Chapter 2 - Future and Everyday 4 page

He understood in his heart that this was 99% useless worry.

Even so, he had no reason to ignore the remaining 1%.

Tenma's stealth magic had already completely activated before he entered the male restroom. He walked into the restroom like that, entering the deepest stall and closing the door.

He still didn't release his stealth. He closed his eyes, quickly and thoroughly inspecting the surrounding aura.

There was nothing suspicious. Tenma opened his eyes, taking out the letter from his backpack. The letter that had been given to him this morning by the bespectacled girl.

He wordlessly turned the pink-colored envelope over several times to confirm. He couldn't find any magical traces. He opened it and took out the contents.

There was just one sheet of paper.

He first swept over it with a sharp gaze, then slowly read it again.

The name of the sender hadn't been recorded on the message. Nor could he find any clues to trace back to the sender. It wasn't coincidence, she had deliberately concealed herself. Though it had been handwritten, Tenma wasn't familiar enough with this penmanship to know the answer.

More importantly, the contents seemed superficial. Even if this message were given to a third party's hands, they wouldn't be able to grasp any concrete information. Someone who knew about the 'circumstances' to some degree might realize something, but he wouldn't necessarily be able to obtain any more information than the situation. It was a message written after such consideration.

There was just one thing.

The feelings of the person who wrote the letter were deeply conveyed.

And those feelings most clearly pointed to the sender of the letter.

Tenma closed his eyes, silently suppressing the emotions that spilled forth. Then, he checked the letter again, this time paying attention to intent rather than words.

He checked whether there were any hidden words written somewhere. But even though he checked once again, Tenma grasped that there weren't such things. Gratitude and apology were clearly written in the letter, especially the feeling of not wanting to bring Tenma or others trouble. This letter was completely one-sided news sent from the other party.

Even so, Tenma read the letter again several times.

He checked the time with his watch. It would be bad if he didn't return to the classroom soon. Tenma ripped the envelope into fine bits and flushed them into the toilet. Then, after a slight hesitation, he folded the message as small as possible. He took out a shrine protective talisman that he had carried in his bag and opened the bag to put the message inside.

Then, Tenma left the stall and washed his hands, heading to the classroom.

The place that had become the location of the New Year's Ceremony was the magic practice field underneath the academy building.

It had originally been a place used for practical first-class magic skills, but it was the only place that could accommodate the entire student body, and hence it had been used for the entrance ceremony and other things. It was constructed like an athletic stadium, and the arena bordered by magic barriers was also encircled by spectator seating on all four sides. The day of the New Year's Ceremony, only the third-years were on the arena ground. The second and first-years along with the media that had been invited to cover it watched from the spectator seating. The third-years also carried the ceremony forward.

Hence, the final coursework of the day had been canceled for Tenma and the third-year students, and they were having a dress rehearsal to prepare for tomorrow instead.

"Why do ceremonies and rituals have to be so formal? They're so tiring."

"I know what you mean, but isn't it a problem for an Onmyouji to say that?"

'Rituals' like this had been important work of Onmyouji since ancient times. Tenma smiled and advised his classmate about his statement.

The New Year's Ceremony was overall split into two portions. The first half that was held after the principal's greeting was the same as the demonic aura purification that the Onmyou Agency carried out at the end of the year.

But this was just an imitation. The Onmyou Academy's New Year's Ceremony was just held with the goal of 'purifying the evil of the old year and praying for the beauty of the new year'. They ceremoniously carried out the demonic aura purification ritual along those lines. But the process itself had more meaning than the actual effectiveness of the magic ritual. In that sense, it wasn't that far apart from the original work of Onmyouji. As Tenma had said before, conducting rites and rituals were important duties of Onmyouji.

But the highlight of the New Year's Ceremony was the latter half, not the former. After the demonic aura purification ritual, the students summoned shikigami to put on a dance performance.

Unlike the demonic aura purification, the shikigami dance performance had no other magical significance. But the materialized shikigami had unique appearances and beautiful movements. Hence, even if an ordinary person unrelated to magic watched, he would easily understand that it was 'amazing'. In other words, it was propaganda for the Onmyou Academy's skills. Though the news planned on reporting on the present situation, the eye-catching shikigami summoning was also well-received on television.

"In the end, it's more like a simple performance than a ceremony."

One of his classmates said this, and it was actually true. And just like Tenma had said earlier today, this kind of performance was associated with certain outcomes.

In any case, the third-years were split into demonic aura purification and shikigami-controlling groups, carrying out their dress rehearsals individually. Tenma was in the latter, the shikigami controlling group.

