[Hey, your Mom is an evil woman (toxic woman)!] [I... I can't argue with that.]

(Move... Move!  Move!  Move, please!  If I don't move now...!!)

He tries to move his legs to get away from the three approaching him.

However, he can't move.

His body won't move an inch.  It is as if he's being tied down by an invisible something.

(What is this!?  What is this!?  This is... what is it...?  It's as if I'm being enveloped in something...)

At that moment, something was reflected in Ibuki's eyes.

It was a gigantic translucent tail.

It was a gigantic, soft tail with gleaming fur that wrapped around his body.

It was extending from in front of him--- to be straight, it was coming from behind the blond girl to wrap around him.

"Ah"

He was dumbfounded.

From behind the girl two more gigantic tails appeared and swept away the other two that were approaching him.

Incidentally, the only things harmed by the gigantic tails were the guy and elderly gentleman, and there was no damage to the nearby structures.

It appears that she can choose what the translucent tails will pass through.

As he was indulging in that bit of escapism...

"Eh!?"

The girl was right in front of him.

She was giving him a sweet smile that threatened to melt his heart on the spot as she looked at him.  

Slowly, her mouth opened.

(What... what is she planning to say?  What does she want to ask?)

Thump, thump, thump.  His heart throbbed hard within his chest.

(Ok, come on.  Come at me!  My vocation is a great youka--)

No matter what she says, he will be fine.  He will be able to respond calmly and somehow make his way out of this situation.  

Or so Ibuki thought...

"Nice to meet you Ibuki, I'm your mother.  I've loved you in every way for a thousand years."

His confidence was shattered in an instant.  

What was expressed was emotions so sweet as to induce nausea.

He knows he is not particularly perceptive, but he somehow knows... There was no lie to the words 'I love you' as they came out of her mouth.

The problem was the type of love.

There is no doubt in his mind that, though she called herself his mother, she was also expressing 'other types of love'.

It was frightening, so frightening.  It was terrifying beyond belief that her emotions were so obvious and intense that a single word was enough for him to understand.

Devilish and monstrous.  He couldn't help but understand the girl in front of him was fundamentally different from humankind.

"And so, yes... I think I'll state my appeal points."

The girl (self-proclaimed mother) smiled like a child while clapping her hands.

"... you like this, don't you?  This type of girl."

In an instant, the childish, innocent smile vanished as if it had never existed and a demonic smile that looked like it would split her cheeks wide appeared.

"I know" "I know"  "I know" "I know" "I know" "I know" "I know"

That single word echoed in his mind over and over.

"Even if I can't become omniscient, I know everything the man I love desires."

Slim, white fingers caressed him under the chin.

"People say a lot of things about me.  Toxic woman, slut, woman who destroys nations...  But... oh yes.  I can say this even so.  Until the moment the man I loves reaches his terrible end, no; even after that, I never let them feel regret that I stole their hearts.  After all, there is no other woman as 'convenient' to a man as I am, past, present or future, no matter where you look."

Haa her warm breath tickled at his ears.

"This is what men seek in a woman: To be at their side like a wife, to connect like lovers, to be spoiled like a grandmother, accepted like a mother, embraced like an older sister, rely on them like a little sister, and adore him like a daughter."

Even the Red Comet was a bit more humble... or so Ibuki wanted to say, but...

(... She's probably telling the truth.)

Looking into those eyes full of certainty, it is obvious.  This vixen that calls herself his mother is... ah, he can't avert his eyes.  She is most definitely the nine-tailed fox whose name went down in history as a beauty that ruins nations.  He didn't have the words to deny the statements of a woman who knows men more than any other in existence.

"How pathetic?  How selfish?  How... How adorable a desire that is..."

Her expression was ecstatic, full of scorn and fondness, and a sweet fragrance wafted around him.  She was too toxic.  Even closing his eyes and sealing his nose, he became dizzy.  Even so, he managed to stay upright and listen to his self-proclaimed mother's words.

