This was genuine regeneration—not some half-baked recovery ability, but true regeneration.
The kind where even if part of your body was completely erased, it could slowly grow back over time. A downright absurd power.
These days, if you showed up as a boss-level enemy without some kind of regeneration ability, you'd honestly be too embarrassed to call yourself a boss.
Granted, what Ren Kuroda had obtained was merely "Regeneration," not the even more advanced "High-Speed Regeneration," but he was still more than satisfied.
In fact, the moment he acquired the skill, Ren felt an intense itching sensation spread across his left shoulder. When he pulled his clothes aside to look, he discovered that the wound on his shoulder was visibly healing at a rapid pace.
The injury inflicted by the Kusanagi Sword hadn't been limited to surface damage alone—but now, after gaining Regeneration, the wounds on his body were undeniably restoring themselves at astonishing speed.
An A-rank Regeneration ability wasn't the strongest by any means, but it was far from weak. At the very least, Ren could tell that even if he lost an arm or a leg, there'd be no need to rush to a hospital. As long as he had yokai power, he could regenerate it himself in no time.
Two lottery pulls at the cost of twenty thousand prestige points. The gains weren't enough to make Ren ecstatic—but they certainly didn't make him feel cheated.
When he inserted the final diamond coin into the machine, his heart was already perfectly calm.
After seeing what "Regeneration" could do, Ren realized that even a so-called "consolation prize" was acceptable—as long as it suited him.
The crisp sound of a coin dropping echoed out. The glowing lights began racing around the machine once more under Ren's watchful gaze. As the number of rotations increased, the speed gradually slowed… until everything came to a halt.
And when the lights finally stopped, Ren's gaze froze with them.
The moment he saw where the lights had landed, his mind went blank.
Because this time, the lights had stopped on one of the four red slots.
One of the jackpots he hadn't even dared to hope for—had actually been pulled.
"Item Name: Endless Wine GourdItem Rank: SSItem Description: A mysterious gourd born of heaven and earth. It can grow larger or smaller at will and can fly through the air.Within the gourd exists a self-contained world that naturally brews fine liquor. The wine inside replenishes itself automatically. Each cycle in which the gourd's wine is not consumed will further improve the quality of the brew."
Yes—when Ren saw what this "grand prize" actually was, he was completely dumbfounded.
An SS-rank item was undeniably incredible… but the fact that it was a wine gourd left him speechless.
He had just awakened the oni ability "Born to Drink," and now the system had gone and handed him an SS-rank wine gourd.
If there wasn't something suspicious going on here, Ren would eat his own sword.
What was this supposed to mean—was the system determined to send him spiraling down the path of becoming a full-blown alcoholic?
That said, an SS-rank item was still an SS-rank item. Aside from endlessly producing alcohol and improving its quality, the gourd could also be used for flight—and even for defense.
When Ren retrieved the Endless Wine Gourd, he found that it didn't look all that different from an ordinary gourd.
But the instant he popped the stopper, a rich, mellow fragrance of alcohol spilled out, flooding the air around him. Even Ren—who normally had zero interest in alcohol—felt himself grow slightly intoxicated just from the scent alone.
Since he had alcohol on hand anyway, and wanted to test both his current alcohol tolerance and the effects of the "Born to Drink" skill, Ren hesitated only briefly before tilting his head back and taking a huge gulp—
—
At the Keikain estate, every elder from both the main house and the branch families had gathered together, urgently discussing countermeasures against Hagoromo Gitsune.
It had only been thirteen days since Hagoromo Gitsune began attacking the seals around Kyoto. Yet five of the eight seals had already fallen, and nearly ten Keikain clan members tasked with guarding them had died at her hands.
Due to the curse Hagoromo Gitsune placed four hundred years ago, members of the Keikain main house were fated to die young. To preserve the bloodline, the main family had no choice but to continuously select outstanding individuals from the branch families and raise them as heirs.
Even so, it was undeniable that after centuries of relying on this method—while also contending with Hagoromo Gitsune's curse—the Keikain clan had steadily declined.
Another group suffering from a similar curse was the Nurarihyon clan. Because of it, they could only marry human women in order to produce offspring.
And constant intermarriage with humans inevitably diluted the yokai bloodline.
By the time of Rikuo Nura, the third generation, his yokai blood accounted for barely a quarter of his lineage.
