“…Shino?”
“I would like to ask you again how a mere mortal like you could be of any help, but it’s true that if you hadn’t been with me that night in Kyoto, then Kagiroi would have killed me on the spot. I resent it, but it’s something I must admit.”
“Huh?!”
“I’m saying your fight-or-flight response is indeed effective. The chi that you desperately gave me unleashed the curse that Tokifuyu had cast on the comb and allowed it to exert its maximum force. I…hate to admit it, but those are the facts.”
“…Oh!”
As Masamichi listened to Shino, he covered his mouth with a hand. His face, pale since seeing Kagiroi on television, suddenly turned bright red.
That night, Shino had been attacked by Kagiroi and clearly said he couldn’t defeat him.
He had used his body as a shield and attempted to let Masamichi escape.
Sensing that Shino was genuinely serious as his master, Masamichi had been determined not to let him die.
He wasn’t going to save either Shino or himself alone. He had been determined for them to survive together. He had decided to do the one thing that he could do to make that happen. At that moment, his body began moving unconsciously, and he had kissed Shino on the mouth.
That was the one thing that he could devote to Shino…to give him every last bit of his chi.
That’s right! It was the first time I’d ever done something like that with someone, and I’d been making an effort not to remember it so I wouldn’t freak out. Yeah, that was the time I went ahead and kissed Shino.
Looking back objectively, Masamichi thought his face would burst into flame while he recalled his bold actions.
Watching in amusement, as Masamichi looked like he didn’t know how to get over his embarrassment, Shino said in a low tone, “The name of Kagiroi’s master is Gentetsu Izumo.”
“…Huh?!”
His hand still on his cheek, a blank look appeared on Masamichi’s face.
It took a good few seconds for him to realize Shino had given him the information about Kagiroi that he’d wanted.
“Oh, right! Gentetsu…Izumo? Are you saying Kagiroi was a human being’s shikigami like you were?”
Shino nodded and looked somewhere far away with distant eyes.
“Gentetsu Izumo was a spiritual medium… Not one who served the court, but one who served individual needs… He was a spiritual medium ‘working for the public,’ as you’d probably say in modern terms, around the Tajima area. That’s what Tokifuyu told me.”
“A spiritual medium working for the public… So he wasn’t attached to the court like Tokifuyu was? What was it called again?”
“The Bureau of Spiritual Mediums.”
“That’s it! Could it be that he didn’t have the official credentials or something?”
Shino returned his gaze to Masamichi, and a cynical smile tugged at his lips.
“To describe it with your meager vocabulary, yes.”
“Ngh, sorry. What was this Gentetsu Izumo like?”
“He was probably past forty at the time. In those days, that was considered old. He was a small, thin, and suspicious-looking man. He didn’t even tie up his unkempt hair. He wore a dirty, tattered hunting robe, went barefoot, and didn’t even wear a hat. And he always carried a huge crystal ball that’d been polished to a shine,” Shino said, describing Gentetsu Izumo’s appearance as if speaking to himself.
His monotone voice made the medium’s suspicious appearance all the more real to Masamichi. For some reason, he imagined a funny manga character in his mind and shook away the image.
“I know we shouldn’t judge people by their appearance, but he does sound suspicious. Did he do something bad? Is that how Tokifuyu got involved with him…?”
“Gentetsu tried to turn the capital into a city of magic,” Shino answered matter-of-factly.
“…A city of magic? Like a magical city…?”
“Idiot. A city of magic. One made of magic.”
“Oh…! Cool. It sounds like the title of a novel or a movie. Oops, sorry.” As Shino looked at him with exasperation, Masamichi shrank further and asked his next question. “Are you saying he tried to bring specters into the Heian-era capital?”
“Yes.”
Masamichi repeated the frightening words and tilted his head.
“But, Shino, didn’t you used to go to the capital and do bad things before you became Tokifuyu’s apparition?”
“That’s true, but even I had been outside the capital. The barriers around the city were set up cleverly using the flow of the rivers and the topography of the land, offering robust protection. While powerful specters could infiltrate the capital through gaps in the barriers and do what they wanted, it was unwise for them to stay there. The magical energy they had accumulated over time would be taken from them.”
“Oh, like the way Kagiroi used his barrier and sucked the chi out of the people who were there…?”
“Yes. The capital’s barrier drained the power of the specters that sneaked in and made them weak. It was pointless to stay there for long periods.”
“Then even if Gentetsu brought specters to the capital, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, would it?”
Shino folded his arms and snorted as if he considered Masamichi a fool.
“That would be the extent of your shallow imagination, wouldn’t it? For your information, Gentetsu had grander plans. Even Tokifuyu, who always remained aloof no matter what happened, was stunned when he found out about them.”
“Wh-what were they?”
Naturally, Masamichi had never met Tokifuyu Tatsumi. But the man he sometimes saw when Shino accidentally shared his dreams with him always had a relaxed smile on his face, and he treated the old, rough and uncontrollable Shino with perfect calm.
What would stun a person like that?
Masamichi swallowed nervously, but Shino said matter-of-factly, “Gentetsu tried to open a gate to the other world in the middle of the city that was protected by the four Gods: Suzaku, Seiryou, Byakko, and Genbu.”
“What the heck is a gate to the other world?! I don’t know what it is, but it sounds scary,” Masamichi squealed in a high pitch, startled by what Shino was telling him. Meanwhile, Shino lifted the corner of his mouth a fraction in a sarcastic smirk.
“There are specters, like me, which are born in the human world and continue to live there, and there are others that live in other worlds. The latter is far more common.”
“Is it like a world of specters?”
“That’s right. Humans think theirs is the only world that exists, but there are an infinite number of worlds, and they’re all connected.”
Masamichi grunted and tilted his head.