Tokyo Ravens - Volume 9 - Chapter 4.3

Part 3 
His head spun. He was out of breath. His heart pounded and he felt dizzy. 
But right now, Harutora was undoubtedly sitting on the back of Yukikaze that Touji rode, rushing through the halls of the Onmyou Agency. His sense of reality couldn't keep up with the rapidly developing situation. Only his heartbeat kept pounding. 
"Touji!" 
Touji, in his samurai-state, smiled fearlessly and then replied to his voice that came out naturally. 
"Bakatora! You idiot, this isn't something I'll be compensated for with just a couple of punches!" 
"......!" 
Touji's lively scolding resounded in Harutora's heart. Yukikaze didn't stop for a moment during this time, galloping through the agency building. 
The sound of horseshoes reverberated and wind howled past their ears. Though it felt natural, this was the first time he had ridden a horse through a hallway. The ceiling was close in the narrow passageway, but their speed couldn't be compared to anything on foot. It was as if he were riding a rollercoaster indoors. 
Just then. 
"It's pretty late, but--" 
"Touji?" 
"What are you going to do? Have you decided?" 
Touji's look went over his shoulder and ran past his flashing helmet, through Harutora. A shudder ran through Harutora's whole body. 
Even now, he was moved by his good friend's understanding and tolerance. Touji's steadfastness was collected in those two short sentences. Touji was prepared to turn back and bring him back to the executive office if Harutora said 'I'll die in Natsume's place, so let's go back'. He wouldn't say or ask anything after that. 
"Yeah." 
Harutora replied to Touji's question in a murmur. 
"Let's keep going!" 
"...Alright. Yukikaze, downwards!" 
Accepting Touji's instructions, Yukikaze headed downstairs. Its feet floated slightly as it charged downstairs through the stairway. 
"But, Kyouko's instincts were completely on the mark! I never thought she would be able to find you instantly!" 
"Kyouko?" 
"Yeah! She said that there would be 'activity' if we waited. She also called it on the highest floor - the executive office!" 
"Then, what about everyone else?" 
"They're outside! We'll meet up after escaping!" 
They were going to see everyone. The instant he was told this, he thought of the petrified, helpless figures of his companions in front of Natsume's remains. 
"Touji. Listen, I--" 
He impatiently tried to say something, but Touji interrupted him without looking back. "Save it for later!" 
Touji carefully surveyed the surroundings while they went down. Maybe it was because they had taken shelter because of the shikigamis' attack, but they couldn't see a single agency member now. The samurai and Harutora behind him charged down the empty, spiraling staircase on the white horse. 
But, even if there were no agency members, there were other things. 
"...They're here." 
Figures leaped up the staircase in front of them. Three, no, four. Doman's shikigami. He had originally thought they had all been incinerated by the flame magic, but it looked like some had broken inside. 
Harutora and Touji had long since completely understood the tenacity of those shikigami. Touji gave up on forcefully breaking through, pulling on Yukikaze's reins. They passed by the noses of the shikigami going up the stairs and rushed into the floor's corridors. 
The shikigami chased from behind, but-- 
"Kon!" 
"Y-Yes!" 
Kon released foxfire at the shikigami after being summoned by her master. Harutora's strength had grown from when they had attacked the Onmyou Academy. That was directly reflected by the strength of his defensive shikigami Kon. 
Blue flame covered the corridor, cutting off the pursuit from the stairs. But this time, other shikigami came charging from around a corner. It seemed that there were quite a number of shikigami that had broken into the agency building. After seeing Harutora and the others, they charged like hyenas swarming their prey. 
"Harutora! Use my charm!" 
"Understood!" 
Touji gripped the reins for him and Harutora took out charms from the charm box on his waist. 
"Order!" 
He hurled out water-element charms, pushing back the shikigami with a magical torrent. Kon also flew into the air behind Yukikaze, becoming her master's shield. She unleashed foxfire at the tail of one of them, cut down one near the ceiling with her wakizashi, and then suppressed the shikigami that appeared in droves. 
But if they wanted to think about escaping from the agency building, they wouldn't be able to handle each and every one of Doman's tenacious shikigami. 
"Touji! Can we go out from that window?" 
"Unfortunately, the outer walls have a barrier! Even for the room from before, we calculated that only I would be able to break in!" 
The barrier had been broken according to someone else’s plans, so he had been able to charge in with Yukikaze. Alhough Touji was quite reckless, Yukikaze was also like that. 
"Then where will we go out from?" 