"The only person who can fulfill that desire is me.  Precisely because I once toured three countries, indulging in all forms of hedonism and corruption, I can do so.  There is no other woman who can love you like I can, you know?  I'll love you with everything I am, so you need to love me back, Ibuki?"

Smack, she kissed him on the cheek.  Even as he was being pushed around by the sensation of his brain going numb, Ibuki couldn't help but think this.

(This... what a... egotistical woman.)

I'll devote myself to you entirely, so I would be happy if you came to like me too.  If you took her words at face value, it would seem like she was saying something innocent and womanly.  However, the sentiment there wasn't nearly that cute.

(She's pushy beyond belief...!!)

Ibuki acknowledged that the nine-tailed fox wasn't incorrect in her statement of a man's ideal woman.  However, that was just a reflection of the id revealed when a man's pride and self-control were ripped away entirely.  In addition, that desire was most likely so close to an unconscious desire as for there to be no real difference.  If not, then all the world's men would be hopeless trash.

(It's rationality and pride that make us human."

For that reason, though there were differing tastes like large breasts or tight butts... There were very few men who were seeking the type of woman the fox described while sober.  Ibuki was the same.  He didn't want a lover, nor a mother or sisters.  It would be correct to say that in his case, those desires were faded and weak at best.

However, the nine-tailed fox cared nothing for his situation.  'You know you like this, don't you?' she said arbitrarily and forcefully while shamelessly asking him to love her.  It was the penultimate form of egotism, of trying to force emotion upon him.

(However, what's really awful is...)

That even with her obvious egotism, she had the ability to force one to accept her.  Whether it was the inhuman attractiveness fit to ruin a man's life with a single glance, or the experience she had built up to now in using words and observations to manipulate others.  There was no way for a normal person to resist if she set eyes upon him.  They would fall into corruption in no time flat.

(Even I'm pretty close to the edge.)

He knew she was egotistical and pushy, but he couldn't find it in himself to find the nine-tailed fox's existence unpleasant.  Rather, he was feeling good about it.  For that reason, he told himself over and over again about how dangerous she was.  But well... the results were predictable.  It was a resistance more unreliable than a candle in hurricane winds.

(Hmm, is it already too late?)

Was he still sane?  Did he only think he was resisting her?  Was he not already long-since fallen to her wiles and sinking into a well of pleasure?

Ibuki's sanity was being shaved away to the point where he was unsure of the reality in front of him, but...

"Nevermind."

He let out a deep breath.  To put it simply, she simply was on another level.  What could a boy that hadn't even lived twenty years do against her?  'They who only have bad ideas might as well be asleep.'  Thinking just made him tired, so he might as well rest.  Ibuki decided to just go with the flow and let things happen as they would.

"... Hmm..."

The nine-tailed fox showed a smile different from the ones before.  In it were admiration that was exceeded by annoyance, and a lovesickness that far surpassed her annoyance.

"Now, self-proclaimed 'mother'.  Before you try to show off your appeal as a woman, don't you have something else you should do?"

Her name.  He told her to introduce herself first.  She knew his name, but he didn't know hers.  He'd figured out she was the infamous nine-tailed fox, but if she was taking on a humanoid form, she had to have a name for it.

"What should I call you?  Kumiho?  Daji? Tamamo no Mae?"  "Fufufu... bzzt, you are way off!"

She made an X with her index fingers in front of her face.  The gesture was unbelievably sly.  It was apparent she was faking it, but it felt so natural it was vulgar.  If one couldn't reach that level, there was no way one could be called a siren.

"After all, those are the names of women loved by other men?  They are symbols with no more value than broken straws, destined never to be used again.  They aren't the right name to call myself in front of the man I've loved for the past thousand years and will continue to love until the void takes this world."

The name I name myself here has to be for you, for only your sake.  Ibuki felt chills go up his spine as she whispered that into his ear, but he gestured for her to continue.

"Fufufu, so hasty.  That's fine though.  Yes, I want to introduce myself as soon as possible.  For the past thousand years I thought about it and only recently - six years ago - I decided upon my name."

