Tokyo Ravens - Volume 14 - Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1 - United Resistance 
Part 1 
Souma Takiko didn't remember the faces of her parents. 
It wasn't that she had been left alone. She had lived together with her parents. But there had always been many adults around Takiko. There had been wet nurses caring for her and strict-looking old men. People who came from 'outside' and those striving to train themselves in magic. The rest of the adults had attended to Takiko just like her father and mother had. Thanks to that, Takiko didn't have any strong impression of any single one of the adults around her. 
She was a child of the main bloodline and possessed a nature excellent for becoming a yorishiro [1] . 
Takiko was the foothold that her clan had been longing for in order to realize their dreams. To her parents she was simply the 'successor', rather than being 'their child'. 
'When you grow up, you will become a god.' 
For as long as she could remember, the adults around Takiko had told her that. The evidence that those words weren't just a lie or joke showed in the attention that the adults paid to her and the reverence with which they treated her. 
In any case, Takiko was a child who required that attention. 
Takiko spent her childhood at the base of a mountain revered as sacred, in a village that seemed separated from the rest of humanity. The area was surrounded by nature, due to being a place where spirit flow gathered, was full of aura all the time. Also, the area had an extraordinarily special spiritual nature due to magic that her clan had maintained for many years. 
Being born to be a yorishiro, Takiko took in and was possessed by external aura from an early age. Takiko's ability to serve as a spiritual vessel, proof of her excellent shamanic nature, made things rather complicated and difficult for her. It was lucky if the aura Takiko took in was harmless, but often the aura would cause trouble. 
The adults paid deep attention to her and paid her a similar level of respect, as if acting as her attendants. It was as if she were a being of a higher level - in other words, as if she were worshiped as a 'god'. 
Being a god was lonely. 
But back then, Takiko hadn't known of the concept of 'loneliness'. She didn't suffer from feelings of loneliness. There were always many adults around Takiko, but not a single child like her. She wasn't been able to compare her environment to anyone else's. 
In fact, Takiko hadn't known anything about the 'outside world'. She hadn't been taught. So, Takiko grew up simply accepting everything around her, both normal and abnormal. She didn't differentiate between special and ordinary. 
Back then, the adults around Takiko had seemed the same as the deer and the boar of the mountain. Now, shockingly few memories remained of the ones who had spent a long time by her side. That was especially true for their faces. She almost couldn't recall anything about what their faces had been like. 
That was also because she had lived viewed a god. 
But there was one more reason. 
Takiko first noticed that reason when she met a certain pair of people. 
"......Her?" 
"Right. Although when I met her before, she was still in diapers." 
"But...... this is......" 
"Yes. I heard of it, but she's really being neglected. I'm deeply interested in her for the sake of research, but it's quite shocking. As expected, the main family guys are still living in medieval times." 
This was Takiko's favorite shrine. 
An approximately twenty-jou [2] building outside the village, a place where adults couldn't approach without Takiko's permission. But these two people had casually stepped into her territory without permission and opened the door to the shrine. 
At the time, Takiko was possessed by a somewhat evil-natured yin energy. The sash of the traditional miko outfit that the adults had put on her was untied, and the hems were worn down. The many cracks on the surface of the wooden floor and the peeling plaster of the wall were thanks to Takiko's spiritual power that no one had ever taught her about going out of control. 
The aura that filled her was coagulated and sharply unbalanced towards yin, drawing forth even more yin aura. The aura inside the shrine was close to miasma. 
And in its midst was Takiko, with her back against the wall and legs splayed out. Her neck turned towards the door of the shrine as she gazed at the two men standing in the entrance. 
A girl whose bright, flame-like red hair left a strong impression. 
But eyes were blank and unfocused and her mouth hung half-open. It was the yin aura possessing Takiko that moved her right now, rather than Takiko herself. 
'Leave'. A bestial sound came from the young girl's mouth. 
One of the two people smiled bitterly and scratched his head, while the other narrowed his eyes. 
"Hahaha. It seems like we picked a bad day. Should we come back later, Kurahashi?" 
