Chapter 81: A Minor Episode on the Subway
"Ding. Shibuya Station. Passengers, please take your belongings and disembark in an orderly manner."
"Next stop—Shinjuku."
A subway train bound for Shinjuku Ward eased into Shibuya Station, brakes hissing softly as it came to a stop. A moment later, the doors slid open.
Passengers carrying bags and briefcases stepped out in neat, scattered lines.
Perhaps because the morning rush hour for work and school had already passed, only a dozen or so people got off at this stop. Even fewer boarded.
Only two people entered from the platform.
A man and a woman.
The girl was petite, with proper posture and delicate features. A beret rested on her small head, making her look even cuter than she already was. With a cane in hand and a composed air around her, she carried the refined charm of a young lady from a wealthy family. She was the sort of beautiful girl who naturally drew repeated glances.
Unfortunately, beside the boy next to her, even that charm seemed slightly overshadowed.
Several passengers getting off the train unconsciously slowed their steps.
Men and women.
Young and old.
Almost everyone who saw him showed a flicker of amazement.
It was difficult to imagine that such a handsome boy could exist in reality.
His eyes were an elegant misty blue, clear and luminous. His lips carried the soft beauty of cherry blossoms. His features leaned toward a gentle, almost androgynous refinement, while his shoulder-length silver hair shone with a silky luster. His skin was fine and pale, like flawless porcelain. Even standing quietly, he had a unique air of grace and calm, as if he were the most carefully crafted work heaven had ever made.
"How is it, Director?"
Iwanaga Kotoko nudged Gin Tsumugi lightly with her elbow, her voice full of teasing.
"A one-hundred-percent turn-back rate. Everyone staring at you. Not bad, right? Are you starting to feel a little narcissistic? A little proud?"
Gin glanced at her helplessly.
Then he took out a mask and covered the face that had become increasingly "troublesome" after his advancement.
Around them, several people looked visibly regretful.
Some regretted not taking a photo quickly enough.
Others hesitated, clearly struggling with whether they should shamelessly go up and ask for his number.
What made Gin's skin crawl most was that even a few greasy middle-aged men had begun to show signs of interest.
That was too much.
Gin immediately grabbed Kotoko and walked into the train.
Once they found seats, he finally let out a breath.
This prickling sensation of being stared at from every direction was honestly worse than fighting a Great Yokai.
"It seems I'll have to wear a mask whenever I go out," Gin said. "Either that, or use a charm to blur my features."
"This is the treatment given to goddess-level beauties," Kotoko said, cheerfully rubbing salt into the wound. "Countless girls would be jealous. Director, you should learn to be content."
She sounded as though she had finally found one of Gin's weaknesses and intended to treasure it properly.
Gin gave her a quiet look.
Kotoko's instincts immediately screamed.
A bad feeling rose in her heart.
Sure enough—
"Spirit Word: Silence."
The next second—
"Mmph! Mmph, mmph!"
Kotoko's voice vanished.
It felt as if something invisible had stuffed itself into her mouth, sealing her vocal cords and leaving her able to make only muffled sounds.
She tried to break the Spirit Word with her own methods.
Unfortunately, if it had been before Gin's breakthrough to National level, she might have had some chance.
Now?
Her methods were not even close.
With no other option, Kotoko turned toward Gin with watery eyes full of grievance and innocence, silently begging him to show mercy and release the technique.
Gin was unmoved.
He glanced at her and said, "The Spirit Word will expire automatically when we reach Yeyu Town. It's good for you to stay quiet for a while."
Kotoko's eyes widened.
She glared at him with great dissatisfaction.
Her expression said everything.
You can't treat me like this.
Yeyu Town was in the buffer zone between Shibuya Ward and Shinjuku Ward, but getting there was inconvenient. They needed to ride the subway for an hour first, then transfer to a bus for another two hours.
In other words, Gin planned to silence her for three full hours.
Not speaking for three hours was not unbearable. Kotoko was not exactly a chatterbox.
But being forcibly silenced still made her extremely unhappy.
Stingy man.
She cursed him in her heart, then turned her head away and refused to look at him.
With Kotoko no longer chirping in his ear, Gin finally felt the world become peaceful.
He leaned back slightly, preparing to close his eyes and rest until the train reached Shinjuku.
Then—
"Hmm?"
His eyes opened.
For a fleeting instant, he sensed an extremely powerful surge of spiritual energy ripple through the carriage.
Its intensity completely surpassed his own.
But when he tried to trace it, the presence had already vanished without a trace, disappearing as quickly as a mirage.
"Stronger than my spiritual power..."
Gin's gaze shifted quietly.
"Is there a First-Class National-level onmyoji hidden on this train?"
He scanned the carriage without moving too obviously.
Although that spiritual energy had been concealed almost instantly, he was certain of one thing.
Its owner was inside this carriage.
Aside from him and Kotoko, there were only nine people present.
Six of them were middle school students in uniforms. Judging from the time, they were probably skipping class.
Of the remaining three, two were an elderly white-haired couple sitting together.
None of them seemed like the source.
That left only one person.
Gin's gaze settled on a blonde girl sitting by the window in the last row.
Ethereal beauty.
That was the first impression she gave.
It was not the same as Kotoko's clever, intellectual charm. Nor was it like Sora's gentle obedience or Shinomiya Kaguya's cool, calculating elegance.
Gin had never seen a girl quite like her before.
She had long golden hair, fair skin, and exquisite features that seemed to blend Eastern and Western beauty. Her slightly upturned eyes looked untouched by the world's filth, clear in a way that felt almost unreal. A drawing board rested in front of her, and her slender fingers held a paintbrush as she focused entirely on her work.
That concentration was so pure it made onlookers feel ashamed to disturb her.
"It came from her."
Gin sensed a faint trace of spiritual power from the girl.
Refined to an extreme degree.
"Is it a shikigami like Hokuto? Or some kind of spiritual body possessing her?"
Whether someone had practiced Onmyodo or not was easy for Gin to tell.
The blonde girl sitting by the window showed no signs of having trained in Onmyodo. If she had released that spiritual power earlier, the most likely explanation was that something was attached to her.
Gin watched her for another breath.
Then he looked away.
"Forget it. It has nothing to do with me."
He had no intention of probing further.
It would be rude, and he was not so curious that he needed to dig into a stranger's secrets on the subway.
Gin closed his eyes again, waiting quietly for the train to reach Shinjuku.
What he did not know was that the blonde girl in the back row had already lifted her eyes from the drawing board.
She looked at his back.
Quietly.
Carefully.
As if observing something unusual.
After a while, she lowered her gaze again.
Then she flipped over the exquisite painting she had been working on—a piece fine enough to make even a master painter feel ashamed—and turned her attention to the blank side of the board.
Her brush moved.
Stroke by stroke.
First came the skeleton.
Then the full outline.
Then a pair of elegant, misty blue eyes appeared on the page.
The blonde girl was sketching Gin.
Not the masked figure sitting in front of her now, but the face she had seen through the window earlier, when Gin and Kotoko had just entered the station.
She had memorized his true appearance in that brief moment.
And now, with the brush in her hand, she began to paint him.
.....
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