Chapter 53: Standard Consulting Fee
Of course everything would choose the same hour to collapse into nonsense. Su Yao stared at the analysis terminal. The broken mask fragment glowed under the scanners. The rejection call to Kayo nagged at her.
Why would the Hundred Demons reject Tamamo no Mae? She’s one of Japan’s most infamous calamities. Unless, they found someone they consider more powerful or easier to control.
She mentally reviewed the threat classifications she'd seen in government files. Japanese entities were typically rated ‘Dragon’ level. Entities from India, however, were often classified as “Calamity” due to their ancient, world-ending potential.
Did they hire someone from India?
That thought sent a chill down her spine. If the Yamato had recruited a Calamity-level entity, their plans had just escalated from corporate espionage to existential threat.
Whoever they hired, they better be strong and not as annoying as Shuten Dōji, Su Yao thought, recalling the drunken oni lord’s tedious bravado. A Calamity from India could be far worse, something like a reawakened Asura or a Vedic deity gone rogue. She needed to find out who it was, and fast.
Her mind raced through the possibilities. It couldn't be Vritra, right? No one was having trouble with droughts and famine lately, so that serpent was probably still dormant. Then another name surfaced in her memory, one from the government’s most-watched list: Kali.
The goddess of time, change, and destruction, often depicted as a force of cosmic reckoning. If the Yamato had somehow recruited Kali, or even a fragment of her power, it would explain their confidence in rejecting Kayo.
Kali was a paradigm shift, capable of unraveling reality itself.
The most direct source of information would be someone inside the Yamato’s structure, or someone with a bitter, vested interest in their operations. Someone like...
“Dōman,” Su Yao murmured aloud.
“Talking to yourself, cousin?” Kayo phased back through the ceiling, munching on a bag of stolen chips. “A sign of madness, you know.”
“The Yamato filled the position you applied for,” Su Yao said, turning to her. “I'm considering asking Dōman if she knows who they hired. She has inside knowledge, and she’s clearly motivated to disrupt their operations.”
Kayo stopped chewing. Her expression turned serious for a split second before melting into a grin. “Ask Dōman? After I just dropped a bomb on her? She'd rather swallow her own tongue than give us a straight answer. She'd feed us misinformation just for the spite of it.”
She floated closer. “No, we need a more reliable source. Or better yet, a more dramatic approach.”
“Such as?” Su Yao asked. Her arms were crossed.
Kayo’s eyes sparkled with manic energy. “We march right into the Hundred Demons headquarters, demand an audience with this new ‘hire,’ and challenge them to a duel to the death! Simple, direct, and oh-so-satisfying. We'll see how long they last against the combined might of two heavenly foxes.”
Su Yao actually smirked. The idea appealed to her pride. “I quite like that. But we have one small problem. We don't know where their headquarters is. Your ‘networking’ didn't include the address, did it?”
Kayo waved a dismissive hand. “Details, details. We'll just ask Dōman. She’s bound to know.”
Su Yao raised an eyebrow. “Isn't the point of this method to avoid asking Dōman? You said she'd feed us misinformation out of spite.”
“True,” Kayo admitted, tapping her chin. “But asking for a location is different from asking for strategic intel. It’s a simple factual question. Besides, I can be very persuasive when I want to be.”
She grinned, showing a bit too much teeth. “I'll threaten to teleport another bomb into her lap, but this time, I'll make it a spiritual one that turns all her precious artifacts into novelty keychains. She'll sing like a canary.”
Su Yao considered this. Dōman was unpredictable, but she did have a vested interest in the Yamato’s operations, especially if they had hired someone over her. “Fine. If this backfires, you're dealing with the consequences.”
Kayo pulled out her glittery phone. “Don't worry, cousin. I have a way with words.” She dialed Dōman’s number, putting it on speaker.
After a few rings, Dōman answered. Her voice crackled with rage. “What do you want now, you insufferable fox? If this is about the bomb—”
“Hello, darling!” Kayo chirped. “No, that’s all water under the bridge. I have a quick question for you. Where is the Hundred Demons’s main headquarters? We want to pay a visit to your new colleague.”
There was a moment of stunned silence, followed by a harsh laugh. “You think I'd tell you that? After what you did?”
“Come on, Dōman,” Kayo cooed. “We both know you're unhappy about their recruitment processes. Think of this as us doing your dirty work. We show up, cause chaos, and maybe even take out the new favorite. You get to watch the show from a safe distance.”
