198 5.87 Our Joint Encounter With A Meioju And Mimizu (2/2)

We explained to the chief what had happened and decided to spend the night there. The chief made special arrangements for the cook to prepare snacks for us now and breakfast for tomorrow.

When the snacks came, it was a basketful of gyoza which was filled with sweetmeats and deep-fried, a basketful of Taiyaki which was fish-shaped waffle with red beans and a stack of steaming hot Tomorokoshi which was grilled Japanese sweet corn after it was steamed.

We ate heartily and kept some for our journey ahead that would take 3 or more hours on foot.

+-==The next following day==-+

We thanked the chief for his hospitality and bade him farewell. We didn't accept any monetary gift but there were some hard candies and treats that were given to Shippo and he readily accepts them. The hard candies were made from fruits like plums as well as grapes that were crystallised and covered with a kind of liquorice and honey.

Hoshi-sama suggested we travel by using Hachi as a floating yellow gourd while Sango and Kohaku rode on Kirara when it transformed into a Bakeneko. We managed to shorten the journey by half and reached Motegi before lunchtime.

We met with the chief and he brought us to the farms that had been ravaged with many sinkholes, that it was impossible to properly cultivate the fields there. Hoshi-sama evaluated that the same procedures would be exercised upon the extermination of the Mizumi Youkai.

Sango and Kohaku used their poison powder to burn near one of the holes and the smoke emitted slowly entered the sinkhole. It was like a long twisting cave and the best way is to get rid of it by smoking the place out.

Hoshi-sama then uses his staff and struck the ground. This time he uses a kind of enchantment that creates an electrifying effect that penetrated into the ground around the fields.

An enormous earthworm head emerged from one of the sinkholes and was oozing greenish kind of slime from its skin, and the large gaping mouth with layers of sharp razor teeth inside. It was trying to escape the poison which Sango and Kohaku had lighted near one of the sinkholes.

Kikyo let one of her sacred arrows fly towards the mouth and it disperses the yoki that was around it. Inuyasha withdrew his Akai Hane and summoned his Sangon Tesso and unleashed a few strikes towards it.

”Swipe... Swipe... Swipe...!!!”

Three after images of the flaming Akai Hane struck the Mizumi squarely on its head and body and it slowly disintegrates and became a 20 cm earthworm which Hoshi-sama picked it up gingerly with his hands and passed it to the chief if the village.

” Here's your little Mimizu that terrorised your village. I wonder what made them manifest into these kinds of mutants but once it started I don't think it would stop easily. We would like to go back to Kitakata Village and investigate into the matter.”

”There would be a full compilation of this youkai and we would put it up for everyone's knowledge. That's should be all chief.”

Hoshi-sama explained to the chief Village after congratulating everyone for successfully accomplishing their task at hand. We would all be heading to Kitakata Village to resupply as well as to get a clearer picture on these mysteries.

Meanwhile, Hoshi-sama was knocking Hachi's head for not informing us that he could transform and transport us instead of walking through for some days towards our destination.

As a Tanuki, it usually used its scrotum to transform into a yellow boat or even the floating gourd. It seems that the Inuyasha series was not that complete in describing a Tanuki's capabilities. Hehehe. Rising on a sack of balls surely would entice anyone right?

So Hachi was forcefully made to transform into a floating yellow gourd that looks like an oversized banana boat while Kirara was ridden by Sango, Kohaku and Shippo. This time, we were hovering over the lands that we had travelled before and landed just outside the gates bordering Kitakata Village.

We walked through and was greeted by Hiko-sama who was having his midday sake after he had lunch. We joined him at the garden and told him what had happened.

”So, Hoshi-sama seems to discover something is mutating these normal pets and pest to become a menace for human beings? That's pretty weird, there must be something going on around the area. I know there was a practise where a person would place several poisonous insects in a bottle and watch each of the species kill each other.”

”Then the Victor would be placed among the Victors when finally the one that emerges as the one-man-standing survivor would be considered as the strongest of them all. It would then be infused with a kind of demonic potion to make it stronger and becomes mutated, something like that.”

”I have never seen such mutation before but the person who does that treat it like some kind of sick psychological game.”

Hiko-sama explained to him when Hoshi-sama explained to him about what we had experienced. As there were several replies from other villagers, I appointed Hoshi-sama to become the leader of the group as I explained that I would be together with Hiko-sama and the Plants Managers and Execom members to further expand the production lines and range of our products.

The rest of the team was a bit disheartened that I had decided to forgo them but since my explanations were concrete enough, they decided to let me lay myself down and concentrate on the matters at hand.

I handed Hoshi-sama my bundle of coins to him and told him if he needs anymore to topup, he could ask from me. Furthermore, I explained that after each mission, they need to drop by here so that we could father and find out their wellbeing, top-up their supplies as well as be our ambassadors if the needs arise.

We sat down at the meal areas and discussed their findings and attend to the replies of the letters that they had received.