Chapter 151: Arrival and Awakening

The very first thing Kurama did upon snapping back to his senses was to flick his wrist with practiced agility, casting a whip of thorny vines that wrapped around Mokona, reeled the little creature in, and securely cradled him against his chest.

"Are you alright, Mokona?"

The Youko asked softly, gently pinching the little one’s soft, fluffy furry ears.

Even as they plummeted through the sky at breakneck speed—falling not toward some uninhabited wilderness by a stroke of random good fortune as they had previously, but directly down upon a super-metropolis that blazed with brilliant neon lights and bustled with noise and luxury even in the dead of night—Kurama’s primary concern and utmost priority remained solely the well-being of his personal little white ball of fluff, rather than anything else.

Sensing this, Mokona’s eyes curved into crescent moons, beaming with delight.

He wiggled a few inches upward against Kurama’s arm, burying himself into the crook of the Youko's neck and rubbing his round little body back and forth affectionately.

"I'm fine! Only, when we sliced through the dimensional barrier earlier, it felt like we crashed into something... Hmm... sort of like the world where we met Diarmuid, but with a slightly different texture to it."

"If I really have to describe it, this time feels so much more obnoxious than that time. It's as if something filthy brushed against us, leaving behind a thoroughly, utterly unpleasant sensation!"

With that, the little white ball knitted his tiny brows together, wrinkling his cute little face until he looked even more like a freshly baked, soft and fluffy white bun.

Kurama frowned slightly at those words.

"Utterly, utterly unpleasant"?

This was a description Mokona rarely ever used.

Though it might not be entirely fair to say, Mokona possessed a much higher tolerance than most adults, which also granted him a remarkably robust adaptability to various environments. Theoretically speaking, no matter how dire the situation, Mokona would rarely find something genuinely "unpleasant," usually limiting his reactions to mere "dislike" or "annoyance"—after all, adaptation was one thing, while sensory acceptance was entirely another.

Yet this situation was vastly out of the ordinary; Mokona had first expressed dislike, and then declared it genuinely unpleasant...

Exchanging a thoughtful look with Hades, the Youko lowered his head and rubbed his chin against the soft crown of the little creature's head.

"Well... Mokona, could you bear with it a little longer? Once we land, we'll find a place to settle down first, and after setting up a barrier, we'll have Hades wipe away that unpleasant aura for you."

As expected, the little white ball nodded obediently without the slightest trace of grievance. "Okay."

That sensible, adorable, and considerate little expression almost melted the Youko's heart right on the spot!

Without further ado, the group collectively accelerated their descent. Enveloped by the illusory plant barrier that Kurama had long since mastered to perfection, their sudden arrival failed to attract even the slightest hint of attention.

However, a slight mishap occurred right as they were about to touch down.

The rooftop they had arbitrarily chosen as a landing point had been completely deserted moments before. Yet, no sooner had their feet touched the concrete than the rooftop's security door was forcefully flung open, and a strange young man with short silver hair and a black trench coat stepped out.

To call him "strange" was because the newcomer possessed a face that anyone would have to admit was quite delicately handsome no matter how they looked at it, but the expression carved upon that face was utterly impossible to warm up to—

The corners of his lips were slanted upward, imbuing his smile with an unconscious, ferocious edge; his clear, striking brows were filled with a hostile malice that evoked a baseless sense of dread; his hands were shoved deep into his pockets, and his gait was unsteady and swaying, much like someone who had consumed too much alcohol and lost precise control over his own limbs...

In short, the overall impression he gave was one of profound dissonance.

Kurama raised an eyebrow, almost imperceptibly.

*I have a vague feeling... that I've seen this face somewhere before.*

Yet, compared to that, Mokona's comfort was naturally of far greater importance at the moment.

Thus, the Youko merely cast a fleeting glance at the strange youth—who had marched straight for the edge of the railing the moment he reached the roof—before holding his little white companion and preparing to leave.

To his surprise, just as he was about to step away, his sleeve was tugged gently by Mokona.

"Mokona?"

"...That person feels really strange."

The little white ball curled up inside his arms, his voice muffled.

"Strange?" Kurama blinked.

He had a gut feeling that the "strange" Mokona was referring to was not quite the same as the "strange" he himself had sensed from the youth.

Sure enough, upon hearing his question, the little white ball nodded listlessly.

"It's that same unpleasant aura. It's so, so similar to the one Mokona felt earlier!"

As he spoke, he clenched his tiny fist and shook it vigorously, a gesture that was simply impossibly cute!

Even though a flurry of thoughts had instantly raced through Kurama's mind upon hearing those words, he couldn't help but smile, reaching out to pinch the little one's soft little belly.

"Alright, I understand. Don't worry, Mokona, we'll go figure out what's really going on with him right now."

With that, he turned his head and cast an expectant gaze toward his Lord Underworld.

The black-haired deity met his look with a helpless yet indulgent expression. "You mischievous creature. What do you think the power of the Cosmos is?"

Despite those words, the Lord of the Underworld activated the sensory power of his Cosmos the very moment his lover's eyes turned to him, scanning the silver-haired youth's entire body inch by inch...

At the exact instant Hades projected his Cosmos perception, the target seemed to sense something, lifting his head to gaze around in all directions.

"Is someone spying on me...?"

He muttered, not bothering to lower his voice at all.

