Calculation

"Consulting?"

On the wide balcony of the upper garden room of the Inari Tower, Tsuruha was momentarily taken aback by Miketsu's words. She then asked with some confusion, "May I ask what specific areas you are referring to, Lady Uka?"

Although she had some guesses, Tsuruha chose not to speculate too much and asked directly.

"Information, obviously. Didn't you say you couldn't track those guys or figure out their plans? I can provide that for you."

Miketsu remained seated on the balcony, admiring the city's night view while she spoke. She used her silver fork to pick up another piece of fried tofu. Since absorbing a portion of the demonic fox's power, she felt she had developed a taste for it.

"Information... As expected, do you intend to use divination to obtain their intel, Lady Uka? But the scale of unmanaged yokai that have infiltrated this time is too large and they are extremely scattered. Our grasp of their movements is minimal, and the prerequisites for divination are too low. Under these circumstances, I fear it would be very difficult to divine the details of over a hundred attack plans out of thin air in such a short time..."

Tsuruha's expression became even more serious as she continued to speak.

"It's not that I doubt the accuracy of your divination, Lady Uka. But if we really use divination to handle this series of events, the workload would be far too immense. It's certainly not something that can be completed in a mere day or two. The Inari Festival officially begins tomorrow; we might not have enough time."

Tsuruha spoke with concern, and her worries were not without reason. Divination required certain prerequisites; the more information one had beforehand, the higher the accuracy. Divination without any preparation would waste more time or even fail. Currently, there were over a hundred yokai hidden throughout Kyoto Prefecture preparing to carry out acts of sabotage during the Inari Festival. This meant there were over a hundred potential violent incidents. The time, location, and methods of these incidents were almost entirely unknown. The amount of content to be divined was far too much, and without sufficient prior information, it would take a very long time.

To ensure zero casualties, every incident had to be understood clearly to formulate countermeasures. With over a hundred attacks across the city, identifying the specific time and plan for each was a massive task. Simply confirming the locations of each attack would be incredibly heavy and time-consuming. By the time all locations were confirmed, there would likely be no time left to assign missions. Moreover, if they only confirmed the locations without understanding the specific operational plans, there was a risk of failure, and the requirement of zero casualties could not be guaranteed.

In short, the efficiency of traditional divination could not handle the current situation.

Hearing Tsuruha's words, Miketsu smiled slightly. After chewing and swallowing a piece of fried tofu, she spoke slowly.

"I remember you mentioned in a report not long ago that Inari's development of 'Heavenly Machine Omoikane' was complete, right?"

"Yes, 'Heavenly Machine Omoikane' is already operational. Although there are still some immature aspects, it has perfectly replaced the previous generation product," Tsuruha replied to Miketsu.

"I remember you once said that the new generation of that thing... can link directly to a biological brain?"

"Yes, but that technology isn't yet perfect. Unless the soul is exceptionally strong, one could easily suffer from severe mental illness after linking. Therefore, the current restrictions are still very—wait, could it be that you, Lady Uka..."

Suddenly, Tsuruha seemed to realize something. Her eyes widened as she looked at Miketsu. Miketsu simply smiled.

"Tsuruha, you think my soul is strong enough, don't you?"

Kyoto, New Fushimi District, beneath the Inari Tower.

Miketsu stood inside a descending elevator, looking with interest at the indicator showing they were going deeper and deeper. Beside her, the divine fox Tsuruha stood silently with her hands behind her back.

With a 'ding', the elevator finally stopped at an unknown depth. As the doors slowly opened, a simple silver iron bridge appeared before Miketsu, extending far into the distance.

She saw countless unknown machines in operation. Numerous figures in white lab coats—humans, yokai, and various other races—were busy moving back and forth. Many were seated in their respective cubicles, typing busily on keyboards.

In the center of this massive underground space, at the end of the iron bridge where Miketsu stood, was a giant circular shaft leading even deeper underground. Inside the shaft stood a gargantuan mechanical pillar. Numerous wide screens were suspended from the pillar by mechanical arms, displaying endless streams of data.

