“There’s no need for you to apologize. I’m just doing what I decided to do. My exhaustion is nothing more than a fact.”
“That may be so, but…it’s the first time you’ve said you’re tired, and I thought it had to be serious. What should I do? Do you want some water? Or something to eat? We’ve got some baked sweets that Hayakawa brought us.”
“I don’t want any. Human food won’t help me recover from this fatigue.”
With his suggestions flatly rejected, Shino glanced at Masamichi, who was resting his small hands on the tatami mat, looking at him nervously. He grabbed the back of Masamichi’s shirt and put him on his lap like he might with a stuffed toy.
“Wh-whoa! Shino—”
Lying on his stomach across Shino’s lap, Masamichi was stunned yet obedient, and he placed his hands on Shino’s chest to support his body.
Shino then put his arms loosely around Masamichi’s back and said, “You’ve gotten quite a bit of your chi back. Good. Give me a little.”
Masamichi’s face lit up.
“Sure! You can take as much as you want…though I might not be able to give you much with the state of my body.”
“In this case, quality is more important than quantity. Your golden chi is like nectar to me in my current state. Just one drop will quench my thirst.”
“Really?”
Shino responded, “Yeah,” in a hoarse voice and closed his eyes.
Masamichi was delighted, and at that moment, a soft golden light appeared.
Unlike in his adult form, the weak light didn’t coat his entire body but still flowed like a small stream, reaching Shino’s chest and slowly soaking in.
“Even as a child, the flavor of your chi hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s clearer,” Shino said like a sommelier tasting wine as he closed his eyes.
“Good. I’m sorry I can’t give you a lot, but I guess…it’s better than nothing.”
“Precisely.”
Masamichi relaxed his muscles and pressed his upper body tightly against Shino’s chest.
It might not make much difference whether they were in close contact, but it was an unconscious act on his part, as he hoped to give Shino as much of his chi as he could.
“Mr. Hayakawa is really good to me. What kind of work are you doing for him? Is it related to artifact spirits?” Masamichi asked, pressing his soft cheeks against Shino’s chest.
He could feel the same tension in Shino’s muscles as those of a human, but no matter how closely he listened, he couldn’t hear a heartbeat.
It hammered into him the fact that Shino’s body wasn’t a real human body, and he fought his disbelief that something like that was possible.
Shino’s eyes remained closed as he savored Masamichi’s chi and answered in a low, hoarse voice, “All sorts of things. That Hayakawa has been pushing troublesome cases at me left and right. I went to a site today where they were having trouble with a series of mysterious accidents among the construction workers who were trying to demolish a long-neglected ruin as part of a redevelopment project.”
“It sounds typical. Was it because of a ghostly disturbance—a specter?”
“Yeah. Ruins are the favorite places for weak specters to be. I went there and found a horde of low-level specters settled there. I would have exorcised them had I been a human, but I’m a specter, so I ate them all, and my stomach still feels heavy.”
“…Wow. That sounds tough. Do you want to take some medicine for your stomach?”
“No. Human medicine wouldn’t work on a specter. But…anyway, the work took a lot of effort, and eating them didn’t add much to my strength. And they also tasted bad.”
“So spirits and specters vary that much in taste?”
“Oh yeah. Generally speaking, the stronger the specter, the better it tastes. But the low-level specters I found today… Well, if I was to compare them to human food and drinks, they were like poor-quality water. Not only did they taste bad, but they also offered no nutrition at all.”
“I—I see.”
Despite being taken aback, Masamichi nodded in response to the specter’s unexpected food review.
“But it’s interesting how open-minded that organization is about wanting to sign a contract with me, a specter, and their knowledge and network of practitioners is intriguing as well. They might be of some use when we face Kagiroi.”
Masamichi’s gentle-looking brow furrowed.
“When we face Kagiroi…”
“It would be easier for me if that could be avoided, but that isn’t likely. It’s more constructive to take the steps we can rather than be optimistic. Besides—”
“Yeah?”
“—as long as I’m meeting his organization’s expectations, Hayakawa will supply us with a suitable reward. That’s the type of person he is. He’s found a way to break Kagiroi’s spell.”
“Huh?! He has?!”
Stunned, Masamichi leaned his upper body back as he remained on top of Shino, and the specter opened his eyes halfway and nodded.
“I received a report from him this evening. He said they found several references to a spiritual medium that sounded like Gensou, Gentetsu Izumo’s father, in the local records of the Harima region. He thinks that’s where their real roots are as public mediums.”
“Are you saying they found records from the Heian period?”
“It’s a case of someone writing down folktales that had been passed on from generation to generation orally by locals. Most of the stories aren’t very credible, but some sound useful. Whoever Kagiroi’s true master may have been, he couldn’t have been totally unrelated to the Izumos. Furthermore, the story about Gensou sounds incredibly similar to your case. It’s highly possible the spell that Kagiroi cast was something the Izumos devised.”
“What kind of story is that? Do you know the method and the type of—? Ngh.”
Shino pinched Masamichi’s plump, childish nose and scolded him. “Don’t rush your master.” Then he began explaining.
“To summarize, a certain nobleman in the capital called in a suspicious but skilled spiritual medium by the name of Gensou. He had him cast a secret spell on his political rival.”
“He tried to bring down his rival.”
“Right. And the man was turned into an innocent-looking child overnight.”
“…!”
Masamichi tightened his fingertips as they rested on Shino’s chest.
“That sounds exactly like what happened to me! What became of him? Did he go back to being an adult again?”
“I said don’t rush me. I was about to get to that.”
Frowning, Shino continued to speak calmly, with one hand still placed on Masamichi’s back.
“The political rival also had a superior Taoist from the continent working for him. When the Taoist discovered that Gensou had been behind the spell, he turned himself into a mosquito, sucked Gensou’s blood, then returned to his master. And he used Gensou’s blood and undid his spell.”
“A mosquito?!”
“That’s right. The man was instantly transformed back to his original form, and Gensou was driven out of the capital for displeasing his employer… That’s the gist of the story, though it appears to have been significantly embellished by parents wanting to entertain their children with the tale.”
Masamichi’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.