Chapter 106: Severe Injury
"The Great Yokai in Minato Ward has appeared."
"Is it Shuten-dōji himself, or another Great Yokai?"
"It's the Slaughter Ghost."
A sharp inhale sounded in the darkness.
"The worst outcome was avoided, then. Still, among Great Yokai, the Slaughter Ghost is not weak. Its killing power is infamous."
"Now we'll see what method White Fox Gin Tsumugi has prepared to deal with it."
"..."
"A second Slaughter Ghost? It seems to be a newly promoted Great Yokai under Shuten-dōji."
"Interesting. This is a good chance to see how much of 'his' strength has recovered."
"..."
The moment the Slaughter Ghost descended over Shinomiya Manor, the great forces of Onmyōdō reacted.
The Tsuchimiya Family.
The Tsuchimikado Clan.
The Onmyo Alliance.
The Onmyo Bureau.
The Onmyō Academy.
Even the Imperial Palace.
One after another, hidden techniques stirred in the shadows. Secret arts unfolded silently, allowing powerful figures from every corner of the Onmyōdō world to peer across the distance and observe the battle about to begin.
For them, this was more than a single commission.
This was a test.
A test of the newly titled [White Fox].
A test of the young man who had seized control of Shibuya Ward's Onmyōdō and outlined the framework called Myriad Laws.
And for certain beings hidden deeper in the dark, it was also a test of something far older.
"An unfamiliar one."
Gin Tsumugi stood beneath the blood-red sky, looking calmly at the Slaughter Ghost hovering above Shinomiya Manor.
He had no impression of this Great Yokai.
During the thousand-year dream he experienced while advancing the role-playing system, he had encountered many of Shuten-dōji's subordinates. This creature was not among them.
Either it had joined Shuten-dōji within the last few centuries, or it had only recently climbed into the realm of a Great Yokai.
Below, Shinomiya Kaguya quietly let out the breath she had been holding.
This was already the best possible outcome.
Shuten-dōji had not come in person.
Only one Great Yokai had appeared.
Exactly the narrow line of survival she had gambled on.
"Pathetic."
The Slaughter Ghost looked down at Shinomiya Manor, its blood-red eyes sweeping over the Onmyoji surrounding Kaguya.
Its lips curled into a cruel sneer.
"A blood sacrifice struggling before the butcher's blade. How amusing."
The Onmyoji below were mostly Professional Level. There was only one National Level Onmyoji among them.
As long as there was no Great Onmyoji present, and no formation of several National Level Onmyoji working together, the Slaughter Ghost felt no fear.
Rather, this suited its tastes.
"Before I take Lord Shuten's sacrifice away," it said, its voice rough and savage, "I might as well enjoy a little slaughter."
Its malevolence erupted.
The killing intent crashed down like a mountain.
In an instant, Isayama Yomi, Tsuchimiya Kagura, Furukawa Oishi, and the other Onmyoji felt their bodies sink. It was as though a great weight had been thrown across their backs. Their knees nearly buckled, and even the flow of spiritual power inside them grew sluggish.
Some of the weaker Onmyoji turned pale on the spot.
"Spirit Speech: Disperse."
Gin's voice cut through the pressure.
The word carried spiritual force, clean and sharp. The suffocating malevolence pressing over the plaza scattered at once, allowing the Onmyoji below to breathe again.
Then Gin stepped into the air.
With Uho, his figure rose lightly from the ground, stopping opposite the Slaughter Ghost beneath the crimson night.
The Slaughter Ghost stared at him and laughed.
"Even if lowly Onmyoji gather together, they are only piling corpses higher."
Its gaze lingered on Gin, contemptuous and hungry.
"It has been a long time since I tore apart a National Level Onmyoji. I still remember the feeling. Flesh splitting. Bones snapping. Blood soaking my claws."
Every word dripped with cruelty.
To this Great Yokai, human lives were not lives.
They were meat.
Toys.
Things to break.
"It's impressive," Gin said calmly, "that a Yokai like you managed to survive since the Heian Period."
The sentence was mild.
Almost casual.
Yet to the Slaughter Ghost, it sounded like outright contempt.
Its eyes narrowed.
The killing intent around it sharpened, focusing wholly on the young Onmyoji standing in front of it.
"Don't worry, Onmyoji," the Slaughter Ghost growled. "I won't let you die easily."
