The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 147: Training trip (20)

The Scarecrow was angry.

But Ah Jian continued, "Isn't that the case? Living in your own memories, stubborn, thinking you are absolutely right, unwilling to understand new things, isn't this just an ordinary stubborn old man? It would be fine if it was just that, but you still want to impose your own ideas on young people, so you set up this formation, didn't you?"

"You...what do you know!" said the Scarecrow, "I do this for this village! This...this is where I was born and raised. We have lived here for generations. As the village chief, I cannot watch it disappear like this. I have seen villages with no one in them. First the young people left, then the children grew up and went to school in the city. The schools were abandoned, followed by the fields and shops... In the end, only a few old people were left waiting to die. No, this cannot be done!"

Ah Jian sneered, "After all, isn't it all selfish? I understand that you don't want the place where you live to be slowly abandoned, but you chose to use a magic circle, isn't that too despicable?"

The Scarecrow cried, "I have no other choice... If I don't do this, even my children and grandchildren won't want to come back to see me. I'm so lonely..."

"But even so, you can't give up your life here." Inuyama Heita said, "Why don't you go to the city with them?"

The Scarecrow said, "I have everything here. I am familiar with life here. Here, I know what I should do and what I can do. But it is different over there. Life over there is too strange. No matter what I do, I will be laughed at. Even if I do nothing, I can feel their exclusion of me. I do not belong there. I do not belong."

"Then, you chose to use this method..." Inuyama Heita took out a talisman and said, "Although I can understand your idea of ​​revitalizing the village, living here these few days has indeed made me feel the tranquility that I don't have in the city, but... your method is wrong. If you have to use this method to maintain the village, does it mean that you are wrong in the first place?"

"There is no other way! No other way!" the Scarecrow roared, "This place is too remote. No one wants to come here. I am trying to save the village! I..."

The talisman was stuck on the scarecrow's head. It opened its mouth and let out a silent and violent scream. The sound caused the surrounding land to begin to fluctuate. The scene in the distance began to distort like the colors on a palette. Inuyama Heita and Ajian raised their arms in front of them at the same time, trying to resist the impact.

Ken shouted, "Inuyama! Isn't the spell you just cast something that can destroy it? Why do I feel that its power has not been weakened, but has become stronger?"

"That's the house-protecting talisman!" Inuyama Heita also shouted in response, "This is the only talisman that Brother Yi left behind! He said that this talisman can create a barrier to block the flow of the aura! As long as the talisman is pasted here, it can cause a malfunction in the operation of the magic circle, making the magic circle ineffective for a period of time. But if the feng shui is not destroyed from the outside, there is no way to completely stop the magic circle."

"What?!" Ah Jian asked in surprise, "It's only temporarily ineffective? Then what should we do next? I feel something coming!"

The scarecrows around them were attracted and surrounded them, making it impossible to get in or out, as if the protective measures of the magic circle had been triggered.

"Think of a solution quickly, Inuyama!" Ajian screamed.

Inuyama Heita formed the Eight Diagrams Seal and said with a wry smile: "There is no other way. All we can do now is wait."

"Huh?! Wait? Wait for what!"

"Reinforcements."

At the bonfire in the festival ground, people sat in groups of three or four on the ground around it to rest and admire the burning flames. Although the ceremony was over and the folk dance was tiring, everyone still sat together happily, eating, drinking and chatting. They were reluctant to leave until the bonfire was extinguished, enjoying this rare leisurely village life.

"Strange? Where did Inuyama-san go again?" Sato rubbed the back of his head and looked around: "Did you see him?"

Everyone shook their heads. Miyamoto Yuzhi said, "I think he went to the bathroom again. He seemed to be feeling a little unwell today."

"Is that so? Let's make a phone call and ask. We have a signal now." Kawasaki said.

He called Inuyama Heita's cell phone number, but it showed that the other party was out of service area.

Kawasaki was shocked: "Where did that guy run off to again? Let's go find him..."

