That morning, while buying breakfast at a convenience store, Yayoi Hozuki noticed on a tourist map that the inn they had chosen was very close to Seimei Shrine. It was only a ten-minute walk away.
Remembering that Xu Fu had said the night before that the slashing and flame techniques had both been developed by Ashiya Douman by improving Ryomen Sukuna's curse, Yayoi Hozuki grew curious about Ashiya Douman and Ryomen Sukuna. At the same time, she found herself especially interested in Abe no Seimei, Ashiya Douman's sworn enemy.
Birds sang, flowers bloomed, and on the torii gate at the entrance was the pentagram pattern known as the Seimei Bellflower Seal.
This was a world where monsters, ghosts, and spiritualists truly existed. In this world, a shrine that enshrined the great onmyoji Abe no Seimei naturally could not be nothing more than a popular tourist spot.
It was a bright, sunny morning. The light was like melted gold leaf, and the air was steeped in the cool dampness of dew, mixed with a faint floral fragrance.
As Xu Fu toured Seimei Shrine together with Yayoi Hozuki and the others, her mood was extremely complicated. This place made her think of the golden-haired loser dog she had killed in the world of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan back when she had been Ashiya Douman.
But Yayoi Hozuki and Eiko Hozuki were enthusiastically sightseeing around the shrine, so Xu Fu could not act too strangely. Even Keitaro Gentoga was more excited than usual inside the shrine.
Keitaro Gentoga's grandmother managed a certain shrine, so arriving at Seimei Shrine made Keitaro feel as relaxed as if he had returned home, as though his entire body and soul were being cleansed... And that was not merely his imagination.
As mentioned before, Keitaro Gentoga attracted ghosts and monsters because, although he was human, he possessed certain qualities close to those of a god. Even Wandering Ghosts with no lingering attachment to the mortal world would be unconsciously drawn in by his aura.
This "divine aura" he unconsciously gave off would be replenished inside a shrine, which was why Keitaro Gentoga felt the air there smelled so good and found it so comfortable.
If he were to study Onmyodo techniques or Taoist arts, he would probably have real promise.
Visitors to the shrine could obtain souvenirs. In truth, they were just a few pentagram seals and talismans. Xu Fu had checked them, and there was no fluctuation of spiritual power on them at all. They were only for show, good enough to fool ordinary people. At most, they were probably meant to offer a little peace of mind.
Eiko Hozuki and Keitaro Gentoga went to worship at the shrine's main hall, taking a few photos along the way, while Xu Fu examined the stone carving in front of her.
On top of a roughly one-meter-tall stone pillar was a funny little old man with a small mustache, and looking at him made Xu Fu want to laugh.
"Don't tell me Abe no Seimei looked like this? He looks so ridiculous~."
After seeing the golden-haired loser dog version of Abe no Seimei, Xu Fu really could not muster much reverence for this great onmyoji.
Besides, she was not lying. This stone carving's looks were genuinely hard to describe. Although she had never seen the TYPE-MOON world's Abe no Seimei, she had at least seen Abe no Seimei in the Onmyoji mobile game. How nice-looking he was there, with all that flowing white hair. One look and you could tell he would be very suited to cross-dressing.
Xu Fu turned her neck and glanced casually in a certain direction. She looked as though her attention had simply been caught by a bird flying through the sky, and that tiny motion would not draw anyone's suspicion or attention.
A glint of meaningful interest gradually appeared in her amber eyes.
"Yayoi-chan~, Xu Fu-chan is going over there to take a look~"
Xu Fu pointed in a certain direction, a radiant smile like the sun on her face.
"So please wait here alone for Keitaro and Eiko, okay~? I'll go and come right back. I'll be back very soon... probably~?"
With that, she very irresponsibly abandoned Yayoi Hozuki where she was, showing no concern whatsoever for the risk that Yayoi might be lured away by some creepy uncle with a lollipop... Well, actually, there was no risk of that at all.
After all, Yayoi could lift Keitaro Gentoga, a male college student, with one hand, and she carried a crowbar and baseball bat around with her. If a creepy uncle really spawned nearby, he had best pray that he was knocked unconscious by the crowbar or the baseball bat. If those failed to solve the problem, then all kinds of monsters and ghosts would be next to appear.
Yayoi Hozuki gazed at Xu Fu's back, watching her gradually disappear down the bluestone path.
"Is she going out of her way to look after me? Haha, what a considerate little girl."
