No one knew how many years old the ancient book was. Its cover was damaged in several places, but the Chinese characters for "Senji Ryakketsu: Apocrypha" were still legible on the front.
According to legend, the Senji Ryakketsu was the oldest book on Onmyodo left behind by the great onmyoji Abe no Seimei. However, the two characters for "Apocrypha" appended to the end were quite intriguing.
"I can't read it... A lot of it is written in Chinese characters, and classical Chinese at that..."
After only looking at it for a little while, Yayoi Hozuki gave up on reading. The language barrier made it impossible to understand.
Even that mysterious shrine priest had not expected this. Although he had handed the book over, Yayoi Hozuki and the other two could not read it at all. In his era, much of the truly precious knowledge had been passed down from China, so upper-class people could basically all read Chinese. He had never anticipated that modern Japanese people would not even be able to understand the book he had written.
Fortunately, Xu Fu could read both Chinese and classical Chinese.
After returning to the van, Xu Fu began interpreting and translating the Senji Ryakketsu: Apocrypha, turning it into a version Yayoi Hozuki and the others could understand. After all, Mr. Shrine Priest had given this thing to Yayoi Hozuki's group. What was the point if only Xu Fu could read it?
It was not as if they could expect Xu Fu to read it through once and have Yayoi Hozuki and the others memorize and fully understand it. Even when a teacher explained something once in class, students would still get it wrong on the test.
Xu Fu did not use her hands to turn the pages. The Senji Ryakketsu: Apocrypha, along with a brush and paper, floated in midair and began flipping pages and taking notes on its own. It saved a great deal of effort and also had plenty of supernatural atmosphere, making the other three cry out in amazement again and again.
Two little paper dolls fell out of the turning Senji Ryakketsu: Apocrypha. Xu Fu glanced sideways at them, picked them up from the floor, and handed them to Keitaro Gentoga.
"Keitaro, you can have these. I can't use them."
"..."
Keitaro Gentoga took the paper dolls in a daze, and then... the two paper dolls split apart.
"Huh? Huh?! Why—?!"
Why did the paper dolls split the moment they got into his hands? They had clearly been perfectly fine in Xu Fu's hands just now!
"Oh no."
"Kei-kun broke an ancient artifact~~"
Yayoi Hozuki and Eiko Hozuki did not miss the chance to tease Keitaro Gentoga.
"I... I didn't! This has nothing to do with me!"
Keitaro Gentoga flushed bright red as he defended himself. Seriously, why was this male protagonist so honest? It was exactly this kind of honest little boy who was easy for bad women to tease.
Just like when Xu Fu had been in middle school, and two female classmates had especially enjoyed sidling up to her out of nowhere, then laughing happily at her flustered expression.
Xu Fu did not join Eiko Hozuki and the others in teasing Keitaro Gentoga, whose face had gone red with panic. Her gaze was fixed on Keitaro Gentoga's chest and back.
The energy in the little paper dolls had already transferred into Keitaro Gentoga's body, forming the marks of the sun and crescent moon on his chest and back respectively.
Even Yayoi Hozuki's Yin-Yang Eyes could not see those two marks, but they could not hide from Xu Fu's eyes.
"Shikigami?"
"That's right. The paper dolls split because the shikigami inside have already acknowledged you as their master. But the current you can't summon them to protect you by your own will at all. They'll only appear when you're in danger."
The interpretation and translation of the ancient text continued. Xu Fu only glanced at it once before looking away again and continuing to explain to the bewildered Keitaro Gentoga.
"Remember, they'll only appear to protect you when your life is threatened. A crisis like your soul being imprisoned won't wake them up. Also, each time they appear, they'll consume a huge amount of your stamina. Relying on their power too often can exhaust you to death. And if the shikigami are injured, you'll suffer the same injuries... Though katashiro can take the damage in your place, so you don't need to worry too much about that part."
The two shikigami that had acknowledged Keitaro Gentoga as their master were bunrei of Amaterasu-omikami and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto respectively. Their strength even surpassed Yayoi Hozuki's "Graduate." Although the side effects of each summoning were severe, Keitaro Gentoga could be considered to have gained two powerful trump cards.
Xu Fu glanced at the ancient book beside her and added, "You can study the knowledge in this book like Yayoi too. At the very least, you need to learn how to summon and command the shikigami inside you. It'll help you a lot. For example, when you're weak, you can tell them not to come out, and that'll let you avoid the ending where you die from exhaustion."
