Part 2
In ancient times, Onmyouji Abe no Seimei had performed the Taizan Fukun Ritual to save the life of the Mii-dera [23] monk Chikou, offering up the life of his disciple in order to extend his life. [24]
Her only light and warmth in the dark, cold world was her brother's smile.
Her brother always showed his smile in front of her, regardless of pain, scars, or fatigue.
The siblings never had toys and never had picture books, and because they were always trimming paper into smaller pieces, they played with origami together.
Look, Suzuka, it's a new friend.
Her brother's nimble fingers folded many things, and her brother's warm smile endowed them with life. Not only the paper, but even Suzuka's life seemed to rely on her brother's smile.
That was the only magic that Suzuka valued with her deep disgust for magic.
So--
Suzuka read the incantation that was written on a scroll, giving off a tremendous magical energy.
The magical energy filled the altar on the stone plaza, spilling forth from the top of the Imperial Hill.
The surrounding aura seemed to echo the incantation, changing intensely, forming a space that one could even mistake to be a different world.
Taizan Fukun was a deity of Onmyoudou - the lord of death, regarded as the god who managed human life and death.
Now, Harutora could indeed feel 'that thing'. He couldn't hear it nor see it, but with the spirit-sensing ability he had obtained, he truly felt that thing's 'existence'.
There was a powerful strength descending to the altar.
It was an existence exceeding human understanding.
"N, Natsume! That's......!?"
"......I don't know! But, it's definitely not a god..."
Harutora asked gingerly, and Natsume shook her head powerlessly. The altar was filled with an aura that had descended from the sky, and the two both stared intently at the altar.
The scroll Suzuka read from was blown like cotton in the breeze, lightly floating away from the girl's hands.
The flapping parchment made a soft, crinkling sound as it opened. When she read the last words, a blue flame suddenly shot out, instantly incinerating the scroll as if the heat of the aura flowing into the altar had made the scroll ignite on its own.
Then--
"......Ahh, onii-chan......"
Suzuka couldn't contain her excitement, letting out a happy voice.
The body lying on the stone plaza slowly moved.
Harutora held his breath, and Natsume's eyes widened. Suzuka's brother opened the eyelids that had not stirred in many years as the two Tsuchimikado progeny watched.
"Onii-chan!"
Hearing his sister's call, the youth slowly turned his gaze.
"......Suzuka."
The youth sat up hesitantly, and Suzuka dashed up to him, hugging him tight.
"Onii-chan, onii-chan, onii-chan, onii-chan......"
Suzuka bawled like a little girl. In comparison, Harutora's body couldn't stop shaking, and Natsume's face was livid. He could even hear her suppressing her voice, as her bloodless lips murmured: "How......"
The once-dead brother had reunited with his sister.
It should have been a touching reunion.
But Harutora felt that there was some inexplicable terror spreading through his body.
He wasn't scared, but he felt disgusted.
That feeling was probably since it was taboo, a feeling from something profane that humans were not supposed to touch upon. An alarm sounded through his entire body because of the scene before him.
But, Harutora still stared at the scene before him.
...This is......
Forgotten soul magic.
The prodigy Tsuchimikado Yakou's - magic.
But......
"...?"
For some reason, Harutora suddenly had a strange feeling. Immediately after, he saw the brother unexpectedly grab her thin arm out of his sister's embrace.
A surprised and confused look emerged on Suzuka's tearful face.
"O, Onii-chan?"
The youth turned his face towards his sister.
"Suzuka......"
"W, What is it?"
"It's not enough......"
The youth opened his dry eyes unblinkingly and stared intently at Suzuka. Then, he reached out his hand clumsily but surprisingly rapidly, grabbing Suzuka's shoulder.
"Onii-chan?"
Suzuka reflexively moved backwards, but the youth's fingers sank deep into the girl's shoulder, not allowing her to step back.
The youth stared hard at the panicked Suzuka, his fingers moving from her shoulder to her neck, his hands forcefully throttling the thin, choker-wearing neck.
"Not enough...... It's not enough, Suzuka......"
Veins raised from the youth's hands, his fingers sinking deep into the skin of Suzuka's neck.
Suzuka's face instantly paled.
"W, Wait, onii-chan! I'll give you...... I'll offer my life, so please wait......!"
Suzuka struggled powerlessly. She put her hand on her brother's arm, but she couldn't pull herself free.
She had anticipated her brother's revival in her heart, but her body refused to welcome her death. Her face turned dark in a blink, her back constantly spacing.
