Tokyo Ravens - Volume 2 - Chapter 5.2

Part 2 
The man escaped out of the Onmyou Academy building's back door with a pale face. The old man overlooking that scene sighed lightly in disappointment. 
The old man was sitting in the backseat of a limousine stopped by the road in the parking lot not far from the back door. He rolled down the car window, angrily staring at the back of the desperately escaping man. 
"What a waste of my expectations." 
His wrinkle-lined mouth let out an unexpectedly youthful voice. 
"Or should I say those children performed better than expected...... But it's really an eyesore to see that dignified man fall so low." 
The old man wore a pitch-black kimono, with blood-red sunglasses on his face. His head of thin white hair had been styled neatly and tidily. 
The old man seemed like a senior, but more accurately he looked like a dead man who had long since been killed. Though he was wearing sunglasses, no expression appeared on the old man's face. He just spoke while indifferently moving his lips. 
However, his tone was young and showed rich emotion, completely different from the corpse-like cold exterior that he wore, like a young person with plentiful vigor had been put into the body of a dying old man. 
The man who escaped from the academy building turned a corner into an alley, his figure vanishing. 
Just then, a darkness suddenly fell over the back window. 
It was as if the sun had hidden behind a dark cloud, but what blocked the sun wasn't a cloud. 
"...Yo." 
A gruff voice came from above the car window, and it was a man who blocked the sunlight. He leaned on the limousine, peering into the car through the window without warning. 
It was a giant man, his body about two meters tall, with impressive muscles all over his body and his big frame complementing each other. 
Underneath his short golden crown of hair was a small face contrasting with his body type, with deep features as if he had a southern European ancestry. 
The man's eyebrows were beautiful, and his eyes were narrowed into slits. His nose was high and his lips were rich. The fitted striped suit moderately regulated the man's overly strong unruliness, giving off a shrewd impression instead. On the other hand, every portion of that giant body gave off the rough temperament of a carnivore, and he couldn't hide it even if he tried. But, every movement the man made was clearly mature, worldly, and elegant, forming a sort of charm like a perfume floating in his presence. 
Even someone blind could see that he wasn't a normal person, and 'a mafia leader' would be an apt description of him. His age seemed older than thirty, but it didn't seem like he had reached forty. 
The man put his sturdy arm on the roof of the limousine, speaking to the old man inside the car: 
"Could you not use someone else's name however you want." 
Those words sounded like a denouncement, but there was no anger in the tone. The old man also replied leisurely as if he were bantering: "You caught me." His face still had that corpse-like expression, and he didn't speak with a guilty conscience at all, but was clearly elated as if they were having great fun. 
"Are you actually very curious?" 
"Not really." 
"How cold, didn't sixty years pass in an instant?" 
"They weren't even sixty short years, it's not a past to be nostalgic about." 
The man spoke calmly, and the old man secretly laughed as he listened. 
"Really? I accumulated quite some resentment over these sixty years. I can truly call those times nostalgic." 
"Don't take it to heart that much." 
"You say that, but I've always had this disposition." 
"Really...... You should just stay behind the scenes. Whenever you come out, there's significantly more trouble." 
The man spoke like he was annoyed, but he was actually just pretending, and wasn't concerned at all in his heart. In the end, he still didn't plan on butting in even if the troublesome situations increased. 
The old man seemed to get angry at his unconcerned air, stubbornly asking: 
"Are you truly not concerned at all?" 
"I can't say I'm completely unconcerned, but I won't run out especially to confirm. My methods are different from Hishamaru's." The man spoke impatiently. 
"Hmph, I see...... So, you still can't make contact with Hishamaru? That guy is pretty cold." 
"That's none of your business." 
The man replied coldly. The interaction between the two seemed cold, but their responses seemed like they were familiar with each other, making one suspect whether the two men had been acquainted for a long time. In truth, the dealings between the two of them had been going for an incredibly long time. 
"Right, the ghostly presence from your body is a bit too strong. I warned you before, can't you hide yourself a bit more seriously?" 
"Sorry, I never really cared about these things since a long time ago." 
"You're already this old...... Ah, you see, you even made me get noticed, and it was even by that youngster! Really......" 
