Chapter 87: Releasing the Curse
The night was deathly quiet.
Then the sirens tore it open.
Wee-woo. Wee-woo. Wee-woo.
A line of police cars screamed through the streets of Shibuya, their lights flashing red and blue against the windows of sleeping apartments. Behind them came the modified vehicles of the Onmyo Bureau branch, engines roaring as they rushed forward with urgent precision.
The dim streetlights that had been struggling against the darkness suddenly flared.
The closed signs, the public lamps, the road lights, the emergency fixtures mounted along commercial buildings—
All of them burst into dazzling brightness.
In a single breath, the whole of Shibuya Ward was lit up as if dawn had arrived early.
For an instant, it almost resembled the Shibuya of the old age—the sleepless district of department stores, fashion boutiques, restaurants, cafés, game centers, and entertainment venues. A city that had once stood beside Shinjuku as one of Tokyo's great twenty-four-hour playgrounds.
But this was not the return of prosperity.
It was an alarm.
Countless residents were startled awake.
"What happened? Another supernatural incident?"
"With this many police cars and Onmyo Agency vehicles? What else could it be?"
"Damn this world... Houjuo High School just had that incident, and now there's another one? How many things are hiding in Shibuya?"
"Maybe we should move out."
"And go where? Other places might be worse. At least Shibuya has the White Fox Office."
"...Yeah. You're right."
Behind curtains and cracked-open windows, residents watched the convoys race past. Faces pale with fear reflected in the glass.
In the era of the Supernatural Revival, ordinary people were the most helpless.
They had no power to protect themselves, no way to shield their families, and no guarantee that tomorrow's morning sun would reach them alive. No one knew when they might be swept into a supernatural incident and die an unnatural death.
Over the past year, Japan's suicide rate had risen sharply.
Some could not endure the fear that came with this new world. Some could not bear watching their families live year-round beneath the shadow of monsters, curses, and spiritual disasters. Some simply could not withstand the endless despair.
They chose death by their own hands.
Pitiful, perhaps.
Weak, some might say.
But to those who had seen what supernatural incidents could do to a person, there were worse endings than death.
At least those people had died as humans.
They had not been dragged into the dark and turned into something neither living nor dead.
Tonight, Shibuya trembled beneath that same fear.
The official in charge of the response, Kohara Daisuke, arrived at Sitinge Mansion almost at the same time as Ibe Tomoya, the chief of the Shibuya Ward Onmyo Agency branch.
At that moment, thousands of armed personnel had already sealed off the surrounding streets. Caution tape fluttered under the floodlights. Police officers formed layered defensive lines, while Agency vehicles blocked every major exit.
Beyond them stood over a hundred Onmyoji dressed in white kariginu, every face tense and watchful.
Many of them had never seen an operation of this scale.
Ahead of them, Sitinge Mansion stood unfinished and abandoned, its skeletal frame swallowed by darkness. The empty windows gaped like dead eyes. The exposed concrete and steel seemed colder than the night itself.
Kohara Daisuke stared at the building, his expression grave.
"What happened here? Why would the White Fox Office mobilize so many people to surround an unfinished building?"
"I don't know."
Ibe Tomoya shook his head.
He truly didn't.
After receiving Iwanaga Kotoko's call, he had gotten out of bed at once and gathered every force the Shibuya Ward Onmyo Agency branch could spare. Under the current emergency authority system, the White Fox Office held Level One authority in Shibuya. If they issued an emergency mobilization order, he had no right to refuse.
"But for the White Fox Office to use Level One authority and deploy nearly seventy percent of Shibuya's Onmyodo forces," Ibe said in a low voice, "this must be an extremely dangerous supernatural incident."
"Miss Kotoko has arrived."
At that moment, Iwanaga Kotoko appeared with Kasugano Sora beside her. Kurazaki Fuko followed closely behind them.
"Miss Kotoko."
Ibe Tomoya and Kohara Daisuke both bowed respectfully.
Given their age and status, there were very few people in Shibuya Ward who could make them lower their heads like this.
But Iwanaga Kotoko was one of them.
She was not merely the representative of the White Fox Office.
She was the princess of the yokai, the goddess of wisdom worshipped by countless yokai. That identity alone was enough for even the Onmyo Agency to treat her seriously.
