Part 3
The man brought Harutora and Touji near the stall where they had played the shooting game before.
Harutora had originally planned on refusing when the man told them his purpose. For the time being, the matter with Hokuto hadn't yet been resolved, and even if that matter weren't troubling him, he didn't want to walk with this strange man anyway.
Though Harutora wasn't very willing, Touji had replied on his own, and that was why they had left the temple and were currently following behind the man.
"What will I do about Hokuto?"
"I sent her a text message, telling her to wait a bit."
Harutora asked, unconvinced, but Touji replied very thoroughly.
They walked behind the man while chatting.
"I know you care about Hokuto, but we have to prioritize dealing with the situation here. That person's looking for you because he knows you're from the Tsuchimikado family. If you escape now, it might get even more troublesome later."
"Why? They want to find someone from the Tsuchimikado family, and wouldn't someone from the main family or my dad be more suitable than me?"
"That would be right most of the time, but they deliberately came to this kind of place, and found you who looks totally like a student. Don't you feel that it's strange?"
"Then I should have less of a reason......"
"And there's a high probability that person isn't a human."
"What?"
"Are you interested?"
Touji grinned in front of the dumbstruck Harutora.
Touji was basically a reliable buddy, but the troublesome part was that he loved venturing into dangerous places. No, this wasn't too correct, he hated troublesome things, and more accurately, what he loved was excitement.
"......What 'loving peace'." [8]
"I love peace, but I love excitement more."
He replied with a calm tone, his eyes looking around without passing over any corner. Compared to Harutora who was full of an ominous premonition, he seemed happy enough to start singing.
People flooded towards the riverbank, and the festival was still extremely lively. The man's clothing was even more eminent in this happy group of people.
The man brought Harutora and Touji in front of a stand selling hot dogs.
"......I brought the people here."
Not only Harutora, but also even Touji was surprised once they saw the person who turned around.
The one who turned was a young girl.
Her age was clearly less than Harutora's, and she seemed about the age of a middle-schooler. She accepted a hot dog, squeezing a large amount of ketchup (though she didn't even give a glance towards the mustard) before turning around.
Those round eyes keenly looked over the figures of Harutora and Touji.
"......Hm, so it's you."
Her voice and exterior appearance appeared childlike, but her attitude and tone were extremely overbearing and prideful.
She had a head of golden hair tied up in long ponytails. Her clothing was the so-called goth loli style, and on her upper body she wore a bright red and black checkered vest, but on her lower body she wore a miniskirt patterned with lots of complicated lace and trinkets, with painted leather boots on her feet.
Her strange and gorgeous dress along with the uncoordinated feeling it gave off seemed like a northern island flower in bloom that hid a poisonous venom.
After the girl confirmed that they had arrived, her small mouth chomped a bit of hot dog.
She chewed slowly, using her free hand to snap rudely.
The man's figure disappeared along with it.
Harutora's eyes widened, but he hadn't seen wrongly. In the place the man vanished - approximately where his heart had been - appeared a small paper slip.
The paper's shape was like a stick figure, with a triangle drawn on the upper portion. This was a shape similar to a doll - a shikigami's vessel, a kind of tool.
"He was a shikigami!?"
Harutora muttered.
According to his poor knowledge, the man just now was a simple man-made type of shikigami, which the practitioner manipulated directly or gave orders to beforehand and had the shikigami act on them.
But, a simple shikigami that looked so much like a human was extremely rare. Touji had seen through the man's identity, but Harutora had completely failed to notice that the man had been a shikigami all along.
The girl looked at the shocked Harutora, making a 'humph' sound of derision.
"What's there to be scared of, you can tell easily, and I even put down a barrier."
After she said that, Harutora also noticed that, indeed, the man's figure had suddenly disappeared, but not a single one of the festival-goers nearby had noticed it. Perhaps this was what the girl was talking about, that a barrier had been placed which imposed some kind of magic that avoided peoples' eyes and ears.
The girl collected the doll with a calm look, putting it into her pocket.
"You, you......"
Who was she? Touji opened his mouth before Harutora had even finished speaking:
"...I saw you in a magazine. You should be the youngest one of the ‘Twelve Divine Generals’, the 'prodigy' Dairenji Suzuka, right?"
