Chapter 48: Speculation
Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi's face had gone completely tense.
He was not just the head of the Tsuchimikado Clan. To Mitsuwa Town, to the Tsuchimikado bloodline, and to a great many people in modern Onmyodo, he was the pillar holding everything upright. It was precisely because of that that Hirotaka had willingly become his shikigami and followed him this far.
Yet now, even a man like Yasuzumi could not hide the urgency in his expression.
Seeing Hirotaka's illusory figure still standing there without moving, Yasuzumi's heart dropped sharply.
A terrible possibility flashed through his mind.
"…Don't tell me Zenki and Koki have already escaped the estate. Have they left the Tsuchimikado grounds? Have they gotten out of Mitsuwa Town?"
His voice trembled despite himself.
His fists clenched so hard the knuckles whitened.
If that really had happened, then everything would spiral beyond prediction. Once those two Kishin were loose in the outside world, the disaster they could unleash would be no less than the spiritual disaster caused by Tsuchimikado Yakou's failed Taizan Fukun Ritual. If things truly came to that, then the Tsuchimikado Clan would be nailed to history as the sinners of all Japanese Onmyodo.
The thought alone made Yasuzumi's expression turn ashen.
Only then did Hirotaka finally get the chance to speak.
"Head of the family, Zenki and Koki have not escaped the Tsuchimikado estate."
He spoke steadily, though the gravity in his voice remained.
"They are still inside the grounds. The moment those two Kishin tore through the ancient sealing formation, I had Natsume activate the barrier around the Tsuchimikado mansion."
Yasuzumi let out a long, heavy breath.
For a moment, he realized he had frightened himself with his own imagination.
"As long as they have not left the estate, then this is still the best possible outcome."
His shoulders eased slightly.
"Even if the entire Tsuchimikado mansion has to be sacrificed to contain them, it would still be worth it."
That was what he truly believed.
In his view, Hirotaka had risked using the Heavenly Divine Word because the seal had failed and the clan had already suffered severe losses. Neither Hirotaka nor Chizuru could be blamed for that. No one could have anticipated that Zenki and Koki would suddenly tear open the seal at such a moment.
But Hirotaka shook his head.
"No. That is not what happened."
Yasuzumi's brows drew together again.
Hirotaka continued, every word clear.
"At present, Zenki and Koki are obediently staying in the same dry well where they were sleeping before."
"I had already made up my mind to use the entire Tsuchimikado estate as a cage if necessary. But after breaking the seal, they only went out to see one person."
He paused.
"No. To be more precise, they went to meet someone, and then that person ordered them back."
Silence fell inside the tent.
Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi stared at him in genuine shock.
He had not expected a reversal like this. In his mind, the matter had already been reduced to one simple crisis: Zenki and Koki had broken the seal.
But now there was another variable.
A far more unbelievable one.
"…See someone?" Yasuzumi said slowly. "Who?"
"Who could possibly order Zenki and Koki back?"
Hirotaka did not answer immediately. Instead, he began recounting everything that had happened in the Tsuchimikado Clan over the past few days, from beginning to end.
White Fox Gin Tsumugi's arrival at the Tsuchimikado estate.
His purpose in borrowing the senji ryakketsu.
The strange sense of bloodline affinity Hirotaka had felt from him.
Natsume's instinctive closeness and obvious goodwill toward him.
Harutora's equally instinctive aversion.
Then the most shocking part of all.
Zenki and Koki kneeling before Gin Tsumugi and calling him "Master."
Hirotaka narrated every major event and every small but troubling detail without omission.
Only after he finished did the tent fall quiet again.
Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi lowered his gaze and sank into thought.
For a long while, he said nothing.
Something deep in his mind was clearly turning, piece by piece, as if old fragments long buried were suddenly being fitted together.
At last, he murmured under his breath,
"Zenki and Koki…"
"The only people those two Kishin would ever acknowledge as master should be Yakushi Kaku and our ancestor, Abe no Seimei."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Natsume's obvious fondness. Harutora's rejection. Two completely opposite instincts…"
The faint muttering continued, but each sentence grew heavier than the last.
Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi knew exactly what Tsuchimikado Harutora really was.
As for Natsume, although she was publicly his daughter, even he did not truly know her full origin. She had been an abandoned infant left at the gate of the Tsuchimikado estate. The only certainty was that her Tsuchimikado bloodline was unusually dense. So dense, in fact, that it had once shown clear atavistic traits. The white fox characteristics she had displayed in childhood, which later faded with age, were proof enough.
"White Fox Gin Tsumugi. White fox. Tsuchimikado bloodline. Master of Zenki and Koki…"
His voice grew quieter.
Then, as if a thought had abruptly surfaced from the depths, his eyes sharpened.
"…Harutora… Yakou…"
A pulse of realization crossed his expression.
"Yes. Tsuchimikado Yakou must have succeeded."
"As the creator of the Taizan Fukun Ritual, there is no reason he would not have succeeded."
Hirotaka's expression shifted at once.
"Head of the family… do you know what this means?"
Yasuzumi did not answer immediately.
Instead, he exhaled slowly, trying to steady the storm in his own mind.
"I have a few suspicions," he said at last. "But suspicion is still only suspicion. I cannot be certain yet."
Then something else occurred to him.
"Wait."
He looked up sharply.
"Didn't White Fox Gin Tsumugi come to the estate specifically to borrow the senji ryakketsu?"
"Yes."
"Then you and Chizuru must remove its seal as soon as possible. The senji ryakketsu may be able to judge this matter more clearly than any of us can."
Hirotaka's gaze sharpened in understanding.
Yasuzumi continued, now speaking much more seriously.
He gave Hirotaka several further instructions in succession, each one deliberate and precise, then finished with a final warning.
"As for White Fox Gin Tsumugi, you must not show even the slightest negligence."
Hirotaka lowered his head.
"Understood, Head of the family."
At that same moment, his illusory figure began to distort.
The opening torn through Yamata no Orochi's blockade by the Gyo Ten Shin Gen was already beginning to close. Communication between Mount Fuji and the outside world was being severed again.
In only a few breaths, Hirotaka's figure disappeared completely.
Yasuzumi remained seated in silence for a moment.
Then, just as he was about to act on what he had learned, a hurried voice came from outside the tent.
"Head of the family!"
A Tsuchimikado clansman stood beyond the entrance, his tone urgent.
"Director Kurahashi and the others are requesting your presence at the council chamber immediately. There has been more movement from Yamata no Orochi."
Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi's eyes darkened.
"The third time in such a short span…"
His voice was low and heavy.
"It seems Yamata no Orochi's full revival is drawing closer and closer. I just don't know how much longer we can continue stalling it."
The weight in his chest deepened.
Then, without warning, his thoughts turned once more to the name Hirotaka had just spoken.
White Fox Gin Tsumugi.
The young man whom Zenki and Koki had called Master.
The youth who carried that strange bloodline resonance.
The boy who might, just might, have a connection to the one person in all of history whose shadow still hung over Onmyodo like the moon over a midnight sea.
If he truly was "him"…
Then the crisis of Yamata no Orochi was not unsolvable.
In this age, where supernatural disasters were returning one after another and despair was beginning to seep into every corner of the country, there might still be a ray of hope left.
There might still be someone capable of turning the tide.
But only if enough time could be bought for him.
Enough time for him to truly awaken.
Enough time for him to "return."
Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi closed his eyes briefly.
For days, the scales in his heart had remained motionless, balanced between withdrawal and resistance.
Now, at last, they began to tilt.
.....
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