Chapter 35: Threat elimination (2)
In the hazy view projected to my sight, the onmyodo spells were glowing below the stairway of the kominka. Damn onmyodo was the accursed gift of the main continent to us. It taught our humans how to summon, control, and even exorcise yōkai.
The humans were unfortunate and careless enough to forget about the second level. Somehow, they seem to think that most yōkai will show up at the front door and enter the living room where the heaviest concentration of spell energy was.
The serpent of mine could not move through without triggering an alarm to the humans. Still, the images it has transmitted were useful. There was a book left on a study table near a small laptop in one messy bedroom, which caught my attention. One which I had seen slipped out of Oshichi's attacker.
I had not bothered with it as there are plenty of such books on exorcism in the many bookstores and on the internet. However, two books of the same kind appearing in problematic situations warranted a second look.
"So how is it looking on the second floor?" Daija asked.
"Wait for a while… I need to check something out." I ordered the serpent spirit to sift through the book. "You can monitor those humans on the ground level."
Dad's old spirit serpent heads are useful that way. They could act like human drones if I am looking for anyone, or listening bugs if we wanted to listen in from a long distance. Or even thieves.
Best of all, no bloody installation necessary as a benefit of being a yōkai. Hence, undetectable unless someone does a ritual purification.
Daija tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. "I know you. There's something you are up to."
I ignored him as the serpent transmitted the images of the book pages to me.
The book title was clear enough with the [Onmyodo spells] on its cover page was of some pathetic graphical replication of a spell circle. Content pages comprised of yōkai names, methods of capture and even exorcism. Then towards the end was about using shrine methods, and how to force the yōkai or ghosts into servitude as shikigami.
That was what the old fart after Hinoenma was doing - trying to capture her to be a shikigami. A few more images of the rituals made me concerned. Those defunct rituals were a bane of the yōkai. Sealing was only the knowledge of the priests, not the lay human.
Yet, that group did not belong to the Shinto priesthood. I would have seen faint auras denoting the service to a Japanese god.
Let alone Shinto. Even the senior Buddhist monks, Nichiren exorcists, or the Christian priests had such spiritual protection to warn or ward most yōkai away.
Most of these god-serving humans had that protective aura until they were either spiritually defiled, fraudsters, or dying.
"What's wrong?"
"The book. We need to get it."
"The humans would notice it missing. Now, if they place a spell on the second level… we will have difficulty accomplishing the mission," Daija said.
"We have Arahabaki to bypass that. Those spells don't work on gods. Or else, Takamagahara will be in an uproar about it. No god likes to be controlled or sealed," I replied.
The book was sinister with the contents and while my serpent can't access that laptop, it can take those away for analysis.
Our team back at the office needs to do a further background check on this cult than some cursory insight into how over a thousand humans decide to join a new cult overnight.
Underestimation is often the reason for disasters to happen. Not only to our kind, but the humans as well. Just look at Covid-19 pandemic, the humans laughed at China and made Internet memes. A few months later, no one was laughing as businesses collapsed and the unemployment numbers grew from the economic impact. They had even postponed the 2020 Olympics.
A dilemma laid before us. We can opt to finish this operation up and get our payment while hoping for the best. Or we can find out what is going on and determine if there is a bigger threat.
"Take those two," Daija nudged me. "Might be good to see what we are getting into. Momiji's story… not sure if I buy it."
"Okay, here goes…," I took a deep breath.
"They are still in the living room. All clear. Good to go."
A snap of my fingers and both items appeared hovering in front of me. With one wave, the items entered the small portal of Kakuriyo for security. The serpent zipped as fast as it could out of the accursed kominka and plastered itself in my neck, fading into its tattoo form.
"We can go now."
"Not so fast," Daija stopped me and sniffed at the air.
A black Toyota Crown crunched the gravel loudly as it rolled into the vicinity. A gloomy, suffocating ambience was radiating from the car boot. What was it? Both Daija and I hid ourselves behind the trees.
We are still invisible to most mortals, but certain humans with the special sight still could spot us. The thick canopy of the trees and our black ninja like wear were providing us with camouflage.
After it stopped in front of the entrance, the driver in a suit got out of the car door and skipped to the other side to open the passenger door. A man wearing shades and a suit got out of the car as the group went to greet him.
Daija and I widened our eyes in surprise as the driver, with the help of a burly male group member, pulled a wriggling body of a rope bounded and blindfolded young girl, no more than twelve.
She was writhing as much as she could with her muffled screams. Another man came forward and punched her in the face. The body was motionless.
"Ritual sacrifice," Daija commented.
"How do you know?" I asked him.
"They made markings on her body, that's how they used to sacrifice victims to the rivers or the lakes. Must be a virgin and must pass her first menstrual period. But they have stopped this type of ritual for centuries."
My sight increased in power as I looked between the bodies surrounding the poor mortal girl. There were indeed black occult marks on her forehead above the blindfold.
Of course, Daija would know. He was a former god of Lake Onuma.
"But to whom? The Mishakuji?"
"Definitely not them. Practice stopped with them centuries ago. This whole region here no longer indulges in such rituals. They gain more from humans being alive and happy than sacrificed."
He sighed and said, "Let's get back to your office and figure out what is going on with this lot here. This place gives me the creeps instead of vice versa."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone