Tokyo Ravens - Volume 13 - Chapter 5.1

Chapter 5 - Interweaving Travels 
Part 1 
Allegedly, there was a secret Onmyoudou book written by Abe no Seimei. 
It was the 'Gathered Legends of the Yatagarasu and Moon Rabbit'. A legendary book that everyone related to magic had more or less heard of. 
But the transcript circulated after his death had actually been compiled from multiple sources, and the five-chapter book clearly had some contents that had been filled in after his death. One example of this was that the name of the chief compiler was '??' rather than '??' [9] . 
But that was all just common knowledge. The Tsuchimikado family had actually handed the secret magic left behind by their ancestor Abe no Seimei down through generations. 
But it wasn't in the form of a 'book'. 
"Do you understand?" 
Harutora did his best to elicit a reply. As expected, it was tough to set up a stable 'space' between the Raven's Wing and Full Moon when they were so far apart. More importantly, the aura from 'him' remaining in Yakou was too thin a thousand years later. Yakou had placed his spiritual power and magic symbols into the Raven's Wing in order to maintain 'his' aura and placed his intelligence and personality into the Full Moon. In other words, it was basically impossible to communicate with the Full Moon unless it was near him. Even so, Harutora still focused his mind and attempted to fathom the returning signal. 
"What should I do? She's almost at her limits already, and I don't know when her connection with Hokuto will break. No, even if I do something, Tokyo's spiritual state will instantly be overturned once the Souma decide to start carrying out their plan, and she won't be able to stand it in that state." 
He had to find a way to save Natsume. No matter what, he had to find a way somewhere that would save the currently 'distorted' Natsume. He had to find that way! 
......Even if he couldn't fix Natsume's abnormal state, Harutora would grab at anything that could prolong Natsume's current longevity. Harutora had been resolved to step onto the path of true Onmyoudou and sacrifice half of his life for the resurrection ritual in the first place when he had called back Natsume's soul with the Taizan Fukun Ritual. 
"Please grant me instruction. Please!" 
But Harutora's wish wasn't answered. 
There is no other way...... than the theory of yin and yang...... 
The momentary whisper made Harutora tightly grit his teeth as he restrained himself. 
The megalomaniacal lecture he had given Yashamaru several days ago surfaced in his mind. Just like the one he had once given Suzuka. 
Even so, he couldn't give up. 
Even if he had to rely on witchcraft or demons, he couldn't give up here. 
"Is it really impossible to do anything without stepping into the theory of yin and yang!? Any way at all......!" 
Harutora waited with for a reply, holding his breath because of his overwhelming, runaway thoughts. A few seconds of time seemed as long as several days. 
......You can...... only...... make amends...... 
"Amends?" 
Send her soul...... to me...... 
He suddenly felt as if his whole body had frozen. "I refuse." He immediately replied. "You want me to have Natsume die? I can't do that. Even if I violate the theory of yin and yang, I won't do that!" 
Harutora didn't receive a response to his anger. He just received a calm message saying this wasn't the case. 
Amend...... everything happening now...... 
The conversation with 'him' happened via thoughts rather than words. He had to transform the ideas of the 'space' he had managed to make into words. Alongside that difficulty, Harutora didn't know whether he had correctly grasped the meaning of what had been conveyed to him. He asked again, "Amend everything? What do you mean?" 
However, in that moment, the space started making a sharp noise. 
"No!?" 
It seemed like something had happened around Akino. No, the 'space' he had forcefully constructed had been about to reach its limits anyway in Tokyo's spirit flow disturbed from the 'god summoning'. 
Are you...... listening? ......It's...... not...... not there...... 
"Seimei-sama!" 
......time. 
Harutora did his best to safeguard the final thought that came from the rapidly-crumbling Taizan Fukun Ritual. 

 

"Hey, what's wrong with you!?" 
She was suddenly grabbed from behind and spun around. "What were you thinking!? Do you understand what the situation is right now!? This isn't your individual problem!" 
This time both her shoulders were grabbed and she was shaken forcefully. Even so, Akino's consciousness didn't recover immediately. 
"......Huh? Akino?" 
She stopped, feeling that something was wrong. Akino finally came to her senses. Her eyes focused on the girl glaring at her. 
"......Wait. Just now, that was...... magic? And judging by the spirit, that was the 'Full Moon', right? What were you doing?" 
"Oh no...... Natsume, she - Natsume's going to die! Just now, that...... And she's going to decay if this goes on!?" 
"H-Hold on! Calm down first. What's been wrong with you recently!?" 
"It was Harutora-kun just now!" 
"Hah!?" 
Becoming more and more confused, Suzuka instantly tensed up after hearing Harutora's name. She grabbed Akino again. 
"......The Full Moon was summoned, huh. What did that idiot use the Full Moon for?" 

