Unveiling

As the attendant slid open the shoji screen, Miketsu stepped into the room. Her gaze swept across the interior, taking in everything at a glance. It was a spacious room where four men, dressed as Onmyoji in kariginu, sat in a row at the head of the room, scrutinizing those below. Opposite them sat numerous servants and some members of the Hata clan residing in the manor.

As the shoji screen opened and Miketsu entered the room, all eyes turned to her. “Please, come in and take a seat. The questioning has already begun,” the leading Onmyoji said directly after a brief glance at Miketsu. His demeanor surprised Miketsu. Did these Onmyoji immediately consider her an ally? Merely based on her kariginu? Miketsu mused as she looked at the Onmyoji, who, like the others, were deceased. To her, it seemed that these Onmyoji and everyone else in the mansion had been deluded by the hidden yokai. Their thought processes contained significant flaws and weaknesses, merely maintaining the predetermined state given to them by the yokai. Seeing this, Miketsu could pretty much confirm that the yokai here had started casting its delusion on her the moment she stepped into the Secret Realm. However, as a deity, she was immune to mental influence. Yet, by playing along, she might have led the yokai to believe she had fallen into its trap.

Temporarily heeding the leading Onmyoji's instruction, Miketsu took an empty seat. The ongoing proceedings then resumed. The Onmyoji were questioning the residents. “So, according to your testimony just now, you haven't sensed anything unusual, right...?” the leading Onmyoji addressed an elder of the Hata clan sitting opposite him.

“Yes, we are also surprised by the visit of you esteemed Onmyoji. Nothing strange has ever occurred in this mansion.” A man who appeared to be a Hata clan elder replied to the Onmyoji.

Hearing the Hata elder's words, the questioning Onmyoji frowned and continued. “However, the news we received is that your main Hata household is plagued by a yokai, which has already killed and injured several people, and even harmed your family's sorcerer. In desperation, you sought help from the Onmyoryo, and so we three were dispatched here.”

“Haha, honored sir, you must be mistaken. Everyone in our clan has been safe and sound these past few days; we haven't seen any trace of a yokai. Hmm... although the young lady's suddenly appearing friends are sometimes a little strange, they haven't overstepped their bounds.” The Hata elder said with a smile. Hearing his statement, the Onmyoji couldn't help but exchange glances.

At that moment, two more Onmyoji walked in. They approached the leading Onmyoji and respectfully reported: “Lord Ryojun, we have thoroughly inspected every part of this manor, top to bottom, and found not a single trace of demonic energy!”

“Not a single trace of demonic energy?” The leading Onmyoji's brows furrowed even deeper upon hearing his subordinate's report. After a moment of thought, he let out a slight sigh. “It seems... we truly were mistaken. There is no abnormality in the Hata residence. We'll conduct a quick re-check, and if all is clear, we'll return to the capital.”

Miketsu watched the Onmyoji's performance with great interest. Clearly, as deceased beings, they were deeply ensnared in the yokai's delusion, having lost their basic logical judgment. They were now acting, presumably, according to the yokai's will. So, what this yokai initially wanted to show me was... a perfectly normal manor where nothing unusual had happened? Ha... if I had fallen under its delusion and lost my judgment, I might have believed it. But fortunately, there were abnormalities everywhere here, and I wasn't blind.

As she thought this, Miketsu suddenly had an idea: to specifically awaken these deluded dead through a prompt, to see what their reactions would be. Would the yokai emerge in anger once the false tranquility it presented was shattered? Forcing the yokai out of hiding to reveal its true form—that was Miketsu's ultimate goal. Acting on her thought, she approached the Onmyoji who were debating whether to leave and spoke to their leader.

“Lord Ryojun, are you preparing to leave?”

“Hmm... yes. Since there's nothing unusual here, it's time to return to the capital.”

“Oh, but I've found something unusual.”

“What? You?” Hearing Miketsu's words, the leading Onmyoji's expression immediately turned serious. The surrounding Onmyoji and everyone else turned their gaze to Miketsu. “What abnormality have you found?”

“The abnormality... is right among us, Lord Ryojun. I have a question for you now: how many of you came here in total?” Miketsu said to the Onmyoji with a faint smile.

“There were three of us dispatched together in total.” The leading Onmyoji replied without hesitation. “Very good. Now, would you mind counting how many Onmyoji are present here right now?”

“Count? One, two, three... This... this... there are seven!” The leading Onmyoji began counting his subordinates as Miketsu had suggested, eventually tallying seven Onmyoji, including Miketsu and himself. “This... what in the world is happening? I didn't bring this many people... What is this... Ngh... it hurts so much...” Everyone present, except Miketsu, gasped in astonishment, but soon after, they clutched their heads, crying out in pain.

