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Chapter 5: Defense Ridge
Chiaki was accompanying Nagi on a visit to ‘Shigi’s Bishamon-san,’ also known as the famous Chougosonshi Temple of Mt. Shigi . It was a large temple in which great numbers of the faithful gathered to pay homage to Heavenly King Bishamonten. It had originally been built by Prince Shoutoku halfway up Mt. Shigi , in the place where Bishamonten first appeared in Japan, and later revived by Holy Priest Myouren in the Heian Era. Even today it was teeming with worshippers; in the Month, Year, and Day of the Tiger, when Bishamonten was said to have appeared, it would be filled to bursting with pilgrims from far and wide.
Chiaki sighed lightly at the line of specialty good fortune papier-mùché tiger charms in a shop outside the front door.
He had brought Nagi here at her insistence, but he still thought it rather odd for a girl to want to come to a temple.
Chiaki looked at Nagi as she started up the path to the shrine.
“Is this your first time here, Chiaki-san?”
“Eh?...Yeah,” was the only answer Chiaki could give, though it wasn’t strictly true. He could remember coming here many times a long, long time ago.
(Well, this temple does belong to Bishamonten.)
Takeda Shingen, too, had been a fervent believer, and had left behind a letter telling of his conversion.
Though Mt. Shigi was quite famous for its Chougosonshi Temple —
This was also where Matsunaga Hisahide had built his stronghold, Shigisan Castle .
The castle had apparently once stood on the opposite slope, but had been burnt to the ground with Chougosonshi Temple by enemy fire during Oda’s attack. The temple was later rebuilt, but the castle was abandoned, to be ravaged by time and weather until not single stone remained. In the modern age only traces of its excavation and scorched army rice had been found to mark the spot where the castle had once stood.
(Matsunaga Hisahide, huh...?)
Chiaki looked at Nagi, frowning slightly. Unmindful of her injuries, Nagi called out to Chiaki cheerfully, “This is the main temple. Watch your step.”
“Ah, yes, right.”
A large temple came into view as he ascended the flight of stone stairs, rising on a platform beside a perpendicular cliff. It was, of course, bustling with groups of tourists.
After paying their respects inside, they leaned against the guardrails of the platform and looked down on Sangou Town .
“My mom used to bring me here to this temple to worship, ever since I was little.”
Chiaki’s eyes abruptly swung to Nagi. Nagi smiled, enjoying the wind against her face.
"We came so many times, just the two of us, that this temple is like my back yard.
“...”
“Oh, that’s right!” Nagi suddenly pulled Chiaki by the arm towards the temple’s charm stand. A row of multi-colored charms were on display.
“Ack!”
One of them was a familiar-looking tiger’s head in profile, painted yellow with black stripes.
“Th-this isn’t...”
“Isn’t it neat? It’s a Tigers charm. Chiaki-san, do you not like the Tigers?”
“Huh? Ah...ahahahah...” Chiaki laughed convulsively.
Nagi told Chiaki as they took the flight of stairs back down, “My mom...died half a year ago.” She looked down at the ground, loneliness in her expression, as Chiaki gazed at her. “After she got sick, she would keep saying, over and over again, ‘I want to go back to our house, the house where your father is. I want to go back to the house where I could see the ocean.’”
“See the ocean...?”
“Yes. It was the house we lived in when I was little.” Nagi gave Chiaki a small smile. “There’s no ocean here in Nara , you see...”
Chiaki looked questioningly at her. “Nagi...?”
Nagi started walking ahead once more, staring down at the ground. Chiaki, remembering the elopement and precipitous marriage of Nagi’s parents and the early death of Nagi’s father, grew pensive.
“I only have one dad. My dad is my only dad. My mom died because of that disgusting man.” With her back turned, Nagi stated in a small but resolute voice, “It was his fault.”
Startled, Chiaki’s expression darkened. But Nagi turned to Chiaki and smiled again as if she had forgotten those words as soon as they left her lips.
“This road leads to the top of the mountain, and there’s a temple called Kuuhachi-san there. Want to go?”
“Kuuhachi-san ...?”
“Yes. They would take this path to bring water up, because there’s no water supply up there. Ladle an offering of water into this pot...” Nagi said, passing Chiaki a tin pot from the many hanging by the wash fountain. She picked up the ladle and began pouring water into another.
