Chapter 329: 136. Natsuki Kuri Wants to Be a Fox Girl_4
"Wasn’t that a curse you heard?"
"Why would you curse me?"
"What do you think?" Hoshimi Rinko assumed an elegant and sophisticated posture.
Fujiwara Reya pondered for a moment before asking in confusion, "Could it be because I often stare at senpai’s legs and made her angry?"
"..." Hoshimi Rinko’s legs crossed awkwardly.
Fujiwara Reya instinctively looked over.
Her toes wrapped in wooden sandals shyly curled up like a kitten’s pink paw pads, her slender and evenly proportioned calves stretched with graceful lines...
"Fujiwara Reya!"
"Yes!"
"What are you looking at!"
"I was thinking about why watermelons are so sweet."
"Clearly, you were staring at my legs the whole time!"
"If it comes to that, I’ll let you look at my legs, too." Fujiwara Reya extended his foot.
"Get lost!" Hoshimi Rinko kicked him away forcefully.
"Why so fierce..." Fujiwara Reya muttered as he casually shifted his gaze, falling silent.
After a long silence, Hoshimi Rinko couldn’t help but ask, "Fujiwara, what are you looking at now?"
"I’m admiring the greenness of the pine trees and the brightness of the flowers. See how the sunset makes the scenery even more beautiful."
Hoshimi Rinko also looked out.
The sea breeze was gentle, and the sunlight turned into an indistinct hue.
At this moment, Fujiwara Reya leaned towards her ear and said, "But when senpai looks at the scenery, I secretly watch senpai, too."
"You are so annoying!" Hoshimi Rinko said as she lowered her head.
Fujiwara Reya suddenly reached out, grabbed her cheeks, and pulled them outward.
"Hahaha..."
Before Hoshimi Rinko could retaliate, he laughed and ran away.
"You’re dead!" Hoshimi Rinko, her face flushed with anger, chased him around the house in her wooden clogs.
※※※※※
In the small wooden house by the sea, the setting sun shone through the window, casting a fiery red glow.
At this time of day and night, the transition between light and dark, whether it was with Natsuki Kuri or Kasahara Fumi, the sunset seemed like diluted blood dripping from above their heads.
Inside the room, a rather simple altar was set up.
Willow branches stood at each of the four corners of the floor, connected by red sacred ropes between the branches at each right angle, forming a square boundary. On the table in the middle of the boundary lay two plates, one holding folded paper, and the other holding a clay pot.
"What do you plan to do?" Kasahara Fumi asked.
"Just like you," Natsuki Kuri said with a mysterious smile.
"Me?" Kasahara Fumi felt something was amiss.
"That’s right."
Natsuki Kuri’s smile did not fade.
In her sight, Kasahara Fumi’s orange hair bathed in the sunset was just like a fiercely burning flame.
"Shikigami Binding Spirit?" Kasahara Fumi asked with a serious expression.
Natsuki Kuri nodded slightly.
Kasahara Fumi was at a loss for words.
Having known Natsuki Kuri for so long, this was the first time she felt the person was crazy.
Shikigami Binding Spirit was a spell that let a shikigami possess the host. Since the human body was fragile, while supernatural creatures generally possessed strong constitutions, some discovered the Shikigami Binding Spirit technique. Allowing the shikigami to possess them meant temporarily turning their bodies into that of a demon, making up for their physical shortcomings and enhancing their combat capability through mental connection with the shikigami.
In terms of effect, Shikigami Binding Spirit was an incredibly powerful spell.
But in actual combat, few dared to use this move because... letting a shikigami share one’s body risked the shikigami swallowing the host’s soul and taking over the body if it harbored ill intentions.
"Aren’t you afraid of getting your soul devoured?" Kasahara Fumi couldn’t understand.
"Who’s getting devoured by whom is uncertain," Natsuki Kuri replied as she laid several Spirit Talismans in front of her and formed hand seals.
『Five Directions Array, Shikigami Wings!』
Divine Power swirled around, emanating a faint blue glow, floating over her skin like feathers. The face illuminated under the brilliant radiance had a valiant expression.
Beautiful yet bewitching, and determined.
The wind brushed against her skin, Kasahara Fumi’s orange hair shook lightly, and she saw Mrs. Tanemura being drawn out from the clay pot, manifesting on Natsuki Kuri. Even if it was just a faint silhouette, one could see fox ears and tails.
『Reveal the True Form, Shikigami Binding Spirit!』
The fox shadow trembled slightly.
The airflow stirred, making Natsuki Kuri’s clothes billow as if they were breathing.
The fox shadow merged into her body, making her already charming face even more alluring. Faintly, furry fox ears seemed to sprout from her hair.
But suddenly, that face turned into Mrs. Tanemura’s face, then quickly back to Natsuki Kuri’s face... struggling, transforming, twisting, two faces alternating.
Kasahara Fumi maintained a cold expression, keeping her eyes fixed on Natsuki Kuri.
"Damn it, just die already—" Natsuki Kuri shouted with determined will. But in the next moment, her face turned back into Mrs. Tanemura’s sinister, grinning face, "Ignorant mortals—"
Kasahara Fumi sighed lightly, flames burning in her pupils.
The expression of the woman in front of her twisted with pain, which reproached her and made her heart ache. If it didn’t work, she would forcibly disrupt the ceremony in the middle of the boundary and restrain Natsuki Kuri’s body. The problem was, if she used enough demonic power to destroy the boundary, those inside couldn’t avoid being affected.
But—
It was better than watching her be devoured by a fox demon.
Kasahara Fumi’s anxiety reached its peak, and she unconsciously clenched her fists, punching down with burning flames.
"Wait a minute!" Natsuki Kuri opened her eyes, using her remaining strength to stretch her neck, "The plate... the hair!"
Kasahara Fumi paused, then noticed the folded paper on the altar’s plate contained a lock of hair. She took the hair, wrapping it around the red rope at the boundary edge.
"Koriya—"
Sparks flew from Natsuki Kuri’s eyes.
After shouting his name with strength, the hair on the red rope detonated with a "pop."
The loud sound vibrated through the air, instantly destroying the altar and sending the divine power accumulated within the boundary crashing outward like waves. In the billowing smoke and dust, Natsuki Kuri coughed forcefully, regaining control of her body. Fresh air rushed into her lungs, and she inhaled greedily. The proximity to death frightened her, yet it also granted her rebirth.
"Uh..."
The fox ears trembled slightly.
The sound naturally slipped from her lips.
Natsuki Kuri abruptly opened her eyes, her face showing the transparent joy of a child.
"Just a Three-tailed Fox, not worthy of my Koriya..." She flicked her fluffy tail, reaching to touch her ears, "Tamamo-no-Mae’s soul, I must have it!"
"Even a Three-tailed Fox nearly consumed you."
"There’s still time!" Natsuki Kuri said indifferently, "I had you massage me with special oils to temper my will through intense pain, all to become the new Tamamo-no-Mae."
"...Madness." Kasahara Fumi let out a long sigh.