Swoooosh!
"Ah?!"
Yorimitsu leapt, his boots leaving the tatami just as the world inverted. His gaze snapped downward, catching a glimpse of Gabimaru and Shion moving with hurried precision; they had already scooped up the Chief and Nina, leaping clear of the collapse.
But Ichiyoshi was left behind, suspended in the centre of a swirling vortex where gravity had lost its grip. The small hut was torn open, its roof now plunging toward the earth while its stilts pointed toward the grey sky like skeletal fingers.
"Taisho!" Watanabe called out, pointing inside the hut.
"Mmmmmpt I see." Yorimitsu nodded.
In the midst of the splinters and dust, the crew managed to clear the zone of destruction.
"Huuuu." Yorimitsu took a sharp breath, tethering his Reiryoku to a piece of falling debris and using it as a springboard to dive back into the wreckage.
"Now, now, what am I looking at?" Yorimitsu chuckled, though his eyes remained sharp. "This is just not fair."
Ichiyoshi was sitting in the empty air, his hands fluttering frantically as he searched for a post to hold onto. But there was nothing. The debris simply orbited him as if he were the centre of a storm.
"What is happening to me?!" Ichiyoshi's voice was a jagged, panicked craze.
"Calm down! Focus your mind!" Yorimitsu commanded, kicking away a jagged beam that floated toward his head.
"Ah... okay!" The boy's voice shook, but he squeezed his eyes shut. "Breathe... breathe..."
Ichiyoshi repeated the mantra to himself. As his clenched hands slowly opened, the tension in the air snapped. In a single heartbeat, every piece of the house, every plank, cushion, and tatami was flung outward across a great distance with violent speed. The site was left unnervingly clear, as if the house had never existed at all.
Ichiyoshi stopped levitating and plummeted toward the ground.
"Hummmpt." Yorimitsu moved like a golden flash, catching the boy in his arms before he could hit the dirt.
"Hooo. That is some interesting Onmyōdō art you have there," Yorimitsu said, skidding back across the dirt to regroup with the rest of the team.
"Onmyōdō?!" Ichiyoshi repeated, frowning slightly.
"I will teach you later," Yorimitsu responded briefly before his attention was whisked away.
"Taisho, what the hell was that just now?" Gabimaru asked, stepping forward to meet them, "It felt like the world was spinning."
"Hehehe. It was quite the sight, wasn't it?" Yorimitsu replied, gently placing Ichiyoshi back on his feet.
"Well, I am still not entirely sure of the catalyst, but his latent Onmyōdō has awakened. It seems to be a form of spatial or gravitational control, though even I cannot say for certain yet."
"Ha? He's awakening now?!" Gabimaru raised a sceptical brow. "Isn't he a bit old for that? I thought the absolute latest a practitioner could awaken their arts was at the age of six?"
"Generally, yes, six is the standard," Yorimitsu noted, glancing at the boy. "But there are always exceptions to the rule, especially for children such as these that never had any formal teachings. However, we have a problem. We cannot take him with us on this investigation. His power is too unstable; one flare-up could compromise our entire reconnaissance mission."
Yorimitsu checked to see if the Chief and Nina were stable, then turned his full attention to Gabimaru. His hand clamped onto Gabimaru's shoulder with a weight that felt like an unbreakable command.
"I need you to stay here. Guard these two siblings, the young girl is named Nina, and the older brother is named Ichiyoshi. Take care of them for me while we infiltrate the Sanctuary."
Gabimaru's eyes widened. He opened his mouth to protest his instincts, clearly screaming at him to stay with the main group, but under Yorimitsu's steady gaze, the fire in his eyes subsided.
"Ahhh... fine," he exhaled, shoulders dropping in defeat.
"We don't have much time now," Yorimitsu said, his tone shifting to one of cold urgency. "I wanted to gather more information, but Ichiyoshi's little display has put us in a time crunch. If the other party consists of skilled practitioners, they will have felt that surge of unnatural Reiryoku just now, which means we have lost our element of surprise, so we have to be careful."
"Elder, do your legs still carry the strength to walk?" Yorimitsu turned to the Chief once more, his gaze assessing the man's withered frame.
"Ye... yes. I can stand," the man whispered, laboriously pulling himself upright.
'These youths... just who are they? The Chief pondered, stealing a glance at the group. 'They possess none of the suffocating, frigid arrogance of the high-born lords I have known. Their spirits are... different.'
"It is well, then. The hour of our departure is upon us." Yorimitsu took several steps before pausing. He turned back to Gabimaru and offered him a small, heavy silken pouch.
"There must be some manner of lodging remaining within these boonies, isn't that so, Elder?"
"Ahhh... yes," the old man wheezed, his voice like the rustle of dry leaves. "Though the common folk endure in poverty, there remains the House of Omaashu. They continue to receive provisions from the outer districts and hold title to many dwellings."
"You heard him right, Gabimaru," Yorimitsu said. "Escort the children to this… House of Omaashu and secure a roof for their heads." There was a giggling sound within the pouch.
"Here, take it, but within this pouch lie seven ingots of silver. It should suffice to buy their silence and their service."
"I understand," Gabimaru replied, accepting the weight of the silver.
Yorimitsu turned toward the dark silhouettes of the peaks, his silhouette cutting a sharp line against the grey horizon as he began the journey toward the Sanctuary.
"I must offer a final warning," Tsushimamaru called out after them, his voice trembling with a sudden, deep-seated dread. "To reach your destination, you must traverse Kasumi-no-Kawa, the (River of Veiling Mists). When your feet touch those banks, you must comply with every whisper I utter. Fail to heed my counsel there, and your souls shall never return to the light of the sun."