Chapter 15: Nezu the mouse

"Welcome to the hidden realm; you are the very first human to enter here." Ryuu proudly spoke. He had an earthy tone to his voice and was much more composed and refined than his tone in the human world.

"We are the Zumi pavilion. Let's hurry now, or else that old man might scrape off every bit of Nezu's powers."

Asahi nodded and followed Ryuu's lead. As they brisked through the pavilion, they arrived at the large Minka with its grandiose size. The house was almost as big as five houses combined, and there was plenty of land spared where flowers bloomed.

Asahi could not contain his surprise as they entered the house. It was fully furnished with wood and had a traditional decoration. The servants wore work kimono and bowed at him as they slipped the house slippers towards them.

"Good afternoon, Lord Dragon." The servants greeted.

"Good afternoon," Ryuu said, returning their greetings. The house was quiet. The sabbuchi were high and made of gradient wood. The hallways were wide, and fusuma covered most of the walls. At the very end of the hallway, Ryuu opened the Fusuma, and a very rotten smell took over the air.

Asahi had an unamused face. He pinched his nose and entered the room. It was fairly dirty, and once the sliding doors were closed, the room smelled even more horrible.

"Ryuu san, is there a rotten body in this room?" He whispered, and Ryuu replied, "It's Nezu."

Asahi nodded while internally going over the moon. After years of experimenting on the bodies of various small yokai and fresh human bodies, he finally got to test it on a yokai with high-level recovery strength.

"Nezu, I have brought the boy," Ryuu announced, and a young man with white hair peeked from the futon.

"Bastard" He grumbled under his breath before speaking aloud, "Now, if you may, Ito san, give me the antidote so I can recover."

Asahi quietly continued to stare at Nezu, the mouse yokai. If he wasn't wrong, Nezu was probably having hallucinations and perhaps even respiratory paralysis, but since he had the powers to heal, he started to slowly cut parts of his body to restore himself, resulting in the foul smell.

' interesting' he thought.

"Perhaps you are facing hallucinations or respiratory-related problems?" Asahi asked, faking the facade of oblivion, while Nezu slightly grunted at his words, which were exactly what Asahi had hoped for.

"Well then, why don't you try this?" Asahi paid no heed to Mouse Yokai's grunts and took out a small satchel from his breast pocket in the haori. Since he had no glove, he first lowered down, ripped his pants, and took out a piece of cloth.

Using that cloth, he took out a single bean. It was the calabar bean, and I handed it to Ryuu.

"This should make you feel better since I haven't exactly developed this poison's antidote yet," Asahi explained. Nezu's face turned paler, and before he could even reach for the bean, his breath started to get shaky.

His eyes were watery, and for a second, his entire body stopped working. Asahi and Ryuu rushed towards him. Their knees were on the tatami, and just as they were about to give him CPR by using their hands on his chest, Nezu's body started working again.

'Slash!' He deeply cut his calf that very instant, and although his breath hadn't turned to the normal rate, he could at least breathe. He was blue, and his body was shaky, yet Ryuu placed the bean on his lips, and without even biting, Nezu swallowed it.

"That should make you better because if it doesn't work, then Ito will be the one paying the price."

"Why should I?" Asahi retorted to Ryuu's words.

"Because you were the one poisoning him." Ryuu leapt from his position and cornered Asahi against the wall. Ryuu's long nail pressed on Asahi's delicate neck skin.

"It was the other way around. I just returned the favor." Asahi rolled his eyes and pushed away Ryuu's hand.

"But what will you do if Nezu doesn't recover?"

"Just feed him the peaches of immortality," Asahi smirked, and suddenly Asahi was sent back to the human world.

Perhaps his joke was too much for a sensitive mouse. Not that the moon goddess would deny his request for one of the peaches, though, Asahi thought to himself.

Unfortunately, Asahi had landed at the North Star Mansion. This time the room was different than before; it was darker, and only five members were present. Asahi faced the five members, and his slithering gaze was met with the distinguished gaze of the members of the association. They had disapproval blatantly on their faces.

"Ahem… Ito Asahi" The hoarse voice of Mr. Kobayashi rang inside his head, and he finally gazed towards him, who was seated at the top of the tables. They were in the meeting room, and finally, the sixth member joined.

"The meeting has been dismissed, and Ito, come with me." Mr. Kobayashi abruptly announced, and despite their dejected faces, the members did not make an ounce of complaint and greeted him with their farewell. They gave Asahi a nasty glare as they left.

At last, the house was empty, and Asahi followed Kobayashi's silhouette, which led him to a soundproof office room, which he could guess was the old man's work room.

"Welcome, The New Guardian of the Dragon. Take a seat."

"I shall be filling you with all the information you need. It's going to be a long talk," Kobayashi said as he poured the black tea for himself and Asahi. Asahi had a ruffled appearance where he was barely pleased with anything, yet Kobayashi continued his words.

In ancient times, when the kingdom was at war, the family of Kobayashi was the first to contact the yokai. The leader of the family made a pact with the yokai without using his name, and thus, their entire bloodline was to never reveal their names.

Around the same time, many different families also made pacts with the yokai, and each time, the yokai had the upper hand. But when the king learned about it, he quickly formed a small team called Omyouji, and since then, the tradition of having a yokai has followed.

"Our Guardians and ourselves share similar powers, and talismans are our means. I'm sure you are much more well aware of it than I am, considering you were a monk. Either way, use the key chain I gave you to call your guardian."

The old man concluded, while Asahi felt the information was incomplete.

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