Huh…? What’s going on? The flute music is still playing.
That was when Masamichi heard a low voice in his ear and jumped.
“It’s a barrier.”
“Huh?! Oh, Shino!”
Surprise and relief came together at once, and Masamichi didn’t realize he’d exhaled and rubbed his chest.
“You got me worried, suddenly taking off like that. What’s this about a barrier…?”
Shino put his mouth to Masamichi’s ear and whispered, “He doesn’t want the hassle of creating a big fuss. Kagiroi put up a barrier so that people who just came to the area wouldn’t be aware of his presence. He must have put some spell on the barrier to make their memory hazy.”
“He can do that?”
“If he knows how…and has the power.”
As soon as Shino spoke, the music ended, and the crowd erupted in cheers.
“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for listening to my spur-of-the-moment concert. Tonight, I have only this flute. Please enjoy the simple yet rich sound of the hichiriki.”
That must be Kagiroi. I still can’t see him, but he has a rich, handsome voice. It carries almost as well as his music.
People applauded in response. Masamichi heard the sound of smartphones and camera shutters everywhere, which sounded like music in itself.
Shino’s voice is sharp, like a whip or a laser beam, but Kagiroi’s voice… It’s more sonorous and sounds relaxed.
As Masamichi ruminated, Shino leaned over and whispered, “Open up your third eye now, while you still can.”
“Huh?!”
Masamichi was startled.
The third eye was the mysterious tool that Shino had taught him about. It was invisible…but definitely existed, though Masamichi didn’t know if it actually took the form of an eye.
Masamichi’s spirit truly awakened when the eye opened under the skin and beyond the bones between his eyebrows. Once it opened, he could see or sense all beings without form in this world.
“Shino, wait. I can’t open it on my own. I—”
Masamichi was about to tell him that it wasn’t possible, when the sound of the hichiriki once again echoed through the area.
Unaware that they had been trapped within the barrier, the audience welcomed Kagiroi with an even greater round of applause.
Wait a minute. What’s the meaning of a secret concert within a barrier? I can understand if a musician is trying to limit the number of people who come to his concert, but Shino told me to open my “third eye,” and there has to be a reason for that… But this is the same musical tone I heard before…
Masamichi remained perplexed, listening to the music as it resounded, seeming to make the night air tingle and tremble.
It was a completely different tone from the graceful and peaceful tune he’d heard earlier.
The tempo was fast, and the melody was volatile, with many ups and downs. Masamichi could feel the huge amount of air with which the player played his flute, and an intense tone resonated, sounding like it was cutting through the air with a knife.
“This must be an original piece. I’ve never heard intense gagaku music like this… Ah!” As Masamichi tried to tell Shino his impression of the number, a few people in front of him fell toward him. “Oh… U-um, are you okay? Someone, please help us…! Huh?!”
Masamichi was crouching, trying to tend to the fallen audience members and calling out for assistance, when he suddenly drew back in fear at the sight before him.
Amid the crowd surrounding Kagiroi, people were collapsing one by one.
They all flopped to the ground like puppets with broken strings.
Yet the people around didn’t seem to notice it at all.
They surrendered themselves to the intense sound of the hichiriki, swaying their bodies, as if in a trance. Their swaying movements gradually became greater, and the moment they closed their eyes, they seemed to lose consciousness and fall to the ground.
“Huh…? What the heck…? Oh…!”
Alone and dismayed, Masamichi staggered to his feet.
For some reason, he had no strength in his legs.
It wasn’t only his legs. He could tell that the strength was suddenly going out of his arms, neck, torso—and all the joints needed to support the body—as if someone had turned off a switch.
Dang, this isn’t good. Is this because of Kagiroi’s music? Is this what they meant by people passing out at his concerts…?
Still, Masamichi managed to stay on his feet, but finally, his eyelids raised a white flag. He tried to keep his eyes wide open, but they closed like automatic shutters.
Oh, no. I’m going to collapse, too…
His efforts were in vain, and his knees buckled. He was about to fall to the ground when Shino’s strong arms wrapped around his waist. He pulled Masamichi up and made him lean on him, and somehow, Masamichi avoided sinking into a stupor.
“Fool! I told you to open your third eye!”
Shino’s reprimand seemed to come from somewhere far away. Masamichi desperately squeezed out his voice.
“B-but…I…can’t… Not…alone.”
“Then hurry up and say so!”
With a low grunt, Shino placed his cold index finger between Masamichi’s eyebrows. A sharp, intense pain immediately shot through the young man’s brain, as if he had been pierced with a spear of ice. He realized it was the feeling of a large eye slowly opening deep inside him.
“…! Ngh. Mmm.”
Masamichi began to scream, but Shino swallowed it with his lips, and it disappeared.
