Chapter 100: Winning Over Kagura
The next morning, dawn unfolded over the horizon.
Pale gold light spread across the private scenic area, brushing over mountain ridges, winding streams, and the quiet manor tucked halfway up the slope. Mist still lingered between the trees, thin and silver, while the first birds of the day flitted across bare branches and filled the cold air with chirping.
Shinomiya Manor had already awakened.
The maids had finished arranging their beds and moved through the estate with practiced efficiency. Some prepared breakfast for their masters. Others swept fallen leaves from the garden paths. The manor, which had seemed silent and solemn beneath last night's moon, returned to the precise rhythm of an old household.
"Ha!"
"Ha!"
"Ha!"
Near a flower pavilion, in an open courtyard washed by morning light, Isayama Yomi swung her blade.
The precious sword Shishiō, heirloom of the Isayama family, cut through the air in clean arcs. Her slender figure moved with sharp, disciplined grace. Each step, each turn of her waist, each flick of her wrist carried the ruthless beauty of a technique polished through years of relentless training.
Blade-light layered upon blade-light.
The afterimages seemed to gather around her like a cage of steel. Anything foolish enough to wander into that range would be shredded before it even understood what had happened.
Her swordsmanship was not flashy.
It was lethal.
Every movement existed to kill. Every angle was calculated. Every opening was false. Even a titled swordmaster would have paused at the sight, forced to admit that such refined killing intent should not have belonged to a girl so young.
Then Yomi's rhythm changed.
Her gaze sharpened.
"Slash!"
Shishiō swept down.
The overlapping afterimages condensed into one massive invisible blade, cleaving through the empty air before her.
Boom!
A compressed burst exploded in front of her. The air cracked from the force of the strike, sending a stinging gust across the courtyard and rattling the leaves along the stone path.
Only then did Yomi stop.
She exhaled slowly, releasing the stale breath gathered in her chest, then returned Shishiō to its sheath with a crisp click. A few beads of sweat clung to her fair forehead. She wiped them away with the back of her hand, her expression far from satisfied.
"My progress has slowed again."
Her brows furrowed.
She could feel it.
Whether in Onmyodo or swordsmanship, she had reached a wall.
The sword prodigy, Isayama Yomi.
Because of that title, people loved to compare her to another famous prodigy in Onmyodo, Dairenji Suzuka of the Twelve Divine Generals. Their fields and current strength were nowhere near the same, but many still believed that with Yomi's talent, she would one day reach the level of a National Level Onmyoji.
Those expectations sounded flattering.
In truth, they were heavy.
Yomi had never dared to slack off. For her father, Isayama Naraku. For the Isayama family. For the people who looked at her and saw a future pillar of Onmyodo. Every achievement she had now was carved out through sweat, pain, and discipline. Talent alone had never been enough.
But after stepping into the Professional Level, improvement had become painfully difficult.
She was currently a Second-Rank Professional Onmyoji, yet the path to Third Rank felt distant. No matter how hard she trained recently, she could not see a clear breakthrough.
It was frustrating.
It was also frightening.
"I really don't understand how that bastard grew so quickly," Yomi muttered. "Back then, he was clearly behind me."
As she said that, a young girl's face surfaced in her mind.
Soft features. Bright eyes. A smile that made people lower their guard.
"Kagura should have successfully reached the Professional Level after returning from the family this time, right?"
No sooner had the thought appeared than footsteps approached from the garden path.
Hayasaka Ai walked into view, guiding a young girl with short hair.
"Yomi-nee!"
The girl's eyes lit up as soon as she saw Yomi. She waved with open happiness, a charming smile blooming across her still-youthful face.
She wore a white sailor uniform, different from Yomi's black one. Her features had not fully matured yet, but the traces of future beauty were already there. Given a few more years, she would no doubt grow into a girl no less eye-catching than Yomi herself.
Tsuchimiya Kagura.
Seeing her, Yomi's expression softened with genuine joy.
Still, she first turned to Hayasaka Ai. "Thank you for bringing her here, Ai."
"You're welcome, Miss Isayama."
Hayasaka Ai bowed slightly and quietly withdrew.
Once the maid had left, Yomi took Kagura's hand and led her toward the nearby bamboo pavilion. The two sat down on a stone bench, away from the morning bustle of the manor.
"Kagura, was the trip smooth?"
"Mhm!"
Kagura nodded, then lowered her head apologetically. "Sorry, Yomi-nee. I think I arrived a little late."
"You arrived at the perfect time." Yomi reached out and gently rubbed her head. "Besides, I was the one who asked you to come. The person being invited doesn't need to apologize."
Her hand paused briefly.
