light, and his pure white fur clothes stood out in the light

"Whew!" When the white fox saw himself walking towards it, he hurriedly pounced and screamed several times, and his hands and feet, which did not even have claws, came out and grabbed his trouser legs to prevent him from moving forward

"Go" lifted its foot slightly, and it flew several meters

"It's a living corpse," he said, plucking the straw hat from his head, revealing the pitch-black bones inside

“？” When I tried to peel off the leather jacket he was wearing, it felt wrong, as if I was picking human skin, and the leather jacket stuck to its bones and couldn't be torn off

(What about the tail?) When I looked again, I saw that none of the eight tails behind the other party were left

"Forget it, just burn it" Chong thought about it and threw the lighter over, anyway, the fur was easy to catch fire

"Whew~" The flames soon burned, and the pitch-black bones in the fire quickly shook with the firelight

"Woo! Woooooo The white fox immediately roared like a ghost

(A fox with a tail will be brought back and let Tamamo take a look at it tomorrow) Thinking of this, Chong decided to take it away first

"The pitch-black coffin binds life, and the light in the confinement can't even dispel the shadow" The black shadow rose from the ground and wrapped the white fox tightly in a sphere, and then Chong left the storage room with the ball

The next day

"It's so weird, it's so weird," Tamamo looked at his fellow grinning in the cage and wondered, "Master Sama, this fox is so weird"

"What's strange?" Chong asked

"Although he only has one tail, he is more than eight hundred years old, and it stands to reason that he should have nine tails," Tamamo said bitterly, "but why only one?" ”

"Normal" Chong drank a tea, "The book says that it lost eight tails on its own"

"Huh?! What book is written with such nonsense? "Our tail can never fall off on its own, but it's better to say that the fox's tail is like life, and even if it dies, it will just turn into soot and wait to grow again."

"You don't lose your tail when you become human?" The book says that it is precisely because the fox has to transform into a human form that it will drop eight tails in succession

"Don't be kidding, master Sama," Tamamo said dissatisfied, "When we turn into humans, we need to wait for the Heavenly Tribulation, and as soon as the Heavenly Tribulation passes, the tail will turn into Neidan and automatically merge into the body, and it will only reappear in the future when the true body is revealed."

"Take this book, you can take a look," Chong handed her the old pages

"Nonsense! It's all nonsense! After reading it once, Tamamo threw the book on the ground, "What are you kidding?!" Dog blood?! How can a dog eat a fox and an idiot will lick their blood! And also cut off the ninth tail of the fox in the woods?! When the fox transforms, even if it can't find the thousand-year-old forest, there must be a clear spring and cold ice as an introduction, and although there is a treasure knife in the world that can cut off the tail of the nine-tailed fox, but a businessman can't get a scabbard even if he sells it out, the owner Sama, these are just stories that amuse children, by the way, there is also the ending, the nine-tailed fox is cursed, once someone dares to kill, dare to hurt, dare to abuse then this person must not die well, let alone take the skin to make clothes, such a bold thing, Even if the merchant can survive the reincarnation, his heirs will definitely kill each other and punish the nine clans."

"Is that book fake, too, it's just a story, and there will naturally be fictional plots in the story, but the general plot shouldn't be fake."

"Master Sama, it seems that something is wrong" Tamamo suddenly frowned, "What time is it at night?" ”

"Eight o'clock in the morning" looked at the number on the phone suddenly changed from 8 to 1 Chong stared out the window, "Is there anyone else in the house?"

"No, Kurumi Tokizaki hasn't come back yet, and everyone else is going to live at someone else's house" Tamamo glanced at the fox who was in the cage, "He's laughing, Master Sama"

"Click!" The sound of glass being smashed came from the first floor

"Look at this fox!" Chong jumped up from his chair and then jumped down the stairs to gaze face-to-face with the "intruder".

