Chapter 80: Tail
Time slipped by.
The sun had long since set, and a cold wind moved over the land beneath the darkened sky. The chill had a sharper edge now, the kind that announced winter's approach even before the season truly arrived.
Inside the White Fox Office, Kasugano Sora stood by the window and watched the night deepen.
Then she turned around.
"Kotoko-nee, I'm heading out."
It was time.
The man-eating yokai only appeared after nightfall. If she wanted to catch a clue tonight—some trace, some pattern, anything useful—she had to move now. She did not want to keep dragging behind Gin and Kotoko. Even if her strength was limited, she wanted to help where she could.
"Be careful," Iwanaga Kotoko said. "The kappa and the others will accompany you. Night is their proper stage, after all."
She gave a few more reminders, then casually picked up the Yata Mirror replica from Gin's desk and handed it to Sora.
"Take this with you. It will protect you."
Sora looked at the ancient bronze mirror in surprise.
"Kotoko-nee, I don't think I need it. I'm only tracking and investigating. If anyone is in danger, it'll probably be Mr. Kappa and the others."
"Take it," Kotoko said without room for argument. "Leaving it here would just let it collect dust. You do have a chance of running into that unknown Yokai. If that happens, even if the opponent is troublesome, the Yata Mirror should buy enough time for the Director and me to arrive."
Since Kotoko had put it that way, Sora stopped refusing.
She accepted the mirror carefully.
A moment later, under Kotoko's gaze, Sora's soul separated from her body.
Her form shifted into a ghostly state. In one hand, she held the soul-hosting wood that anchored her spirit. In the other, she held the Yata Mirror replica. Then she floated out through the window and vanished into the thick night.
Once Sora left, only Kotoko remained in the office.
She sat down on the sofa, placed her second cup of steaming coffee beside her, opened her laptop, and began organizing the information she had collected that day.
Ten minutes passed.
Just as she finished sorting most of the important clues, she heard the office door open.
Kotoko looked up at once, pleasant surprise appearing on her face.
"Director, you're back."
The one who entered was indeed Gin Tsumugi.
"Has Sora already gone out?"
Gin glanced around and saw only Kotoko in the office.
"Yes. She left not long ago."
Kotoko nodded, then looked at him curiously.
"You came back late today, Director. Did you find something important? How was the harvest?"
"There was a harvest," Gin said, taking off his black trench coat and hanging it on the rack near the door. "But not the kind of major clue you're hoping for."
He walked to his desk.
"I've made a preliminary determination. The grotesque tree spirit branches are spreading from Shibuya Ward as their base, covering the area in layers."
"Layered coverage?"
Kotoko frowned, not immediately understanding.
Gin sat in his office chair, pulled a detailed map of Shibuya Ward from a drawer, and spread it across the desk. Then he picked up a red pen and marked every known location where grotesque tree spirit branches had appeared.
Kotoko walked over and studied the map carefully.
"I don't see a pattern."
She had performed similar calculations before.
The result had been the same: no clear pattern. The branches looked as though they had been placed randomly.
"Some things are buried deep underground," Gin said.
His eyes darkened slightly.
He picked up the red pen again and began connecting points on the map.
Line after line.
The red ink moved across Shibuya Ward, linking one location to another. In less than a minute, the map looked as though it had been covered by a large crimson web.
Kotoko's expression changed.
"This... Director, are you saying that even though the grotesque tree spirit branches on the surface have been destroyed, their roots have taken hold underground and are spreading through Shibuya?"
If that was true, the situation was far worse than she had imagined.
Shibuya Ward had a population of over two million.
If a supernatural incident had quietly spread its roots beneath the entire district, then a single disturbance could cause casualties to skyrocket. Corpses could be strewn across the streets before anyone even understood what had happened.
"It's very cunning," Gin said. "Or rather, the person who deployed the grotesque tree spirits is very cunning."
He tapped the web of red lines on the map.
"The roots of these branches are distributed and connected through different layers of soil. If my spirit-sight hadn't improved massively after my breakthrough, I would never have noticed the traces."
Gin exhaled.
Fortunately, he had gone personally.
Otherwise, they might still be blind to the true scale of the threat.
"Then we have to deal with it as soon as possible," Kotoko said at once.
The longer they delayed, the greater the danger to Shibuya Ward became.
