Chapter 58: A Multitude of Tsuchimikado
Dawn finally came to Mitsuwa Town.
The first pale thread of morning light slipped over the rooftops and into shuttered rooms, cutting through a night that had felt far too long. For the townspeople who had spent hours trembling behind locked doors, afraid to even breathe too loudly, that thin beam of sunlight was enough to loosen the terror clamped around their hearts.
For the first time in their lives, many of them had truly longed for daybreak.
The sudden appearance of hundreds of Evil Spirits the previous night had left a scar on the town. Even without any deaths, fear had already done its work. It had crawled into bones, into memory, into the quiet corners of the mind that never fully forgot.
People began to reappear on the streets in small clusters, speaking in hushed voices about the nightmare they had survived. Some wore bloodshot eyes and hollow expressions. Others, finally convinced the danger had passed, leaned against their own doorframes, let the sunlight warm their faces, and drifted into an exhausted sleep right there.
No one said it aloud, but everyone knew the same thing.
The festival would never feel the same again.
Meanwhile, in a guest room within the Tsuchimikado estate, Dairenji Suzuka slept badly.
Even in sleep, her face was tight with pain. Her small frame curled in on itself as though she were trying to hold together something that had already broken. One hand clutched the blankets, the other pressed helplessly against her chest. Fine beads of sweat shimmered across her pale brow.
"Brother..."
The word slipped from her lips like a fragment of a dream she could not escape.
Then sunlight entered the room.
Its warmth fell across her face, and after a while the tension in her expression eased just a little.
Her eyelashes trembled.
A moment later, Suzuka slowly opened her eyes.
The light was too bright at first. She raised a hand to shield her face, then sat up in a daze, her gaze drifting around the unfamiliar room as the scattered fragments of last night rose one by one to the surface of her mind.
The altar.
The Taizan Fukun Ritual.
The thing from the Underworld.
Her brother.
No. Not her brother.
The truth hit again, and this time there was no ritual frenzy left to dull it. Only the aftermath remained.
Her eyes darkened.
"So that was the end of it..." she murmured.
The years of obsession, the risk, the betrayal, the preparation, all of it had led her there, only for reality to be even crueler than failure. Her brother had never truly had a path back. What the ritual summoned was only the residue attached to his remains, and even that had become a doorway for something vile.
Everything she had done had been for nothing.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The sound on the door pulled her from her thoughts.
"Suzuka, it's me. Are you awake?"
It was Gin Tsumugi.
Suzuka's expression shifted slightly.
There was no way to describe what he had become to her now in one word. Rival. Collaborator. A benchmark she had grudgingly measured herself against. One of the very few people she could speak to without pretense. And now, after last night, the one who had saved her life when she had already given up.
"Come in," she said quietly. "I'm awake."
The door opened.
Gin stepped inside carrying a bowl of steaming rice porridge. A faint herbal fragrance rose from it, clean and bitter beneath the warmth of the broth.
"You overused your spiritual power last night," he said as he crossed the room. "The Tsuchimikado prepared this. It has medicinal herbs mixed into it. It should help your body recover faster."
He held the bowl out to her.
Suzuka looked at it for a second, then took it without putting on airs.
"Thank you."
She picked up the spoon and ate slowly. The porridge was simple, but warmth spread through her body with every bite. By the time she finished, the pounding in her head had eased a little.
Gin took the empty bowl from her and asked, "How do you feel?"
"Better than when I first woke up." Suzuka rubbed lightly at her temple. "At least my head no longer feels like it's being stabbed every few seconds."
That was the price of pushing her spiritual power too far past its limit. It would pass, but not quickly. Even with proper rest, she would need time.
She glanced toward the window, then back at him.
"So we're still in the Tsuchimikado estate."
Gin nodded.
"That's right."
Suzuka let out a quiet breath and gave a faint, bitter smile.
"That makes sense. We broke into their territory, stirred up Mitsuwa Town, touched the Taizan Fukun Ritual, and nearly dragged the entire Tsuchimikado family into a disaster. It would be stranger if they simply let us walk away."
"That is what I thought too," Gin said, his expression turning slightly strange. "But things didn't go quite that way."
Suzuka looked up sharply.
