Please to Kitsune-sama!

The headquarters of the clan “Black Fang.” Though located slightly off from Tokyo’s prime districts, simply owning a building in Tokyo in this age was a huge status symbol. And “Black Fang” was particularly sensitive when it came to appearances.

They knew that by building that image from the outside, they could pretend to be a respectable clan.

Having poured a great deal of money into acquiring a small-scale building of their own, the inside of said building was currently in a state of chaos.

“Wake up the ones who are sleeping too! Get everyone down here! That damn fox girl… She’s treating Black Fang like a joke!”

“That’s right, Master! Let’s crush her!”

Just what had that man told them about Inari…? The one who had been thrown by her and then got a declaration of war over the phone was now groveling by the clan leader’s side. But maybe his behavior was annoying, because the clan leader suddenly backhanded him across the room.

“Gwaagh!?”

“You’re the reason that brat got cocky! If you hadn’t embarrassed yourself, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“S-sorry, sir!”

“Damn it! She thinks she’s gonna charge in here now!? Does she even know where the hell this is!? She’s not just getting hurt—she’s gonna regret ever crossing us…!”

In an era where Awakeners had become a dominant force, many clans had essentially turned into organized crime groups. “Black Fang” was no exception—dabbling in businesses like high-interest lending that would have been blatantly illegal in the old days. You could say they only existed because the old norms of society had completely collapsed.

And perhaps because they’d grown so used to that free-wheeling lifestyle, they fixated on trivial matters like pride and face.

Which is exactly why they didn’t notice when the tone of the commotion on the lower floors started to change.

Because the idea that such a thing could happen… was unthinkable to them.

They didn’t notice that, at that very moment, Inari had just arrived at their front doors in a car bearing the Awakener Association’s insignia.

And as the car pulled up outside the building, unrest rippled through the lobby staff.

Naturally, it grew even louder when Inari stepped out. No one expected the girl they’d just been shown a photo of would actually show up. But Inari wore a faint, serene smile the entire time.

“Ohhh… So this be the lair of yon ‘Black Fang’ rabble, is it?”

“Y-you… You little shit! You came here in an Association car!? Trying to intimidate us!?”

“Nay, nay. They hath been instructed to remember naught of what transpires henceforth.”

With that, Inari curled her fingers in a beckoning gesture toward the man.

“Come then. No need to tremble so—thou mayst strike as thou please.”

“Y-you little…!”

The man swung a sheathed Awakener sword at her, clearly intending to break an arm or two. His body language made that much very obvious.

“…Huh?”

In the next moment, he was airborne.

He didn’t even know how or when he’d been thrown.

“Judo? No… Aikido…?”

By the time that thought flickered in his head, his body had already slammed into the floor. A gasp burst from his lungs—keugh!

“Skills be a most convenient thing. They trigger the moment one intends to use them, dost they not?”

“S-she’s a melee fighter!”

“Surround her and fire!”

The ranged dealers—mages and archers—trained their weapons on her.

But then they blinked, because Inari wasn’t standing there anymore.

One of the archers noticed it first. There she was—right in front of him, looking up with fox ears perked and eyes shining.

“Guh—!?”

“Foolish, are ye not? Standin’ still like that when thou be vulnerable to close range—might as well hang a sign beggin’ to be struck.”

Her palm shot up in an uppercut that cracked his chin. He crumpled.

By the time his body hit the floor, Inari was already smashing the next long-range dealer. The close-range fighters—who had finally realized she wasn’t ordinary—rushed at her with weapons drawn.

But they too were tossed aside, one after another.

“What are you all doing!? Letting a brat like this—gweuh!”

The man shouting orders was swept off his feet by a swift leg sweep and slammed to the floor on his back.

“Y-you…! Guh!”

“Oho, thou art bold indeed. But how pitiable—hast thou realized thou liest now beneath the very heel of that ‘brat’?”

Pinned under Inari’s foot, the man began to panic as he realized he couldn’t even get up.

“C-can’t win… What the hell is she? She’s doing all this barehanded…? Impossible!”

“Y-you think you can take us all by yourself!?”

“Aye. ‘Tis child’s play.”

“Wha…!?”

Still standing atop him, Inari smiled.

But her eyes weren’t smiling at all. Cold fury shimmered in her gaze.

“If thou couldst not even make me call upon Kogetsu, then thou wert never mine equal to begin with.”

Yes, Iijima had asked that she avoid killing anyone this time. And Inari intended to obey.

Otherwise, she’d have used Kogetsu’s bow form to reduce the entire building to rubble by now.

“But even so, a wee bit of punishment is in order, wouldst thou not agree? To start, I shall gift thee the disgrace of having lost to a single young lass, thou pitiful dullard.”