Summoning My Lord

Reiko nodded.

Reiko was actually being controlled by Jiang Hao.

The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons in Eastern Heijō-kyō had stirred up enough fear. Naturally, he had come to harvest a wave of faith.

He simply did not want to step into the spotlight, so he borrowed Reiko's identity.

So this is High Priestess Reiko?

After a moment's surprise, Nagaosaki Akira brightened. She was the high priestess who had summoned Ame-no-Minakanushi at the Gion Festival in Kyoto City. According to the two masters, few people throughout history could surpass her spiritual power. Resolving this incident should be effortless for her.

Nagaosaki Akira bowed and said respectfully, "Lady Reiko, I'm sorry to trouble you with this."

Though she was only a little girl, Nagaosaki Akira did not dare show the slightest disrespect.

Reiko nodded slightly, her voice clear and sweet as a wind chime. "Yokai belong among yokai, and humans among humans. My lord Ame-no-Minakanushi decreed that the two must not interfere with each other. These yokai escaped from Yomi to harass humans in the living world, violating his divine law. Naturally, I must punish them."

Nagaosaki Akira was delighted. With High Priestess Reiko personally intervening, the incident in Eastern Heijō-kyō would surely be resolved. As the man "in charge," he would receive a great deal of credit.

At the same time, understanding dawned on him. No wonder he had never encountered a yokai despite being deputy director of the Public Security Investigation Agency. Ame-no-Minakanushi had issued a divine law forbidding yokai from appearing before humans.

Reiko finished speaking and raised her hand. Divine power turned into spiritual power and condensed into a longbow in her palm.

She lifted the bow, hooked the string with her fingers, and drew it fully. An arrow radiating pure white light appeared on the bow.

"The Demon-Breaking Bow and Demon-Breaking Arrow!"

Tanaka Shigenaga's mouth fell open with excitement. After all these years, I've finally seen supernatural power.

But... wasn't the Demon-Breaking Bow supposed to be made of dwarf bamboo, and the Demon-Breaking Arrow of bamboo and waterbird feathers?

Why did High Priestess Reiko form them from spiritual power? Was this the proper way to make a Demon-Breaking Bow and Demon-Breaking Arrow?

Reiko released the string.

White light flashed. The Demon-Breaking Arrow streaked toward the distant Tall Woman, trailing a long tail of spiritual power.

In an instant, the Tall Woman crumbled into white powder and scattered into the air, leaving no trace behind.

"Incredible."

Nagaosaki Akira stared, a chill running through him.

One hit had reduced the yokai to dust. Its power rivaled a rocket launcher.

No, a rocket launcher might not even match the Demon-Breaking Arrow. It could blow a human to pieces, but it might not do the same to a yokai.

Beside him, Tomioka Yoshimasa saw Reiko's display of power and praised her loudly. "Lady Reiko's spiritual power is extraordinarily strong. Any yokai it touches will be purified without fail."

Tanaka Shigenaga nodded in deep agreement. "In ancient times, many Onmyoji worked with priests and shrine maidens to defeat powerful yokai, but none of those priests or shrine maidens possessed spiritual power as strong and pure as High Priestess Reiko's."

With Reiko present, he did not dare boast about having spiritual power himself, so he praised Onmyoji as a group instead.

If priests truly had spiritual power, he reasoned, then Onmyoji—who stood alongside priests and monks—must also possess supernatural abilities. Raising the standing of Onmyoji would raise his own.

Reiko loosed one Demon-Breaking Arrow after another. Trailing spiritual power, the arrows danced through the sky, tracing brilliant lines before vanishing from sight.

But those beautiful lines were paths of death to the yokai. One after another, they were struck by the Demon-Breaking Arrows and purified.

Soon, every yokai that had appeared in Eastern Heijō-kyō had been wiped out.

Seeing Reiko stop, Nagaosaki Akira grew even more respectful. "Lady Reiko, have all the yokai in Eastern Heijō-kyō been purified?"

"The yokai in Eastern Heijō-kyō have all been purified."

Nagaosaki Akira had barely sighed in relief when Reiko's next words made his heart leap again. "...But Yomi and the Living World are becoming more tightly intertwined."

As her words fell, a terrifying sight appeared above Eastern Heijō-kyō.

Ochre earth stretched out like a desert turned solid. A brown river wound across it, shallow and viscous, as though human saliva had pooled into a stream.

An enormous dome stood in the depths of that land. Twisted gray mists of resentment swirled around it, imprisoning the unwilling souls of the dead and tormenting them until they roared in agony.

A brown flagstone road extended from the dome to the edge of the vision, seemingly connecting it to the Living World. At some point, the great boulder of Yomi had been pushed aside. Yokai wandering the yellow earth crowded onto the road, casting malicious glances toward the Living World.

"Yomi... That's the Yomi Land of the Dead! It's about to meet the Living World. The yokai there are going to come through Yomotsu Hirasaka!"

"Who... who pushed aside the great boulder of Yomi blocking Yomotsu Hirasaka? We're finished!"

"Evacuate everyone, now! If we wait any longer, it'll be too late! The yokai of Yomi are vicious monsters. Once they come through Yomotsu Hirasaka, all of Heijō-kyō will be doomed!"

"Maybe I'm seeing things... Is it descending?"

The strange sight quickly drew the attention of Heijō-kyō's residents. They looked up and realized in horror that the vast scene in the sky was slowly descending toward them.

The high-rises were the first to intersect with it. As they merged with the scene, they took on a murky yellow hue, and everyone inside froze in place.

Whatever they had been doing before they froze, they continued to do afterward.

Tanaka Shigenaga watched and murmured, "The Kojiki's account of ancient traditions says Yomi is forbidden to the living. Anyone who sets foot there will have his soul drawn into the land of the dead to suffer forever, while his body turns into a statue and remains in Yomi for all eternity. I never imagined it was true."

He shuddered after speaking.

"Yomi is spreading over Heijō-kyō. If it covers the entire city, it may well drag all of Heijō-kyō into the Yomi Land of the Dead."

Reiko's expression turned grave. "My spiritual power can only delay Yomi's advance. Unless..."

Nagaosaki Akira understood at once. He pressed his palms together and bowed deeply. "Lady Reiko, please, you must stop this!"

If the entire Heijō-kyō were dragged into Yomi Land of the Dead, a promotion and raise would be the least of his concerns. He would be lucky if he escaped being ordered to commit seppuku.

Reiko sighed, her face suffused with a holy radiance. "Unless I can summon my lord Ame-no-Minakanushi from Takamagahara and beseech him to sever the connection between Yomi and the living world."

"But summoning my lord from Takamagahara requires four items."