Chapter 104: Garaku and Arima
Tokyo, Bunkyo Ward.
The Tsuchimiya family, an Onmyōdō lineage with a history stretching back more than a thousand years, was rooted in this district. Apart from the [Super Disaster Countermeasure Office], they were the strongest Onmyōdō force in Bunkyo Ward.
At that moment, inside the Tsuchimiya estate, an old mansion steeped in history and age, a quiet phone call had just reached its end.
"...Kagura, you are the head of the Tsuchimiya family now. The decision should be yours."
Tsuchimiya Garaku lay on the tatami, his face pale and bloodless. His voice was weak, but his tone remained calm.
"Follow the direction of your heart."
A brief silence followed.
"Alright. I'll hang up now."
The maid kneeling beside him carefully took the antique phone from his hand.
The moment the call ended, Garaku could no longer hold back.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
A violent fit of coughing tore through his chest. He bent forward, hurriedly pressing a handkerchief to his mouth. When he lowered it, scarlet blood stained the cloth, vivid and glaring against the white fabric.
He had suppressed it throughout the call.
He had not wanted Kagura to hear.
She already carried too much on her young shoulders.
"Removing Hakuei from your body still damaged your lifespan after all."
Another voice sounded from inside the room.
Besides Garaku and the maid, there was also a man dressed in a white kariginu. His posture was loose, almost lazy, and there was a carelessness to him that made him seem more like a wandering drunkard than one of the most powerful figures in Onmyōdō.
Yet no one who truly knew him would dare underestimate him.
Tsuchimikado Arima.
The commander of the Onmyo Alliance, the man who led the [Twelve Heavenly Generals], and one of the few people currently standing at the peak of Japan's Onmyōdō world.
Even so, the aura surrounding him was not stable. Beneath that casual, almost frivolous presence was a faint hollowness in his spiritual power.
It was the lingering backlash of the Ritual of the Six Relations.
"For me, this is already the best possible result."
Garaku folded the bloodstained handkerchief and spoke with remarkable composure.
"At least I can still look after Kagura for a while longer. She will not be left alone in this world so soon."
After the maid quietly withdrew, Garaku looked at the man beside him and said sincerely, "Lord Arima, I owe you a great debt this time."
"Enough, enough."
Tsuchimikado Arima waved his hand with a look of exaggerated annoyance.
"We've known each other for years. These past few days, either your daughter has been thanking me, or you have. My ears are getting calluses from all the gratitude. Spare an old man."
"You are not old."
"My back says otherwise."
Garaku let out a faint laugh, but the sound quickly turned into another suppressed cough.
Arima's expression softened for a moment.
Originally, he had hoped to move the Tsuchimiya family to Kyoto.
With the current state of Onmyōdō, the old order was already beginning to collapse. The Onmyo Agency, the Onmyo Alliance, and the Onmyō Academy could no longer maintain absolute control across Japan. Power had to be divided, inherited, and stabilized before everything truly fell apart.
If the Tsuchimiya family moved to Kyoto, Arima could have handed them a portion of Onmyōdō authority there.
Unfortunately, Tsuchimiya Kagura was still too young.
Whether in strength, mentality, experience, or political weight, she was not yet capable of suppressing those old, stubborn, self-interested families in Kyoto.
"Originally, I wanted you to bring the Tsuchimiya family to Kyoto," Arima said, leaning back lazily. "I could have handed you part of Kyoto's Onmyōdō authority while I still had the prestige to do it. Unfortunately, your daughter is still too young. Kagura has potential, but potential is not enough to make those old foxes lower their heads."
Garaku understood.
Compared to Tokyo, where organizations like the [Super Disaster Countermeasure Office] had originally belonged to the government and could smoothly become independent, Kyoto's situation was far more complicated.
The official forces there were weak.
The Onmyoji families were numerous, ancient, proud, and burdened by their own selfish interests.
If a suitable successor could not be chosen, it would be better not to divide Kyoto's Onmyōdō authority at all. At the very least, that would delay the chaos.
This time, the Onmyo Alliance's [Twelve Heavenly Generals] had suffered no deaths during the Mount Fuji Incident. That alone was fortunate.
But because they had used the Ritual of the Six Relations, they could not recover their peak condition in a short time.
And in three months, the entire Onmyōdō world would have to face the fully resurrected Yamata no Orochi.
Just thinking about that suffocating shadow was enough to make even a man like Arima feel a trace of heaviness.
"I envy Shibuya Ward," Arima said suddenly.
Garaku looked at him.
Arima's eyes drifted toward the distance.
"They produced a White Fox capable of shouldering an entire region's Onmyōdō power by himself. If our side could produce a few more little monsters like that, we wouldn't have to worry ourselves half to death."
"White Fox Gin Tsumugi..."
A thoughtful look appeared in Garaku's eyes.
Arima glanced at him and immediately changed his tone, the previous seriousness vanishing as though it had never existed.