Both Thanatos and Hypnos were startled—*His senses are actually this sharp?!*

One had to know that, aside from the select few chosen as God Warriors, ordinary humans were completely incapable of sensing the existence of the Cosmos.

In the Sanctuary world where Thanatos, Hypnos, and Lord Hades originally resided, the God Warriors serving under various deities—such as the Goddess Athena, the Emperor of the Sea Poseidon, and the Underworld King Hades—were as rare as unicorn horns compared to the vast populace of ordinary mortals. Even in the shinobi world they had traversed previously, due to the unique nature of the chakra power system, the twin gods had only encountered a countable handful of individuals who could keenly perceive the aura of the Cosmos.

Therefore, upon arriving in this unfamiliar new world, to stumble upon a human with such acute perception of the Cosmos's aura right off the bat...

Thanatos and Hypnos exchanged an astonished glance, silently putting away the slight contempt they had subconsciously harbored upon arriving in what they initially assumed to be an entirely "ordinary" world.

Hades and Kurama, by contrast, appeared considerably more composed.

"An exceptional talent in spiritual power?"

The Youko raised an eyebrow.

Hades pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "No."

Rather than calling it an exceptional talent in spiritual power, it was more like...

As the Underworld King prepared to refine his Cosmos probe to make it even more subtle and undetectable, the security door leading to the roof was pushed open once more.

Stepping through this time was a slender young man with soft, flaxen short hair.

He was holding a somewhat outdated video camera, whispering a commentary into the device regarding the scene he was filming. When his gaze drifted and landed on the silver-haired youth—who was swaying back and forth near the rooftop railing while humming an out-of-tune melody—a look of distinct surprise crossed his face, but it quickly melted into a smile as he took a couple of steps closer.

"Yo, what a nice night out ~"

He greeted the other cheerfully.

"I'm here to shoot some night scenery. What are you doing up here?"

"............"

Before the youth—permeated from head to toe by a palpable sense of dissonance—could offer a reply, Kurama once again experienced a fleeting sense of inexplicable familiarity.

*Where on earth have I seen him before?*

He rubbed his chin in puzzlement.

The very next second, accompanied by the flaxen-haired youth speaking once more, the Youko finally pinned down the origin of that mysterious familiarity...

"My name is Totsuka Tatara, and you are?"

—Simultaneously with the young man's gentle, smiling self-introduction, there rang out a sudden, unheralded, deafening gunshot!

***

"So that's why Mokona felt uncomfortable back then..."

Cradling the little white ball—now freshly scrubbed and smelling delightfully sweet after using his exclusive body wash—Kurama used an ultra-soft, oversized bath towel to dry the little fellow's semi-damp fur while letting out a faint sigh now that he finally had a moment of leisure.

The little white ball being treated to the towel service squinted his eyes in pure bliss.

The obnoxious sensation from earlier had been thoroughly cleansed away by Hades using a heavy concentration of Cosmos energy. Right now, enveloped entirely in the cool, soothing aura of the Underworld King, Mokona felt a sense of indescribable freshness and comfort, to the extent that being rubbed down by Kurama like this...

The sleepy, blissfully happy expression on his face was simply beyond adorable!

Not receiving any verbal response from his little ball of fluff, the Youko smiled helplessly and affectionately, softening his movements even further. After rubbing for a bit longer until he was certain the little one's fur was completely dry and fluffy, he carefully tucked him deep into the soft blankets and patted him to sleep, then quietly retreated from the bedroom.

In the sitting room, the Lord of the Underworld and the Twin Gods of Sleep and Death were seated opposite each other across a pair of facing sofas. Resting squarely in the center of the glass coffee table between the three of them was a perfectly transparent, quail-egg-sized glass sphere. Looking closely, dense white mist could be seen rolling and churning within the orb from time to time, making it look much like an exquisite magic toy ball...

"Really, is there no more impressive trick than this?"

Looking thoroughly bored, Thanatos extended a slender finger and casually poked the motionless sphere.

The white mist trapped inside instantly roiled violently, churning as if to blot out the sky.

The God of Death curled his lip in disdain. "Mere parlor tricks."

With that, he straightened up and ceased paying attention to the increasingly turbulent mist.

Hypnos, seated beside him, chuckled softly and reached out to ruffle Thanatos's hair.

Naturally, his hand was batted away a second later by the God of Death with a cold, ruthless, and entirely unreasonable swat.

"Stop messing with my hair!"

He lifted his chin, striking a pose of extreme aloofness and haughty dignity!

Hypnos silently watched him for a moment before suddenly turning his head away and letting out a muffled snort of amusement.

"............"

For a fleeting second—whether it was Kurama's imagination or not—the cross-shaped vein throbbing on Thanatos's temple looked as though it were multiplying enough to decorate a Christmas tree... (Ahem)

Suppressing a smile, the Youko walked over toward the trio.

Before he even drew close to the coffee table, the transparent sphere resting upon it suddenly vibrated violently. Then, amidst Hades's abruptly sharpening gaze, a streak of white light shot out from the interior of the orb, hurtling at lightning speed directly toward the seemingly undefended Kurama!

"Clang!"

At the very brink of a crisis, accompanied by a crisp metallic chime, an intense burst of brilliant white light erupted within the room!

When the radiance finally faded, a tall, slender, dark-green-clad figure had materialized out of thin air directly in front of Kurama...

"My Lord..."

The handsome heroic spirit, holding dual lances and wearing a resolute expression, turned his head slightly to address the person standing behind him.