Chapter 47: The Urgent Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi
Green poisonous smoke rolled across the mountainside in dense waves, while heat fierce enough to soften steel slammed into everything like a living wall.
From time to time, Mount Fuji rumbled and shook. The volcano convulsed, then spat out magma and shattered rock with the fury of a god in wrath. The earth trembled under the impact. The slopes had long since become a true land of death, a place no normal living thing should have been able to survive.
The air was thick with the stench of sulfur.
Yet beneath that burning reek lurked something even worse, a warped, unnatural force woven into the atmosphere itself.
An ordinary person would not have lasted even moments here.
Even a middling Onmyoji, if forced to remain too long in such an environment, would meet a miserable end. At best, they would be swallowed by the poison smoke or buried beneath magma and rock. At worst, they would be contaminated by that invisible, bizarre power and twisted into one of the monsters they once fought.
And yet, this dead land was precisely where the main force of Japan's Onmyoji had gathered.
Mount Fuji.
The sacred peak known across the world as a famous landmark had become the frontline where Japan's strongest spiritual practitioners were desperately trying to hold back the awakening of Yamata no Orochi.
Even without fully awakening, that mythical Great Yokai's presence had already begun to corrode the mountain itself.
Its strange power seeped endlessly into the environment, warping everything it touched and slowly turning Mount Fuji into a nest fit for its return.
At the foot of the mountain, the forests had long since changed beyond recognition.
Rabbits, deer, wolves, birds, even insects and plants had all begun mutating under the contamination. Fur sloughed away. Exposed veins bulged beneath flayed skin. Eyes bulged from twisted sockets. Teeth and claws lengthened into grotesque forms. Foam and toxic saliva dripped from jaws made only for slaughter. Flowers blackened. Trees warped. Everything in the ecosystem was being remade into something vile.
Because of that, the government had already stationed large military forces around the outer forest to prevent those corrupted creatures from escaping.
Higher up the mountain, where poisonous fumes and volcanic eruptions struck together with Yamata no Orochi's foul influence, stood the Onmyoji encampment.
It was protected by an immense barrier.
Rather than a single smooth dome, it was formed from countless irregular spiritual mirror plates joined together in a complex layered structure, reminiscent of the Seven Pointed Barrier. Toxic smoke, falling magma, broken rock, and even the corruptive force saturating the air were all blocked outside.
Within that barrier stood rows of large tents and temporary structures, enough to house a small war camp.
This defense had not been erected by one faction alone.
Experts in barrier techniques from the Onmyo Bureau, the Onmyo Alliance, the Onmyo Academy, the Tsuchimikado Clan, and several other major Onmyodo organizations had pooled their strength to create it. Onmyoji rotated in shifts, maintaining and reinforcing the barrier without pause. Among them was Yuge Mari, the Princess of Barriers and one of the Twelve Divine Generals, personally overseeing the formation.
Near the eastern side of the encampment, seven or eight large tents had been clustered together.
That was where the Tsuchimikado Clan's people were stationed.
Inside one of the larger command tents, Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi sat before a wooden table, his brows drawn tightly together.
In front of him lay a compass.
More precisely, it was an astrological divination instrument. Reflected upon its surface was the pattern of the Big Dipper, but the stars' positions were in chaos, spinning and breaking formation over and over.
The result was obvious.
Yamata no Orochi's power was interfering with celestial calculations themselves.
After staring at it for several breaths longer, Yasuzumi finally let out a low sigh and put the instrument away.
Outside the tent, the poisonous smoke had grown visibly denser than it had been not long ago.
His expression darkened.
"We can't hold on much longer."
To the Onmyoji stationed around the mountain, the current operation still looked like a functioning seal. Mount Fuji had not yet fully erupted. Yamata no Orochi had not yet broken free. On the surface, it seemed their efforts were still bearing fruit.
But Yasuzumi knew the truth.
They had overestimated themselves.
And they had underestimated Yamata no Orochi.
Even with nearly eighty percent of Japan's top tier Onmyoji gathered here, all they had managed to do was slow the awakening slightly. That was all. The so called seal had already become little more than a desperate delaying action, a poison swallowed only to postpone death.
At this rate, Yamata no Orochi would awaken eventually.
That much was certain.
Because of that, conflicting opinions had begun spreading throughout the camp.
Some argued they should abandon Mount Fuji altogether. Continuing to stay here served no real purpose anymore. Better to withdraw, regroup, and prepare the country for the disaster to come.
Others insisted they had to hold the line no matter what. Every extra day bought here was time for the younger generation of Onmyoji to grow stronger. If the current generation collapsed and the next one was still unready, Japan's future would become even grimmer.