"Through the entrance! According to Suzuka, the permanent barrier isn't active there, so we can go out through the entrance!" 
"In other words, we have to go down a floor!" 
"That's right!" 
The shikigamis' assault didn't stop as they conversed loudly. Though the corridors weren't as crowded with shikigami as they had been at the Onmyou Academy, they didn't have any space to stop. Thanks to the complex structure of the agency building, Yukikaze seemed baffled as well. 
He didn't know whether they should simply return to the staircase from before. Even if they searched for another set of stairs, they couldn't guarantee that there were no shikigami there. If they would have to go down a floor anyway...... 
...No, wait! 
"Touji. The elevator!" 
"Too dangerous!" 
"But we can just drop through the shaft!" 
"...I see! But even so, where is it!?" 
Though he approved Harutora's idea, Touji didn't know where to have Yukikaze go. 
"H-Harutora-sama!" But just then, Kon flew by Harutora's side. 
"Th-The passageway we just passed through had a sign for the elevator!" 
"Where!?" 
"This way!" 
With Kon leading the way, Touji pulled the reins and changed Yukikaze's direction. They doubled back, taking a right partway. 
The elevator room was connected up ahead. "Good!" Touji shouted. Fortunately, there were no shikigami around. 
After Yukikaze rushed into the elevator room, Touji leaped off its back without stopping, putting his hands on the door to the elevator. 
"! ......Uooooh......!" 
The armor covering Touji's body flashed with slight lag. But the strength generated from the released seal pulled open the elevator door. 
A dark elevator shaft appeared. Kon leaped in first, using foxfire to provide light. 
"Yukikaze! Please!" 
Harutora took the reins in place of Touji and Yukikaze charged into the elevator shaft. Touji also leaped onto the descending Yukikaze. 
Yukikaze rapidly dropped down a floor with the help of gravity. Kon's blue foxfire illuminated the narrow, dark passageway. They fell through the extremely narrow space with bated breath. But they would go underground if they fell to the bottom. When would they go out? The instant Harutora thought this, Yukikaze stopped their fall with a stride. It had sensed the height. 
"So it's here. ...Order!" 
He threw a metal-element charm at the door before him. After the metal door indented, Yukikaze neighed loudly and kicked out with its front legs. 
They were out. In front of them were shikigami, but the floor sign stated '1F'. He thanked Yukikaze while shouting: 
"Out of the way!" 
Hurling a fire-element charm, he ignited all of the shikigami. Yukikaze galloped past. Kon swiftly followed behind. 
But there were several times more shikigami on the first floor than the floor above. They laughed 'gigigigi' as they appeared continuously, gathering towards Yukikaze and blocking their path. They tried to attack - no, they tried to capture them. Harutora threw out all of his charms while Touji and Kon counterattacked the shikigami that hurtled towards them. 
"Where's the exit!?" 
"Who knows!?" 
"You should at least look at a map if you're breaking in!" 
"I charge in blind!" 

As its riders bickered with each other, Yukikaze avoided the shikigami that twined around its feet, jumping to a place close to the ceiling. Harutora and Touji hastily looked down while fending off the shikigami below them. 
Just then. 
"Found you! Over here!" 
It was Suzuka's voice. Though it had only been a short one or two hours, it felt nostalgic. Wind whipped forth and bird-shaped paper shikigami flew in front of Yukikaze. After appearing in front of Harutora and the others, they circled back to the corridor they had come from. "Yukikaze!" Harutora shouted. The white horse shikigami pursued the birds without needing him to tell it. 
The birds glided through the building, flying magnificently as they turned through the corridors multiple times. Yukikaze kicked with its horseshoes to scatter the shikigami that rushed to pursue them. The birds headed towards one of the side doors on the back of the agency building. The door had already been opened. He could see Kyouko's defensive shikigami Hakuou and Kokfuu outside the door. They swung a katana and spear to fend off the shikigami trying to reach them. 
Touji yelled: 
"Kyouko! Out of the way!" 
At the same time, Harutora released a water-element charm. He had already added the a wood-element charm to the magic, and spear-like branches immediately extended to the doorway, wrapping up every shikigami in front of them. Then. 
"Kon!" 
Foxfire ignited the branches, incinerating the shikigami along with them. The bird shikigami led the way, followed by Yukikaze and Kon, speeding through the hallway adorned with blue flame and flying out of the agency building. 
Outside. Behind the agency building on a tree-lined road. The vast, dark blue night sky spreading above his head gave him a kind of relief he never would have imagined. On the other hand, Kyouko, who had waited, ordered Hakuou and Kokfuu to shut the side door. Suzuka immediately formed a seal, blocking it with a barrier. 