“Wa-wait a minute. Are you really planning to climb to the summit? Carrying this?”
“Oh, you don’t want to?”
“No, but you’re injured. Stop for today. You need to rest.”
“Oh... That’s right.”
Nagi took another look at the bandage around her right arm.
“You probably don’t feel anything right now because of the anesthetic, but since you are injured, you should be careful...right?”
“I’m sorry. I got carried away,” Nagi said brightly with a shy smile. “I guess it’s because I’ve been so nervous and scared lately, all the time.”
“...”
“My great-aunt and relatives are always around. They’re all scary, and I don’t like them. They’re always talking about the family fortune and the family name. My mom was really upset by it, too,” Nagi confided, and turned to gaze at the mountain. “But it’s okay. The Dragon God is with me. Chiaki-san, you’re a servant of the Dragon God, aren’t you? I‘ve heard the divine message of the Dragon God: ’I will protect you, so be at peace.’”
“Divine message...?”
“Yes. The shrine of the Dragon God is up there. I go there a lot to pay my respects. And pray.” Nagi turned to look at Chiaki. “Chiaki-san, you already know everything, don’t you?”
“...”
Doubt filled Chiaki’s face.
“So it’s okay. I believe everything will be fine. I trust in the Dragon God.”
“You...”
“Please protect me for now and always.”
Nagi gave him a bright grin and walked on ahead.
She seemed to truly believe that Chiaki was a servant of the Dragon God. But what did she mean by hearing a divine message?
The Dragon God of Mt. Shigi ...
Chiaki suddenly froze in place, unable to breathe.
(She couldn’t have...)
The sky darkened. Black clouds covered the sun overhead.
He could hear the roar of distant thunder.
The violent thunderstorm had passed by the time they arrived back at Nagi’s house. A Presia was parked in front of it, and standing next to the car were Naoe and Takaya.
Chiaki climbed out and waved at Takaya.
“Hey. You guys out for a drive?”
“Huh, why doesn’t it surprise me that you’d have a girl sitting next to you?”
Nagi alighted. Both Chiaki and Nagi were soaked from head to toe from the rain at the temple. Chiaki introduced them as his acquaintances, and Nagi gave them a slight bow.
“I’ll bring a towel,” she said, and walked off in the direction of the house. Chiaki presented a box to Takaya as he followed her with his eyes.
“Here. A souvenir from Mt. Shigi .”
“What is it?”
“A papier-mĂąchĂ© tiger.”
“You trying to say something to me?!”
Next to him, Naoe murmured quietly, “So that’s Shiohara’s daughter?”
Chiaki’s face turned serious again.
“Have you learned something?”
“Yes. There’s certainly a strong «malice»—well, more of an alien presence than malice—here. As we suspected, that girl carries some sort of apparition within her.”
“That ‘hiragumo’ kettle thing...?”
“It’s hiding itself, so I can’t be certain, but from the strength of its aura, the tsukumogami is easily three—no, four hundred years old. It’s only lurking within the body at the moment, but trying to expel it directly will likely be a rather difficult proposition.”
“Then the rumors are true as well...?”
Chiaki interrupted Takaya to ask, “What rumors?”
“Well, there was something that lady Kizaki told us, and we checked it out with the people in the neighborhood before you guys got back. That hoihoi fire thing? It’s been showing up a lot around here too, and they’ve really been increasing in number these past few days. And people have seen them go into this house at night...”
The window Takaya indicated belonged to the first room on the second floor: Nagi’s room.
“The fireballs are flocking here like there’s something sucking ’em in. And the tsukumogami is pretty much our only suspect right now, right?”
“It’s gathering the hoihoi fire? The kettle?”
“Naoe was thinking that it might be eating them up.”
Chiaki looked at Naoe.
“You think that the ‘hiragumo’ is consuming the ‘energy’ of the hoihoi fire to add to its own power?”
“Probably. According to legend, the ‘hiragumo’ feeds on spirits and other apparitions, right? Doesn’t that mean that it’s using spiritual and otherworldly energies to fuel its own growth?”
Chiaki’s brows creased lightly.
The tsukumogami in Nagi had unquestionably grown since yesterday, but—
“Then why did the tsukumogami pick Nagi to possess? Are you saying that it has something to do with the hoihoi fire burning her stepfather to death?”
