Chapter 85: The Seedling
Ahead lay Yoyogi Park.
The White Fox Office was right beside it.
If Kuda Mai had truly been hiding beneath their noses all this time, then this entire investigation had become a joke at their expense.
Another ten minutes passed.
The paper crane flew through Yoyogi Park, passed the White Fox Office, and finally stopped before the entrance of a two-story European-style house with a small courtyard.
The location was almost perfectly wedged between Minegishi Great Affiliated Academy and the White Fox Office.
Less than two kilometers west stood Minegishi Great Affiliated Academy.
Less than two kilometers east stood the White Fox Office.
Gin Tsumugi quietly put the paper crane away.
"Knock on the door."
"Knock?"
Kotoko was clearly taken aback.
Wouldn't that alert the snake in the grass? If Kuda Mai fled, all their effort would have been wasted.
"The aura of Kuda Mai's curse has already disappeared," Gin explained. "There's also the aura of a living person inside. Let's check the situation first."
Kotoko frowned slightly, then stepped forward.
Before she could knock—
Click.
The door opened from the inside.
Apparently, the owner had heard movement outside and come out to investigate.
"You are... Iwanaga Kotoko? Iwanaga-san?"
A sweet-looking girl with twin tails appeared before them.
Gin and Kotoko both recognized her.
Ogiso Setsuna.
One of the girls who had been dragged into the Wedding Dress Tree incident.
Neither of them had expected to meet her here.
Why would Kuda Mai's trail lead to the place where Setsuna lived?
And why had there been no abnormality at all?
"Setsuna, what's wrong?"
A familiar, cool voice came from behind her.
Gin and Kotoko looked at each other.
A moment later, Touma Kazusa walked into view.
"Kazusa, it's Iwanaga-san, and..."
Setsuna's eyes moved suspiciously toward the person standing beside Kotoko.
He wore a mask that covered most of his face, but something about him felt familiar. Especially that gentle, refined temperament. She had only ever seen that kind of aura from one person.
And yet, the person before her felt strangely unfamiliar in every visible detail.
"It's me," Gin said helplessly, taking off his mask. "Gin Tsumugi."
"Gin Tsumugi... Tsumugi-kun?"
Setsuna's eyes widened.
Even Kazusa, who had always been composed and distant, could not help but stare.
They could hardly believe that the beautiful young man standing before them, looking as though he had stepped out of a painting, was Gin Tsumugi.
It was not that Gin had been unattractive before.
But compared to now, the difference was too great.
His appearance and aura had both changed, refined into something almost unreal. If not for his familiar voice, it would have been difficult to connect him with the person they remembered.
"Tsumugi-kun," Setsuna asked carefully, "did you get plastic surgery?"
It was the exact same thought Kotoko had when she first saw him after his change.
Or rather, it was probably the first thought most girls would have.
Though, after a few moments of proper consideration, anyone would dismiss it. No plastic surgery could possibly be this exaggerated.
"My Onmyodo training advanced recently," Gin said with a helpless expression. "It caused some changes."
Kotoko, standing nearby, rolled her eyes.
That explanation might fool Setsuna and Kazusa, who did not understand Onmyodo, but it certainly would not fool her.
If breakthroughs in Onmyodo could make someone undergo such an earth-shaking transformation, every onmyoji in Japan would be competing with celebrity idols by now.
Of course, Kotoko had no intention of exposing him.
Everyone had secrets. If the Director did not want to explain, she would not press him.
What Kotoko did not know was that Gin's explanation was not entirely false.
The change really was related to his advancement in Onmyodo.
It was just that the meaning others understood and the truth behind it were not quite the same.
"Wait," Kazusa said suddenly.
Her face turned slightly pale.
"You two came here because...?"
Setsuna seemed to realize the same thing, and her expression stiffened.
Gin and Kotoko were onmyoji.
More specifically, they were from the White Fox Office, the people responsible for handling supernatural incidents.
