Chapter 83: Golden Fox Tail
"This trip was worth it," Gin Tsumugi said, looking toward the northwest of Yayo Town. "A lot of mysteries have been cleared up."
The Goddess Temple was there.
So was the so-called divine tree.
Kotoko followed his gaze, her expression thoughtful.
"It's just a pity the Kuda house was burned down by the residents. If it were still intact, we might have found more key clues."
"It's already enough," Gin said. "I didn't expect one trip to Yayo Town to clarify the cause and effect behind both the grotesque tree spirit incident and the Wedding Dress Tree incident."
The Goddess's Curse spoken of by the residents was mostly speculation, born from fear and rumor.
But sometimes, the frightened guesses of ordinary people accidentally brushed against the truth.
The words Kuda Mai had carved on the back of the framed photo in room 405 had now been answered one by one.
The so-called fox curse was most likely the same thing the townspeople called the Goddess's Curse.
Kuda Mai's parents had gone mad and vanished.
Then Kuda Mai herself had followed the same path.
As for the hairpins, that was beyond Gin's initial expectations.
There were not only two.
There were three.
The hairpin obtained from the Wedding Dress Tree incident should have been the one found by the residents in the Kuda house—the one stolen from the Goddess Temple along with the others. Another had been taken by Kuda Mai.
As for the remaining hairpin that appeared in the grotesque tree spirit incident, that required more careful thought.
Gin had an immature theory.
If the Wedding Dress Tree incident and the grotesque tree spirit incident were truly part of a game between two unknown powerful entities, then it was not impossible that each side had sought out and obtained personal items connected to the other, using them to calculate, mislead, and attack from the shadows.
Of course, that theory required proof.
The key was simple.
The noble lady mentioned by the old woman in the Wedding Dress Tree's spirit domain—the one who had given her the seedling—and the Goddess enshrined in Yayo Town's Goddess Temple had to be the same being.
Fortunately, proving that would not be too difficult.
They only needed to look at the divine tree the residents of Yayo Town worshiped.
"Kotoko," Gin said, "let's go see the divine tree."
"Mm."
Even if he had not said it, Kotoko had already planned to do exactly that.
Gin drew two talismans from his robe.
Spiritual energy curled around the paper like mist as he chanted.
"Formless, forgetting reality—swiftly, as the laws and decrees command."
"Invisibility Talisman."
He placed one talisman on Kotoko and the other on himself.
Their figures, auras, and presence gradually faded until both vanished completely from sight.
They were not only going to examine the divine tree.
They also intended to explore the Goddess Temple personally and see what was hidden inside.
According to the drunkard, the Goddess Temple had always been guarded by the residents of Yayo Town. After the Kuda family went mad and vanished, the town had become especially sensitive about anything related to it. Even showing official identification might not work.
A little concealment would save them a great deal of unnecessary trouble.
A short while later, Gin and Kotoko arrived at a wide open space in the northwest corner of Yayo Town.
There stood an ancient tree.
Its trunk was so thick it would take four or five adults joining hands to encircle it. Countless prayer plaques hung from its branches, swaying gently in the breeze.
Kotoko looked up at the tree, her expression turning solemn.
"This is almost identical to the Wedding Dress Tree that first appeared at Houjuo High school."
The divine tree worshiped by Yayo Town was practically a twin of the Wedding Dress Tree.
Aside from the absence of red ropes, everything else looked the same.
Back then, the Wedding Dress Tree at Houjuo High School had also been covered with students' prayer plaques. The horrifying part was that those plaques had nearly become charms that summoned death.
"The old woman in the Wedding Dress Tree's spirit domain once told Touma Kazusa and Ogiso Setsuna something," Gin said, looking at the ancient tree. "When the noble lady gave her the seedling, she mentioned two ways to let the tree grow."
He raised his eyes.
"The fast way was sacrifice."
"The slow way was faith."
Kotoko nodded.
"If it grew through faith, the Wedding Dress Tree could become a deity that protected Mingao Village—a true guardian god without risk. But if it grew through sacrifice, it would mature rapidly."
She paused.
"As for the result, that was obvious. The entire Mingao Village was wiped out, and even the dead villagers were turned into spirit servants by the Wedding Dress Tree."
Kotoko had not participated in Gin's battle against the Wedding Dress Tree, but the details of the case were recorded thoroughly in the White Fox Office.
"Correct."
Gin walked up to the divine tree and gently touched its withered trunk.
"Yayo Town and Mingao Village faced the same fate, but they made different choices. One chose sacrifice. The other chose faith."
His fingers brushed over the bark.
"Calling this ancient tree a divine tree is not an exaggeration. Unfortunately, with faith declining in the modern era, it has fallen from a guardian deity capable of protecting Yayo Town into an ordinary old tree."
Kotoko looked at the ancient tree with some regret.
In an age when yokai roamed freely, this tree had shielded Yayo Town from harm. If not for the faint lingering divine aura still clinging to its trunk, who would believe it had once been a deity?
A guardian god.
"In terms of foresight," Gin said, "the Yayo Town of a thousand years ago was far more discerning than Mingao Village."
He withdrew his hand.
"Mingao Village traded temporary protection for a thousand years of torment and sin. Yayo Town sacrificed the efforts of one generation, perhaps several, and ensured its bloodline survived until today."
Now, Gin was certain.
The noble lady from the Wedding Dress Tree incident and the Goddess from Yayo Town's legend were the same being.
And there was more than a fifty percent chance that she was one of the two unknown powerful entities behind the Wedding Dress Tree and grotesque tree spirit incidents.
"Let's go," Gin said. "Time to look at the Goddess Temple on the mountain."
He took the lead and entered the forest path.
