Chapter 44: A Temporary Wait
Master.
That single word struck the Tsuchimikado couple and the others harder than any curse or spiritual blast.
For a few breaths, no one could even think.
Who were Zenki and Koki?
They were not ordinary shikigami. They were legendary Kishin whose names had been passed down through the history of Onmyodo itself.
Their first master had been Yakushi Kaku, the ancestor of Kamo no Tadataka and one of the founders of Onmyodo. Their second master had been Abe no Seimei, the Great Onmyoji of the Heian era, the ancestor from whom the Tsuchimikado Clan traced its bloodline and prestige.
For a thousand years, those two names had stood like peaks no one could reach.
And now, the two Kishin who had once served such figures were kneeling before a young man from Tokyo.
How could anyone possibly remain calm?
The Kamo Family had failed to command them.
The Tsuchimikado Clan had failed to command them.
Generation after generation had tried to subdue them, contract them, or at least make them obey. Every attempt had ended in failure. That was why Zenki and Koki had remained sealed all this time, like a disaster waiting to happen beneath the family estate. If they could have been controlled, there would never have been any need for a seal in the first place. Hirotaka would not have been prepared to destroy a portion of the clan's heritage just to keep them trapped here.
That was the part that made the scene before them so terrifying.
These two Kishin, whom even the Tsuchimikado Clan feared, were not resisting.
They were bowing.
Gin Tsumugi stood before them in silence.
Then, with an expression no one present could quite read, he softly spoke two names.
"Zendo. Myodo."
The moment those names left his lips, Zenki and Koki trembled.
Their violent malice, which had shaken the estate only moments ago, vanished completely. Even their enormous bodies seemed to quiver with a kind of emotion that did not belong on creatures like them.
Joy.
Relief.
Something close to grief.
The world knew them only as Zenki and Koki. The names Zendo and Myodo had long since been buried by time. Everyone who had once known those names should have vanished into history a thousand years ago.
And yet this person had called them without the slightest hesitation.
Their master had not forgotten.
For Zenki and Koki, that alone made a thousand years of waiting worthwhile.
Gin Tsumugi stepped forward.
The Tsuchimikado couple instinctively tensed, but the two Kishin did not move. They only lowered themselves further, like retainers receiving their lord.
Then Gin Tsumugi raised a hand and patted them on the head.
The motion was simple, almost casual. But there was something in it that made Tsuchimikado Natsume's heart tremble.
It was not the gesture of someone performing a trick.
It was the gesture of someone returning to something deeply familiar.
"You've worked hard these past thousand years."
His voice was quiet.
Those words were not merely spoken by Gin Tsumugi. In that moment, they carried the weight of someone else as well. The guilt. The apology. The unresolved bond left behind by Abe no Seimei himself.
And for Gin Tsumugi, those feelings were not false.
He had seen them before.
Not just once, but many times.
Not through records or stories, but through those dreams from a thousand years ago, back in the Heian era, when the night belonged to yokai and human life was as fragile as paper under rain.
In those memories, when "he" had only just begun taking on missions for the Onmyoryo, it had been Kamo no Tadataka who entrusted Zenki and Koki with secretly protecting him.
That had been the first time the two Kishin had left the Kamo Family after Yakushi Kaku's passing.
Again and again, when danger came, they had appeared.
When monsters struck, it was they who tore them apart.
When powerful yokai moved from the shadows, it was they who hunted them down, even when they themselves returned covered in wounds.
More than once, "he" had seen them in the dead of night, bloodied and battered, dragging back the limbs of the yokai that had tried to kill him.
They had never complained.
They had simply remained at his side.
In that age, when the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons was at its height and the whole world seemed on the verge of being swallowed by darkness, Zenki and Koki had been his guardian Kishin.
Without them, Abe no Seimei might never have become Abe no Seimei.
That emotion, that memory, that connection, all of it now lingered in Gin Tsumugi's eyes.
"I won't leave again this time."
The words came out almost like a promise.
Zenki and Koki shook with excitement.
"Master...!"
"Master...!"
Their voices were rough and monstrous, yet the joy in them was unmistakable.
But then Gin Tsumugi looked at them, and his tone softened further.
"Zendo. Myodo. I still can't take you with me yet."
The excitement in their eyes dimmed at once.
It was subtle, but everyone present saw it.
Zenki and Koki looked at him almost pleadingly, as though terrified that the moment he turned away, he would vanish once more for another thousand years.
Gin Tsumugi seemed ready to explain.
But before he could speak, Koki suddenly paused.
The blue Kishin sniffed lightly, then looked more carefully at Gin Tsumugi's body, his aura, his current spiritual state. It was far weaker than what it had once been. That alone told Koki what words could not.
Then Koki nudged Zenki.
Zenki's six eyes flickered. He seemed to understand as well.
Koki glanced toward Hirotaka, Chizuru, Natsume, and Harutora. Then she turned back toward Gin Tsumugi with solemn understanding.
"Master... we will wait."
Gin Tsumugi gave a slight nod.
"Go back for now. I won't make you wait too long."
Zenki and Koki rose together.
Their huge forms straightened, but all of the earlier violence was gone.
"Master, we obey."
The two Kishin bowed one last time, then turned into black shadows and shot across the sky, returning toward the dried well from which they had escaped.
Compared to their earlier rampage, their retreat was almost gentle.
A sparrow shaped reconnaissance shikigami flew out from nearby and landed on Hirotaka's shoulder moments later, relaying what it had seen.
"They've returned," Hirotaka murmured blankly. "Zenki and Koki... really returned to the well."
He could hardly believe his own words.
Tsuchimikado Chizuru stared in stunned silence.
Tsuchimikado Natsume stood rooted in place, her thoughts a mess.
Harutora's face had gone completely rigid.
No one knew what to say.
This was no illusion.
No deception.
No hidden talisman trick.
The legendary Kishin had obeyed Gin Tsumugi as naturally as breathing.
.....
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