Hearing the words Touji said, Harutora was speechless for quite a long time.
...The Twelve Divine Generals? This little girl?
Harutora stared wide-eyed at the girl, who made a 'Oh?' sound, and seemed willing to face the two of them.
"You're pretty knowledgeable, but it's natural for someone from the Tsuchimikado family to know that kind of thing. Right, I'm Dairenji Suzuka."
The girl - Suzuka - spoke, showing a provocative gaze as she looked at Touji.
"Hello and nice to meet you, I heard rumors about you, and I've wanted to meet you for a long time."
Her gaze was intimate, but Touji hid his expression with a calm smile.
Then, he shrugged slightly.
"Unfortunately, I'm just a normal person, and he's the Tsuchimikado."
"Huh? This guy?"
Suzuka blinked strongly, and then frowned, staring at Harutora with a confused expression, sizing him up.
She had even used 'you' when she had spoken with Touji, but she called Harutora 'this guy'. Harutora felt unhappy, and returned Suzuka's gaze wordlessly. [9]
Looking at her like this, she really looked like a middle-schooler. Regardless of the short choker wrapped around her neck or the vest that showed her shoulders, she gave off a weak and powerless feeling. In particular, her clothing and her arrogant attitude seemed like a child pretending to be an adult.
Looking more carefully, a heap of takoyaki, candied apples, and bagged cotton candy was stuffed into the plastic bag that hung from her elbow. She also chewed on a hot dog in her mouth, and it looked as if she were a child buying things willy-nilly without any planning.
But, this girl had indeed been the one manipulating the simple shikigami just now. No, if she truly was one of the Twelve Divine Generals, a simple shikigami was nothing to her, after all, she was one of the Onmyouji with the highest ranked power in Japan.
"Hmph, so it's you...... That's really a bit unexpected. I heard that you were the last prodigy since me, but at first glance it doesn't seem like you're much of anything. That rumor couldn't have been fake, could it......"
The way Suzuka expressed her emotions was quite direct, and she seemed extremely dejected, speaking bluntly.
"......Hey, what 'prodigy' are you--"
Harutora felt irritated, and was about to pursue the topic, but Touji suddenly put his hand on Harutora's shoulder.
"Alright, calm down. So that means your fame is well-known throughout the industry, right, Natsume?"
"Huh? ...Ah."
Harutora was surprised, looking at Touji. Touji winked at him.
...I see, she......
Suzuka had mistaken Harutora for Natsume. With that, the question of why her shikigami had called out to an obvious student like Harutora - the question Touji had raised just now - was solved. It had said she was looking for someone from the Tsuchimikado family, but it hadn't said that the person it was looking for was Tsuchimikado Natsume.
"Whatever, whether the rumor was true or not, I can't give you any leeway."
Suzuka spoke and began striding away, showing an attitude as if Harutora and Touji should obviously follow.
Harutora took the opportunity to hurriedly discuss with Touji in a whisper.
"......She doesn't know that Natsume's a girl?"
"......Seems like it, she even said it was her first time meeting her."
"......Should we let her continue being mistaken? She's one of the Twelve Divine Generals, you know."
"It's her own mistake."
Touji replied, his attitude leisurely like normal.
Harutora felt like things weren't very good. Just then, Suzuka turned around, asking "What are you guys doing sneakily?" with a sharp tone. Harutora gave Touji a look, saw that his eyes were indeed expressing 'go on with it', and sighed lightly.
He followed Suzuka.
"......Do you have business with Nat...... with me?"
"That's stupid, why else would I need to come from Tokyo to this kind of rural place."
Suzuka walked forward without turning around, replying with a arrogant attitude.
"But, it's good that I set down a search net. The Tsuchimikado mansion definitely has a heap of annoying barriers, and I was thinking about how to call you out, but I never thought that I'd run into you in this kind of shabby rural festival. How fortunate I am."
Suzuka laughed loudly. Maybe this was good fortune for her, but it was extraordinarily bad for Harutora. But, that kind of thing happened often.
"......Sorry, you seem like you're having some pretty good fun even though this is just a shabby rural festival."
"Sh, Shut up! This is my first time at a festival, so it's very novel. This is just intellectual curiosity, got a problem!?"