"By the way, your daughter called you all of a sudden. Was it because she missed her dear father? As expected, daughters are truly a father's soft armor. Makes me want a daughter as cute as Kagura too."
Garaku shook his head.
"That was not why she called."
"Oh?"
Arima noticed the change in Garaku's expression and grew slightly more attentive.
Garaku's voice turned serious.
"A portion of control over Hakuei was taken from Kagura by an outsider."
The frivolity on Arima's face disappeared at once.
"Taken?"
His tone sharpened.
"How was it taken? Isn't Hakuei almost fused to the souls of the Tsuchimiya family heads?"
He knew exactly how serious this was.
Hakuei was not merely a shikigami or a spirit beast kept by the Tsuchimiya family. It was the core of their inheritance, the symbol of their authority, and the weapon that had protected them for a thousand years.
If an outsider could seize control of Hakuei, even partially, then the consequences for the Tsuchimiya family would be catastrophic.
"Yes."
Garaku's expression remained grave.
"And this matter is related to the White Fox Gin Tsumugi you mentioned."
Arima narrowed his eyes slightly.
Garaku then recounted everything Kagura had told him over the phone.
Gin forming a hand seal.
Hakuei growing restless, not in backlash, but as though summoned.
The spirit beast being forced out of Kagura's body.
Hakuei prostrating itself before Gin like a shikigami before its master.
Gin's explanation that the Tsuchimiya family's technique for controlling Hakuei was incomplete.
The "backdoor" left within the original secret technique.
And finally, Gin's offer.
The complete secret technique, along with the method to control that backdoor, in exchange for Kagura joining the [Myriad Law Supernatural Department].
After Garaku finished, the room fell quiet.
Arima did not speak immediately.
He lowered his eyes, thinking for several moments before slowly saying, "If I remember correctly, the method your ancestors used to control Hakuei was derived from a secret technique of the Great Onmyoji Abe no Seimei."
"That is correct."
Garaku nodded.
"The ancient texts of the Tsuchimiya family record it clearly. But what our ancestors obtained was incomplete."
His brows furrowed.
"What I do not understand is how White Fox Gin Tsumugi obtained a secret technique of Abe no Seimei that had been lost for a thousand years."
That alone was already astonishing.
But the true problem lay elsewhere.
"And more importantly, how does he know the location of the backdoor within it?"
A lost secret technique could perhaps be explained by coincidence.
An old inheritance.
A hidden scroll.
A fortunate discovery.
But the backdoor within a secret technique was different.
That was something only the creator would know.
Only the legendary Great Onmyoji Abe no Seimei himself should have known where such a mechanism was hidden.
How could Gin Tsumugi know?
That was what left Garaku truly baffled.
"It seems our little friend White Fox is hiding more secrets than I thought."
Arima's eyes deepened slightly.
"This reminds me of the commotion he caused at the Tsuchimikado clan with Dairenji Suzuka. They defied the world and performed the Taizan Fukun Ritual right in the Tsuchimikado estate. Yet those rotten old men did not hold him accountable afterward."
Arima tapped his knee with one finger.
"That alone is strange."
The Tsuchimikado clan's attitude toward Gin Tsumugi had always been peculiar.
Ambiguous.
Friendly, even.
That was the part Arima found hardest to believe.
If the Tsuchimikado clan were truly so generous, forgiving, and open-minded, he would never have taken that shocking step of separating himself from them back then.
"Lord Arima," Garaku asked, "have you not made inquiries about this?"
Arima smiled faintly and shook his head.
"In the eyes of those old men, I am nothing but a defector. Even if I asked, they would not answer. Why bother humiliating myself?"
Garaku fell silent.
This matter involved too many old wounds.
It could not be explained with simple words like right or wrong.
Arima quickly let the subject pass.
"However, if what Kagura said is true, then the fate of the Tsuchimiya family has changed completely."
His gaze shifted back to Garaku.
"You no longer need to worry about Kagura's future as much as before."
"Indeed."
Garaku smiled.
The smile was weak, but genuine.
For years, a heavy stone had been pressing against his heart.
The fate of the Tsuchimiya family heads.
The inherited curse of Hakuei.
The pain, the backlash, the weakening of the seal, the inevitable death that arrived too early.
He had watched that fate take Kagura's mother.
He had endured that fate himself.
And he had believed, with despair he never voiced aloud, that one day it would also fall upon Kagura.
Now, at last, that stone had shifted.
It had not vanished completely, but it was no longer crushing him until he could barely breathe.
If Gin Tsumugi truly possessed the complete secret technique, then Kagura might no longer have to die young like the previous heads of the Tsuchimiya family.
For Garaku, that was enough.
Arima stood and looked toward the direction of Minato Ward.
"Since White Fox Gin Tsumugi intends to face a Great Yokai alone, let us see what kind of trump cards he is hiding."
His eyes carried interest, caution, and a trace of anticipation.
"After all, a man who can make Hakuei kneel may not be as simple as the world thinks."
.....
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