Initially, several students in the group who were particularly good at controlling shikigami would summon and control shikigami on their own. The summoned shikigami were different types of self-made simple shikigami and manmade shikigami that they owned themselves. It was the highlight for any spectating practitioner.

But the biggest highlight that they publicized to the outside was the shikigami group dance performance to end the New Year's Ceremony. The students all brought forth a large amount of manmade shikigami together and performed a group dance.

The created shikigami were old-styled general-purpose 'M1 Domestic^[5]' and also general-purpose 'M3 Asura'. The former was originally a smaller shikigami, but the size of the latter had been modified and reduced slightly. In the end, there were many, close to fifty in total. The magic practice field arena that had become the location would be completely covered by shikigami, giving off quite an overwhelming feeling. It was undoubtedly a spectacular dance performance to someone who didn't understand magic at all.

Though the group dance performance was so gorgeous on the outside, actually controlling it wasn't so tough. That was also because the movements of the shikigami had been set up in the spell beforehand.

Even that spell was shared. It looked like people were individually controlling the shikigami just for show, but actually everyone participating just sent their magical energy into a single spell. With that, all of the manmade shikigami would comply with that spell and dance autonomously.

The students just continuously infused magical energy to maintain their materializations, with each student responsible for two shikigami. It wasn't such a burden for third-years of the famous Onmyou Academy.

But--

"Ah, wait wait! Stop. ...Momoe! You're summoning too slow. You're positioned wrong. Do it again!"

"O-Okay. Sorry."

The students' and the shikigami's' movements stopped together because of the practical skills teacher's instructions. Tenma's face reddened as he endured the gazes of the students around him.

Since all the shikigami shared a single spell, it couldn't be fixed part of the way through if one was created too slowly at the start. In other words, once things started they couldn't go back. That was the only difficulty of the group dance performance.

But Tenma didn't make a mistake again afterwards and they started the group dance performance again. Then, the dress rehearsal ended successfully without any particular problems occurring.

"Get a little more energetic, Momoe-kun."

"Your practical skills are still poor even though it's been so long."

"S-Sorry. My timing was off."

Tenma left the magic practice field while apologizing to his teasing classmates. The entire class knew that Tenma's practical skills weren't the best, but everyone also knew of Tenma's gentle personality. Everyone poking fun at him was close to him, and everyone wore smiles.

Today's coursework ended here.

But there were also students who stayed behind in the magic practice field to train their practical skills on their own. Also, there were people who went to the library to study. Everyone was mindful of obtaining qualifications after they graduated.

The Onmyou Academy wasn't just a simple educational institution, but rather a training institution for professional Onmyouji. No matter what path they took in the future, everyone had a goal of obtaining qualifications. Once they reached their third years, the pressure of that imminent reality gradually increased.

"What are you doing today, Momoe? Where are you going?"

"Ah, sorry. I'm going straight back home today."

"Aww. You aren't depressed from your slip-up earlier, are you?"

"That's not it...... W-Well, we can walk together part of the way."

The companions he walked with after school ended were mostly fixed. Tenma chatted with the customary people while deciding to first return to the classroom.

Just like always, the center of the topic was their career paths and obtaining qualifications. They all held the same anxiety and anticipation towards the coming forks in the road. But even so, they actively advanced while laughing with each other.

Spending time with his Onmyou Academy classmates. That was Tenma's ordinary life right now.

Then--

"......Ah."

The conversation stopped after someone made a sound. Everyone's gaze turned in the same direction.

A girl walked towards them from the end of the corridor. She was a girl whose chestnut hair was done up and who possessed beautiful, idol-like looks and figure. Also, she had an aura-like sense of presence that the other students didn't.

Kurahashi Kyouko.

The granddaughter of the previous principal, the daughter of the famous Kurahashi family. She was an excellent student who represented the Onmyou Academy with her lineage, power, and looks. Even in the dress rehearsal from before, where Kyouko had been selected for the shikigami dance performance, she had beautifully controlled two 'Yaksha'.

She was Tenma's friend that he had talked and smiled with every day before.

But right now, Kyouko carried an atmosphere that kept the people around her from getting close. Her excessive standing out and her 'past matters' couldn't help but make one hesitate about approaching her. She herself probably felt that kind of atmosphere, but she didn't try to eliminate it, fully accepting it instead.

As if overwhelmed by Kyouko's atmosphere, Tenma and the others couldn't help but fall silent as they passed through the corridor.

After the distance shortened, it seemed that Kyouko also noticed Tenma. But she didn't particularly react. She just shot him a gaze for at most a moment. Though Tenma met her gaze, he didn't show any particular expression.