She seemed to be planning on verbal intimidation, but unfortunately her cheeks were red. Maybe she had just come to this place to look around the festival.
Was this girl really one of the Twelve Divine Generals? Harutora showed a doubtful look, and he looked at Touji by his side, but Touji was hiding his expression like before, focused on watching the girl.
"......So? What did you find me for?"
"A small thing, I wanted you to participate in my experiment, and help me with something."
"Experiment? What experiment?"
"Well, that......"
Suzuka stalled, and took a step forward once she recomposed herself.
"I~ am a prodigy in the field of magic, but because I'm still young, right now almost all of the research departments are closed to me. Though that doesn't matter."
She chewed the hot dog, like she were having a chat.
"......So?"
"My research topic is actually an aspect of Tsuchimikado Yakou's Onmyoudou."
Harutora went speechless for a while upon hearing this.
That name was taboo among the Tsuchimikado family - No, among the entire Japanese magical community.
"Modern magic has a huge discrepancy with the magic before Yakou, you obviously know that, right?"
"D, Discrepancy?"
Harutora was dumbfounded by the sudden question. Unlike Natsume herself, Harutora was an outsider to magic.
But, Suzuka didn't pay attention to Harutora's reaction.
"It's that in magical 'techniques', we exclude religious denominations."
Harutora replied with an ambiguous sound: "Uh......"
On the other hand, Touji seemed more surprised by that explanation.
"Religious denomination? Not simplification and popularization?"
Suzuka heard Touji's response, and laughed with disdain.
"Hahaha, is that the answer in the textbooks? Right, that was also a major feature, but the most important factor for forming this feature was the 'Exclusion of religious denomination'. Only by completely cutting ties between magic and religion were we able to make the mystic causality-warping property of magic. This was a big leap for the future development of magical techniques."
Suzuka looked back at the two with a fully satisfied expression. As expected of one qualified to be a 'National First-Class Onmyouji', she spoke eloquently with a tone filled with confidence.
"But." Suzuka continued explaining. "On the other hand, doing this also caused one of the important goals of magic - the techniques and methodology of a 'certain faction' - to be excluded from the systems...... Do you know what it was?"
Suzuka asked again. Harutora had long since surrendered, and Touji didn't speak this time either, waiting for the answer.
Suzuka stopped walking, facing them again.
Just then, her look that seemed like it was joking around became abnormally grim, and her eyes became fierce as if she wanted to pierce them with her sharp gaze.
"Soul magic, having to do with the existence of souls and the world after death." She said with a solemn tone.
"Soul...... magic?"
Harutora couldn't speak for a while, and a sharp light also flashed across Touji's eyes.
Just then, the faint sound of an explosion rang out from the distance.
First, there was a heavy 'Boom!' tearing through the air, and immediately after, a 'Bang' that shook the atmosphere, and giant flowers of flame began blooming in the sky.
Fireworks.
Colors such as red, green, yellow, and blue bloomed gloriously amidst the backdrop of the black night sky. The festival-goers who had originally been checking out the booths all raised their heads, cheering.
Applause and cheers regularly sounded amidst the praise. The light of the fireworks illuminated the ground, casting fantastic and beautiful shadows.
Suzuka stared at the night sky in a trance, just like the spectators.
This was her first time at a festival, and it seemed like it was her first time seeing fireworks.
"......Hu, huhu, they're pretty gorgeous......"
Her tone was harsh, but her eyes were affixed to the fireworks, not far from Hokuto's reactions earlier. Her appearance had flipped from her high-and-mighty attitude just now to an age suitable for her - No, even younger.
...What was this child up to?
Harutora felt distraught for some reason.
There was a huge difference between her appearance as she gazed at the fireworks and the frightening expression she had shown just earlier, and Harutora felt it incredulous. In particular, this girl had mentioned soul magic and then the world after death, which brought no sense of reality at all, just bursts of foreboding.
The fireworks shone, dropping silver and gold threads like rain.
Harutora coughed dryly, and Suzuka hurriedly composed herself.
"A, Anyways." She quickly recovered her stability, continuing to speak as if nothing had happened: "The 'Modern Onmyoudou' I just mentioned doesn't mean 'General'. In the system of 'General Onmyoudou', which can be said to be a synonym for modern magic, there is no magic related to souls or the world after death."