The old man muttered in disgust. If his expression could change, his face would have definitely scrunched up right now. 
The man leaned on the car and turned his sturdy neck. 
"......That guy huh, he doesn't seem as bad as you say. Do you know each other?' 
"We crossed before. That arrogant fellow gave up a leg to escape my grasp." 
The old man cursed resentfully. The man smiled slightly, saying sincerely: "That guy has a promising future." Those words made the old man unhappy. 
"In any case, the Onmyou Academy's principal is a brilliant diviner, and perhaps she's long since seen through your deceit." 
"Scheming against each other is the most interesting area." 
"That's really a bad interest." 
The man took his arm off the car roof as he said this, his body leaving the car's backseat window. 
"Anyway, I don't plan on chipping in about how bad your interests are, but don't use my name however you want for these silly games. I just came to warn you about that." 
He turned his back to the limousine. The old man didn't urge him to stay, nor did he open his mouth to say goodbye. 
Just as he was about to stride away, the man suddenly stopped. 
"......Right, where exactly is that brat from?" 
"Nn? Which brat?" 
"The tiger. [18] " 
"Ahh, he seems like a branch family child, his strength isn't bad. With this, the tiger and dragon are side by side, but the tiger is truly weak...... Do you have some interest in that person?" 
The old man asked, not understanding. Someone keen might be able to notice that there was a serpentine curiosity hidden in the old man's voice. 
"......No, it's nothing. Remember not to go overboard, Doman." 
"Hey hey, didn't you just say you wouldn't chip in about other people's interests?" 
The old man retorted like he was lecturing a child. The man smiled wryly, finally leaving the limousine. 
He walked with his back facing the old man and the academy building. 
"......You haven't changed at all, still so loyal." 

"Damn...... Damn...... Bastard......" 
Tears were streaming down the Mystical Investigator's face as he fled, his shoulders heaving up and down with his breathing. 
Things shouldn't have turned out like this, everything was horribly wrong. Why had he fallen into such a miserable fate? He couldn't understand. 
"Why? I'm Hishamaru, I am Hishamaru, but Kakugyouki...... Ahh, damn, what should I do to become accountable to that great man [19] !" 
His mind couldn't operate normally because of confusion and despair. For the time being, he could only return to his comrades' side and listen to that great man's instructions. That old man who had suddenly appeared before him one day, told him about his [20] past life, and allowed him to reunite with his past partner Kakugyouki. He deeply believed that great man definitely had a way to resolve the difficulties before him-- 
"......Though I've been gone for a while, the quality of Mystical Investigators has fallen quite a bit." 
The Mystical Investigator screamed and stopped moving, not knowing where the voice had come from. 
He didn't see anyone whether he looked forward or backward in this small alley between two buildings. But-- 
"......I guess spiritual disasters have increased, so all the excellent people ran over to the exorcists. How terrible, that's really too dangerous......" 
The voice came from behind him - and moreover it had suddenly sounded from a distance close enough to touch. He wanted to leap back and turn around, but his body couldn't move, not even a finger - no, he couldn't even move his tongue. 
This was magic. This was different from the charm magic he had made Natsume faint with, this was the Shugendo subjugation method, Unmoving Golden Chains. But, the other party had used it without a mantra, and he hadn't even felt the presence of the user. Stealth magic. It wasn't a normal stealth magic - he feared that it was the Marici Stealth Tantra [21] . 
The presence behind him slowly approached, making a clunky sound of footsteps. A cold, hard sound different from the sound of shoes treading on the ground echoed in the empty alleyway. 
The practitioner who had bound him walked up in front of his bound self, but at the same time, the magic that bound his body also invaded his vision, binding his sight and ruthlessly plunging him into darkness. 
He held open his gradually darkening eyes, forcing himself to see the practitioner's feet. A walking stick, and a toy-like fake wooden leg. In that moment, memories awoke in his mind. 
When he had been in the Mystical Investigators, there was a rumor regarding a certain extraordinary Mystical Investigator that had long since become a legend. That man possessed the qualifications to become a National First-Class Onmyouji, one of the Twelve Divine Generals, but his name was never made public because of his position's secrecy. 
