"No, I told you, I've only heard about it. It's not in my hands right now. Is there any need to lie to you?" Sū ěr said frankly.
"Is that so? I was thinking that even if I couldn't use it, I'd at least like to see it to broaden my horizons… You know, the Shikon Jewel was a story many yōkai grew up hearing," Nurarihyon shook his head with some regret.
Sū ěr didn't answer. He leaned his head on his hand, lost in thought. Although there was no obvious evidence, he felt that the appearance of the time-traveling portal at the Higurashi Shrine and the existence of the Shikon Jewel inside Kagome—who carried the Higurashi bloodline—were not unrelated events.
Could that energy, caught between illusion and reality, be related to Kagome?
"Is something big about to happen?" Seeing Sū ěr solemn expression, Nurarihyon asked. The years had given him a sharp intuition for trouble.
"Ah, maybe," Sū ěr couldn't give a definitive answer. "Tell your Nura Clan yōkai to be extra careful starting today. Aren't you all about 'Chivalry' [Ninkyo]? During this time, send out as many patrols as possible in the city. Consider it protecting the place where you live."
"Can you give me a range?" Without asking why, Nurarihyon simply nodded in agreement.
"I can't," Sū ěr shook his head with a bitter smile. "If I had to give a range, it would be the whole city."
Today, those ancient yōkai—far more bloodthirsty than modern ones—had poured out of the well at the Higurashi Shrine. But just as the place they appeared after crossing the time portal wasn't the well's ancient location, what if those yōkai appeared around the well, or elsewhere in the city?
Even though the Nura Clan had already begun dealing with things after noticing the increase in yōkai, they weren't yet at a level of high alert. If they ran into savage yōkai traveling from hundreds of years ago with that mindset…
Sū ěr quite liked the humane yōkai of the Nura Clan. He didn't want to see them lying dead in the streets.
"I'm not sure when it will end, or when the danger will appear… just be very careful," Sū ěr sighed.
"I understand." Nurarihyon wouldn't joke about such things. He planned to arrange matters as soon as the group cheering for Rikuo at the school returned.
Troubled times ahead.
Cherry blossoms—plants of the Prunus subgenus. Generally, a tree's lifespan is about twenty to thirty years. Although in some places they can live for over three hundred years due to perfect sunlight, soil, and maintenance, those are extremely rare exceptions.
So, how long had the tree in front of them been alive?
Even three people with arms outstretched couldn't span its diameter. Could a cherry tree really grow this wide?
And most importantly, why hadn't a cherry tree that had lived this long—far exceeding the lifespan of its kin—become a yōkai?
Whether good or evil, even if it couldn't take human form, it should at least possess a corresponding level of spiritual awareness. Yet no matter how Sū ěr sensed it, he found no anomalies. It was as if it were a simple tree that had merely lived long enough—far past the limits of its race.
It had to be said that when you choose to approach everything with suspicion, you start to doubt that even a rabbit might transform at any second.
The owners of this massive cherry tree were known as the Saigyouji family. Or rather, this was their ancestral home. However, the number of people living in this vast mansion didn't match its size. After asking around, Sū ěr learned that most members of the Saigyouji clan were scattered across Japan; the ancestral home was only used to house "troublesome" or "unpresentable" family members.
In this ancient society with low productivity and scarce resources, infants born with congenital defects were usually drowned shortly after birth, before they knew anything of the world. While modern people view this as cruel, under ancient conditions, it was arguably a form of mercy.
The Saigyouji family was particularly "merciful" in this regard. They chose not to drown their disabled children, but rather supported and cared for them in this ancestral home until their lives reached a natural end.
Even Sū ěr had to praise such kindness, not to mention the illiterate ancient commoners nearby. Because of this, the Saigyouji family had an excellent reputation in the area… though as a family of demon-slaying Monks [Houshi] who protected humans from yōkai, their reputation was already stellar.
They weren't Onmyōji; their official title was Houshi. To Sū ěr, they looked like Buddhists in monk robes, or perhaps ascetic monks [Yamabushi]. Compared to sutras for the deceased, they focused on the practical effects of exorcising and killing demons—they were doers.
Uh, though they had such a large mansion, they were indeed called ascetic monks. Judging by the actions of the Saigyouji monks Sū ěr had seen, they lived truly simple lives. Usually, when they had money, they gave everything beyond their basic survival needs to the commoners.
They were good people, and the power they used to drive away demons was genuine spiritual energy. So, it made sense that a cherry tree growing in the ancestral home of a family dedicated to protecting humanity wouldn't become a yōkai, right?
With that relaxed thought, Sū ěr wandered around the area near the time portal, searching for anomalies, until he once again saw that long-lost blonde yōkai.
"Yo~, long time no see~." There was no tension. The blonde yōkai merely raised a hand in a casual greeting, even joking, "It's been so many years; you might not have changed enough to be unrecognizable, but you should have at least grown a bit more of a beard, right?"
Laughing softly, Yakumo Yukari reached out and tapped her chin, tracing the outline of her own face.
"Like, say, a face full of stubble?"
A bearded, macho version of Sū ěr.
"…Yakumo Yukari," Sū ěr murmured the name, feeling a bit suspicious of this sudden encounter.