Ahem, that's a bit exaggerated, but for a person who wants to leave, the situation is indeed similar to that of a Crab.
After purchasing a Camera from an unknown merchant, Shiki and Ioroi returned the way they came, took a few photos of the Fatui patrols, and then directly climbed through a window into the mansion.
Taking off her wooden clogs, Shiki stepped barefoot on the Hiiragi Clan's high-quality wooden floor. Ioroi's silencing spell couldn't work indefinitely, and the vibrations produced by wooden clogs on the floor were much greater than those from bare feet.
As the Kanjou Commission, the Hiiragi Clan's mansion was naturally on the same scale as the Kamisato Clan and Kujou Clan, not only incredibly large but also filled with numerous small rooms.
"Speaking of which, Ioroi, where do you think a person would hide their most confidential belongings?" Shiki asked the little Tanuki beside her.
"I don't know, but if it were me, I'd put it somewhere inconspicuous but where I could see it every day. That way, I could tell at a glance if anyone had tampered with it."
Ioroi had hidden many good things over the years, and the fact that the Treasure Hoarders hadn't dug them up yet was enough to prove his point.
"Is that so? It seems we'll have to find that old man Hiiragi Shinsuke first."
Placing her wooden clogs in a cabinet to hide them, Shiki lightly leaped onto the roof beam, taking the dagger from the room with her. She didn't know why there was a dagger in the room.
"Uh… we can be invisible, so why go on the roof beam?" Ioroi expressed his confusion.
"Oh, because it's fun."
Ioroi became even more confused upon hearing this, with wide confusion in his two small eyes, as if question marks were drawn on his face.
Shiki moved quickly along the roof beam, then a sound of footsteps from a distance entered her ears.
'One person, that makes it easier.'
"Ioroi, open the door to the room below us, then use wind to open the window." Since she didn't know if that person would come this way, Shiki decided to make some noise.
No matter who the other party was, they must be someone working here, and someone working here couldn't possibly not know where Hiiragi Shinsuke's room was.
Crash!
As the sound of the window being blown open rang out, the distant footsteps clearly paused, then changed direction and headed towards here.
The footsteps grew closer and closer, and a samurai in armor holding a katana appeared at the corner of the corridor.
"So it was just the wind, you scared me."
The samurai visibly relaxed upon seeing the empty room, then put away the katana in his hand. Just then, Shiki leaped down from the roof beam like a leopard.
Bang!
The two rolled into a heap. The dagger that had been brought out from the room now came in handy. Shiki pressed it against the samurai's throat, and a rainbow-blue light appeared in her eyes. The latter's forehead immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
"I ask, you answer, understand?"
"Understand, understand, understand, understand…"
The samurai felt the coldness emanating from his neck, not daring to even breathe, fearing that the movement of his Adam's apple would cause the blade to cut him.
"Very good, where is that old man Hiiragi Shinsuke's room?" Shiki's expression was cold, and then the dagger in her hand pressed even closer to the samurai's skin. At this point, streaks of fresh red blood had already flowed from his neck.
Under the threat of death, the samurai dared not lie and could only obediently report the location of the room: "Go straight from the central reception room and you'll see it."
"Thank you, and goodbye forever."
After speaking, Shiki very decisively slit the samurai's throat. Death came so suddenly, his face still maintaining the expression of having survived a disaster.
This person had already seen her face, and she was so famous in Inazuma, the other party must have recognized her.
Ioroi didn't speak the whole time. He was a yokai who had lived for nearly a thousand years, not some naive child. His seeming foolishness was only to resist erode.
Shiki couldn't abandon Inazuma's entire plan because of one person. Since it was like scraping bone to cure poison, there would inevitably be some pain.
She didn't apologize. If she had any apologies, she wouldn't have made a move in the first place.
Packing the body and throwing it into a cabinet, then cleaning up the blood at the scene, Shiki continued towards Hiiragi Shinsuke's room.
After a while…
"If that samurai was correct, this is Hiiragi Shinsuke's room."
Shiki quietly pushed open a small crack in the door and found Hiiragi Shinsuke sitting in his seat, muttering something.
