Chapter 64: Myriad Laws
Inside the Onmyo Agency Headquarters in Chiyoda Ward, the atmosphere had turned so tense it felt hard to breathe.
Onmyoji and ordinary staff alike moved with visible caution, each one careful with their words and even more careful with their expressions, as though the slightest mistake might drag them into trouble. Even the receptionists in the front hall, who usually exchanged quiet gossip whenever work slowed down, now kept their heads lowered and their manners impeccably proper.
This oppressive mood had been building for days.
If one had to pinpoint the cause, it began the moment one of the Twelve Divine Generals, the child prodigy Dairenji Suzuka, openly defected from the Onmyo Agency, followed almost immediately by the suspicion that White Fox Gin Tsumugi had been her accomplice.
Since then, the entire headquarters had felt like a powder keg waiting for a spark.
And today, that spark arrived.
Not long ago, Dairenji Suzuka and Gin Tsumugi had been brought back by the Magix Investigation Department.
By now, almost everyone had heard the story.
The two of them had actually attempted to perform the Taizan Fukun Ritual, a forbidden rite expressly banned by the Onmyo Agency. Worse still, they had released Evil Spirits and caused a huge disturbance in Mitsuwa Town, the very territory of the Tsuchimikado Clan.
Their audacity was enough to make even veteran Onmyoji uneasy.
At that moment, inside the office of the Minister of the Magic Investigation Department, the storm was already in full swing.
"Gin Tsumugi. Dairenji Suzuka. The two of you really do have guts."
Amami Daizen slammed his palm against the desk with a bang that made the teacup jump.
"Touching the Taizan Fukun Ritual without authorization was already madness. On top of that, you stirred up the people of Mitsuwa Town and threw the whole place into chaos. What is next? Are you planning to set the Onmyo Agency on fire the first time it annoys you?"
His roar shook the room.
Standing before the desk, Gin and Suzuka wore the same expression. Both were silent, both obedient, both looking for all the world like schoolchildren caught doing something unforgivable and dragged into the staff office to await punishment.
Besides Amami Daizen, the room also held his capable assistant Hirata Atsune, as well as Miyoshi Jugo, one of the Twelve Divine Generals. An incident of this scale was impossible for him to ignore.
Gin immediately raised both hands in surrender.
"We would never, old man. Never."
Amami's eyebrows twitched.
"Heh. You would never?" he said with a cold laugh. "Is there anything you would not dare to do, Lord White Fox?"
He leaned back in his chair, though the anger in his eyes only deepened.
"I heard you were quite impressive at the Tsuchimikado estate."
His tone turned even sharper.
"Defeating both Tsuchimikado Hirotaka and Tsuchimikado Chizuru, the two strongest experts left there to guard the place. Very impressive indeed. As expected of the famous White Fox of the Onmyodo world."
That, Gin decided, was not a line worth answering.
Seeing Amami in full rage, he wisely closed his mouth again and adopted the same expression Suzuka was wearing, the one that clearly said, I know I was wrong, I have reflected deeply, please do not kill me.
Amami looked at the two of them and almost laughed from sheer irritation.
Now they knew how to act obedient.
Why had they not remembered that before running off to perform the most notorious forbidden ritual in Onmyodo?
Fortunately, Miyoshi Jugo stepped in at the right moment.
"Minister Amami," he said mildly, "they clearly understand the seriousness of what they've done. You've already scolded them for the better part of the morning. Fortunately, no true catastrophe resulted this time. I think that is enough."
He paused, then added meaningfully, "Besides, the Tsuchimikado Clan themselves are not pursuing the matter."
At the word catastrophe, Suzuka's gaze flicked sideways toward Gin.
Only she knew how close that statement came to being false.
A catastrophe had nearly happened.
If the existence summoned through the Taizan Fukun Ritual had not been driven back into the Underworld by Gin, the disaster that followed would have rivaled the spiritual calamities caused by Yakou's failed rite. Under current conditions, with the core strength of Onmyodo tied down at Mount Fuji by Yamata no Orochi, the consequences would have been even worse.
Amami snorted.
"If the Tsuchimikado Clan had insisted on pursuing this, do you think the two of you would still be standing here with all your limbs intact?"
There was a subtle silence in the room.
Miyoshi Jugo and Hirata Atsune both knew very well that the Tsuchimikado Clan's attitude had gone far beyond simply choosing not to pursue the matter. They had actively sent people to defend Gin and Suzuka, coordinated with the Onmyo Agency, the Onmyo Alliance, and the Onmyo Academy, and suppressed the impact of the entire affair to the smallest range possible.
That fact alone was bizarre enough to be disturbing.
When Tsuchimikado Chizuru had first arrived at the Bureau, everyone, including Amami, had assumed she came to demand justice. They had already begun preparing to give up certain Agency interests if necessary, all to protect Suzuka and Gin from being handed over.
Instead, the Tsuchimikado Clan had come to shield them.
Even now, Amami still found that hard to believe.
At last, he exhaled through his nose and gave his verdict.
"Dairenji Suzuka. From today onward, all duties and authority tied to your status as one of the Twelve Divine Generals are suspended. You will remain at the Onmyo Agency and may not leave without special cause."
Suzuka accepted it without changing expression.
