Shoki

"Yura!"

Miketsu hurriedly rushed to Yura's side, who had collapsed on the ground. She carefully checked her condition and found that she was completely unconscious.

Although she knew Yura had some health issues, she hadn't expected them to escalate so quickly. While Miketsu was focused on drawing the formation, Yura had passed out.

Yura's face was pale, her body temperature low, and an expression of pain flickered across her sleeping face. Miketsu didn't know why Yura was in this state. Although their encounter with the Demon-Faced Centipede had been perilous, neither of them had been injured. They hadn't eaten anything since entering the Demon-Rearing Ground, so poisoning was out of the question.

"Tsuruha, do you know what's happening to Yura?"

Seeing that Yura was unconscious, Miketsu immediately summoned Tsuruha to check on her condition.

"Please wait a moment, Lady Uka." The divine fox leaped gracefully from Miketsu's sleeve onto Yura's body. After a thorough examination, she reached a conclusion.

"Lady Uka, I'm afraid this young woman named Yura has been afflicted by shoki."

"Shoki? So it really is because of this forest?" Upon hearing Tsuruha's words, Miketsu immediately recalled the conclusion she had previously dismissed.

"No, it's not because of the forest. Shoki is different from yin energy. While this forest is dense with yin energy, it is not saturated with shoki—certainly not enough to affect someone to this extent." Tsuruha refuted Miketsu's idea and continued her analysis.

"She might have eaten something that grew in an environment thick with shoki, or she could be carrying an object that emits it."

"An object that contains shoki?" Hearing this, Miketsu immediately began to search Yura. She pulled a strange assortment of items from her various pockets: talismans, medicine, a compass, a bamboo tube, paper dolls, books... a whole pile of things. Miketsu couldn't help but feel as if she were emptying Doraemon's pocket.

Miketsu continued her search, feeling neither embarrassed nor awkward about patting down the young woman's body. Having bathed daily at the shrine, she was quite familiar with these matters. In fact, during the search, she even felt that she was perhaps a bit more well-endowed than Yura.

Finally, tucked inside Yura's sash, Miketsu found an inconspicuous stone. If it weren't for the faint, ominous aura it emitted under her spiritual vision, she probably would have tossed it away the moment she touched it.

"That's a Cursed Karmic Stone. It's practically a condensation of shoki. That's the source of her illness," Tsuruha blurted out the moment she saw the stone.

"A Cursed Karmic Stone?" Miketsu examined the stone in her hand. She hadn't imagined this tiny rock could be the culprit. But the question now was how it ended up on Yura. Miketsu didn't believe Yura would carry it willingly; she should have been aware of the stone's abnormality.

Suddenly, a scene came to Miketsu's mind. Earlier that day, the man named Morimura Saemon had tried to attack her and was subdued by Yura. Under pressure from the official onmyoji, Yura had to let him go. The moment she did, Saemon had stumbled very unnaturally, bumping right into Yura.

Was it him? That curse master who would try to kill someone over a simple argument? Did he secretly sabotage Yura because she had offended him?

"Heh... Humans... some of them are just like yokai."

Letting out a soft scoff, Miketsu looked at Tsuruha and continued, "Tsuruha, this stone won't affect me, will it?"

"Of course not. Something like shoki cannot corrupt a god."

Hearing Tsuruha's words, Miketsu put the stone away. She then looked back at Yura and noticed her complexion had indeed improved after the stone was removed. She would probably wake up soon.

But before that, they absolutely could not be found by that centipede demon.

"Tsuruha... do you think this formation I drew will work?" Miketsu asked, looking nervously at the concealment formation she had drawn.

"Uhm... Tsuruha doesn't understand Onmyojutsu, so I'm not sure. But while the formation Lady Uka drew is... well, not very neat, all the necessary components are there... It should be fine..." Tsuruha said, but her tone only made Miketsu feel even more insecure.

"Ah... whatever. Let's just wait here for now. We'll decide what to do after Yura wakes up," Miketsu said with a sigh. Waiting was their only option; without Yura, they couldn't even find their way.

She had thought it would be a simple selection trial, but who knew it would turn out like this. At this moment, Miketsu deeply regretted her decision to participate. However, she also understood that regret was useless now; it would only make her more anxious in this predicament and cloud her judgment.

"That yokai released a massive amount of demonic energy when it used its powerful attack. The onmyoji outside the forest must have sensed it by now. Perhaps we can wait here for them to come in and exorcise it. As long as they can eliminate that yokai, we'll be safe," Miketsu continued. Previously, the centipede demon must have had some way to conceal its demonic energy, allowing it to rampage through the forest while the onmyoji outside remained oblivious. But it seemed to have broken that concealment to unleash its ultimate attack, so the onmyoji outside should have noticed the anomaly.

In that case, they could just wait here for the onmyoji to deal with the centipede demon.

"What you say is true, Lady Uka, but from Tsuruha's perspective, even if all those onmyoji outside combined their strength, they would likely be no match for the Demon-Faced Centipede. They wouldn't be foolish enough to just come in. It's more likely they will request reinforcements from Heian-kyo and won't act until help arrives," Tsuruha replied, analyzing the situation. She had a much clearer understanding than Miketsu of just how powerful this Demon-Faced Centipede was; it wasn't something ordinary onmyoji could handle.

"Is that so..." Hearing Tsuruha's words, Miketsu's heart sank. If things were as Tsuruha said, they would still have to face the Demon-Faced Centipede alone for a long time. All they could hope for now was that it wouldn't find them.

Just as she was thinking this, Miketsu's gaze flickered. She suddenly noticed a strange centipede clinging to a small nearby tree. In the center of the centipede's back was a miniature demon face.

Its terrifying eyes were silently staring right at them.