"A hairpin from a thousand years ago."
Gin Tsumugi stared at the object in his hand.
The mont Iwanaga Kotoko handed it over, he drew out a talisman and released the seal on it. Spiritual light flickered across the paper, and another hairpin appeared in his palm.
It was the one unearthed from the park area of Academy during the Wedding Dress Tree incident.
Two old hairpins.
Two relics that should have belonged to the world of a thousand years ago.
Gin placed them side by side on the desk.
No matter how he looked at them, they were identical.
The carved patterns, the delicate craftsmanship, the curvature, the talwork, even the smallest decorative details—everything matched. They had clearly co from the hands of the sa master craftsman.
And more importantly, both carried that sa strange aura.
Ancient.
Elegant.
Familiar.
That vague sense of recognition had bothered Gin since the first ti he touched the hairpin from the Wedding Dress Tree case. Even now, he still could not identify where it ca from.
"Director," Kotoko said, "this was found by the Kawano Office during one of the grotesque tree spirit incidents. It was also the only useful item they managed to obtain."
"Kawano Office, huh..."
Gin did have so impression of that na.
The Kawano Office was an old-established supernatural investigation office in Shibuya Ward. Before the rise of the White Fox Office, it had been the undisputed number one in the area. Its director had once been an onmyoji affiliated with the Omnyo Agency, but had resigned for so reason. After the Supernatural Revival, he returned to Shibuya and founded the Kawano Office.
Back when Gin first established the White Fox Office, he had studied quite a few things from the Kawano Office's operating model.
Unfortunately for them, the title of Shibuya's top office had already changed hands.
Recently, Gin had even heard rumors that the Kawano Office had begun to decline. Whether that was true or not, he did not know. He had never been particularly interested in office politics.
Kotoko opened her briefcase and took out a file envelope.
"Director, these are all the files and records the Kawano Office has on that incident."
Gin accepted the envelope, opened it, and pulled out the neatly arranged A4 papers inside.
He began reading.
Kotoko and Sora did not disturb him. While waiting, Kotoko brewed herself a cup of instant coffee, added enough milk and sugar to almost make it dessert, and drank it in small, determined sips. It was already deep into the night, and without caffeine, her eyelids were clearly preparing a rebellion.
A while later, Gin finished reading.
His brows had drawn together.
"Three hundred people."
His voice was low.
"This one grotesque tree spirit incident caused three hundred unnatural deaths."
The case he had personally handled—the one involving Sora—had claid only a few dozen victims at most.
This one had gone straight into the hundreds.
No wonder the authorities had issued a public warning despite the risk of spreading panic.
And worse, this was only one of the incidents involving grotesque tree spirit branches.
According to Kotoko's earlier information, more than a dozen similar cases had already surfaced across Tokyo. Those were only the exposed ones. There was no telling how many branches were still hiding in the dark, feeding quietly on people no one had yet noticed were missing.
Gin made a rough estimate.
There were likely at least thirty incidents caused by grotesque tree spirit branches.
If calculated that way, the total number of victims was probably terrifying.
No wonder Kotoko had leaned toward having him tear out the entire incident by the roots. This was not only what the authorities wanted. The Yin and Yang Agency would want the sa.
Still, so things could not be solved by rushing.
Gin gestured toward the briefcase.
Kotoko handed it over.
The grotesque tree spirit incident was now entangled with the already resolved Wedding Dress Tree incident. That made the situation far more complicated than a simple outbreak of man-eating supernatural plants.
Gin pulled out every docunt connected to the recent grotesque tree spirit cases and began reading through them one by one.
He needed a breakthrough.
Without one, exterminating a few branches would solve nothing. The source would remain hidden, and the sa tragedy would happen again sowhere else.
Ti passed quietly.
The office was still except for the rustle of paper and Kotoko's occasional sip of coffee.
Gradually, Gin found two anomalies.
"Kotoko."
She looked up from her cup.
"None of these offices obtained a blood-red fruit when they destroyed the grotesque tree spirit branches?"
Kotoko blinked, then yawned despite herself. She quickly took another large drink of coffee and forced herself awake.
"That's right."
Gin tapped the papers lightly.
"And not a single victim like Sora was saved?"
"No," Kotoko said. "Even if a victim still had a trace of life left, the mont the onmyoji attacked, the grotesque tree spirit devoured them imdiately."
Her expression grew more serious.
"As for the blood-red fruits, they detached and withered on their own."
"Withered..."
Gin's gaze sharpened.
He took out another talisman and released its seal.
Three blood-red fruits appeared on the desk.
The fruit gave off an unsettling beauty. Their color was rich and vivid, too much like coagulated blood beneath a thin skin.
Sora's face changed at the sight of them.
A sadness she could not fully hide passed through her eyes.
Two of those fruits had been nourished by the flesh and blood of her closest family.
They were not rely evidence.
They were the remains of a nightmare.
Gin saw her reaction but did not comnt. His attention returned to the objects on the table.
The two ancient hairpins.
The three blood-red fruits.
The case files.
The Wedding Dress Tree.
The grotesque tree spirits.
The noble lady from a thousand years ago.
The unknown existence that favored blood-red fruit.
Fragnts of suspicion and usable information began to connect inside his mind.
