Chapter 57: An Extraordinary Heian Period

【Tamamo-no-Mae!!!】

【I'm not hearing things, right? That supernatural-world child just said Tamamo-no-Mae?】

【Tamamo-no-Mae's banquet?!】

Everyone watching the video, upon reaching this segment, was struck as if by lightning, standing rigid and stunned, their minds suddenly emptied, unable to think for a moment.

This sentence contained an enormous amount of information.

Those older-generation supernatural-world scholars, who had just been rescued from the shock that the ancient city was Heian-kyo, the moment they saw this part of the video, their legs gave out and they fainted again—and this time, a portion of those old scholars passed away for good.

No one could recover their wits in a short time; the shock was beyond description, each and every one petrified on the spot.

The supernatural-world child's words were very clear; everyone heard them distinctly.

He mentioned Tamamo-no-Mae.

Combined with the direction Che Luan had headed—toward the ancient city…

No need to think: Tamamo-no-Mae's banquet was being held in the ancient city, and the earlier video had shown the city's plaque, revealing the ancient city to be Heian-kyo!

Every piece of information pointed to the same conclusion for the world.

The ancient city was Heian-kyo, and its ruler was Tamamo-no-Mae!!

In an instant, the histories of the Heian period that recorded the ancient lore of supernatural beings were dug up, and all supernatural-world scholars, and anyone with knowledge of supernatural beings, one after another thought of a certain piece of ancient history—a story about Tamamo-no-Mae recorded in Japanese history.

Legend has it that at the End of the era, during the cloistered rule of Emperor Toba in the Heian period, there appeared a woman of peerless beauty transformed from a white-faced, golden-furred nine-tailed fox. Possessed of vast learning and matchless, nation-toppling beauty, she was called Japan's foremost talented woman.

Her beauty and talent won the favor of Emperor Toba, who took her as his consort.

This beauty was Tamamo-no-Mae.

Recalling this history, they were nearly certain in their hearts that the ruler of the ancient city was Tamamo-no-Mae.

"Heian-kyo was the imperial capital of the Heian period, the residence of the Emperor. As the Emperor's consort, Tamamo-no-Mae naturally also lived in Heian-kyo.

Then, when the supernatural-world child and the Lord of Ghosts and Spirits headed toward the ancient city, he spoke Tamamo-no-Mae's name.

Don't you think that's quite a coincidence?

The ancient city is called Heian-kyo, and inside it there's also Tamamo-no-Mae.

This kind of coincidence is too much of a coincidence—too coincidental to be a coincidence. It can only point to one thing: the ruler of that ancient city is Tamamo-no-Mae.

As for why I say so.

It's because many scholars online have now inferred a conclusion: in ancient times, humans and supernatural beings did intersect, living together in this world. It was only because of certain events that all the supernatural beings went to the Supernatural world.

Tamamo-no-Mae was also a supernatural being, so naturally she had to go to the Supernatural world.

Then, let's think about it this way.

Because Tamamo-no-Mae had to go to the Supernatural world, but she had lived in Heian-kyo for many years during the Heian period, enjoying luxury, and had grown accustomed to living there. So after Tamamo-no-Mae went to the Supernatural world, out of habit, or perhaps out of nostalgia, she used Heian-kyo as a blueprint to build the ancient city, and named the ancient city 'Heian-kyo.'

That's why we now see the supernatural-world child, when heading to Heian-kyo, mention Tamamo-no-Mae."

Tsuchimikado Xia Mei voiced her conjecture.

The entire class fell silent.

Even when the class bell rang and the history teacher walked in, he too was stunned.

The history teacher stared blankly at Tsuchimikado Xia Mei, his gaze filled with shock.

Tsuchimikado-san! Your conjecture… is far too bold.

To tell the truth, the history teacher very much wanted to refute it, but he couldn't find any grounds for rebuttal, because Tsuchimikado Xia Mei's conjecture was very reasonable, with no flaws to be found.

The only possible flaw was one.

"Um… Tsuchimikado-san, if we follow your reasoning, Tamamo-no-Mae used Heian-kyo as a blueprint to build the ancient city, but the ancient records describe Heian-kyo as quite small, and its luxury nowhere near that of the ancient city."