(Tail again?) The eight tails behind the other party were slowly swaying, and the leather coat on his body seemed to be different from what he saw yesterday

"Hey, you're not a fox, right" Yuzao tried to keep himself from thinking about his master, "Or you're no longer a fox, obviously you've passed the danger of a thousand years, but you haven't experienced the catastrophe, and even I can't master the art of stealing the sky and changing the sun, don't tell me that you will be more powerful than my fox ancestor"

"Let me go," the little fox in the cage said intermittently, "or not"

"You don't even have the ability to speak, you're really pathetic" Tamamo climbed his finger up to the cage door in front of him, "You are my kindred, I won't die or not, but it depends on the master whether he will be okay"

"If something happens, I will pick your skin and break your yin and yang bones, I am a fox, so I know better than anyone how to kill a fox!"

――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――― dividing line of living corpses

"Give me back my tail, give me back my tail!" The corpse raised the bamboo knife in his hand and slashed it down

"This is my house, you can't afford to destroy it," Chong put the jade mirror in front of him, "Go out and fight again!" ”

The next moment, the two of them had landed in the back alley of nowhere, and when it was in a trance, Chong raised his long knife and slashed at its body

“？” A light flashed on the pure white fur, and then Chong's knife fell directly into it and couldn't pull it out

"Treasure?!" Hurriedly discarded the knife and retreated

"Tail, one of my tails," the corpse swayed, pulling out his knife and throwing it aside, "give me back!" ”

"Woo woo woo !!" The screams upstairs are getting louder and louder, and she shouldn't be okay in front of Tamamo, alas? Wait, this is the backyard of my house?

"It's noisy!" Well, she's okay but there's something wrong with the glass in my room

"Sama, host, are you alright?! I'm here to help! Tamamo landed steadily in front of Chong

"Thing" glanced at the fox that was landing in front of the corpse, and had already emerged from the cage

"Woooooo The fox kept barking, and the tail behind it kept wagging constantly, and the eight tails behind the corpse also wagged as if in response

"Stand back" Chong pulled Yuzao away and put his hands together

"Fireworks are kindled in the blood of the sinner, sparks leap in the bones of the sinners, we are silent bearers, the sword of fire, we are silent sleepers, and we are the fire of mysteries"

"Whew!" The next moment, the fireball hit the bull's-eye, and the line of fire spread up along the joints in an instant, and the pitch-black head shook indiscriminately in the firelight

"Just burn it directly" Chong glanced at the strange leather coat worn by the other party, "Fox fur is not fireproof"

"The tail is still one tail away," the bones struggled to take a step, "where is the tail missing"

"Woo woo woo !!" Some pale tails kept wagging in front of his eyes, and the little fox screamed with all its might, even though the sparks had fallen on it

“！” Tamamo suddenly realized something, but she gritted her teeth and didn't step forward after glancing at Chong

"Some things can't be saved" Chong watched the fire get bigger and bigger, "Killing pays for life, the murderer is only because they are not killed because they are on the run, and once they are caught, they will naturally be punished, and it is not a person, there is no difference between death and not death"

"Woohhh

"Woo!" The fox roared and jumped into the bone's arms, and the flames climbed up its body and burned wildly

"The tail has been found," the corpse struggled to move the hand bones, and the fleshless hand gently pulled the fox into its chest, "beautiful tail ......"

"Woo" let out a soft cry, and the eight tails behind the bones disappeared one after another, while the tail behind the fox became more and more transparent

"Don't Disappear My Tail"

"Stand back! The wall is coming down! Chong hurriedly pulled Tamamo backwards, and after a jolt, the wall collapsed and crushed the bones

"Master Sama, is he dead?" Tamamo asked hesitantly

"Kick it out and see," he kicked the gravel away, and then both of them looked at the scene in front of them and fell silent

The bamboo knife and leather clothes were burned in the flames, and the empty skeleton of the whole body bent down, and the ten fingers were put together to hold the fox that had not yet died in the palm of his hand, and the skeleton around his waist had been smashed by the gravel, but the fox under his protection had nothing to do, and his appearance was as respectful as a guard guarding the princess

First with a tail, then a second, then a third, a fourth, and finally a ninth, the little fox grew bigger and bigger

The white fox that jumped to the ground was already higher than the bones in a blink of an eye, and then the nine tails spread out in all directions, and the nine-tailed white fox was born in an instant

"Thank you for freeing him" The nine-tailed fox looked at them with sad eyes, "Tamamo-mae-samae, I'm sorry for disturbing your life"

"You should tell him that it tastes good to let him live for hundreds of years?" Tamamo pointed to the bones in front of him, "You made him a resentful spirit, and it will be difficult for him to re-enter reincarnation"

"I understand that now that I have nine tails, my thousand-year-old practice has been scattered like a cloud of smoke, and I will take his bones back to the ancient forest for burial."