Takaya and Naoe looked at each other, and both of them grimaced. Naoe asked, gazing at the house, “Did you hear that she offered a hundred prayers in a hundred pilgrimages to Mt. Shigi ?”
“A hundred prayers...in a hundred pilgrimages...?”
“Yes. They say that she prayed a hundred times to the Dragon God at Chougosonshi Temple . Her prayers...” Naoe’s eyes sharpened—“may have triggered the curse that killed her stepfather.”
“A curse...? That killed Shiohara...?”
“It’s not really something you can ask her directly, but Shiohara, at least, seemed to have believed it. In fact, ever since Shiohara learned of his daughter’s hundred pilgrimages, he’s had dreams of Nagi being followed about by a thick fog and of himself being devoured by the Dragon God—he was terrified.”
He had plastered his room with charms and carried them with him at all times. His fear of Nagi had been such that he had avoided all contact with her for the past few months.
Chiaki asked doubtfully, “I don’t get it. She doesn’t look like someone who could do that. And besides, why would she want to kill her stepfather? Are you saying she hated him that much?”
“Her mother died half a year ago, correct?” Naoe answered implacably. “She didn’t die from any type of disease; she committed suicide from severe mental illness.”
“Suicide...?”
“Yes. Her relationship with her husband was apparently not a congenial one. Which is not surprising, given that she was forced into the marriage by her father.”
“In short, this guy Shiohara got himself adopted into the family because he had his eyes on the company and the family fortune. He never seemed to much care about actually having a family,” Takaya interjected with disgust.
Naoe added, “That girl’s mother apparently knew quite well that Shiohara had a lover. She lived with her neurotic disorder towards Shiohara and her family for years before she finally consumed poison half a year ago.”
“So Nagi blames her stepfather for her mother’s death...?”
Nagi’s words suddenly echoed in the back of Chiaki’s mind.
“It’s his fault.”
Even so, could Nagi really have done something as terrible as curse him to death?
“I’m not sure, but weren’t the hundred pilgrimages to Mt. Shigi ? The once-upon location of Matsunaga Hisahide’s castle? If that kettle monster possessed her because of those visits, then there must be a connection, right?”
“I have heard the divine message of the Dragon God...”
Chiaki’s eyes narrowed.
“Well, but—” Takaya added bluntly, “even if that monster has a connection to Matsunaga Hisahide, he hasn’t made an appearance himself yet. We still haven’t seen any sign of movement from the onshou, right?”
"No, that’s not quite true.
They blinked and switched their attention to Chiaki.
"Someone is targeting Nagi. Judging by the «power» they used, I’m absolutely sure it’s an onshou or «nue» of the «Yami-Sengoku».
“!”
Takaya and Naoe’s eyes both widened. The onshou were on the move...!
“Onshou...? Could it have been Matsunaga Hisahide?”
“No idea. But still, that wouldn’t make sense if the monster possessing Nagi is actually the ‘hiragumo kettle’ that once belonged to Hisahide. It’s a tsukumogami of considerable power. If Hisahide were resurrected, I’d think that he would try to use it instead of destroying it out of hand, since there is already a bond between them. But if the onshou fighting Hisahide are aiming for the ‘hiragumo’...”
“His secret weapon...” Naoe took up the thread of the conversation. “So Hisahide’s secret weapon would be this tsukumogami after all?”
“What?”
Naoe turned to Takaya. “Everything makes sense if it’s the Oda who are attacking Shiohara Nagi. That ‘hiragumo’ legend— If we handle this poorly, its spirit-consuming ability will fall into the hands of the «Yami-Sengoku» onryou and become another weapon in their arsenal. It would doubtlessly be a threat to opposing onshou equal to our power of «choubuku».”
“So Hisahide wants to make the ‘hiragumo’ a weapon, and the ones targeting Nagi are—”
Takaya frowned in thought. Next to him, Chiaki said, “In any case, we’ll be moving blind unless we know something of Hisahide’s plans. Maybe we should visit Mt. Shigi again and do another spirit sensing—”
“Chiaki-san,” said a voice behind them. Nagi had returned with a towel. “I’ve made tea, so please come up. Everyone is welcome...”
