Her son did not return last night.
The worried and panic-stricken granny begged the villagers to conduct a search for her son.
Everyone agreed. They made use of their free time to look for him, but there wasn't even a slightest news about his whereabouts.
My husband did not return after going out this morning.
My brother had gone to the mountains two days ago and has yet to return.
Day after day, there were more and more people disappearing. By the end of February, fifteen people had disappeared.
Other than that, there were also many others who returned in a confused state-of-mind with a total change in their personality.
These people had forgotten about their past with their families. They quarrelled with their spouses and the children, and eventually left the house to live on their own.
This area belongs to Minister of the left (i.e. Akiko's father). The official in charge of this area realise the severity of the problem, and rush off to send a message to the land lord.
That happened at the end of February. However, till now, there has been no reply from the Minister of the left.
The capital was far away from here. Could it be that the minister thinks that the villagers were exaggerating, and that it was in fact, not a serious problem?
But he was still worried. If this was to continue, he feared that more people would go crazy or go missing.
Could the people who went missing be just hiding somewhere? Could it be that they had some reasons and had to leave?
That was what some people suggested. However, the few corpse that were found floating near the river bank a few days later eliminated that guess.
Those who had died seemed to have struggled before their deaths, as many of the people who dragged out the corpses from the waters were shocked at what they had seen. The victims' faces were twisted with pain, indicating that they had died a painful death.
The men, in order to get the bodies out of the river, ignored their fears and uneasiness and step into the waters.
Just then, there was a splash. Was that a fish?
At first no one was bothered by the sound, but no long later, a sharp scream was heard.
"H...Help! There's something wrapped around my leg...!"
Both the man and the body were dragged into the waters. As the man struggled, foams could be seen. Then, a four-legged demon surfaced from the waters and bit off the man's head.
The others were stunned and in shock.
Waves and strong current was building up in the once calm waters as a few black things were seen moving underwater.
Beneath the waters was a demon even bigger than the one they had just seen. Its eyes were gleaming with malice.
"Wo...Woahhhh!"
The screams from another man seemed to have broken the spell which caused the men to be rooted to the ground. Everyone rushed to get out of the waters.
The larger demon surfaced and the water splashed around.
"Bring them back..."
There was a low grumble as five other lesser demons jumped out of the waters and went after the men.
__________________________________________________________________________________
It was the sound of the door closing.
Kochin had wanted Masahiro to get more sleep and so he's back into the small hut again.
Both Taiin and Genbu sighed at the same time. They have been trying hard not to let Kochin notice them.
They did not mean to eavesdrop on the conversation between Kochin and Masahiro. But in the end, they heard everything.
When angry, Kochin was nowhere as frightening as Touda, but she was still scary. However, she was much more reasonable, and would not get angry at small things. Compared to Seiryuu, who was always grumpy, Kochin was much calmer. There were a few occasions when she really got serious, and it was a truly frightening sight.
Then, the Eastern skies appear brighter as the sun starts to rise. Soon, it would be morning.
Taiin sat on the roof, and ruffled her hair.
"What's wrong?"
Taiin stared at the puzzled Genbu, then suddenly stood up and exclaimed, "If this goes on, Masahiro would go crazy soon!"
He had been carrying this burden, trying to bear with the pain, facing Touda, all just to let his feelings settle down.
Anyone could tell, Masahiro was not sleeping deeply. The slightest sound would wake him up. When he was eating, he seemed to be enjoying his meal, but in actuality, he was barely swallowing the food down.
Just because he had to do it.
"We aren't of any help at all."
They did not have the capability to do so. That was the same for Genbu, Rikugo and even Kochin. Rikugo could only support Masahiro, not ease his pain, and so does Kochin.
Even if Seimei or Akiko were present, Masahiro would probably not tell them what he really felt. His guilt was slowly pushing him to the edge of despair.
"I'm afraid of Touda, and it can't be helped. I do not dislike him, I'm just afraid of him."
She seemed to be confused about what she was saying. (The other translation for the same phrase above could be: Either I dislike him or I am afraid of him. So this might be the reason for why she seemed to be confused.)
Genbu was at a corner, analysing what Taiin was saying calmly. Then he frowned, he did not know what to say. Wasn't this just like Taiin?
The wind was stirred by her agitated feelings. There was a small wind and her hair was blown upwards. Genbu too closed his eyes as the wind blew past.
"But...But I can't just let Masahiro self-destruct like that...!"
"I agree."
Being unable to see the demons and spirits must have been a painful thing for Masahiro, yet he was more worried about being a burden to others.
"Sorry, could you increase your aura so that I would be able to see you guys?"
When he put it that way, it just made the shinshou even more sadden.
"So what if we are the twelve Shinshou? So what if he is the best Onmyouji? When it comes to situations like these, we can't even do a thing, how useless!"
Taiin was crying and screaming at the same time. Then, she suddenly snapped out of it, and opened her eyes wide.
The wind stopped, and the air was still again.