In an instant, she turned her back to him and made some distance beween them, showing only her profile as she quietly stated her name.

"Shino."

He tried to deny it as a coincidence.

"That's because...."

He recalled her words 'six years ago'.

"It's the name of the only woman to have left a scar on your heart."

With a cheshire cat's grin, she ripped the scab off the old wound.

"You...!"

A Ibuki tried to reach for her in anger, the nine-tailed fox stopped him with words.

"'Now you've done it'"

A pure as a child.

"'You got angry'."

As crafty as the most toxic of women.

"You directed your attention at me."

Shino smiled.

"Now there is no escape for you."

As if he was paralyzed, he became unable to move.  He wasn't tied down with her tails, it was her words that bound him in place.

"From now on, whenever you call my name, you will remember your past woman and your heart will throb with pain.  No, I made you aware  of me this way, so even if you don't say the name, you might feel it just looking at my face."

Baring a heart full of rage, hate, and jealousy, Shino smiled.

"What will you do?  Will you avoid the name and call me Mom?  Ah, but the more you do that, the more you might become conscious of it."

Tap, tap, tap, she once again approached him, deliberately making sound with her steps.  She looked up at him from below after approaching him and stabbed him with her words.

"Another choice would be to call me Shino over and over, wouldn't it?  Are you going to act as if it doesn't matter while enduring the pain?  Ah, but if you get used to the pain, your memories of her might become weaker."

She touched his chest with her slim fingertips, caressing him.

"When you stop feeling pain, your heart will be painted over with me."

As if to aggravate his pained heart.

"There won't be any way for a woman from the past to touch your heart... aaaaah!"

With an expression of a woman overwhelmed with escstasy, was Shino looking at a future that was certain to arrive one day?

"Haha!"

In an instant, the front of Ibuki's shirt was torn open and his skin was bared.

"How long will it be before the name of your wound becomes mine?"

Shino brought her lips to Ibuki's chest and licked it with her tongue.  A sensation that was not quite pleasant nor unpleasant went through his body from his chest.

"..."

"Fufufu, what is it?"

"... I just fully realized it?"

"Realized what?"

"The meaning of the phrase 'toxic woman'."

He understood it for the first time after fifteen years of life.  No, he didn't want to understand it.  Ibuki repeatedly made deep breaths and put his head in his hands.

(... what is this?)

It was a bit much for his first experience of the World of Illusions.  It was beyond hard mode.  Did he do something wrong?  No he hadn't.  He couldn't say he lived a pure and good life, but he lived normally.  But this was just too horrible.

(Is that it?  Is it my parents?  My parents blood?)

Setting aside Soujou Bou (Clephas: one of his three youkai ancestors), the remaining two bloodlines.  The oni who wreaked havoc on Kyouto during the Heian Period, Shutendoji.   The toxic woman who spread immorality and corruption across three nations, the nine-tailed fox.  Was it revenge for the sins of those two bloodlines?

"Uuu...."

It would be cruel to blame Ibuki for getting down on his hands and knees.  Ibuki was a child that had just graduated from middle school.

"There, there, good boy."

Struck to the heart, Ibuki was embraced by Shino, who began caressing his head.  Her expression was that of an affectionate mother, but it wasn't an expression the source of the problem should have had.

(So soft and smells so goood... this is no good!!)

He could feel his corruption gauge filling up, so he pulled away from Shino.

"Anyway... umm, Mom?  I have someone waiting for me.  For the moment, umm... just let me take care of this later!!" 

Right now, he just had to get away from this woman.  Making that decision, he tried to use an excuse, but that plan was shattered in an instant.

"Are you talking about the guy from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?  He isn't coming."

"Eh?"

"Of course, after all your mother (me) is coming to meet you.  Don't worry, I made sure to tell them."

She quite naturally wrapped her arms around his.

"Now, let's go home together... to our new house.

Ibuki felt faint at the sight of Shino's smile.

(I-I have to live with this...)

I have a new family.  That phrase briefly went through his head before being swept away into the distance.