"Mikage Furnace Core? If Tamagami stops production, and I set the tax item as jinghua bone marrow, and then resell it, wouldn't I have a lot of Mora?"
Hiiragi Shinsuke in the room began to fantasize about a beautiful future, completely unaware that someone outside the door was listening to his soliloquy.
'Mikage Furnace Core? Could it be that the shutdown of this thing is also related to Hiiragi Shinsuke?'
Thinking of this, Shiki couldn't help herself and directly pushed open the door and walked in.
"Who?" Hiiragi Shinsuke grabbed his katana and looked towards the doorway. After several months, she didn't know if it was Shiki's illusion, but she always felt that the other party had aged somewhat quickly.
The girl dropped her dagger, then drew the Kujikanesada from her waist, not bothering to conceal her identity: "The one who cut your hair."
"It's you!" Hiiragi Shinsuke laughed instead of getting angry.
He hadn't expected to be frightened for several months by such a young girl. He admitted that the other party had some strength, but now his strength was no longer what it used to be.
"Good, I haven't come looking for you yet, and you've delivered yourself to my doorstep."
"Come, men! Take her down for me! Such a stunning beauty, I must properly train her!"
Hiiragi Shinsuke shouted with full vigor, but the expected scene of Fatui soldiers flooding the room did not occur.
"Not a single sound will escape this room, and based on what you just said, I will take your dog's life today!"
Violent electro element surged around Shiki. She raised her hand and slashed at Hiiragi Shinsuke, but to her surprise, the other party actually blocked it.
"Hmph, don't think you're the only one who can use elemental power. Although I don't have a Vision, the Fatui's Delusion has granted me the same power!"
"Look, Geo element, the most solid element in the world. What if no sound can escape the room? Can you break through my defense?!"
Hiiragi Shinsuke laughed heartily, the Delusion in his hand emitting a chilling light. However, what he didn't notice was that his already grayish hair had now turned completely white, and even the edges had begun to fall out.
"So that's it, they gave you this thing. No wonder I felt you were aging somewhat quickly." Shiki took half a step back, creating distance between herself and Hiiragi Shinsuke.
"What did you say?" Hiiragi Shinsuke quickly glanced at a mirror nearby and was stunned when he saw his incredibly aged face in the reflection.
"A thousand kinds of power represent a thousand kinds of responsibility. You don't have a Vision, proving that you cannot bear the responsibility of obtaining a Vision, and the price of forcefully pursuing it is this."
"Also, there are some things I need to clarify. What's going on with the Mikage Furnace Core?" Shiki hadn't forgotten the reason she boldly broke in. She had originally planned to infiltrate.
"Do you think I'm a fool who would tell you?" Hiiragi Shinsuke didn't answer, but subtly moved towards the window while maintaining the Geo element shield around him.
'Almost, almost, as long as I can get out...'
However, unbeknownst to him, all of this was seen by Shiki.
"It doesn't matter if you don't tell me, I'll find out myself. And one more thing, you and your Geo element make me laugh."
"Secret Sword…"
Upon hearing this, Hiiragi Shinsuke's aged body erupted with unprecedented power, but no matter how fast he was, could he be faster than a swallow in the sky?
"Tsubame Gaeshi!"
Three slashes formed a beautiful, spiral-like trajectory, cutting across different dead zones on the shield, finally severing Hiiragi Shinsuke's neck.
Blood gushed out, and he fell to the ground with a thud.
"Kui… Qianli…"
As if his conscience kicked in before death, or perhaps feeling that he wasn't a good father, Hiiragi Shinsuke muttered his daughter's name before completely dying.
Shiki said nothing, the tip of her Kujikanesada still dripping blood. After a long time, she wiped the blood from the blade and then sheathed it.
Picking up the Geo attribute Delusion from the ground, its color was darker than a normal Vision, and Shiki could feel the same power within it as herself.
That was the power of a Archon, only more complex and chaotic.
A Vision allows people to freely wield elemental power, and a Delusion can achieve the same effect, but at the cost of one's lifespan.
Golden lightning arcs appeared, and with a squeeze of her hand, the Delusion made a "crack" sound and shattered into pieces, turning into a pile of useless powder.
Shiki was never interested in such life-draining items. Even without the power seed from Raiden Makoto, she wouldn't consider using a Delusion.
