At that moment, Luo Shu said with a faint smile:
"Yamabuki Otome—that name shouldn't be unfamiliar to you, old man Nurarihyon, should it?"
Nurarihyon fell silent for a moment before sighing:
"Indeed, it isn't."
Nearby, Tsurara Oikawa, who was serving as an attendant, quietly approached her mother Yukari and whispered:
"Yamabuki Otome? Who's that, Mum?"
Yukari hesitated before answering:
"That was the name of the Second's former wife."
"Eh?" Tsurara gaped in shock. "Rihan-sama had an ex-wife?"
Her outburst immediately drew the attention of Luo Shu and Nurarihyon. Realising this, Tsurara hastily covered her mouth and bowed in apology:
"Sorry, I didn't mean to! I was just so surprised... Anyway, I'm truly very sorry."
Seeing her flustered state, Luo Shu ignored the Familia alert in his mind and smiled:
"You're Yukari's child, aren't you? Surprisingly cute, I must say."
"Compared to your mother, at least."
Yukari, standing right there, shot Luo Shu an exasperated look.
What did he mean, her daughter was cuter than her? How rude.
Meanwhile, Nurarihyon chuckled at Luo Shu's remark:
"Tsurara really is much more adorable than Yukari. Back then, Yukari tried to kill me the moment we met."
"Honestly, all I did was steal some leftover rice balls from her house."
Yukari coldly glared at him:
"Shut up, you old fool."
"Not speaking won't make you a mute."
Nurarihyon shrank back and promptly fell silent.
At this, Yukari frowned at Luo Shu and asked hesitantly:
"Why would you bring up Yamabuki Otome?"
"That name... no one should remember it anymore."
"No one remembers?" Tsurara looked at her mother in confusion... "How could no one remember the wife of the Nura Clan's second leader?"
"But that Yamabuki Otome seems to be the second leader's ex-wife? Did they divorce and have a falling out?"
Hearing Tsurara Oikawa's question, Luo Shu pointed at the documents on the table.
Seeing this, Yukari immediately stepped forward and picked up the files, scanning them briefly.
With that single glance, Yukari's face turned deathly pale:
"Resurrecting the dead... possession... Hagoromo Gitsune's vessel..."
A crackling sound filled the air.
In an instant, the entire reception room became covered entirely in bitingly cold ice and snow.
"Those bastards from the Hagoromo Group actually dare to disturb Otome's eternal rest? And they want to make her Hagoromo Gitsune's vessel? What are they planning?"
"Yukari, calm down."
Nurarihyon frowned and barked, his words infused with an overwhelming concentration of Fear energy.
The unique mental pressure of a yokai's Fear quickly restored Yukari's composure.
Immediately, the frost covering the reception room began melting rapidly, coalescing at Yukari's feet.
"My apologies, I lost control."
As Yukari retreated to stand aside, Nurarihyon sighed before turning to Luo Shu:
"I've heard about Otome's situation."
"In the past, she fell in love with and married my beloved son. After thirteen childless years of marriage, she left alone, consumed by depression."
"The next time I heard about her... was news of her death."
At this point, Nurarihyon could only lament the cruelty of fate.
Due to Hagoromo Gitsune's curse on Nurarihyon, his descendants could only produce offspring with humans.
Yamabuki Otome happened to be a ghost, a type of yokai, making it naturally impossible for her to bear children for Rihan Nura.
This had drawn some criticism within the Nura Clan.
After all, with the organisation's second leader childless and destined to remain so, the best outcome would have been for Rihan to take a human concubine.
Nurarihyon had tacitly approved this at the time. He'd even planned to persuade Otome to select a concubine for her husband as the principal wife.
For someone like Nurarihyon who hailed from the Warring States period, this wasn't strange at all.
In ancient times, childless principal wives would arrange for their husbands to take concubines, then adopt the resulting children as their own.
Such practices were commonplace in that era.
What Nurarihyon hadn't anticipated was Yamabuki Otome's decisive action - silently leaving behind a divorce letter and disappearing.
This directly led to a series of subsequent tragedies.
"It's my fault." Yukari's face was bloodlessly pale. "If I hadn't helped Otome conceal her whereabouts, preventing Rihan from finding her, she wouldn't have succumbed to depression and died alone in the mountains."
An ordinary ghost like Yamabuki Otome would normally have been recaptured immediately after leaving the Nura Clan.
After all, Rihan Nura would never have allowed his wife to divorce him over something that wasn't her fault.
Yet coincidentally, there had been an insider within the Nura Clan helping Otome.
That insider was Yukari Oikawa, who had practically raised Rihan Nura.
Although concealing Otome's location had been her own strong request, Rihan couldn't help but resent Yukari for carrying it out.
"...Ah." Nurarihyon sighed deeply. "The cruelty of fate."
Beside them, Tsurara Oikawa listened as Nurarihyon and Yukari Oikawa each recounted their stories. It took her a while to process it all before she finally reacted:
"So Mother left the Nura Clan a hundred years ago to retire in your hometown because of this?"
Yukari Oikawa didn't refute it. After all, in a way, she was indeed responsible for the death of Rihan Nura's wife, so she couldn't bear to stay in the clan.
If not for the drastic changes in the world and the sudden appearance of the Nura Clan in this realm, she would never have returned to serve at headquarters again.
But even so, whenever Yukari Oikawa was present, Rihan Nura would usually avoid her.
Just like today.
At this moment, Tsurara Oikawa suddenly understood why Rihan Nura had taken Lady Wakana out on a date so early in the morning.
So it was because he didn't want to see her mother.
Meanwhile, Nurarihyon frowned and looked at Luo Shu, who was sipping hot tea, and asked:
"Director Luo, is the intelligence in this report accurate?"
"Is Hagoromo Gitsune really planning to resurrect Yamabuki Otome and use her body as her vessel?"
Hagoromo Gitsune was a reincarnating yokai. Each time she was reborn, she would possess a human woman and use that body to give birth to Nue.
According to the information Luo Shu provided, Hagoromo Gitsune was now targeting Yamabuki Otome.
To be precise, it was Yamabuki Otome's human body before she became a ghost.
Hearing this, Luo Shu calmly replied:
"The source of this intelligence is somewhat special, so I'm afraid I can't disclose it."
Beside him, Kisara quietly thought to herself: 'Of course it's special... On the way here, Shu-kun dictated while driving, and I wrote it all down myself... I don't even know how he came up with this.'
In truth, the intelligence was indeed fabricated by Luo Shu—though the key details were real. After all, mixing truth with lies was how credible intelligence worked!
"Old Nurarihyon, you might want to consider why Hagoromo Gitsune specifically wants to use Yamabuki Otome's body as her vessel."
At these words, Nurarihyon's pupils contracted, his expression turning ashen as he exclaimed:
"Her target is Rihan?!!"