Night shrouded Tokyo, away from the neon glow of the city. The Imperial Onmyo Academy's experimental site from the war era lay hidden deep beneath a solid mountain. Around this low peak, across rolling hills and desolate lands stretching for over ten kilometers, a vast multitude of malicious spirits lay in wait. These spirits had suppressed their spiritual activity, fading into the shadows or possessing nearby objects to evade spiritual vision. To an ordinary observer, the area seemed undisturbed, but in reality, over ten thousand malicious spirits were lurking, anticipating the arrival of an invader.
A meticulously camouflaged fire net was spread across the hills; the malicious spirits had fortified their defensive zone. At the heart of this perimeter, within the cavernous space beneath the mountain, the ritual they guarded had already begun. These soldiers-turned-demons were now preparing to welcome the descent of a god.
Inside the mountain's vast interior, a plain stone shrine stood upon the cracked floor tiles. Beneath the shrine’s torii gate, an elderly man in a suit with hair as white as frost lay horizontally, floating in mid-air. His face was pale, his eyes tightly shut, and a faint mist of blood seeped from his skin. This blood condensed in the air, swirling into a rotating vortex.
Seated before the vortex of Reinin and his blood was the malicious spirit of the Showa era, Major General Saburo Kitano. His hands were locked in a spell sign, his lips moving rapidly as he chanted incantations. Surrounding him and the floating Reinin, numerous skeletons clad in white kariginu slowly manifested. They too held spell signs and whispered in the eerie, rhythmic tones of the Onmyoryo. These were Kitano's former colleagues from the academy, summoned back as malicious spirits to assist him in completing the ritual.
"Begin! Connect to the High Heaven with the blood of the divine contract!" Kitano barked. The faint blood mist swirling in the air accelerated its rotation. At the center of the vortex, a thread of blood as thin as silk coalesced, extending straight upward. It passed through a small fissure pre-cut into the cavern ceiling, exiting the mountain and vanishing into the dark night sky.
"Now... before we obtain the power of the gods, soldiers of the Empire, hold your positions. It won't be long now," Kitano murmured, a twisted smile creeping onto his face.
West of Tokyo, atop a desolate hill in the vast outskirts, Miketsu stood draped in her black robes. No yokai followed her this time. Her hood was pulled back, the bandages on her head completely removed. The girl stood in the evening wind, gazing at the distant, low mountain through the hazy darkness.
"It has begun. These fellows are serious; they actually want to pull this off. Interesting..." Miketsu nodded thoughtfully. She could feel the abnormal fluctuations in the boundary and had already deduced the general plan of these war-born malicious spirits. At that moment, her expression froze slightly as Tsuruha's voice rang out in her mind via their contract.
'Lady Uka, the Inari forces on your side are fully in position. We are prepared for the assault and await your command.'
"Mortal affairs should be settled with mortal might. This era is no longer a time where miracles should be granted on such a massive scale," Miketsu replied to Tsuruha. While she could easily resolve the situation by utilizing her full divine power, doing so would create a miracle of descent unseen for a thousand years. As an advocate for steering the mortal world toward an age of men, she was reluctant to trigger a high-ranking divine manifestation.
In a sense, she had to lead by example. If she, as a celestial deity or a higher being, acted recklessly in the modern world, she would only create unnecessary trouble for her other self—the Maiden of Mandate. To an outsider, the situation looked dire, but even without using the power of an orthodox god, the mortal strength Miketsu could mobilize was formidable.
'Understood. We await your orders. Also, one more thing: the Japanese government just sent a message. they request that we exercise caution during the operation to control the intensity and ensure Emperor Reinin's safety. Ideally, they want him rescued unharmed.'
Hearing Tsuruha's report, Miketsu nodded contemplatively.
"The safety of the kidnapped Emperor? I almost forgot this was a hostage rescue," Miketsu thought. She had initially viewed this as a 'search and destroy' mission to stop a villain's evil plan. "Then, Tsuruha, tell the government we will take the Emperor's situation into account. We will... bless him."
'Understood. In that case, should I instruct the commanding Miko to limit the intensity of the strike and send in a stealth rescue team?'
"There is no need to be so restrained. Launch a full-scale assault. Fight exactly as you usually would," Miketsu continued. Tsuruha was taken aback.
'...But Lady Uka, didn't you say we should ensure the hostage's safety?'
"You misheard, Tsuruha. I didn't say ensure his safety. I said bless him. Hehe... don't worry, Tsuruha. My blessings are very effective."
Hearing Miketsu's words, Tsuruha was dazed for a moment. She began to wonder how she was supposed to translate 'We will do our best to bless the vital hostage' into appropriate diplomatic language for the Japanese government.
"Alright, this is no time to be daydreaming. Relay the command. The attack may begin. Do not miss the tactical window," Miketsu said with a smile. Tsuruha quickly recovered.
'Yes! Lady Uka!'
Miketsu terminated the telepathic link and remained alone atop the desolate hill, watching the dark wilderness where a great battle was about to erupt. Though she would not manifest a miracle in her true form as an orthodox god, she would still bless every allied soul about to enter this fray.
As Miketsu waited, the distant horizon suddenly echoed with the thunderous roar of artillery.
