Chapter 52: Reincarnation?!
"So you really managed to open this old relic so quickly. White Fox, I knew I hadn't misjudged you."
Not long after Gin Tsumugi had completed the altar's preliminary activation, Dairenji Suzuka arrived.
Behind her stood the modified mechanical shikigami [Ashura]. It towered nearly two stories high, with four razor sharp claws, a body covered in Sanskrit and layered spell formulas, and flames rising from its head. Under the altar's firelight, it looked less like a shikigami and more like a war machine built for slaughter.
"Mmph! Mmph...!"
Bound to [Ashura]'s shoulder was Tsuchimikado Harutora. He struggled desperately, but a talisman sealed over his mouth reduced everything to muffled protests.
"It's only been opened on the surface," Gin said flatly. "If we want to fully awaken the altar, we still need Tsuchimikado spiritual power."
After answering Suzuka, he sat down cross legged on the altar steps and began regulating his breathing, steadily recovering the spiritual power he had burned through.
He needed to return to his best condition as quickly as possible.
There might still be a hard fight ahead. On top of that, if the chance came, there was one more thing he wanted to attempt, and that would consume even more spiritual power.
Naturally, it would be better if he did not have to step in at all.
He had already exposed enough of himself inside the Tsuchimikado Clan.
The moment Suzuka peeled the silencing talisman off Harutora's mouth, the boy exploded.
"You bastard! Those Evil Spirits in Mitsuwa Town were your doing after all! So many innocent people suffered because of you! Natsume trusted you so much, and this is how you repay her?"
His voice was hoarse with rage. Even after being tossed around like luggage, the hatred in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest.
"Shut up." Suzuka was instantly annoyed. "Just stay there and act like a proper sacrifice. Don't waste my time."
With a flick of her hand, she had [Ashura] throw him to the ground. Then she stepped forward and drove the toe of her small leather boot sharply into his side.
Harutora's face turned white from pain, but when he looked up at Gin, there was still only resentment and loathing in his eyes.
No submission. Not even a trace.
Gin spoke without emotion.
"As for Natsume, I'll apologize to her myself."
Then he added, "And regarding the residents who 'suffered' as you claim, Suzuka bound shackles onto those Evil Spirits before releasing them. They were never going to cause real harm. At most, they would only frighten people."
He had come to Mitsuwa Town with his own purpose, yes. But he was still an onmyoji.
He would never stoop so low as to unleash Monsters on ordinary civilians just to create a supernatural incident.
"But you still... Hiss!"
Before Harutora could finish, Suzuka kicked him in the waist again. This time the pain was so sharp that cold sweat broke across his forehead on the spot.
Suzuka clicked her tongue and turned toward Gin.
"White Fox, why are you wasting words on an idiot like him? And are you sure this guy is really usable?" She frowned at Harutora with naked doubt. "He's just some obscure branch family brat. He doesn't even look like he has any spiritual power. How is he supposed to activate the altar under our feet?"
Then she narrowed her eyes.
"My original target was Tsuchimikado Natsume. She's from the main family, and she's the heir. Using her spiritual power should have made things much easier."
She was genuinely puzzled.
If she had not known Gin's temperament, she would have questioned him much more harshly. Tsuchimikado Harutora was an unremarkable nobody from the branch family. Tsuchimikado Natsume, on the other hand, was the Tsuchimikado heir. Yet Gin had told her to ignore Natsume entirely and bring back Harutora instead.
"If even Tsuchimikado Harutora can't activate this altar," Gin said calmly, "then it's even more impossible for Natsume."
Suzuka's gaze sharpened.
"Does he have some special identity?"
Gin looked down at Harutora and spoke in the same even tone.
"A branch family member whose bloodline purity does not lose to the main family."
"A branch family member whose spiritual power and Spirit Insight were sealed from birth."
"A branch family member whose soul carries a decaying aura."
"A..."
He did not finish the sentence.
He did not need to.
Suzuka's eyes widened abruptly as she stared at the idiot gasping in pain beneath her feet.
If she still could not guess it after a hint that obvious, then she really would be the fool here.
The reincarnation of Tsuchimikado Yakou?!
This brat was actually... Tsuchimikado Yakou's reincarnation?!
How was that even possible?
Suzuka immediately crouched down and began probing Harutora with her own senses.
Nothing.
At first, she found nothing at all.
There was no obvious seal. No visible trace of the decaying soul Gin had mentioned. No exposed power that would mark him as the reincarnation of the legendary onmyoji who had shaken an era. On the surface, he was just what he looked like: a branch family boy with no particular distinction.
The only thing that stood out was his bloodline.
It was absurdly pure.
Not merely equal to the main family's, but perhaps even denser than some of the Tsuchimikado main family members she had seen with her own eyes.
But that alone proved nothing.
Cases of atavism were not unheard of. It was not impossible for a branch family descendant to display bloodline quality surpassing the main line.
And no matter how she looked at him, she simply could not connect the legend of the onmyoji from a century ago, the man whom fanatics and madmen alike worshipped as the [Hokushin King], with the fool writhing under her foot.
It was too disillusioning.
"Look again," Gin said.
He drew out a talisman and slapped it directly onto Harutora's body.
At once, the disguise layered over Harutora's body peeled away. One seal after another surfaced from deep within him, as though hidden chains were being dragged into the light.
Suzuka's expression changed.
Now she saw it.
The abnormalities were unmistakable.
His soul did not match his body at all. The mismatch was grotesque, unsettling to the point of instinctive revulsion.
And deeper still, behind those tightly layered seals, an immense mass of spiritual power lay compressed and restrained inside him. Once revealed, it pressed against her senses like a flood trapped behind a dam.
That power was not weaker than hers.
It might even exceed it.
Suzuka stared at him for several seconds before finally exhaling.
"So it really is him," she muttered. "I actually didn't expect that... unbelievable."
Once the truth was laid bare, there was no room left for doubt.
And with it, she fully understood the meaning behind Gin's earlier words.
If even the reincarnation of Tsuchimikado Yakou could not activate the altar, then forget Tsuchimikado Natsume. Even Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi himself probably would not be able to do it.
Which meant one thing.
Tsuchimikado Natsume, the publicly acknowledged heir of the clan, was nothing more than a shield.
A false target pushed into the light to draw the outside world's attention.
A substitute.
A decoy that existed for the sake of the real heir hidden in the shadows.
Suzuka let out a low laugh.
"How tragic."
At that moment, many things became clear to her all at once.
The Tsuchimikado Harutora under her feet was very likely Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi's biological son. In order to conceal his identity and bury the fact that he was Tsuchimikado Yakou's reincarnation, they had sealed away his spiritual power and Spirit Insight from birth, then sent him into the branch family to be raised as an ordinary child.
And while the world watched Tsuchimikado Natsume, the Tsuchimikado Clan had quietly hidden their true card in plain sight.
.....
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