They approached wordlessly and passed by each other.

After they passed by, Tenma sneakily looked behind his back, keeping the people around him from noticing. But Kyouko walked through the corridor with no intention of turning around. But what Tenma watched wasn't Kyouko. Rather, it was her back.

It was there.

Though it was dematerialized, there was something that was deliberately unstealthed 'displaying' its presence there.

A shikigami.

It seemed to have been modified quite heavily, but its type was probably a sensory shikigami. A shikigami that closely followed her when she was in the Onmyou Academy. Ostensibly, the Kurahashi family had given her a bodyguard as a precaution. But at least there were very few among her classmates who honestly believed this.

At the same time as that shikigami monitored Kyouko, it silently expressed to those around her that she was being monitored. The existence of that shikigami was one of the reasons the students kept a distance from her.

"............"

That shikigami had begun following Kyouko around since she had returned to school in the autumn of their second year. Tenma was taken aback by the fact that a year had passed since then.

"......Wow, Genius Kurahashi still feels so stifling."

"Should it be called a feeling of pressure or the feeling of a rare mountain flower^[6]......"

"She suddenly became mature after that incident happened."

The classmates started frivolously speaking to one another after they pulled a sufficient distance away. But the student who spoke last awkwardly looked at Tenma with an "Ah".

Something similar had happened this morning too. Tenma just replied with the word "yeah" with an unconcerned demeanor, passing through the corridor with his classmates. Not long afterwards, the chatting resumed and Kyouko's business didn't become the topic again.

After returning to the classroom, Tenma parted with everyone and left the academy building alone.

He felt that this was being excessively careful.

Even so, Tenma would still wait until the date changed.

But he wasn't just waiting until the dead of night out of carefulness. He would continue worrying until the final moment. That was since he couldn't determine what would become the trigger or what kind of reactions would come of it. The situation Tenma was currently in surpassed Tenma's processing ability. He wouldn't be able to deal with it if his own actions led to something bad.

More importantly, he had been told 'not to move'.

...No......

That wasn't right. Tenma thought of the situation back then. When everyone's' future plans had been decided, when Tenma had been commanded to 'wait'. Amami had said this to Tenma, who felt inadequate by just being on standby.

'Do as you like', he had said.

'Youngster, think, think, and think properly by yourself, and then decide', he had said.

Though his tone had been resigned, he had felt first-hand that they weren't that way. In addition, it was more the opposite. At that time, Amami had given Tenma and the others a definite choice. He had said things like 'Even if you recognize that you're in a situation where you could easily drag everyone in, you still have to act based on your own judgment. That's how you become 'standalone.

Hence...... He had decided.

The thing he had to abstain from the most right now was being 'conspicuous'. But even so, Tenma couldn't and shouldn't ignore the protective talisman clutched in his hand. He thought of the message concealed inside.

Maybe the sender of this letter was satisfied by just handing it over. Maybe she felt that it was fine to withdraw after conveying her gratitude and apology. This was the right thing to do, he convinced himself. Maybe he believed it. In fact, she had written 'I'm alright' on that message. Not 'doing well', nor 'fine', but rather 'alright'.

If she were truly alright, she wouldn't have written that.

Though he respected the 'opinion' of she who had conveyed that she was alright even given her situation, in the end that was just an 'opinion'.

This letter needed a reply.

A reply from Tenma and the others.

"............"

Tenma was currently in a room in his own house. The lights were out and he sat in the chair in front of his studying desk. He had closed his eyes and continued to 'watch' something for close to an hour.

He had noticed that aura about two months after that summer incident had happened. It was a room in an apartment a moderate distance away. Perhaps it had become occupied immediately after that incident. Tenma could notice it because the practitioner whose shikigami was staying there had become careless and had started slipping up with the stealth magic.

Tenma had been questioned about the situation by Mystical Investigators after that incident. But he had returned to his ordinary life disappointingly easily afterwards. Of course, although he didn't believe things were that simple, it had still been a big shock when he noticed that aura. The fact that he was being secretly monitored. He might have fallen into a panic if he hadn't expected it beforehand.

Tenma observed that the shikigami monitored him with even more care than usual.

He had received a letter in full view this morning. If that scene had been witnessed, then the surveillance tonight might enter a different state from usual. He had waited this long in order to clearly distinguish if that were true.

However, Tenma's conclusion was that the state of the surveillance hadn't changed.

...Good.

Tenma slowly opened his eyes.