Yukikaze shook its body, snorting while turning to let the people on it drop to the road. Kyouko exhaustedly put her hands on her knees, and Suzuka sighed deeply. 
"Sorry for the wait, I've brought back our captured princess just as planned." 
Touji grinned from the horse. 
Then, Harutora looked at the two of them, unable to speak for a while. 
"......Kyouko......Suzuka......" 
Even Harutora could imagine the two of them telling him about how reckless he had been. Once he thought of that, the things that he clearly had to say wouldn't immediately come out of his mouth. 
Suzuka glared fiercely at Harutora, saying: 
"......Bakatora." 
Hearing this, Kyouko also looked up and smiled: 
"Bakatora." 
Touji made it three in a row. Kon frowned and Harutora smiled bitterly. 
Then, after they noticed, searched for the 'other person', but...... 
"Don't move!" 
Harutora and the others suddenly flinched. 
They were Onmyouji wearing miasma protecting clothing, releasing their stealth as if to warn them. They already surrounded them, trapping them against the agency building, and chanting incantations. Beams of light like aurora connected the exorcists, sealing Harutora and the others inside. 
The Eight-Point Barrier, a first-class magic used to combat spiritual disasters. 
...Damn! Already!?" 
The spiritual disaster purification team would be arriving soon. He had momentarily forgotten what Yashamaru said. 
The exorcists were serious. Because the office of the Onmyouji, the Onmyou Agency, had been attacked. Even if Harutora and the others looked to be underage, they couldn't be permitted leniency in this kind of situation. The Eight-Point Barrier was proof of that. 
"Damn...... Suzuka!?' 
"No good! The Eight-Point Barrier is the highest level sealing barrier of General Onmyoudou - we can't break it from the inside!" 
Suzuka loudly replied to Touji's question. Come to think of it, Harutora had once seen Suzuka imprisoned inside the Eight-Point Barrier. At the time, Suzuka had brought out the 'Armored Juggernaut' and broken the barrier from the outside. But right now, they were completely helpless and it seemed that this time she had no other measures prepared. 
...In this kind of place......!? 
If they were captured by the spiritual disaster purification team right now, they would be back to square one. No, Touji and the others' positions would become even more perilous. Of course, it would become another reason for him to be helplessly thrown into prison. He definitely couldn't stop now, when he had decided to resurrect Natsume. 
"Listen up! Resistance will absolutely not be tolerated! Cooperate!" 
...What should they do!? 
He angrily gritted his teeth at the exorcists while desperately thinking of countermeasures. However, Harutora, along with Touji and the others, couldn't think of any. It was over - Right as they thought that. 
Crash. A high-pitched, crisp sound rang out above their heads. 
The sound of shattering glass and a barrier being broken. Then, an overlapping scream. It sounded like a very familiar scream. 
"Waaaaaaah!?" 
In Harutora's vision as he inadvertently looked up were shining golden particles of light that spilled forth. Black wings that seemed to be formed from the essence of the dark night leisurely dancing through the night sky. Breaking through the agency building glass and suddenly breaking the barrier was-- 
"The Raven's Wing!?" 
Moreover, it was carrying something with its legs - no, it was carrying a person. Harutora - along with Touji, Kyouko, Suzuka, and the others - were all dumbfounded. 
It was Tenma. 
Then, after appearing in the night sky, the Raven's Wing - the yatagarasu - rapidly dove towards them as if paying no heed to the human it was carrying. 
Its target was one of the exorcists casting the Eight-Point Barrier. That Exorcist was maintaining the barrier while taking a stance to respond to the shikigami above its head in a panic. However, the yatagarasu spread its wings and quickly stopped right before it hit him. Its spread wings whipped up a strong wind. 
The wind became a whirling tornado. Moreover, that tornado carried an intense magical energy. 
"Guaah!?" 
The exorcists was blown flying with no way to resist and a weak point appeared in the Eight-Point Barrier. Suzuka wouldn't be Suzuka if she missed that. She reflexively threw out a water-element charm. 
"Order!" 
The charm hurled by the 'Child Prodigy' birthed a roaring torrent, blasting open the weak point of the barrier and collapsing on the exorcists that surrounded them. The Eight-Point Barrier completely broke down. Harutora swung Yukikaze's reins. "Go!' Touji shouted loudly at the other two. Suzuka responded by summoning a paper shikigami. 
