Chapter 5 - Soul Calling
Part 1
The hazy moon was visible from a gap between groups of clouds.
The typhoon had just passed, the wind and rain had ceased, and the moon illuminated the surrounding clouds, making them seem large and misty. The soft moonlight shone on the trees, making the after-rain moisture on the leaves sparkle. The vast, dark paddy was like a silver mirror.
Right now, Harutora was heading to the 'Imperial Hill' altar with Natsume.
Natsume had walked from the Bellflower Room into the courtyard of the mansion, taking out an ancient shikigami charm and summoning a shikigami that showed itself as a white horse. It was the most majestic horse that Harutora had seen in his life. Its body was outfitted with a black saddle and red reins, and it was a horse that was prestigious enough that no one would doubt it if it were dedicated to the gods.
It was the Tsuchimikado shikigami - Yukikaze.
It was a high-level manmade shikigami from the angle of 'General Onmyoudou'. But its origins were far before 'General Onmyoudou', even much more ancient than 'Imperial Onmyoudou'.
Natsume mounted the horse first, and Harutora sat behind her. Then, Natsume snapped the reins, and Yukikaze rapidly leaped off the ground, galloping off as if he didn't even feel the weight of the two. Actually, this was a bit inaccurate, as Yukikaze's hooves didn't even touch the ground.
Yukikaze circled from the courtyard to the front of the mansion, leaping out of the main entrance and rushing down the stone steps without touching the ground. When they rushed off the stairs, the distance to the ground became a bit higher again.
Yukikaze stayed at a height of about ten meters, galloping like the wind over a road between the forests and paddy fields. The scenery nearby was all visible because of their height, but Harutora only looked down a couple times. His hands wrapped around the waist of Natsume in front of him - before Yukikaze had leaped out of the entrance, he had hesitated about what to do - and he clung to Natsume for dear life.
"Um, ah, th, this is pretty nice!"
"Harutora-kun, your hands haven't stopped shaking."
"D, Don't mind me! On the other hand, is the Imperial Hill very far?"
"No, with this child's speed, we'll be there in moments."
Natsume solemnly tightened her grip on the reins. A crimson belt tied up her white clothes, showing her thin arms. Her imposing appearance wasn't like a shrine maiden, but more like a young female warrior.
A white horse galloping through the moonlit air, and the girl who rode it - It looked like the picturesque scenery from a dream no matter how he looked at it. Unfortunately, the addition of a shikigami whose entire body shook as he tightly grabbed on to the girl destroyed the picture - Harutora thought as his entire body shook, tightly grabbing on to Natsume.
But, Harutora also had his responsibilities. Right now, he was carrying a trunk used for practitioners on his back - a kind of woven bamboo trunk. Inside it was entirely Tsuchimikado ancestral tools, and he also wore a sword on his waist, with a bow hung over his shoulder.
These were all equipment that Natsume had prepared to deal with a magical battle before they had departed. Harutora was like a foot soldier accompanying the general, and he was also carrying his box of charms.
He had also contacted Touji.
He only realized right before they left the mansion that his phone was filled with calls from Touji, which had all arrived when he had been running to the mansion. Maybe Touji had noticed that Harutora wasn't picking up his phone - knowing that he couldn't pick up his phone in his current circumstances, he had changed to text messages, sending him the important information using texts.
Touji had first gone to the construction site that had become a battlefield, woken up the Mystical Investigators, and then contacted the police again. The Mystical Investigators were unable to perform temporarily due to their spiritual power being stolen. The typhoon had departed earlier than first predicted, so the assistance sent from Tokyo seemed to be on course to arrive this evening.
He should be worried and angry that Harutora hadn't contacted him, but his text messages didn't contain anything mentioning that.
Harutora was grateful for his friend and sent a message of confirmation, which just contained 'Sorry, I've troubled you a lot, I'm going to give you a break now.' After sending it, he immediately turned off his phone.
Then.
"...! Harutora-kun."
Natsume called out, and he quickly raised his head. There was a familiar-looking truck stopped before them.
The truck had been carelessly abandoned by the roadside, and the truck bed was full of pieces of a container. There were traces of devastated trees all over the road leading from the container to the hill in the distance.
These were traces left by that Tsuchigumo - the 'Armored Juggernaut'. Judging by this, the mundane, uninteresting hill over there was the location of the Tsuchimikado-established altar, the 'Imperial Hill'.
"Right, it's that! Did you see that spider monster?"