“—”
They looked at Nagi, then at each other. Chiaki clapped Takaya’s shoulder.
“Well, I go where I’m called... Guess you guys have your work cut out for you, huh? I’ll see you later.”
“Wh-wh-wh! You’re going to go have tea while we’re doing all the work...?!”
“I can’t refuse an invitation from a girl, right? Hey, I’m just the right guy in the right place, so leave things here to me. Ah, being popular is such hard work...”
“You little punk!”
“You can look forward to some tea pastries. That is, if we leave any. ...All right, let’s go have tea, Nagi-chan!”
“Co-come back here! Chiaki, you bastard!”
Chiaki was already walking off with Nagi, a genially hand on her shoulder. Rolling his eyes, Naoe dragged Takaya back by the collar.
“Give it up, Kagetora-sama.”
“Dammit! That guy is way too smooth. I’m sick and tired of him making fun of me. Gwaar...!”
Glancing at Takaya fuming in the passenger seat, Naoe murmured, deadpan, “Perhaps you simply leave him too many openings?”
Takaya twitched. “What?”
“More importantly, are your «powers» working as they should? Nothing will make you a laughingstock faster than not being able to call upon them when it comes down to the crunch.”
Takaya glared daggers at Naoe. “Maybe you’d like me to demonstrate by squeezing your throat shut right now?”
“I wouldn’t mind, but please refrain until after we’ve passed the curves. Otherwise we might be a nuisance to the oncoming cars.”
Takaya slumped into his seat wearily. The car raced along hilly winding roads toward Mt. Shigi .
“There was another famous general in Yamato, someone who fought against Hisahide throughout his life and could be called something of a rival to him. His name was Tsutsui Junkei...”
“?”
“He was serving Oda at the time of Hisahide’s betrayal—he apparently participated in the attack against Mt. Shigi and won a great victory there. He also seemed to have been confidant toAkechi Mitsuhide for a time, but when he received a request from Mitsuhide to dispatch troops to Honnou Temple , he didn’t send a single soldier. Incidentally, I believe Mitsuhide also participated in the attack against Mt. Shigi .”
Takaya rested an arm against the window and looked at Naoe. “So? You think that Tsutsui Junkei is the one targeting this girl?”
“I have no idea. It would be disastrous if he were resurrected and sided with Oda. But I’ve never heard of Tsutsui Junkei becoming an onryou...”
“Grah,” Takaya groaned, before the corners of his mouth twitched upward. “Matsunaga Hisahide and Tsutsui Junkei, huh...? I actually did some research on them on Yuzuru’s computer.”
“A computer? Very admirable.”
“Yeah. But I haven’t reached the provinces around the capital yet... I got my hands on Date and Tokugawa, and I finally beat the Houjou the other day...”
“??? Wh-what do you mean?”
“You know, that game. ‘Nobunaga’s Am’—...”
“I get the picture now. Please stop.”
They arrived at Mt. Shigi .
Takaya and Naoe alighted and began the climb to the summit and the shrine of Nagi’s hundred pilgrimages. They would be performing a spirit sensing of Mt. Shigi , where Matsunaga Hisahide’s main castle had once stood, but the grounds of Chougosonshi Temple were close enough to obscure all abnormal spiritual energies. So they ascended the temple path beneath the long line of red shrine arches towards ‘Kuuhachi-san .’
“Over there?” Takaya panted when they finally reached the top. ‘Kuuhachi-san ,’ the shrine to the Dragon God who was said to serve Bishamonten, was well known for its hundred pilgrimages legend. Takaya’s feet suddenly stopped dead before they reached the main hall.
“Ugh...” Takaya pressed a hand against his forehead, grimacing.
“Kagetora-sama.”
“Gimme a sec. What the heck is this feeling?”
Naoe gazed at the shrine.
“The ‘energy’ released by the Dragon God. Also the accumulation and condensation of the spiritual energy of people’s prayers. Not surprising, when they come from people who would make a hundred pilgrimages. Still, there aren’t very many shrines with such strong energies.”
“I think I’m gonna pass on going in...”
“Are you all right?”
“!”
Takaya’s head suddenly jerked around as if drawn by something behind him.
“Kagetora-sama?”