Dōman hissed. “You're as subtle as a typhoon. Fine. If you get yourselves killed, don't come crying to me. The headquarters is in the Shimbashi district of Tokyo, disguised as a high-end sushi restaurant called ‘Kurotora’. Good luck getting in. Their security makes my sanctum look like a playground.”
“Thanks, sweetie!” Kayo said. “We'll send you a postcard!”
Before Dōman could respond, Kayo hung up and turned to Su Yao. “See? Easy peasy. Now, let’s go crash a corporate party.”
Su Yao nodded, already feeling the thrill of the hunt. “Tokyo it is. But we need a plan to get past their security.”
Kayo waved her hand, and a portal shimmered into existence. “Who needs a plan when you have style? Let’s go make a scene.”
Su Yao stared at the swirling energy, then back at Kayo. “Wait. How exactly are we getting to Tokyo? Teleportation doesn't work cross-countries. The spiritual ley lines are too disjointed, and the celestial barriers would tear us apart. We're in China, remember?”
Kayo’s portal flickered and died with a pathetic fizzle. She blinked, looking genuinely surprised. “Oh, right. I forgot we aren't in Japan.” She gestured vaguely at the agents bustling around them. “But everyone here is so organized, it felt like Tokyo for a second!”
Su Yao pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling slowly. “How can you forget we're not in Japan? You're a millennia-old fox spirit, shouldn't you have a better sense of geography?”
Kayo pouted. “Details, details! I've been reincarnating and dimension-hopping for so long all these mortal countries blend together. Besides, I was distracted by the chili sauce.”
She perked up. “But no matter! We have other options! We can take a plane! I've always wanted to try business class, do they still serve those tiny hot towels?”
“We're not taking a commercial flight,” Su Yao said. Her voice was flat. “We have a jar of world-altering chili sauce and a broken mask that might be the key to defeating the Yamato. We can't just go through airport security.”
“Fine,” Kayo said, tapping her chin. “How about we hijack a spiritual conduit? There must be a dragon vein or a hidden path that the Yamato uses for smuggling. Or we could ask Zhang Wei for a government jet. He owes us for all the paperwork we've caused.”
“Zhang Wei is in a briefing, and we don't have time for bureaucratic red tape,” Su Yao replied. “But you might be onto something with the spiritual conduit. If the Yamato is operating here, they must have a way to travel quickly between countries. We just need to find their entry point.”
Kayo snapped her fingers. “Exactly! And since their entry point is obviously hidden, we should run a broad-spectrum scan to detect any concealed spiritual anomalies in the area. Directly scanning for ‘Yamato travel conduit’ would be too specific and might trigger their wards. We might trip over their backdoor by accident if we look for all hidden things like illusions, void pockets, or phased spaces.”
Su Yao nodded, already turning to the nearest terminal. “That’s not a bad idea. The government’s sensors are calibrated for domestic threats, but we can recalibrate them to search for foreign spiritual signatures masking themselves.”
She began typing rapidly, pulling up the agency’s spiritual mapping interface. “I'll set the parameters to scan for any energy patterns that don't match local feng shui or known cultivation bases.”
Kayo floated over, peering at the screen. “Ooh, make sure to include dimensional wrinkles! Those are always a giveaway. Don't forget to check for recursive cloaking spells. They love those.”
As Su Yao input the commands, the terminal hummed. A 3D map of the city materialized, dotted with various energy readings. Most were benign or familiar, but a few blinked in unusual patterns.
“See that?” Kayo pointed to a cluster of faint, shimmering signals near the abandoned spa they had visited earlier. “That’s unnatural. It’s like spiritual static, too perfect to be random. That’s where we should start.”
Su Yao zoomed in on the area. The map resolved into an intricate pattern of overlapping lines and symbols. “The energy signature is complex, but it seems familiar.”
Kayo leaned in. Her eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute, that pattern is a Seimei pentagram. That’s the mark of the Wild Hunt. I'd recognize that arrogant geometry anywhere.”
Su Yao frowned. “The Wild Hunt? Shouldn't they know where the Hundred Demons’s entry points are? Or do they use the same conduits?”
Kayo let out a short laugh. “Oh, cousin, you have so much to learn about corporate politics. The Yamato factions are deeply divided. They might share a parent company, but they operate like rivals. Think Imperial Japanese Army and Navy.
