Chapter 38: Tsuchimikado
Kyoto, Mitsuwa Town.
A rural district on the outskirts of the old capital, Mitsuwa had somehow preserved its pastoral calm even in an age that seemed determined to grind such places away. Modern life had reached it, of course. The town had schools, clinics, supermarkets, paved roads, and all the ordinary conveniences people needed to live comfortably. Yet compared to the crowded wards and glittering avenues closer to the city proper, Mitsuwa still felt slow, spacious, almost untouched.
Its scenery was not famous enough to draw tourists, but it was the sort of place where people could genuinely breathe.
Most importantly, the people here lived with a peace that had all but vanished elsewhere.
The residents of Mitsuwa wore the unguarded expressions of those who truly believed tomorrow would resemble today. They worked, chatted, shopped, and strolled about with an ease that had become rare across Japan. Even at night, the streets were never completely empty. Shops stayed open. Lights remained warm behind curtained windows. Laughter still drifted through the air after sunset.
Unlike so many other towns, unlike even Kyoto itself, Mitsuwa did not seem ruled by fear once darkness fell.
It was as though the tide of supernatural resurgence had somehow broken around it and flowed elsewhere.
And in a sense, that was the truth.
To the people of Mitsuwa, the so called age of supernatural recovery existed only on television screens and in newspaper headlines. They knew the world outside was changing. They knew yokai, curses, and astral disasters were no longer things confined to folklore. But knowledge from afar was one thing. Lived terror was another.
And terror had never reached Mitsuwa.
Many of the older townspeople even said, without irony, that Mitsuwa was the safest place in all Japan.
The reason was simple.
This town was home to a family whose name had stood at the summit of Onmyodo for generations.
The descendants of Abe no Seimei.
The Tsuchimikado clan.
With the former sovereign house of Onmyodo rooted here, even a Great Yokai would think twice before stepping into Mitsuwa. Any such creature would have to consider whether it truly wished to provoke a bloodline that had reigned over spiritual arts for more than a thousand years, and whether Abe no Seimei had left behind something in this land that still had the power to kill.
At the northern end of town stood a vast old estate.
Beyond its gates lay a garden designed to imitate the natural world in miniature. Ponds, streams, stones, low hills, old trees, winding paths, and narrow bridges were arranged with restrained elegance. The layout carried the quiet, introspective beauty of the Heian period, subtle, austere, and utterly unlike modern luxury.
This was the Tsuchimikado main residence.
The original family compound from a thousand years ago had long since crumbled into history, but the current estate had been built atop those old foundations by later generations, preserving not merely the land, but the memory of what had once stood there.
At that moment, in one of the larger halls of the residence, two young members of the clan were speaking.
"Harutora, the notice from the Onmyo Academy came in. Next month, you and I will head to Tokyo together and enroll."
The one speaking was Tsuchimikado Natsume.
Dressed in white, with long dark blue hair falling to her waist, she had the refined, delicate beauty of someone raised within old lineage and strict tradition. She was slender, elegant, and carried herself with the effortless grace of someone long accustomed to being watched.
She was also the heir to the Tsuchimikado main family.
Sitting opposite her was Tsuchimikado Harutora of the branch family, a boy with yellow hair and an appearance far too ordinary for someone born into such a famous name. He and Natsume had grown up together as childhood friends, close enough that silence between them never felt strained.
Harutora frowned.
"Natsume... I don't even have any spirit sight. Is it really okay for the family to send me to the Onmyo Academy?"
He was not wrong to doubt it.
Though he bore the Tsuchimikado name and carried the blood of Abe no Seimei, Harutora had been born without innate spirit sight. In the world of Onmyodo, that was a nearly fatal deficiency. It meant he lacked the most basic natural qualification expected of an onmyoji.
Within the clan, it made him an anomaly.
The Onmyo Academy, meanwhile, recruited students precisely on the basis of strong spirit sight and spiritual aptitude. For someone like him to enter through family privilege alone... what exactly would he even do once he got there?
Natsume looked at him seriously.
"Harutora, the supernatural resurgence is getting worse. The world is becoming more unstable by the day. You heard what I told you about Honshu. Even Great Yokai that only existed in myth are beginning to stir."
Her voice grew quieter.
"Father's letters all say the same thing in different ways. What comes next will only get worse. The incidents won't lessen. They'll spread. They'll intensify. Even Mitsuwa may not stay untouched forever."
Harutora fell silent.
Natsume continued, "The reason Father wants you to enter the Onmyo Academy is simple. When the great upheaval really arrives, every member of the Tsuchimikado clan must have the ability to protect themselves. That includes you."
"As for your spirit sight, don't worry. Father already thought of a solution. In a month, just come with me."
Harutora looked at her for a moment, then finally nodded.
"All right. I get it."
Natsume let out a soft breath, but the relief did not last. Her gaze drifted unconsciously toward the direction of Honshu, and a shadow passed through her eyes.
Over the past several days, the letters coming back from Honshu had become fewer and fewer.
Worse, the tone of those letters had changed.
Even when they tried to sound calm, they carried a pressure that was impossible to hide. Some were filled with instructions that sounded disturbingly close to final arrangements. Her father's insistence that Harutora enroll in the Onmyo Academy was one such example.
It sounded less like planning for the future and more like preparing for the worst.
"I wonder how Father and the others are doing..." she murmured.
Harutora tried to reassure her, though his words came out a little thin.
"They'll be fine. Your father and the others are strong. Nothing's going to happen."
Natsume gave a small nod.
"Yes. With Father and the others there... they'll definitely manage to seal Yamata no Orochi."
She said it firmly, as if conviction itself could make it true.
And yet, against her will, a darker thought still rose from the depths of her mind.
What if they failed?
What if even all those assembled high level onmyoji were not enough to stop the thing awakening on Honshu?
If that happened...
Then this would no longer be a crisis in one region.
It would become a national catastrophe.
A true calamity of extinction.
Natsume's hand tightened slightly against her sleeve.
"No," she whispered to herself, shaking her head. "I can't think like that."
Harutora noticed the shift in her expression and was about to speak again when Natsume suddenly seemed to remember something. She glanced at the old style clock set against the far wall and clicked her tongue softly.
"I almost forgot. I still need to bring lunch to Mr. Gin."
The moment Harutora heard that name, his expression soured.
"That freeloader still hasn't left?"
He could not explain it.
From the moment Gin Tsumugi had entered the Tsuchimikado estate, Harutora had found him instinctively irritating. It was not rational, and he knew it. They had hardly interacted. It should have been their first real meeting. But for some reason, every time he thought about the man, he felt an inexplicable resistance.
Natsume's expression turned sharp at once.
"Harutora."
The sternness in her voice made him stiffen.
"Mr. Gin is an honored guest of the Tsuchimikado clan. Don't speak so rudely."
She rose to her feet, her brows drawn tight.
"And more importantly, it isn't Mr. Gin who is taking up our time. It is our Tsuchimikado clan that is taking up his."
Harutora blinked, caught off guard.
He had only thrown out a single annoyed complaint, but Natsume's reaction was far stronger than he had expected.
"I..."
But before he could finish, Natsume had already turned away.
She left the hall without another word, leaving Harutora sitting there alone, staring after her with a conflicted expression.
.....
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