Takaya’s eyes flashed. He spun on his heels and retraced his steps to the narrow path leading into the woods. Naoe immediately followed. The path circled the back of the mountain away from the shrine road, and Takaya sprint down its curving length as if in pursuit of someone.
He came out into a small clearing.
“Kagetora-sama.”
Naoe surveyed the area around them. They were already in the vicinity of Shigisan Castle ’s earthwork remains.
Takaya spat in disgust, “Damn, he got away...”
“An onshou?”
“Felt like a person. But someone with strong spiritual energy—probably someone possessed by a strong spirit.”
Takaya took another look at his surroundings. He felt as if the residual thoughts of those who had lived centuries ago were seething up from the ground all around him.
“This mountain is a pretty scary place, isn’t it,” Takaya muttered absently. “It looks like sacred ground on the surface, but there’s so much hate here still.”
The hate of soldiers who had died in the siege of Shigisan Castle four hundred years ago. The place was filled with earth-bound spirits, their spiritual energies so vigorous that they were liable to erupt at any moment.
And crucially, the spirit of Matsunaga Hisahide—
“...!”
Takaya and Naoe whirled to their right in a single simultaneous movement. A strong aura. Someone was there—someone was looking right at them!
(The one I sensed earlier...?!)
The aura felt familiar. This gaze. It was—yes.
(What I felt at Shiohara’s house yesterday!)
They concentrated their attention on the source of that stare, wary and poised for battle. Their unseen opponent remained motionless, but his gaze upon them was unmistakably filled with a thirst for blood.
“Come out,” Takaya called in a lowered voice. “I know you’re behind that tree.”
There was no response. Takaya glanced at Naoe. Naoe shook his head—the sense of hostility had not changed. Takaya began to gather «power» into his body.
“Come out.”
“—”
“If you won’t come out, then I’m coming over to you.”
Takaya took an experimental step forward, twigs crackling beneath his right foot.
“!”
The earth moaned, and the soil and sand at their feet suddenly erupted. Their opponent’s «nenpa» gouged the earth with the thunderous crash and roar of a landmine explosion.
“Bastard!”
Takaya released his own «nenpa» at the large tree concealing their attacker as he jumped away.
Countless cracks ran through the tree’s trunk before it blasted apart. The shadow fled, counterattacking as he sprinted for the trees. But his «nenpa» smashed into Naoe’s «goshinha» and disintegrated before it reached Takaya.
“Stop! Stop, damn you—!”
Takaya reached for «power» with all his might.
“Didn’t I tell you to stop?!”
“!”
Violent plasmatic lights flashed around them. Finding his path blocked, their opponent crouched guardedly, and Takaya and Naoe lost sight of him. In the moment Naoe thought to cast an «outer bind», their foe turned, eyes glinting.
“Waugh!”
Wind piercing as a blade-edge tore into Naoe, and he doubled over.
“Naoe!”
Takaya moved to stand protectively over him. Something let out a terrible screech in front of them, and Takaya spun in surprise to see a tree fall towards them as its roots cracked sharply apart.
“Shit!”
Takaya immediately grabbed Naoe and rolled both of them back. The gigantic tree hit the ground with a resounding crash, missing them by inches.
Takaya yelled, “Who the hell are you, you bastard? Are you Tsutsui Junkei?!”
Another tree collapsed on their right. Takaya reflexively jumped back, shouting, “Are you the one who attacked Shiohara Nagi...?!”
“Kagetora-sama!”
Trees fell toward them from all directions. They had no choice but to retreat back along the path, barely managing to avoid being crushed. Takaya yelled toward the space now blocked by fallen trees, “You bastard! I’m not letting you get away!”
But both the shadow and its aura had already disappeared. They had belonged to a young man of middling height. That he had attacked them meant, nine chances out of ten, that he was anonshou of the «Yami-Sengoku».
“Dammit—...!” Takaya groaned, biting his lip, and turned to see Naoe leaning against a tree behind him. Blood seeped faintly through the horizontal tear running across his shirt.
“You okay? That wound.”
“A scratch. But this is getting ugly.”
Naoe glared fiercely in the direction their foe had gone, his face set in a stern mask.
“You got something, Naoe?”
“Yes...” Naoe’s face darkened even further. “Though I don’t yet know his identity. Did you not notice, Kagetora-sama? That man just now, he was not just a spirit in possession of a body.”