"...Right...An onmyouji..."
"Taiin?"
Taiin did not reply Genbu, but looked up to the sky instead.
The clouds looked thicker today. It was going to rain soon.
"I'll be right back!"
Taiin said so and summoned a gust of wind. Genbu was thrown off balance and fell off from the roof.
By the time he stood up and regained his balance, Taiin was already gone.
"This...This reckless fellow...What am I supposed to do about you?!"
The angry Genbu looked around. He really wanted to vend his anger, yet he couldn't possibly destroy a whole patch of forest for the sake of relieving his anger. Instead, a sighed deeply.
The Twelve shinshou had been around for the long time. Over the years, he had been made to look like a fool many times by Taiin.
When he returned to the capital, he must tell Byaku about her. Only he has the ability to keep her under control.
_______________________________________________________
It was near afternoon, and Masahiro was staring blankly at the cloudy skies.
There wasn't much wind, and the signs of spring could be seen all over the mountains. But there was a strong gust of wind at dawn. What was that?
He has a terrible headache, and the physical and emotional torments were taking its toll on him.
Masahiro closed his eyes, and let his thoughts drift. It offered him some form of comfort even though they were only meeting in his dreams.
He placed his hand on his chest, and breathed deeply for a few times to stop his heart from racing and beating so quickly.
In order to have better ventilation, he opened the doors of the small hut. Just then, he saw the creature.
Perhaps it was just stopping in front of the door as it was walking towards the trees.
Masahiro and the creature looked at each other. There was no sign of feelings in those red eyes, and it quickly look away with a tinge of anger in its eyes.
He just stood there with a feeling of strange familiarity.
He remembered seeing the same pair of eyes in his dreams. Many times as a matter of fact. In his dreams he was desperately pounding on an invisible wall. There was blood on his fist. Finally, Mokkun turned around to look at him.
With those red eyes without any signs of emotions...
As the small figure of the creature disappeared between the trees, Masahiro felt a pain as if his intestines were all tangled up together. He brushed away the cold sweat forming on his forehead and swallowed down this bitter taste in his mouth as he attempted to divert his thoughts from that creature.
Just then, a strong gust of wind blew across, causing all the surrounding trees to fall. The petals from these blooming trees were blown into the small hut. With his outer cloak and the straw mat blown up, Masahiro grabbed on to the door in order to stabilise himself.
"What's the matter?" He muttered to himself.
Just then, a scream was heard "Ahhhhhh!"
Shortly after was the sound of a loud thud, like there was something heavy that landed in the small empty field before the small hut.
Genbu, who had narrowly avoided the impact of that wind, as well as Kochin and Rikugo stood up.
Masahiro couldn't believe his ears. There was a low moan...
"....Huh?..."
He stumbled to the ground and rushed from the boundaries of the small hut to where the trees were. He then stopped in his steps.
There was a young man sitting on the ground, using his hands to press on the back of his head. His expression twisted in pain.
"Pain... How could Grandpa's shinkigami do such a thing..."
The young man grumbled and lifted up his head. He saw Masahiro and blinked his eyes. Then he stood up and brushed away the sand on his clothes.
Looking at Masahiro, he used a gentle tone and asked "What's wrong brother? You look really pale. Are you that surprised?"
He smiled and made a gesture asking Masahiro to come over. Taiin, who had used her strong winds to bring Narachika here levitated into the air and uncross her legs.
"At a time like this you should take the initiative to walk to him, not ask him over!"
"Oh… Really? For me, this should be a touching reunion. We had not seen each other for quite some time so I was expecting to run over to me happily."
After Narachika jokingly made that statement, he looked at Masahiro. Assuming his role as Masahiro's brother, he asked "What's wrong?"
Masahiro's tightly clutched hands slowly relaxed.
Staring at Narachika, his eyes fluttered. The tears that he had been suppressing all these times flowed out of his eyes.
"Bro…Bother…!"
Masahiro didn't move, so Narachika had to walk over to him instead. He patted his head and hugged him.
"Fool…It's exhausting, isn't it?"
As Narachika patted Masahiro on his back, the restrains over his feelings all this time seemed to have come loose.
Masahiro held on tightly to his brother's shirt and wailed uncontrollably. Narachika continued to pat his brother on the back as he looked up at Taiin.
Just moments before, a loud voice from afar shouting at him stopped him in his tracks.
"Found You!"
Narachika looked up, only to stare right into the eyes of an angry and anxious Taiin. It scared him and he almost wanted to run away. He had barely been able to maintain his stance to ask Taiin what was going on. Without answering, Taiin grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and threw him up into the air.
Soon he found himself within a hurricane. He felt as if he was spin around and around. It made him giddy and he wanted to throw up. It was really uncomfortable.
Yet, once he saw Masahiro, he immediately understood why Taiin was in such a hurry, and he quickly forgave her.
He did not know what had happened, but understood that his brother was in a dire situation.
As Taiin slowly landed on the ground, Genbu approached her angrily.
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