Judging from their reaction, they clearly had not known that Setsuna and Kazusa lived here. They had not come specifically to visit them.
That meant they had tracked something here.
Something connected to a supernatural incident.
"Although I don't want to frighten you," Gin said seriously, "what appeared here is indeed connected to a supernatural incident the White Fox Office is currently investigating."
He paused.
"Or rather, it is part of the aftermath of the Wedding Dress Tree incident."
Wedding Dress Tree.
The moment those three words were spoken, Setsuna and Kazusa both froze.
That incident remained a shadow in their hearts.
For the past few days, the two of them had been living together, relying on each other to slowly recover from that fear.
Neither of them had expected the nightmare to return.
How could they not tremble?
How could they not be afraid?
"It... it wasn't destroyed?" Setsuna's face went pale. "The Wedding Dress Tree...?"
Kazusa's expression was no better.
She remembered nearly becoming one of the Wedding Dress Brides hanging from that cursed tree. Even now, those hideous brides still appeared in her nightmares.
Was it starting again?
But they had seen it with their own eyes.
Gin had burned the Wedding Dress Tree to ashes with Onmyodo. The spirit domain had collapsed, and only charred remains had been left behind.
Could something survive even after that?
It was not that Setsuna and Kazusa were timid.
Only those who had truly experienced a supernatural incident could understand that kind of fear.
The powerlessness.
The despair.
The feeling that no amount of screaming, running, or pleading could save you.
It was a terror that could drive people to the edge of collapse.
Gin did not let them frighten themselves with wild guesses.
"The Wedding Dress Tree was destroyed," he said directly. "But there are still unresolved matters connected to the aftermath of that incident. Unfortunately, you seem to have encountered them again."
Whether this was truly coincidence or something else was hard to say.
The grotesque tree spirit incident was already deeply entangled. Setsuna and Kazusa were both survivors of the Wedding Dress Tree incident. Perhaps there had always been a reason for them to be targeted again.
Hearing that the Wedding Dress Tree had truly been destroyed, Setsuna and Kazusa relaxed slightly.
But when they realized the new supernatural incident was still related to them, that relief vanished almost at once.
"Excuse us," Gin said. "Kotoko and I need to go in and investigate."
With that, he walked past the stunned Setsuna and Kazusa and entered the house.
Kotoko followed closely behind.
For several seconds, Setsuna stood at the door, unmoving.
"Kazusa," she whispered, still shaken. "What do we do?"
"Let's go look."
Kazusa bit her lip, as though forcing herself to be brave.
"Setsuna, after the Wedding Dress Tree incident, you should understand that supernatural incidents aren't things we can avoid just because we want to hide."
She looked into the hallway where Gin had disappeared.
"And besides, I believe in Tsumugi-kun. If he's here, things won't become completely hopeless."
Clearly, Gin destroying the Wedding Dress Tree had left a deep impression on Kazusa.
Otherwise, with her personality, she would never have said such a thing.
"Mm."
Setsuna nodded.
"I believe in Tsumugi-kun too."
The two girls gathered their courage and hurried after Gin and Kotoko.
"A faint source of Yin energy."
Gin stopped before a storage room in the corner of the second floor.
Wisps of faint Yin energy leaked from the crack beneath the door. If someone stood more than ten meters away, the trace would dissipate entirely, making it almost impossible to detect.
As for what had been placed inside, Gin already had a guess.
"Kuda Mai?" Setsuna and Kazusa froze when they heard the name.
Wasn't Kuda Mai dead?
Hadn't she died at the hands of the Wedding Dress Tree?
Kazusa, in particular, had seen Kuda Mai herself inside the Wedding Dress Tree's spirit domain, transformed into one of the Wedding Dress Brides.
"She didn't die," Gin said. "The 'her' hanging from the Wedding Dress Tree was most likely a shell left through a substitute technique. Someone used it to let Kuda Mai escape."
He placed his hand on the doorknob.
