My journey East was quick and painless, unlike when I went West. Arriving in the Land of the Rising Sun was an simple, simply arriving with the various Buddhists that sought to spread their beliefs to country. I had no plans of getting involved, simply exploring the Islands during my time here. A benefit of Japan being filled with spirits was that I could walk around without hiding my wings, with most just mistaking me for a Buddhist Tengu and calling me as such with the name Sōjōbō. I made my home on Mount Kurama, a nice little retreat while I enjoyed the peace in these lands.
It wasn't without its problems however, what with the actual Tengu deciding to test themselves against me. Many of the winged spirits had habit of challenging me to combat, and when I beat them with minimal effort they retreated claiming that they would be back and take my title from me. What title, I didn't know but they were a decent source of amusement and kept my skills sharp. It wasn't until some of those same Tengu begged at my feet for me to teach them that I realized at some point they named me as their King. What the actual Fuck. I didn't reject them, taking them in and teaching them some basic skills so they wouldn't get bodied by anything stronger than a newborn dove.
It was in this way that I passed the years, teaching various yokai that showed up and battling any challengers that wanted my title. It was honestly a lot more peaceful here than it was in China, ad doubly so for Europe. If I was right Kokabiel showed be making himself a nuisance to the King of the Franks right about now , leaving me free to just enjoy the low stakes, simple life I had in the mountains.
At some point one of the Tengu brought up Senjutsu, and Tokai with it. At my admittance that I didn't know either I think a couple of my followers straight up killed themselves from the shame, the rest so horrified that they lost so handedly to someone that new nothing of their basic abilities. Their words, not mine. Some of my disciples attempted to teach me the basics of Senjutsu and then quietly despaired upon me achieving it almost immediately.
My genius is almost frightening.
I had an honest to HIM great time learning all the aspects of my new powers, cause life force manipulation was something I lacked before but opened up so many doors with my previous projects. I was honestly oblivious to the passing of years as I preformed MAD SCIENCE in my mountain home. It was only when some of my minions let me know that some Monster Slayers were making rounds through the providence that I realized that a few hundred years had passed. Seeing the unfortunately male Shuten-dōji get murdered was a neat way to pass some time, and collecting his corpse and spirit was relatively simple.
It was only a few years later that I got news of a certain Emperor gaining a new consort, a woman of unparalleled beauty and wisdom. Making my way into the imperial court to meet the famed fox wasn't especially difficult, though studying the work of Abe no Seimei was a distraction that delayed the meeting. At first glace there was nothing especially noteworthy about the consort outside of her beauty. Though thanks to my time in this land as well as vast experience with divinity I was able to sense something buried within her. Watching her from a distance became something of a hobby, a neat way of passing the time. She was no demon that terrorized the land like history painted her as, rather she was just a women devoted to her lord and I could respect that.
Which actually caused me some level of anger when the Emperor got sick and Abe decided to ruin everything. The hack saw that poor Tamamo was more than human, revealed her in front of the emperor and his entire court, and placed all the blame on her. And the emperor believed him. She managed to escape from the palace alive but was hunted down. It was only then did I step in, watching as the hope leave her and she accepted her death. It wasn't difficult to summon a stone and enchant the thing to bear her aura, not whisk her away to my mountain home.
She was despondent for some time, barely eating or drinking in her despair over her betrayal. Eventually she started to respond to the world again, regaining her will to live as she helped me around my home. We lived that way for some time, her helping me and me caring for her. Then the brat appeared, some 10 year old kid that I met at a festival located on my mountain. Kid was mourning the loss of her Father and I offered her some training. She became something of a fixture in my life after that, soaking all my knowledge like a sponge. Little Ushi had also endeared herself to the foxy waifu I kept around, learning some of the magic the fox practiced whenever I wasn't teaching her to kill better. By the time she left my care I was certain that it would take an actual god to kill her, with the amount of bullshit I taught her. Then a decade later I heard word that she was killed by her brother in betrayal. He died screaming begging the Buddha for mercy as an angry fox tore him apart.
I left Japan on a sour note, having a lot of pent up rage I needed to get out of my system. Thankfully back in Europe the entire area was full of acceptable targets.