The one who spoke was a very young-looking man. He wore shrine priest robes, his eyes were narrowed into slits, and a gentle, friendly smile hung on his face.
He stood beneath a tree, right beside Yayoi Hozuki. Strangely enough, Yayoi Hozuki had no idea when he had appeared there. His footsteps were as light as a ghost's.
"And you, little miss. What are you planning to do by bringing something that dangerous into this shrine? Are you trying to exorcise it?"
The man quietly opened one eye and looked with interest at Yayoi Hozuki and the doll in her arms.
"Forgive my bluntness, but you won't find anyone truly capable in this shrine. If you want to perform an exorcism, you would be better off going elsewhere. The fellow in your arms is far too dangerous."
"I don't plan to get rid of this child. I caught him."
"Huh? Uwaa... That really is impressive..."
The man seemed rather surprised, and the smile on his face disappeared as well. Perhaps he was sighing inwardly that one truly could not judge by appearances.
"Aren't you afraid?"
When the unfamiliar man asked her, Yayoi Hozuki answered honestly, speaking her true feelings.
"Fear is part of the fun."
There was no denial and no judgment. Only a smile that seemed both approving and admiring slowly appeared on the man's face.
"Can you use spiritual power too, Shrine Priest-san?"
"A little~, but please don't expect too much of me. I'm actually super weak, you see. I only dared come out after that little girl from earlier moved away. She really was too frightening. I've never heard of someone that scary before."
"By Xu Fu, do you mean Xu Fu? She really is very strong. Yesterday, we ran into a very dangerous spirit, and she eliminated it in an instant."
"...Hm? What did you just say?"
His narrowed eyes instantly opened wide and round, and the shrine priest looked at Yayoi Hozuki in disbelief.
"I said we ran into..."
"Not that part. A little earlier."
"...By Xu Fu, do you mean Xu Fu?"
"Yes, that. What did you say that little girl's name was? Xu Fu? That's her name? Is it the 'Xu Fu' I know? Or does it only sound similar?"
"It's that Xu Fu, not a similar-sounding name. We were very surprised too, that Xu Fu would have the same name as the ancient fangshi who crossed east from China to Japan... Xu Fu said she was originally Chinese, and that she escaped to Japan because she caused some trouble over in China."
"..."
Listening to Yayoi Hozuki's description, the shrine priest's expression instantly became quite spectacular. It was the kind of expression one would make after discovering that Confucius had not only time-traveled to the modern day, but had also become a virtual streamer online with the appearance of a cute otokonoko.
"There must have been a reason our ancestor did this... There must have been a reason our ancestor did this... There must have been a reason our ancestor did this..."
The shrine priest bent over and held his forehead, looking as though he had suffered a major blow in life. He leaned against a nearby tree and muttered to himself for quite a while, and even Yayoi Hozuki could not hear what he was saying clearly.
He kept repeating the same sentence again and again, purely to force himself to believe it.
"Shrine Priest-san, are you an acquaintance of Xu Fu's?"
Yayoi Hozuki could hardly be blamed for asking. His behavior was far too attention-grabbing.
The shrine priest turned his head back. His eyes had returned to narrow slits.
"Please spare me." The shrine priest waved his hand with a bitter expression. "I'm not qualified to know someone that important. If I spent too much time around her, I'd definitely lose years off my life, wouldn't I? My poor little heart would give out first."
Yayoi Hozuki tilted her head in confusion.
Xu Fu was clearly easy to get along with. She was kind and warm, and she did not deliberately distance herself from other people. So far, they had all gotten along very well. Why was the shrine priest in front of her so afraid of Xu Fu?
Hmm... I don't get it.
"You said just now that you also encountered an evil spirit last night?" the shrine priest changed the subject. "Last night, an extremely evil aura did erupt in Kyoto. Even from here, I could feel malice so strong it seemed as though it would devour flesh and soul down to the last scrap. I really didn't know there was someone so dangerous in Kyoto..."
"Hmm... Barring anything unexpected, Shrine Priest-san, the one you're talking about should be Xu Fu."
"...?"
The shrine priest was dumbfounded again.
"Really? That overwhelming malice was something even the leader of the oni of Mount Oe never possessed. I thought it was some ancient kishin even older than that... But while that little girl's aura is frightening, and I don't know how she manages to carry so much [DEATH] on her, making her almost like a natural enemy to ghosts and the dead, I didn't sense [EVIL] in her aura at all?"
