"So it was here."
A sigh carried a tangle of emotions too complicated to put into words.
But the man quickly composed himself.
"Do you know how much that meal cost?"
The man glanced over the table, seemingly grasping the situation at once.
He asked in an even tone.
"I-I... I'll pay you back."
Ambe Kiyuki stammered. Faced with the man's overwhelming presence,
she could no longer even think of running away.
"Your total bill came to... All the ingredients you ate were shipped in from around the world."
"Quite a few of them are nearly extinct."
"Then there's the venue booking fee, the service charge, and the fee for soothing the beasts."
"If you worked to pay it off, it would take about forty-three years."
"Are you sure?"
The man's tone was mild, but no matter how calm he sounded,
she could still hear a hint of urgency in it.
Kiyuki glanced gloomily at Little White beside her,
who was sprawled there asleep, belly swollen from eating.
Little White must have eaten way too much...
"Then... what do you want...?"
Ambe Kiyuki's bravado wilted.
"Simple. I ask, you answer."
The man spoke.
He took out a picture.
It depicted a strange ruined structure.
"Have you ever seen the building in this picture?"
"No."
The man said nothing more.
"What about this?"
This time, it was a book.
The writing in it consisted of strange symbols.
"I can't even read it. I've never seen it."
"All right, you've asked your questions. We're even now."
Kiyuki spoke quickly.
"You may not understand your situation."
The man remained calm.
Yet Abe Kiyuki felt an inexplicable surge of terror,
as though her head might be severed from her body the very next instant.
"On the first question, your gaze shifted evasively, your eyes instinctively turned toward the front left, and your thoughts stalled for half a second."
"On the second question, your left hand trembled, your breathing grew heavy, and your thoughts stalled for three-tenths of a second."
"My patience is limited."
The man still spoke calmly,
but an aura of unprecedented immensity suddenly surged toward her.
She felt like a tiny boat upon a boundless ocean.
She had never encountered an aura so unimaginably powerful, and it was accompanied by dense natural energy.
At that moment, this man, who looked like an immortal descended to earth, seemed to be nature's chosen child.
Not a single shikigami she had encountered could compare.
Perhaps... only the one in the deepest reaches of the Wind-Snow Realm...
"What exactly... are those ruins?"
The man asked again as a scarlet hue began spreading across his eyes.
Three black tomoe slowly rotated within them,
making his already handsome face look even more uncanny and wickedly alluring.
As the three tomoe spun, Kiyuki's eyes began to glaze over.
"Awooo~"
Beside her, the fox began to howl.
Four eerie purple flames suddenly sprang from its paws.
But a moment later, the man merely gave it a casual glance,
and the fox instantly fell silent. Its tiny, delicate body began trembling as it whimpered.
"Those are... the ruins left by my ancestor, Ambe Seimei..."
Kiyuki murmured.
"Ambe Seimei... ruins?"
Yuya frowned. There were Onmyōji in Naruto?
Was this some crossover parallel world? Or a prequel Kishimoto never wrote about?
"And this book?"
Yuya asked again.
"Those are... my ancestor's notes..."
Kiyuki answered, a little awareness returning to her eyes.
"And... how did you know the notes were in the ruins?"
Yuya did not reply, but his gaze grew grave.
She recovered that quickly...
Although the girl had no chakra in her body,
with his mental strength influencing her through the Three-Tomoe Sharingan... she should not have recovered so quickly.
These Onmyōji had some tricks...
"Do you Onmyōji know any purification, healing, or restoration spells?"
Yuya continued.
"Purification and healing?"
Kiyuki hesitated for a while before saying,
"Onmyōji specialize in Astrology, yin-yang and the five elements, and Spirit Command. Purification and healing aren't our strengths."
Kiyuki muttered inwardly that she had already told this man plenty, both things she should have and things she should not.
A little more would hardly make a difference.
At her words, deep disappointment filled Yuya's eyes.
Onmyōji didn't know purification or healing spells?
Then how was he supposed to save Princess Kaguya from the God Tree's corruption?
Kiyuki noticed the change in Yuya and asked cautiously,
"Mr. Incubus... why are you looking for my ancestor's notes? Ah, what a shame... My ancestor, Yin and Yang Seimei, died sealing the God Tree, and his notes..."
"What did you say?"
Yuya's gaze abruptly sharpened as he stared at her.
"The notes were... were buried..."
Embarrassed by his stare, Kiyuki blushed,
and stumbled over her words.
"The God Tree was sealed by Yin and Yang Seimei?"
Yuya asked, hope shining in his eyes as though he had found something to cling to.
"Y-yes... My granny told me the story all through my childhood..."
"She said that once, a group of people with horns on their heads suddenly descended from the sky, bringing a seed.
"They wanted to plant it underground. Countless Onmyōji and Great Swordsmen tried to stop them, but none could stand against them.
"That battle left terrible casualties. Ninety-nine percent of the shikigami were slaughtered, and in the end, the seed was planted..."
Seeing that Yuya did not interrupt her and seemed to want her to continue,
Abe Kiyuki swallowed and went on.
"Then it grew into a towering tree, constantly draining the world's energy and essence. At that rate, if things continued,
"within a hundred years, the world's life would fade away, leaving a barren planet."
At this point, Abe Kiyuki's expression grew sorrowful.
"My ancestor, Abe Seimei, gathered the power of countless Onmyōji and performed a blood sacrifice to seal the God Tree. But it only slowed its growth..."
"Later, when they sensed that the world's natural energy was still dissipating, they moved to the Wind-Snow Realm to keep the Onmyōji's legacy alive."
"The branch family stayed in the main world to watch over the God Tree."
"I wonder how the branch family is doing now..."
Abe Kiyuki's voice grew quieter and quieter. If the branch family was gone too,
then she, Abe Kiyuki, truly would become the last Onmyōji in the world...
An all-alone Onmyōji, in other words...
"So that's how it was..."
Yuya murmured, thought flickering in his eyes.
In an instant, it was as though the clouds had parted to reveal the moon, and a flood of realizations filled his mind.
Until now, he had remained bound by Naruto's worldview. But thinking about it carefully,
with this planet's energy level, was it possible that no supernatural powers had existed before chakra?
Natural energy, after all, had always existed on a level above chakra.
It had been present on this planet since ancient times. How could no one have mastered it?
Even a bunch of toads and snakes had mastered natural energy before then.
And humans couldn't? In that case, this world ought to have had different rulers.
Mount Myōboku, Ryūchi Cave, and even Shikkotsu Forest
were all native supernatural forces of this planet.
Now a native human supernatural tradition-Onmyōji-had emerged. There was nothing strange about that at all.
There might even have been other native human supernatural traditions.
The Uchiha Clan's ocular techniques, after all, had always been named after figures from mythology.
Whether Amaterasu, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, or Izanagi, all were gods.
That meant that long before all this,
gods had existed!
Perhaps the Ōtsutsuki Clan had waited until these native gods left before coming to this planet to plant the God Tree's seed.
Otherwise, with Earth's natural energy ranking above chakra, how could it have become a colony, unable to resist the Ōtsutsuki?
There had to have been a staggering break in its history.
But all of that was far too remote for Yuya now.
Right now... he only wanted to save Princess Kaguya...
"I do need those notes for something."
After a long while, Yuya looked at Abe Kiyuki and spoke earnestly.
"The ruins are in the Wind-Snow Realm. I can take you to find them, but you have to agree to three things..."
Abe Kiyuki looked at the absurdly handsome Mr. Incubus before her, her pretty face faintly flushed with embarrassment.
Before you continue