Su Yao shook her head. “If they were even half as coordinated as they pretend to be, they’d already control all of Asia instead of just the Asia-Pacific. The second Sino-Japanese war would have ended with a decisive Japanese victory.”
It hadn’t. The war stalled into a brittle armistice that endured to the present, and the failure of outright conquest forced them to pivot away from armies, toward markets. Economic power replaced military ambition, buying influence abroad where force had failed to dominate their neighbors.
That was how most of the United States fell into their ownership. The United States, once a world leader, now was now an unofficial colony. And their cultures rapidly meld together, resulting in individuals like Alan Mask.
“Exactly. They hoard resources, sabotage each other’s operations, and would rather see the other fail than work together. The Wild Hunt have their own entry points, and the Hundred Demons have theirs. They probably don't even share cafeteria privileges.”
Su Yao’s mind raced with the implications. “So if we find the Wild Hunt’s conduit, we might be able to access their intelligence or use it to track the Hundred Demons’s movements. But won't that alert them?”
“Probably,” Kayo said with a shrug. “The Wild Hunt are all about the thrill of the chase. If we stir up their nest, they might come after us, but that could also lead us right to their rivals. It’s like poking a bear to find a tiger. Messy, but effective.”
“Then let’s poke the bear,” Su Yao said, grabbing the jar of chili sauce and the mask fragment. “We'll use this conduit to get to Tokyo and see what the Wild Hunt know about their new ‘colleague’.”
Kayo grinned, cracking her knuckles. “Now you're speaking my language. Let’s go hunting.”
Kayo’s enthusiastic expression faltered. She paused, tilting her head as if listening to something only she could hear. “On second thought,” she said, lowering her hands, “I have an anime to watch and a manga to read. Jujutsu Kaisen is on a cliffhanger, and I need to know what happens next. Plus, the new chapter of Dark Gathering just dropped.”
Su Yao stared at her with disbelief. “You're backing out now? After we just found a lead?”
Kayo waved a dismissive hand. “Hunting can wait. Character development and plot twists cannot. Besides, my brain needs a break from all this spiritual intrigue. A little fictional chaos will refresh me for the real thing later.”
She already began phasing towards the common room. “You go ahead, cousin! I'll catch up after I've binge-watched a few episodes. Call me if you find something really exciting, like a boss battle or a free buffet.”
Su Yao pinched the bridge of her nose, exasperated. “You're impossible.”
“But you love me!” Kayo called back, before disappearing through the wall.
Leaving Kayo to her animated distractions, Su Yao sighed. She focused on the spiritual coordinates from the scan, teleporting to the location near the abandoned spa where the Wild Hunt’s energy signature was strongest.
The area looked like a rundown warehouse from the outside. As she approached, the air shimmered, revealing a hidden entrance adorned with subtle Seimei pentagrams.
She pushed open the door, stepping into a brightly lit, modern dojo. It was filled with cultivators in traditional garb practicing with various weapons. The moment she entered, all activity ceased. A young man with a spiky haircut and a zealot’s gleam in his eyes pointed at her. His jaw dropped.
“It’s her! The Jade Purity Maiden!” he shouted, dropping his sword with a clatter.
A wave of excitement swept through the room. Cultists rushed forward, forming a chaotic circle around her. Their earlier discipline was forgotten.
“Can I have your autograph?” a girl asked, thrusting a scroll and a brush into Su Yao’s hands.
“I knew you'd come to inspire us!” another exclaimed, snapping pictures with his phone.
Su Yao stood frozen for a moment. Her irritation warred with amusement. She remembered how her past interventions to ‘save’ rivals for her own amusement had been misinterpreted as heroism, leading to the Jade Purity Maiden myth.
These fools are mistaking me for that righteous legend I accidentally created centuries ago.
She decided to roll with it. “Where is your leader?” she demanded. Her voice cut through the noise. “I have business with the Wild Hunt.”
“The boss is in the back, but first, please sign my talisman!” the spiky-haired youth pleaded. “It'll be a blessed artifact!”
Su Yao scribbled a messy signature on the scroll, using a bit of spiritual energy to make it glow faintly. “There. Now, take me to your leader. This is about the new Demon Queen you've hired.”