"Lady Uka, down there is 'Heavenly Machine Omoikane'. It's Inari's new generation supercomputer, our central mainframe. It's the foundation for much of our research and work. To commemorate Lord Yagokoro's long-term technical support for us, every generation of Inari's supercomputers is named after her."

Standing beside Miketsu, Tsuruha introduced the scene before them. Miketsu nodded slowly as she listened.

"Eirin, huh? It's true that she had bad intentions when I first met her, but the help she's provided since then has been quite significant. By the way, I remember you mentioned last time that she left the Lunar Capital. Where did she go?"

Miketsu murmured as she began walking forward. Tsuruha quickly replied from her side.

"She said she preferred life on the surface... As for where she is currently living, likely no one knows except for her two disciples."

Tsuruha spoke slowly, and Miketsu responded with a light laugh.

"Preferred life on the surface? Next time I visit Kaguya in the Lunar Capital, I'll ask her where Eirin is. After all, it's been a long time. But for now, let's get the matter at hand sorted..."

Miketsu continued forward, while Tsuruha spoke with some lingering concern.

"Is it really going to be alright? The consciousness-link technology is actually not yet mature... Although you are—"

"Don't worry. My intuition says it's fine, so it's fine. If we want to calculate all the information on those guys in one go, this is currently the most convenient method."

Miketsu laughed as she walked, with Tsuruha following closely behind.

For the current Miketsu, solving the series of hidden threats was actually a bit troublesome. With her energy, she could only manipulate and calculate the causality around her or within a specific range. Dealing with an entire city was indeed beyond her capacity.

Just as Tsuruha feared, the events were too numerous and widespread. The causality of an entire city was indeed too complex, exceeding Miketsu's current range of processing.

In this situation, if Miketsu really wanted to solve everything perfectly without a single death and without even canceling the Inari Festival, her only option would be to stop time for the entire city, slowly calculate where every yokai was, and then deal with them one by one. Although that was a method, it was far too troublesome and exhausting. Not only would she have to calculate for ages until her head throbbed, but she would also have to personally eliminate them afterward—pulling her bow over a hundred times. For someone who had grown accustomed to being a 'salted fish' in the modern era, that was practically torture.

Therefore, she preferred to let her subordinates do the work while she enjoyed the festival. But for Inari's forces to solve this perfectly, they had to have perfect intelligence—and that intelligence could only be provided by Miketsu.

To calculate and manipulate such a vast amount of causality, Miketsu would normally have to return to her ancient god form. But she clearly didn't want to do that for such a small matter. Aside from that, the only way was to link her consciousness with Inari's supercomputer, using its processing power to help her calculate the city's causality. By predicting the series of possible events, large and small, that would occur in the city over the next few days, she could derive all of her opponents' plans and subsequently formulate perfect countermeasures.

'Let me see just how far the technological power on the surface has reached.'

Miketsu thought with a smile as she slowly walked toward the massive machinery ahead.

Back to the time of the Inari Festival.

Kyoto, on a bustling street at a busy intersection.

It was afternoon. The milk tea shop at the intersection was as busy as ever. Countless young men and women stood in line, chatting and laughing as they waited to buy popular drinks. On the building across from the shop, the withered old yokai remained hidden behind the billboard, watching everything below with a sinister gaze.

'Hehe. I didn't expect so many portions to be sold. It seems my choice was correct. Once the demonic blood is activated, it will surely cause over a hundred people to go mad!'

Looking at the paper cups in the hands of the young people below, Minamoto Gorozaemon chuckled. He then looked up at the scorching sun in the sky.

'The time is right. It's time to begin. Come, slaughter one another! Turn this place into a living hell! Humans!'

With a sinister laugh, Minamoto Gorozaemon began to trigger the demonic blood he had spread, intending to force those who ingested it into a state of demonic frenzy.

However, after a long moment, absolutely nothing happened.

The young people on the street below continued to drink and talk, looking relaxed and natural. There wasn't the slightest sign of anything unusual. Minamoto Gorozaemon froze in place.

"What! What's happening! Why isn't it working! Those guys clearly ingested my demonic blood! The base liquid in that shop was clearly already tainted by my blood!"

