[Third Person POV]
After grabbing dinner at a nearby sushi restaurant, Hajime, Akeno, and Pam returned to the hotel and went to sleep.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in Sapporo, a cloaked figure moved swiftly from building to building, the cold night air brushing their eyes, the only part of them that was uncovered.
They were tall, wearing a black cloak and a facemask. Under the cloak, they wore purple-and-green mage robes and black combat boots. They quickly moved to a building compound near Sapporo's center.
For the last few weeks, they'd been paying paranormal private investigators to gather whatever information they could about this place.
The investigators weren't strong; they were low-class, barely above normal humans in magic reserves. Functionally, they were normal humans; the only difference was a few minor mental spells, like one that showed their memories or another that let them remember every detail, no matter how small.
People like this were everywhere and among the most common types of mages. Compared to the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, these guys were like Ijichi, Tokyo Metropolitan's Assistant Manager. They didn't fight, though they had trained to do so; they were better at scouting.
These people visited towns every day or two to scout the land, then reported anything they found back to their bosses. If they died, someone would either send another one in or someone more capable.
For this compound, these low-level grunts were enough.
Given how far it was from any major city, the compound's guards were quite lax about security. Earlier that day, one of these investigators finally got the information he needed, barely avoiding getting caught.
With the information in hand, the hooded figure approached the compound from the north, where the guards were weakest.
He jumped over the wall, narrowly avoiding a guard who turned the corner moments later.
Landing in the bushes, he made a soft swishing sound as he brushed past the branches, scanned ahead for anyone, then darted through the courtyard. Running as fast as he could, the figure reached the other side, hid under the eaves, and waited until another guard came into view on the roof.
Shrinking away and moving slowly to a spot where he wouldn't be seen, the figure sighed in relief as the rooftop guard continued their nighttime patrol.
He entered through a window he had to jimmy open and made his way inside, careful to use a spell that muffled the area around him. With his current reserves, it wouldn't last long, but it would keep the creaky Japanese floors from alerting the guards.
Ducking and running through 4 separate hallways and down 2 different staircases, the figure soon approached a magically sealed door, behind which stood a 4-century-old vault. The Yuki-onna clan of Sapporo owned it and used it to store their valuable artifacts and resources, along with those of their associated yokai tribes.
Placing an illegal seal-breaker talisman from the black market onto the door, the few glowing lines dulled, signaling they were deactivated.
Cracking open the door, the figure snuck inside and planted a small explosive at the entrance in case someone arrived.
Moving through the vault, the figure ignored countless weapons and resources that lined the place, from several piles of bars made of gold or other materials, to a rack full of enchanted weaponry, to a stand covered in armor blessed by Kuraokami, the goddess of ice and snow, which was gifted to the tribe.
Though any of these would be worth a fortune, the figure strode past them, searching for their target.
After 2 minutes of searching, they finally found it, buried under several monitoring wards.
It was a naginata. The shaft was a cool blue, with the hilt being solid gold. A web of silver ran along the handle in delicate, flowery patterns. The blade's edge was pure white, as if it could deflect any attack in its way.
With his objective in sight, the cloaked figure abandoned all secrecy. He rushed to the naginata, ignored the wards, grabbed it, and triggered them, alerting the entire compound.
Cutting his hand with the tip of the weapon, the figure let his blood drip directly onto the blade and let it flow down with gravity.
As the blood touched the hilt, holes opened, letting it flow down the spear shaft.
The blood followed the silver inlays, slowly turning the shiny gray into deep crimson as the man's aura began to increase slowly.
While the cloaked man was busy with the weapon, the rest of the compound went on full alert after detecting that someone had touched a weapon in the vault, yet no one reported the door opening or any visits to the vault itself.
All the guards throughout the compound quickly convened at the vault; the first few to arrive found the door deactivated and the vault open.
Three of the guards moved in.
One opened the door while the other two entered quickly, magic circuits already primed to cast spells.
Hearing the guards enter the vault, the figure looked at the weapon, still needing time to finish its changes, and pressed the detonator.
The door burst off its hinges, shattering into dozens of fragments that shot outward toward the guard behind it. Surprised, the guard was launched into the wall behind them, leaving a person-sized hole as they fell face-first to the floor.
Though not injured by the door, the other guards retreated to avoid getting caught in the explosion, but the two who entered were hit, sending them sprawling to the ground, their clothes charred and their backs severely burned.
Some guards checked on their injured comrades and alerted the medics, while others entered the vault to apprehend the intruder.
When they arrived, they saw the cloaked figure holding one of their most dangerous artifacts: the naginata, Fuyunoshi.
The Yuki-onna clan of Sapporo had moved the weapon multiple times over the centuries.
