Chapter 163: Obscured
"Recruiting Master Dōman's student... Now that is interesting."
Inside the Academy Head's office at the Onmyō Academy, Gin Tsumugi looked over the information Kasugano Sora had sent him. A meaningful smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
"And she is the elder sister of that girl Kuroyukihime from Kyoto."
"Lord Seimei, should we exercise caution?"
Kurahashi Miyoshi started to offer a well-intentioned warning.
"After all, she is..."
"There is no need."
Gin interrupted before she could finish.
"Master Dōman would never taint the Onmyōdō duel he has dreamed about with such petty schemes."
Even after a thousand years, that much would not have changed.
Ashiya Dōman could be eccentric, vicious, and utterly unpredictable in most matters. But when it came to the pursuit of Onmyōdō, his sincerity bordered on obsession.
Using his own student to infiltrate the Myriad Dharma Supernatural Department and sabotage their duel would be beneath him.
"As for Shirayukihime, she has already reached the Ninth-Rank Professional Level."
Gin glanced at the registration form again.
"Her path within Onmyōdō should already be firmly established. She is only one step away from compiling her own Onmyōdō Framework."
"A genius of that degree..."
"There are likely very few among the current generation who can compete with her."
Kurahashi Miyoshi nodded, her expression somewhat complicated.
Gin was right.
Among the younger generation of modern Onmyōdō, the only person she could think of who might once have stood on equal ground with Shirayukihime was Dairenji Suzuka.
As for Gin Tsumugi, once hailed as an unprecedented young genius, he could no longer be included in the same category.
Comparing him to ordinary young Onmyoji had already become meaningless.
"With a Ninth-Rank Professional Onmyoji like Shirayukihime present, this is also a good opportunity to test whether the Arena can still be opened normally."
Gin spoke casually.
Kurahashi Miyoshi's attention immediately caught on that single word.
"The Arena?"
She had heard him mention it before.
When Gin and Ashiya Dōman agreed to hold their duel at the Onmyō Academy, Gin had said that the Arena remained here.
According to his words, it was a place capable of withstanding an Onmyōdō duel between two Great Onmyoji. It was also the reason he could guarantee that neither the academy nor the rest of Chiyoda Ward would be destroyed.
Yet Kurahashi Miyoshi understood little beyond the name.
"Lord Seimei, what exactly is this Arena you mentioned?"
"The Arena is..."
Gin was about to explain when a sudden knock interrupted him.
Knock, knock, knock.
Kurahashi Miyoshi frowned.
She had already instructed the staff not to disturb her unless the matter was urgent.
Had something happened inside the academy?
"Come in."
"Academy Head, Lord Amami and I have returned."
The door opened from the outside.
Otomo Jin and Amami Daizen stood in the doorway, both wearing anxious expressions.
"Mr. Otomo. Amami."
Kurahashi Miyoshi's face brightened when she saw them.
"You finished dealing with Kyoto so soon?"
A considerable portion of the Onmyō Academy's main forces, along with personnel from the Onmyo Bureau and the wider Onmyōdō world, remained in Kyoto.
The city's reconstruction was only beginning.
There were still surviving Yokai involved in the incident that needed to be tracked, subdued, or eliminated. Leaving all of that to the Keikain Clan and the Onmyo Alliance would not have been impossible, but it would have greatly delayed Kyoto's recovery.
Since so many of Onmyōdō's main forces were already gathered there, it made sense to deal with as much of the aftermath as possible before withdrawing.
"The cleanup in Kyoto is still underway."
Otomo Jin was the first to explain.
"Lord Amami and I returned early after hearing about Master Dōman."
He then turned toward Gin and bowed respectfully.
"Lord Seimei."
"It really is one disaster after another."
Amami Daizen glared at Gin with open annoyance.
"Those Yokai refuse to give us a moment of peace, and you, brat, are just as troublesome."
"No sooner do we settle the matter with Nue than a Great Onmyoji who has lived for more than a thousand years suddenly appears and challenges you."