"I haven't, it seems that she already headed to the altar."
"Let's follow!"
"Okay, we'll head directly to the altar."
Giddy up - Natsume uttered an adorable yet brave sound, swinging the horse's reins. The shikigami quickly bolted like an arrow upon receiving its master’s orders, charging up the hillside and advancing towards the Imperial Hill. They flew at a height above the treetops, following the tracks of the Tsuchigumo.
Then, a brittle shattering sound came from Natsume's chest. The third mirror that she had placed in her chest had also broken.
"...It seems like the last barrier was also destroyed."
"I know. But...... it's right ahead!"
Just as Natsume was full of remorse, the hilltop of the Imperial Hill ahead of them appeared in the night.
There was a circular, grassy field on the hilltop that the trees had been removed from. The field was surrounded by tall trees, but a stone plaza had been set in the center, encircled on all four sides by torii.
It was the Imperial Hill's altar. Bonfires had been ignited on all four corners of the plaza, seemingly by Suzuka.
There were two human figures preparing for a ceremony by the altar, and there was also a small figure giving orders.
They could make out Suzuka, the black suit-wearing simple shikigami, and the general-use shikigami 'Asura' that Suzuka had manipulated at the festival.
"Found you!"
Harutora shouted. It didn't seem like Suzuka had heard him shout, but she turned around to look in Harutora's direction.
Harutora wondered if his eyes had failed upon seeing the girl's figure again. Aura poured out of Suzuka's body, like a whirling hurricane centered on her.
Intense and brilliant - but a unique, obviously imbalanced aura. Harutora had just become a spirit-seer, but he could directly feel that she was very powerful. That was the aura given off by one of the Twelve Divine Generals, the 'Child Prodigy'.
Suzuka's aura suddenly swayed intensely the moment she looked at Harutora and Natsume, as if it were doing a somersault.
"Why did you...... come?"
Suzuka gnashed her teeth, her childlike face twisting and showing a mournful anger, and forcefully swung her right hand to the side.
It wasn't Harutora or Natsume who felt danger in the nick of time, but rather the veteran Yukikaze who had served the Tsuchimikado family for many years.
Yukikaze jumped up before entering the field, turning its body - never mind Harutora, even Natsume was almost flung off the horse. A metal pillar shot like a cannon through the position where Yukikaze had just been.
The steel Tsuchigumo Armored Juggernaut had just attacked them. It had hid its body inside the forest for an ambush, ready to attack at any time.
"Yukikaze! Pull back!"
Natsume frantically reined in, and Yukikaze hastily leaped into the air, galloping up.
Tsuchigumo's attack failed, and its swinging body emerged in the field.
Its steel body seemed smooth and shiny in the light of the bonfires. Its body was huge, but its structure was unsuited to attacking upwards, so it wouldn't be hard to avoid its attacks as long as they were careful about the spider silk it shot out from inside its armor.
But--
"Natsume, we won't be able to get close to the altar like this!"
"............"
Natsume frowned, surveying the field.
Tsuchigumo wouldn't chase if Yukikaze escaped over the trees, but if they recklessly approached the field, Tsuchigumo would react cleverly and ward them off. Perhaps it had received orders to prohibit anyone from entering the field, and it wouldn't be easy to destroy Tsuchigumo's steel defenses.
Suzuka stood on the stone plaza, looking fiercely at Harutora and Natsume, but the two shikigami behind her busied themselves to prepare the altar.
Harutora couldn't clearly and thoroughly see the situation because of the distance from the altar. He could only see that a table had been set up on the altar with several offerings on it. There were pieces of silver in a scarlet bowl, white silk scrolls, a saddle made for a horse, and paper. He could also see taiko drums and instruments placed by the side.
A big, thin parcel had been placed in the center of the altar.
A cold shiver inadvertently went down Harutora's back upon seeing that parcel whose exterior was plastered with charms. That charm-wrapped parcel was just as large as a child.
"It couldn't be......"
That should be Suzuka's dead brother.
Suzuka was trying to reproduce an ancient ceremony, but to Harutora's eyes, her commanding of the ceremony seemed immature like she was playing house, but with her brother's body replacing the role of a doll. The game she was playing was ugly, ridiculous, and heartbreaking.
...Damn......
"Dairenji Suzuka!"
Harutora inadvertently yelled. Natsume who held on to the reins almost jumped in surprise, looking behind her in shock.
"I told you! Even if you revive your brother, you won't be happy from it. Stop obsessing over it, wake up!"