Whoever deployed the grotesque tree spirits had hidden their roots across multiple soil layers to confuse investigators. That alone proved this was no ordinary outbreak. There was a larger scheme behind it.
At the same time, Kotoko finally understood something else.
No wonder the grotesque tree spirits that devoured human flesh had not produced many blood-red fruits.
No wonder even the fruits that had formed withered so quickly when onmyoji attacked.
The flesh and blood they devoured had not been stored in the visible branches.
It had been converted into nutrients and sent underground, feeding the roots buried beneath Shibuya, weaving a vast net large enough to cover the entire ward.
The branches destroyed by the onmyoji from various supernatural investigation offices had only been the surface manifestations.
Their true bodies had already shifted elsewhere.
"It's difficult," Gin said. "Very difficult."
He shook his head.
"Setting aside everything else, just the fact that the roots are spread across different soil layers makes uprooting them nearly impossible. To pull them all out, we would have to turn the entire Shibuya Ward upside down."
"That's not realistic."
"Then..." Kotoko's brows tightened. "We can't just watch it continue."
She had not forgotten what Gin said before.
The grotesque tree spirit incident was a game between two unknown powerful entities.
But she had not expected the scope to become this broad, dragging the entirety of Shibuya Ward into the board.
"Don't panic," Gin said.
His voice was calm, steady enough to make her breathe again.
"Even if we paid a huge price to eliminate every root hidden underground, it would still only treat the symptoms. The person behind this could simply scatter new grotesque tree spirits elsewhere."
He looked at the map.
"Our goal hasn't changed. Find that person first."
"As long as we eliminate them and the main vein of the grotesque tree spirit in their possession, the roots underground will wither and dissipate on their own, even if we ignore them."
Kotoko slowly calmed down.
That was indeed the core of the problem.
The roots were dangerous.
But the person holding the source was the true target.
As for the two unknown powerful beings hiding even deeper in the shadows, they could not worry about those yet.
"Tell me what you found," Gin said.
Kotoko nodded and began recounting everything she had discovered at the apartment building near Minegishi Great Affiliated Academy.
"After Kuda Mai went missing, which should be around the time the Wedding Dress Tree entered its second hunting stage, strange and miserable fox cries were heard in the apartment building."
"An unknown presence entered room 405. I suspect it may have been Kuda Mai."
"There were fresh bloodstains and carved writing on the back of a framed photograph."
She explained each clue in detail.
Gin listened quietly.
The information pieces entered his mind like scattered fragments of a broken puzzle, colliding and fitting together one by one.
"Based on the writing on the photo frame," Kotoko continued, "I can determine that the carving was done well before the Wedding Dress Tree appeared. That means Kuda Mai was already caught in another supernatural incident long before she came into contact with the Wedding Dress Tree."
Gin nodded.
"I agree."
The contents carved into the back of the photo frame revealed enough.
Everything most likely originated from that hairpin.
It was precisely because of the hairpin that the Wedding Dress Tree incident and the grotesque tree spirit incident were connected.
As for the unknown presence that entered room 405 and was suspected to be Kuda Mai—
Gin fell into thought.
Back in the Wedding Dress Tree's domain, he had indeed seen Kuda Mai turned into a Wedding Dress Bride and hung from the tree.
But looking back now, there had been a major doubt.
When he used the Fire Boundary spell to liberate the Wedding Dress Brides, the souls he freed had thanked him one by one.
But Kuda Mai's soul had not seemed to be among them.
At the time, since the Wedding Dress Tree had already been destroyed, Gin had not paid attention to that detail.
Now, however, that omission stood out.
The one who entered room 405 was very likely Kuda Mai.
A Kuda Mai who had not truly died.
How she had faked her death and escaped the Wedding Dress Tree's predation remained unknown.
"I'm sorry, Director," Kotoko said quietly. "If I had investigated more carefully during the Wedding Dress Tree incident, perhaps we wouldn't have missed such an important clue."
Gin shook his head.
He looked at the photo frame in his hand, then said softly, "Perhaps even if I had gone personally back then, I might not have found this frame."
Kotoko looked at him in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"The timing wasn't right."
Gin set the photo frame down.
"It's only a rough guess. Leave that aside for now. Let's talk about Kuda Mai's parents instead. I'm becoming more and more curious about what kind of supernatural incident their family had fallen into before the Wedding Dress Tree."
His gaze lowered slightly.