Heaven knew how the senior figures of Onmyōdō had felt.
They had only just begun to breathe again after the Kyoto Incident when Ashiya Dōman made a high-profile appearance and issued a challenge to Gin.
The weight of that news had nearly suffocated them.
If Gin had not been there to deal with the situation, the battered remnants of the modern Onmyōdō world would not have known where to find the strength to oppose Ashiya Dōman.
Many National Level Onmyoji had suffered severe injuries across the Mount Fuji and Kyoto incidents.
They would need considerable time to recover.
"Old man, that is hardly something I can control."
Gin smiled.
"Why don't you speak with those Yokai and Master Dōman yourself? Ask them to stop appearing and disturbing the peace."
Amami Daizen rolled his eyes.
"You have learned how to tease this old man."
"If my words carried that much weight, we would not need you to do anything."
Then his expression became serious.
"I heard that you intend to hold your duel with Ashiya Dōman here at the Onmyō Academy."
"What exactly are you thinking?"
"If something goes wrong, forget the academy. The entire Chiyoda Ward could be reduced to ruins."
"The tragedy in Kyoto would unfold here all over again."
The aftershocks from the battles involving Gin, Nue, and Daitengu had already devastated large parts of Kyoto.
A duel between Gin and Ashiya Dōman would only be more destructive.
Certainly not less.
No one believed that Ashiya Dōman's challenge would amount to a peaceful discussion of Onmyōdō theory.
That would have been the ideal outcome.
It was also obviously impossible.
"There is no need to worry."
Gin remained calm.
"I have already found a suitable place for the duel between Master Dōman and me."
"And it is hidden here, inside the Onmyō Academy."
"A place for the duel?"
"Hidden inside the academy?"
Otomo Jin and Amami Daizen exchanged confused looks.
Neither understood what Gin meant.
"It will be troublesome to explain everything with words."
Gin turned toward the door.
"Come with me."
He left the office without further explanation.
"Let us see what that brat has found this time."
Amami Daizen glanced at Kurahashi Miyoshi and Otomo Jin.
Based on his understanding of Gin, those words would not have been spoken without reason.
There had to be something behind them.
Kurahashi Miyoshi and Otomo Jin nodded.
The three followed Gin out of the office.
They crossed the grounds of the Onmyō Academy, passing the teaching buildings, paved walkways, and carefully maintained wooded gardens.
Eventually, Gin led them to a neglected corner of the academy.
A dilapidated warehouse stood there beneath the fading light of sunset.
Vines crawled across its old walls.
Its surroundings were covered in layer after layer of sealing formulas, making it appear as though something forbidden had been imprisoned inside.
"This is the place."
Gin stopped before the warehouse.
"This?"
Otomo Jin frowned.
"If I remember correctly, this warehouse only contains old artifacts whose functions were never identified."
"None of them are considered particularly dangerous."
He had entered this warehouse more than once.
It was not truly a restricted area.
Most of the objects stored inside were ancient Onmyōdō artifacts left behind from centuries or even a thousand years ago.
The majority had long since lost their original power.
The few remaining objects were simply artifacts whose purpose no one had successfully determined.
At one time, instructors had even brought students here to practise identifying ritual tools and spiritual implements.
As for hidden Onmyōdō treasures, Otomo Jin considered that little more than wishful thinking.
If the academy had discovered so much as an old compass with even minor practical value, it would never have been left here gathering dust.
The seals surrounding the warehouse existed only as a precaution.
And yet Gin had led them here.
Kurahashi Miyoshi and Otomo Jin could not help wondering whether something inside had truly escaped their notice for all these years.
"Academy Head, could you open it?"
Gin did not intend to break the seals by force.
Even though the formulas before him were weak enough that he could probably scatter them with a casual flick of his finger, the warehouse still belonged to the Onmyō Academy.
Forcing his way inside would be unnecessarily rude.
"Of course."
Kurahashi Miyoshi removed an old wooden key from within her robes.
She held it flat in the air and pressed downward.