Minamoto Gorozaemon's eyes bulged in disbelief. He remembered very clearly that he had personally infiltrated the shop this morning to poison it. He had been monitoring the shop ever since, and no one had touched the vat of base liquid he had poisoned. He could clearly judge that many of the people below had ingested his blood. There was no reason for it not to take effect once he triggered it!

"Ah... It really happened exactly like it was written. You triggered it right on time... And now you're making a very surprised expression."

A somewhat lazy male voice sounded behind Minamoto Gorozaemon. Hearing these words, the yokai was completely stunned and turned his head in shock. Standing behind him, he saw a human youth with messy black hair, wearing a floral short-sleeved shirt and sunglasses, calmly sipping milk tea.

"Y-You!"

"What! How could an Onmyoji from the Keikain Clan be here!" Minamoto Gorozaemon said in shock. The youth, Ryuji, answered indifferently.

"Ah, why am I here? Naturally, because a yokai like you was planning to harm people, so as an Onmyoji, I came to exorcise you."

"What? You came for me? C-Could the failure of my demonic blood be your doing!" Minamoto Gorozaemon shouted, to which Ryuji gave a mysterious smile.

"What do you think?"

"Impossible! I've been guarding this place ever since I poisoned it! No one touched that vat! No one neutralized the poison! The demonic blood should have been fully absorbed by those humans! How did you—"

Minamoto Gorozaemon pointed at Ryuji, both angry and confused. Ryuji continued to smile as he replied.

"You're right. I didn't neutralize it after you poisoned it. However, I put the antidote into that vat before you even poisoned it. So, when you put your poison in, it was neutralized immediately. Any problem with that?"

Hearing Ryuji's words, Minamoto Gorozaemon was stunned. After standing in a daze for a moment, his face contorted even further as he roared.

"In that specific vat... you put the antidote beforehand?! Impossible! Could it be you knew our plan? No! Even if you knew the plan, this shouldn't be possible! Which shop to poison was—"

"I didn't play any tricks. Everything I just said is the truth."

Ryuji continued calmly as he watched Minamoto Gorozaemon, who was clearly losing control. His words completely infuriated the yokai.

"Damned Onmyoji! Still mocking me!"

While speaking, demonic power erupted from all around Minamoto Gorozaemon. Having failed his plan, he prepared to attack Ryuji directly.

"Pay the price! Onmyoji—Ugh!"

Just as Minamoto Gorozaemon was about to lunge, Ryuji's hand lightly formed a seal. Suddenly, a hidden onmyo magical array lit up on the rooftop beneath the yokai's feet. Minamoto Gorozaemon's short body was instantly trapped within it, and his erupting demonic power was ruthlessly suppressed.

"What! This is a magical array! When did you set this up! Aaaaah!"

Looking at the array beneath his feet, Minamoto Gorozaemon cried out in shock. It was obvious that the strength and activation speed of this array were not caused by a temporary spell, but something prepared from the very beginning.

"When did I set it up? Naturally, before you even climbed onto this roof and stood here."

Ryuji continued to smile at the shocked Minamoto Gorozaemon, who was now frozen in place with no plan left.

"Ah, although I usually enjoy lying, everything I've said this time is the truth. After all, I was quite surprised that you followed what was written in that file so accurately, step by step."

Ryuji's expression suddenly became serious. Hearing his words, the trapped Minamoto Gorozaemon was even more confused.

"What... file?"

"Do you want to hear it?"

As he spoke, Ryuji pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. He then casually selected a section and began to read aloud.

"'Target will infiltrate the milk tea shop at No. 24 New Kujo Street at 7:12 AM under the cover of a delivery, poisoning the red and green base liquid vats on the counter to the left of the refrigerator with his own demonic blood. Afterward, he will monitor from the rooftop of the Guanyue Department Store Building across from shop No. 24, specifically behind the "Huo" character of the billboard. He will talk to himself and snicker until 2:03 PM, when he will trigger the poison's effect. It is recommended to place the antidote in advance and set a trap at his location beforehand.'"

Looking at Minamoto Gorozaemon, Ryuji spoke slowly as he held the document printed with the Inari and rice ear logo. With every word he spoke, Minamoto Gorozaemon felt his heart sink further, and his face grew increasingly pale.