"U-Um! I couldn't hear his voice, but I felt that Harutora-kun was talking with someone! ......He said that Natsume will be in a lot of danger if this goes on! Also, Harutora-kun asked how to save Natsume, it seems like things aren't going smoothly......" 
Suzuka listened while muttering "Magic, huh?". 
"What's the deal? Didn't that Bakatora resurrect Natsume once? With the Taizan Fukun Ritual?" 
"It seemed like he said that was no good......" 
"No good...... It was a failure?" 
"I-I don't know. I never heard anything like this before, but Harutora-kun said that Natsume had another soul......" 
Suddenly, Akino thought of Harutora's promise and her mouth stopped as her body froze. Seeing Suzuka's suspicious face, she hastily explained, "D-Don't say that to Natsume! Harutora-kun said that if Natsume knew this, it might have a negative effect on her, h-he told me not to tell anyone......!" 
"Hah? You spilled everything just now." 
"......!?" 
Akino's face reddened and tears started welling up below her glasses. 
Why was she so useless? 
She wanted to be useful. She wanted to be Natsume's reliable friend. She had always desired this, but everything she did was unnecessary, insignificant, or a blunder. She hated that. It shamed her so much she wanted to cry. 
Feelings of inferiority filled her chest. She felt so bad she wanted to die. But, 
"Hmph. I see." 
Suzuka put her hand on Akino's head with a plop. Akino closed her eyes out of fear, her body stiffening up. 
But Suzuka's actions weren't violent. Rather - they were so gentle that she couldn't believe it. 
She gently stroked her head between her ears. That movement was gentle enough to raise her spirits. Akino opened her eyes in surprise. Suzuka looked away, the corners of her eyes slightly red. 
"......Y-You're not mad?" 
"Hah? Mad about what?' 
"Um...... for running here alone a-and troubling you and the others......" 
"Are you stupid? Of course I'm incredibly mad. Also, I hate people like you who do things sloppily." 
Completely merciless. The fact that she didn't berate her excessively actually gave her the sense that these were her true feelings, which made it hurt even more. But. 
"......You don't want to just sit around on standby, right?' 
"Eh?" 
"You have to do something yourself - that's what you think, right? And you're hoping that others will recognize you, right?" 
"............" 
"In that case, there's nothing wrong with it." 
"...!" 
She inadvertently doubted whether she had heard wrongly. Her eyes jumped up as she looked straight at Suzuka. 
"I wanted to do something stupid once before too, and ended up getting stopped by Bakatora and Natsume. But they didn't deny me as a person. In other words, um...... it's not your fault? Well, th-that's basically it. Even I wanted them to recognize me as soon as possible." 
"............" 
She had an inexplicable feeling. 
Suzuka was a Divine General. A star of the magic community called the 'Child Prodigy' that even a nameless youngster like Akino had heard about in the temple. A young, brilliant idol that everyone striving to be an Onmyouji yearned to be like. Even though she's younger, she's acting an adult and extending a hand to my useless self. At this moment, she looked so much like a normal girl. 
Akino timidly grasped Suzuka's hand. It was a small hand, like her own. The moment she grasped the hand, Akino seemed to sense Suzuka become relieved. 
"Then let's go back. For now, we'll send Natsume a message." 
She fiddled with her phone in one hand as she spoke. She was probably embarrassed. Akino also became inadvertently embarrassed, but she still didn't intend to let go of Suzuka's hand. 
Just then, Akino's rabbit ears turned behind her. It seemed like they had noticed something. Akino turned her head around. 
Down the slope stood a girl whose long shadow stretched from her feet. 
She was a delicate and pretty androgynous girl who could momentarily be mistaken to be a boy. An archaistic air showed from beneath her cool expression, and she gave off an unearthly, mysterious presence just by standing there. 
The most striking thing about her was her red hair. Her red hair swayed against the background of the setting sun like a burning flame. 
The girl looked at them. Then, 
"...Suzuka?" 
An irrepressible joy showed from her slightly surprised voice. 
Akino instinctively grasped Suzuka's hand tighter at her words. 
"To think I'd be able to run into you here. What a surprise." 
The girl continued speaking to them. Thinking that she was someone acquainted with Suzuka, Akino recalled the matter of the 'red-haired girl' that she had heard about a few times. 
That's right. Natsume and the others had talked about her. She remembered her name was Souma-- 
"Takiko......!?" 
Suzuka stared at the girl, almost speechless from shock. But the red-haired girl smiled tenderly at Suzuka.