Chapter 4: Bait
The moment the Five Pointed Star Incantation erased the last of the bronze vines, Kurazaki Fuko finally let out the breath she had been holding.
She had been saved.
An onmyoji had noticed the disturbance and arrived in time.
But when she got a proper look at the person standing before her, she froze for a second.
So young...?!
He looked about her age, maybe not even that much older.
Because of certain circumstances, Fuko knew far more about Onmyodo than most people her age ever would. That was exactly why the sight before her felt so absurd.
The Five Pointed Star Incantation was not some unknown secret art. It was considered a standard spell in the Onmyodo system, the kind every proper onmyoji was expected to learn sooner or later. But standards and mastery were two completely different things.
To wipe out that many bronze vines with a single clean cast, without strain or hesitation, meant this boy had trained the spell to an astonishing degree.
That was what truly shocked her.
Not the technique itself.
But the person using it.
"I can't believe it..."
The words nearly slipped out on their own.
Gin Tsumugi glanced at her once, taking in the state she was in with one sweep of his eyes.
Her long legs were still bleeding where the vines had torn through her stockings, the red stain glaring against the white fabric.
He crouched beside her without wasting a word.
"Healing Talisman."
He drew out a talisman, pressed it directly over the wound, and brought two fingers together in a clean seal.
A soft green light bloomed.
Warm spiritual energy seeped into the cut at once. The bleeding stopped almost immediately, and the torn flesh began to knit together at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Fuko stared.
The pain eased so suddenly that it felt unreal.
"Th-thank you."
She pushed herself to her feet, cheeks faintly warm from embarrassment more than anything else. Then, trying to recover her composure, she asked, "May I ask who you are?"
"I'm an onmyoji from the White Fox Office."
Gin reached into his pocket and handed her an identification card.
"For convenience, here."
Fuko took it, still slightly dazed.
The card was an officially recognized onmyoji certificate.
In the past two years, as supernatural incidents had spread and intensified, the government had been forced to formalize what used to exist only in obscure circles. Organizations with official backing, such as the Onmyo Bureau and the Onmyo Alliance, were already under enormous pressure. Faced with the growing number of spiritual disasters, cooperation with civilian onmyoji had become inevitable.
The White Fox Office was one such civilian organization.
Holding an official certificate like this did not merely prove one's identity. It also meant the government acknowledged that office as a legitimate supernatural response unit. During an incident, that allowed access to certain official channels, priority cooperation, and a range of permissions that ordinary people could only dream of.
Fuko's gaze dropped to the rank printed on the card.
Then her eyes widened.
"White Fox Office... Gin Tsumugi... Professional Rank 5 Onmyoji?!"
This time, her shock was impossible to hide.
She had already understood that the boy in front of her was strong.
But this was beyond strong.
During the years since spiritual recovery began, the government had reorganized the old vague hierarchy of onmyoji into a clearer system. Broadly speaking, it was divided into apprentice onmyoji, professional rank onmyoji, and national rank onmyoji.
A Professional Rank 5 onmyoji was no beginner.
In both the Onmyo Bureau and the Onmyo Alliance, that rank already placed someone among the reliable core. Reaching professional level before the age of twenty was rare enough. Reaching it this young was the sort of thing that belonged in other people's stories.
She looked back up at him, the contrast between his age and his qualifications almost hard to process.
Gin, however, simply put the certificate away as if none of that mattered.
"A distress message?" he repeated.
Fuko nodded at once, finally remembering the reason she was here.
"Yes. Sora sent me one last night, so I came straight from Kyoto."
She hesitated for half a beat, then added, "I should introduce myself properly. My name is Kurazaki Fuko. I'm Kasugano Sora's cousin."
Gin gave a slight nod, signaling for her to continue.
"Ever since Sora's parents and older brother went missing, she's mostly shut herself inside this house and—"
He cut her off.
"You said missing."
Fuko blinked.
"Yes?"
"Not killed in a car accident," Gin said, his voice calm, but his eyes sharpened. "Missing."
"Yes," Fuko answered, confused by the question. "About a month ago, they disappeared without warning. No one's been able to contact them since. Why...?"
Her voice trailed off.
She could not understand why he was looking at her like that, or why he was suddenly asking about a car accident. But Gin had already gone silent.
His brows drew together.
That did not match the information from the Non-Scientific Supernatural Forum at all.
Not even close.
According to the materials he had received, Sora's family had died in a car accident only days ago. But Fuko's account placed the beginning of the incident an entire month earlier, and described the family not as dead, but missing.
That was not a minor discrepancy.
That was the kind of contradiction that changed the nature of a case completely.
Fuko noticed the shift in his expression and felt her own unease deepen.
"Is... something wrong?"
Gin did not answer immediately.
Instead, he looked past her, deeper into the villa, toward the place where the yin energy was most concentrated.
Then he spoke.
"If I'm right, Kasugano Sora's parents and brother were never simply missing."
His tone remained even, but the meaning behind his words was cold enough to make Fuko's blood run colder than the curse saturating the house.
"They were hidden."
He turned his gaze back to her.
"And used as bait."
Fuko's lips parted, but no words came out.
Gin continued, mercilessly clear.
"To draw in prey. You, for example."
A brief pause.
"Or me."
Everything clicked at once.
The false reports. The distorted timeline. The eerie sense that the house had been deliberately left just controlled enough not to draw official intervention. The bronze vines. The pressure in the air.
This was never a simple evil spirit haunting.
That suspicion had already taken shape back at the White Fox Office.
Now the vines had confirmed it.
Fuko felt a chill crawl across her skin.
If he was right, then the entire incident had been designed from the start. A trap. Something had been feeding information to the outside world in just the right way, creating a false picture and luring people in one by one.
Her fingers curled unconsciously.
Then a worse thought struck her.
"Sora...!"
Gin was already moving.
"Come on."
He stepped toward the ruined doorway, his expression steady as ever.
"If we're lucky, your cousin can still be saved."
Those words jolted Fuko back to herself. She hurried after him without another question.
At this point, even she understood.
Her cousin's family had almost certainly been dragged into something far more terrifying than anyone had imagined. As for her aunt and the others...
Gin had not said it aloud.
He had not needed to.
Fuko was not stupid. With everything she had seen and heard so far, she could already guess the truth.
The odds that they were still alive were vanishingly small.
All she could do now was pray.
Pray that Sora had somehow held on long enough for them to reach her.