That mysterious Mr. Shrine Priest had once judged that Keitaro Gentoga possessed even greater potential in Onmyodo techniques than he did. Unfortunately, in this era, no one was willing to teach him Onmyodo techniques.
Eiko Hozuki said, "Shikigami? Is Kei-kun going to become an onmyoji? The great onmyoji Keitaro—wow, that sounds so cool and atmospheric!"
Yayoi Hozuki said, "Keitaro, Keitaro~! Hurry up and summon the shikigami, okay? I want to see~! I want to see, I want to see, I really, really want to see~!"
The little van immediately became lively again.
Faced with the two girls pestering him, their hearts full of curiosity, Keitaro Gentoga's face filled with distress, while inside, he felt both pleasantly surprised and a little disappointed.
Chunibyo knew no gender, because everyone loved to fantasize. But after seeing the gap between fantasy and reality, they all graduated from chunibyo one after another. If ghosts, monsters, and spiritualists truly existed, however, that was another matter. After seeing Xu Fu and Yayoi Hozuki fight malignant entities, Keitaro Gentoga had naturally fantasized before about displaying his own skills and showing off in front of others.
And now, he had finally gained trump cards he could use to fight evil spirits. Like Xu Fu and Yayoi Hozuki, he had become an honorable "Pokémon Master." Although it did not show clearly on his face, he was definitely a little delighted inside... even if, for the moment, both of these "Pokémon" were like Ash's Charizard and would not listen to him.
As for the disappointment, that was because now that he had these two shikigami capable of automatically protecting him, if he went to haunted spots that had once terrified him, they might no longer have that atmosphere or sense of crisis at all.
If that happened... wouldn't things be too easy?
As for the haunted spot they would visit next, Yayoi Hozuki had originally intended to go to F Park. According to Xu Fu, F Park was the second most dangerous haunted spot among the five nodes, just below National Route 1.
The white goat evil god they had seen last night had indeed been extremely dangerous. That much could be seen from the ominous aura it emitted, as if it would crush their souls.
Yayoi Hozuki was very curious what kind of monsters and ghosts they would encounter in F Park.
However, Xu Fu offered a different suggestion in the van.
"Next, let's go to Kubizuka Daimyojin."
Xu Fu's words drew a puzzled look from Yayoi Hozuki.
"Did something change?"
"No... I just weighed things carefully." Xu Fu chose her words for a moment. "The reason I said before that F Park was more dangerous than Kubizuka Daimyojin was because the truly dangerous guy at Kubizuka Daimyojin, like the evil god we encountered last night, is currently unable to move freely."
In the original plot, the reason that dangerous guy had been able to escape was because the evil spirit Yayoi Hozuki placed there was Sainou Sarashira, another restless bastard. If she had placed Taira no Masakado or Self-Slitted Maiden of a Thousand Souls there instead, there probably would not have been so much trouble.
But in order to avoid being interrupted during the battle with Taisai Seikun, Xu Fu thought it over and decided they still needed to deal with this unexpected factor.
One of Japan's Three Great Yokai—Shuten-doji.
The car stopped at the foot of the mountain below Kubizuka Daimyojin. Xu Fu did not let Yayoi Hozuki and the other two get out with her.
"The guy on the mountain is very good at hand-to-hand combat, and he's fast. If he decides to cut into the backline, I'm worried I won't be able to make it in time to save you. So this time, I'll handle it myself. The three of you, please wait here for Xu Fu-chan's good news."
She stepped onto the long staircase leading to the mountaintop and passed through who knew how many torii gates.
Of course, the barrier to disperse bystanders had long since been set up. After all, it was daytime now, and still morning at that. One could still occasionally see a few tourists visiting. If the battle that followed caught them up in it, Xu Fu's conscience would hurt.
According to legend, after Minamoto no Yorimitsu exterminated the oni of Mount Oe and cut off the head of the Oni King Shuten-doji, he followed divine guidance and left Shuten-doji's head here. Later generations built a shrine in this place to worship the head of Shuten-doji buried there.
Xu Fu arrived at the place said to contain Shuten-doji's buried head. Digging it open, she found a box that had been buried in the pit for who knew how many years.
The instant the box was opened, black qi surged into the sky, as if trying to cover even the sun overhead.
"Hwahahahaha—!!"
At the center of the black qi, a laugh rang out that made one feel irritated just by hearing it.