However… it seemed that the traditional side effects didn't affect her.
"Solid as a rock."
After crushing the Delusion, Shiki noticed a complex and chaotic energy flowing into her body. If Raiden Makoto's pure golden electro element was a delicate dessert, then the Delusion was spoiled, rotten fruit.
Both were essentially the power of a Archon, and since Shiki could use Raiden Makoto's power, she could naturally use what was contained within the Delusion.
It just wasn't good to use, and it was a one-time thing. A shield imitating the old man's consumed most of the Archon's remnants, and its sturdiness wasn't as good as a Lei shield.
All in all, it was tasteless to eat and a shame to discard. If she truly wanted to gain the ability to use Geo element, she would still have to find an existence of the same rank as Raiden Makoto.
Pure elemental power could form a power seed, and then the elemental power contained in the atmosphere could slowly strengthen it until it grew to the same level as a Archon.
But it was too early to think about that now. She hadn't even fully mastered the electro element yet!
Using the same method, she threw Hiiragi Shinsuke's body into the cabinet, and Shiki began to search the room for documents regarding the Mikage Furnace Core.
"Shiki, what are you looking for?" Ioroi asked.
"Hiiragi Shinsuke's incriminating evidence, and the Mikage Furnace Core."
That thing used curse gods as fuel. On Earth, it was a pure nuclear reactor. Shiki dared not entrust such a dangerous item to the game's plot.
It was best to fully control it, to prevent the Fatui from causing trouble there.
Moreover, the so-called curse gods were Archon remnants, and the raw material for making Delusions was Archon remnants. Perhaps the raw material for the Evil Eye Factory in the game came from the Mikage Furnace Core.
Just as Shiki was rummaging through everything, there was a sudden knock on the door.
"Master, it's time for your meal!" The maid knelt softly at the door of the room, but after waiting for a long time, there was no response.
"Master?"
The maid felt a little confused. After silently muttering an apology, she wanted to push open the door.
But the door opened before she touched it.
"Give it to me, you may leave."
What met her eyes was Hiiragi Shinsuke's aged face, but the maid felt something was different, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
And she was just a servant, she didn't dare to think too much. After putting down the afternoon meal, she hurried away, not wanting to have her wages deducted.
After the maid completely disappeared around the corner of the corridor, Hiiragi Shinsuke slammed the door shut, and Shiki, standing in the corner, asked: "Did you send her away?"
"Yes, she's gone." Hiiragi Shinsuke nodded, then transformed into a small Tanuki.
That's right, the Hiiragi Shinsuke from just now was actually Ioroi in disguise, but due to the hasty transformation, there were slight discrepancies in the details.
This was also why the maid felt something was off. If it had been a family member who lived with him day and night, the disguise might have been exposed.
But if Ioroi was given some time to transform carefully, no one would be able to tell.
"Ioroi, I suddenly thought of a good idea. Currently, no one else knows that Hiiragi Shinsuke is dead, and we also need Hiiragi Shinsuke to stabilize the Fatui…"
"So, have you heard the story of the Tanuki substituting for the Crown Prince?"
"What do you mean?"
"Listen to me…"
A short while later, two more corpses appeared in the team transporting trash outside.
And Shiki returned to the original room and put on her wooden clogs again, incidentally taking the dagger that was left on the ground.
Although she was very skilled in swordsmanship, judging from today's events, daggers seemed to be quite useful as well.
Shiki left the Kanjou Commission, but Ioroi was not by her side.
Ioroi would transform into Hiiragi Shinsuke and lie low in the Hiiragi Clan, not only to prevent an immediate collapse but also to gather intelligence from the Fatui.
And he could also slowly look for evidence of Hiiragi Shinsuke's past collaborations with the Fatui. After all, in other people's eyes, Ioroi was Hiiragi Shinsuke, and the entire Kanjou Commission belonged to him. Couldn't he look for his own things?
Of course, his actions couldn't be too obvious, and he had to try to talk to Kui Qianli as little as possible. Even if the transformation was flawless, over time, some clues would still be noticed.
After all, Ioroi could only imitate, not completely change his personality to be Hiiragi Shinsuke.
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