He was already prepared. His resolve was the same. Tenma rose from the chair, putting on a coat without turning on the lights and taking a backpack with a charm box. Then, he took the simple shikigami charm placed on the table into his hand.

"......Order."

A simple shikigami that looked exactly the same as him was created. Though its appearance was a bit crude, no part of its appearance could be distinguished as out of place by a shikigami monitoring from afar. Simply put, it just needed to have the same aura as he did.

Also, he had understood that the shikigami mainly surveyed the area around his house rather than its interior through his observations up to this point. Upon careful thought, that was natural, as the opponent's target was the people who would approach him and not himself. The substitute shikigami was just a safeguard.

Tenma sneakily left his room and arrived in the corridor.

The Momoe family house was an old cottage house. The lights in the corridor were already out, and there was no movement. The residence was surrounded by hedges, but there was a back door along with the main entrance. He prepared to enter the courtyard through the kitchen exit and use that back door.

He entered the kitchen, putting his shoes on before he left through the exit. He breathed and then began his stealth.

That moment, the lights in the kitchen were turned on.

The fact that his body moved first when he was surprised was the result of Tenma's secret training through this year and a half. He finished his stealth in a flash and refined his aura into magical energy. At the same time, he spun his body around to face backwards again while pulling a charm out of the box on his waist. It was a fluid reaction that all took place in a single instant. Even the person who turned the lights on was taken by surprise and dumbstruck.

But Tenma didn't release the charm.

"...G-Grandpa!?"

The person standing in the kitchen exit was Tenma's grandfather. Stunned, Tenma maintained his stance of holding the charm, then hastily hid the charm behind his back.

"W-What's wrong? You're not sleeping?"

Tenma questioned his grandfather, desperately putting on a dry smile.

Though his grandfather's expression was shocked for a period of time, it soon returned to the same stern expression as always. Then, he started at his grandson in silence for a while.

He spoke in a solemn tone:

"......That's what I should say. Tenma, what are you doing at this time?"

A legitimate doubt. Tenma maintained his ready-to-run stance, immediately making the excuse, "I was going to go to the convenience store...... I-I got hungry while studying...... Also, I wanted to get my mind off things for a while. I was going to take the time to go out and walk......"

That kind of reason probably couldn't explain how he had snuck around to the back door without turning on the lights. Tenma was extremely tense. His mind had been as calm as the surface of a lake before, but it was now a mess and couldn't work well. His heartbeat just kept accelerating.

The grandfather stared wordlessly at his grandson.

Then, keeping his stern expression, he said:

"......Be careful outside, don't stay out too late."

After saying this, the grandfather turned off the lights and returned to the corridor from the kitchen. Stunned, Tenma watched him go.

...T-That......

He was so useless for being thrown into a panic so easily even though he had been so cautious. In the end, that was all he could 'handle'. But in any case, he hadn't been questioned any further. That was a great help.

...How troublesome. But that's great.

Tenma breathed deeply once. He calmed his emotions and checked the time again.

Though he had wasted some time, he still had more than enough. He stealthed himself again, finally entering the courtyard through the kitchen exit.

When he returned to the bedroom and quietly closed the sliding door--

"......Was it Tenma?"

He was spoken to like that.

Tenma's grandfather turned his gaze towards where his wife lay in the darkness. His wife moved her body with a rustle, pushing aside the sheets that covered her and propping up her body.

"Did he leave?"

"No, it seems to be different. It looks like he'll probably be back in the morning."

His wife breathed a sigh of relief in the darkness due to her husband's words. Even he felt the same way. Though he had prepared for it, it seemed like in the end he wasn't able to make up his mind whether to stop him or let him go. He was frankly relieved that the problem was resolved without needing an answer from him.

"......Honestly, I was surprised. The moment that kid entered stealth, I practically couldn't see him even though I knew he was there. I turned on the lights as fast as I could - but even so, I didn't see him immediately......"

Though he had been retired for a very long time, he was at any rate a professional Onmyouji. Even to him, his grandson's stealth was astonishingly remarkable.

Also, his grandson had entered a state of being able to use other magic while being stealthed. Moreover, it had been in a brief moment. Casting other magic while putting up stealth was actually quite a difficult thing. His grandson had calmly - after he had clearly been taken by surprise - accomplished it.

He knew that his grandson had been secretly training and honing his skills. Though he had reported poor practical skills grades, he had already noticed that those were just on the surface. But his growth seemed to have surpassed the level of skill that he had imagined.

He held expectations of his grandson's growth and felt happy about it.

But at the same time, the anxiety deep in his heart grew.