The monster imprisoned in the cage greedily breathed in the free air of a thousand years later.
The air on the mountain gradually became damp and heavy.
"At last, I've been released! I've long since had enough! We meet again, human world, after a thousand years apart! I, the great Shuten-doji, have been completely revived...!!"
Was this what one should expect from Shuten-doji, one of the Three Great Yokai? Faced with the fully revived Shuten-doji, even Xu Fu felt a little pressure.
Unfortunately, his looks were a fatal flaw.
In terms of looks, Xu Fu still preferred Chaldea's Shuten-doji. The "CCTV's top lady" factor was not just for show, especially Shuten-doji drawn by "Raita." She was practically made to be girlfriend material! Back then, the first time Xu Fu saw Shuten-doji in the manga getting overjoyed because of the earrings her Master had given her, her heart had been struck hard.
"Hwahahahaha! You're the unlucky bastard who released me, aren't you!"
Having regained his freedom, Shuten-doji stood on the roof of the shrine's main hall. His long tongue licked over his mouth and sharp fangs, his gaze wantonly appraising Xu Fu, while Xu Fu observed him in turn.
Leaving aside the origins of Shuten-doji in other worlds, the one before her had been a human with powerful spiritual power in life. Called the "child of the dragon god," he was said to have inherited the bloodline of Yamata no Orochi or Kuzuryu, like a god possessing a body. After death, he became an extremely dangerous soul.
Even the bunrei of Amaterasu-omikami and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto at full power were no match for him. After all, this Shuten-doji was not some bunrei. He was the true body, the genuine Shuten-doji himself.
"Now that I've returned to the human world, I'll naturally stir up a bloody storm here once more! Of course! I do know how to distinguish reward and punishment! You helped me escape, so by rights, I should give you some kind of reward!"
At this point, Shuten-doji abruptly paused.
A savage grin suddenly split across his face.
"But you see... I don't really like the aura on you. It reminds me of that bastard onmyoji who sealed me here a thousand years ago! That was a thousand years of loneliness! I simply want to tear that slit-eyed bastard into pieces! But a thousand years have passed. I imagine even his grave can't be found anymore, can it?"
"So I'll have to ask you to die in that bastard's place! If you want to blame someone, blame your own bad luck, unlucky bastard!"
Unreasonable and wanton—but when the target was an oni, that seemed normal instead.
They were already "oni words," so how much of them could be trusted?
Shuten-doji's weapons were a long sword and a spiked club. Unlike most spirits, Shuten-doji was extremely skilled at close combat. Speaking of which, were ancient monsters and ghosts all skilled at fighting up close? Taira no Masakado was good at hand-to-hand combat, Taisai Seikun was good at hand-to-hand combat, and even the Shuten-doji before her liked melee.
"Before we fight, there's something I need to clarify."
Perhaps out of one final mercy, or perhaps simply out of curiosity, Shuten-doji did not attack immediately after gripping his weapons, instead listening to Xu Fu with interest.
"Xu Fu-chan, you see... isn't an onmyoji. I'm a Taoist. And on my journey, I happened to learn all sorts of random things."
As she spoke, Xu Fu extended both fists forward, forming a strange hand sign.
The summoning ritual began. Xu Fu started chanting the Furu Incantation.
"FURUBE, YURA YURA..."
It was originally an incantation for pacifying souls and returning the dead to life, but here, it served an entirely different function.
"EIGHT-HANDLED SWORD DIVERGENT SILA DIVINE GENERAL..."
"[MAHORAGA]!"
A massive white monster emerged from Xu Fu's shadow and stood behind her. Its head had no eyes and bore four wing-like structures on either side. A tail grew from the back of its head, a short blade jutted from the back of its right hand, and a golden wheel like a ship's helm floated above its head.
"Come say hello to your opponent, Mahoraga." A faint smile appeared on Xu Fu's face as she took in Shuten-doji's expression.
"...?"
Naturally, Shuten-doji did not recognize Mahoraga. But he had seen many, many shikigami used by onmyoji, and he had even seen Abe no Seimei's shikigami.
It was only a shikigami. He was Shuten-doji, one of Japan's Three Great Yokai! Now that he had regained his freedom, who in this era could possibly restrain him? This world would surely become his playground alone! He could kill whoever he wanted, as many as he wanted!
His opponent was only a nameless little shikigami. Would he win?
Of course he would!
---
T/N: gulp ITS BIG FUCKING RAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
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