“What...?”
Takaya blinked. Naoe’s eyes were razor-sharp as they gazed back at him.
“He was kanshousha.”
“!”
Takaya’s eyes widened in shock. Naoe nodded soberly and turned to look once more in the direction the man had disappeared. Takaya did the same, expression tense.
Oda’s onshou were moving.
Their aim: to destroy the resurrected Matsunaga Hisahide.
“What is the meaning of this, Nagi?!” Fujiko, Nagi’s great-aunt, demanded, her face changing color as soon as she saw Chiaki. “What are you thinking, bringing a man like him into the house? He’s one of those reporter people, isn’t he? Throw him out right now! I don’t know what he’s looking for, but he won’t find it here!”
“No! Great-aunt!”
“I’m telling you this for your own good. How could you bring a strange man into the house so soon after your father’s death? What sort of shameless behavior is this, Nagi? Will you blemish the name of our house and company even more than you’ve already done? Drive him out right this instant!”
(Oh man—...)
An embarrassed Chiaki was seated on the living room couch, sipping red tea. He could hear the argument between Nagi and her great-aunt through the single door that separated them whether or not he wanted to. And he had heard enough to understand quite clearly how badly they got along.
(I really kinda feel sorry for her...)
Just as he finished his tea and stood, intending to leave quietly, the door opened and Nagi appeared.
“Nagi...?”
“My great-aunt is going home,” Nagi said, wiping slightly at her eyes. “I asked her to go.”
“But, I...”
“It’s okay. I think she wanted to go, too. I’ll be fine on my own.”
The stairs thumped loudly. They could hear Nagi’s great-aunt cursing hysterically before a door slammed shut. Her great-aunt and great-uncle appeared to have left the house.
The hum of a car engine gradually faded into the distance until only the singing of cicadas remained.
Quiet settled around the house.
“But this will be hard for you, too.”
“Not at all...” Nagi gave him a small smile. “It’s quieter by myself. I’m glad she left,” Nagi reassured him, then noticed that Chiaki’s cup was empty. “Would you like more tea?”
“Huh? Oh, sure, thank you.”
Gazing silently at Nagi as she courteously poured tea from the pot into his cup, Chiaki suddenly asked, “Um, Nagi-san...?”
Nagi lifted her head. “Yes?”
Chiaki was forced to swallow his words at the terribly innocent expression on her face.
Could this girl really have asked the Dragon God to curse her stepfather to death...?
He couldn’t ask her that question, not with her pure, guileless face right in front of him.
Nagi asked Chiaki doubtfully after several seconds of silence, “What is it?”
“Ah, nothing—” Giving up on those thoughts, Chiaki sighed and leaned toward Nagi again. “You prayed to the Dragon God of Mt. Shigi for a wish to be granted, right? What was it you prayed for?”
Nagi’s hand on the teapot stilled, and she looked blankly at Chiaki. “Oh but, aren’t you supposed to know?”
“Huh? Er...yeah...”
Since Nagi believed Chiaki to be a servant of the Dragon God, she also assumed that he would know what she had wished for. Chiaki scratched his cheek, stumped.
The doorbell rang.
Nagi looked puzzled at the unexpected arrival of a guest, but answered “Coming—” and went out to the front door.
“Yamamoto-san!”
He could hear Nagi’s voice from the open door. Chiaki peered out curiously from the door next to the corridor.
Nagi was conversing with a tall man in his thirties, apparently an acquaintance.
Yamamoto noticed Chiaki.
“This is my friend, Chiaki-san,” Nagi immediately explained.
Meeting his gaze, Chiaki gave him a polite greeting, which the friendly-seeming man called Yamamoto returned with an urbane smile.
After a long exchange with Nagi, Yamamoto courteously said his good-byes to both of them and left. Looking after Yamamoto as he disappeared into the night, Chiaki asked Nagi, “Who was that?”
Nagi stepped back inside, looking at him with something like relief.
“Yamamoto-san from the company. He’s my stepfather’s secretary, but he’s been taking care of me, so I don’t mind him...”
He appeared to have been worried about Nagi and come to make sure she was all right.
“Hmm...” Chiaki murmured approvingly. “Well, shall we have more tea, then?”