"Shut up! I also said I would definitely kill you the next time!"
Suzuka straightened her small body, shouting loudly.
"You're really annoying! My life is my own, and neither my parents or anyone else can tell me what to do with it! I'll decide if I want to die or not! You won't stop me however much you say, I will revive my brother!"
Her anger became aura, as if channeling a raging flame, but the raging anger only burned Suzuka, and not anyone else.
The intense flame rapidly swelled from Suzuka's small body, and maybe soon after, the flame would extend from her body, becoming giant tongues of flame to engulf others.
But--
"You can't do that kind of thing, no, you shouldn't even try!"
Natsume's remark was clear and firm.
The moon palely illuminated her face. Harutora looked at her, and Suzuka also quickly shot her burning gaze towards her.
Natsume didn't flinch, her attitude still serious.
"...Modern Onmyoudou prohibits magic concerning souls, and of course, the spiritual disaster brought about by Yakou is one reason, but more importantly, we shouldn't deepen our relationship with such magic. People shouldn't interfere with others' souls, because that is not the territory of man!"
Suzuka's face was irritated, and she glared fiercely at Natsume who made those remarks from Yukikaze.
"......Are you also a Tsuchimikado? I don't know where you came from, but you also came to stop me?"
Tsuchigumo hadn't moved. Natsume stared at Suzuka without blinking, continuing to speak with a firm tone:
"In the past, people harbored respect for the gods, feeling a natural gratitude and fear in their hearts, having an irrational confidence for these entities above human understanding. They believed in prayer, so it was effective. No, it should be said that they created prayer. That magic was only effective because it was cast by the people of that time, and the people who live in the world now won't succeed just by copying the ceremony!"
Natsume predicted Suzuka's failure without even thinking. Harutora gazed at Natsume, extremely surprised.
Just then, he finally noticed something.
...Right, this person was an 'Onmyouji'.
Of course, Natsume was just an Onmyou Academy student, and she wasn't an official Onmyouji yet.
But, forgetting about official accreditation for now, and also forgetting about magical skill, what was an Onmyouji in the most basic sense? He hadn't once thought about this problem in the past, but the figure of his childhood friend now led him to ponder.
On the other hand.
"You annoyances......"
Suzuka on the ground below audibly gnashed her teeth upon hearing Natsume's speech. The bonfire next to her blazed with light, casting foreboding shadows across her body.
"The Tsuchimikado family was the one always responsible for holding the Taizan Fukun Ritual, and it was also the Tsuchimikado family that revived the ceremony. Are you saying that the Tsuchimikado can do it, but I can't? Don't joke around!"
The girl's voice was fragile, as if she would crumble at any time.
As her words fell, the Asura and the black-clothed man who had originally been silently preparing the ceremony stopped moving.
The ceremony was already prepared.
"Dairenji Suzuka! Stop the ritual right now!"
"Shut up, I'll definitely perform the ceremony better than you Tsuchimikado, leave if you don't want to die!"
Then, Suzuka began chanting an incantation. The words she chanted weren't for the ritual, but were Onmyoudou incantations.
The black-clothed man simple shikigami went limp from being unable to withstand the pressure given off by the magical energy, its external shape becoming ruined.
The Asura standing next to it absorbed the crumbling outer form of the black-clothed shikigami, and the two shikigami merged into one, with long, insectile wings even sprouting from Asura's back.
Natsume's eyes widened in surprise.
"How is that possible!? You can freely change the manmade shikigami produced by the Onmyou Agency?"
Harutora was clueless, but all he knew was that Suzuka's strength really was nothing to look down on.
The merged Asura bent its body, leaping strongly into the night sky and flying straight for Harutora and Natsume.
"Damn! Natsume!"
Harutora hollered at Natsume, and Natsume manipulated the reins attentively.
They avoided the Asura flying into the sky, but Asura leaped to a position even higher up than Yukikaze and unleashed an attack while maintaining that height. Natsume had to make Yukikaze move lower.
"No good, Natsume, they're planning on attacking us from top and bottom!"
Harutora's warning was a step too late. Tsuchigumo who was on standby below quickly swung its leg in an attack upon seeing Yukikaze descend. Natsume frantically pulled on the reins, but that movement restricted Yukikaze's movement, making Yukikaze slip in midair.
--Damn!
They couldn't avoid this. Once he saw Tsuchigumo's leg attacking, Harutora quickly drew the sword from his waist.
