Hashira Maruhi sat in her private office, a large screen before her continuously displaying reports in red. The eastern transport route had been suspended. Warehouse three was closed. Twenty-seven drivers could not return to work. Three senior managers were showing uncontrolled symptoms, one of whom had died. News had begun spreading online, and Hashira Logistics shares had been falling continuously since the market opened.The phone on the desk was almost constantly vibrating. Lawyers, hospitals, operations, shareholders, media, business partners. Every call brought a new piece of bad news, like successive waves striking a ship already tossing in a storm.Maruhi remained composed."Transfer the medical freight route to the reserve team. Close all canteens in affected warehouses. Do not announce the death count until victims' families have been notified. Legal to prepare response documents in case anyone attempts to spread misinformation. Check all unusual stock transactions in the pa

CHAPTER 55: RETURNING TO THE HASHIRA CLANThe black car pulled away from the Hashira Logistics headquarters as noon drew near.Beyond the tinted windows, the city carried on as it always did. Long lines of cars crawled down the streets. Office workers hurried across intersections. Shops opened their doors. Electronic billboards cycled through one advertisement after another. No one out there knew that, in the span of a single morning, hundreds of employees at a major logistics corporation had been hospitalized by a bizarre curse.Inside the cabin, the air was far quieter.The driver kept his focus on the road.The partition at the front had been raised.In the back seat, Maruhi sat beside Hikaru, scarcely saying a word since they had left the building. She had reshaped her expression with startling speed before stepping outside. Her face was calm. Her hair was perfectly in order. Her kimono carried not a single unnecessary crease. To anyone watching from the outside, there would have b

The steward led Hikaru and Maruhi down the long wood-floored corridor, heading toward the main hall set deepest within the estate. Beneath the eaves, small bronze chimes hung utterly still, even as the wind drifted through the garden. The scent of sandalwood in the air grew heavier with each step, but the foul thing hidden beneath it was also becoming clearer.Burnt hair.Dried blood.And a very faint sense of hunger, as if something lay deep within the shadows, slowly licking its lips at the sound of living footsteps.Hikaru gave nothing away. He walked beside Maruhi, letting her keep her arm linked through his as she had at the gate. Only the small talisman tucked inside his sleeve continued to grow warm in silence, leaving him all the more certain that this place was not clean.Maruhi seemed to feel the eyes of the servants around them as well. None of them dared to look directly, but seeing her bring an unfamiliar man back to the clan, those discreet sidelong glances kept appearin

Night fell quickly.The Hashira estate sank beneath a heavy layer of stillness. The lanterns under the eaves still burned, but their pale yellow light did nothing to thaw the cold of this place. Wind drifted through the trees in the courtyard, carrying the rustling of leaves with it, and now and then a dry, brittle creak slipped in from a wooden corridor that had stood for far too long.Hikaru sat beside the bed.Maruhi had not yet woken.She lay on her side upon the white mattress, her breathing steady but shallow. The kimono had been changed by the maids for a soft sleeping gown in pale blue, the collar a little loose, exposing the smooth white skin around her collarbone along with the black serpent mark, now considerably faded. Her long brown hair spread across the pillow, lending the face that was usually so mature and sharp a rare touch of fragility.Hikaru reached out and brushed his fingers lightly against her throat.The curse mark was still there.Shiratori could only suppres

Hikaru looked at her.This time, he was genuinely caught off guard.That afternoon, she had seen with her own eyes Nazekawa use the Serpent-Binding Blood Curse. She had seen with her own eyes Maruhi suffer until she nearly fainted. She had seen too his Shiratori take form, becoming a barrier of light that scattered the Yin Energy throughout the great hall. And yet here she was, telling him with absolute conviction that ghosts did not exist in this world.“Are you joking with me?”“No.”“Did you not see what happened this afternoon?”“I saw it.”“Then how do you explain it?”Kaori gave a small shrug.“It could have been some kind of mass hypnosis. It could have been a trick involving chemicals. Or some unrecorded type of neurotoxin in the air. As for that piece of paper of yours catching fire and turning into some sort of arch of light…”Her eyes narrowed slightly.“Perhaps a chemical reaction?”Hikaru felt his head ache further.“I am an Onmyoji,” he said. “Science struggles to explai