Then Amami turned to Gin.
"As for you, brat, you are not technically under Agency command. So strictly speaking, I have no right to punish you." He clicked his tongue, clearly dissatisfied by that fact. "However, the White Fox Office is registered under the Agency authority. From today onward, all prior credit and official recognition accumulated by the White Fox Office are nullified. And as its director, you are forbidden from leaving Tokyo until you've fully outlined your own Onmyodo framework."
The moment the punishment was announced, neither Gin nor Suzuka reacted much.
Miyoshi Jugo and Hirata Atsune, however, both fell into brief silence.
The old man's favoritism was shameless.
Suzuka's punishment at least looked severe on paper. Suspending a Twelve Divine General's authority and confining her to the Agency had substance.
Gin's punishment, meanwhile, was almost theatrical.
Nullifying the White Fox Office's accumulated credit and official evaluation sounded serious, but for an office already famous across Tokyo, those numbers barely mattered anymore. And forbidding Gin from leaving Tokyo was hardly comparable to real confinement.
The difference was blatant.
Fortunately, the Onmyo Agency was currently under temporary control by Amami Daizen and Miyoshi Jugo. Under different leadership, this sort of partiality would have invited a storm of objections. At the very least, a narrow minded figure like Yamashiro Hayato would have been screaming already.
Gin raised a hand.
"Um."
Amami's glare immediately sharpened.
"What? You have objections?"
He clearly assumed Gin meant to argue.
Instead, Gin smiled.
"No, actually, I'm very satisfied with your punishment, old man. I just wanted to mention one thing. About the Onmyodo framework you brought up."
He paused, then said calmly, "I already have one."
For a brief instant, nobody understood what he meant.
Then Gin raised a finger.
A profound mystery of Onmyodo, vast and all encompassing, condensed at his fingertip like a miniature law of the universe. It was quiet, but the pressure it carried was real. The room itself seemed to grow heavier around it.
Amami froze.
Miyoshi Jugo's eyes widened.
Hirata Atsune's expression changed at once.
Even the silence in the room took on weight.
He had already outlined his Onmyodo framework?
That was the threshold between a Professional Onmyoji and a National level one.
Miyoshi Jugo himself had once estimated that Gin would enter the ranks of National level Onmyoji within three years. That estimate had already been astonishingly optimistic.
And now the boy stood before them, not even a full month later, telling them he had already crossed the hardest barrier.
Miyoshi Jugo stared at him, almost unable to process it.
Hirata Atsune, meanwhile, looked at Gin with a gaze that concealed thoughts no one else could read.
Amami was the first to recover.
His voice lowered.
"You didn't graft it, did you?"
The question landed heavily.
At once, the others understood his concern.
If Gin had obtained his framework by grafting one from a compatible predecessor rather than constructing it himself, then while the result would still be impressive, it would also mean planting a flaw into his future.
Given the Tsuchimikado Clan's current attitude toward him, if Gin had asked, they likely would have given him access to one.
The thought alone made Amami uneasy.
Gin shook his head.
"Of course not."
Then he explained, "I borrowed the Tsuchimikado Clan's Senji Ryakketsu and used it to outline my framework ahead of schedule."
There was some concealment in those words, but not enough to make them false.
Miyoshi Jugo slowly nodded.
"That does happen, occasionally. Using the Senji Ryakketsu as the catalyst for a breakthrough isn't unheard of."
Once there was precedent, it became much easier to accept.
Amami clicked his tongue again, though some of the fury in his face had faded. The mention of the Senji Ryakketsu reminded him rather painfully that Gin had indeed used that excuse before leaving for Mitsuwa Town, even if at the time Amami had assumed it was merely an excuse for other intentions.
"Then tell me," Miyoshi Jugo said, now genuinely curious. "What is the name of your framework?"
Every Onmyodo framework had a name.
His own was Heavenly Eye, in line with both his title and the nature of his abilities. Amami's framework was known as Shingen. A framework's name was more than ornament. It reflected the path the Onmyoji had taken and hinted at the nature of its power.
After all, an Onmyodo framework was not simply philosophical.
It granted real abilities.
Miyoshi Jugo's Heavenly Eye could divide and amplify Spirit Insight, both his own and that of others. Amami's Shingen turned spoken words themselves into shackles, making his Spirit Speech far deadlier than ordinary applications.
That was the true difference between a Professional Onmyoji and a National level one.
Gin answered without hesitation.
"Myriad Laws."
The room fell silent again.
Even Suzuka, hearing the name for the first time, stared at him.
It was too arrogant.
Too broad.
Too absolute.
Myriad Laws meant all paths, all principles, all phenomena.
Even many of the greatest Onmyoji in history would have hesitated before daring to call their framework something so vast.
But when they remembered the all encompassing profundity at Gin's fingertip, none of them could dismiss it outright.
At last, Amami stood.
"Come," he said. "We're going to the Evaluation Hall."
His eyes fixed on Gin.
"I want to see whether you actually have the qualifications to call your framework Myriad Laws."
This suggestion immediately won everyone's approval.
They wanted to know the answer too.
Gin, for his part, had no objection at all.
He had already intended to find someone suitable to test Myriad Laws against.
Since the old man himself had handed him the chance, there was no reason to refuse.
.....
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