He leaned forward, as if trying to throw himself off the horse, and swung the sword forcefully at Tsuchigumo who was attacking from below.
With one swing, the sword absorbed all of the aura in his body.
The aura collected in the blade, shooting out from the tip. Tsuchigumo's leg was slashed, sending sparks flying, and pushing it back.
Harutora felt a strong recoil up his arm. The steel leg had been cut open, and the sword had carved out a trace on it as if it had been scorched. Though he had been the one who hit the enemy with the sword, Harutora still couldn't help but stare blankly.
"W, What is this? It's too powerful!"
"It's a 'Protection Sword'! It's a specially forged, age-old spiritual sword!"
"Huh? Really? It just got chipped by the strike just now--"
"No way!?"
"Ah, but it was just a bit! A small bit!"
"Uuu...... S, Since it's a crisis, it's okay even if you break it!"
Natsume managed to shout angrily. But was it really okay to break it! Natsume's look had been obviously stern when she had turned around to say the words 'no way'.
The enemy continued attacking, and Natsume manipulated the reins for dear life, an obviously incredibly dangerous scene to anyone who was watching. Harutora almost fell off the horse a few times, and swing by swing, damage built up on the Protection Sword.
The Protection Sword seemed like a strong tool, as it could unleash a strong power even if an outsider like Harutora used it. It was just that a large amount of aura was absorbed from him with every slash, and the fatigue continuing to accumulate was no trivial matter. When Harutora noticed, he was already tired and gasping for breath.
"This can't go on, Natsume! I can't handle it by myself anymore!"
"I know that!"
"Then you need to fight too!"
"Don't talk to me right now!"
Natsume didn't turn around. She was obviously struggling to cope with the combined attacks of Asura and Tsuchigumo. A cold sweat broke out in Harutora's heart.
...Hey hey, could she be bad at actual fights?
Her attitude was different from her usual calmness, and obvious anxiety had appeared on Natsume's expression. How ironic that he would see this unexpected side of his childhood friend in such a situation.
Then--
Crash. A noise sounding like it wanted to shatter the air reverberated from the stone plaza.
Suzuka had beat the taiko drum set on the altar, making a strange noise that sounded like it vibrated the blood itself. Suzuka then continued to swing the drumsticks, and the taiko boomed, echoing through the nighttime Imperial Hill.
Suzuka beat the taiko six times, and then blew a horn, whose deep sound contrasted with the penetrating sound of the taiko. The air shook, and the unnecessary dirt on the stone plaza vibrated, cleansing it.
Harutora who had become a spirit-seer knew that the sound contained magical energy, and he couldn't help but feel a chill upon hearing the sound of the horn that announced the start of battle.
"Oh no, the ceremony is beginning! We have to stop her quickly!"
"Wait, Natsume. From above!"
Natsume was focused on the altar, and suddenly Asura attacked from above. She quickly pulled in the reins, once again stealing away Yukikaze's freedom of movement.
"H, Harutora-kun, Harutora-kun~!"
"Natsume, stop yelling! You can let go, ouch, hey, you don't need to grab that tightly!?"
Natsume was using all her power to keep Harutora from falling to the ground, but Harutora was doing everything he could to keep both of them from falling off the horse. Their bodies tangled together, destroying the balance, and Yukikaze dropped as it mustered the strength to rebalance itself.
Just then, Tsuchigumo attacked with its leg.
...Bastard!
Harutora had just dropped the Protection Sword, and now he thought flawlessly, immediately reaching his hand into his box of charms and flipping the lid open with his fingertip, fluidly drawing out a protective charm.
Once, he had practice throwing charms in front of the mirror every day, and those movements were still imprinted in his body even after abandoning that training.
"Order!"
Harutora shouted, throwing the charm out hard. The incantation meant 'swiftly enforce as law' [21] , the Onmyoudou that the Mystical Investigators had also often used - the common word widely used in charm techniques.
Harutora's magical energy flowed in to the protective charm, creating a shining barrier of light.
The Armored Juggernaut's leg smashed through the barrier, but it bought enough time for Yukikaze to regain its balance. Yukikaze shifted its back, letting the two properly sit again, and just barely avoided Tsuchigumo's leg that came crashing through the barrier.
They descended to stay on the ground, but lowering their altitude was equivalent to entering Tsuchigumo's attack range. The next attack came accordingly, giving them no time to catch their breath.
Harutora peeled off Natsume who was still tightly wrapped around him, sitting back on the horse's rear, and then reached forward with his arms as if to hug Natsume.
