Chapter 11 — The Sorcerer And The Shrine Custodian (3)

“Right now the whole Hwa-guk sorcery world has its eye fixed on one keyword: ‘Specter Realm pioneering.’ You follow?”

Shin Myeongin had raised a barrier to keep onlookers off and was setting up the shikigami she’d borrowed from her House for the entry rite.
While she worked, Mochizuki sketched out the criminals’ particulars and the background of the present incident.

To Aeshin’s sorcerers, who managed the Nine Great Specter Gates and labored to keep anything dangerous from crossing over out of the Specter Realm, talk of pioneering the Specter Realm rather than sealing it off might sound absurd.
But Yun Juna and Shin Hweein both caught his meaning at once.

“So Hwa-guk’s rate of spiritual incidents is bizarrely high, and you’re chasing the source.”

“Or hunting for a new escape route.”

“You two really know your Hwa-guk! Goodness, I’d say we’re loved by altogether too many gods, ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Mochizuki nodded along and let out a deliberately airy laugh, but everyone present knew this was no light matter.

Aeshin too, where the nine great gates to the Specter Realm stood, had naturally been bound up with every manner of mystery since ancient times.
Yet Aeshin had the Royal House and the Eight Pure-Blood Houses.

Before any truly grave incident could break loose, these nine families had always pooled their strength to hold the Nine Great Specter Gates shut.
There were many sacrifices among them and the other sorcerers, but on the whole the harm done to the common people could be largely forestalled.

Hwa-guk was a different matter.

Hwa-guk had likewise taken Shinto and its other native traditions and developed them by absorbing Daoism, Buddhism, and the rest, laying down a base of operations for spirit-ability-users.
It had cultivated a national body of state sorcerers, represented by the Onmyo-ryo, to handle the spiritual incidents that arose across the archipelago.
But there was a catch.

They had no Gatekeeper’s Brand, and far too many Specter Realm Gates, great and small, had opened across the islands.
That was the heart of the problem.

“On top of that, with the internet’s growth into the twenty-first century, yokai have a far easier time gathering gyeong-oe (awe and reverence) on a vast scale. And it’s not as if we can simply forbid people from speaking of yokai at all.”

“It’s hardly any different elsewhere.”

The mechanism by which yokai gain power was no different in Aeshin than in Hwa-guk.
It was only that in Aeshin one spoke of yokai devouring fear to grow strong, while in Hwa-guk one spoke of the dread and reverence directed at yokai, that is, awe, accumulating to make a yokai a still more terrible being.

At the root of this similar-but-very-slightly-different framing lay Hwa-guk’s distinctive culture of serving even yokai as kami (gods).

What could common folk do, with no place to flee and no strength to stand and fight, when a powerful yokai loomed over them?
They could only make the yokai a god, offer it sacrifices, and pray it might please refrain from rampaging and instead be soothed.

In Aeshin’s countryside there had of course been similar movements in the past, but the Aeshin Royal House had suppressed them in good time.

Having taken Confucian thought and developed it along their own lines, they began to diverge somewhat from the Eight Pure-Blood Houses, and their very first step was the wholesale denial of goeryeok-nansin, the uncanny, the violent, the chaotic, the divine.
They denied yokai, denied the mysterious, and above all would not suffer the people to serve any such thing as a yokai in place of the Royal House.
By concentrating every mystery, every faith, and every power in the Royal House, they sought to strangle the very means by which yokai grew strong.

It was, of course, considerably effective.
Though in Shin Hweein’s view it carried one quite fatal limitation…

“The government’s leading the charge, raising up civilian ability-users too, putting in the work to cope. But at this rate everyone’ll die of overwork before they ever die fighting. You simply can’t help casting about for a solution, this way and that.”

At Mochizuki’s grumbling, Shin Hweein roused himself from his thoughts and slowly nodded.

“I understand the motive well enough. So in what manner do you mean to pioneer the Specter Realm? Slipping into Aeshin by way of the Specter Realm and pioneering it seem to me to have little to do with one another.”