The Keikain clan had originally assumed that since the second head of the Nura Clan, Nurarihyon's son Nura Rihan, was a half-demon yet overwhelmingly powerful, then Rikuo—though perhaps weaker—should still be formidable.
But what they hadn't expected was that the Nura Clan, whom Ryūji had gone to great lengths to summon from the Kantō region, would accomplish absolutely nothing after entering Kyoto… only to be driven out again in disgrace.
Now the situation had returned to its worst possible state.
Once again, the Keikain clan was left alone to face the terrifying Hagoromo Gitsune.
Within the clan council, two opposing opinions had formed.
The older members—who truly understood how frightening Hagoromo Gitsune was—argued that the remaining three seals had to be fortified at all costs.
The younger members, however—including the three successors led by Keikain Akifusa, who were guarding the final three layers—believed that passive defense was pointless.
Hagoromo Gitsune was strong, yes—but she hadn't fully recovered yet.
And were the Keikain really made of clay? Rather than waiting to be crushed one by one, wouldn't it be better to gather their remaining strength at the final seal and fight her to the death?
The clan meeting quickly devolved into something resembling a marketplace.
The elders accused the younger generation of being naïve, ignorant of Hagoromo Gitsune's true terror.
The younger members fired back, saying the elders were just clinging to seniority—and had already been scared out of their wits before the battle even began.
Just as the argument reached a boiling point, Keikain Ryūji entered the hall with Mamiru in tow and reported what they had witnessed to the current head of the Keikain clan.
"So… that faction of yokai also came from the Kantō region?" the clan head murmured."And they possess the strength to effortlessly defeat Hagoromo Gitsune's commanders. That's something we can't ignore.For now, they don't seem to be aligned with Hagoromo Gitsune—but we also can't rule out the possibility that they may eventually become our enemies."
The current clan head—his beard long, a cane clasped in his hand—narrowed his eyes thoughtfully after hearing Ryūji's report.
"Wasn't Yura studying in Kantō until recently?" he asked."Does she know anything about this yokai faction?"
At the suggestion of one of the elders, Keikain Yura—who had been practicing 『Shikigami: Breaking Star』—was quickly summoned to the hall.
Anyone qualified to attend this meeting was either an elder or an elite of the clan. Once Yura arrived, there wasn't a single person younger than her present. No matter who she spoke to, it was all "big brother" and "big sister."
But when the clan head asked whether she knew of any powerful yokai factions in Kantō aside from the Nura Clan, Yura's expressionless face filled with pure confusion.
She hadn't spent long in Ukihashi Town—and most of her time there had been wasted messing around with the Blue Cross Occult Detective Agency.
Forget unfamiliar yokai factions—she'd only encountered the local powerhouse, the Nura Clan, once or twice at most.
"Clan Head, you really shouldn't count on Yura," Ryūji said mercilessly, as always."I seriously doubt she has any self-awareness as an onmyōji. She treated the Nurarihyon's grandson as a normal classmate for ages without realizing anything. Relying on her is completely unreliable."
Ryūji's tongue was as sharp as ever when it came to his little sister—yet in front of outsiders, his overprotectiveness bordered on absurd.
Flustered after having her embarrassing past exposed so publicly, Yura hurriedly offered an opinion she believed could help the current situation.
They should request assistance from other onmyōji families.
After all, the crisis Hagoromo Gitsune posed wasn't the Keikain clan's burden alone.
And from what she'd seen in Ukihashi Town, Yura knew that other onmyōji lineages still existed in this world—she'd met people from them herself.
"Don't be ridiculous," Ryūji shot back."We can't even be sure whether other proper onmyōji clans still exist. And even if they do, how could they possibly compare to the Keikain?Besides, why would they help us?"
His words were arrogant—but they earned nods of agreement from most of the Keikain present.
Four hundred years ago, when Hagoromo Gitsune had thrown Kyoto into chaos, the only onmyōji family that stood up had been the Keikain.
Perhaps other schools existed—but those weak lineages would be useless in a battle of this scale. At worst, they probably couldn't even defeat one of Hagoromo Gitsune's commanders.
"That's not true!" Yura protested."The senior brother I met in Ukihashi Town was incredibly strong!I saw him kill a B-rank rat yokai with a single motion—and he drove back Rikuo… I mean, he forced the Nurarihyon's grandson and his Hyakki Yakō to retreat all by himself.There's no way someone like that comes from some third-rate onmyōji family."
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