The layers of seals surrounding the warehouse began to dissolve one after another, yielding to the authority contained within the key.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Metal scraped harshly against the ground.
The warehouse's large iron doors slowly opened, sending a cloud of dust billowing outward.
"I believe the last time this warehouse was opened was two years ago."
Otomo Jin struck the ground with his cane.
Several gusts of wind swept forward, dispersing the dust before it reached them.
"This place truly has become one of the forgotten corners of the academy."
Amami Daizen looked at the old warehouse with some emotion.
During his own student days, it had once been a popular location.
Back then, not everything inside had been treated as worthless scrap. There had been a number of hidden treasures among the clutter, turning the warehouse into something of a treasure-hunting ground for students.
But as the more obvious valuables were gradually discovered and removed, fewer and fewer people visited.
"Let us go inside."
Gin entered first.
Amami Daizen, Kurahashi Miyoshi, and Otomo Jin followed closely behind.
Their curiosity had been fully awakened.
Anything capable of attracting Gin's attention could not be ordinary.
The first things they saw inside were rows of iron shelves covered in dust.
Compasses.
Peachwood swords.
Iron demon-subduing blades.
Bronze mirrors.
Stone tablets.
Countless old objects filled the shelves, each carrying the marks of age.
Even if they possessed no spiritual value, many would still be considered valuable antiques in the outside world.
"Most of the artifacts near the entrance date back no more than a century."
Kurahashi Miyoshi explained as they walked.
"The older pieces are stored farther inside. Those date back roughly four hundred years."
The outer shelves held a considerable number of objects.
But as they moved deeper into the warehouse and reached the artifacts inherited from four centuries ago, the number of items decreased sharply.
Their condition worsened as well.
Some had cracked.
Others had broken into several pieces.
A number were so badly damaged that their original form could no longer be identified.
Gin did not stop.
Clearly, none of these were what he had come to find.
A short while later, he led the others to the deepest part of the warehouse.
There stood a two-tier stone platform.
A little more than a dozen ancient artifacts rested across its upper and lower levels.
Most were damaged.
To an ordinary observer, the display would have looked like little more than a pile of discarded debris.
"These were all inherited by the Onmyō Academy from the Onmyōryō four hundred years ago."
Kurahashi Miyoshi looked at the platform.
"Every item here is more than a thousand years old."
Gin's eyes moved across several familiar objects.
He reached out and picked up a bronze sphere that remained in remarkably good condition.
Upon closer inspection, it was composed of many interlocking blocks, each engraved with Sanskrit characters.
The individual sections could rotate vertically and horizontally, much like a complicated puzzle.
"Is that what you called the Arena?"
Amami Daizen looked at the bronze sphere in surprise.
He remembered this object clearly.
Its unusually intact condition had attracted plenty of attention over the years.
Both he and many others had examined it repeatedly.
Every investigation had reached the same conclusion.
After a thousand years of erosion, it had become an ordinary object with no remaining Onmyōdō power.
"This is only a pleasant surprise."
Gin shook the bronze sphere lightly.
"I did not expect to find it here."
He then reached toward the stone platform and picked up another comparatively intact artifact.
It looked vaguely like a stone compass.
Yet compared to an actual compass, it was so crude that it resembled little more than a carefully shaped piece of rock.
"This was my original objective."
"What exactly is it?"
Kurahashi Miyoshi could not hide her confusion.
To her senses, neither object in Gin's hands carried even the faintest trace of spiritual power.
Gin looked between the bronze sphere and the stone compass.
Then he smiled.
"If I told you that these two artifacts together once represented one-third of the Onmyōryō's foundation, would you believe me?"
The three of them froze.
One-third of the Onmyōryō's foundation.
Kurahashi Miyoshi, Amami Daizen, and Otomo Jin stared at the two unremarkable antiques in Gin's hands, their eyes widening.
If his words were true, then the Onmyō Academy had allowed priceless treasures to gather dust in this forgotten warehouse for hundreds of years.
....
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