It raised one claw.
Dense Yin Energy gathered around those long, hideous fingers. For a moment, the night seemed to fill with the wailing of ghosts, the screams of countless Yokai slaughtered beneath those claws over the centuries.
Then the claw expanded.
In a few breaths, it became enormous, dozens of meters from fingertip to palm, blotting out a portion of the blood-red sky.
The power brewing inside it was violent enough to crush a skyscraper.
Below, Imai Takumi swallowed hard.
A casual strike from a Great Yokai was already comparable to most National Level Onmyō Arts.
No wonder ancient records described Great Yokai as natural disasters in living form.
Even a glance at their power from the side was enough to make one's scalp go numb.
Shinomiya Kaguya, Isayama Yomi, Tsuchimiya Kagura, and the rest all watched Gin tensely.
The giant claw descended.
The sky groaned beneath it.
Gin did not move back.
"If that's all," he said, drawing a talisman from his sleeve, "you're still lacking."
The talisman snapped between his fingers.
His voice rose in an incantation, ancient syllables flowing with solemn rhythm.
"Namo sarva-tathāgatebhyo, sarva-mukhebhyaḥ, sarvathā. Traṭ, caṇḍa, mahā-roṣaṇa, khaṃ. Traṭ, hāṃ māṃ."
Spiritual power ignited.
"I take refuge in all Tathāgatas. All gates, all places. Shatter obstruction. Break violent evil. Great wrath. All obstacles, be destroyed."
His eyes were clear and bright.
"Swiftly, as the laws and decrees command."
"Fudō Myōō Fire Boundary Mantra."
White fire bloomed.
It was not ordinary flame. It was the wrathful fire of Fudō Myōō, pure and blazing, carrying both a heat that could melt stone and the sacred force to burn away evil.
The flames roared upward and transformed into more than a dozen white fire dragons, coiling around the descending claw.
Sizzle.
Black smoke poured from the Slaughter Ghost's hand.
Its flesh and baleful aura were being burned away at the same time.
Far away, inside the Onmyo Agency Headquarters, Miyaji Hanao suddenly rose from his seat.
The Chief of the Exorcism Agency Purification Command Center.
One of the [Twelve Divine Generals].
The man known as [Enma].
For the first time that night, disbelief crossed his face.
"There's no mistake."
His voice was low.
"That is the ancient-style Fudō Myōō Fire Boundary Mantra. Not the imperial-style version."
The very spell formula he had spent years attempting to reconstruct.
A lost ancient Onmyō Art.
And now, Gin Tsumugi had cast it cleanly before the eyes of the entire hidden world.
Elsewhere, the observers stirred.
"So the rumors were true. White Fox Gin Tsumugi really does possess ancient-style Onmyō Arts and talismans."
"The ancient-style Fudō Myōō Fire Boundary Mantra is powerful. It can be considered one of the strongest Onmyō Arts below Great Onmyō Art."
"But against a Great Yokai, it is still not enough."
"Let's keep watching. If this is his only trump card..."
"Then he will become a joke tonight."
"No. He should have more than this."
"..."
"I underestimated you."
The Slaughter Ghost felt the pain burning through its flesh.
Its blood-red eyes turned colder.
It tried to pull its giant claw free from the white flames, but Gin did not give it the chance.
Two more talismans slid between his fingers.
"All things beneath the mortal sky fall within my grasp. By the original vow of Fudō Myōō's true form, I make a great vow to subdue this evil spirit."
His voice sharpened.
"Swiftly, as the laws and decrees command."
"Immovable Binding Technique."
Chains of spiritual power erupted in the air, locking around the massive claw and pinning it in place.
Gin's second talisman flared.
"Remove impurity. Be reborn in the Pure Land. Vajra, purity, as all Vajras are pure. I take refuge in the universal Vajra. Violent demonic obstacles, Great Wrathful One, destroy them. Holy Wrathful Speaker, Fudō Myōō, subdue all demons."
"Demon-Purifying Talisman."
The talisman struck the white flames.
The Fudō Myōō Fire Boundary Mantra exploded in intensity.
What had already been a blazing inferno became a volcanic eruption. The white flame surged several times stronger than before, eating into the Slaughter Ghost's giant claw with terrifying speed.
For the first time, the Slaughter Ghost's expression changed.
It felt danger.
A genuine sense of crisis.
