Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Ukiyo

Adam bit a chunk of flesh off his finger and wrote on the woman's skull. Once done, he uttered an incantation and a bond formed between them. At last, he could communicate with her.

"Hello?" Adam tried to speak with her telepathically.

"Y-yes?"

"So, you don't see the light?"

"N-no." The woman shook her head.

"Do you have anything else you want to do?"

The woman paused for a moment before shaking her head.

"How about this, why don't you be my shikigami for now while we figure something out."

Adam had to keep her on a short leash. He couldn't just toss her soul core somewhere and risk letting her turn into an onryō.

"Y-yes, master." The woman nodded.

"You can call me Adam. What's your name?"

"I-it's Tanaka Izumi, Adamu-sama."

"Okay, Izumi, let's go."

After leaving the orphanage, Adam stole money from a yakuza office again and went to another real estate agency. Unfortunately, there wasn't any stigmatized property this time. He left Pumpkin in the apartment first and fed him before going for an early dinner. He managed to eat at a few different ramen restaurants before the evening crowd started appearing. He had no other choice but to fill his stomach with street food like yakisoba, korokke, and karaage. When queues started forming at the food stalls as well, he entered a convenience store and bought all the different flavoured puddings.

Adam started walking back to his apartment while gobbling down the puddings. As he walked down an empty alleyway, a woman wearing a surgical mask with long, black hair came in the opposite direction with her hands inside the pockets of her trenchcoat. When he tried to walk around her, she sidestepped into his way.

"Do you think I am pretty?"

"Uh, sorry, I'm not interested."

Adam tried to walk around her once more but she got in his way again.

"Do you think I am pretty?"

"Sure, whatever. I need to go, so..."

After hearing Adam's reply, the woman pulled off her mask and bared her teeth at him. Chunks of flesh were missing from her cheeks and both rows of her rotten teeth could be seen through the holes.

"Do you think I'm pretty now!?"

"...hey, that's a pretty nifty trick. I didn't even notice you're a spirit until you took off your mask. Is that your ability or is that the mask's?"

The woman looked confused for a moment before she took out a pair of rusty scissors from her trenchcoat and charged toward him with a snarl.

Adam summoned the nure-onna before he burrowed into the ground. While the nure-onna distracted the woman, Adam popped his head out from the ground and forcefully exhaled a torrent of fire in the woman's direction. The woman tried to dodge the attack but the nure-onna got in her way and the flames consumed the woman.

"Aaahhh!"

Unfortunately, that did not finish the woman off and she managed to escape.

Adam chased the woman for several streets until he watched her disappear into an alleyway. When he entered after her, she was no longer there. He controlled the nure-onna to investigate but she vanished into thin air. He could no longer control her but he could still feel the link between them. He moved closer and held his hand out. As his hand passed through the spot where the nure-onna vanished from sight, the air shimmered for a moment and his hand disappeared for a moment as well. Taking a deep breath, he took a step forward and the scene before his eyes changed.

Adam stepped into a bustling street paved with cobblestone. Some of the people in the crowd gave puzzled looks at his attire before returning to their activities. An oni vendor peddled his wares while the gaki following him struggled to pull a merchant cart several times larger than him. A female spirit haggled with a tanuki standing on two feet despite the glaring sunlight. His quarry was nowhere to be seen.

Adam looked around and saw traditional Japanese buildings. There was even a massive castle towering above the surrounding area. It was like he had travelled back in time to the Edo period. A stone monument was erected in the middle of the plaza with a word carved upon the surface: ukiyo. He didn't know where he was but he knew ukiyo was used in Buddhism to express the ephemeral nature of the material world.

Adam dismissed the nure-onna and started searching for the woman. The fact that she could be an objective was just a small part of his motivation. What he was really interested in was how she was able to conceal her reiki from him. The place turned out to be larger than he initially thought. After a few hours of searching, not only did he not find the woman, he had gotten lost as well. Fortunately, he could somewhat estimate his location thanks to the massive castle.

As Adam was about to continue searching, a large toad dressed in a kimono stopped him.

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"Can I help you?" Adam prepared himself to escape any time using Burrow.

"Honoured guest, my master would like to invite you for tea."

"And if I refuse?"

"As you wish, I will convey your refusal to my master." The toad turned to leave.

"Hold on, I accept your master's invitation."

The toad led Adam into the massive castle. Up close, the castle appeared even more daunting. The castle grounds were surrounded by a moat and heavily patrolled by guards. After passing through a series of corridors, he was brought in front of a traditional Japanese room. The toad knelt next to one of the servants sitting in seiza position by the side of the screen doors.

"Master, I have brought the honoured guest."

"Come in."

The servants by the screen doors pulled them open and revealed the interior.

Inside, a woman with three white, bushy tails protruding from under her kimono lay languidly on the tatami mat. She was smoking from a pipe while propping her head up with her other hand.

Adam entered the room and plopped down on the cushion prepared for him.

The two of them silently measured each other for a while.

The woman took another puff from her pipe before setting it down on a lacquered ashtray.

"Welcome, honoured guest. I am Kuzunoha, may I know your name?"

"Adam." Adam eyed her tails. "Kuzunoha? Are you the mother of Abe no Seimei?"

"Fufufu, no. Kuzunoha is an inherited title held by the leaders of our clan. The mother of Seimei-sama was our leader during the Heian period."

"So, why have you called for me?" Adam looked around the empty room. "I don't see any tea."

"My apologies for the deception. I heard whispers among my subjects of the kuchisake-onna returning injured, and shortly after, a foreigner arrived in our domain."

"Kuchisake-onna?"

"Her name has been long forgotten and she is now only known as the Slit-Mouthed Woman. Long ago, she was born into a samurai family and became renowned throughout Kyōto for her beauty. However, despite her fame, she did not get the suitors she desired because her family was of low-ranking samurai status. In the end, she married a low-ranking samurai."

Kuzunoha picked up her pipe and took a long puff.

"She was satisfied with her marriage until she learned her cousin married her husband's superior. Filled with jealousy, she seduced her husband's superior and climbed into his futon. Her husband found out and disfigured her with a pair of scissors before divorcing her. When her lover jilted her because of her appearance, she hung herself and became an onryō. The rest is history."

Kuzunoha tapped her pipe against the ashtray.

"Do you want me to stop pursuing her?" Adam tapped his fingers on the tatami mat.

As much as Adam was interested in the Kuchisake-onna's ability, he had no intentions of making enemies with Kuzunoha and the inhabitants of Ukiyo.

"No, on the contrary..." Kuzunoha pointed her pipe at Adam. "I am offering you a reward for dealing with her."

"Isn't she one of your people?" Adam raised an eyebrow.

"Ukiyo offers protection to all who abide by our rules. Despite repeated warnings, she persists in her excursions into the material world. Her actions are threatening the peace of Ukiyo." 

"The ruler of Ukiyo can't even deal with a measly onryō?"

"Ruler? No, I am merely a custodian. Besides, my every action is being watched by my enemies." Kuzunoha took another puff from her pipe. "So, have you come to a decision?"

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