Chapter 111: Old Acquaintance
"Imai Takumi."
Furukawa Oishi's voice rang across the plaza, sharp with fury.
"You dare attempt to harm Lord White Fox? This is betrayal. Not just of him, but of Onmyōdō itself."
His face was livid as he pointed at the old Onmyoji.
"You villain. After tonight, every Onmyoji in Japan will spit on your name. You are a disgrace to our craft."
He was not the only one enraged.
Every Onmyoji gathered in Shinomiya Manor glared at Imai Takumi with open hostility.
The timing was too vicious.
Releasing the marked girls right after White Fox Gin Tsumugi had finished battling the Slaughter Ghost was not a coincidence. It was meant to lure another Great Yokai here while Gin was exhausted.
Their anger was not born purely from concern for him.
They had also been dragged into the scheme.
True, they had accepted Shinomiya Kaguya's invitation for their own reasons. Some wanted profit. Some wanted a connection to the Shinomiya Conglomerate. Some wanted to stand close to White Fox Gin Tsumugi and test whether the rumors surrounding him were true.
But that had been different.
When they faced the first Great Yokai, Gin Tsumugi had stood at the front. Even if he lost, they had still believed they could preserve themselves in the chaos.
Now?
He had defeated the Slaughter Ghost by force, yes. He had even purified it beneath the eyes of the entire Onmyōdō world.
But anyone with real vision could see the price he had paid.
Even with Hokuto, the dragon raised by the Tsuchimikado Clan for a thousand years, acting as his spiritual power reserve, high-intensity combat did not consume spiritual power alone.
Spirit. Focus. Physical stamina. Mental acuity. The delicate state required to weave spells under pressure.
All of it was drained in battle.
Hokuto's accumulated spiritual power might keep Gin from fearing ordinary depletion, but it could not erase the fatigue of fighting a Great Yokai head-on.
If the marks summoned only one more Great Yokai, perhaps there was still a narrow chance of survival.
If they summoned something worse...
Then all they could do was pray their luck had not run dry.
"So that was it."
Ouchiyama Megumi's cloudy eyes flashed with realization.
"Shinomiya Ōkō repeatedly brought these girls into the inner garden of Ise Grand Shrine under different excuses. He was using the barrier woven from divine power and faith to conceal the marks on their bodies, just as Miss Kaguya did."
Her expression darkened.
"No wonder the mark on Miss Kaguya's arm spread so quickly once it was no longer being shielded."
Kaguya's pupils contracted.
Yes.
It all made sense now.
When she had refused to continue hiding at Ise Grand Shrine and chose instead to resist her fate using her own methods, the brand on her arm had reacted violently.
At the time, she had thought it was simply because the barrier's protection had vanished.
But now, looking at the girls kneeling on the ground with identical demon-head brands burning on their shoulders, the full picture became clear.
Her "dear elder brother" had collected other sacrifices marked by Shuten-dōji.
Because of them, Shuten-dōji's attention had been drawn more strongly toward her.
If she had continued clinging to Ise Grand Shrine's protection, living like a prisoner while dragging out her doom, then the moment she was exposed, it might not have been a subordinate that descended.
It might have been Shuten-dōji himself.
"What a wonderful brother I have."
Kaguya's crimson eyes were cold enough to freeze blood.
"One poisonous scheme after another."
If she survived tonight, this would not end with apologies and polite family negotiations.
From this moment onward, the internal struggle for succession within the Shinomiya Conglomerate would rise to a completely different level.
Still, she forced herself to look upward.
Gin Tsumugi was still in the sky.
He had not retreated.
He was waiting.
Kaguya's hands tightened around her sleeves.
She still remembered what he had told her back at the White Fox Office in Shibuya. If Shuten-dōji himself came, or if a Great Yokai beyond his ability appeared, he had the right to withdraw.
She could not blame him for that.
She had no right to blame him.
But now, looking at his back, she found herself hoping for the impossible all over again.
On the ground, Imai Takumi faced the hatred of the surrounding Onmyoji with a gloomy expression.
"This situation developing to this point was not what I wanted."
"Not what you wanted?" Isayama Yomi sneered. "You really are shameless."
