Chapter 7: Shikigami
"Sora... Sora, wake up..."
Crouched on the ground, Kurazaki Fuko held Kasugano Sora tightly in her arms, calling to her over and over again.
There was pity in her eyes. And fear.
Sora's eyes remained shut. Her skin had always been pale, but now it had gone beyond that, drained to a deathly white that showed no trace of life. The blue veins beneath her small hands and slender legs stood out with alarming clarity, as if the little blood still left in her body had already forgotten how to move.
"Mr. Gin..."
Fuko's voice trembled.
After trying again and again to wake her cousin without the slightest response, she felt Sora's breathing grow weaker and weaker, so faint that it resembled the last flicker of a candle before the flame finally died. Panic rose in her chest. Almost instinctively, she turned to Gin Tsumugi, her eyes full of pleading.
Gin looked at Sora for a moment, then let out a quiet sigh.
Under Fuko's desperate gaze, he shook his head.
"Your cousin's blood essence was nearly drained dry by the Weird Wood Spirit," he said softly. "At this point, saving her body is already beyond reach."
He had understood most of it the moment he first laid eyes on Sora in the basement.
From his estimate, she had been imprisoned there for at least half a month. The fact that she had held on until now was already a miracle in itself. At first, Gin had thought that if fortune favored her even a little, there might still be a slim chance of pulling her back.
But luck had clearly not been standing on this girl's side.
Her current state was no different from that of the living dead. What remained in her body was only the final persistence of life's instinct, the last meaningless struggle before complete silence.
"How... how can that be...?"
Fuko froze.
It was as if someone had struck her with a hammer.
She had prepared herself for the worst from the very beginning. She had. But human hearts were never that simple. Bracing for something in the mind and facing it with one's own eyes were two entirely different things. Once reality truly arrived, thought and emotion no longer obeyed reason.
"Sora..."
She looked down at the girl in her arms, and the grief in her expression became almost unbearable to see. Then she raised her head again, her voice breaking as she faced Gin.
"Mr. Gin... Mr. Gin, is there really no way at all? Please... there has to be something. Please save Sora..."
Gin's gaze shifted back to Kasugano Sora.
The final trace of breath lingering within her had just vanished completely.
Still, he answered.
"It's not that there's no way."
Fuko's eyes widened.
Hope flared inside them so suddenly it was almost painful.
"There is a way?"
She hurriedly spoke, almost stumbling over the words. "Mr. Gin, as long as Sora can be saved, I'm willing to pay any price."
From her expression alone, it was obvious how deep her bond with Sora truly ran.
Gin raised one finger.
"There are two methods."
He did not make her wait.
"The first is the Taizan Fukun Ritual."
The moment he said those words, the entire atmosphere seemed to change.
"That is a forbidden rite capable of reversing the boundary between life and death. If it were successfully performed, bringing your cousin back to life would not be impossible."
For an instant, Fuko's face lit up.
Then it dimmed just as quickly.
Of course she had heard of it.
Anyone with even the slightest understanding of Onmyodo had heard of the legendary forbidden ritual known as the Taizan Fukun Ritual. And she knew even more than that. Half a century ago, Tsuchimikado Yakou had attempted that very rite, and his failure had become the direct cause of the great spiritual pulse disaster that still cast its shadow over Tokyo today.
Because of that, even the Tsuchimikado Clan, once the foremost authority in Onmyodo, had suffered an enormous collapse in prestige.
Setting aside whether any modern onmyoji still possessed the ability to perform the rite successfully, even if such a person existed, there was no chance Fuko could ever reach them, much less hire them.
And even beyond that, the Onmyo Bureau and the Onmyo Alliance would never permit another Taizan Fukun Ritual to be carried out within Japan's borders. They had already paid too dearly once.
That road was sealed shut.
So Fuko could only cling to the second path Gin had mentioned.
Gin continued.
"The fortunate part, if there is one, is that your cousin's soul has not been damaged."
His tone remained calm, but the meaning of his words weighed heavily.
"If you can make the decision on her behalf, I can refine her soul into a Shikigami. She would continue to exist, though no longer as a living human. More like a spirit."
"A Shikigami... a ghost..."
Fuko repeated the words in a daze.
She had not expected that to be the second method.
For the first time since hearing there was still a path, hesitation appeared in her eyes.
Turning a soul into a Shikigami was not unheard of in the oldest records. Ancient texts contained scattered references to such things. But in modern times? She had never once heard of anyone actually doing it.
That alone filled her with unease.
Would Sora still be Sora after that?
Would it truly count as being saved?
Could such a thing even be trusted?
Gin said nothing more.
He did not urge her. He did not persuade her.
He simply stood there and gave her the space to decide.
A moment later, Fuko carefully lowered Kasugano Sora to the ground.
Then she stood up, straightened herself, and bowed deeply to Gin with solemn seriousness.
"Then... I'm leaving Sora to you, Mr. Gin."
This was the only hope left.
She understood that clearly.
And she understood something else as well. If Sora became a Shikigami, then from this moment on, her existence would be tied to this young genius onmyoji standing before her.
Gin accepted her choice with a calm nod.
"You don't need to thank me," he said. "She is a client of the White Fox Office. Since I accepted the case, I'll do everything I can to ensure she survives."
No matter how twisted the situation had become, no matter how misleading the earlier request on the Non-Scientific Supernatural Forum had been, the rule of White Fox Office did not change.
Once a mission was accepted, it had to be carried through as far as possible.
To let the client die without exhausting every available option would already count as a failure.
The method he had offered now was, in a sense, compensation for that failure.
Gin drew out a talisman.
"Seal."
With a flick of his fingers, the talisman descended onto Kasugano Sora and sealed her within, ensuring that her soul would not disperse in the short term.
Only after that did he lift his head and glance across the basement one final time.
The shattered bronze vines lay strewn across the floor. The dried corpses remained where they had been rooted, grim evidence of what had happened here. There was no point in cremating them himself or attempting to tidy the scene.
Too many of the dead were recent missing persons.
Their disappearance had affected more than twenty families at the very least.
"This part," Gin said, "should be left to the authorities."
That was the best choice.
The authorities would be able to investigate the victims' identities properly, notify their families, and provide what little compensation and support still could be given.