Chapter 14: New Employee
The truth Gin Tsumugi had just laid out struck Kasugano Sora's fragile heart like one crashing wave after another.
In her earliest clear memories of the nightmare, her father, mother, and older brother had died in a car accident. After that, things wearing their faces had entered the house. Night after night, she had hidden in terror, too frightened to sleep, clinging to her phone and desperately sending out cries for help, praying that someone, anyone, would come save her.
But now she knew the truth.
It had all been a lie.
A trap.
The monsters had used her as bait, luring people into the house one by one, turning them into nourishment for the so-called Weird Wood Spirit, feeding it with human lives so it could bear those grotesque fruits.
Just thinking about it made her whole body turn cold.
A deep chill spread through her, followed by a lingering fear so heavy it felt like something dark was still wrapped around her heart.
If her cousin Kurazaki Fuko had been drawn there and failed to meet Gin, then both of them would have been swallowed by that abyss. Worse, Sora herself would have gone on unknowingly helping the trap claim more lives. One innocent person after another would have followed the path she had opened.
That thought alone made her tremble.
At the same time, she understood something else.
The many dried corpses in the basement were likely not strangers chosen at random. They were probably people connected to her family. Friends of her father, her mother, or her brother, people who had come looking, worried about them, only to be secretly guided into that dead zone under the manipulation of monsters.
The more she understood, the more horrifying it became.
If Gin and the White Fox Office had not intervened, then who knew how long that dark, blood soaked ritual would have continued? How many more people would have disappeared into it, just like her?
"Director... thank you."
Kasugano Sora lowered her head and bowed slightly, her voice soft but sincere.
She had always been socially anxious, the kind of girl who instinctively avoided strangers and shrank away from unfamiliar people. But after living through something so horrifying, something inside her had clearly changed.
Gin looked at her quietly.
"Although the source of the incident was connected to you, my White Fox Office accepted your request. Once we do that, we see it through to the end." His tone remained calm. "Failing to save you completely is still a shortcoming on our side."
"No." Sora hurriedly shook her head. "You already did everything you could."
Gin did not argue.
Instead, he explained her current situation in a measured voice.
"Your spiritual body is still far too weak. For now, it needs the soul-hosting wood as a vessel. The main reason I turned you into my Shikigami was so my spiritual power could stabilize you through the contract."
He glanced at the soul-hosting wood that served as her anchor.
"Once your spiritual body is fully stable and no longer in danger of collapsing from outside interference, you'll be able to break free of the soul-hosting wood and return to your original body."
Sora's eyes lifted slightly.
Gin continued, "You still won't be able to live as a normal human. That much is impossible. But it will be better than your current state."
Then he added, "When that time comes, I'll sever the Shikigami Contract between us. After that, whether you choose to stay or leave will be entirely up to you."
Sora listened quietly.
"But until then," Gin said, "you'll need to remain at the White Fox Office for a while. During that time, you'll work there as an employee."
After saying that, Gin used talismans to reseal Kasugano Sora's corpse.
Only under proper sealing could the remaining vitality of the body be preserved well enough to prevent decay.
Sora merely nodded obediently.
She had no objection.
To her, Gin was the benefactor who had pulled her out of a nightmare deeper than death. Staying under the protection of the White Fox Office for a while, and even working there, was not something she found difficult to accept. On the contrary, she was already grateful enough that he was willing to shelter her at all.
At the very least, she would not be left wandering without anywhere to go.
That alone was enough.
Soon after, Gin left the secret room with Kasugano Sora floating at his side, her soul-hosting wood serving as the anchor for her ghostly body.
Back in the office, Iwanaga Kotoko was already busy.
"The matter of the corpse drifting into Lord Tsuchizawa's river has been settled..."
"The dispute between the Kappa and the Blue Frogs over territory..."
"The case involving outside yokai intruding into the district..."
One after another, she sorted through various supernatural disputes and requests. Most of them were trivial on the surface, but that did not mean they were easy. What Kotoko really handled was not simply paperwork. She balanced relationships, mediated conflicts, and quietly kept fragile situations from turning dangerous.
That was her role as the Princess of Yokai.
As the Goddess of Wisdom.
It was worth noting that the ones seeking her help were generally weak, neutral, or relatively harmless yokais.
The reason was obvious enough.
The truly powerful ones had no need for a Princess or a Goddess of Wisdom. Kotoko's reputation was strongest among the lower and middle tiers of the supernatural world. And when she ran into something especially troublesome, she still had to rely on Gin in the end.
At that moment, Kotoko looked up.
"Director, you're done?"
Then she saw the girl floating beside him.
Gin stepped forward.
"Kotoko, this is Kasugano Sora. She'll be joining the White Fox Office as a new employee." He glanced toward Sora. "She can help take some of the smaller tasks off your hands."
Kotoko said nothing at first.
She simply stared.
Her brown eyes fixed themselves on Kasugano Sora so intently that the already timid Sora instinctively drifted behind Gin for cover.
"Kotoko," Gin said, "that's rude."
Kotoko immediately puffed up with righteous indignation and pointed at Sora from behind him.
"Director, you never said Kasugano Sora was such a cute little girl."
Then, after a quick glance at Sora's chest, she muttered under her breath, "And she's the same type as me. A tiny rival."
Gin gave her a light knock on the head.
"As a senior, act like one."
Kotoko instantly deflated like a punctured balloon.
She glared at him for a second, then pulled herself together, put on a bright smile, and extended her hand toward Sora in a much friendlier manner.
"Hello. I'm Iwanaga Kotoko, the Director's assistant and secretary. You can call me Kotoko or Big Sister Kotoko."
Sora hesitated for a brief moment, then softly replied, "I'm Kasugano Sora. You can just call me Sora. That's what my brother and my cousin call me."
Then she reached out and shook Kotoko's hand.
The next second, surprise flashed across her face.
She could actually feel it.
A real sense of contact.
Ever since becoming a spirit, most things had simply passed through her. Cups, tables, even walls meant almost nothing to her now. But with Kotoko, there was unmistakable physical contact, as natural as if both of them were still alive.
.....
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