Miketsu watched all of this silently. She understood exactly why the number of Onmyoji didn't match Ryojun's memory. Previously, she had learned about the events concerning the Hata old residence from Hata no Michikiyo. She knew from Hata no Michikiyo that the Onmyoryo had dispatched two groups of Onmyoji to deal with the yokai at the Hata old residence. After the first group vanished without a trace, a second group was sent, and ultimately, only one person managed to return. The numbers for these two missions were exactly three the first time and four the second. If Miketsu was impersonating the one who escaped, it would perfectly match the number of Onmyoji here. This peace achieved through delusion had many flaws. Miketsu had merely picked one of them to highlight. Previously, the leading Onmyoji claimed three had arrived, yet the number sitting beside him alone was more than that.

Miketsu's earlier words seemed to have broken a mental shackle within the deceased. Each one of them cried out, clutching their heads. Miketsu silently watched everything before her, awaiting the yokai's next move. What would happen after the illusionary peace, maintained by demonic delusion, collapsed?

The cries of pain from those present grew louder and louder. Some began frantically clawing at their own faces with the hands clutching their heads, tearing the skin repeatedly to reveal the ghastly white bones beneath. Their skin and flesh began to rot away inch by inch, eyeballs dropped directly from their sockets onto the floor, and amid their anguished wails, entire bodies dissolved into skeletons.

Was this... returning to their true forms as the deceased? Such an extreme reaction just from a slight prompt from me? It didn't seem quite logical. Or perhaps the hidden entity was tired of playing games? Was it now coming out into the open?

Miketsu was somewhat surprised by the changes in those present. At that moment, she noticed that the people around her, now manifesting as the deceased, began incessantly mumbling words. “Don't kill me... Help! Help!” “So terrifying! So terrifying! I was wrong... I was wrong...” “Everyone is dead... Everyone was killed...”

Indeed... everyone in this mansion must have been killed by that yokai, then deluded and manipulated by it. Their deaths must have occurred before the Onmyoji arrived. Perhaps... the yokai even used these deceased as puppets to trick those Onmyoji.

As she thought, Miketsu looked at the condition of the Onmyoji around her. She saw that all six Onmyoji were now rapidly decaying into skeletons. Among them, Ryojun, the Onmyoji leader, was decaying the slowest. He stared wide-eyed at Miketsu, shouting hoarsely: “Masks... masks... Hata no Kawakatsu's... masks... the friends of the Hata clan's daughter! Hata no Kawakatsu's masks!... The source... of all misfortune!”

With that pained shout, Ryojun completely transformed into a skeleton. His words caused Miketsu to momentarily freeze. She immediately thought that perhaps his lingering soul still retained some consciousness and was relaying information to her, pointing out the culprit.

“Lady Uka... it seems the Hata family daughter's friends are the true form of that yokai. They are yokai formed from Hata no Kawakatsu's masks!” Tsuruha, beside Miketsu, said vigilantly. As soon as the people present began to skeletonize, she had leapt out to guard Miketsu.

“Hmm, that seems to be the case for now...” Miketsu murmured. Just then, the light filtering through the shoji screens suddenly turned a dark crimson. The entire room instantly dimmed, and the previously calm space was abruptly permeated with a vast, dense demonic energy.

In the enclosed room, bathed in dark crimson light, Miketsu stood amidst a crowd of wailing skeletons. Upon the shoji screens, which glowed with the same dim red, shadowy outlines of one massive mask after another appeared. There were foxes, old women, Fukujin masks, Ohtobide masks, and Semimaru masks... Due to her experiences with Qin Xin, Miketsu recognized all the masks that had appeared on the screens.

“Oh, look! Everyone, look! It's an Onmyoji! An Onmyoji unafraid of illusions!”

“Heh heh, it's been a long time since we've had fresh souls to toy with. We'll have a good time with this one.”

“Oh... another young life...”

“Hahaha! It's time to eat again! I'll gnaw off your limbs!?”

“Remain here and suffer torment forever, Onmyoji!”

“Wouldn't it be better to die peacefully in delusion? Why unveil this and suffer?”

Six different intonations, six voices, six shadowy mask figures ceaselessly drifted across the shoji screens of the room. They poised, fixating on Miketsu in the center of the room, as if ready to burst through the screens at any moment and devour her completely.

“Truly, entirely different existences from Qin Xin...” Miketsu surveyed her surroundings and continued calmly. “These are Hata no Kawakatsu's masks... the true culprits behind all of this, aren't they?”