Part 3
Maybe she wouldn't be able to sleep that night.
In contrast to that pessimism, Akino ate three cups of cup ramen for dinner and slept soundly clutching her stomach until dawn. Right at nine o'clock, the newcomer girl – Hokuto, who gradually awoke - got up. People in the monastery got up early. Disciples usually got up at four. If they slept in, there were punishments.
Tadanori hadn't mentioned a deadline for bringing Hokuto up the mountain, but she would definitely be scolded if she didn't return before lunch. After Akino and Hokuto busied themselves eating breakfast, they departed from the Front Hall.
Stones were piled into a stair shape through the path continuing up to Seishuku Temple. Lush cedar forests grew all around them. Tall, sturdy, moss-covered cedar trees extended from the dense grass under the trees without limit, like pillars supporting the sky. The path stretched endlessly upwards between those cedar trees.
The mountainside was very tranquil. The only sounds they could hear were the sounds of their own footsteps and breathing. Sometimes the chirps of mountainside birds would reach them, and the echoing of the sounds seemed to add contrast to the stillness of the forest.
"......"
Akino who walked ahead climbed the mountain path while often looking behind her.
Aside from Akino who had grown up on the mountain, the mountain path would definitely be exhausting for someone not used to it - especially for a delicate female. But Hokuto basically had no issue as she carried the seemingly very heavy bag, indifferently following behind her. She didn't seem worried about running out of breath at all. Though it wasn't visible, it seemed that she was actually quite tough.
In that case, the next problem was the silence between the two.
Hokuto was a reticent girl.
They had watched television and eaten together last night, but Hokuto hadn't opened her mouth to speak at all while there. At least reply to me if I talk. That was the minimum standard necessary to be tolerable. Thanks to this, she hadn't properly introduced herself from last night until now. Even she felt embarrassed.
But even so, she knew that Hokuto wasn't as indifferent a person as the impression she gave out at first. She would actively respond if she told her something, and she was very obedient to Akino's complex instructions without a bit of displeasure on her face. Also, last night she had let Akino choose the television channels and the flavor of cup ramen that she liked from the very start. There had only been one sofa, and Akino had invited her to sit, but she firmly refused and let Akino sit there. She hadn't been mad or anxious when she overslept today either, elegantly making the bed. She was beautiful and elegant, simply an angel to Akino.
But when Hokuto didn't express her emotions, she didn't know what she was thinking about, and that was the truth. Also, the hateful feeling of wrongness she had felt when they first met each other hadn't gone away.
"......"
If they went forward to the monastery like this, Hokuto would become a member of the disciples. The male seniors would definitely be head over heels to please her because she was such a beautiful woman. In that case, Akino would definitely be asked to do many, many things for them to get close to Hokuto.
Since she didn't know anything at all right now, she might not treat Akino well after learning Akino's position in the monastery, even though she treated Akino respectfully right now. She would very quickly become like everyone else and would definitely treat Akino high-handedly...... Akino thought of that kind of premonition.
...Hmm?
During that, she felt that something was wrong.
It wasn't any very substantial reason, it was just that she couldn't imagine that natural future scene occurring with Hokuto. Perhaps it was because Hokuto was different from the other disciples in the monastery. Because the atmosphere entwined around her was too incongruous, she couldn't imagine the scene of her being tainted by the atmosphere of her seniors.
Of course, it might be because Akino's imagination was insufficient.
"......"
Akino glanced at the silently climbing Hokuto a few times out of the corner of her eye.
Then,
"...We didn't really talk yesterday."
Suddenly, Hokuto opened her mouth. Akino stopped in surprise, then instinctively covered her head with her hands.
...O-Oh no!?
Was she doomed for stopping? Akino gingerly looked back.
But Hokuto stared over dumbstruck, blinking as if a bit shocked.
It seemed that she was taken aback by her covering her head right as she was going to speak. She was probably tired and had accidentally shown her idiot attributes.
"What's wrong? Are you alright?"
"I-It's nothing! I'm completely fine!"
After Akino replied with a blush, Hokuto laughed quietly while wondering.
A bitter laugh. But it wasn't a sarcastic bitter laugh like the people in the monastery. It was the first time she had seen Hokuto's sincere expression.