"......Dairenji. If we don't do anything, at this rate she'll become a 'Type-Ogre'." 
   

"Aah, you don't need to worry about that. She's not that brittle of a vessel. In any case, it almost looks like a Phase Five might show up. I've tested a lot of things on my daughter, but she can't compare to the real thing. It's too bad, but that girl's no good." 
Saying that, the man put a hand to his chest and bowed very respectfully towards Takiko. And with that, he turned right around and left the shrine. 
But the other man didn't follow him. Taking off his shoes, he headed silently into the shrine. 
The man who left turned around. "Oi, Kurahashi," he said. But the other man didn't listen to him and headed straight towards Takiko. 

The aura inside Takiko writhed and the aura around her became restless. The aura reacted to the man's disobeying the order and approaching and bared its fangs. 
In that moment, 
'Clap', 
The man clasped his hands together as if praying. 
For how many years had Takiko been unable to forget her shock from that moment? 
The man's clap was full of magical energy. That magical energy instantly drove off the yin aura inside the shrine and cleansed away the aura possessing Takiko. 
It was as if she had been doused with a tremendous amount of cold water without any warning. 
Takiko was completely surprised. Her eyes widened. 
It had only been a single instant, and yet a simple clap had purified all the aura. This man's ability was amazing. 
The Takiko from back then had been unable to understand the power of the Onmyoudou that the man had casually showed her. The adults around her were able to do similar things - if not with the expertise of this man. 
But the people who treated her like the clan's shaman princess had never shown this to her. 
It was the first clear act of 'resistance' that she had experience since birth. A 'will' shown by 'someone else'. 
It was no exaggeration to say that the 'worship' that this man showed Takiko destroyed the laws of the world she had lived in with a single clap. 
The man who had left smiled pleasantly. 
"Take it easy. If the village people saw something like that, it would raise a big ruckus." 
As he expected, the man in front of him didn't respond to is jokingly-delivered line. He stared at Takiko, thinking, and then lowered down and sat in seiza right there, facing her direction. 
Kurahashi. The man had been called that. He was Kurahashi. 
Takiko looked closely at Kurahashi, as if it was her first time seeing a 'human'. And Kurahashi looked straight back at Takiko's face. 
His face, sternly stiffened like a statue, 
"......Good eyes." 
...loosened slightly. 
And then Takiko noticed. 
None of the adults who had been around her until now had looked at Takiko in this manner. Their faces had been downturned, and they had come to attend to Takiko hat in hand without meeting her gaze. 
But Kurahashi wasn't that way. Takiko was now able to freely observe another human's face for the first time. 
"It's nice to meet you, princess of the Souma. Souma Takiko-kun. My name is Kurahashi Genji. The man behind me is named Dairenji Shidou. We came here hoping to walk the road of Onmyoudou together with you." 
"............" 
Takiko listened to the seated Kurahashi's voice without uttering a word. 
From the entrance, the other man said, 
"Hey, Kurahashi. That girl's still seven, you know." 
"My showing respect has no relation to age. It's not as if I'm rearing her." 
"......I did think that your girl was around the same age as her, but this is certainly different from how you are at home, isn't it." 
Though Dairenji said this as if in amazement, Kurahashi didn't respond to him this time. He continued looking at Takiko without moving his gaze away even once. 
Takiko couldn't understand what Kurahashi had said at all. After all, Souma Takiko hadn't even been able to recall her own name instantly. 
Only three other names managed to linger in her mind. Kurahashi Genji, who was right in front of her. The other man, Dairenji Shidou. 
And also-- 
"......What about Tsuchimikado Yakou?" 
Takiko's question made Kurahashi's expression loosen again. The other person behind him - Dairenji - smiled at this unexpected development. Speaking of whom, Dairenji looked straight at Takiko again as well. The two of them were a different kind of adult from the ones Takiko knew. 
"I'll tell you." 
Kurahashi slowly announced. 
"He is the one who created the fate of us three. He is the great Onmyouji who once created the golden age of magic - and who lives even now, in the modern age."