Then her gaze shifted to Kagura's left ear.
A pendant hung there.
At its center was a purplish-red gem. To ordinary eyes, it might have looked like an unusual ornament. But under Spirit Insight, the gem pulsed with an ominous aura, spreading outward in faint, rippling waves.
The sesshōseki.
The Killing Stone.
A fragment of power said to have originated from the legendary Great Yokai, Tamamo-no-Mae.
It was also an object only the head of the Tsuchimiya family, the strongest Onmyoji family in Bunkyo Ward, was qualified to bear.
In other words, the young girl sitting in front of her was now the new head of the Tsuchimiya family.
"You worked hard," Yomi said softly. "And you inherited it properly."
Kagura smiled.
"Byakuei is still restless inside me, but with the secret technique Father taught me, I can control both the sesshōseki and the Tsuchimiya family's inherited spirit beast for now. At least in the short term, there shouldn't be any problems."
Her tone was bright.
Too bright.
It sounded as if she were discussing the weather rather than a time bomb sealed inside her body, something that could devour her life at any moment.
"Byakuei," Yomi murmured. "The ferocious spirit beast that feeds on evil spirits."
She knew enough about the Tsuchimiya family's greatest inherited spirit beast.
A thousand years ago, the ancestors of the Tsuchimiya family had obtained the sesshōseki by chance. In order to fight yokai, they fused that cursed power into Byakuei, attempting to create a spirit beast with power rivaling a Great Yokai.
To better control it, they sealed Byakuei inside their own bodies.
But power born from Tamamo-no-Mae could never be so easily mastered.
After merging with the sesshōseki, Byakuei became violent, malicious, and dangerously unstable. It constantly attacked the seal from within, backlashing against its host. Because of that, the lifespans of successive Tsuchimiya family heads were brutally short.
Most survived only ten or so years after inheriting Byakuei.
Thinking of that, Yomi felt her chest tighten.
"Yomi-nee, don't worry."
Kagura noticed the look in her eyes and quickly comforted her. "Father already purified a lot of Byakuei's malice before passing it to me. The backlash is much weaker than before. It might remain restless for the next few years, but it definitely won't go out of control."
"That's only treating the symptoms, not the cause," Yomi said quietly.
At best, it bought Kagura a few more years.
Sooner or later, the fate of the Tsuchimiya family heads would fall on her.
That was what Yomi feared most.
"Kagura, how is Lord Garaku now?"
Kagura's smile softened.
"With Lord Arima's help, Father survived after Byakuei was extracted. The price was losing his spiritual power. He's recovering at the Tsuchimiya estate now."
"That's good."
Yomi breathed out in relief.
Whether because of her relationship with Kagura or because Tsuchimiya Garaku had occasionally guided her in the past, Yomi did not want that respected senior to die young under Byakuei's backlash like the previous heads of the Tsuchimiya family.
But she also understood why Garaku had survived.
It was partly due to Tsuchimikado Arima's aid, but mostly because Garaku had married into the Tsuchimiya family. He did not possess the Tsuchimiya bloodline. He had also carried Byakuei for less than three years after inheriting it from his wife.
That was why he had been able to strip it from his body at the cost of his spiritual power.
Kagura was different.
She carried the Tsuchimiya bloodline.
For her, losing spiritual power in exchange for survival was not a path that existed.
"An Inugami-type spirit beast. Rare in this era. So that's the Tsuchimiya family's Byakuei."
A voice cut into the pavilion.
Yomi's expression froze.
A handsome young man approached from the path at an unhurried pace, as if he had merely wandered over during a morning stroll.
"Lord White Fox!"
Kagura immediately stood and bowed with respect.
"Hmph. Kagura, this guy is no good. You don't need to pay him any attention."
Yomi snorted and pulled Kagura back down onto the bench, her face written with rejection.
Gin Tsumugi did not take offense. He sat down on the empty stone bench across from them as naturally as if he had been invited.
"No need to be so formal," he said to Kagura with a friendly smile. "Just call me by name."
"Lord White Fo..." Kagura hesitated.
Since he seemed close to Yomi, she cautiously changed her wording.
"Brother Gin."
"That sounds much better. 'Lord White Fox' is too stiff sometimes."
Gin smiled.
Kagura studied him quietly.
This was the first time she had ever seen such a beautiful boy.
Not handsome.
Beautiful.
His features were refined to an almost unreal degree, and his temperament was gentle, clean, and elegant. He looked like the kind of person who should have existed in a painting, not someone sitting across from her in a bamboo pavilion.
It was enough to satisfy most girls' fantasies of an ideal lover.
But what shocked Kagura even more was not his appearance.