The shrine priest said many things Yayoi Hozuki did not understand, but she roughly grasped his meaning. Actually explaining it would be rather troublesome, though, so she had no choice but to bring out what Xu Fu had said last night.
"Xu Fu said this was originally a curse possessed by a kishin named Ryomen Sukuna. Later, the great onmyoji Ashiya Douman improved this curse into a technique humans could learn. After that, Xu Fu learned it."
Yayoi Hozuki's explanation not only failed to clear up the shrine priest's confusion, it made things worse. The doubts in his heart only grew.
"Ryomen Sukuna... Ashiya Douman... Hiss... Then why have I never seen Douman use this technique before...?"
"Hm? Shrine Priest-san, what did you just say?"
"Ah, ah, nothing. Don't mind me. It's only a little matter of no importance."
The shrine priest brushed it off casually.
"Speaking of which, there is actually a monster I want to deal with, but it is very, very, frighteningly, impossibly terrifying. I really do want to get rid of him, but if we fought, I would lose one hundred percent. It's truly troubling~."
"However, if it's you people, maybe..."
The shrine priest handed Yayoi Hozuki a book, one bound in an ancient style and looking extremely old.
Yayoi Hozuki said nothing and simply took it. The shrine priest was still smiling, though from that moment on, something else seemed to appear within that smile.
"The girl with starry eyes... I hope she can be saved. I'll pray for her too."
The girl with starry eyes referred to Ai Kamiyo, who had been chosen to become the god's bride. She was also Yayoi Hozuki and the others' companion, and their main reason for coming to Kyoto was to rescue Ai Kamiyo from the god Taisai Seikun.
For the sake of a still-living friend, Yayoi Hozuki had even set aside her obsession with finding Kuubou and saving her mother's soul.
But why did the shrine priest in front of her know Ai? Why did he know what they were about to do?
"Shrine Priest-san, just who are you...?"
The shrine priest turned around. Because his eyes were narrowed, it was unclear whether he was looking at Yayoi Hozuki or at the Abe no Seimei statue behind her.
"I am nothing. Just an ordinary shrine priest."
Leaving only those words behind, the slit-eyed shrine priest transformed into a wisp of white smoke and vanished without a trace.
Only then did Yayoi Hozuki understand that the shrine priest who had been chatting with her all this time had not been human at all, but a yokai or spirit. It was simply that her Yin-Yang Eyes had not been able to tell.
"Yayoi-chan, you were talking to yourself this whole time... Did something happen?"
Keitaro Gentoga and Eiko Hozuki had finished worshiping at the shrine's main hall and walked over with worried expressions. In their eyes, the shrine priest had not existed. From beginning to end, Yayoi Hozuki had been talking to herself.
"Hm? Yayoi-chan, what's that in your arms?" Eiko Hozuki noticed the book in Yayoi Hozuki's hands.
Only then did Yayoi Hozuki realize that although the shrine priest had left, the book he had given her was still in her hands.
She told the two in front of her the truth. "Something I got. Shrine Priest-san, the yokai in disguise, gave it to me."
"?!"
"A-a yokai?!"
Then wasn't this book something extremely dangerous? Would it call down a curse?
"I'm~ back~! Why do you all look so gloomy~? If you're feeling down, just look at cute little Xu Fu-chan. No matter who you are, seeing a beautiful girl as cute as Xu Fu-chan would put you in a better mood, right~?"
Xu Fu had returned as well, still as cheerful as ever, like a little bundle of joy.
Seeing Xu Fu return, Keitaro Gentoga and Eiko Hozuki looked as though they had seen their savior. If it was Taoist Miss Xu Fu, dealing with a yokai would surely be a piece of cake, right?
"Xu Fu-chan! Yayoi-chan ran into a yokai, and before that yokai left, it even gave Yayoi-chan a book. Please take a look at it for her."
"Hmm~? A yokai? Now that really is quite the fortuitous encounter. Then let Xu Fu-chan take a look for you~!"
Checking Yayoi herself was unnecessary. No one had cursed her. As for the book in her hand, though, it had indeed been cursed.
It was a curse similar to a safety lock. It had no effect on Xu Fu and the other three, but if anyone else tried to browse through the book's contents, they would be cursed. In a serious case, they might even bleed from all seven orifices and die violently on the spot.
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T/N: uhhhh we are ctaching up to patreon (patreon is at chapter 960 rn) im increasing powerstone requirments!
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