"The Tsuchimikado don't seem interested in making this bigger than it already is. They've already helped suppress the worst of the news, especially anything related to the Taizan Fukun Ritual. Chizuru senpai even went personally to explain matters to the Onmyo Agency."
He paused.
"If there is punishment at all, the White Fox Office will probably receive a severe warning. As for you, you'll most likely be confined for a few days and ordered to reflect."
Suzuka stared at him in disbelief.
"What?"
That reaction was genuine.
Given what they had done, she had already prepared herself for far worse. At the very least, she had expected interrogation, official sanctions, and the full weight of the Tsuchimikado family pressing down on them. Instead...
"This makes no sense," she said flatly. "Why would they do that?"
Gin was silent for a moment.
That question had been bothering him too.
He had already prepared himself to lower his head and apologize properly, maybe more than once. Instead, the Tsuchimikado response had been almost unnervingly restrained.
"Just think of it as the Tsuchimikado being unexpectedly broad minded," he said at last.
Suzuka looked at him like he had just said the moon was made of tofu.
But in the end, she could not come up with a better explanation.
"Fine," she muttered. "I'll pretend I believe that."
Gin did not argue.
He set the bowl aside and stood.
"Get some rest. We'll head back to Tokyo tomorrow, or the day after at the latest."
Suzuka lowered her gaze.
"Gin."
He paused.
She remained quiet for a few seconds before speaking again.
"Did you know from the beginning?"
Her voice was low now, stripped of its usual barbs.
"Did you already know my brother couldn't be brought back? That even if the Taizan Fukun Ritual succeeded, all it would do was pull that sort of thing out of the Underworld?"
Gin looked at her for a moment.
The truth was crueler than what she was asking, but the difference would only deepen the wound. Dairenji Toshiya had long since been reduced to scraps of soul residue and a body used as a sacrificial medium. There had never been a future in which the brother she wanted returned whole and alive.
He did not say all that.
But Suzuka understood enough from his silence.
"I see," she said softly.
Her fingers tightened once around the blanket, then loosened.
Gin let out a quiet breath in his heart. There were moments when saying less was the only mercy left.
After a little more conversation, he took the empty bowl and left the room.
By the time he stepped into the courtyard outside, the morning had brightened considerably.
He had not gone far before he ran into Tsuchimikado Natsume.
She was waiting there, dressed neatly as always, though the traces of last night had not fully left her face. The shock had passed, but not the weight of what she had learned.
"Mr. Gin," she said. "How is Suzuka?"
"Her body is still weak, and mentally she's not in a good place." Gin glanced back toward the guest room. "What happened last night was a heavy blow."
Natsume lowered her eyes.
Given what she had learned about Suzuka's past, she could no longer see her the same way. The image of the feared child prodigy had cracked, and what lay beneath it was uglier, sadder, and far more human.
"I hope she can get through it," Natsume said quietly.
Then she seemed to remember something and looked back up at him.
"Right. Uncle Hirotaka asked me to pass on a message. The senji ryakketsu has been unsealed. You may borrow it at any time."
Gin stopped walking.
"The senji ryakketsu?"
For once, his composure genuinely broke.
He had already given up on that possibility.
After everything he and Suzuka had done at the Tsuchimikado estate, after the altar, the ritual, the chaos in Mitsuwa Town, he had assumed that matter was over. It would already have been generous enough for the Tsuchimikado not to pursue this to the bitter end.
And yet now they were still willing to let him view the senji ryakketsu.
Seeing his reaction, Natsume gave an awkward little smile.
"Uncle Hirotaka said that a promise made by the Tsuchimikado is still a promise. Since the family agreed to let you borrow it, they will not go back on their word so easily. Otherwise, it would mean the Tsuchimikado cannot be trusted."
Gin fell silent.
That explanation sounded proper enough, but the more he thought about it, the less convincing it felt.
The senji ryakketsu was no ordinary text. It was one of the deepest foundations of the Tsuchimikado family, a legacy tied directly to Abe no Seimei himself. Letting an outsider touch it under normal circumstances was already significant. Doing so after everything that had happened was not broad minded. It was practically absurd.
And yet that was exactly what the Tsuchimikado were doing.
Natsume studied his expression, then said softly, "You're confused too, aren't you?"
Gin looked at her.
After a brief pause, he answered honestly.
"Yes."
.....
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