"......What about it?"
"What?" Harutora asked, and Suzuka quickly made a questioning sound, frowning.
"Are you too stupid? Didn't I just tell you my research topic? Simply put, the Onmyoudou that Tsuchimikado Yakou completed isn't what we see right now."
"Huh, but--"
Harutora was about to ask, but Touji interrupted him again.
"Isn't the Onmyoudou that Yakou created the current widely used 'General' style?"
Touji asked Harutora's question first. Maybe he had considered that Suzuka was mistaking Harutora for Natsume, and if Harutora asked too many easy questions, he might let it slip.
Within his expectations, Suzuka quickly showed an arrogant expression towards him.
"Outsiders are so unknowledgeable! Listen, never mind the basic concepts for now, the Onmyoudou that Yakou developed is different from 'General', it's not as simple as 'General', but it's more complex, and it's the much more vast original! The 'General' left behind now are the scraps used by Yakou's successors to compensate for their powerlessness, and they streamlined it, making it into residue, at best an 'easy to understand' Onmyoudou."
Suzuka raged, but the hint of a smile flitted across her face.
It was a derisive smile, carrying a cold disdain for the world. The smile on the girl's face seemed particularly unfitting under the night sky lit by the fireworks.
"Think about it, at the time Yakou accepted the military's request to create a new Onmyoudou, and had to complete it in an incredibly short time, so naturally something complex, undocumented, and incomprehensible would be produced in the process, a giant shadow that the current Onmyoudou can't even compare to, containing a strength far stronger. What he - Tsuchimikado Yakou - created was 'Imperial Onmyoudou'."
The fireworks flashed over the girl's head. Harutora held his breath, looking at the girl before him.
He felt that Suzuka's small body gave off a devilish presence, and couldn't help but doubt whether he was a spirit-seer, that he might be seeing a ghost. An inexplicable chill and tremble silently shot through his whole body.
Finally, she threw down these words:
"Of course, magic related to souls is included among it, and mysterious magic that has already been lost."
...This person......
Harutora finally understood completely, the girl in front of him - this girl younger than him who looked weak and powerless - was definitely an 'Onmyouji'. This had nothing to do with the gorgeous clothes she wore and her arrogant demeanor - she indeed possessed 'strength'.
He swallowed.
"You said just now that you wanted me to help with an experiment, right? In other words, that......"
Harutora spoke to confirm, and Suzuka nodded her head leisurely.
"Right, I want you to help me carry out soul reincarnation magic at my hands. But you don't need to be afraid, as long as you obediently follow my instructions, you won't be harmed."
Her words were clearly not a request, but an order, and could even be said to be a threat. In Suzuka's mind, the assistance of Harutora - more accurately, Natsume - had already been decided.
But, he still had a doubt in his heart.
"......I, I mostly understand what you're saying. But why do you need Na- need my help? Since you're one of the Twelve Divine Generals, you should be able to find the help of other, more excellent Onmyouji, right?"
However prodigal Natsume was, at best she was just a student. Anyone who had become a National First-Class Onmyouji could utilize specialized Onmyouji to his or her heart's content.
Suzuka's response to Harutora's direct question was very strange.
Her look turned cold for a moment.
"......I'm not in the mood to play around, are you going to keep playing dumb?"
"W, What did you say?"
"There's only one reason I chose you, and it's because of your 'previous life'."
"Wha......"
Harutora didn't understand what Suzuka was saying, and just felt a chill, inadvertently closing his mouth. Beside him, Touji showed a rarely-seen grim expression.
Fireworks intertwined gorgeously in the night sky, each one lighting up the ground, switching the world between light and darkness with blinding speed.
"The next Tsuchimikado heir, Tsuchimikado Natsume."
Suzuka narrowed her eyes, staring at the speechless Harutora, and slowly spoke:
"It seems like the outside sources were right, you don't seem to have memories of your previous life. Or perhaps, the rumor was fake after all...... But I'll still give it a try, since, after all, you are the successful user of this magic - the 'Taizan Fukun Ritual'."
Suzuka took a step forward, and Harutora felt a deep pressure at the same time as he retreated backwards.
