"Prince Nagaya?" Miketsu tilted her head slightly as she listened to Fujiwara no Saneyori, her expression making it clear she had never heard the name before.
"You don't know? Ah... I nearly forgot you've been living in seclusion; it's understandable that you're unaware..." Fujiwara no Saneyori's sickly face showed initial surprise, then a look of realization. He quickly supplied a justification for her ignorance, while Miketsu stood there, somewhat dazed by his assumptions.
"It happened... nearly two hundred years ago..."
Without Miketsu having to say another word, Fujiwara no Saneyori began recounting the history of the event.
……
Prince Nagaya was a figure from the Fujiwara-kyo era, over two centuries past. A grandson of an Emperor, he possessed pure royal blood and exceptional talent. He was also a powerful minister who once rivaled the Fujiwara patriarch, Fujiwara no Fuhito, within the imperial court.
Following Fuhito's death, the Fujiwara clan faced a crisis, as their political rival, Prince Nagaya, threatened to push them out of the center of power. At this critical juncture, Fuhito's four sons stepped forward. They had long been at odds with the prince. To seize control, they engaged in a deep struggle against him—one that spanned from overt politics to covert demonic arts.
Ultimately, the four brothers emerged victorious. Prince Nagaya was framed, leading to the tragic death of his entire family. Having cleared the obstacles before them, the Fujiwara clan ascended to the pinnacle of power.
Because Prince Nagaya was born with immense spiritual power, he did not enter the cycle of reincarnation after his bitter death. Instead, he quickly transformed into a powerful vengeful spirit. Just as the Fujiwara were basking in their victory, he returned to exact his revenge.
The attack was so sudden that the four Fujiwara brothers were cursed by Prince Nagaya's spirit almost simultaneously, dying miserable deaths from disease. In the aftermath, the Fujiwara onmyoji rallied their strength to seal the vengeful spirit before his hatred could spread further. He was suppressed within a shrine—until he was stolen by an unknown perpetrator the night before last.
The sudden loss of the four brothers dealt a significant blow to the Fujiwara, though they gradually regained their prominence as time passed.
After hearing the explanation, Miketsu realized the truth. So, the source of this calamity was a vengeful spirit created by the Fujiwara ancestors themselves. Moreover, it sounded like those four ancestors were Mokou's older brothers.
"Since the spirit had already been subdued, why wasn't he simply destroyed or purified? Why leave him sealed there?" Miketsu asked curiously. To her, this seemed like leaving a ticking time bomb for future generations.
"Scattering a soul is easy, but completely eradicating it is incredibly difficult. Back then, the Fujiwara lacked the means to directly annihilate a soul. If we had only scattered him, there was a risk he would reform in the wild. Furthermore, our ancestors were consumed by hatred; they felt that purifying Prince Nagaya would be letting him off too easily... Thus, they chose to seal him instead."
As he spoke, Saneyori looked upward, watching the dark purple demonic energy steadily corroding its way through the rock walls.
"When the shrine's seal was breached, we initially thought that with the Fujiwara's current strength, Prince Nagaya's spirit wouldn't pose much of a threat. We never expected him to have acquired such immense power from somewhere. He has pushed us to this desperate state..." Saneyori's eyes burned with indignation and frustration, yet he was clearly helpless against the spirit.
Suddenly acquired immense power? This caught Miketsu's attention. While a vengeful spirit like Prince Nagaya would be troublesome, he shouldn't have been powerful enough to drive the modern Fujiwara clan into such a corner. He had clearly been empowered by an outside source.
"What exactly happened? Could you give me a brief summary of the current situation?" Miketsu asked, glancing around. She needed more information to make a proper assessment.
At her request, Fujiwara no Saneyori began to outline the sequence of events.
It began with the attack on the Fujiwara shrine and the theft of the sealed spirit. Fujiwara no Tadahira was furious; he dispatched men to hunt the thief while ordering Saneyori to construct a ritual to ward off the vengeful spirit. However, before the ritual could be completed, the curse struck—and it was far more powerful than anyone had anticipated.
First, the elderly members of the clan without spiritual power began to fall ill and die. Then, the sickness spread to those with spiritual power, including Kanpaku Fujiwara no Tadahira and Fujiwara no Kanehira. These elders were immediately placed under protective spells to halt the curse's erosion. Tadahira received the most intensive protection; though he was bedridden, he remained conscious, while others had already fallen into deep comas.
Just when the Fujiwara thought they had seen the worst of it, the curse continued to intensify beyond all expectations. It spread from the elderly to those in their middle years. Even Saneyori himself began to feel the onset of the illness. Realizing the gravity of the situation, he issued a massive recall of the clan's onmyoji, gathering them at the main residence to resist the curse together. Yet, the ever-strengthening power of the curse forced them to retreat step by step. Eventually, they were driven from the manor above and into the underground treasury, where they utilized pre-existing powerful barriers and various treasures to barely hold the curse at bay.
However, the escalation of the curse seemed limitless. As time passed, the final line of defense began to buckle under the pressure. The cursed energy that seeped through was now even beginning to affect the children.
Faced with this, Saneyori had no choice but to seek outside help, eventually turning to those beyond the Fujiwara clan. Miketsu was among the first. Saneyori subtly hinted at his hope that the so-called 'Asakura Style' possessed some secret art that could halt the spread of the curse.
Inwardly, Miketsu winced. Her 'Asakura Style' was excellent for combat and blowing things up, but she hadn't the faintest idea how to handle curses. Being immune to status ailments herself, she had never learned purification spells. She was truly at a loss regarding the Fujiwara's current predicament.
In her view, the best way to break the curse was to find the source—Prince Nagaya—and eliminate him. But that would undoubtedly take time, and she wondered if the Fujiwara could hold out that long.
……
While Miketsu was lost in thought within the underground treasury, the sky above the Fujiwara residence was growing increasingly dark. The demonic energy, heavy with resentment, grew thick enough to suffocate even those who weren't targeted by the curse.
Far out in the wilderness beyond the walls of Heian-kyo, atop a hill overlooking the sprawling city, a young girl with white hair and simple robes stood with a furrowed brow. She gazed toward the unnatural darkness looming over the capital.
"So, that's the place they call Heian-kyo?" Mokou muttered, her crimson eyes narrowing with suspicion.
"I can feel it... something incredibly unpleasant is lurking there..."
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