Suddenly, everyone fell silent, as if they all felt something suddenly disappear at the same time. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing why this happened or why everyone stopped talking.

Just when everyone was confused, no one noticed that Ono Haruna's eyes became clear at this moment. She silently took out her lipstick, drew something on her face, then stood up, walked to the bonfire in the middle, turned around and faced everyone.

"Ono-san?" Suzuki felt something was wrong. When Ono Haruna turned around, she was startled. Ono Haruna's face was painted with lipstick as paint, and she had a fox-like mask. Kawasaki stood up and said in surprise, "It's the same again! She looks exactly the same as last year!"

Everyone's eyes were focused on Ono Haruna, and the old people looked at her face with some doubts. At this moment, Ono Haruna moved.

Under the gaze of everyone, she danced with the bonfire as the background. It was a solemn and graceful dance. Sharp tunes came out of her mouth, as if they were providing music for the dance, or like the howl of a fox, which made people feel weird but couldn't help wanting to keep watching.

A young villager asked, "What kind of dance is this lady doing? She dances very well."

"That's it!" An old man in the village recognized it and said with trembling lips, "It's the Kagura dance of the White Fox Shrine..."

When the shrine was still there, the annual festival was held there. The shrine maidens would wear fox masks and perform this unique dance in front of the villagers and accompanied by the priests to please the gods and pray for a good harvest. But as the shrine was abandoned, no one should dance this dance anymore.

"It's the God!" an old man shouted in fear, "The God of the White Fox Shrine is back!"

"Stop her quickly!"

"Hey, stop letting her jump!"

Suzuki saw those old men trying to do something to Ono Haruna, and immediately said, "Sister Ono is in danger. They are very close to the bonfire. Stop them quickly."

Upon hearing this, Miyamoto Yuzhi immediately rushed over, blocking the old people like a wall, and shouted angrily: "What do you want to do to Hina! Go back, go back!"

Suzuki said to the others, "Let's go and help too. We must not let Ono-senpai and those elderly people get hurt."

Although they didn't know what was going on, everyone still ran over, trying to stop the old men's attack while trying to wake up Ono Haruna.

The old people shouted, "What are you still standing there for? Stop that woman!"

The other young villagers around the campfire were a little confused. They all had a strange feeling that what was happening here was very inexplicable. They didn't know why the old people were so angry with a little girl. It was just a dance. Even their sense of belonging to the village was not that strong, so they were a little slow for a while.

Just as the crowd began to argue, a little kid pointed excitedly at a field nearby and shouted, "It's a fox! There's a fox!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment, then looked towards the field, only to see several brightly colored figures rapidly shuttling across the field, as if stimulated by the commotion of the crowd, and making loud shouts.

After a fox made a cry, the same cry was heard in other fields, and various sharp sounds came one after another.

At this time, Ono Haruna also joined the trend, raised her head and screamed like a wild beast. The foxes moved violently as if they had received an order.

"Fox, the fox is back for revenge!" an old man said with a trembling mouth.

"Scarecrow! Those foxes are destroying the scarecrow!" another person shouted, "Everyone, hurry up and drive these beasts away. We must not let them knock down the scarecrow."

However, it was too late. The scarecrows fluttering in the wind began to fall to one side after another, and their clothes were torn to shreds by the foxes. Even if someone went over and scared away one fox, there was another one attacking the scarecrows somewhere else, so it was simply a drop in the bucket.

While chaos was happening outside, the same situation was happening inside the magic circle. A white fox appeared in front of Inuyama Heita and his companions, and excitedly bit the scarecrows as if it had been waiting for a long time. The scarecrows seemed to have met their natural enemies and were afraid to escape. They began to flee one after another, leaving a gap in the encirclement.

"It's reinforcements!"

Inuyama Heita and Ajian looked at each other without saying anything, and then rushed towards the opening desperately.

(End of this chapter)