The Legend of the Fox Yokai of Jirisan

How pitiful.
I wonder if there is anyone or any fox more pitiful than me, to the point of questioning it.
Even while fleeing from the yokai hunters, I was able to discover another sign.

Yokai Inhabited Area!
This area is inhabited by various yokai, so please be extremely cautious.
If yokai are spotted, please report to 1588-XXXX without the area code.

Jirisan National Park Yokai Extermination Office –

It seems this is not the world I knew.
As far as I’m aware, there was no such institution as a Yokai Extermination Office in South Korea.
What I should be afraid of was not the trees with faces in this inner realm.
It was the humans.
That fact tormented me.
I’m not a fox yokai.
I was human…

It had been 3 days since I was possessed by the fox yokai.
As usual, while wandering the forest in search of food, I happened to encounter a squirrel.
The first thought that crossed my mind upon seeing the squirrel was, ‘Can I eat that?’
Having starved for a full 3 days, I was confident I could eat even raw, uncooked meat.
However, the place where I stood on four legs was not a simple forest.
According to the humans I encountered last time, this is the inner realm of Jirisan, teeming with all kinds of yokai.
In other words, there was a high possibility that the squirrel blinking its eyes right in front of me was no ordinary squirrel.
After thinking it over, I bared my fangs and began barking.
“Grr-rr-rr… Woof, woof, woof!”
No matter that I had become a fox yokai, barking like a dog at another being was an act of abandoning my human dignity.
But the instincts of a fox yokai compelled me to bark.
A moment later,
The squirrel in front of me tilted its head, then surprisingly began speaking human language.

“Oh? You’re a yokai I haven’t seen before. Who are you? What’s your name? How old are you? You look really pretty! Can I touch your fur? Can I ride on your back?”
“…Kki-ing?”
As expected, this squirrel was no ordinary squirrel, but a yokai as well.
The squirrel yokai, who introduced itself as ‘Depo’, was inexplicably very friendly towards me.
It kindly explained this inner realm to me, who knew nothing.
Apparently, there was a yokai society in this inner realm, and the intelligent yokai belonging to that society did not antagonize each other but lived in peace.
Of course, I didn’t believe what the squirrel yokai was saying.
‘Yokai’ and ‘peace’.
Those two words seemed completely at odds with each other, even to someone as ignorant about yokai as myself.
Nonetheless, it was a great opportunity to gather information, so I asked the squirrel yokai about yokai and yolyeok (demonic energy) as well.

“Your name is Miho, right?”
“Yes.”
“Miho, do you know anything? Are you stupid? Were you just born recently?”
“It’s been exactly 3 days since I was born.”
“Ah, not stupid, just a baby! The Lord of the Mountain said babies need to be cared for!”
“Lord of the Mountain…?”
“Yeah. Anyway, yokai and yolyeok are…”

Yokai are supernatural beings that are born when yolyeok accumulates.
Yokai could largely be divided into five categories.
The first category is animal-type yokai.
Cases where animals are influenced by yolyeok and turn into yokai.
“I’m a prime example of an animal-type yokai.”
“Then I must be an animal-type yokai too.”
“No, I don’t think Miho is one?”
“…Why?”
“You have three tails. Where in the world is there a fox with three tails, you fool? Ah, Miho has just been born, so you probably don’t know!”

No.
Isn’t it possible for an animal to grow three tails upon turning into a yokai?
Do animals not undergo major physical changes when turning into yokai?
I would have to encounter other yokai besides this squirrel to know for sure.
But this little rodent.
He keeps calling me a fool, why is he so impudent?
I wanted to knock him one, but I held back since he was kindly explaining things to me, someone he’d never met before.

The second category is human-type yokai.
Cases where humans are influenced by yolyeok and turn into yokai.
The gongruri gongmu (the old man in a sack) or the utongguyngshi (a wooden puppet) from the fairy tales I read as a child seem to be prime examples.

“By the way, you can meet the gongruri gongmu in this inner realm of Jirisan!”
“…Really?”
“Yes. The gongmu grandpa is kind! He sometimes even brings acorns, he’s a nice grandpa!”

Oh.
That seems quite different from the information I knew.
As far as I knew, the gongruri gongmu kidnaps and eats naughty children.
In other words,
“Wasn’t he a crazy child abductor…?”
“Child abductor? What’s that?”
“…Never mind, just continue explaining.”

The third category is resentful spirit-type yokai.
Cases where unjustly killed souls are influenced by yolyeok and turn into yokai.
So, the vengeful ghosts that commonly appear in popular media would be resentful spirit-type yokai.
These types are simple to exorcise.
You just need to resolve their resentment.

The fourth category is evil spirit-type yokai.
Cases where malicious spirits are influenced by yolyeok and turn into yokai.
“Miho, you have to be careful of evil spirit-type yokai…!”
“Why?”
“You’ll know if you meet one directly. No, it’s better if you don’t meet one. Anyway, if you meet an evil spirit-type yokai, just run away, got it?”
“…Got it.”