“Ah, that’s a by-product of the research. Think about it, big bro. To pioneer the Specter Realm, you first have to know the Specter Realm well, don’t you?”

“Do not call me ‘big bro.’ It’s Shin Hae.”

Truly, must he debate the face-value of Mochizuki’s face before the man would be satisfied?
The trouble with that approach being, of course, that Shin Hweein was currently wearing a mask.

At Shin Hweein’s disgusted tone, Mochizuki chuckled and drew a little circle in the air with one finger before going on.

“All right, all right. Shin Hae, big bro.”

“…”

“So, um, this is supposed to be a secret, but since you’ve all caught on anyway, I’ll just lay it out. For several years now the Onmyo Bureau has been gathering sorcerers on a grand scale and analyzing the flow of spiritual power inside the Specter Realm. It’s a pretty large-scale project, and the modest gain we’ve come up with is…”

“That finding routes which cross from one Specter Realm Gate to another and lead to other countries was no accident, you mean.”

“Right! Big sis, you’ve not only got the body, you’ve got the brains too. Urk!”

Yun Juna hoisted the red bundle off her back and brought it down on him without ceremony.
What on earth was inside it nobody knew, but the instant it struck the ground a horrific crash rang out, loud enough that Shin Myeongin, preparing the entry rite some way off, startled and looked back in alarm.

“I surrender! I’m sorry!”

Of course, having come a hair’s breadth from being flattened into a pancake, Mochizuki threw up both hands in immediate surrender.

Grinding her teeth, Yun Juna glared at him and warned him in a voice that meant it.

“Harasser. Next time I’ll split your skull.”

“It was a compliment, ah! If you don’t like it, I won’t do it. But big sis, your strength really is something. I nearly fell for you just now.”

“Sir Shin Hae, must we truly take this man along?”

Yun Juna shouldered the bundle back into place with one hand and turned to Shin Hweein, her expression half-tinged with regret, seeking confirmation.
Shin Hweein shook his head as if in sympathy.

“Ghost-Sword Maiden, you heard him just now. The criminals exploited the Onmyo Bureau’s technique to slip into Aeshin, and Guji Mochizuki gave chase. Of course he’ll know the route they take when they make for Hwa-guk.”

“Ah.”

“Shin Hae, big bro, correct answer!”

One might think there was no need to go about it so roundaboutly, that Shin Hweein could simply call up Old Aengseol and ask.
But this came with two problems.

The first was that, if the criminals had already set foot on foreign soil, it would grow difficult for Old Aengseol to wield her power.
Old Aengseol, an Aeshin yokai, exerted her influence most strongly within Aeshin.
She could of course bring formidable power to bear inside the Specter Realm too, but less so than on Aeshin earth.
And that power waned further still once one crossed into a foreign land.
With the criminals having fled Aeshin some time ago, calling Old Aengseol now stood a fair chance of ending in disaster.

The second reason, of course, was that he could not recklessly call upon Old Aengseol in front of Shin Myeongin.
Quite frankly, had Shin Myeongin and Yun Juna not been there, he would simply have leapt straight into the Specter Realm without weighing this or that, heaped offerings on Old Aengseol, borrowed her strength, and run the criminals to ground!

To begin with, even without Yun Jinseong’s request, this was a matter I meant to handle alone. And then I had to go and run into that old man.

True, it had let him push Ham Seoyeon more easily to the front of a major event, but still!
He gnashed his teeth inwardly and prompted Mochizuki to go on.

“So? What of the truly important matter, the pioneering of the Specter Realm?”

“Ah, well, about that. Various methods came up, but in the end, whatever we tried, the conclusion was that first we had to be able to handle the ‘Gates’ more freely…”

“And so you turned your sights on the Eight Pure-Blood Houses?”

“That would be a crime! It’s because there are bastards who went ahead and did exactly that anyway that the Onmyo Bureau put a bounty on their heads.”

At last the full shape of the incident came clear.