"Tell me your story, I'd love to know why it's happening," Tamamo said

"It's just a story of a fox falling in love with a man" The nine-tailed fox shook the nine tails behind his back "The noble princess fell in love with a lowly merchant, but her parents needed the fur of the nine-tailed white fox to make clothes, I love him, so I am willing to sacrifice a thousand years of cultivation for him, but he is more decisive than me, I am just a broken tail, but he deceived the king He did not use the tail I gave him to make clothes, but used the fur of the wild fox instead"

"So what?"

"What else can I do with skin, since he replaced the nine-tailed fox with a wild fox, then of course he has to donate a layer of human skin, he was ordered by the king to strip off a body of skin" The white fox's eyes were blurred, so I personally used eight tails to make him a white leather coat out, after wearing it, he should have been deboned and skinned, but there is still a tail missing, if I don't have the last tail, I can't turn into a human form to weave clothes for him, but I didn't expect this last tail to be able to break off him before he lived, became a living dead"

"No wonder you didn't survive the Heavenly Tribulation for a thousand years, and when you were one day away, you turned your cultivation into white clothes, so you can't be an adult for the rest of your life," Tamamo didn't know what to say, "but why did he keep asking for the last tail?" Does he want to be alive too? ”

"It's not that he doesn't know where he heard of an evil art before he died, saying that he can make a white fox tail with a hundred human skins, these hundreds of years he originally only killed some people who committed the most heinous crimes to make skins, but over the years, with more and more restrictions, it is extremely difficult for him to reappear in the world to wander, so this time he will start to kill indiscriminately" The eyes of the nine-tailed fox were full of tears, "He wanted my last tail because the curse on the fur made him unable to see me in his eyes for the rest of his life, he thought I was dead, but he could smell me, He wants to gather nine tails to weave another fur for me, but now that he is dead, and the human skins of those innocent have been reduced to my nine tails, rest assured, I will gradually disperse them along the way, at least so that the dead can be buried in peace."

"Master Sama," Tamamo pulled at his sleeve, "Don't you say something?" ”

"What can I say, he violated the rules of the world, and death is the inevitable result" Chong still did not move at all, "The death of those who cross the world is our rule, and evil murder is intolerable"

"Sama, the host!!"

"It's okay, Lord Tamamo, he was right, I have wanted him to be free as soon as possible many times, but unfortunately the mana is not enough, so I can only watch him become an evil demon step by step" Speaking of this, the nine-tailed fox turned the bones into a ball of light and put it in his mouth, "Lord Tamamo, please allow me to retire first, and if I don't enter the earth, the bones will turn into dust and disappear"

"Well, let's go," Tamamo shook his hand lightly, and then watched the white fox tread the wind away

"Let's go, go back to the house and report this incident" Chong turned his head and left

"Hmm," Tamamo nodded, and then followed behind Chong

"One more thing" Chong didn't stop and didn't look back, "How many tails do you have"

"Well, it was supposed to have nine roots, but after the incarnation as a Heroic Spirit, there are only about three left, and there is usually only one," Tamamo replied very seriously

"Very good," Chong nodded, then stopped talking

"Isn't Sama, the master, worried that I'll knit a fur garment for you like she does?"

"Right"

"Don't worry, no, but if the owner Sama dies, I'll cut off my own tail and kill myself"

"I'll try to stay alive"

"Yes~"

Note 1: The short story is really a bit difficult to write, I originally wanted to write three chapters and one story, but I rushed to write it (vomiting soul)