After eating, I packed my main duffel bag. I moved carefully, methodically checking off a mental inventory. Clothes. Field tools. First aid. Legendary Papers. I checked every single pocket and compartment twice.
"No mistakes," I muttered to myself, zipping the bag shut. "Not this time."
By 2:14 PM, I had my car in gear and was pulling up to Haroku's building.
The walk up to his door took seconds. I knocked twice. "Haroku. We good?"
The door swung open instantly. He stood there with his heavy bag slung over one shoulder. "I've been ready."
I gave a sharp nod. "Good. Let's go."
We didn't waste any time with small talk. Within minutes, we were on the highway, watching the dense concrete of the city fade in the rearview mirror. The road stretched out ahead of us—long, quiet, and leading straight into the unknown.
For the first twenty miles, neither of us said a word.
Finally, I broke the silence.
"This time... we need to be flawlessly prepared," I said, keeping my eyes on the asphalt.
Haroku glanced over at me. "I know. We have no idea what's actually waiting in that vault."
I paused, tapping my thumb against the steering wheel. "Actually, I think there is something actively waiting at the estate."
His expression immediately shifted from relaxed to alert. "What kind of something?"
"A spirit."
He straightened up in his seat. "You conveniently forgot to mention that."
"It's not hostile," I clarified. "At least... not to me."
Haroku crossed his arms. "'Not to me?'" he repeated flatly.
"It's a guardian entity," I explained. "It was bound there to protect the house, and specifically to protect whatever is hidden inside."
Haroku leaned back against the headrest, processing the new variable. "Alright. Start from the beginning."
I checked the mirrors and merged into the passing lane. "When I turned sixteen, my grandfather created it."
That got his full attention.
"He used what little spiritual strength he had left at the time," I continued. "He knew I was going to need protection after he was gone. And he knew that eventually, I'd have to come back to this place."
"And this guardian recognizes your bloodline?"
"Yes."
"Which means I'm the problem," Haroku concluded.
I almost smiled. "There's a bypass for that."
He looked at me, waiting.
"A vocal passcode," I said.
"What's the code?"
"When we reach the perimeter, you have to say it directly to the entity." I kept my eyes focused on the road ahead. "You tell it: 'Let's be thousand-year warriors.'"
Haroku repeated the phrase under his breath, testing the words. "...That's the code?"
"That's enough to let you pass."
He nodded slowly. "Alright. I've got it."
Silence returned to the cabin, save for the hum of the tires against the road. But there was one last piece of the puzzle I needed to give him.
"There's something else you need to know," I said.
His attention sharpened instantly.
"This guardian spirit... it isn't an ordinary summon anymore," I warned him.
"What do you mean?"
"It wasn't just created and left alone to slowly fade," I said. "It's being actively maintained."
"By who?"
I exhaled a slow breath. "The Spirit Palace and the Eight Elite Spirit Hunter's of that time."
The name landed like a lead weight in the car.
"The what?"
"They've been quietly working on it for years," I explained. "Pumping energy into it. Strengthening the wards. Keeping the guardian operating at maximum capacity."
Haroku didn't speak for several seconds. He stared out the windshield, digesting exactly what that meant for our timeline.
"...So we aren't just dealing with an old creation your grandfather left behind," he finally said.
"No," I replied, tightening my grip on the steering wheel. "We're dealing with something being fueled by an entire society of elite hunters. It's going to be incredibly strong."
The road stretched endlessly ahead of us. Above the tree line, the afternoon sky had begun to shift, the clouds thickening into gray.
And the deeper we drove into the countryside, the clearer reality became. This wasn't just a trip down memory lane. We weren't just digging up the past.
We were driving straight into something massive. Something highly guarded and incredibly dangerous.
And whether we were fully ready or not, we were already on our way.