Chapter 61: The Anomaly of the Senji Ryakketsu
Ancient, weighty, mysterious, profound.
That was Gin Tsumugi's first impression of the Senji Ryakketsu.
Its cover was a deep yellow, worn by the passage of ages without ever appearing shabby. In both size and thickness, it rivaled a full unabridged dictionary. An ordinary person would need both hands just to hold it steady while reading. In the upper left corner, the four characters [Senji Ryakketsu] were written in a hand so unrestrained and elegant that they resembled dancing dragons and soaring phoenixes.
The closer Gin drew, the more clearly he could sense it.
A dense, indescribable aura wrapped around the book like a living veil. It was not merely powerful. It was old, immeasurably old, as though the accumulation of a thousand years of Onmyodo had been pressed into those pages and had never once dissipated.
And that same aura was the source of the Strategic Barrier blanketing the entire cavern.
It was difficult to imagine. Without any auxiliary nodes, without any Onmyoji continuously maintaining it, without relying on the arrangement of Yin and Yang or the Five Elements, this single book alone had sustained an entire Strategic Barrier.
It truly deserved its reputation as the legendary Senji Ryakketsu.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
As Gin stepped closer, the Senji Ryakketsu suddenly began to tremble.
The movement was not subtle. The old volume shuddered as though trying to break free from its restraints, and the heavy chains wrapped around it clashed noisily against one another.
Tsuchimikado Natsume froze.
"This is..."
In the past, no matter who had come to read it, or even when the seals had been loosened, the Senji Ryakketsu had always remained quiet and unmoving. She had never once heard of it reacting like this.
By contrast, a trace of joy surfaced in Tsuchimikado Hirotaka's eyes.
To him, this was proof.
It proved that his own suspicions, and the clan head Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi's suspicions, had not been wrong.
After all, too many things had happened over the past day and night.
Hokuto, the guardian beast the Tsuchimikado Clan had raised for a thousand years, had chosen Gin without hesitation. The fourth layer of the ancient altar had awakened only after touching Gin's blood. Even the terrifying being summoned from the Underworld through the [Taizan Fukun Ritual] had called out that name in fear and hatred before being driven back.
Every sign pointed in the same direction.
Even so, when Natsume and Gin both turned toward him, Hirotaka immediately suppressed the emotion in his gaze and answered with practiced calm.
"Do not worry. This is only an occasional abnormal fluctuation during the unsealing of the Senji Ryakketsu."
Natsume nodded, still confused but not especially suspicious.
Gin also accepted the explanation for the moment. Neither of them noticed that Hirotaka's attitude toward Gin had become even more respectful than before, to the point that it almost resembled reverence.
But Hirotaka did not forget his real task.
After gently guiding Natsume back from the altar, he formed a series of hand seals with both hands.
"Senji Ryakketsu, release."
The chains wrapped around the book slowly unlocked one after another.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
As the restraints loosened, the Senji Ryakketsu's reaction grew more intense. Its pages fluttered wildly on their own. The aura surrounding it swelled, becoming deeper and more overwhelming, as though something sealed inside the volume was beginning to stir.
From below the altar, Natsume stared in astonishment.
"I wonder how many pages Mr. Gin Tsumugi will be able to turn."
Her surprise quickly shifted into curiosity.
"Given Mr. Gin Tsumugi's talent, twenty pages should definitely not be a problem. More than twenty five would not be impossible either. I remember that when Dairenji Suzuka read the Senji Ryakketsu, she turned twenty two pages. I managed twenty."
The number of pages one could turn in the Senji Ryakketsu had always been regarded as a measure of one's compatibility and aptitude in Onmyodo.
The more pages one could turn, the greater their potential and comprehension. Of course, that did not mean everyone who read it would walk the same road. The Senji Ryakketsu was a book born from Abe no Seimei's own path. It did not necessarily suit every Onmyoji. Still, anyone who could read it would gain tremendous benefit.
"How many pages?"
Hirotaka listened to Natsume's speculation and could not help shaking his head inwardly.
Pages?
At this rate, the Senji Ryakketsu probably would not be satisfied with merely letting Gin turn pages.
And in the next moment, what happened surpassed even Hirotaka's expectations.
The instant the final chain fell away, the Senji Ryakketsu rose directly from the altar and floated into the air.
Natsume's eyes widened.
The pages of the ancient volume flipped open on their own, faster and faster, until the words engraved upon them began to peel away from the paper itself.
One after another, the characters detached from the pages like living things finally breaking free of a prison. They twisted through the air in countless luminous strands, like ribbons of scripture dancing beneath an unseen wind.
In an instant, the entire cavern was flooded with a mystery so profound it felt almost sacred, as though the deepest truths of Onmyodo were about to reveal themselves all at once.
Natsume stood there in complete disbelief.
For a thousand years, the Senji Ryakketsu had never once moved from that stone altar. Every generation of Tsuchimikado clan head had tried to lift it, and every single one had failed. Yet now it not only floated, it seemed to be actively reaching for someone.
Gin himself was briefly startled by the sight.
Then he understood.
This was much like the resistance he had felt from the order of the Underworld during the [Taizan Fukun Ritual]. It had to do with that "him."
After all, the Senji Ryakketsu itself had originally been written by that very existence.
The troublesome part was that there was no easy way to explain any of this to Hirotaka or Natsume. He could not keep brushing everything aside with some vague excuse about a "special ancient method." Doing that again here would truly be treating them like fools.
Before he could think further, the countless characters swirling in the air seemed to find their destination.
They surged toward him all at once.
From a distance, it looked almost beautiful, like a flock of luminous birds returning to their nest. But the moment they touched him, Gin's expression changed violently.
Pain.
An overwhelming, unbearable pain.
It felt as though countless foreign objects were forcing themselves into his skull, carving themselves directly into his soul stroke by stroke. His body seized. Veins bulged across his face. Even breathing became difficult.
"So painful...!"
He nearly cried out.
There was no room left for thought. Gin dropped into a cross legged seat on the altar at once, shutting his eyes and focusing everything he had on enduring and suppressing the agony.
Below the altar, Natsume's face turned pale.
"Mr. Gin Tsumugi!"
She took an instinctive step forward, but Hirotaka caught her by the arm before she could rush up.
"Uncle Hirotaka!"
Natsume turned to him in confusion and alarm.
Hirotaka's gaze remained fixed on Gin.
"Do not interfere. Mr. Gin Tsumugi will be fine."
His voice was low, and unlike before, he did not even bother trying to conceal the truth from himself.
"The Senji Ryakketsu is merely returning to its master."
Natsume went still.
At the same time, the Senji Ryakketsu itself fell from the air.
With all of its words gone, the ancient book landed back on the stone altar with a dull thud. Its cover was now blank. Its pages were blank. The vast and mysterious aura that had wrapped around it for a thousand years had completely vanished.
It no longer looked like a sacred treasure of Onmyodo.
It looked like nothing more than a pile of dead paper.
And in that same instant, both Hirotaka and Natsume clearly felt it.
The Strategic Barrier that had been sustained by the Senji Ryakketsu for all this time quietly, completely, disappeared.
.....
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