"Yayoi! Yayoi-chan~!"
Eiko Hozuki arrived in the hospital corridor out of breath.
Every teacher and student at Tokikoudai Elementary School had fallen unconscious for unknown reasons. For something this serious, the hospital and police were bound to notify their families and have them come check on them. Eiko Hozuki had received the news as well, and she also knew that Yayoi Hozuki had already woken up before the rescue personnel arrived.
Other parents were worried about whether their children had physical or psychological issues, or whether they had been hurt.
But what Eiko Hozuki was worried about was completely different from the rest of them.
An entire elementary school suddenly fell asleep, but it sounds like only Yayoi-chan and one other child were fine… I mean, I don't think it would be, but… Yayoi-chan isn't the culprit… right?
Eiko Hozuki trusted Yayoi Hozuki's character. But at the same time, she also knew Yayoi Hozuki carried extremely dangerous evil spirits around with her every single day. What if this incident really had been caused because her Yayoi-chan failed to keep one of those evil spirits under control…
Ahhh~! Why are Mom and Dad both overseas on business right now~?! What am I supposed to do~?!
Eiko Hozuki was so anxious she was almost in tears.
"Over here, over here~! Don't run around in the hospital corridor. You'll disturb other people's rest."
Only after Xu Fu spoke up to remind her did Eiko Hozuki notice her around the corner, along with Yayoi Hozuki and Dorothy standing beside her.
Eiko Hozuki completed the necessary procedures at the hospital as a family member, and only then did the hospital agree to let her take Yayoi Hozuki away. As for Dorothy, Xu Fu handled the relevant procedures for her.
After getting into the passenger seat of the small van, Yayoi Hozuki said, "Thank you for coming to pick me up, Eiko."
"It's nothing, nothing~! But when I heard what happened, I was really worried sick~!" Eiko Hozuki sat in the driver's seat with a bright smile and asked curiously, "So what exactly happened at the school? Why is Xu Fu-chan here too? And who is this little girl?"
Eiko Hozuki began firing off questions like a machine gun. There were simply too many things she did not understand.
Xu Fu placed a hand on Dorothy's head, using the gesture to soothe the easily nervous girl, and said, "She's Dorothy, a student from the class next to Yayoi's. She can barely be considered a spiritualist too. When I met her, her body had been stolen by an evil spirit. I saw she could still be saved, so I helped her a little."
Eiko Hozuki froze slightly. "Her body was stolen by an evil spirit? Isn't that just like Shami-san…"
"Dorothy came to me at school today," Yayoi Hozuki continued expressionlessly. "When that evil spirit stole her body, it made the spirits in the school devour each other, creating a very dangerous entity. Dorothy wanted me to deal with it together with her."
"I see…" Eiko Hozuki nodded with a look of sudden understanding. "So the reason everyone in the elementary school fell asleep was because of that evil spirit…"
She thought she had already grasped the truth of the incident. Thank goodness her worst fear had not become reality. This incident had not been caused by Yayoi Hozuki. The true culprit was someone else.
Then she suddenly heard Xu Fu speak blandly from the back seat.
"Nope~ I'm the one who made all the teachers and students fall asleep~!"
"???"
So the culprit was sitting in her car?
Why?!
"The two evil spirits that possessed Shami-san and Dorothy seemed to know each other, and both belonged to an organization called The Replaced. Those two spirits both died at my hands, so I was worried other members might come to investigate. And reality turned out just as I expected."
Xu Fu continued explaining, "While Dorothy and Yayoi were trapped in the dream by the curse, three members of The Replaced set their sights on them. Two of them were spiritualists who could use Onmyodo techniques, and one was a foreign mercenary."
"A mer… cenary?" Eiko Hozuki could not help holding her breath, her expression turning heavy. "Those evil spirits even possessed foreign mercenaries?"
Xu Fu gave a small nod. "Probably because they were after the mercenary's connections and firearms. From the evil spirit that possessed the foreign mercenary, I found a sniper rifle, several hand grenades, and a block of plastic explosive. Since I stopped him in time, he never had the chance to use those weapons."
"I covered the entire campus with a special technique in order to catch any suspicious people who might have been hiding inside the school. Since that evil spirit was able to carry explosives around with him, no one could guarantee they weren't insane enough to have someone else plant explosives inside the school. Making every teacher and student fall asleep was also to better protect them."
"But wasn't that a little too huge a commotion?" Eiko Hozuki sighed. "I don't even need to guess. This is definitely going to be on the news."
"At least they're all alive and well. And I gave each of them a small bit of compensation."
"Compensation?" Yayoi Hozuki turned her head from the passenger seat. "You didn't tell me about that. What compensation did you give them?"