Simultaneously casting stealth magic and other magic was indeed a difficult technique, but it wasn't a necessary technique for most Onmyouji. There was no need to master such a technique if one's goal was purely to become a professional. That kind of skill only became necessary for people who were going to use Onmyoudou to 'fight'.

Should he stop him? Should he let him go?

Or was thinking about it just a waste of effort in the first place? Maybe the answer had long since appeared in a place that he couldn't reach.

"......In the end, that child has finally left the house as well......"

His wife murmured a sentence.

The voice that came from the depths of the darkness reflected her optimistic, transparent feelings. But it seemed in addition to loneliness, an equal amount of sadness was hidden in that voice.

A smile emerged on his mouth that always wore a stern expression.

"Even so, this time wasn't a mistake."

He quietly announced that, as if swearing it to himself and the soul who had left the house in the past.

The bedroom was dark and he couldn't see his wife's expression. But he knew about his old wife's illusory smile and her nod of assent.

Part 3

It was six-thirty in the evening. A car entered the entrance to the Kurahashi family residence.

Kyouko, who came out from the backseat, thanked the driver and closed the door.

Then, she entered the residence through the main entrance. "......Hah." She sighed with an expression of letting down a heavy burden.

She looked over her shoulder, but the shikigami that had been closely following her to 'watch' up through before was on standby on the other side of the closed door. The shikigami that the Onmyou Agency - or rather, her father - had prepared monitored Kyouko all the time. But only when she was in the residence was there an exception. She had made him accept that condition with her personal privacy as a pretext. In the end, the entire Kurahashi residence was covered by a tough barrier. There was no reason for a surveillance shikigami.

...How tiring.

The shikigami had been following her around for a year and a half already. In the end, she was used to it, but she wasn't no longer concerned. Although she admitted that she understood that she was the 'precious daughter' of a famous family, she never would have thought that she would be treated like a secluded princess in this way.

Of course, she wasn't being secluded because she was a 'princess'. The reason was the complete opposite.

"Well, it's because I'm a super delinquent girl."

As she snorted, she realized that a maid of Kyouko's home was hastily running over to welcome her.

More than half of the Kurahashi residence maids had been taken in by the Kurahashi family. Their attitudes had become quite estranged after 'that incident'. In short, they treated her carefully like a bomb^[7] After superficially greeting that maid, Kyouko headed to her room.

At the start, she had once become impatient and had spoken scathingly to them. But she had stopped doing that very quickly. Because they had showed hurt expressions.

The ones taken in knew about the general incident that Kyouko had been involved in. After all, it was a generally-known fact that Kyouko had been friends with Harutora and Natsume. But they seemed to believe that it had completely been the Tsuchimikados in the wrong, and thought that Kyouko had committed a crime to shield the Tsuchimikados because of their friendship.

Though she felt that it was hard to explain, they understood it that way more out of firm trust in Kyouko's character than worry about her father. That was why they were hurt by Kyouko's satire and shot back sad gazes.

There was no helping it even if she was angry, and feeling bad about herself was also foolish. But it wasn't something she could explain in detail. So it was enough to stay like this. That was what Kyouko thought. This was much better than being turned a blind eye and secretly slandered.

But it would be a lie to say she didn't feel lonely. Both in the residence and the Onmyou Academy, the current Kyouko didn't interact normally with anyone.

"So, I started talking to myself more."

Kyouko quietly said this, but she couldn't even speak up when she talked to herself out of concern for the shikigami outside. Her phone had been seized, and her personal computer had also been taken away. Was she the only one nowadays who was completely 'secluded' like this?

"I'm not cut out for this......"

She smiled and spoke softly, but her voice was even more depressed than she imagined. "No, no." Kyouko shook her head, smiling impertinently and straightening her back.

No matter what anyone said, she had become weaker. Slowly, slowly. But she ought to be able to stay aware and suppress such internal weakness.

Toughly. Cheerfully. Actively move forward. She consciously continued pointing her heart in a lively direction. Kyouko spoke to herself while heading to her room through the long hallway.

She put down her backpack after entering the room, changing her clothes and taking a bit of a break. She relaxed while sitting in the chair and thinking back on each and every thing that had happened today, no matter how trivial.

"......Yeah."

A natural smile emerged on her face and Kyouko faced the desk and started to study.

Though she had been forbidden means of contacting the outside and tools for gathering information, nothing else had changed from before. Rather, she could read things like books on magic unrestricted even if they were very possibly 'improper' to be memorized by a girl. She hadn't been deprived of the use of the defensive shikigami Hakuou and Kokfuu that she had used in the dress rehearsal today either.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 655