And beyond those two camps were even more complicated views, half measures, compromises, and disputes.
The longer this continued, the more unstable things would become.
Yasuzumi pressed his fingers to his temple.
"The stalemate has to be broken soon."
"If this drags on any longer, people's hearts will scatter before the line does."
That was the cruelest part.
Making a decision was easy.
Bearing the consequences of that decision was not.
No one wanted to become the person responsible for pushing Japan one step closer to ruin. Yet refusing to decide was its own form of disaster.
Just as that thought passed through his mind, a solemn chant suddenly echoed inside the tent.
It was not carried by ordinary sound.
Ancient divine script shimmered into existence around him, older than Sanskrit and weighted with a sacred authority that seemed to press back against Yamata no Orochi's corruption.
Yasuzumi's expression changed immediately.
That voice.
That incantation.
It was the Tsuchimikado Clan's secret divine code.
The Heavenly Divine Word.
"In the name of Amenominakanushi no Kami, I borrow the mighty hand of the gods to sweep away all defilement and miasma from this place…"
"This hand is not my hand. This breath is not my breath. This voice is not my voice. They all reside in Takamagahara. The hand of the gods, the breath of the gods, the voice of the gods…"
"Futsunotomi Ten no Mitamashii, Supreme God of Action…"
"The mysteries of heaven and earth…"
Yasuzumi's pupils contracted.
"Hirotaka?!"
His heart sank at once.
The Heavenly Divine Word was not a technique to be used lightly. If it succeeded, it could force a message through even monstrous interference. If it failed, the backlash was severe. At best, the user suffered a devastating curse. At worst, they died under divine punishment for daring to profane the gods' authority.
For Hirotaka to resort to this…
Something major had happened at the Tsuchimikado estate.
Without hesitation, Yasuzumi raised his own spiritual power and joined the chant from within the encampment, striking from his side while Hirotaka struck from the other.
"In the name of Amenominakanushi no Kami, I borrow the mighty hand of the gods to sweep away all defilement and miasma from this place…"
"This hand is not my hand. This breath is not my breath. This voice is not my voice. They all reside in Takamagahara…"
"Futsunotomi Ten no Mitamashii, Supreme God of Action…"
"The mysteries of heaven and earth…"
"Swiftly obey my command!"
Crack!
For a brief instant, Yamata no Orochi's suffocating interference was torn open.
An illusory figure took shape inside the tent.
Tsuchimikado Hirotaka.
Only then did Yasuzumi allow himself a small breath of relief.
Then he spoke at once, voice sharp with tension.
"Hirotaka, what happened? For you to use the Heavenly Divine Word, has something attacked the Tsuchimikado estate? A Great Yokai?"
That was the first possibility he considered.
Hirotaka shook his head.
"No Great Yokai attacked us."
"But something far worse than an ordinary emergency happened."
His face was grim.
"The seal on Zenki and Koki failed."
"The ancient sealing formation was torn apart by the two Kishin."
For a moment, Yasuzumi's face lost all color.
"…What?"
Then the shock hit him in full.
"Zenki and Koki broke the seal?!"
That possibility had always existed in the back of his mind.
The two Kishin sealed within the Tsuchimikado estate were a time bomb waiting to explode one day.
But he had never expected it to happen now. There had been no sign of it before he left for Mount Fuji.
No warning.
No omen.
No gradual deterioration severe enough to predict this outcome.
Yasuzumi's thoughts surged, but he forcibly cut them off.
There was no time.
He began issuing orders one after another with astonishing speed.
"Hirotaka, have Natsume activate the barrier around the Tsuchimikado estate immediately. Zenki and Koki must not be allowed to leave."
"Notify the Onmyo Bureau, the Onmyo Alliance, and the Onmyo Academy. Make the situation clear and request immediate support."
"Begin evacuating the residents of Mitsuwa Town at once. The estate barrier is strong, but if the worst happens, that alone may not be enough."
"Move the branch families and all noncombatants away from the core area."
"Seal off the inner grounds. No one without battle capability is to approach."
"If necessary, sacrifice the outer structures. Preserve the ancestral core."
Order after order poured from his mouth without pause, each one more urgent than the last.
But strangely, Hirotaka remained silent.
He did not move.
He did not acknowledge a single command.
Only then did Yasuzumi notice it.
Something was off.
"Hirotaka?"
He frowned.
Then, with growing impatience, he snapped,
"Hirotaka, go and carry out the orders. Quickly!"
.....
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