Well.
Since they’re cases where malicious spirits turned into yokai, I didn’t expect them to be friendly towards me.
I may need to do some more research, but I think I can at least protect myself.

Finally, the fifth category.
“Dokkaebi (Goblins).”
“…”
“…”
“…Why did you stop explaining?”
“I don’t really know about dokkaebi either! In fact, dokkaebi have been extinct for over 500 years!”
“Why did they go extinct?”
“I don’t know that either. There are rumors that a ridiculously strong martial artist from the East exterminated all the dokkaebi, and rumors that a winged Taoist sealed away all the dokkaebi… But nothing is certain.”

From the East, winged Taoist.
…Could it be the protagonists from the novels I know?
I’m not sure, but in any case.
“So we don’t need to worry about dokkaebi?”
“Yeah, probably!”

It’s quite amazing that dokkaebi, which could be considered the epitome of Korean yokai, have gone extinct.
Essentially, all yokai require an energy source called ‘yolyeok’, and they invariably perish once their yolyeok runs out, I was told.
Whether they like it or not, they have to obtain yolyeok to survive.
The method of obtaining yolyeok differs for each individual.
In the case of this tiny squirrel yokai, it absorbs lightning to obtain yolyeok.
Not some lightning squirrel meme.
Could this be a case where an internet meme was cursed and turned into a yokai?

“But lightning can’t be artificially generated, right?”
“That’s right, so I store a large amount of yolyeok in my body whenever lightning strikes, and use it over time. By the way, you look really cute! I’ve never seen an intelligent fox yokai before! Do you want to come with me to meet the Lord of the Mountain?”
“…Lord of the Mountain? Is that a tiger?”
“Yes. The Lord is kind. The Lord is magnificent. The Lord is cool. The Lord is amazing. The Lord…”
“Okay, okay, I get it, so please be quiet. It’s dizzying. So, how can I obtain yolyeok in my case?”
“Eck, Miho! Are you stupid? An idiot? Dumb? Even if you were just born, how can a yokai not know how to absorb yolyeok? Idiot, fool, moron!”

Truly an irritating squirrel.
In any case, to summarize what this squirrel said, the way to absorb yolyeok is something I have to figure out for myself.
The problem is, no matter how much I search the information in my mind, I can’t find a way to absorb yolyeok.

“Let’s go ask the Lord!”
…Right.
There’s a possibility it’s a trap, but if I just stay like this, my yolyeok will eventually run out and I’ll die.
No matter that I reincarnated as a female fox yokai, I didn’t want to die.

The place the squirrel yokai led me to was the very heart of this forest.
The dwelling place of the leader of the yokai society, the Lord of the Mountain.
“Let me introduce you, Miho! This is the Lord of the Mountain!”

The moment I faced this ‘Lord of the Mountain’, I began trembling.
That was only natural.
From this tiger named the Lord of the Mountain, I could sense an aura so strong that I couldn’t possibly defy it.
Without realizing it, I knelt on one knee before the Lord and deeply bowed my head.

The Lord silently gazed at me, his every movement exuding such beauty that it felt divine.
Come to think of it, I couldn’t sense any yolyeok from the Lord.
A force with a clean aura, different from yolyeok.
“…Spiritual energy?”

Upon my murmur, the Lord looked at me with curious eyes and finally spoke.

[Even you mongrels can sense it, it seems.]

Soon, the Lord began to move, and with each step he took, it felt as if the earth itself was shaking.
Tremble tremble tremble.
My body began to shake. Not out of fear of him, but the instinctive trembling of a being faced with the extraordinary.

As he circled around me, he spoke.

[Fifty-six cycles. That is how long it took for a fox yokai with multiple tails to reappear in this world. Why have you come out into the world, mongrel?]
[Foxes with multiple tails were exceptionally cunning since ancient times, causing chaos in the world.]
[Daji, the favored consort of King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty, led the king to depravity and ruined the nation. Mongrel, what of you?]

I could not answer him.
I could not understand what he was talking about, nor did I dare to open my mouth.

[Now that this vile fox has revealed itself again, you were born into this world.]
[Coincidence or inevitability? Chaos or order? It cannot be discerned by the wisdom of fools…]

Thump.
The Lord stopped in his tracks.
The Lord glared at me once more, then returned to his spot and spoke in a benevolent voice.

[Leave.]

With those words, like a machine receiving commands, I bowed my head to him once more and hurriedly left the place.
Then,
“Hah, hah, hah, huff…”
I exhaled the breath I had been holding.
An overwhelming power that made me lose even the will to resist.
I had just realized why the intelligent yokai did not fight each other.
It was because of this yokai at the center of the yokai society, the Lord of the Mountain.
No.
It was because of this spiritual being.