"A by-product of the Elixir of Immortality. Averaged out, every person who fell unconscious will have their lifespan extended by five years. Though it varies from person to person, so it might be more than five years…"
"Hiss—"
Eiko Hozuki sucked in a sharp breath, making her own tiny contribution to global warming, and nearly lost her grip on the steering wheel.
"A-a lifespan-extending Elixir of Immortality that can extend life by more than five years? And you just gave it away that casually?!"
That was five years of life! And five years with no side effects at that. Eiko Hozuki would bet that even if this potion only extended life by one month, plenty of wealthy people who had nothing left but money would be willing to pay astronomical sums for it, let alone five years.
Five years might seem short at a glance, but for some people, there was far too much they could do with that time.
"What are you making such a fuss about?" Xu Fu stared at Eiko Hozuki with a pair of dead-fish eyes, looking at her like Baobhan Sith seeing the country bumpkin Castoria for the first time. "I already said it's a by-product, not the real Elixir of Immortality. And even among my by-products, it's part of the most low-grade pile. The sort I usually leave in the warehouse to gather dust."
"In… the warehouse… to gather dust?" Eiko Hozuki swallowed, suddenly feeling her mouth go dry.
Then another question occurred to her.
"This potion can still extend so many people's lives by five years after being divided among the whole school, so if only one person used it…"
"It can extend life by one sixty-year cycle," Xu Fu answered without caring in the slightest.
One sixty-year cycle meant sixty years.
In other words, this potion could give a person at least sixty extra years of life out of nowhere.
"Hiss—"
Eiko Hozuki sucked in another sharp breath, feeling her limbs go stiff.
"A potion this amazing, and you just leave it in your warehouse to gather dust?" Eiko Hozuki asked in disbelief.
"Because at most, it can only extend life by one sixty-year cycle. After you've gained those extra sixty years, drinking more of it won't have any effect at all. It's really useless."
How was that useless?! That was sixty years! Sixty years! Some people did not even live to sixty in the first place.
If you don't need it, give it to me! How can you just leave it in a warehouse gathering dust? What a waste of heaven's gifts!
Eiko Hozuki felt she finally understood why Xu Fu cared so little about money when spending it. This by-product of the Elixir of Immortality alone would be enough to make a whole crowd of rich and powerful figures fight until blood flowed like rivers. If she wanted money, would it not be ridiculously easy?
Yayoi Hozuki did not have any obvious reaction to Xu Fu's words. After awakening her double pupils, it had become difficult for her to experience intense emotional fluctuations.
Besides, she was only an elementary school student, and she often dealt with dangerous evil spirits. It would not be strange if she died at any time. Dying peacefully of old age was far too distant a concept for her.
The small van carrying the four of them stopped at a red light at an intersection. Eiko Hozuki rubbed her brow with a tired expression.
"Sorry, my attention was completely stolen by the potion that can extend life by sixty years… What happened to those dangerous attackers?"
"The evil spirits possessing them were all eliminated by me. They were just small fry, not worth mentioning." Xu Fu lightly skipped over the battle. "As for the three bodies that had been possessed, their souls probably can't be recovered. I've already called Namiko Shami to come handle it. Two of the three were spiritualists, so I think Shami-san might know them."
"I see…"
Quietly glancing at Yayoi Hozuki and Eiko Hozuki in the front seats, Xu Fu propped her chin up with one hand and suddenly changed the topic.
"I should be going to Kyoto sometime soon."
"…Hm? Kyoto?"
Eiko Hozuki and Yayoi Hozuki both looked surprised, which was only natural, because their original plan was also to go to Kyoto.
Eiko Hozuki looked at Xu Fu through the rearview mirror and asked in confusion, "What is Xu Fu-chan going to Kyoto for?"
"The Replaced have come looking for trouble with me again and again. As an Avenger, how could I not retaliate?" Xu Fu's lips curved into a teasing smile.
"I've already pried information out of those members. Most of The Replaced's higher-ups seem to have gone to Kyoto some time ago. Of the members still in Tokyo, the highest-ranked were those two evil spirits that possessed Nagiko Shami and Dorothy. No matter how many small fry I kill, it won't hurt them. I have to hit them where it actually matters."
"Then, Xu Fu-chan, did you find out why The Replaced's higher-ups went to Kyoto?" Eiko Hozuki asked curiously.
"That much I do know. It seems to be for a black ghostly creature. They call that thing the 'The Moonless Dawn Embryo'…"
Her words paused suddenly, and Xu Fu's deep amber eyes secretly glanced toward Yayoi Hozuki.
"It's one of the culprits behind the Shiga Prefecture Shinkansen derailment."
"!!!"
The moment those words fell, the atmosphere around Yayoi Hozuki changed at once.
The alien plush in her arms was squeezed slightly out of shape, enough to make one worry whether Yayoi Hozuki might crush it on the spot in the next second.