The matter of Yunhu had spread throughout Arakawa Ward; men, women, old, and young were all paying attention, and even the history teacher's own teacher was likewise following it closely.

Tsuchimikado Xia Mei's conjecture touched on history, and even more on supernatural beings—how could the history teacher possibly have the heart to teach class?

He had no intention of teaching, at least not until he got to the bottom of it.

Tsuchimikado Xia Mei looked over, smiled composedly, and said very calmly.

"Teacher, I've thought about that point of yours. It involves another conjecture of mine—one that might strike everyone as inconceivable."

In an instant.

Everyone pricked up their ears; even the history teacher listened intently, and Kamikawa Mitsu also turned his gaze toward her.

"This conjecture still holds that the ancient city is ruled by Tamamo-no-Mae.

The only difference is: Heian-kyo is the ancient city!

Yes, my conjecture is that when Tamamo-no-Mae went to the Supernatural world, in order to keep living in Heian-kyo, she uprooted the entire Heian-kyo and brought it with her into the Supernatural world.

The ancient city we now see is actually the Heian-kyo of the Heian period!! That is the true original appearance of Heian-kyo.

As for the Heian-kyo recorded in our ancient texts, it was probably just the outer commoner towns of the former Heian-kyo—Tamamo-no-Mae couldn't be bothered to move those outer commoner towns.

Think about it: if the ancient city is already so vast and splendid, then the Heian period must have been far more magnificent and glorious than we imagine. Even the commoner towns probably looked about the size of present-day Osaka Castle. So the people who recorded the ancient history didn't know Heian-kyo was gone—they simply assumed, without thinking, that the commoner towns at the location of Heian-kyo were Heian-kyo itself."

Thud.

The history teacher's heart trembled violently; his grip on the history textbook slipped, and it fell to the floor.

Everyone present was dumbfounded.

Tsuchimikado Xia Mei's conjecture was far too bold; her thinking was ahead of its time, and the leaps in her logic left people unable to react for a moment.

The ancient city was no ordinary city—it was incomparably vast, blotting out the sky. It was hard to imagine who could move such an enormous city; it would be harder than moving Mount Fuji, harder than moving the stars in the heavens.

But, on second thought.

What ordinary people couldn't do didn't mean supernatural beings couldn't.

Consider: when the Lord of Ghosts and Spirits emerged, heaven and earth bowed before him. Yet, looking at it now, the Lord of Ghosts and Spirits cannot be Tamamo-no-Mae—after all, if it really were Tamamo-no-Mae, the supernatural-world child wouldn't have spoken that way.

So the Lord of Ghosts and Spirits returns to the original inference: he should be Shuten-doji.

Tamamo-no-Mae, honored as one of the three great demon kings alongside Shuten-doji, naturally would not be much weaker than Shuten-doji. If she wished to move the ancient city from the real world to the Supernatural world, in theory the possibility was infinitely great.

Thinking it over, everything fell into place.

"Tsuchimikado-san, that's amazing."

"Yeah, Tsuchimikado-san is way too amazing, to even think of something like this."

"I think things must be exactly the way Tsuchimikado-san guessed. What do you think, teacher?"

The history teacher pushed his glasses up, pondering briefly: "Although Tsuchimikado-san's second hypothesis sounds like a wild fantasy, for a yokai it's very reasonable. In terms of plausibility, logic, and creativity, this guess fits the situation perfectly."

In an instant.

The history teacher and the classmates all agreed with Tsuchimikado Xia Mei's idea, and some were utterly won over by it.

Among those won over, Kamikawa Mitsu was one of them.

Kamikawa Mitsu looked at Tsuchimikado Xia Mei, his mouth slightly open.

Tsuchimikado-san, should I call you clever, or should I say your imagination is just too wild? The BUG I created myself, and you actually patched the story up for me, and patched it so reasonably and logically at that.

……

(Three updates today, and if today's recommendation votes break 1000, I'll add another chapter!! Ahhhhhh! I'll go all out for the recommendation votes!)