The others said nothing, but their eyes carried the same meaning.
To them, Imai Takumi was already a dead man.
Regardless of whether everyone present lived or died tonight, one thing was certain.
The old man would not survive the consequences.
If they were lucky enough to make it through the coming disaster, the higher levels of Onmyōdō would not let him off. People close to Gin Tsumugi, such as Amami Daizen, Dairenji Suzuka, and Miyoshi Tougo of the Twelve Divine Generals, would make sure of that.
The Tsuchimikado Clan, too.
Any one of them would have reason enough to grind Imai Takumi into dust.
Damn you, Gin Tsumugi.
Imai Takumi clenched his teeth.
What exactly are you trying to do?
No one here would believe him now. None of these people understood that Gin had not given him any choice at all.
That gaze.
That killing intent.
It had pierced straight through him.
Gin's eyes had told him plainly that if he refused to proceed according to the original plan, he would die first.
And Imai Takumi had not doubted him for even a moment.
Not after seeing what kind of man White Fox Gin Tsumugi really was.
"Old sir... you..."
The girls who had collapsed to the ground slowly came back to their senses, clutching their burning shoulders.
They were not fools.
Anyone chosen by Shuten-dōji as a sacrifice could not be ordinary. Each of them possessed outstanding appearance, figure, and intellect. They might not have noble blood like Shinomiya Kaguya, but in ordinary society, they were girls who drew admiration wherever they went.
After hearing the Onmyoji condemn Imai Takumi, and after seeing the marks blooming on their own bodies, they understood most of what had happened.
Their purpose in coming here had never been a harmless visit.
They had been delivered as sacrifices.
By the man they had trusted.
No.
A colder truth settled into their hearts.
From the very beginning, Shinomiya Ōkō had approached them for this purpose.
They were bait.
Pawns in his hand.
Tools meant to help him climb higher in the Shinomiya Conglomerate.
Their lives had never mattered to him.
The dreams shattered one by one.
Becoming a noble lady.
Entering a world of wealth and glory.
Being chosen as the woman of a Shinomiya heir.
Living a life ordinary people could only envy.
All of it collapsed into a pile of glittering rubbish.
Now, all that remained was terror.
If they survived tonight, they swore silently that they would never again have anything to do with the Shinomiya Conglomerate.
As for revenge against Shinomiya Ōkō?
They had not lost their minds.
To the Shinomiya Conglomerate, ordinary women like them could be crushed as easily as ants. It would already be a blessing if Shinomiya Ōkō did not erase them afterward to cover up the conspiracy.
Then—
Boom!
A violent pressure descended from the starless night sky.
The entire private scenic area seemed to sink several inches under its weight.
A whirlwind of killing intent swept outward, carrying bone-piercing cold. Frost crept over the ground, the leaves, the stone lanterns, and the altar's edge.
But it did not end there.
Two Spirits thick with yin energy and killing intent began eroding the material world at the same time.
The first one dyed the entire scenic area black.
Space cracked open.
Pitch-black fissures spread across the sky and earth, some as wide as a basketball court, others only the size of a human head. From within those cracks, eyeballs squeezed out one after another.
Large and small.
Bloodshot whites.
Dead pupils.
Each eye stared down at the manor with endless resentment and pain, as if the sky itself had been gouged open and filled with the hatred of the dead.
Then the second Spirit descended over the first.
Blue fire spread across the heavens.
The entire world gained a cold blue tint, and ghostly flames rolled across the horizon like an ocean of burning will-o'-wisps.
This Spirit was broader and stronger than the first. Its range surpassed the Slaughter Ghost's slaughter kingdom and even pushed beyond the private scenic area, spreading toward the residential district at the foot of the mountain.
Its master was far stronger than the Slaughter Ghost.
"Two Great Yokai have come."
Gin Tsumugi looked ahead calmly.
"They expanded their Spirit before even showing themselves. They've learned caution."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"They already know the Slaughter Ghost is dead."
As long as it was not Shuten-dōji himself, he had nothing to fear.
The people below did not know where that confidence came from.