Demonic power poured from its body into the giant claw as it tried to crush the flames by force.
"It won't be that easy."
Gin saw through its intention at once.
A profound light flickered in his eyes.
It was vast, fluid, and mysterious, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
Onmyōdō Framework, Myriad Laws.
Activated.
"Change."
The instant Gin spoke, the structure of the spell formula shifted.
The Slaughter Ghost's face twisted.
Too late.
The white flames of Fudō Myōō's wrath were forcibly reshaped by Myriad Laws. They compressed inward, condensing from a blazing firestorm into a single long spear of white flame.
The spear shot forward like lightning.
It pierced through the giant claw.
The Slaughter Ghost let out a pained roar as the burning spear nailed its hand firmly in midair.
Gin's incantation followed without pause.
"Namaḥ samanta-vajrāṇāṃ hāṃ. Namaḥ samanta-vajrāṇāṃ hāṃ. Namaḥ samanta-buddhānāṃ vajra raṃ haṃ."
The air trembled.
"Swiftly, as the laws and decrees command."
"Fudō Myōō Acala Mantra."
Runes surfaced along the white flame spear.
Each one carried the profound principles of Onmyōdō, purging evil, breaking demonic power, and amplifying the wrathful force of the Vajra.
The aura of exorcism intensified.
"Aaaaaah!"
Pinned in the sky, the Slaughter Ghost howled.
"Damn you, Onmyoji!"
It had never expected to suffer such a humiliating injury because of one moment of carelessness.
It reached for the spear burning through its flesh and into its body, trying to tear it out.
Gin raised one hand.
"Burst."
Boom!
The white flame spear detonated.
The explosion swallowed the Slaughter Ghost before it could react. A thunderous roar rolled across the private scenic area, and waves of scorching heat rippled outward in every direction.
The barriers around the plaza shuddered violently.
Below, the Onmyoji stared upward in shock.
"So powerful..."
Furukawa Oishi's voice slipped out before he could stop it.
"So this is White Fox Gin Tsumugi's strength."
The sequence had been flawless.
The Fire Boundary Mantra.
The binding technique.
The purifying talisman.
The transformation through Myriad Laws.
The enhancement mantra.
Every step connected to the next with terrifying precision. It was like watching a textbook demonstration of high-level Onmyōdō, except the "textbook" was being used to suppress a Great Yokai.
From the opening exchange, the Slaughter Ghost's initiative had been seized completely.
"That guy..."
Isayama Yomi stared at the sky, her hand still gripping Shishio's hilt.
"He's become this strong?"
She had always known Gin was powerful.
No one could become the [White Fox] of the [Twelve Divine Generals] without true ability.
But knowing that and seeing him stand alone against a Great Yokai were two very different things.
National Level Onmyō Arts flowed from his hands almost effortlessly.
Even a Great Yokai had been forced into a disadvantage.
The one most excited by this sight was Shinomiya Kaguya.
Hope, real hope, finally appeared in her eyes.
The mark on her body might truly be resolved tonight.
"White Fox Gin Tsumugi..."
Imai Takumi muttered the name under his breath.
His gaze drifted quietly toward the young women nearby, most of whom were already staring at Gin in awe.
Calculations turned in his mind.
Meanwhile, the Onmyoji observing through secret techniques also shifted in mood.
"White Fox Gin Tsumugi is indeed not weak."
An elder who had stood at National Level for more than a decade sighed.
"Just his mastery of the Fudō Myōō Fire Boundary Mantra, Demon-Purifying Talisman, and Acala Mantra is enough to place him above most National Level Onmyoji. The younger generation is truly frightening."
"Keep watching."
Another voice cut in.
"The Slaughter Ghost was only suppressed because it underestimated him. The real battle begins now."
"The damage caused by that Fire Boundary Mantra was impressive, but it is not enough to destroy a Great Yokai."
"Great Yokai have monstrous vitality."
"Exactly."
The observers were right.
When the flames and smoke finally dispersed, the Slaughter Ghost's figure appeared once more.
Its right arm had shriveled, hanging uselessly at its side.
Half of its body was burned into a bloody mess. Charred flesh clung to exposed muscle, and white fire still smoldered in the wounds. By appearance alone, it had suffered a severe injury.
Yet the aura pouring from its body did not weaken.
Instead, it grew stronger.
More savage.
More violent.
More terrifying.
.....
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