Chapter 89 89: Scheming Is a Full-Time Job – Just Ask Yukari

— — — — — — With Yakumo Yukari's reassuring words—"Relax and head back. Everything'll be fine."—lingering in her ears, Saigyouji Yuyuko returned to the courtyard, doing her best to keep her expression neutral. She didn't want her nervousness to show. --- "So~ Yukari didn't say anything bad about me, did she?" "...Huh? Wha—?" Yuyuko's mouth opened and closed twice before she managed to push out two confused syllables. "Hmm," Veyron nodded thoughtfully. "So she didn't badmouth me. Got it." "...Wait—you knew...?" Yuyuko snapped out of her daze, realizing that Yukari's presence had already been exposed. She scratched her cheek awkwardly. "Of course I knew," Veyron said casually. "I hadn't even stepped into your courtyard yet and I already sensed her hiding in there." Yuyuko: "......" "Oh?" "Is that yokai here too?" Midoriko, standing nearby, remembered Veyron saying he'd been scouring Japan for over a month looking for some yokai. Her curiosity was piqued. "Yeah, she's here. Small world, huh?" Veyron gave a small nod, then looked over at Yuyuko. "You mind if I go in and have a little chat with her?" "Um... Mr. Veyron, can I ask..." Yuyuko hesitated, her voice uncertain. "...Just how bad is it between you two?" She knew there was no real way to stop him. Even before she'd come back here, Yukari had firmly told her not to interfere if Veyron wanted to talk—or do anything else, really. Still, before letting him into her house, she needed to ask. Just how deep was the grudge between those two? What if... The girl bit her lip. "It's nothing major," Veyron said with a friendly smile. "Just some old beef from back in the day. We've pretty much settled it by now." "There's just a teeny bit of misunderstanding left. I figured a face-to-face chat might clear it up." "That's it." --- A few minutes later Veyron stepped into the sitting room. Inside, Yakumo Yukari was quietly pouring herself another cup of sake, drinking alone. "No greeting for me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Don't have anything you wanna say?" Yukari didn't even look up. She just took another sip. "Well, you've got me cornered now. Whatever you wanna do, just do it. Not like I can stop you." "Oh? That so?" Veyron chuckled, sitting down across from her. "Alright then, new topic—Yukari ...You wouldn't want anything bad to happen to Yuyuko, right?" "...Do you have some weird misunderstanding about what we yokai are like?" Yukari gave him a sidelong glance. "Threatening me with a human girl I've known for, what, a few days? You think that'll work?" "If you want something from me, you might as well just go full caveman with it. Say, 'Do it or die.' Even a half-witted little yokai would understand that." "Well, I was considering the fact that big-name yokai like you probably don't care much about life or death anymore." Veyron reached for a clean cup and held it out, gesturing for her to pour. "But that Yuyuko girl's different. She just screams easy target..." Yukari didn't move. She just glared at him coldly. "See?" Veyron grinned. "Guess it does work." "If I'd caught you at the Saigyouji place just two weeks earlier..." he sighed dramatically, "...I'd have carved a tally for every headache you caused me. Right on your thigh." "Shame, really." "..." Yukari dropped the icy act and smiled sweetly, filling his cup to the brim with cherry blossom sake. "Well then, guess I should thank you for your mercy?" "No need. From the start, my plan was simple—hunt you down for a month. If you were still alive after that, we'd call it even. Everything since then? You've just been on the run." Veyron clinked his cup against hers. And he wasn't lying. During that first month chasing her down, he hadn't gone all-out—but he definitely didn't hold back much either. Just like that greeting he gave in the sunflower field, he left room for her to escape, but only barely. Every time he caught up, his attacks were strong enough that if she slipped up, even just a little... she might not have made it out alive. But Yukari did make it out. Again and again. She tanked his hits, then slipped away with that teleportation of hers—faster than even Inukimi's speed. And after all that, her sheer will to survive had been enough to wash away his grudge over what she'd done to him in the sunflower field. He tossed back the sake in one go, then opened his hand. Floating above it was a rift—a gap that had been forcibly locked in place by his psychic power ever since he intercepted Yukari over a month ago. Right in front of Yukari, he let the mental lock dissolve, allowing the spatial crack to seal and restore itself naturally. Then he reached out a hand to her. Yukari immediately felt the difference. The gap was back under her control—no longer unstable, no longer carrying that subtle, foreign interference that meant Veyron could've ambushed her from it at any time. That little "flaw" that had kept her on edge since their last encounter... was gone. Her nerves eased. She reached out and placed her hand in his. And in the next instant— The black flames, his spiritual energy, and the traces of his power that had invaded her body—all vanished. With Veyron's presence fully purged from her, even the wounds on her body closed up instantly. Thanks to her immense regenerative power as a high-level yokai, she was completely healed. Her energy flowed smoothly again, uninhibited. "Well then," Yukari said, pulling her hand back. "How about a proper introduction?" She refilled both cups with cherry blossom sake and lifted hers with a slight smile. "Name's Yukari... Yakumo Yukari. I'm a yokai born from the boundaries of reality." "Veyron. Human," he replied simply, clinking his cup against hers without hesitation. They downed the drink—this one, finally, in peace. After setting her cup down, Yukari gestured lightly toward the front courtyard of the Saigyouji estate. "So... any thoughts on that cherry blossom tree out there, Veyron-kun?" Veyron snorted. "Wow. You really don't bother with subtlety, do you?" He gave her a half-laugh, half-sigh. "Back when I was hunting you, you used yourself as bait to get me to take out some of your rivals. I let it slide since I probably would've killed those yokai anyway if I ran into them." "But now you're not even pretending?" "Ara ara~ that's such an unfair way to put it." Yukari snapped open her folding fan with a swish, covering the lower half of her face. But her amusement still sparkled in her eyes. "Those guys just happened to be in my way, is all. I was running for my life, remember? You were so intense back then—did you really think I had time to plan out a clean escape route? I just ran wherever I could!" Veyron shook his head, exasperated."...Now I get why Yuuka has such a low opinion of you." . . .