The lips of a specter with no body temperature pressed snugly against Masamichi’s warm lips. Gasping in pain, Masamichi sensed his foggy mind registering something warm flowing into him from Shino.
What…is this…?
It probably only went on for a few seconds.
Gradually, the sound of the hichiriki approached again, and as Masamichi’s strength returned to him, Shino let go.
“Oh…”
Masamichi tried to thank Shino, but he was rendered speechless by the changed scene around him.
His now-open third eye saw a reddish-black pulsating barrier that looked like a network of blood vessels.
Branches extending from the barrier were pierced into the bodies of each spectator and took blood—or rather, chi—from them.
Masamichi watched the blood vessel network in the barrier, where people fell one by one in an orderly fashion. It was as if the petals of a blooming flower were opening, and he saw chi energy being sent to the central spot behind the crowd.
“That…thing… Was it pierced into my body, too?”
“Yeah, but I already removed it. It’s moving slowly, so I thought even you could avoid it if your third eye was open. I overestimated you.”
Shino dismissed Masamichi wryly and then turned to stare at the hichiriki player who came into view behind the crowd.
The people slowly collapsing were like flower petals.
A man stood at the core of the flower, continuing to play the hichiriki while comfortably basking in the chi energy his barrier brought him from his audience. He…still looked young.
Straight, long, crimson hair, just like Masamichi saw on the poster.
Standing tall in a pure white suit, he looked divine.
Unlike Shino, he had a graceful yet somewhat fierce vibe.
“Is that person…Kagiroi?”
“That isn’t a person. It’s a specter. Like…me,” Shino angrily whispered, “Unlike me, he’s probably been living freely the past thousand years. I hate to admit it, but the difference in our power is overwhelming. I can’t break this boundary. I can’t repel him, either.”
“What?!”
Masamichi was stunned. Even though he knew that no all-powerful being existed in the world, he always assumed that Shino could handle anything.
“Are you saying…? You’re no match for Kagiroi?”
“Leave it to you to spell it out so clearly. At least for now, that’s how things stand. I was a little overconfident. Or, rather, my anger corrupted my judgment. That’s my mistake. Now, stay where you are. I’ll try to pry open part of that barrier. Make a run for it when I do that.”
“What…?!”
Not giving Masamichi a chance to argue, Shino slowly took a step, then another toward Kagiroi, avoiding the people who had fallen to the ground.
If I follow him, I’ll probably get in his way. But…but…
Shino always spoke coldly, but he felt strongly that he was responsible for his servant’s life. Knowing him, he would never involve Masamichi in something he’d miscalculated.
Shino’s going to let me escape if it means getting himself killed by Kagiroi. But, Shino, I won’t accept that. I just told you how happy I was to have met you.
Masamichi clenched his fists and put all his strength into his still somewhat wobbly legs.
Meanwhile, the last spectator had collapsed. Kagiroi stopped playing his hichiriki and gently removed his lips from the mouthpiece.
His deep, dark, jet-black eyes looked over Masamichi and then caught sight of Shino approaching.
“Oh? The two of you… Or rather, you. Your face looks familiar.”
“As does yours to me. So, you’ve taken on the appearance of your first master, have you?”
Shino spoke with his usual confidence. He gave no hint of the fact that he was in danger. But Kagiroi didn’t seem the least bit surprised and curved his too-red lips upward in a grin.
“Hmm… I didn’t recognize you for a moment, since you look so modern. You’re Tokifuyu Tatsumi’s apparition. Was it ‘Shino’ that he called you? What an arrogant name, Shino—the lord of the wilderness.”
“That’s right.”
“Ha-ha. I heard you were imprisoned in a jar because you angered your master. How wonderful that you are now free. But it’s too late. Because of your absence, slaughtering your master was easier than breaking a baby’s neck. He fell from that bridge over there and snapped his neck. Snap.”
Kagiroi made a gesture of cracking the hichiriki he held in two.
“…You!”
Masamichi held his breath as he watched silver-colored chi energy released from Shino’s broad back. It looked like flames of anger flaring up.
Kagiroi…really killed Tokifuyu. Oh, I get it. A specter can change his appearance. He can turn himself into a bee and attack an ox pulling a cart.
Masamichi finally understood the situation and felt a heavy thud in his heart.
Kagiroi looked over Shino from head to toe, as if to gauge his value, and chuckled.
“How pitiful. The many years of imprisonment have left you weak. I can’t believe you dared to come before me like this. Oh, wait, did you come to beg my assistance to die so you can follow your master? Perhaps that human there is your payment to me for the trouble. How thoughtful of you.”
“It was indeed my mistake to underestimate the difference in our mystical power, but I am not following my master. And that is my servant. I will not allow him to become food for you.”