"Besides the hairpin, there must be another connection to the Wedding Dress Tree itself. And then there's the so-called fox curse."
Kotoko pulled up the information the authorities had investigated and began explaining.
"Kuda Mai's family was originally a family of three. They lived in Yayo Town, between Shibuya Ward and Shinjuku Ward. It's considered a relatively wealthy town in that area, and according to the information gathered, the family atmosphere used to be very harmonious."
Her tone grew more serious.
"But everything changed one year ago, when Kuda Mai was in her first year at Houjuo High school. Almost overnight, the personalities of her parents changed drastically."
"The originally gentle couple became irritable and narrow-minded. Not long afterward, they went mad and disappeared. Since then, Kuda Mai never returned to Yayo Town."
Kotoko scrolled through the records.
"After that, many rumors began spreading around Kuda Mai's family. The most common one is that they offended a goddess and were cursed."
Gin's eyes moved.
"A goddess and a curse?"
"Yes."
Kotoko nodded.
"In Yayo Town, there has always been a custom of holding festivals for a goddess. The exact deity from mythology is unknown. According to local legend, back in the age when monsters ran rampant, that goddess bestowed a blessing that protected the town from harm."
Gin nodded slowly.
That itself was not especially strange.
Many rural towns and old settlements around Tokyo had similar legends and customs. The Supernatural Revival had only made people start taking those stories seriously again.
What concerned him was different.
What connection did this goddess's curse have with the "fox curse" carved on the back of the photo frame?
"For now, that's all the authorities have found," Kotoko said.
Gin fell into quiet thought.
Some things were beginning to align.
Kuda Mai's parents had encountered a supernatural incident, causing their temperaments to change drastically.
Perhaps Kuda Mai herself had experienced the same thing.
According to what Gin had learned from Touma Kazusa, Kuda Mai had not originally been narrow-minded or malicious. It was only after later changes that the people around her began to think her earlier personality had been a facade.
Those changes had eventually pushed events toward the Wedding Dress Tree incident.
"It looks like I'll need to go to Yayo Town tomorrow," Gin said. "Kotoko, come with me."
"Understood, Director."
After that, the two continued sorting through the information in hand, exploring every possible lead.
Late into the night, Sora returned from outside carrying the Yata Mirror.
Her face was full of disappointment.
One look was enough to know that tonight's investigation had produced no gains.
In Minato Ward, inside the Shinomiya manor—
"He agreed."
In her bedroom, Shinomiya Kaguya stood by the window while speaking on the phone with Haruka Shizumiya in the Imperial Palace.
"The time is set for one week from now, on the eve of Shuten-dōji's subordinate coming for me."
"What is your impression of him?"
Kaguya looked toward the direction of Shibuya Ward beyond the glass.
"His logical thinking is excellent," she said. "He also seems to have an extremely deep understanding of Shuten-dōji."
She paused briefly.
"I can't deny that in both strength and vision, he isn't someone ordinary onmyoji can compare to. He lives up to the title of White Fox, the rare genius of Onmyodo."
Kaguya's voice grew more thoughtful.
"From the way he spoke, he has the absolute confidence to contend with a Great Yokai-level existence. You should know that there aren't many people in modern Onmyodo who can give such an assurance."
Her fingers lightly brushed the curtain.
"I suspect White Fox Gin Tsumugi has already broken through to National-level strength. The outside world only knows that he successfully formed his Onmyodo Framework, but I doubt that is the whole truth."
"Anything else?" Haruka asked from the other end of the phone.
She seemed eager to know more.
"This was only my first meeting with him," Kaguya said. "If you want me to understand him more deeply—or uncover what secrets he is hiding—that will have to wait."
"Be extra careful on your end."
"I will."
The call ended soon after.
Kaguya lowered the phone and looked out into the thick night, silent and deep in thought.
At the same time, in Chiyoda Ward, within the Imperial Palace—
"One week from now."
Haruka Shizumiya returned the phone to its hiding place and murmured beneath the moonlight.
"White Fox Gin Tsumugi... everything will be revealed then."
Outside the window, the moonlight was pale.
And beneath that pale light, something terrifying appeared.
Behind Haruka's slender figure, her shadow stretched across the floor.
From it, nine tails emerged.
They swayed silently, like a dance of demons.
Flickering.
Illusory.
Almost alive.
.....
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