In Inazuma, there exists a wondrous type of youkai.
They feed on people's dreams and generally only consume nightmares.
Those whose nightmares have been eaten find their inner emotions sorted out, allowing them to face tomorrow with beautiful expectations for the future.
It is said that they can also eat happy dreams, but consuming happy dreams causes people's positive emotions to diminish, which can push them toward extremes.
Therefore, in order to protect the mental health of the people of Inazuma, this clan has an ancestral precept: they are not permitted to eat humans' happy dreams without authorization.
This is the Baku clan of Inazuma—the dream-eating Baku—who subsist on dreams.
When Baku eat nightmares, they usually find them rather tasteless. However, once they come to understand human emotions, those nightmares become quite unappetizing.
Fortunately, not many Baku can understand human emotions, so most of them can still eat nightmares carefree and happily without a worry in the world.
But among them are some who can understand human emotions—for example, our dear Yumemizuki Mizuki, a Baku lady who has lived for at least five hundred years.
Recently, Yumemizuki Mizuki had noticed that her good friend Yae Miko seemed to be in a rather irritable mood.
She didn't know what had happened, but she could tell Miko's emotions were very poor. Mizuki wanted to help her, yet she had no idea where to start.
Ever since many of her seniors departed five hundred years ago, Miko had changed completely—become someone Mizuki found difficult to approach.
Mizuki had tried to open her heart many times, but nothing ever came of it. She discovered that an unfamiliar silence had settled between herself and Miko.
This time was no different—Miko's usual composure made Mizuki feel as though there was nothing she could do.
While digesting nightmares out in the wild, she came across an Akademiya student whose negative emotions were nearly driving them insane…
Out of concern for this student, Mizuki followed them, intending to eat their nightmares and thereby relieve the excessive tension in their heart.
And so, she arrived at the shrine of Lord Shura Anyakonsen-shou.
Then Mizuki saw the student being healed by the little foxes. Though they had been incredibly tense before, after touching the soft fur of the little foxes, their tension unexpectedly eased a great deal.
At the same time, driven by curiosity, Mizuki curiously stepped into this little cabin.
And she became the first—youkai, rather—to lay eyes on Lord Shura Anyakonsen-shou's writings.
"How to Make Foxes Enjoy Being Pet: 100 Methods"
"Tactile Receptivity in Fox Species (Vulpes spp.) and Their Physiological Stress Responses"
"The Psychology of Foxes"
And many other research materials besides.
Mizuki had never left the country before, and this was her first time encountering such things. But after seeing these research materials, she clearly understood one thing.
The path to saving her good friend lay within them.
So Mizuki simply immersed herself in this little cabin, studying the bodies and emotions of foxes.
Before the shrine maidens arrived for the expansion work, Mizuki had been conducting her "petting fox trials" inside this little cabin all along.
Unfortunately, she seemed to lack much talent in this area. Even after so long, she had only managed to master a portion of fox-related knowledge.
What could Mizuki do? The only thing she could do was study hard.
And as the shrine maidens arrived, Mizuki also learned that the owner of this residence was a human who had been officially recognized as a god by the Shogun herself.
Human wisdom truly is impressive…
Yumemizuki Mizuki expressed her recognition of Lord Shura Anyakonsen-shou's wisdom.
Then, looking at how little wisdom she herself had learned so far, Mizuki chose to continue earnestly trying to understand fox emotions…
However, today's study session encountered a special situation.
She had only just successfully established a friendly relationship with the fox pack when, as if the foxes had sensed the arrival of someone important, they all rushed out of the little cabin.
Could it be… that the astonishingly brilliant Lord Shura Anyakonsen-shou, the one who wrote these works, has returned?
Yumemizuki Mizuki stepped out of the little cabin and looked toward the middle-aged human surrounded by the fox pack, feeling a surge of excitement in her heart.
"…Is it… Lord Shura Anyakonsen-shou?"