Akino coughed dryly to urge herself on.
"U-Um, Hokuto-san......?"
"You can just call me Hokuto. I said that yesterday too, since I'm a newcomer."
"Ah, but, you're older than me, and I'm not used to calling people by their name directly......"
Akino still hadn't made a friend that she could call directly by their name. She saw Hokuto get confused, but Hokuto didn't press the matter, smiling at Akino again instead.
"I didn't think there would be any young people like you here."
Hokuto spoke in a calm tone.
"But it's natural if you think about it. Since not everyone in this dark temple came here of their own will."
Hokuto's gaze didn't meet Akino as she said this, but instead looked in the direction of the mountain road behind her.
Akino rarely met true adults who came from outside, but they had treated Akino with this kind of attitude when she had been a child. It was pathetic as her senior in the monastery, but Hokuto was more adult-like. But even so, it made her happy that she was able to sincerely converse even if she treated Akino like a child.
But.
"Dark temple?"
"Eh, uhh, sorry. That way of putting it is very rude, right?"
"V-Very rude? ......You mean Seishuku Temple?"
"You don't know?"
Hokuto asked back as if very surprised, and Akino automatically apologized "Sorry, sorry......"
"Since I still haven't left Seishuku Temple."
"Eh? Then Akino-san was born in the monastery?"
"Though I wasn't born in the monastery, I was raised there as a baby...... Also, u-um, don't call me 'san', it's a bit embarrassing."
'Dark temple' was probably Seishuku Temple's nickname outside. It was her first time hearing it.
She felt like it was an evil name. Well, if she tried thinking about it, there would obviously be many similarities.
"Then Akino-chan always lived in Seishuku Temple, huh."
"D-Don't call me 'chan' either, you can just call me Akino directly."
"Is that so? Then please call me Hokuto as well."
"Eh? Y-Yeah...... Okay......"
Akino managed to reply and Hokuto smiled.
Her attitude was less estranged compared to when they had first met yesterday. Probably even Hokuto had been a bit guarded. That cold atmosphere had been a manifestation of that. But if what Akino feared showed some signs of abating, might the reason be that she had slept in this morning?
A mountain bird cried out from somewhere.
The refreshing wind blew - the scent of incense she had smelled yesterday wafted lightly from Hokuto. It wasn't a bad scent. Living in the monastery, she had long since gotten used to smells of incenses. But the scent from Hokuto's body was more like a subtle hint of incense than a scent that Akino knew.
The two of them started walking to the monastery again.
"Akino, do you have any idea what they do in the monastery? ...No, do you know?"
"I know. Um...... the monastery people all practice magic."
Since she was going to Seishuku Temple, Hokuto ought to know this much. Even so, Akino truthfully explained to her.
Because of the government, magic had begun to be widely used. Supposedly, half a century ago, on the eve of the Pacific War, the various magics passed down since ancient times had been analysed one by one and then added into an overall system that further developed it.
Contemporary magic was managed by a national organization - the Onmyou Agency. The magic that the Onmyou Agency recognized as having real effects was named 'First-Class Magic', and one had to obtain qualifications set by Onmyou law to use 'First-Class Magic'.
"The current mainstream magic can barely be called Onmyoudou. Actually, magic from other systems have all been added into it. Like Vajrayana, Shintoism, Shugendo, and other types...... Hmm? Then in that case, why is it called 'General Onmyoudou'?"
"Because the great man who added those other magics and established the foundations of modern magic wasn't a monk or a Shintoist, but rather, an Onmyouji."
"Ah, you know! He was the practitioner in the military during wartime. What was he called? I seem to remember that he was called......"
She felt like it had been a slightly unusual name having to do with light [14] . Probing the depths of her memory, Akino pondered baselessly with a "hmm".
Then,
"......Yakou."
"Eh?"
"......He was called Tsuchimikado Yakou."
"Ah, right! That was his name."
Hokuto seemed to have detailed knowledge about this aspect. Every time she said a word, she seemed to be reducing her prestige as a monastery senior. She felt ashamed.
...Ah, but......
"Right. Tsuchimikado Yakou called himself a terrorist."