--This person was very dangerous!
Harutora's back was covered in a cold sweat.
Just then.
A shadow cut through the night sky shining with fireworks, flying over to them.
The shadow slipped in through the space between the two of them, ignoring inertia and coming to a halt while still hovering in midair.
It was a dark blue swallow [10] .
When Harutora's eyes widened and Touji quickly took up a cautious stance:
"--Stop right there! Dairenji Suzuka, in accordance with Onmyou law, you are under arrest!"
The swallow spoke, and just when its voice had sounded, its body broke open.
Its wings opened wide, the feathers on them shooting out as if exploding, and becoming countless long appendages that reached out like fingers of a hand, trying to wrap around Suzuka.
"This, this is--"
"A binding type!?"
Touji shouted out beside the shocked Harutora.
On the other hand, though Suzuka was being assaulted by the swallow, her lips raised in a shallow and conceited smirk. She 'hmphed' coldly, threw off the plastic bag on her arm, and the tentacles attempting to catch her were blocked in midair.
A distorted human figure emerged from behind her back.
What appeared before them seemed as if it had stepped in from another dimension, two meters tall, with three long arms on either side of its body, a slim monster that seemed to be made of metal.
It was an Asura. [11]
"W, Why are there more shikigami!?"
The shikigami wore a mask on its face with no expression, and it looked more like a machine that had six mechanical arms installed onto it than an organism. A rigid, inorganic shikigami that didn't seem to show any emotion quietly gave off a sense of intimidation.
The shikigami grabbed the swallow's tentacles, tearing them off forcefully. The swallow's form was destroyed, becoming a torn-up talisman - a man-made shikigami type. The shikigami broke up into countless pieces of paper, descending slowly to the ground.
The barrier Suzuka had set down seemed to have been broken, and the festival-goers who noticed the commotion screamed one by one, running in all directions, and the booth managers also hurriedly abandoned their booths, escaping the vicinity.
Harutora and Touji weren't excluded. They put distance between themselves and Suzuka and the shikigami, hiding inside a booth that sold fried noodles.
"That was a man-made shikigami created by the Onmyou Agency. Multipurpose general shikigami model 'M3 Asura'."
Touji - even in this crisis - spoke excitedly.
"What about that swallow?"
"'WA1 Swallow Whip', the binding shikigami produced by the Witchcraft Corporation."
"I wasn't asking about that, I wanted to know who was manipulating it!"
Just as Harutora asked, the controllers immediately appeared.
"Stop right there! We've already blockaded the surroundings, surrender now!"
Ten men wearing jackets or suits appeared before them, and they attempted to encircle Suzuka, aiming the guns they held at her. Among them, there were also some who held talismans in their hands.
Harutora and Touji hid themselves under the iron frying station.
"What's going on!?"
"Are they Mystical Investigators?"
Touji spoke calmly next to the panicking Harutora.
Harutora also knew about Mystical Investigators - they were the investigators of magical crimes. As their name expressed, they were tasked with investigating magic-users who had committed crimes as well as outlaw Onmyouji, experts at anti-personnel magic. Viewing the exorcists as the firemen or rescue workers of the magic community, the Mystical Investigators were the police.
"But, why would the Mystical Investigators be doing such a thing? Isn't that person one of the Twelve Divine Generals? Aren't they comrades?"
During Harutora's confusion, the Mystical Investigators had already surrounded Suzuka without leaving a gap.
They steamed with killing intent, and it was impossible to tell that this group of adults was dealing with a middle-school aged girl.
Suzuka began collecting her arrogant expression.
"......You guys are really very annoying. Why is it a new batch of people, and also all small fries like before. Your group really can't learn."
Suzuka talked back sarcastically, and the 'Asura' shikigami waited behind her back.
But, the Mystical Investigators weren't offended.
"Dairenji Suzuka, though you are a National First-Class Onmyouji, you don't have any fighting experience. Though my subordinates lost to you in the Onmyou Agency building, did you think you could escape from the hunt of the Mystical Investigator Second Team? We will shoot, so don't resist meaninglessly!"
Several binding 'Swallow Whip' shikigami circled in the air, and the gunpoint warning didn't seem like a joke. Harutora's face turned green, and Touji whistled lightly.