The Shinkansen derailment in Shiga Prefecture had been caused by a battle between two spirits, one black and one white.
The white one was Taisai Seikun. Their good friend Ai Kamiyo had been chosen to become this god's bride, and Yayoi Hozuki wanted to take her friend back.
And the black one was the The Moonless Dawn Embryo.
It was also Kuubou.
Its identity was…
"The spirit that stole Mom's soul…"
Yayoi Hozuki's voice turned low. Her expression did not change at all, yet an evil intent radiated from her that even evil spirits would fear.
"These people who possess other people's bodies… are connected to the spirit that took Mom?"
Even after awakening her Yin-Yang Eyes and losing most of her emotions, her obsession with saving her mother and her hatred for Kuubou had remained firmly intact.
In truth, Yayoi Hozuki had not originally planned to tell Xu Fu about going to Kyoto. She was fighting Kuubou because of her own hatred, and fighting a god because she needed to protect their friend. None of that had anything to do with Xu Fu.
Even if Xu Fu's participation could protect them, dragging Xu Fu into such a dangerous operation for that reason would weigh heavily on Yayoi Hozuki's conscience and leave her full of guilt.
But now, things were different.
Xu Fu wanted revenge against The Replaced, and Kuubou had been cultivated by The Replaced. That meant Xu Fu could no longer be considered an outsider.
There was no need to keep hiding it.
After fighting evil spirits together so many times, Xu Fu had long since earned Yayoi Hozuki's trust and become their friend. So in the car, Yayoi Hozuki openly told Xu Fu about how she had become enemies with Kuubou, as well as the matter of Ai Kamiyo, the "god's bride."
Although Xu Fu already knew all of it, she still listened very seriously, playing the role of a proper listener.
Dorothy listened just as seriously. She had not expected Yayoi Hozuki to have such a sorrowful past, and hearing it made her heart ache.
...
In the end, Eiko Hozuki and the others invited Xu Fu to go to Kyoto with them. With Xu Fu joining them, they would have more confidence whether they were opposing The Replaced and Kuubou, or confronting Taisai Seikun. Naturally, Xu Fu did not refuse, since this had been her plan from the start anyway.
And so the three-person team became a four-person team.
Yes, a four-person team. Dorothy was not included. Xu Fu told Dorothy to stay at her house during the time she was in Kyoto. With the magecraft traps and automaton maid dolls Xu Fu had set up in the house, as well as the Master Dorothy doll, Dorothy would be very safe staying at Xu Fu's home.
First, they sent Dorothy back to Xu Fu's house. After that, the three of them went to Keitaro Gentoga's home, preparing to hold a meeting there and discuss their next plan.
Keitaro Gentoga had obtained the address of the hospital where Ai Kamiyo was staying.
Yayoi Hozuki's elementary school had temporarily suspended classes because of the mass sleep incident Xu Fu had caused.
Eiko Hozuki had successfully secured Xu Fu's participation… or rather, Xu Fu had successfully gotten them to invite her into the plan.
"With this, all the conditions for going to Kyoto have been met."
Yayoi Hozuki said solemnly, "Our goal is to visit Ai in the hospital, then confront the god directly… Whether we want it or not, once we meet him, there's a ninety percent chance we'll end up fighting. We'd better not assume we can avoid it. So we need to prepare to strike first and come up with a strategy before we go."
Yayoi Hozuki could currently command seven spirits with combat strength equal to a Graduate.
High Priest of the Evil Sutra, The Imprisoned Demon Sergeant who Died for his Country, Otogiri, the Soul Sucking Oiran, Self-Slitted Maiden of a Thousand Souls, Sainou Sarashira, The Black Asura of the Eclipse, and Taira no Masakado.
However, defeating Taisai Seikun with these seven spirits alone would be nothing but a pipe dream. Therefore, Yayoi Hozuki intended to greatly weaken the enemy's combat strength before the battle began.
The method she had thought of was to borrow Kyoto's feng shui and history, placing five of her spirits—excluding the Sergeant and the Oiran—at five nodes in Kyoto, setting up the "Calamitous Pentagram Formation" over the entire city.
Then, by connecting Taisai Seikun to Kyoto, the super-large-scale curse covering all of Kyoto would be transferred onto Taisai Seikun. Combined with the weakening curses of the Sergeant and the Oiran, this would greatly reduce Taisai Seikun's power.
This was the "Regicidal Bellflower" plan.
"Regicidal" referred to a lower-ranked person killing a superior or monarch. By extension, it could also refer to killing a god.
"Bellflower" referred to the pentagram, because the pentagram mark was also known in Japan as the Seimei Bellflower Seal.
Even Xu Fu's eyes lit up when she heard Yayoi Hozuki's idea.