"Wait a little more...... Please......"
She gasped painfully, a tear rolling from the corner of her eye. It wasn't a tear of joy, but shock, pain, and sadness merged into a single teardrop.
It was a tear shed by the brat that Harutora hated.
It was a tear shed by the enemy who had killed Hokuto.
"...Ugh!"
Harutora tightly clenched his teeth.
He thought in his heart that she was getting what she deserved. If that person hadn't come here, Hokuto wouldn't have died, and they could have continued to happily visit festivals like usual, pass summer break like usual, and pass every day like usual.
Suzuka had destroyed everything.
That Suzuka who had destroyed everything was crying out of heartbreak.
You deserve it! Harutora had originally planned on continuing to watch--
"......Damn! This damn brat!"
He roared, straining to twist his restrained body. He shook his head, twisted his shoulders, put his knees against the ground, and rose in a frenzy.
As he did this, the charms that had just been stuck tightly to his body began dropping off one by one. It seemed that since the practitioner was dying, their magical energy was weakening accordingly.
"Uraaaaaah!"
A bestial roar erupted from Harutora's throat.
He racked all the strength in his body, mustering all his strength.
His clothes and the charms ripped, and even his skin tore as well. Even so, Harutora still held himself up with his arms, forcefully ripping the charms.
Just then.
"Hold your breath!"
Natsume shouted. Harutora quickly held his breath.
"Incinerate the heretic symbols, Order!"
It seemed that Natsume was also trying to rid herself of her chains however possible. She reached out her right hand that had recovered its freedom, throwing a fire-element charm towards Harutora. A raging flame shot out, and a flame swirled around the charms engulfing Harutora's body.
The searing heat stroked his skin, blowing his hair. His body wasn't burned because of it, but it instead seemed like he was blown by the summer breeze, soothing his heart. The master's magic didn't harm the shikigami, exclusively burning Suzuka's charms.
"...Alright!"
Harutora jumped out of the inferno, sprinting forward.
The pressure of the aura pervading the altar became higher and higher, and above it was the expressionless brother throttling his sister's neck and the crying sister trying to accept all of this.
The hand that Suzuka placed on the youth's arm powerlessly slipped down.
"Damn brat!"
Harutora roared, sprinting towards the youth.
The youth didn't even look at Harutora, just forcefully choking the girl's neck as if trying to squeeze out her life without leaving a drop.
Harutora was going to hit the youth and pull the two apart.
But before that, his body felt a strong heat like a fire-element charm.
The heat came from underneath his left eye, from the pentagram Natsume had drawn.
The youth's figure was reflected in his left eye, along with the aura coming from the youth's body. There was an aura that was being absorbed up into the sky. There was a connection to the heavens above the youth's head, giving off a pulse of abnormal aura.
The youth could move freely entirely because of this aura vein.
He had to cut the vein.
But, how could he do it?
...This kind of thing......
Harutora's body twisted backwards, and he pulled off the bamboo case on his back, holding the strap in his hands.
"How should I knooowwww!"
He raised his hands high, bringing the bamboo case down on the youth's head - smashing it into that aura vein linked to the sky.
The bamboo case had Tsuchimikado ancestral tools inside it.
The Taizan Fukun Ritual was a ceremony held by the Tsuchimikado family for generations.
In that case...... Regardless of what was right, regardless of what unexpected, mistaken, or incidental things happened, it was enough if he cut that vein of aura and obstructed the ceremony.
He believed he had strangely bad luck.
But, since the Tsuchimikado family were notable Onmyouji--
Might as well see this as a celebration for tonight's birth of a new Tsuchimikado shikigami.
"Come on!"
This was the first time Harutora had prayed from his heart, and the first time he had ever so deeply wished upon his blood.
In this moment, light covered the altar.
The huge strength he had felt before was rapidly approaching him.
It was an ancient, supreme entity that Onmyouji had once named Taizan Fukun - or maybe it was the strength of a 'phenomenon' that humans could observe.
A giant, blinding aura, a dazzling god, fluctuated.
Souls shriveled.
The light flashing from the sky covered the world--
A beautiful moon hung in the sky.
A man sat in the edge of a mansion, gazing at the sky.
His hand held a cup of sake, and the sweet smell of alcohol mixed into the night.
"Yakou-sama."
In the mansion, in dim shadows that the moonlight could not reach, a voice called out softly.
"Have you still not changed your mind?"
