“It’s just like I heard,” mumbled Youmu Konpaku. She had made her way to the Sanzu River to investigate an ongoing incident, and she watched as animal spirits of Hell traversed the river on their way to invade the human world. Suddenly, she drew her beloved blades and decided to begin her “investigation” in earnest.

…But was she acting on her own free will?

This is a tale from an incident that saw Youmu and an animal spirit make their way through the Animal Realm to the Primate Spirit Garden, where they faced off against the sculptor god. It’s a tale that may or may not be true…

First, Youmu made her way to Sai no Kawara, where she accidentally knocked over the stillborn idol’s stone stack. She wasn’t concerned, though. After all, she had an incident to investigate.

At the Sanzu River, she bumped into an ushi-oni, who demanded a battle. The battle turned out to be good exercise, and afterward, the ushi-oni kindly gave Youmu directions. Youmu was truly grateful for the battle, though, as a simple incident investigation wasn’t enough to satisfy her.

“Hold on… Did that ushi-oni call me the laidback Netherworld gardener? Am I really that laidback? Not to mention this strange feeling. Is my heart racing…? Hmm… Maybe this incident’s affecting me somehow. In any case, I gotta keep moving.”

At Higan, Youmu faced the chicken god’s test. She passed, and the chicken god opened the gates to Hell for her. In truth, Youmu wasn’t all that keen on going to Hell, but she figured with her swords at the ready, she’d be fine.

In Hell, she came across the leader of the Kiketsu Family. Safe to say Youmu didn’t take a liking to her, but she was grateful for the information she received and for being guided through Hell.

“Wait… what was I just thinking about? It feels like there’s someone other than me in my head… I haven’t been feeling right since I started this investigation. Maybe Lady Yuyuko will know what’s wrong with me. I better finish this quickly and get back to her.”

Youmu’s incident investigation led her to the Animal Realm and the Primate Spirit Garden, but to think she’d been possessed by animal spirits!

“That’s why I was feeling strange before… I can’t believe I was possessed. My training is clearly far from complete. I feel like I might’ve gone a bit overboard at Sai no Kawara. Next time I see that stone-stacking girl, I’ll make sure to apologize… But at the same time, I kinda want to knock down ALL the stacks of stones. I know that’s not a nice thing to do, so why do I want to do it? Is it me who wants to knock them down? Or could it be…?”

On the day an incident involving animal spirits was resolved, the searing light of Youmu’s blades pierced the twilight sky. She was locked in battle, but her opponent couldn’t help but feel something was off about the half-human half-phantom swordswoman.

“This isn’t the Youmu Konpaku I know. She seems far more aggressive, cunning, and calculating… Hm, maybe I’m just imagining things.”

Her opponent felt like she saw three animal spirits around Youmu. It could’ve simply been a trick of light, or perhaps Youmu had been possessed like she had been in a prior incident. The only one who knew for sure was Youmu. Then again, maybe even she didn’t know. As it happens, there was no one present with the capability of finding out.