It was Byakuei.
Ever since she inherited it, Byakuei had always remained restless inside her. Even when quiet, it carried a faint pressure, a constant reminder that there was something violent and monstrous sealed within her body.
Yet the moment Gin appeared, Byakuei had gone still.
Not asleep.
Not suppressed.
Quiet.
This was the first time such a thing had happened.
The rare genius of Onmyodo. The current member of the Twelve Divine Generals. The White Fox, Gin Tsumugi.
"He did not seem as terrible as Yomi-nee often complained."
At least from Kagura's first impression, he felt like a kind older brother.
"Could it be that Yomi-nee was acting like those girls in romance novels who turned resentment into love, or love into hate?"
"Little Kagura."
The voice beside her was sweet.
Too sweet.
Kagura stiffened.
She slowly looked up and saw Yomi smiling at her.
A forced smile.
A terrifying smile.
"Uh..." Kagura's mouth twitched. "Did I... say that out loud?"
"What do you think?"
Yomi reached out and pinched Kagura's cheeks with both hands.
"Little Kagura, you've gotten brave. You've even learned to badmouth your Yomi-nee in your head."
"Wuwuwu... Yomi-nee... I won't do it again..."
Kagura's small face was squeezed into all sorts of pitiful shapes. Her eyes watered as she begged for mercy.
Gin watched from the side, trying very hard not to laugh.
After a while, Yomi finally released her. Kagura's cheeks were rosy from being pinched.
"I'll let you off this time," Yomi said, tapping her forehead. "If you dare do it again, it won't end this easily."
Then she noticed Gin's faint smile.
A rare blush crossed Yomi's cheeks, but she forced it down almost immediately and turned the subject away with impressive speed.
"I didn't expect someone like you to know about the Tsuchimiya family's spirit beast."
"It's nothing special. I didn't know much before, but certain things become clear once your strength reaches a certain level."
Gin did not continue teasing her.
He knew Yomi well enough to stop before she snapped and drew Shishiō on him in public.
"The Tsuchimiya ancestor originally wanted to use the sesshōseki to create the strongest shikigami," Gin continued, "not the current spirit beast Byakuei. Unfortunately, he underestimated the power of a stone born from Tamamo-no-Mae."
The strongest shikigami.
Gin found the phrase somewhat amusing.
Even if the Tsuchimiya family's ancestor had succeeded, whether it could truly be called the strongest was another matter entirely. At the very least, it would not compare to [Hagun], the shikigami inherited by the Keikain clan for over a thousand years.
As for what might appear in the future, that was even harder to say.
Still, when Gin looked at Tsuchimiya Kagura, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
"She's a good candidate."
Yomi's eyes narrowed at once.
"A good candidate for what?"
For some reason, a bad feeling rose in her heart.
Gin ignored her and looked at Kagura instead.
"Kagura, if I remember correctly, you aren't officially part of the Super Disaster Countermeasure Office yet, are you?"
Before Kagura could respond, Yomi reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Hey. What are you trying to do?"
"Don't be so nervous. I'm only asking." Gin glanced at her. "Besides, if I really wanted to do something, could you stop me?"
"You..."
Yomi glared at him.
Kagura answered honestly, "Right now, I'm only helping the Super Disaster Countermeasure Office part-time. I'm not a formal employee yet. But after I finish handling the Tsuchimiya family's affairs in a few days, I plan to officially join."
Gin nodded.
"In principle, the Super Disaster Countermeasure Office and my Myriad Laws Supernatural Department are organizations of the same nature. The difference is that I took over Shibuya Ward's Onmyodo forces based on the White Fox Office, while the Super Disaster Countermeasure Office was originally government-affiliated and has now become independent after inheriting Bunkyo Ward's Onmyodo forces."
That was correct.
Strictly speaking, the Myriad Laws Supernatural Department was not the first organization to inherit regional Onmyodo authority. Government-affiliated groups like the Super Disaster Countermeasure Office had been the first candidates in the minds of the government, the Onmyo Agency, and the Onmyo Alliance.
However, in terms of an individual using a private office as the foundation to take over a regional Onmyodo force, Gin was indeed the first.
Kagura nodded.
She knew about the Super Disaster Countermeasure Office taking over Bunkyo Ward's Onmyodo authority. As the current head of the Tsuchimiya family, she naturally had to consider that shift.
Because of that, she felt even more admiration for Gin.
This person before her had single-handedly taken control of the Onmyodo forces of an entire district.
At that moment, Gin finally revealed his fox tail.
"So, Kagura."
He smiled gently.
"Are you interested in developing your future within the Myriad Laws Supernatural Department?"
.....
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