Chapter 29: The Sacrifice Begins
The reason the Onmyo Agency had failed to find anything unusual during its first investigation at Houjou University Attached High School was now perfectly clear.
It was because of the double concealment created by the Wedding Dress Tree's Ghost Domain and the ancient seal layered over it.
Later, when the tree had been uprooted and sealed by the Onmyo Bureau, the one that mysteriously vanished from under their watch had clearly only been a substitute.
As for the sudden corruption of Bing Lake's water in the academy park, that too had an explanation. Yin energy had been leaking from the damaged seal at the bottom of the lake for a long time. Because the leak was hidden so deep beneath the water, that faint seepage had been easy to overlook.
Even the point where the seal had actually broken matched his deductions.
It was the very place where Gin Tsumugi and Setsuna had torn their way into this Domain. The black wound in the sky that had slowly healed after they entered was proof enough.
At first, Gin had strongly approved of the phrase written in the files Dairenji Suzuka had sent him.
Supernatural Recovery.
And in a broad sense, that was exactly what this incident was. A monster that had been sealed away in the Heian Period a thousand years ago had somehow broken free in the modern age and returned to activity.
Of course, several doubts still remained.
The hairpin he had sealed.
How Kuda Mai had learned of the Wedding Dress Tree, and how she had managed to control it, however briefly.
Why the Wedding Dress Tree had used two very different methods of harvesting human lives in its two stages.
All of those were still unresolved.
But just as Gin had already concluded back at the White Fox Office, solving a supernatural incident did not require uncovering every hidden cause behind it. He was an onmyoji, not a detective. He needed to know what mattered most.
The earlier deductions had only been necessary to extract enough information to dismantle the incident itself.
"Gin... what do we do now?"
Setsuna's voice had only just fallen when a heavy knocking sounded against the wooden door.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The sound was dull, yet it struck her nerves like a hammer. Her face turned pale at once.
She knew better than anyone by now that nothing living in Mingao Village could be called human.
Gin, however, remained calm.
He walked over and pulled the door open.
An old woman stood outside.
Her gray white hair was dry and filthy, hanging over half her withered face. Only one eye socket was clearly visible, and there was no trace of white in that eye at all, only a dead, eerie darkness. The moment the door opened, that gaze slid past Gin and locked directly onto Setsuna behind him.
For a long moment, the old woman simply stared.
Then a hoarse, sharp voice clawed its way out of her throat.
"No... no..."
"You are not my daughter."
"Where is my daughter? Where is she?!"
Her voice broke apart, turning more unstable with every word.
"It was a demon. A demon that eats people. We were wrong. She was right..."
"Everyone was eaten by her..."
"Run. Run quickly. Otherwise it will eat you too. Sooner or later, it will eat you too..."
After seeming to confirm that Setsuna was not the person she sought, the old woman stumbled away into the darkness and vanished.
Setsuna stood frozen.
For the first time since entering Mingao Village, the fear in her heart was mixed with something else.
Sorrow.
She looked at the closed doorway and asked softly, "Gin... was her daughter sacrificed to the Wedding Dress Tree too?"
Gin shut the door.
"Yes."
He turned back toward the room.
"In order to keep receiving the Wedding Dress Tree's protection, the villagers first sacrificed girls from their own village. Later, as the tree's appetite grew larger and larger, things turned into the tragedy I told you about."
Setsuna lowered her head. Her fingers slowly tightened.
Gin continued in a flat voice.
"After the Wedding Dress Tree was sealed, these villagers who had served it so faithfully met the ending they had earned. They were devoured by the same thing they had once worshipped, and their souls were turned into Ghost Servants."
Setsuna fell silent.
A thousand years ago, there had already been people willing to feed their own daughters, their neighbors, even strangers, to a Yokai, all for the sake of protecting their own miserable lives. She did not dare think too deeply about whether the age she lived in now, with supernatural recovery worsening by the day, might one day descend into the same madness.
Then Gin suddenly spoke.
"The sacrifice is beginning."
That single sentence snapped Setsuna back to herself.
She hurried to the window and looked outside.
The village was no longer wrapped in total darkness.
At some point, white funeral lanterns had been hung in front of every wooden house. Their dim, corpse colored light illuminated the streets with a ghastly pallor. On each lantern was written a single awkward character.
Mourning.
At the same time, the distant beat of drums and the clang of bronze gongs drifted through the village.
The procession had started.
Led by the same old man who had welcomed them into the Village, the villagers moved in formation through the streets. Their faces were stiff and livid, their features ferocious in the lantern light. One after another, they performed strange ritual gestures as they walked, half dance and half funeral rite.
At the very rear of the procession, eight villagers carried an open coffin.
Inside lay Touma Kazusa.
Her eyes were dull and vacant, without the slightest trace of life or thought. Her face had been painted with painstaking care, and the bridal robes draped over her were even more exquisite now than before, their style unmistakably of the Heian Period.
The sight made Setsuna's blood run cold.
Then, in the northeast corner of the village, where there had been nothing earlier, the Wedding Dress Tree appeared.
It did not emerge all at once.
It simply became visible, as though it had always been there and only now allowed itself to be seen.
Its twisted trunk rose in silence. From its branches hung the brides in their ancient robes, motionless at first, like offerings left to rot in the wind.
Then every one of them opened her eyes.
Their black, hollow sockets stared at the approaching procession with limitless resentment and hatred.
And the moment their gaze fell upon Touma Kazusa inside the coffin, every face on that tree slowly split into a smile.
.....
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