Far beyond the reach of normal sight, the artillery positions flashed in the night. As hundreds of cannons roared, countless shells were projected across ten kilometers, raining fire upon the area where the malicious spirits were hidden. Vehicle-mounted rockets screeched into the black sky, trailing long plumes of flame toward their pre-calculated targets.
Across the vast expanse where ten thousand spirits lurked, a rain of fire descended from the heavens. These droplets of flame struck the earth, blooming into crimson lotuses of destruction. The hidden spirit positions were instantly swallowed by these blooming lotuses. Explosive flashes lit up the sky as the earth trembled. The lurking spirits did not face an onrushing force of Onmyoji; instead, they were met with a surging, violent barrage of long-range fire. It was exactly what many of them had experienced as island-stationed soldiers in the past—an endless mountain of firepower crushing down on them, leaving them no room to breathe. And this time, they had not had enough time to construct reinforced bunkers to resist.
In the searing light and surging shockwaves, the spiritual bodies of the malicious spirits were deconstructed and dissipated.
Though the spirit soldiers' positions were hidden and dispersed—difficult to distinguish with normal spiritual sense or the naked eye—almost every shell and rocket poured from the distant batteries hit a target with uncanny precision. Malicious spirits guarding those points were reduced to ash in an instant. Such a fierce barrage was not blind carpet bombing; it was a simultaneous, wide-scale precision strike.
Far above the battlefield, in Earth's orbit, the Monitoring Pavilion space station built by the Lunar Capital floated silently. Like a palatial blend of classical style and science fiction, its massive 'Mirror-Control Eye' quietly monitored the planet. After a thousand years, the original station from a millennium ago had been returned to the Moon to serve as a museum. It housed many artifacts from the old Lunar era and the Lunar War, serving as an educational site for new generations of moon rabbits to learn about their history of enslavement, their struggle, and their friendship with the Inari of the earth.
The current Monitoring Pavilion in orbit was the fifth generation. It was several times larger and far more magnificent than its predecessor, functioning almost like a starport. This station utilized technology incomprehensible to modern human science, completely evading all terrestrial observation—be it optical, electronic, or even gravitational. To human nations, it was entirely 'stealthy.' Inari, of course, was the exception.
Though the Lunar Capital still controlled the station, the Inari had usage rights according to the millennium-old treaty. In this battle, it served as the eyes in the sky.
Per secrecy protocols, the Monitoring Pavilion no longer conducted direct orbital strikes unless ordered by Commander Watatsuki no Yorihime or requested by Inari Okami herself. Instead, it provided intelligence. Its advanced sensors scanned the earth with ease, making any form of energy signature visible. In the desolate hills, though the spirit army had suppressed their presence and even possessed objects, the station scanned all their positions from space in an instant. Using its immense processing power, it calculated the firing data for the Inari forces based on their current positions. It automatically selected the most valuable targets, ensuring that the impact points of the first salvo would cover the maximum number of spirits, maximizing the strike's lethality.
The Monitoring Pavilion beamed the data down, and the ground units simply adjusted their settings accordingly, saving immense time and allowing the Inari forces to prepare at an astonishing speed. With such accurate data, the Artillery Miko only needed to pray to Inari Okami for a precision buff to reduce uncontrollable spread, resulting in a 'one shot, one hit' effect.
In conventional modern warfare, carpet bombing and precision strikes are often seen as contradictory. However, with the addition of metaphysical enhancements, the Inari seemed to achieve both at once. A saturated, high-density barrage where every single shell or rocket hit its mark—what was that like for the defenders? The answer: in just the first round of strikes, the malicious spirit army's defense nearly collapsed. Without warning, the spirit division lost nearly half its combat strength.
After the initial devastating blow, the long-range fire units continued their pursuit according to the instructions from the sky. The roar of cannons echoed continuously across the wilderness, and many spirits howling and scurrying through the burning wasteland were eliminated in the subsequent volleys. After several more rounds of bombardment, numerous points of eerie green light appeared in the distant sky. Propeller spirit fighter planes manifested in mid-air, cloaked in ghost fire, as they charged toward the Inari artillery positions to counter-attack. The Inari fighter squadrons patrolling at high altitudes saw the blips on their radar and dived. Against such targets, they didn't even need missiles.
On the ground roads, tank engines had been humming for some time. Upon receiving orders, the steel treads began to roll forward. Though the terrain wasn't ideal for tank maneuvers, a small number of newly modified vehicles had been sent here to test their performance. To ensure they didn't miss the opportunity, these tanks had been rushed out of the modification plants; the red star livery on them hadn't even been painted over yet.
The Inari forces were overwhelming, and the spirit division's defense was pathetic. Everyone could see the joy of imminent victory. The only ones who had an objection were the members of the Imperial Household Agency in Tokyo.
"Is this what you call a hostage rescue?!" The head of the Imperial Household Agency watched the live feed of the hellish bombardment on the large screen, nearly overturning his teacup as he slammed the table. Behind him, others were already silently calculating how to prepare for the new Emperor's coronation ceremony.
They finally understood what the Inari meant when they said they would 'bless the hostage.'
Rate on N.U.
