Tokyo Ravens - Volume 13 - Chapter 5.4

Part 4 
The concepts of time and space were distorting. 
In her delusion, sound and light, aura and time, melded together as one. 
She lost her five senses, and the boundary line between her and the world became ambiguous. Slowly, the meaning of 'her own' presence became vague as well. 
Her soul wandered to the other side. 
She was one with the world. 
Then all of a sudden, a light. 
A golden point of light appeared. The point of light flowed, extended, and carved out a majestic ribbon. 
The ribbon of light wrapped around 'Natsume', clarifying the boundary line between 'Natsume' and the world. 'She' formed self-consciousness as she was excised out, and Natsume came to her senses. 
The ribbon of light pulled strongly on Natsume. It pulled her to the place she had originally been - her body. 
It seemed like she heard a voice. 
A very nostalgic voice. 

Natsume! 
Shouted awake, Natsume opened her eyes. 
A very familiar teenage boy was staring at her in her blurry field of vision. Where was this? Her brain couldn't work. Her body couldn't move as she wanted it to either. She felt like she was separated from the entire world. Could this be a waking dream? 
Then, a voice kind of like 'wake up' came from inside her. A voice she had been hearing just before. 
A very nostalgic voice. 
"......Hokuto? Incense? No more?" 
But that voice slowly grew distant until she could no longer hear it. It became one with the golden light and vanished into the magic. 
......Magic? 
"......!" 
Natsume's eyes focused back on reality. 
"Natsume!" It had been Touji [11] in front of her calling to her. Seeing that Natsume had woken up, Touji breathed a sigh of relief. "Great, I was wondering what happened to you. Your aura stopped completely for almost a minute, it almost scared me to death." 
"......One minute?" 
"Yeah. Nothing about the situation has changed. Rather, what was going on just now?" 
...What had happened? Hokuto? And at the end, it had said...... 
Incense. Right, it had said 'there's no more incense'. What did that mean? And what did 'incense' refer to-- 
When she had thought this far, Natsume and Touji looked in the same direction. The direction of Kogure and Kumomaru's battle. 
"That's......!" 
"'Type-Chimeras'!" 
That's right, Nue. Exactly like two years ago. 
"First seal, release!" 
Touji released his seal and became a living spirit. Immediately after, Natsume said, "I'll go too!". 
"Uh...... Got it! But remember not to use your draconic aura!" Touji controlled his demonic aura, picked up Natsume, and rushed to the battleground. 

"Go!" 
The Nue [12] leaped to attack Kogure at Kumomaru's order. 
As far as Kogure knew, only ara-mitama like Ashiya Doman could control just-formed spiritual disasters like this. 
"Interesting." Kogure formed a seal with his empty left hand. 
The Nue still rushed fiercely at him, but they turned into dust in the next second. 
"Wha--!" 
The dharani [13] of Bishamonten [14] . Partially-materialized aura surrounded Kogure, and the Nue that his blade cut across were purified without spurting out miasma. Kumomaru clicked his tongue and formed four more Nue. But just like before, the group of Nue attacking like a wave were cut apart by Kogure's sword. 
"...Why don't you stop that?" 
In an instant, taking advantage of an opening in the group of Nue, Kogure broke out of their surround and pointed his blade at Kumomaru-- 
"On bishibishi karakara shibari sowaka [15] !" 
He heard an incantation that almost came from next to his ears. 
...Damn! 
He only remembered now. Back then, there had been two shikigami confronting Harutora. 
A number of seals overlapped before his eyes and his body was bound by jet-black fog. 
"Miyachi-kun might get mad if we just killed you. We won't take your life here - it's too early for you to die." 
A young voice. All he could see through the black fog was a monocle. 
I knew for sure that you would act after we made the attack announcement. I was truly relieved when I got the information that you were acting independently. Ahh, right, just like Mutobe-kun, I go by the name Yashamaru now." 
Right as the words left his mouth, the magic bound Kogure's consciousness completely. 
Clunk. His sword dropped to the ground. 

"How......" 
Natsume and Touji hid on a rooftop to the side and witnessed everything. 
...They hadn't made it in time. 
Natsume and Touji had arrived at a great opportunity, when Kogure was single-handedly fighting the group of Nue. If not for Yashamaru's ambush, they definitely could have won. The mighty spiritual power from before [16] was now completely imperceptible, as if it had been an illusion. 
...If I hadn't fainted before... 
They had been a tiny bit late. If only Natsume hadn't fainted along the way, she and Touji would have been able to successfully make it in time, the battle would have ended in Kogure's victory, and he would have been able to join them. 
...Because of me......! 
She was incredibly regretful. 
"I don't believe it...... The Yase Doji are clearly much stronger than before. Though they were also powerful back then, I could have at least fought against them. Now......" Though Touji's tone was calm, his expression was pale. "'You guys are no good' [17] ...... huh." He gritted his teeth and murmured. 
"Anyways, we should first withdraw and meet up with Suzuka and Akino." 
Right. Though it pained her to leave Kogure, she needed to ensure the safety of her friends. Natsume took out her phone and was about to contact Suzuka when she received a message. It was from Suzuka. She said that she had succeeded in meeting up with Akino. 
"No sense in hanging around. Let's go." 
Touji left the battleground carrying Natsume. At the end, she took one look, praying to herself. 
...Sorry. Please, be sure not to die...... 
Soon afterwards, Natsume got the second message.