Chapter 20: Kotoko's Vigilance
The next morning, just as the sky was beginning to pale, Iwanaga Kotoko arrived at the White Fox Office carrying two breakfasts as usual.
The moment she pushed open the door and stepped inside, however, she froze.
Then the corner of her mouth twitched.
"Well... that is certainly something," she muttered. "Did the White Fox Office get robbed last night, or did it just survive a private Hyakki Yako?"
It was not an exaggeration.
From Kotoko's perspective, the office looked like the aftermath of a disaster. White paper was scattered everywhere, covering the floor in chaotic layers. The furniture had suffered badly. The sofa had been torn open, the desk was cracked and damaged, and even the bookshelf looked as though something violent had slammed into it. Only Gin Tsumugi himself remained standing amid the wreckage, one hand against his chin, completely absorbed in thought as he occasionally glanced down at the deduction notes in his other hand.
Whatever had happened here, it had clearly happened on a respectable scale.
Kotoko set the breakfast down in the cleanest spot she could find, then immediately pulled Kasugano Sora to the side.
"Sora," she said in a lowered voice, "what exactly happened here?"
"Sister Kotoko..."
Sora quickly explained everything she knew.
She did not understand all the details herself, but she had at least witnessed the sequence of events. After Kotoko left yesterday, Gin had returned from the Onmyo Agency and locked himself into nonstop research on the Taizan Fukun Ritual. He had stayed at it all night. Then, not long before dawn, he formed a series of hand seals, and his spiritual power suddenly erupted out of control.
The result was what she saw now.
Kotoko's expression changed.
A spiritual backlash.
That was the first conclusion that entered her mind.
Kasugano Sora, having had little contact with Onmyodo before all of this, naturally could not identify such a thing. But Kotoko, as the Princess of Yokai and the Goddess of Wisdom, had seen cases of failed casting and spiritual backlash more than once.
Every time it happened, an onmyoji paid a price.
Sometimes a light injury.
Sometimes something far worse.
But after quickly studying Gin's condition from a distance, Kotoko let out a quiet breath.
His expression was calm.
His aura was steady.
Whatever had gone wrong, it had not injured him in any meaningful way.
Then, a split second later, another thought struck her.
Her eyes narrowed sharply.
"Wait."
She turned back to Sora.
"What did you just say?"
Sora blinked.
"The Taizan Fukun Ritual?"
This time, Kotoko's eyes widened completely.
"The Taizan Fukun Ritual?!"
Sora nodded.
Immediately, disbelief flashed across Kotoko's face.
"The Taizan Fukun Ritual... that's the forbidden spell Tsuchimikado Yakou tried to perform half a century ago!"
"Yes," Sora said, a little uncertain under her reaction. "Sister Kotoko, you know it too?"
Kotoko gave a humorless laugh.
"Know it? More than know it."
She folded her arms tightly and looked toward Gin with obvious unease.
"Reversing life and death. Reaching beyond reincarnation. The Taizan Fukun Ritual is a forbidden spell among forbidden spells. Its notoriety is practically legendary. An onmyoji who has never heard of it would be the rare one."
Her expression turned even more serious.
"Half a century ago, Tsuchimikado Yakou failed during the Taizan Fukun Ritual and triggered spiritual disaster riots throughout Tokyo. That failure led directly to a catastrophe large enough to scar an era."
Sora went quiet.
Only now did she fully realize just how terrible the implications were.
To her, Gin had spoken of the spell with calm certainty, almost making it sound like a dangerous but navigable path. But hearing Kotoko describe it this way made the scale of the taboo sink in all at once.
Kotoko continued in a grave voice.
"In the eyes of most onmyoji, the Taizan Fukun Ritual is an absolute taboo that should never be touched. The boundary between life and death is not something humans can tamper with casually."
Sora instinctively looked toward Gin.
A faint unease rose in her chest.
At that moment, Gin finally put down the paper in his hand and glanced over.
"It's not as serious as you're making it sound."
Kotoko frowned.
Gin spoke calmly.
"The reason Tsuchimikado Yakou caused such a large spiritual disaster in Tokyo was not because the Taizan Fukun Ritual itself is inherently uncontrollable. It was because the wish he made through it was too broad. Once that happened, the entire structure of the ritual triggered a chain reaction."
Kotoko said nothing for a moment.
To be honest, she did not know the true details of that incident. Like most people, she only knew the version that had spread outward through the Onmyodo world. But even so, her unease remained.
Still, she pressed on.
"Even so, Director, it's better not to touch the Taizan Fukun Ritual lightly."
Her tone was unusually serious.
In her eyes, it was a spell wrapped in ill omen from beginning to end.
That was not really her fault.
Almost every onmyoji who did not know the deeper truth viewed it the same way. Even many National Level onmyoji, including members of the Twelve Divine Generals, saw the Taizan Fukun Ritual as nothing but a disaster waiting to happen.
Gin, however, did not continue the discussion.
"All right. Kotoko, take Sora with you and hire some cleaners. Replace the furniture while you're at it."
He changed the subject so smoothly it was almost shameless.
Kotoko puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
"Hmph."
She knew perfectly well that he had not listened.
But at the same time, another thought had already begun forming in her mind.
Why had he suddenly started researching the Taizan Fukun Ritual in the first place?
Then her eyes slowly shifted toward Kasugano Sora.
And in that instant, something clicked.
It could not be...
Could it?
She studied Sora more closely.
Today, Sora's expression was different from before. There was still fragility there, of course, but the heavy emptiness and quiet hopelessness that used to cling to her had clearly lightened. She seemed more alive, more expectant, as if something had taken root inside her.
Kotoko's eyes narrowed.
A woman's intuition, when it chose to show up, could be unreasonably accurate.
After Kotoko and Sora left the office together, Gin finally called up the role playing system again.
[Abe no Seimei, Founder of Onmyodo]
[Role Playing Progress: Adolescence [10%]]
[Character Abilities:
Basic Talisman Compendium [Minor Accomplishment], Shikigami Contract [Minor Accomplishment], Five Pointed Star Incantation [Minor Accomplishment], Word Spirit Technique [Proficient], Uho [Proficient]
Immovable Binding Technique [Proficient], Fire Boundary Spell [Proficient]
Ghost Averting and Evil Dispelling Incantation [Advanced] ]
Gin's eyes settled on the progress value.
"The role playing progress increased by seven full points."
That was no small amount.
"Just researching the Taizan Fukun Ritual pushed it this far. If I can actually perform it successfully, the progress gain should be enormous."
That was the clearest conclusion.
Unfortunately, conclusions were one thing.
Reality was another.
With his current strength, fully carrying out the Taizan Fukun Ritual alone was still unrealistic. Sooner or later, he would still need to cooperate with Dairenji Suzuka.
Even so, another issue weighed more heavily on him right now.
He frowned slightly.
"But what exactly was that resistance just now?"
What Kotoko had interpreted as spiritual backlash was not really that.
What Gin had attempted just before dawn had been the first true step of the Taizan Fukun Ritual.
He had tried to establish contact with the gods of the underworld.
And he had succeeded.
At least, partially.
The connection had clearly formed for an instant.
Then, for reasons he still could not understand, it had been severed from the other side.
Unilaterally.
He had already repeated the full deduction process in his head more than a dozen times. By his calculations, there had been no flaw at all.
Which was exactly what made it so strange.
.....
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