At school, rumors painted Yuuki as a "sister addict," but in truth it was simply overprotection—because of Fujino's condition.
Faced with the constant sense of distance, Yuuki had tried to close it, only to give up at the last moment every time.
Maybe because it would dredge up memories that were too old—memories he'd fought to forget, memories that no longer belonged to his life now.
But once those memories resurfaced, Yuuki's attitude toward Fujino shifted without him realizing.
When he recognized that he could solve Fujino's long-standing "congenital analgesia," Yuuki fell into confusion.
Because once the analgesia was cured, Fujino would gradually awaken the psychic power dormant in the Asagami bloodline—and she would also be chosen as Araya Souren's target.
In other words, until the problem was resolved, Yuuki couldn't heal the girl in front of him.
That helpless frustration—being unable to do anything—added a layer of guilt on top of the existing barrier between them. After returning from the hospital to draft plans, Yuuki found himself being careful around Fujino in a way that was almost apologetic.
No matter how careful he was, she'd probably noticed. Otherwise she wouldn't be this anxious.
And sure enough—
Even with his partial knowledge of Fujino's "original future," Yuuki still couldn't imagine this gentle girl killing anyone.
He had never imagined that, after being refused by him, Fujino would still take the initiative to close the distance between them.
Asagami Fujino was the kind of girl who, even when hurt all over, remained restrained unless she was pushed to the edge.
In action. In emotion.
Fujino's hand was warm. Even when Yuuki squeezed a little harder, or secretly tickled the side of her palm, her expression didn't change at all.
Yuuki had assumed that until Fujino's analgesia was cured, she would always keep that restraint.
He hadn't expected she would worry about him to this degree.
"I understand," Yuuki said. "I'll go with you."
If he couldn't even grant his little sister that small selfishness, he'd be a failure as a brother. With that thought, Yuuki gave her a firm answer—then sighed, and let go of her hand.
Even with his agreement, Fujino's expression dimmed the moment he released her. Before Yuuki could notice, however, she forced a smile.
"…Okay. Together."
…
…
…
Dusk fell over Kanbu City. The streetlights came on.
At the same time, Araya Souren walked out of a hospital somewhere in Kanbu City, his brow tightly furrowed. His face was already the kind that made people want to keep their distance; now, burdened by unexpected complications, it looked even more unapproachable.
Recently, trivial matters had delayed him. And although he had begun preparations to seize the Ryougi family's results, the process had been frustratingly uncooperative.
Araya sought to accelerate the Ryougi heir's awakening, searching for suitable "material" to hone her like a whetstone. He had many candidates, but none were perfect.
Not long ago, by a twist of fate, he had met a boy named Shirazumi Lio and induced an Origin Awakening in him—only for the boy to die before showing any meaningful potential.
And just now Araya learned that another target—kept early as a backup piece on the board, Fujou Kirie—had been transferred to another hospital more than a month ago.
Fujou Kirie carried the blood of an ancient exorcist lineage, one of Japan's "Four Great" demon-hunting families: the Wunen lineage, specialists in prayer, spirit-calling, and related arts—specifically a little-known branch line.
The Wunen family had never valued bloodlines as much as technical transmission. The Fujou family was the opposite: they preserved the bloodline more purely, originally retained as an "insurance" branch for the root lineage.
But the truth was that inbreeding could produce purer blood—while inevitably shrinking the family through disease and defects. As the family deteriorated and dwindled, the purpose for which it had been preserved was gradually forgotten by the main house.
By this generation, the Fujou family had completely drifted away from its original mission.
Fujou Kirie was the last surviving member of the Fujou line, and also the last "pure-blooded" inheritor of the Wunen lineage. Ironically, despite her precious blood, she received no protection, inherited none of the techniques that should have sustained her family, and knew nothing of the world of magecraft or exorcist houses.
If the Wunen family had finally realized Kirie's value and taken her away, Araya wouldn't have complained.
It would simply mean one less chess piece.
Not worth making an enemy of the Wunen—one of the Four Great families.
However, after questioning those involved in the transfer, Araya grew alert.
No information about the person who took Kirie was left behind. The security footage from that day had been deliberately erased. There was no trace of where she'd been transferred. All they could tell from the staff was that a young man accompanied by a maid had taken Kirie away.
Araya thought of a boy he'd met not long ago—one who seemed to have awakened some kind of ability.
Araya's investigation indicated that, like the Fujou being a branch of the Wunen, the Asagami were not merely an ordinary offshoot of the now-extinct Asakami.
The Asakami—also one of the Four Great exorcist families—had been a famous clan in Nagano. Their decline was largely self-inflicted.
To raise the odds of producing psychic ability users, the Asakami had threatened, bribed, bargained, even captured others—using every method available to blend other bloodline abilities into their own.
In the continual mixing, the Asakami blood thinned. Even the main line became mixed-blood. Worse, their descendants frequently went mad, rampaged, or died as conflicting bloodline awakenings tore their bodies apart.
They noticed too late. Attempts to fix it became meaningless.
The last "pure" bloodline they screened out died within three generations—by the time of Asagami Fujino's biological father, the line had collapsed entirely.
The Asagami were a family split off three generations ago—an effort to separate a branch that had become too contaminated by mixed blood. They used broad suppression methods to crush any possibility of awakening, living as "ordinary people." Ironically, that allowed the Asagami to become an influential family in modern society.
But their mixed blood was too complicated. Even the Seven Nights, the Ryougi, and the Wunen had been blended into it. That was why Araya had been watching Asagami Yuuki early.
Not merely as a tool, but as a backup path to the Root if the Ryougi route failed.
Yet the premise of a backup was control.
A Yuuki who had possibly awakened a demon-hunting impulse—and might even contain Ryougi blood—was not worth the risk Araya would take with Ryougi Shiki.
His potential value for reaching the Root was far smaller than Shiki's.
"Shirazumi Lio… Fujou Kirie… and…"
Araya murmured. The name Asagami Yuuki had been appearing far too often lately.
It was only a possibility.
Among the psychic abilities mixed into the Asagami blood, there might be "future sight."
If Yuuki truly possessed future sight and was deliberately disrupting his actions, then Araya had to remove this uncertainty—now.
That was Araya Souren's conclusion.
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