That voice asked. The man who had been called Yakou showed a wry smile, putting his cup of sake to the side.
He returned "Yeah.", smiling as he said it.
Then, he continued with a "Sorry.", the smile disappearing from his face.
The sound of insects came to the mansion, slightly alleviating the silence between the two.
The other person quietly gazed at her moonlight master from the shadows.
Then, she also took a sitting posture, slowly lowering her head.
"I will wait until stones become dust, because I am - your shikigami."
The insects didn't stop, as if it were the last brilliant orchestra of their lives.
The sound of the approaching end of summer.
...Huh?
It seems like I saw something.
No, it seems like I saw someone.
It was an extremely distant past carved in Harutora's heart.
He had never seen that scene, but he truly remembered it.
His heart jumped intensely, and his brain cells sparked, electricity running through his body.
That thing's existence surpassed the concept of time that Harutora knew. In 'that moment', Tsuchimikado Harutora's sixteen-year-old self blurred momentarily, flying instantaneously, and then--
"Ban, Un, Taraku, Kiriku, Aku! Connect the five elements, Order!"
Natsume yelled loudly.
Just as Harutora's consciousness waned, five charms floated down from above his head. Light connected the charms, drawing out a brilliant pentagram in midair, forming a rigid wall that blocked the light pouring down and pulling Harutora's consciousness back to reality.
"......Ah."
Coming to his senses, Harutora was standing in the center of the altar, holding the strap of the bamboo case in his hand. Suzuka had lost consciousness, but Suzuka's brother was lying by his feet motionless.
Just then, Natsume jumped at him from the side.
She knocked Harutora over, her back to the air, smothering her childhood friend's head in her chest.
"N, Natsume?"
"Don't look! Your soul will be taken away!"
Natsume desperately cried.
The wall formed by the pentagram cut off the altar from that 'other world', but it couldn't stop the strong ripples. Harutora had no way of imagining what was above him right now or what it was doing. His soul felt choked - it was Natsume's soft presence that let him slightly calm down.
That moment seemed like an eternity.
In this eternal moment, the two of them relied on holding each other’s bodies to support them.
This was the only thing the young Onmyouji and the new shikigami could do before a god.
When Harutora noticed, the aura's pressure had already disappeared.
He opened his closed eyes, blinking from the ground where he lay after Natsume had knocked him over.
Natsume still held Harutora's head in her chest, and Harutora looked around from the gaps between her arms.
The pentagram wall had already vanished, and the feeling of the strange world was no longer there. All that was before him was an ancient stone plaza set on a hilltop.
Harutora looked at Natsume. She lay on the ground, at a loss. Once she noticed Harutora's gaze, she quickly noticed that she was still hugging her childhood friend's head, and hurriedly let go.
The fragrance that surrounded Harutora floated away, dissipating into the air.
"......Is it over?"
"Is...... Is it?"
Harutora and Natsume asked each other, both of them clearly a bit helpless.
Next to them, Suzuka slowly got up, bringing them a shock.
But.
"...Yukikaze!?"
Yukikaze who had been far from the altar had come forth, the Protection Sword in its mouth. It seemed like it had run out to find the sword in order to save its master. Harutora finally came to his senses at that moment.
Yukikaze shook its head, dropping the Protection Sword, and Harutora quickly got up and took the sword upon looking around.
He pointed the sword at Suzuka who sat on the ground, about to tell her to give up resisting, when--
"......Why?"
Suzuka murmured to herself, letting out an empty voice.
Harutora relaxed the strength in his hand and the tip of the sword dropped powerlessly.
Suzuka was no longer Harutora's enemy. Harutora let the sword down, silently gazing at the girl.
He suddenly felt something near his head, and saw Hokuto emerge in midair as soon as he looked up.
What happened with the surprising thing just now? ...Hokuto looked at Harutora with that kind of confusion and incomprehension. What a leisurely thing. Harutora's lips curved in a smile.
He turned around, seeing that Tsuchigumo wasn't moving at all, and it didn't seem like it had damaged Hokuto either. He guessed that maybe Suzuka's magical energy had been drained to exhaustion, or maybe Tsuchigumo had been completely purified by Taizan Fukun.
Suzuka sobbed quietly, holding her brother's motionless body. She whimpered clearly with her head in her brother's chest.
Harutora looked back at Natsume with a bitter face. After her and Harutora's gazes crossed, he silently turned around as if remembering something.
With nowhere to vent his emotions, Harutora looked up at the sky.
The moon hung high in the clear night sky.
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