"The blood-red fruit nourished by flesh and blood," Gin murmured. "The hairpin from a thousand years ago. The mysterious noble lady behind the Wedding Dress Tree. The one who deployed the grotesque tree spirit branches. And the unknown powerful existence that likes to eat these fruits..."
Kotoko and Sora both listened without interrupting.
Gin's eyes lowered.
"On the surface, the culprit should be the one who scattered the grotesque tree spirit branches. Because of that person, these incidents spread across Tokyo."
He picked up one of the hairpins.
"And these hairpins appearing inside the branches were likely placed there deliberately."
Kotoko's expression shifted. "Deliberately?"
Gin nodded.
"The purpose was probably to draw outside attention toward the hairpin—or more precisely, toward the owner of the hairpin."
His voice turned quieter.
"And that owner is very likely the noble lady who once gave the Wedding Dress Tree seedling to that Village."
Humans could not live for over a thousand years.
Monsters could.
From that alone, the noble lady was likely no ordinary being. At the very least, she would have to be a Great Yokai-level existence.
And Gin had evidence for his guess.
Of all the grotesque tree spirit incidents, only the one investigated by the Kawano Office had reached three hundred victims. The others ranged roughly between fifty and sixty, with none exceeding a hundred.
The more deaths there were, the more attention the incident would naturally attract from onmyoji. Investigators would examine every detail carefully, and sothing as strange and conspicuous as an ancient hairpin would never be ignored.
"It's a ga," Gin said slowly. "A clash between two unknown powerful beings."
The room seed to grow colder.
"One side is using the grotesque tree spirits. The other is likely tied to the ancient hairpins and the Wedding Dress Tree."
He set the hairpin back onto the desk.
"And the onmyoji drawn into these incidents are being used as pawns. The one behind the grotesque tree spirits wants outside forces to notice the hairpin, trace it back, and confront the one suspected to be that noble lady."
For a mont, Gin almost seed to see it.
Two vast shadows hidden behind Tokyo's night.
Not moving directly.
Not stepping into the light.
Only extending their hands through monsters, relics, old grudges, and human victims.
The situation was becoming more complicated.
Much more complicated.
"But for now," Gin said, "we have a breakthrough."
He resealed the two hairpins and the three blood-red fruits, then explained his deductions to Kotoko and Sora in detail.
After listening, Kotoko fell into a daze.
This was bad.
Very bad.
She had originally wanted to use the grotesque tree spirit incident to occupy the Director's ti and energy, preventing him from taking Shinomiya Kaguya's commission involving Shuten-dōji too quickly.
But now?
This incident had dragged out sothing just as dangerous.
Two unknown beings hiding in the shadows. Two existences likely at least at the level of Great Yokai. A secret ga played through supernatural disasters and human casualties.
The danger here might not be any lower than facing Shuten-dōji.
"Kotoko."
No response.
"Kotoko?"
Gin called her twice before she snapped back to herself.
"I'm here, Director."
Her face regained its seriousness at once.
"Director, isn't this too dangerous? Facing two unknown existences who are at least Great Yokai-level by yourself—"
"Dangerous?" Gin said. "Not really."
Kotoko and Sora both looked at him.
Gin's tone remained calm.
"Besides, I never said I was going to deal with those two."
They froze.
"If not them," Sora asked, "then who?"
"The one who scattered the grotesque tree spirit branches, of course."
Gin's answer was straightforward.
"Once that person is dealt with, the grotesque tree spirit incidents should be resolved."
He was not foolish enough to charge directly at two unknown Great Yokai-level existences.
Since both sides were hiding in the shadows and treating onmyoji as pieces on the board, that ant they had reasons not to act openly. They would not appear easily. Gin could mark them as potential enemies, but the best outco was still to resolve the present incident without directly colliding with them.
Of course, if the worst happened...
With his current strength, plus Zenki and Goki, he had no reason to be afraid.
Kotoko thought for a mont, then raised another possibility.
"Maybe the one who scattered the branches is the powerful being behind the grotesque tree spirits."
"It's possible," Gin said. "But unlikely."
He tapped the desk lightly.
"In my current reasoning, those two unknown existences are on roughly equal footing. A being operating at that level would not personally go around scattering grotesque tree spirit branches."
Kotoko and Sora both nodded.
That made sense.
Looking back at the original Wedding Dress Tree incident, the two hidden existences had only watched from behind the curtain and arranged things in secret. There had been no sign of either of them personally taking action.
Gin turned to Sora.
"Sora, for the next few days, continue tracking the yokai from the man-eating case."
Although the focus had shifted toward the grotesque tree spirit incident, that did not an the man-eating monster could be ignored. Both cases had to proceed at the sa ti.
"Yes, Director."
Sora nodded firmly.
"As for you, Kotoko."
Gin looked at her.
"I need you to investigate soone for . She was investigated once before, but this ti, I want everything. Thoroughly. If you need special clearance, request it from the authorities directly."
Kotoko set down her coffee.
"Who?"
Gin's eyes lowered slightly.
"A student from Class 2-D of Minegishi Great Affiliated Academy."
He spoke the na slowly.
"Kuda Mai."
The na had already been filed away once.
She was the one who had buried the hairpin in the park area of Houjou Academy.
Because of that, the Wedding Dress Tree incident had begun.
She was also the first person pulled into the Wedding Dress Tree's spirit domain during the second stage of the incident.
Everything had started with her.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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