The cultivators exchanged confused glances. “Demon Queen? We're the Wild Hunt. We don't deal with the Hundred Demons’s hires,” one said. “But since you're the Jade Purity Maiden, we can talk! Follow me!”
They led her into a spacious office at the back of the dojo. The man behind the desk was a middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed goatee wearing a surprisingly modern tailored suit instead of traditional robes. He had the sharp, focused eyes of a predator.
This must be just a branch manager, she concluded.
An odd assortment of trophies lined the walls. There were mounted heads of spiritual beasts she recognized, like a lesser thunder phoenix and a corrupted qilin, but also, less impressive items. A framed, autographed poster of what looked like an idol group, a ‘World’s Best Hunter’ mug that was clearly a cheap novelty item, and a glass case containing a ‘cursed’ rubber chicken that radiated a faint, silly malice.
Did he earn these, or just buy them off some shady spiritual e-commerce site? Su Yao was unsure.
The man stood up. His nostrils flared slightly as he took in her aura. A slow, knowing smile spread across his face. “An interesting scent you carry,” he remarked, gesturing for her to sit. “The coppery blood-rage of a powerful oni, recently dispersed, and layered over that, the ancient, cunning musk of a nine-tailed fox. You've been busy, battling two of Japan’s most iconic threats.”
He leaned forward, steepling his fingers. “It is an honor to host such a dedicated champion of righteousness, Jade Purity Maiden.”
Su Yao simply nodded, deciding to fully lean into the misunderstanding. “They were obstacles. My focus is on a larger threat. I am told you are the one to speak with regarding the movements of the Yamato factions.”
“Of course, of course. Anything for a legend,” he said, though his eyes held a calculating gleam that suggested he was already weighing her value. “But you must understand, information has its price. Even for a Maiden.”
Su Yao braced herself, expecting a demand for a rare reagent, a dangerous quest, or a favor to be called in later.
“10,000 yuan. In cash,” the man stated. His expression was perfectly serious.
Su Yao stared at him. “...Wait, what?”
“10,000 yuan,” he repeated, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Standard consulting fee for external affiliates. We run a tight operation here. Overhead isn't cheap, you know? The wards on this place alone and the internet bill for tracking global spiritual fluctuations costs a fortune.”
He shrugged apologetically. “Company policy.”
The man’s demand left Su Yao speechless. She had faced down celestial decrees, drunken oni lords, and soul-shattering poisons. Except this was somehow the most baffling. She briefly considered just taking the information by force. But the sheer absurdity of the situation made her pause.
Su Yao stared at the man. Her mind was racing. Is this man even trusted? He’s a branch manager for a faction of supernatural hunters, and he’s asking for cash like a street vendor. How did the Yamato become such a threat if their operatives are this mundane?
She could easily overpower him and take the information but that might alert the entire faction. And she needed stealth for now.
Seeing her hesitation, the man leaned back, stroking his goatee. “I understand that 10,000 yuan in cash might be inconvenient on such short notice,” he said. His tone shifted to what he probably thought was sympathetic. “We do offer alternative payment methods. You could pay with your body, if that’s easier.”
Su Yao’s eyes widened. A flash of fury and disgust crossed her face. “What?” Her spiritual pressure caused the trophies on the walls to rattle. “You dare—”
The man held up his hands quickly, realizing his misstep. “No, no, don't misunderstand! I meant organically! I only need one kidney. It’s a standard transaction for high-value information. We have a deal with a reputable buyer.”
He smiled, as if offering a great deal. “It’s perfectly safe, I assure you. Our on-call surgeon is very discreet.”
Su Yao’s fury turned to sheer disbelief. A kidney? She recovered her composure. Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. “That’s even worse. Do you even know the market rate? A kidney goes for at least 20,000 yuan on the black market. You're trying to shortchange me by 10,000 yuan, amateur.”
The man blinked, taken aback. “Well, the price includes processing fees and—”
“Forget it,” Su Yao interrupted, pulling out her phone. “I'm calling the real authority here. Let’s see what your corporate overlords think about you running an organ-harvesting side hustle with the Cambodian syndicate.” She pretended to dial, watching his reaction.
His face paled. “Wait! That won't be necessary! How about a trade? Information for information? You tell me how you defeated that oni and fox, then I'll give you what you want about the Hundred Demons.”
Su Yao lowered her phone, smirking. “Now we're talking. If you waste my time, I'll be taking both your kidneys. And your liver.”