"Kyouko!" 
She pulled Kyouko's hand and the two of them jumped on the bird of prey shikigami that was born. 
Even though the torrent was collapsing on them, the exorcists yelled out loudly. "Stop!" Their professional spirit and perseverance was admirable, but that wouldn't stop them. Yukikaze charged into the night sky. Kon chased her master as he rode the white horse, and Suzuka and Kyouko's shikigami followed behind. 
The yatagarasu whipped up wind again, making Suzuka's torrent froth. They escaped into the night sky, leaving the swirling magical energy and the agency building below them. 

Kurahashi headed to the depths of the Onmyou Agency. He was in the 'nonexistent' fourth underground floor that couldn't be reached by the elevator. 
The dark side of the Onmyou Agency, unbeknownst to the public. It was a cursed prison where 'important' magical criminals were imprisoned, the secret of its existence was only passed down from generation to generation among a few select elites. 
But when he reached the fourth underground floor, Kurahashi couldn't help but groan. The unbreakable door that had been sealed by multiple impenetrable barriers was destroyed. Half of it was peeled off and shamefully bent off its hinges. 
The barriers here, all sealing barriers without exception, were designed be effective against forces on the inside. They weren't ineffective against disruption from the outside - but they were unexpectedly weak to physical attacks like this. 
Kurahashi crossed the shimenawa that had been roughly cut to pieces and entered inside. 
The interior had an abnormal smell of mildew, vomit, feces, urine, and blood that couldn't be removed with any washing. The scattered incense that burned as if to mask it intensified the odor instead. 
The inorganic corridor lit by ancient lights was damaged everywhere. Kurahashi's expression became even more sinister. 
He quickly walked into the depths. Then, he stopped before his target room. That room's door was open wide. The culprits who had destroyed the entrance and ravaged the underground were in the center of the room. 
Two of Doman's shikigami. It looked like they had even invaded this far. Coincidentally - no, if it were Doman, it wouldn't be strange even if he knew about the prison hidden in the agency building. Then, seeing as how he had worked with Ohtomo, his target should have been Harutora. He had instructed the shikigami to search for places that could serve as 'prisons' for Harutora. There was a possibility. 
"......I've failed." 
Doman's left behind shikigami leaped up happily, viewing Kurahashi as prey and attacking him with shrieks. 
But. 
"?? ?????? ?????." 
He chanted Mahavairocana's mantra without even putting his hands together, instantly eliminating the two shikigami. 
The room was empty after the shikigami vanished. He couldn't see the man who had originally been sealed inside here anywhere. And more importantly, the curse placed on this room had disappeared. It hadn't been the shikigami from just now. It had been released even earlier. 
Kurahashi ground his teeth. 
"......How naive, Miyachi." 
Those words also admitted his own mistake. But this wasn't a decisive error. Kurahashi spun around with a stern face. 
This happened about ten minutes before Kurahashi visited the room. 
Doman's shikigami were essentially autonomous. They were created with strong offensive capabilities out of necessity for use, but some were capable of low level reasoning, and this allowed them to somewhat adapt their master's orders. 
The order the shikigami had been originally given was to destroy and cause chaos without killing, as well as to search and capture. Also, they expected their search target to be imprisoned, and they had been instructed with several particularly important locations to investigate. The underground prison was one of those designated areas, as Kurahashi had expected. 
When they had first broken into the agency building, one of the many groups that the shikigami split into was immediately assigned to search the underground prison. They searched for the concealed entrance, destroyed the barrier, and entered. Then, they encountered a man who had been imprisoned. 
The man wasn't their search target. Moreover, he wasn't even a practitioner. No, more accurately, the man's magical ability had been completely sealed and stolen away. He was also physically weak, so much that he could no longer stand with his own strength. 
There was just that one man in this prison. The shikigami began diligently destroying the surroundings, and the shikigami that were satisfied with that returned aboveground. But among the shikigami that did as they pleased, one took an interest in the man. 
According to its master Doman's intent, taking lives was forbidden - for now. However, he could 'play' with this practitioner as an opponent. Though the imprisoned man had currently lost his strength, he was still a practitioner, right? Couldn't he play with him? 
This shikigami possessed some ability to reason. But it couldn't make a decision on this. So, the shikigami decided to bring the man to their master and ask for a verdict. It threw the man's weak body over its shoulder and left the underground prison. 
The man was carried on the shikigami's shoulder. Never mind resistance, he was carried away without even being able to talk. 
But at that time, he was clearly smiling rebelliously.