Kaguya, Yomi, Kagura, Furukawa Oishi, and the others stared at the two overlapping Spirit with despair rising in their hearts.
Then two figures appeared before Gin.
One was a woman whose shape was close to human.
The other had the body of a bird and the head of an old man.
Ouchiyama Megumi's expression changed.
"Hyakume Oni, ranked eighty-third in the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons... and Onimaro Oni, ranked fortieth."
The woman wore red robes.
Her face was half-rotted, and a foul stench clung to her like a curse. Her hands were grotesquely thick and long. Most horrifying of all were her arms.
They were covered in eyes.
The same kind of eyes that had forced their way out of the cracks in the sky.
This was Hyakume Oni.
A female spirit wrapped in countless eyes. Folklore claimed she seduced men and stole their eyes for her own use. If she gathered a hundred, she would become an uncontrollable great demon.
The stories were exaggerated, but one thing was true.
She loved gouging out the eyes of men who caught her interest.
Beside her stood Onimaro Oni.
Its body was avian, its head human, its face that of a withered old man. Its eyes glowed like dim lanterns, and blue fire leaked from the corners of its mouth whenever it breathed.
Legends said Onimaro Oni was born from the aura of a newly dead corpse, a spirit transformed from resentment at the moment of death.
The "oni" in its name referred to the five skandhas.
"Maro" meant demon.
And the final "oni" marked it as something that did not belong to this world.
"Little boy."
Hyakume Oni was the first to speak.
She sized Gin up, and the eyes on her arms turned slowly, all focusing on him at once.
"So you're the one who killed that reckless Slaughter Ghost?"
Then she smiled.
The expression was hideous and delighted.
"Not bad. Not bad at all. A high-ranking Onmyoji at such a young age, and such beautiful eyes, too. My collection is about to gain a fine pair."
She had already decided his fate.
To her, an Onmyoji capable of killing the Slaughter Ghost was certainly troublesome. But he had just finished a fierce battle. His strength should have fallen sharply.
Could he possibly fight two Great Yokai alone?
Impossible.
Especially not with Onimaro Oni beside her.
Unlike herself and the Slaughter Ghost, who had only reached the level of Great Yokai within the last century, Onimaro Oni was an ancient monster. Back in the Heian Period, when demons roamed and the Night Parade ruled the darkness, it had already stood at the peak of yokai.
Among the forces of Mount Ōe, it was one of the strongest, below only the lord himself.
"Still," Hyakume Oni said, glancing down at Shinomiya Kaguya and the others, "being manipulated by humans leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Once this is over, I'll gouge out every eye down there and use them as accessories."
For a Great Yokai who had lived over a thousand years, understanding the situation took only a glance.
But there was one thing she failed to notice.
Onimaro Oni, who normally loved to chatter, had not said a word.
It stood frozen beside her.
Its withered old face was twisted with terror.
As if it had seen something impossible.
"Retreat."
The dry, rasping voice rang beside Hyakume Oni's ear like sand scraping over bone.
"Immediately."
"Retreat?" Hyakume Oni turned toward it in confusion. "Onimaro Oni, what are you saying?"
Before she could ask further, Onimaro Oni seized her with its claws.
Its wings spread wide, and it shot toward the distance.
"Onimaro Oni, what are you doing? The sacrifices haven't been collected yet!"
Hyakume Oni struggled in disbelief.
She could not understand what had gotten into him.
The Onmyoji who killed the Slaughter Ghost had not been dealt with.
The sacrifices demanded by their lord were still below.
"Explanations can wait," Onimaro Oni snapped, glancing back at Gin with unconcealed fear. "If you don't want to die, stop resisting."
At that moment, a voice reached its ears.
Calm.
Familiar.
Terrifying.
"An old acquaintance I haven't seen in a long time."
Gin Tsumugi raised one hand.
"Onimaro Oni, leaving without even greeting me is rather rude, don't you think?"
The Strategic Barrier recorded in the Senji Ryakketsu activated.
In a single breath, it expanded outward, sweeping over the entire private scenic area.
The fleeing Great Yokai were swallowed within it.
Onimaro Oni's pupils shrank.
The night had become a cage.
.....
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