"A significant portion of the aftermath of the Wedding Dress Tree incident now lies with her."
Then he opened the storage room door.
The next second, the scene inside entered everyone's eyes.
Setsuna and Kazusa turned deathly pale.
Their stomachs churned violently.
Even Kotoko was startled.
Only Gin remained calm.
Because this had already been within his expectations.
Inside the small, cluttered storage room, two bloody human heads lay on the floor, their facial features mutilated beyond recognition.
Around them were piles of nauseating human organs, reeking with a thick, metallic stench.
Judging from their size and shape, these were not from stray animals.
They were human.
And rooted atop that horrifying mass was a bronze-colored vine seedling.
It was growing vigorously, drawing nourishment from the heads and organs beneath it.
"A grotesque tree spirit," Kotoko said in shock. "A branch seedling."
Her eyes widened.
"Could Kuda Mai be the one who introduced the grotesque tree spirit incident?"
That possibility had never been part of her assumptions.
"At least on the surface, yes."
Gin crouched in the storage room and picked up a few hairs from the floor.
They were thin, gray-yellow strands.
The same kind of fox fur Kotoko had found in room 405.
This allowed them to make a preliminary conclusion.
The one who brought the grotesque tree spirit branch seedling here was indeed Kuda Mai.
Not her parents, who had also been afflicted by the same curse.
"And Kotoko," Gin said, "haven't you noticed that these heads and organs look familiar?"
Kotoko followed his reminder and looked again.
A chill passed through her.
"The Human Eating Incident Sora is investigating."
Those victims had all lost their heads and internal organs.
The missing parts matched what was before them perfectly.
In other words, the organs and heads from the Human Eating Incident had all become nutrients for this grotesque tree spirit branch seedling.
"Kuda Mai is the monster from the Human Eating Incident," Kotoko said.
The curse had already transformed her into something no longer human.
"The Human Eating Incident and the grotesque tree spirit incident can be merged into one case."
Gin snapped his fingers.
"Spirit Word: Fire."
Crimson flames appeared from nothing.
They swallowed the grotesque tree spirit seedling in an instant.
The bronze-colored vine, still greedily absorbing nutrients, burned to ash before it could even struggle. Only wisps of foul-smelling black smoke drifted through the air.
"Director, I don't understand."
Kotoko looked at the charred mark left behind and frowned.
"If she wanted to cultivate a grotesque tree spirit branch seedling, why go through the trouble of creating the Human Eating Incident? Wouldn't it have been enough to plant it here directly?"
She glanced at Setsuna and Kazusa.
"Ordinary people like Ogiso-san and Touma-san wouldn't have had any ability to resist."
It was true.
Killing the two girls directly and using this house as a nest would have been far simpler.
"Perhaps she wanted to create a larger disturbance," Gin said calmly.
As the seedling burned to ashes, the color slowly returned to Setsuna and Kazusa's faces.
Even so, their lingering fear remained heavy.
They had truly brushed against the gates of hell.
If Gin had not arrived, if the bronze-colored plant had been allowed to continue growing, it would not have taken long before the two of them became nutrients for it.
"The only pity," Kotoko said with a sigh, "is that we didn't capture Kuda Mai directly."
If they had caught Kuda Mai, the grotesque tree spirit incident would have gained a major breakthrough, and the Human Eating Incident could have been declared resolved.
"No rush," Gin said.
His gaze rested briefly on the charred remains.
"The aura of the curse on Kuda Mai seems to surface only when she moves. Normally, someone is helping her conceal it. The most likely explanation is a yokai domain."
Kotoko nodded.
She agreed with that judgment.
"Kazusa. Setsuna."
Gin turned toward the two girls.
"For safety, it would be best if both of you moved out of this house for a while."
"Mm. Understood."
Setsuna and Kazusa nodded at the same time.
Even without Gin's warning, they no longer dared remain in this house.
At that moment, they wanted nothing more than to pack their necessities and leave immediately.
.....
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