Horitake remained in the Fushimi Inari-taisha, waiting in quiet composure.
Leaning against a stone fox statue beneath the shade of an old pine tree, he idly observed the shrine's scenery. He was in no hurry; the ancient, refined atmosphere of the grounds seemed to possess a genuine power to soothe the soul. At the very least, as he waited for his target, he found himself remarkably free of any impatience.
After a few minutes of quiet contemplation, Horitake felt a presence and looked down.
He wasn't sure exactly when it had arrived, but a live fox had trotted up to his feet. He had been leaning against a stone fox carving, and now a real one had appeared—he couldn't help but wonder if he had some peculiar affinity for foxes today.
As he watched, the fox stepped closer, its nose twitching as it sniffed the hem of his trousers. Then, it looked up, its expression shifting into a look of curiously human-like confusion.
Horitake looked down; the fox looked up. Man and beast locked eyes.
Foxes were often said to be spiritual creatures. Staring into this one's eyes, Horitake felt less like he was looking at an animal and more like he was looking at a person. The gaze was simply too intelligent, too expressive.
In that moment, a bizarre thought flashed through his mind.
This fox... couldn't actually be the Inari God, could it?
Legends claimed that the Inari God often manifested as a fox. Whether such tales were true remained a mystery, but the mystery was enough to spark Horitake's strange imagination.
Despite the odd thought, he felt no fear or trepidation. On the contrary, a silent challenge rose within him: If you're the Inari God, then I'm the Nine Heavens Resonant Thunder Universal Transformation Heavenly Worthy.
Amused by his own internal monologue, Horitake let out a short laugh. He reached down, intending to give the creature a pat.
The fox seemed slightly resistant at first, pulling back instinctively. However, the moment Horitake's hand made contact, its eyes narrowed in immediate bliss. It promptly flopped onto the ground, its body language practically begging for him to continue.
Using the same techniques he'd used to pamper dogs in his previous life, Horitake gave the fox a thorough scratching. He figured that since they were both members of the Canidae family, his "dog-petting" skills were bound to be effective on a fox as well.
He wasn't sure how long he spent petting the creature, but by the time the fox was whimpering in delight—legs kicking in the air and belly exposed—Horitake decided it was enough. He pulled his hand back with a trace of lingering amusement.
He stopped not because he was bored, but because the man he was waiting for had arrived.
Horitake stood up and looked at the figure who had appeared silently beside him.
It was a middle-aged man, likely in his late thirties or early forties. He wore an old-fashioned Japanese police uniform, and his presence was calm yet carried an unmistakable weight.
The man looked down at the fox, which was still reeling from its "massage," and spoke with a slight smile.
"That fox isn't wild. It's raised here by the shrine."
Horitake nodded slightly. "I thought as much. It's rare for such a cautious animal to be so friendly. I suppose it's simply well-acquainted with humans."
Horitake turned his gaze fully onto the man, his voice dropping into a tone of certainty. "Inspector Eguchi, I presume?"
The man nodded. "That is me. Are you the Hashira sent by the Demon Slayer Corps to handle this incident?"
Horitake confirmed with a nod. He studied Eguchi for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly as he reached a conclusion. "Inspector Eguchi, you aren't just an ordinary police officer. You definitely have another identity—or perhaps another profession entirely."
"Oh?" Eguchi raised an eyebrow. "What makes you so sure?"
"Intuition. My gut tells me you aren't a simple man."
In truth, Horitake was talking nonsense; intuition alone couldn't explain it. His suspicion stemmed from the nature of the situation. Any official capable of acting as a liaison for the Demon Slayer Corps—someone devoid of the arrogant air of the nobility or the haughty condescension of a bureaucrat—couldn't possibly be just a policeman.
However, Horitake wasn't particularly curious about the man's secrets.
The two shook hands, and Horitake took the initiative. "It's good to have your help, Inspector. You might not know this, but I was the one who handled the incident in Kusatsu where a demon nearly released a plague. However, my colleague was the one who dealt with the local officials back then. He came away from that experience quite frustrated; those 'government lords' were... difficult to stomach, to say the least."
Horitake gave him a small, diplomatic smile. "You seem nothing like them, Inspector. I'm hoping I can get some actual, useful intelligence from you."
Faced with this immediate "high hat" of praise, Eguchi looked somewhat helpless. He took a half-finished cigarette from his mouth, crushed it out, and tossed it into a nearby bin.
"You overestimate me, young man. The information I can give you is limited. And in a sense, I'm not much different from those 'government lords' you mentioned—I am, after all, moved by their strings."
As he spoke, a trace of weariness, even decadence, flickered across Eguchi's calm demeanor. This shift made Horitake feel a sudden prickle of unease.
"Limited intelligence is still intelligence," Horitake replied. "It beats wandering around in the dark. So, Inspector Eguchi, what can you tell me about these large-scale disappearances in Kyoto?"
The weary air around Eguchi seemed to deepen. "Young man, let me tell you the reality of the situation."
He looked Horitake straight in the eye. "From the very beginning, the number of people missing in Kyoto has been far more than 'over a hundred.' As of right now, the confirmed number of disappearances has surpassed three hundred, and people are still vanishing. We are rapidly approaching the four-hundred mark."
Horitake was genuinely stunned. He looked at the Inspector with disbelief. "Over three hundred? Nearly four hundred!? You've got to be joking. When Oyakata-sama briefed me, he said it was roughly a hundred!"
Eguchi looked at him with a look of profound helplessness. "The officials here in Kyoto have their 'face' to consider."
He sighed. "They are incompetent and powerless. Having to beg the Demon Slayer Corps for help was already a massive blow to their pride. If they admitted the true scale of the disaster to an outside organization, they'd have no dignity left. So, the only solution they could think of was to suppress the actual numbers—all to preserve a bit of 'face' for the higher-ups."
Horitake was speechless.
Thinking about it, it was exactly the kind of move those high-ranking bureaucrats would make. A surge of irritation flared in his chest, but he practiced a disciplined restraint. He pushed down the anger and kept his voice steady as he continued his inquiry.
"Fine. So it's three hundred plus, not one hundred. Besides that, is there anything else I should know? Anything else that contradicts what I've been told?"
Eguchi continued in his flat, weary tone. "There is one more thing. These three hundred people didn't all vanish at once. This has been happening continuously, a steady stream of disappearances stretching back over the last two to three months."
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