The instant Akino accidentally whispered this, she noticed Hokuto shiver slightly. Noticing this, Akino turned to Hokuto.
"Hmm? Hokuto-san - no, Hokuto - you didn't know? This time last year...... Hmm, I think it was in the summer? That Tsuchimikado Yakou's reincarnation went around committing crimes everywhere."
This was news that even she knew. Akino tried asking, feeling surprised.
Hokuto paused slightly before her reply.
"......I know."
"Oh. So you did know. Well, he's very famous in the magic community. I heard there was an arrest warrant issued by the nation."
"......"
Hokuto didn't respond to Akino's words, her expression almost frozen. But Akino didn't notice. Her naive mood had become good upon finding out a common topic.
"That reincarnation often becomes a topic in our monastery, you know? Especially because, well, isn't the monastery an extremely serious place that practices magic? That kind of topic spreads very easily......"
Akino glanced at Hokuto's appearance to be a bit prudent. Even so, she didn't need to worry. Hokuto's face revealed that she already had an understanding regarding 'Seishuku Temple's matters'.
"Speaking of hiding practitioners, do they come here because there are two important practitioners gathered together in the monastery?" [15]
Akino smiled briefly towards Hokuto's calm tone of confirmation, replying with a "haha".
"It seems like it. Though I don't know too much about the hiding or the two professionals......"
Right now, magic was legally regulated by Onmyou law, and most practitioners were managed by the Onmyou Agency.
But not all of them.
The first magics and the history of practitioners was even more ancient than the history of Onmyou law and the Onmyou Agency. It was baseless to say that it had a grasp on those magics and practitioners decades after the war. More importantly, there was also quite a bit of darkness concealed behind magic. What the public authorities dictated didn't seep into all groups of people that easily.
So the Onmyou Agency's scope of management couldn't reach the 'depths' of the magic community that formed various different networks, just the so-called 'surface'. Seishuku Temple that was known as the dark temple was one of the representative hubs of these networks.
Information, techniques, and talented people who never appeared on the 'surface' gathered here.
For example, Hokuto, who currently wanted to enter the monastery, was quite the talented person.
"Hokuto-san, were you introduced by a branch monastery?"
"......Uh. Well."
"It's very strange recently, but it seems like there were a lot of those people before, right? Seishuku Temple's branch monasteries are all over the nation. I heard that it was to increase the spreading of techniques or something like that...... A lot of people with various talents come to visit the monastery......"
Akino explained to Hokuto while unintentionally becoming ambiguous.
There were various people who aimed to become practitioners, but they had something in common. That was the 'spirit-sensing ability'. To a user of modern magic, it was the talent and ability to 'see' aura.
Everyone carried aura on their body, and everyone possessed spiritual power, but there were very few people who could feel aura and spiritual power. But magic was based on techniques that controlled spiritual power, so thinking of becoming a practitioner - becoming one of the extreme few who could use first-class magic - was impossible without that ability.
But because the people who possessed such an ability were few, there were quite a few examples of those who were respected by others at the same time as they were abhorred and disgusted.
It was human nature to be wary of people different from oneself and treat them differently. Nowadays, information regarding magic had spread to the streets and could be picked up by normal people. But even so, people who possessed an abnormal ability - who had 'superpowers' - received critical gazes from those around them. Especially in an environment that lacked an understanding of magic, it was very difficult for people possessing the spirit-seeing ability to live an ordinary life. So if the ancient magic-related portion of the spiritual-disaster-prone Tokyo were taken out of the picture, society's level of understanding definitely wouldn't be very high. Even if they tried to coexist, there would be many people who would end up meeting misfortune.
Places like the Seishuku Temple or its branch monasteries dealt with those circumstances.
The abnormals that society didn't accept would be taken into the monastery, which would train them into mature practitioners.
The so-called 'disciples' were the immature practitioners gathered in the monastery.
"......It's very rare. Because there's no where else to go."
There were many people with bad hearts among the 'disciples' in the monastery. Twisted people, people who got angry easily, people who overly disdained others......
But they were also young people who had grown up in unfortunate environments, people with nowhere to go other than the monastery.
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