However.
"Did I say I was going to run? Don't make me laugh."
Saying this, Suzuka leisurely put her hand in her pocket, taking out a book.
The girl's actions led to the Mystical Investigators reacting, and they moved. They chanted incantations, casting out charms. It was the wood symbol of one of the five elements.
The thrown charms took in the practitioners' magical power, wriggling and becoming a net of thorns. Asura immediately moved forward to protect its master, but couldn't block the thorns from wrapping around its body, and its movements were stopped in seconds.
With that, Suzuka lost her protection for a moment. But, taking advantage of the time that Asura had brought her, the young Divine General had already prepared countermeasures.
Hit first, ask questions later - Harutora expected that sort of situation to arise, but who could have known what would happen next.
He shook his head, wiped his face, and ran towards Hokuto.
"Hokuto, are you alright?"
After Suzuka's shikigami had disappeared, Hokuto had stayed petrified on the ground, as if her soul had been stolen away. Even so, he couldn't be careless. Harutora predicted - actually, expected - that Hokuto would turn into a demon the next second, roaring angrily: 'You big pervert!'
Unfortunately, he had guessed wrongly.
Hokuto slowly turned around towards Harutora who was rushing towards her.
Then, she suddenly began crying.
"H, Hokuto?"
Harutora's voice went hoarse. Hokuto didn't stop crying, silently dripping tears, then sobbed, and then finally began weeping loudly. This made Harutora completely distressed.
"H, Hokuto? What's wrong? Are you hurt? Or were you scared? No, anyway, it's alright, she's already gone. Calm down, alright?"
Harutora hovered helplessly back and forth in front of Hokuto. Fireworks still bloomed in the night sky, and the flying sparks and light from the fireworks descended to the earth like a summer afternoon shower.
Under the brilliant light of the fireworks--
"Harutora, you idiot!"
Hokuto finally spoke.
She sobbed, speaking in bits:
"That's too much, Harutora...... You threw my ema on the ground, and didn't chase after me...... And Touji even sent me a message...... I waited, but you didn't come. Then a commotion happened, and you were wrapped up in it...... I, I even thought it would be fine once I saw Touji was alright, but I didn't think he would say you had been taken away......"
"Y, You saw Touji?"
"Yes! That's why I was so worried...... I was worried to death, and chased after you like mad, wanting to save you! But then what? Why were you kissing with that girl! I really misjudged you. That's too much, it's really too much! Uuu......"
Hokuto sobbed loudly, standing on the ground, gasping for breath, not even wiping the tears overflowing from her eyes.
She opened her mouth, crying painfully again.
Harutora did nothing.
"Harutora, you big idiot! I hate you, I don't care...... Uu...... I don't care about you......"
"S, Sorry, I made you worry, I'm really sorry."
"What...... Uu...... What apology, you don't even understand other people's feelings...... Uu...... Y, You even kissed......"
"She was deliberately teasing me just now! Didn't you also see? Also, you weren't the one who was kissed forcefully, it was me, why are you the one crying?"
Harutora's brain had trouble functioning in front of the sobbing Hokuto, and the moment those last words left his mouth, Hokuto's crying face distorted in pain.
She reached out her hands, pushing Harutora. Harutora staggered, looking at Hokuto in shock.
"Bakatora!"
Hokuto opened her mouth to yell:
"Who would be happy watching the person they like kissing someone else! Do you know how painful, how lonely, how difficult that feeling is!"
Bang - A bright firework loomed in the night sky.
The rain of light illuminated Hokuto brightly.
Harutora became speechless for a while, standing frozen in place.
Hokuto's eyes, filled with tears, stared at Harutora.
Her red eyes, her tear-filled eyes, with a strong and clear light shining from their depths.
The Hokuto just then was the most beautiful girl he had seen in his life.
Hokuto muttered, as if trying to hold back her tears. She covered her face with the hem of the yukata, wiping away the tears, and then turned around, running away from Harutora.
"--H, Hokuto!"
Harutora chased, but he was afraid he would stumble and fall if he pursued her, and was unable to sprint with his full strength.
Hokuto's back disappeared into the forest.
Harutora stood alone, the fireworks blooming above his head and then disappearing.
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