He had left the frontline after losing his right leg, and it was rumored that only a few higher-ups knew where that Onmyouji had gone afterwards. He had originally believed it to be an empty rumor, and he had never thought he would encounter it in this kind of place. 
Then-- 
As those thoughts flashed across his mind, the magic bound not only his vision, but also even his thinking. 
At the same time as the light vanished from his eyes, his consciousness also fell into darkness. 
"Oh my, this youngster even made me work overtime. How exhausting." 
Ohtomo lowered his head to look at the Mystical Investigator fallen at his feet, muttering in annoyance. 
Just then, a small calico cat walked into the alley where Ohtomo was with a meow. 
Ohtomo frowned immediately upon seeing the cat. The cat didn't pay any heed to Ohtomo's reaction, soundlessly walking by his fake leg. 
It checked the fallen Mystical Investigator and then looked up at Ohtomo. 
"You've worked hard, Ohtomo-sensei." 
Principal Kurahashi's voice came from the cat's mouth, and Ohtomo responded with an unwilling face: "Don't mention it." 
"He was just a small fry anyway, to put it a bit nastily, but I guess there still are these kinds of hell-bent people around right now." 
"He was probably deeply influenced for a long time. According to what I saw in the arena, his personality has a noticeably serious split." 
"Oh, that one-person-two-roles skit? You saw that too, Principal?" 
"Of course, they're my precious students." 
The cat's expression remained unchanged, and Ohtomo turned his head and muttered: "......You happened to be monitoring me anyway, right?" 
"What was that, Ohtomo-sensei?" 
"No, Principal, I didn't say anything." 
Ohtomo spoke innocently, beaming and showing an uncommon fake smile. 
The cat straightened its posture. 
"Let me properly thank you again, Ohtomo-sensei. But, the spectacle the students ran into this time was a bit too dangerous, and I cannot approve of it. You should have stepped in even when he summoned the imposter Kakugyouki." 
"That would be rather difficult. Never mind an idiot stalker, what about the two big shots eyeing hungrily from the side? If I lost my last leg, my future career as a teacher would be troublesome." 
"I can specially create a wheelchair shikigami for you. Free offer." 
"Uwah, how frightful...... Why doesn't this old granny hurry up and die......" 
"What?" 
"No, nothing." 
Ohtomo took a short breath, cowering back exaggeratedly. 
"And I took precautions long ago. Seeing that wooden sword break really made me jump. Though it was a magical tool I made in a snap, I never thought it would overheat! But, because of that lesson, you could call that shakujou my proud work, and wasn't it actually very useful too? And also, your granddaughter did quite well! You saw the effects of my strategy yesterday, the friendship between them increased because of the sensei's toilsome planning, and that's why they could exert the strength of their beautiful friendship and deal with that evil fake oni!" 
Ohtomo danced around and wantonly boasted about his own work. The cat shikigami wordlessly gazed at the fake-legged-Onmyouji, showing the customary skeptical gaze of a cat. 
"Also, could it be that you were too disorganized this time, Principal? You knew that this idiot was a Yakou fanatic long ago, right? But to think you let him go...... that's a bit too risky." 
The cat twisted its tail upon hearing Ohtomo's sarcasm, clearly not concerned at all. 
"All I knew beforehand was that he was affiliated with the Twin-Horned Syndicate, I didn't notice anything further. This was a good opportunity for us." 
"So you mean, you're really using your students as bait, and you even say things like 'I can't approve' to others." 
"Please get used to these small things as soon as possible. Also, I warned the concerned parties long ago." 
The cat spoke calmly, and Ohtomo frowned in displeasure. 
"......Hypocrite......" 
"What?" 
"No no, nothing at all." 
The cat sighed at the pretending Ohtomo, then turned its back to him, leaving the feel of a wry smile. 
"I have to go inform the Onmyou Agency, so I leave the aftermath to you." 
"......I don't get overtime pay?" 
"Oh my, isn't this for your cute students? Money shouldn't be a problem, right?" 
"......The problem isn't money, it's sincerity......" 
Ohtomo complained, and the cat didn't inquire any further. 
The cat left the alleyway with light steps, and its subordinate watched the shikigami go, childishly sticking his tongue out in the direction the cat vanished.