Chapter 112: Memory Fragments
The sudden reversal left everyone stunned.
"What exactly is White Fox Gin Tsumugi trying to do?"
It was not only Shinomiya Kaguya, Isayama Yomi, Tsuchimiya Kagura, and the others inside Shinomiya Manor who were confused. The Onmyoji observing the battle through secret techniques from afar also could not understand his decision.
Hyakume Oni and Onimaro Oni were retreating.
For reasons unknown, the two Great Yokai who had brought a life-and-death crisis upon the manor had chosen to flee.
If Gin had simply allowed them to leave, the disaster would have ended there.
So why had he activated a Strategic Barrier and blocked their escape?
"Is he insane? If those two Great Yokai leave, the crisis is over."
"Strictly speaking, letting them go would be against an Onmyoji's duty, but this is hardly the time for ideals. Throwing away his life would be even more foolish."
"I don't understand. What is he thinking?"
"Could he be planning to eliminate both Great Yokai here?"
"Tsk. That joke isn't funny."
"Then what do we do?"
"Wait."
One of the older Onmyoji spoke after a long silence.
"White Fox Gin Tsumugi may be young, but judging from the incidents he has handled so far, he is not reckless. Let us see what he is planning."
The others hesitated, then reluctantly slowed their preparations to intervene.
Perhaps, beyond the Tsuchimikado Clan's dragon, he still had another trump card hidden away.
Inside the Strategic Barrier, Gin looked at Onimaro Oni, whose path had been sealed, and felt a strange sense of distance from the present.
"The world truly is unpredictable," he said softly. "I never expected we would meet again like this."
In a sense, he and Onimaro Oni really did share a peculiar fate.
During that dream of a thousand years, when his consciousness had returned to the Heian Period, the first Great Yokai "he" had faced head-on in order to protect Kyoto was none other than Onimaro Oni.
That battle had been the beginning.
The first true step of "his" rise.
And now, after a thousand years, they were standing across from each other again.
The thought was almost nostalgic.
"So I still can't escape."
Onimaro Oni let out a hoarse sigh and released the bewildered Hyakume Oni from its claws. Suppressing the fear that gnawed at its heart, it forced itself to look directly at Gin.
"You are alive after all. Of course you are. How could someone like you die without preparing a way back? Resurrection was always your specialty."
"Resurrection?"
Gin shook his head.
"There was never any resurrection. I simply never died."
He knew Onimaro Oni had misunderstood something, but he did not bother explaining.
Their exchange spread clearly to everyone watching.
Immediately, murmurs broke out across the distant observation techniques.
"What does that mean? Does White Fox Gin Tsumugi know that Great Yokai?"
"And what was that about resurrection? About dying?"
"I don't know..."
"But Onimaro Oni's reaction doesn't seem fake. It really is afraid of him."
"A Great Yokai that has lived for more than a thousand years, afraid of an Onmyoji who isn't even twenty? How is that possible?"
No one could give an answer.
Even Hyakume Oni, standing beside Onimaro Oni, frowned in confusion.
"Onimaro, have you mistaken him for someone else? He is only a high-ranking Onmyoji. There is no need to be so tense, much less frightened. Even if he managed to kill the Slaughter Ghost, so what? He cannot be a match for both of us."
Onimaro Oni did not answer her question.
Its eyes remained fixed on Gin.
"From this moment on, be careful. The moment you see an opening, run. Otherwise, both of us will be buried here."
"Run?" Hyakume Oni stared at it as though it had gone mad. "Onimaro, are you joking?"
But the next scene froze the words in her throat.
"In my current state, dealing with the two of you would indeed be somewhat troublesome."
Gin's tone was calm, almost conversational.
"So I will call in reinforcements. Conveniently, they are also old enemies of yours, Onimaro Oni."
The faint spiritual radiance surrounding Hokuto dispersed.
Gin ended the dragon possession.
Then he drew two talismans from his robes.
His eyes cooled.
"Come forth."
The talismans ignited between his fingers.
"Zenki. Goki."
Boom!
Two pillars of dense black yin energy tore into the night sky.
From within them came roars that sounded like beasts and war drums at once, neither elephant nor tiger, but something far older and far more savage.
Awoo!
Chains clattered.
Heavy footsteps struck the air like blows against the earth.
Two figures emerged from the black columns, each standing three to four meters tall, their bodies overflowing with ferocity.
The one on the left had muscles the color of fresh blood, bulging and coiled like dragons beneath its skin. Foul breath steamed from its mouth. Thick chains wrapped its limbs, and a massive axe rested in its hand. Six eyes gleamed across its body, each filled with a brutality that could crush the will of an ordinary Onmyoji at a glance.
The one on the right looked nearly identical, except its body was blue. It held a water jar in one hand, and a cloth bag hung at its waist.
The two Yokai-Gods stood before Gin like guardian deities dragged out of nightmare.
Onimaro Oni's expression turned rigid.
"So they are still guarding you."
Hyakume Oni's face twisted in disbelief.
"How... how is this possible? Weren't they sealed inside the Tsuchimikado Clan? How can they be walking in the world?"
She was not the only one shaken.
Everyone who saw the two Yokai-Gods standing before Gin wore the same stunned expression.
"Gulp..."
Tsuchimiya Kagura swallowed hard, her eyes wide with disbelief.
"Yomi-nee... those are Zenki and Goki, right?"
Isayama Yomi stared at the sky without blinking.
"It's them."
There was no mistaking it.
The two monstrous auras standing before Gin were no weaker than Onimaro Oni and Hyakume Oni. They were not imitations. They were not ceremonial shikigami shaped in the image of legends.
They were the real thing.
Anyone who had studied the history of Onmyōdō knew those forms.
The legendary Yokai-Gods.
Zenki and Goki.
"Am I seeing this correctly? Those are Zenki and Goki?"
"Lord White Fox summoned them?"
"The shikigami of Kamo no Yakushi no Sukune..."
"How? How did White Fox Gin Tsumugi do it?"
"By what method could he make those two legendary Yokai-Gods acknowledge him as their master?"
"Other than Kamo no Yakushi no Sukune, wasn't the Great Onmyoji Abe no Seimei the only person able to command them?"
A strange silence fell after that name.
Then someone murmured, almost to himself,
"Perhaps the Tsuchimikado Clan knows something."
"That is possible."
"It must be."
The shock spread from one hidden observer to the next.
Even Ouchiyama Megumi, the High Priestess of Ise Grand Shrine, stood frozen in place.
Her cloudy eyes fixed on Gin.
On Zenki.
On Goki.
Then, slowly, a fragment of memory surfaced from the depths of her mind.
She had been very young then.
Young enough to still be careless, young enough to wander into places she should not.
It had happened inside the Saiō Palace.
She had accidentally seen a painting.
In that painting, two fierce Yokai-Gods stood like guardians beside a young man.
Zenki and Goki.
And the young man between them...
He looked terribly similar to Gin Tsumugi.
Back then, she had asked her ancestor, the Saiō, who the man in the painting was.
The answer she received had been so cold that it had remained buried in her memory for decades.
The Great Onmyoji from a thousand years ago.
Abe no Seimei.
.....
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