What had Mochizuki called the criminals at the outset?
The radicals?
He’d thought it odd that so much ambiguity clung to the word even as the man explained it…
“The radicals” is a phrase one uses only when positions split inside a single group over the same issue.
Which meant that, at some point in the past, those bastards had been internal personnel of the Onmyo Bureau.
At the very least, it was plain they’d had access to the techniques the Bureau handled.

“‘The radicals,’ truly an apt expression. Is it not?”

“Aha-ha-ha…”

Mochizuki, who plainly hadn’t meant to spill quite this much himself, only let out a bitter laugh.

Of course there was a great deal he had still left unsaid.
He’d spoken as though the criminals’ motive lay wholly in securing a direct-line heir of the Eight Pure-Blood Houses, but was that truly all of it?
The yokai those bastards had actually produced, with only a little better control, could have wrought casualties on a scale incomparable to what was happening now.
Perhaps those bastards had also entertained the notion of testing, in Aeshin first, techniques too dangerous to try on their home soil.

The Onmyo Bureau, too, had surely not dispatched Mochizuki out of any pure-hearted wish merely to catch and kill men who’d turned national criminals.
While they were at it, if those bastards had achieved anything, the Bureau would want to ascertain those results, and if they had truly come away with items connected to the Eight Pure-Blood Houses, the Bureau would want those secured as well.

And while we’re at it: that they had subcontracted the job not to anyone officially attached to the Onmyo Bureau but to the Association of Shinto Shrines, and from there singled out Mochizuki specifically, guji of a shrine with no political backing, was no doubt so that, if push came to shove, they could throw him aside and feign ignorance.

“Guji Mochizuki, you must have it hard.”

“Big bro, you say a thing like that to me right now and I’ll honestly cry, you know?”

“Shin Hae. You. Don’t you go getting chummy with that bastard! If it so much as looks like you’re sneaking off to build goodwill with Hwa-guk, I won’t stand for it!”

The work had apparently just finished, for Shin Myeongin came running over, snatched at his hand, and yanked him away from Mochizuki.
She then fixed Mochizuki with a fierce look to keep him in check, at which he, laboring once again under some misunderstanding by the look of him, gave Shin Hweein a thumbs-up.

“Big bro, you’re amazing!”

“Just shut it.”

Worn down at last by Mochizuki’s unstoppable nonsense, Shin Hweein found an expletive slipping out.

“Preparations are done, so let’s get in!”

“That took rather a long while.”

“It did! I want to hurry up and finish my coming-of-age rite too, then, mm-mm!”

When Shin Hweein shot her a look, Yun Juna’s hand darted out and clamped over Shin Myeongin’s mouth.
Heedless as she might be, the notion of carelessly broadcasting her identity in front of a man who’d just been talking of targeting the Eight Pure-Blood Houses, on his own home turf no less, really.
In the Capital anyone would know her on sight, of course, but that was no reason to advertise her station to foreigners as well.

“…Ghost-Sword Maiden, please continue to take care of her.”

“Yes. I’m to keep on…?”

Having somehow palmed the burden off onto Yun Juna, Shin Hweein turned to Mochizuki for one last confirmation.

“The particulars you gave us on those men just now, there’s no mistake?”

“Of course not. Two 3rd-rank ability-Awakened, and one 2nd-rank onmyoji who used to belong to the Onmyo Bureau. The two 3rd-rankers you can take as a touch superior for their tier, but the onmyoji you’ll want to watch. He commands a fair number of shikigami, and above all he’s of distinguished blood.”

That must be why he’d been able to make contact with the Seo House’s youngest son in the first place, thanks to his high birth.
A 2nd-rank onmyoji was an opponent Shin Hweein could not guarantee beating in a head-on fight, so a little caution was no bad thing.

For reference, Hwa-guk, and indeed most countries, ranked an ability-user’s strength by a grading system roughly equivalent to Aeshin’s.
Each country setting its own standards would only breed confusion, and in severe cases one might fail to be recognized at all on the world stage.

“Then let us open the gate.”

“Hmph. I’ve prepared even that.”

Having barely escaped Yun Juna’s hand, Shin Myeongin stepped forward once more.