"Ah! H, Harutora-kun...?"
"Natsume, I'll control the reins, I'll leave it to you to deal with the enemy!"
"Huh? Uh, okay!"
"Yukikaze, I'm counting on you!"
Harutora gripped Yukikaze's body with his legs, lashing the reins. Actually, he only controlled the reins this one time, and everything else was all Yukikaze's own judgment.
Once Yukikaze gained dominance, he immediately showed agility different from before. It jumped deftly through Tsuchigumo's chained attacks while carrying the two of them. When the stiff Natsume who was squeezed between Harutora's arms noticed this, she inadvertently froze on top of the horse.
"H, Harutora-kun, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything, rather, I'm doing nothing at all."
With the panicked Natsume and the willful Hokuto, the most reliable of the individuals here - including Harutora - was undoubtedly Yukikaze. Regardless of whether it was a horse or shikigami, it needed room to act.
He looked up at the sky. Hokuto and Asura were still fighting to the death in the sky.
Of the two, Hokuto had an overwhelming advantage. Its movements were free like a fish in water, and its golden scales reflected the bonfires on the ground like glittering dust scattered in the night sky.
With this, Harutora and Natsume might be able to focus on dealing with Tsuchigumo.
"I don't have the time to look for the sword I dropped on the ground right now! Natsume, can you do anything to hold off that Tsuchigumo?"
"I, I do! Harutora-kun, give me the bow!"
After hearing Natsume's order, Harutora rapidly took off the bow hung over his shoulder and gave it to Natsume.
"What about arrows?"
"I don't need them. This is the 'Peach Bow', a peach wood exorcising bow imbued with magic, and I just need to release the bowstring at an enemy to attack. But, that will at most be able to hold it back, since the Armored Juggernaut's armor has strong magic resistance."
There weren't any actually effective tools to use before the military shikigami Armored Juggernaut. If they seriously wanted to defeat the Armored Juggernaut, they would need military-grade equipment at the least, and more importantly, the 'Peach Bow' was originally a tool for exorcism, equipment for dealing with spiritual disasters.
But...
"Then we just need to hold it off, there's no need to defeat it. Natsume, you're in charge of holding off Tsuchigumo, and Yukikaze, rush towards the altar if you get the chance, since in any case we definitely need to stop the ceremony!"
Of course, Suzuka's threat wasn't just limited to Tsuchigumo, and the possibility of winning against her with a head-on assault was very small.
But, even if she was a Divine General, she still needed to focus her mind to perform the Taizan Fukun Ritual, and if they impeded the ceremony, things weren't entirely hopeless.
"U, Understood. But, Harutora-kun, you're my shikigami, so I should be giving orders--"
"I know! Natsume, Yukikaze, let's go!"
Harutora ignored Natsume's mumbling, shouting loudly and shaking the reins.
The reins shook and Yukikaze instantly rushed forward fearlessly towards the giant Tsuchigumo several times larger than itself.
The surprised Natsume frantically took up the bow, but the arms that Harutora grasped the reins with blocked her front, so she was unable to draw the bow.
"Put your arms down!"
Saying this, she stood on the stirrups, stretching her upper body through the gap between Harutora's arms and the reins. Her black hair flapped like a banner as she stood on the horse.
Just then, spider silk shot out of the head area of Tsuchigumo's armor.
Yukikaze hurriedly backed off, making Natsume fall over backwards. Harutora grabbed the reins tight, crouched his body, and held Natsume's waist from behind as she fell.
"Ah! Th, That's my b-butt!"
"Don’t worry about it, shoot!"
"......Uuu."
Her face red, Natsume took a shooting posture and released the bowstring at the approaching Tsuchigumo.
The Peach Bow made a pleasant sound.
Tssssss [22] - The air shook as Natsume's magical energy shot towards Tsuchigumo. The wave of tremendous magical energy became an invisible arrow, shooting into Tsuchigumo.
In Harutora's now spirit-seeing eyes, he saw the armor easily repel the magical energy, but once the Tsuchigumo was hit by the shockwave from the Peach Bow, it indeed showed caution for a moment. The steel body didn't budge, but it seemed like its interior was suffering ‘lag’ effects, and its movements slowed as a result.
"It worked!?"
Yukikaze took the chance to speed up its gallop, planning on circling around Tsuchigumo's side and head directly for the altar.
Unfortunately, Tsuchigumo pushed out its back leg, blocking their advance.