An ancient yokai hunter named Ryo wielded Fuyunoshi and exterminated many of their clan members. The naginata had been bathed in so much of their blood that it gained similar qualities, turning pale blue and white and imbued with ice and yokai-slaying magic.
As much as they wanted to destroy the weapon, they couldn't.
The man who hunted them had several yokai-hating kami bless the weapon, so destroying it was not only incredibly difficult but also an insult to the gods. The gods who blessed the weapon weren't strong, sure, but you didn't mess with them casually.
Only people with nothing to lose would dare go against the gods.
Though the weapon was dangerous, it was still weakened from being sealed for so long, giving the Yuki-onna a chance to seal it away before the intruder could make use of it.
Reluctant as they were to face such a weapon, they stepped forward, each Yuki-onna unleashing their strongest attacks, unwilling to risk Fuyunoshi getting near them.
Unfortunately, after absorbing the strange man's blood, some of the seals on the naginata had weakened, letting some of the weapon's true power through.
Lifting the weapon in front of him, the man sliced through the ice magic launched at him, deflecting the damaged spell like it was a pebble. Normally, the naginata would've cut through the magic entirely, but it needed more time and blood to recover.
The barrage of ice magic didn't stop.
Some sent shards of ice crystals forward, others sent beams of ice meant to freeze things over, and others sent constructs of other creatures like snakes and birds. Sadly, Fuyunoshi countered the Yuki-onna's magic perfectly, leaving them few magic options.
It wasn't like Yuki-onna knew no other magic, but compared to their obvious talent with ice magic, why spend years or decades practicing something else? Mages grew stronger through either quality or quantity, and Yuki-onna chose quality. It was only natural.
As ice beings living in one of the coldest places on the planet, they practiced ice magic, which sped up their training. Though Yuki-onna weren't the most plentiful yokai, nor the strongest, their members were, on average, the strongest; even the least talented became mid-class before 20, and most became high-class before 100.
Though their magic was ineffective, the intruder was still limited in his movements. There were too many for him to rush in and attack; they'd retreat, and the others would attack while he was open. Besides, he spent too much magic and blood to awaken the weapon, and it was still partially sealed.
After deciding, the man channeled as much magic as he could into a speed spell, his legs strengthening from his remaining magic. His leg muscles bulged slightly, and his veins grew large enough that people would notice them if his legs were uncovered.
Angling Fuyunoshi properly, he aimed for one of the Yuki-onna near the side of the group, charged his attack, and leaped forward.
The man's strengthened legs increased his speed many times over, but he couldn't run long, as the spell rapidly drained his magic.
As the man launched himself forward, the Yuki-onna he targeted, along with those nearby, backed up, giving him space to avoid being struck by the blade. Had they known his plan, they'd regret their actions.
With the new space, the man kept running, then jumped up and kicked off the wall toward the exit, forcing more Yuki-onna to retreat before they realized his aim.
Seeing his goal wasn't to fight, but to escape, several Yuki-onna who had mastered an ice wall spell created a thick sheet of ice covering the stairwell exit. Drawing Fuyunoshi once more, the man carved a perfectly circular hole straight through the ice and darted through without losing momentum.
Before they could follow after him, the man slashed at the ceiling with the naginata, causing chunks of stone to fall.
The Yuki-onna who made the ice wall raised ice shields above them, and their companions huddled beneath them, giving the intruder ample time to escape.
After nearly a minute, over a dozen Yuki-onna emerged from the basement, finding the outer guards all unconscious, covered in cuts.
The intruder, while he did plan to kill everyone there, held off on killing them, waiting for Fuyunoshi to be fully unsealed so he could further strengthen the weapon's properties by killing more Yuki-onna. Still, he wasn't stupid, and attacked every single one he could while they were still unaware and isolated, leaving them injured so they'd be out of action.
With nothing left to do, the man fled back into the cold night, leaving the clan to lick their wounds until morning, knowing that following now would only cause more injuries.
In a small community like Sapporo's, news traveled fast, especially when the leading clan had been dealing with a crisis for hours on end.
It was so noisy that Hajime had sensed rapid movement ever since he woke up, wondering what had happened last night.
When news reached the Yuki-onna clan leader's shrine, her rage was so great that the entire building nearly froze. She sent several messages south to Yasaka and Nurarihyon about the incident and requested fire-magic experts. At the same time, a thin layer of cold that constantly emanated from the clan's compound spread outward, covering the entire city, showing her displeasure.
Hajime felt the air was infused with sensing magic, searching for something or someone near the city.
As he, Pam, and Akeno went downstairs for breakfast, a woman in a white-and-pale-blue kimono greeted them at the exit.
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Author's Note:
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!