Normally, to open a Specter Realm Gate safely without the Gatekeeper’s Brand, one must, for the most part, prepare a sacrificial rite and offer up a far-from-trivial quantity of spiritual power, the particulars varying by the type of gate.
What Shin Myeongin had been preparing all this while was that sacrificial rite, and now they had reached the point of having to draw out the spiritual power to actually enter the Specter Realm…

“Hup.”

Shin Myeongin hurled a sphere into the center of the altar, its hazy contents looking as though clouds were trapped inside, and it burst open and shook the whole area.
Presently, beyond the altar, a gate connecting through to the Specter Realm took shape.
She had her shikigami clear the altar away and shrugged her shoulders as if to say, Well? How about that?

“This way we don’t spend any of our own strength!”

“Urk. What you just threw, was that a spirit-power orb?! How much does that even cost, here, just give it to me, I’ll provide the spiritual power!”

“Ha. Have I gone mad, to be handing this to a Jap?”

“A Jap?!”

Shin Hweein pressed a hand to his forehead.
This deeply rooted Hwa-guk-hatred peculiar to those raised on the long-established schooling of a prominent house, what in the world was one to do about it?

It was a small mercy that Guji Mochizuki, contrary to appearances, was of a good-natured disposition.
Had he been even a touch more hot-tempered, a slur against Aeshinites would have come flying back at once, and that would have been the end of any cooperation.

“Ghost-Sword Maiden, control her, I said.”

“What? Just now there was no particular need to stop her, surely.”

“I see. So on this matter the two of you were of one mind…”

She would not be living solely in Aeshin forever, and to operate on the world stage one had to learn to carry oneself apart from personal feelings or prejudices.

Having apologized to Mochizuki on the two women’s behalf, Shin Hweein decided that, as a token of that apology, he would be the first to step into the Specter Realm.
But as he strode purposefully inside, Shin Myeongin’s hand shot out and caught his sleeve.

“You’re under surveillance. Don’t even think about leaving my side.”

“What exactly is there to keep watch over. Surely you don’t truly imagine I’m going to cross over to Hwa-guk.”

“No, that’s half a joke. But more to the point, you and the Yun House—”

Mid-sentence, the two of them passed side by side through the Specter Realm Gate.
In that instant the world wrenched violently, and there came the sensation of being wrung in some great fist.

It was not his first time entering the Specter Realm, yet this passage was uniquely painful and long.

Could there have been something amiss with the rite?
No.
By his own examination there had been nothing irregular about it.
Heedless as Shin Myeongin might be, as a direct-line heir of a prominent house she could hardly have erred on a point like that.

Then could this be— the enemy’s ability—

He had grown markedly stronger in body now, and the light of the Gatekeeper’s Brand, flaring against the shock, had helped cushion it as well.
By such means Shin Hweein somehow kept from fainting and held his ground.
But Shin Myeongin, who had crossed the Specter Realm Gate at his side, was crumpling limply.

“Something is really off!”

— You’d throw me aside again!

Setting Flame-tail down and hurriedly catching her, Shin Hweein passed her into Leon’s arms and made to analyze the situation. But before he could,

“You’ll have to keep holding that burden, my lord.”

Tossing off his silk hat, Leon ran one hand back through the hair at his temple and smiled.

“Seems we weren’t chasing them. They were chasing us.”

Watching the yokai close in from every side, he gave a wry smile and at once shaped both hands into swords.

“My lord, you handle the sorcerer-tracking. I’ll go take a turn at it!”

The silk hat had only just settled lightly to the ground when Leon launched himself forward as if flung from a sling.

The flame-hound, mid-grumble at Shin Hweein, sized up the situation just as quickly, let out a sigh, and grew himself larger.

— I’ll hold off the ones gunning for you. First we need to put that gate back to rights.

“The gate? …Quite so.”

Shin Hweein looked back on reflex, and his face twisted.
The gate that, until the moment he’d crossed, had still stood open as it ought, was now flickering with a chilling discharge.

They had walked squarely into the trap the enemy had laid.