Yukikaze turned at a right angle - Tsuchigumo moved sideways, chasing them while continuously slashing its spider legs. After Yukikaze pulled away from Tsuchigumo, it turned around again, once again galloping towards the altar.
Natsume released the string of the Peach Bow.
This time, her back was straight in a beautiful archery form. The released string contained a magical energy stronger than the previous time. Tsuchigumo took the attack head-on, and its movements became slow like it had short-circuited. But, the enemy had learned for the second attack. Before Tsuchigumo's movements became slow, spider silk spewed from the samurai armor.
The spider silk flew at them from the front, and they had nowhere to run. Harutora threw out a charm just in time, repelling the spider silk with the barrier from a protective charm.
Harutora pulled Natsume down with the right hand he had thrown the charm with, and Natsume sat down hard on the saddle. At the same time, Yukikaze ducked its body down, passing below Tsuchigumo from underneath.
"...Did we make it!?"
He turned around, looking backwards. They had broken through Tsuchigumo, which quickly moved its eight legs, rapidly turning around. A fierce gaze stared at them through the samurai armor that hadn't succeeded in driving off the enemy.
Just as Tsuchigumo prepared to pursue them, a golden light swooped down from the sky.
It was Hokuto. Asura was being chewed in its sharp teeth, so it seemed that Hokuto had won the midair battle.
Hokuto crunched Asura apart, changing targets to Tsuchigumo. It didn't seem the least bit worried facing the Armored Juggernaut, and even the military shikigami had to stop in front of the violent aura that the dragon gave off.
"Incredible! That thing's pretty strong!"
"Of course! Though that child is willful, there's a huge level difference between her and a normal shikigami!"
Natsume's tone was also filled with excitement. After all, the tables had now turned, and Tsuchigumo was now trying to get past Hokuto, with Hokuto blocking Tsuchigumo, not letting it approach the altar. Just by the situation before them, the two sides were clearly balanced now.
...Seize the moment!
Harutora prepared to charge on foot towards the altar on the stone plaza.
There were bonfires on the four corners of the altar, spitting sparks into the pitch-black night. Torii were hung on all sides, their colors differentiated into black for the north, blue for the east, red for the south, and white for the west.
Suzuka, kneeling in front of her brother's corpse, was in the center of the altar.
There was an opportunity. Harutora leaned forward unconsciously.
But.
"...Too naive."
Suzuka murmured with a cold voice, still with her head lowered over her brother's corpse.
Immediately after, the charms covering the corpse all peeled off together, scattering in all directions.
The scene seemed like the corpse had exploded. At first glance, the charms danced through the air like confetti, but actually they attacked Harutora like a school of fish.
Natsume frantically attacked with the Peach Bow, and the wave of magical energy collided with the flurry of charms. The charms in the front were hit by the wave, dropping to the ground accordingly.
But, only the charms that bore the brunt of the wave fell to the ground. Harutora, Natsume, and Yukikaze were long since engulfed in a swarm of charms before the ones hit by the Peach Bow fell completely.
"Pwah!"
Harutora and Natsume were knocked off and pushed back from Yukikaze's body one after the other, as if they were hit by a fire hose. They fell off the horse, their bodies covered with charms. Fortunately, the charms absorbed the force of the impact, but they couldn't move because of it. Yukikaze hurriedly turned around, but its master had become a hostage, so it was helpless. Because it had also been covered with charms, it became shaken and kept its distance from the altar.
"Damn! Natsume!?"
"I, I can't, I can't get them off!"
The two of them were pressed onto the ground, and they tried to pick themselves up from the wet grass, but unfortunately the mass of charms didn't allow them to move.
The charms had originally been stuck to Suzuka's brother's corpse, but were now on Harutora and Natsume to keep them from acting to obstruct the resurrection ceremony. Harutora noticed first that the incantations on these charms seemed to be written with blood.
...Impossible!
At first glance, there were at least a thousand charms before him, and all of them were written in Suzuka's blood. You could say that these charms were the manifestation of the girl's obsession.
The thing that had been wrapped with the charms now showed itself as it laid before Suzuka.
It was a child similar to Suzuka - no, he had probably died at an age younger than Suzuka. The corpse's skin was an ashen color, but its expression was serene as if sleeping deeply.
Suzuka slowly rose, saying:
"Onmyouji, Dairenji Suzuka. I ask to offer myself to Taizan Fukun, the lord of the underworld..."
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