The Artillery Battery

Within the dark and deep dense forest, a colossal demonic tree stretched its gnarled roots to the heavens. Countless skeletons were scattered among the grass and leaves accumulated between its roots, and nooses of death hung thick from its branches, swaying gently in the breeze.

This eerie giant tree was the source of the terrifying curse within the Aokigahara. During the Sengoku period hundreds of years ago, many had died in this forest due to the chaos of war. A group of refugees had mutated into monsters and began to crave more blood and souls. Thus, in the centuries following the Sengoku period, the demonic tree used illusions and curses to lure passing travelers to its side to commit suicide. Since the tree itself was located in the most inaccessible reaches of the Sea of Trees, it initially only attracted animals, small yokai, and the occasional lost villager, generating little influence.

But as time passed, the demonic tree devoured hundreds of living beings, and its power grew ever stronger. The reach of its influence expanded until, in the modern era, its legend spread as the "Suicide Forest" urban legend. The Onmyo Agency eventually attempted to subjugate it. However, due to its powerful long-range cursing ability and its control over the entire forest, most of the Onmyoji sent to destroy it died before even laying eyes on the tree. The few who were lucky enough to escape died in their homes, pursued by the curse. Its terrifying power and unknown true form led the Onmyo Agency at the time to declare the entire forest a forbidden zone, establishing a wide-area ward to suppress the spread of the curse.

Now, ten years later, the wards had failed, and the demonic tree's strength had grown. The curse began to seep out once more, intermittently infiltrating human population centers, and rumors of the Suicide Forest began to flourish again in the streets.

"New food is arriving... It has... come... delicious souls..."

A faint, raspy whisper echoed through the dense woods. The demonic tree knew well that its power had once again reached beyond the forest to prey on humans. Recalling its previous encounters, the tree demon hoped the Onmyoji would come to challenge it again; that way, it could feast on souls rich with spiritual power once more. This was what it anticipated most. While the greedy and gluttonous tree demon was lost in its craving for delicious souls, its vast perception suddenly twitched. Its attention immediately focused on the distance. In the unreachable heights of the far-off sky, it could feel something approaching at high speed.

"Again... a human... iron bird..." the tree demon rasped in a murmur. The object it perceived this time was not unfamiliar. It was an iron bird made by humans, with people riding inside its belly. As long as it cursed the humans inside, the iron bird would fall from the sky. It had brought down one or two of these things through its curse before.

Thanks to centuries of continuous growth, the tree demon's curse range was enormous. By now, the radius of its lethal curse for ordinary people had reached seven or eight kilometers. This range naturally included the airspace, making it entirely feasible to curse aircraft flying at lower altitudes. The raspy whisper echoed through the dark woods again as the tree demon waited for its ignorant prey to approach. Just as the man-made bird entered its vast curse range, roots and branches began to writhe like serpents. Invisible cursed power projected toward the distant horizon, attempting to slay every living thing inside. With the curse deployed, the demonic tree waited for the out-of-control iron bird to plummet so it could harvest the souls within.

However, to its surprise, the distant sky remained silent even after a long while. The expected crash did not occur. In the tree demon's perception, the iron bird continued to race through the sky, flying toward it at an extremely high speed. In that moment, the tree demon's ancient, unchanging emotions rippled with shock and confusion. For the first time, it witnessed its powerful curse fail.

"What... is happening?"

Under the gray sky, a massive gray-white "iron bird" soared through the heavens. With a fuselage over ten meters long and a wingspan of twenty meters, this steel bird was larger than many giant bird yokai.

Its cross-shaped body sped forward with the roar of its engine. The massive hull was perfectly smooth, with no trace of windows even at the front. This aircraft seemed to have no cockpit at all. On the tail fin was printed a crest of a fox, rice ears, and crossed arrows. This Inari UAV flew above the Aokigahara, its purely mechanical body ignoring the powerful curse that threatened all living things. It traversed the forbidden zone of death, flying straight toward the source of the curse.

From a high altitude invisible to the naked eye, the Inari UAV used its sensitive instruments to transmit the situation below to a base on a distant hill. Analyzing the incoming intelligence, the operator in front of the screen made a quick decision. After locking onto the suspicious target, she pressed the attack button.

Whish!

A missile accurately struck the largest and most lush tree in the forest. A massive blooming red lotus of fire erupted within the Sea of Trees, and the roaring, scorching flames engulfed the giant tree entirely.

"GRAAAAAAAH!"

A massive, agonized scream echoed throughout the forest. Engulfed in flames, the tree demon twisted frantically. Over half of its dense canopy and part of its trunk were blasted away. Branches and roots writhed wildly.

"It really worked! It really was that tree! It's such a huge tree demon... So this is the source of the curse," Yura said, looking at the drone feed on the screen at the clearing on the distant hill. Miko, who was holding the controls, nodded in agreement.

"Yeah... I knew that tree looked suspicious. As expected. But it seems its vitality is quite tenacious; it took a direct hit and it's still not dead."

As Miko spoke, the tree demon on the screen began to suppress the flames on its body by gathering yin qi. Although a third of its bark had been blasted away, the remaining parts continued to writhe incessantly. Its tentacle-like branches were now stretching out. Hundreds of meters of vines lashed toward the sky, seemingly trying to strike down the UAV flying thousands of meters above, but the vines were far too short.

Seeing this, Miko immediately launched a second missile. The projectile shot down from the sky trailing a plume of fire. This time, however, the tree demon seemed prepared. Sensing the imminent danger, its hundreds of long vine-whips lashed out frantically toward a single point. One of them happened to strike the flying missile, causing it to detonate in mid-air.

"...Is it finally starting?"

Seeing the missile intercepted, Miko murmured to herself. She set the UAV to autonomous patrol mode and stood up from her seat, walking straight out of the tent. Yura sighed and followed her out.

Outside, the support legs of several cannons had been lowered. Their dark barrels were pointed toward the sky, aimed at the source of the curse in the distant forest. This place was quite literally an artillery battery. Countless man-sized Paper Shikigami were busy scurrying back and forth, making final adjustments to each cannon.

These paper figures were all Yura's shikigami. As a genius young Onmyoji, she was capable of controlling a vast number of them at a young age. Under the tireless work of these shikigami, the cannons were ready.

Miko and Yura arrived before the artillery battery. The Paper Shikigami took their positions in groups beside each cannon. Miko scanned the scene before her. Then, dressed in her miko outfit, she approached a ritual altar. On the altar were offerings of fruit and rice ears. Beside the offerings was a basin of clear water, and on the table sat a wooden divine tablet inscribed with the name... Uka-no-Mitama.

Standing before the altar, Miko began to pray sincerely to the divine tablet.

"Lady Uka, please bless us with perfect accuracy and boundless divine might."

After finishing her prayer, Miko picked up the rice ears from the altar, dipped them into the water basin, and sprinkled the water toward the artillery battery. After repeating this three times, she returned the rice ears and picked up a miko gohei. Turning toward the distant Sea of Trees, Miko took a deep breath. She pointed the gohei toward the distant source of the curse and shouted the command.

"In the name of the God Uka! All evil shall perish! Saturated Fire!"