“Why would you sneak out without a bodyguard?! If something happens to you… I honestly don’t know what I would do.” Kon had been lecturing Lila for quite some time, but due to her silence, she repeated a few questions to find some logic in Lila’s actions.. “And you! Don’t think that I don't know you gave her a head start. Why didn’t you stop her?!” Out of frustration, she shifted her wrath to Haruaki.

  “Oh, please. She would keep trying to sneak out, so I just let it be with a shikigami to protect her. Besides, if you had told her the danger of being an akuma in Spiritus, she might have stayed put.”

  “No, I wouldn’t.”

  Both turned to Lila with different exasperated expressions. Kon's concern for Lila’s lack of self-preservation on this topic worried her immensely. Meanwhile, Haruaki was doing his best to message the cheeky princess to shut up before they both got into worse trouble.

  “On this topic, do you know what an akuma is?” She inquired about this because Kon was still thinking about how to tell her how dangerous her situation was, but it was evident that someone had told her, and she suspected Haruaki.

  “I will answer if you tell me what a Night Parade is.”

  Both Haruaki and Kon stared at her like she grew an extra head when she said this. Not only because of the question about Night Parades but she was a little too nonchalant about the word akuma, letting them think that she already heard the word before Haruaki saying it to force Kon to tell her.

  “Damn those nurarihyon.” Kon sighed deeply as she saw that she wasn’t going to easily get any answers out of Lila without either forcing her or answering this question.

  ‘I suppose this is as good a time as any to tell her a bit more about the Kyubi clans’ history.’ Kon thought as she came to a decision.

  “A Night Parade is the name of the main force for the Spiritus mobsters. Though only the nurarihyon still uses it. A Night Parade is a faction's top hundred yokai meeting up to fight, and every member of the Nurarihyon clan must build their own Night Parade before either inheriting their parent’s territory or leaving to claim their own territory to expand the clan's influence.

  The Kyubi clan leaves them be because they serve many roles. One is keeping the underworld in line and stopping criminals from going too far. The other is they overthrow tyrants whenever one appears in Spiritus. They’ve actually overthrown the Kyubi clan twice.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Lila was surprised to hear this. She thought the kitsune always ruled Spiritus and without question.

  “Why aren’t they ruling over Spiritus then?” She asked, hoping to get clarification.

  “They don’t want to. Each of them just wants to carve out their own little kingdom and live in peace and with minimal hassle. While we do pursue them for their criminal behavior, they are low on the priority list since the damage they cause is minimal, and the help the Spiritus faction gains from having them far outweighs the detriments. Besides, the first few generations of the Kyubi clan were dictators.”

  When explaining this, Kon’s and Haruaki’s minds both went straight to Tamamo-no-Mae, one of the three great evils and the original nine-tailed fox. Both times the Kyubi clan was overthrown she was leading Spiritus. Even now, many believe she is still alive somewhere.

  “That’s weird but interesting.” Lila's response gave Haruaki a slight chuckle that was quickly silenced with a glare from Kon.

  “Now your turn, missy. Who told you, and where did you learn about akumas?” Kon asked in that tone only mothers have where you know you’re damned either way. When Lila tried to think of a way out of this situation, she got nothing. She didn’t even have any leverage to try to shift her focus to Haruaki, who was the only other person she knew. Instead, she tried to insinuate that she had overheard some servants talking, but Kon did not have any of it.

  “The truth, Lila.” Kon’s glare was even more intense. Knowing that Lila was part-fae, she would have to talk now that Kon did as requested in the exchange. As far as she was concerned, it was the only current silver lining in having a daughter that’s part-fae.

  With her ears and tail both down, Lila began to confess. She told her about Tetsu but left out the part about being attacked by tengu and just left it as she couldn’t control her eyes. The truth was that Tetsu was the first to point out that her eyes changed color to her. He mentioned this when he explained what akumas were to her.

  “So, a nurarihyon followed you, noticed your eyes changing, and despite knowing you were an akuma, he asked you to join his Night Parade. Does that sum it up?” Kon asked, not believing for a second that Lila was telling the complete truth. She had a lousy poker face.

  “Yes ma'am.” It was only in moments like this that she needed to appease someone to avoid trouble from a paternal figure that she would become polite.

  “To bed with you.” Kon ordered with a deep sigh as she waved Lila off, who ran out of the room as fast as she could to avoid any more lecturing.

  “So, what really happened, Haruaki?”

  “Who can tell?” When saying this, Haruaki opened up a fan to hide his smirk. He had indeed known about the tengu and had already begun cleaning the scene. By morning there would be no sign that the skirmish ever occurred.

  “Be gone with you as well and your secrets. I expect you to tell me in due time.”

  “I always tell you when you need to know, and right now, you need to calm down first. Perhaps in the morning.” Haruaki mentioned this before fading away as he teleported to his residence and meditated until it was time to train Lila. He had ideas on how to get back at Lila for giving him such a headache.

  Meanwhile, Kon was cursing that she oversaw not just a clan of tricksters but an entire species of them when not leading her faction. She started to think that if all she had to deal with were angry, belligerent drunks like Shuten-Doji then her life would be so much simpler.