"There's no time for courtesy," Kotoko said, her expression solemn. "Seal off Sitinge Mansion immediately. Use a barrier strong enough to cover the entire building. Do not let the thing inside escape and affect the surrounding residents."
"The thing inside?"
Ibe Tomoya and Kohara Daisuke exchanged a glance.
Neither asked more.
Kotoko's expression was enough.
Whatever was inside Sitinge Mansion was far more dangerous than they had imagined.
Ibe Tomoya turned at once and shouted, "Barrier Teams One, Two, and Three! Move out immediately. Seal all four sides of Sitinge Mansion!"
"Yes!"
Forty Onmyoji stepped out of formation.
They rushed to four different positions around the mansion, planted talismans, placed spiritual stakes, and began chanting in unison. Pale light rose from the talismans and spread outward, forming thin threads of spiritual energy that wove together in the air.
A barrier large enough to seal a building of Sitinge Mansion's size was no simple task. Even with forty Onmyoji working together, it could not be completed instantly.
But the reward was worth the effort.
As long as the barrier formed, the main vein of the Weird Wood Spirit would be trapped inside.
"While the barrier is being set up, I'll explain the situation."
Kotoko glanced toward the Onmyoji chanting around the mansion, then turned back to Ibe Tomoya and Kohara Daisuke.
"I'm listening, Miss Kotoko," Ibe said.
"This matter begins with the Weird Wood Spirit Incident."
Kotoko gave them a concise account of the entire case.
The Weird Wood Spirit.
The Human Eating Incident.
The buried roots spreading beneath Shibuya.
Kuda Mai.
And finally, Sitinge Mansion.
Of course, she did not mention Gin Tsumugi's conjecture about two unknown powerful entities using the incident as a hidden game.
First, there was no time.
Second, telling them now would only shake the entire Shibuya Onmyodo force.
Even without that part, cold sweat soon appeared on Ibe Tomoya's and Kohara Daisuke's foreheads.
The terror in their eyes could not be hidden.
The Weird Wood Spirit Incident and the Human Eating Incident had originally been treated as two troublesome but manageable supernatural incidents. The authorities, the Onmyo Bureau branch, and the major supernatural affairs offices of Shibuya had all assumed the same thing.
As long as they found a breakthrough, they could resolve them.
No one had imagined that beneath those seemingly ordinary incidents was a crisis capable of threatening millions of lives.
The roots of the Weird Wood Spirit had already spread beneath Shibuya Ward.
And they had noticed nothing.
The thought alone made Ibe Tomoya's heart pound.
If the White Fox Office had not discovered it in time, all of Shibuya might have become a hell of death.
And neither he nor Kohara Daisuke would have been spared.
Fear mixed with gratitude in both men's hearts.
Gratitude toward the White Fox Office.
And above all, toward that rare genius of Onmyodo—
White Fox Gin Tsumugi.
"Miss Kotoko," Ibe Tomoya asked, his throat dry, "what is the Wood Spirit trying to do by planting so many roots beneath Shibuya?"
Yokai never acted without reason.
If they understood the enemy's goal, they could respond.
If they didn't, they might step straight into another trap.
Kohara Daisuke also looked at Kotoko, waiting for her answer.
"If the Director's and my conjecture is correct," Kotoko said gravely, "the Weird Wood Spirit's purpose is to release a curse."
She paused for a beat.
"The fox curse."
"The fox curse?"
Ibe Tomoya and Kohara Daisuke's eyes widened.
A curse.
And not just any curse.
The fox curse.
The roots of the Weird Wood Spirit had already covered the underground of Shibuya. If the creature released that curse through those roots, then the curse would spread beneath the entire ward.
In other words, it intended to curse millions of people at once.
To plant the fox curse into the bodies of innocent residents.
A wave of horror swept over them.
Both men trembled.
"...The fox curse?"
Kurazaki Fuko, who had been silent until now, felt her blood run cold.
She remembered clearly what Gin had called Kuda Mai.
That thing that was neither human nor beast had become that way because of the fox curse.
If the Weird Wood Spirit succeeded in releasing the curse across Shibuya, then millions of people might be twisted into those same half-human, half-fox monsters.
At that point, Shibuya would no longer be a human city.
It would become a paradise for yokai.
A fallen ward.
And the disaster that followed might far surpass the current stage of the Mount Fuji Incident.
.....
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