Kotoko followed closely behind.
The mountain path beneath their feet was surprisingly clean and smooth. The trees on both sides had clearly been pruned on a regular basis. Though the path twisted and turned, it was not difficult to walk.
After roughly ten minutes, a temple came into view.
This was the Goddess Temple worshiped by the residents of Yayo Town for generations.
It was not large.
There was only a torii gate and a main hall, without any side halls or auxiliary buildings. It could not be called crude, but neither could it be called impressive. The paint on the torii had long since been weathered by time. Though it had been maintained on the surface, no major renovations had been done. Everything still rested on the original architectural foundation.
In front of the torii, an old man lay on a lounge chair, basking in the warm sunlight while dozing off.
He was clearly this month's temple guard.
Still hidden by the Invisibility Talismans, Gin and Kotoko walked past him and entered the temple.
The inside was less shabby than expected.
There were not many objects, but everything that should be present was there: the divine statue, the incense burner, yellow meditation cushions, offering stands. More importantly, the place was very clean.
"This is the third hairpin."
Gin looked at the divine statue before him.
It was over ten feet tall and cast from brass. The statue sat cross-legged, holding a fox in its arms. Its facial features had blurred under the erosion of time, but from the coiled long hair, it was still easy to tell that the figure was female.
A hairpin was inserted into that coiled hair.
On the symmetrical opposite side, only an empty hole remained.
The missing hairpin was in Gin's possession.
"I wonder," Gin said, "if removing this hairpin from the statue will trigger the curse."
"Director, don't be careless."
Kotoko was visibly startled.
"It's fine. I know what I'm doing."
Gin's figure rose lightly until he was level with the statue's head. Then he reached out and removed the hairpin with ease.
The next instant—
In a realm ordinary human eyes could never perceive, a gold-red, silk-like energy erupted from the statue's eyes.
It carried an ominous aura.
The curse shot straight toward Gin, punishing the one who had offended the Goddess.
"Director, watch out!"
Kotoko's expression changed.
She immediately recognized it.
This gold-red, silk-like curse was the same calamity that had befallen the Kuda family.
"Just in time."
Gin showed no fear.
Instead, a faint smile touched his lips.
He drew a talisman from his robe and flicked it forward.
The talisman collided with the gold-red curse.
There was no struggle.
No resistance.
The curse was sealed directly into the talisman.
The next second, on the blank back of the talisman, an ink-drawn image appeared.
A fox.
"So it really is a fox curse," Kotoko murmured as the talisman drifted down and landed in her hand.
Then her expression changed slightly.
"There's also a faint, familiar scent... It seems similar to the blood-red fruit."
She froze after speaking.
The blood-red fruit was produced by grotesque tree spirits.
How could it be related to this curse?
"You didn't sense wrong," Gin said. "But there is one point to correct."
He took out another talisman and unsealed one of the blood-red fruits inside it.
"It is not that this curse has the scent of the blood-red fruit."
The fruit appeared in his palm.
"It is that the blood-red fruit has been tainted by this curse."
Kotoko focused her senses.
Sure enough, it was exactly as Gin said.
The blood-red fruit contained the same curse. If they had not intercepted and sealed the original curse from the Goddess Temple, they might never have discovered the faint curse hidden inside the fruit.
But according to Lord Tsuchizawa, the blood-red fruits produced by the grotesque tree spirits were offerings given by followers to a powerful existence—one of the masterminds Gin suspected.
Why would those fruits contain a curse?
"What exactly is this?" Kotoko muttered, unable to understand.
"A tactic," Gin said calmly. "A method used by those two unknown powerful entities as they fight in secret."
He sealed the blood-red fruit again, then sealed the hairpin he had just taken. Afterward, he used a talisman to imitate the hairpin's appearance and placed the false one back into the empty position on the statue.
That way, its disappearance would not cause panic among the residents of Yayo Town.
"Let's go," Gin said. "There's nothing more to investigate here. With this original, unprocessed curse from the grotesque tree spirit incident in hand, we should be able to find Kuda Mai quickly."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"When that happens, this supernatural incident will be close to ending."
"Wait, Director."
Kotoko hurriedly called out to him.
"Aren't you going to investigate the source of the curse?"
She looked toward the statue.
There had to be something hidden inside it. Otherwise, how could it release a curse?
This should have been an important clue.
Why was the Director being so casual today?
"No need," Gin said. "Whatever was inside has already been taken away. That curse was only residue left behind."
He turned his head and looked at the statue with a deep gaze.
"Perhaps someone deliberately left it here for us."
"Someone?"
Gin did not answer.
He had not fully understood the situation yet.
But one thing was certain.
Ever since he entered the Goddess Temple, he had felt the sensation of being watched.
However, whenever he tried to trace it with his spirit-sight, that presence vanished without a trace.
On a branch of the sacred tree in Yayo Town, a palm-sized green bird looked toward the Goddess Temple.
Its beast-like eyes flashed with human fear and faint relief.
"Truly dangerous," it murmured. "He is as sharp as ever."
The bird's voice was clear and delicate, but tension hid beneath it.
"I didn't expect him to investigate this far so quickly. Fortunately, I arrived one step earlier."
Otherwise, Her Highness would have been forced completely onto the defensive.
"It's time to report back to Her Highness at the Imperial Palace."
The green bird shivered slightly.
"Next time, I should stay farther away from him. Too terrifying."
With that, the green bird spread its wings and flew toward Chiyoda Ward.
Toward the Imperial Palace.
Only then did one notice what it gripped beneath its sharp talons.
A tail three or four times larger than its own body.
A golden fox tail.
Under the sunlight, it shimmered faintly.
.....
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