My Scourge Wife can't be this Cute

Chapter 4: Miyuki Master

Hikaru snapped back to attention and withdrew his gaze at once, stepping into the rear courtyard with a slight bow of his head.

"Master, are you alright?"

Miyuki opened her eyes slowly.

Her cherry-blossom irises were beautiful beyond measure, like something carved from the rarest jade in existence, clear and gentle. But in their deepest layer, barely visible, rested a tiredness that had no real bottom.

She sat upright slowly, the small bell tied at her ankle chiming with a clean, delicate note, then rose and walked toward him. At nearly six feet tall, standing before Hikaru now, she looked like an older sister gazing down with fond patience at a younger brother who had just wandered into trouble.

She reached out and ruffled his hair, the corner of her mouth curving just slightly.

"I am not as fragile as you think."

Hikaru said nothing.

But he knew without any doubt: the wound in Miyuki's soul had started hurting again.

If it hadn't, she would not be lying out here at this hour.

Years ago, in order to protect him, Miyuki had suffered a severe blow to her spirit from a powerful malevolent entity. The residual dark energy lingered inside her like acid, eroding her soul a little more every day. Each time the pain flared, she would come out to sit in the sunlight, borrowing Yang energy to push some of the darkness back. Pushing it back, nothing more. There was no cure.

Every time he thought about it, something heavy settled inside his chest.

Miyuki looked at him and softened her voice.

"Stop making that face. I have told you before: protecting my student is both my responsibility and my joy. You don't have to carry an expression every single day as though you owe me the rest of your life."

Hikaru gave a small nod.

Miyuki smiled and tilted her head slightly.

"Just now, someone came to see you?"

Hikaru did not hold anything back. He recounted everything from beginning to end: Hashira's arrival at the shrine, the thirty-million check, the story she had told about Nakamoto, and the Wraith he had seen standing directly behind her in the middle of the day.

When he reached the part about the shadow vanishing after it recognized he could see it, something shifted quietly in Miyuki's expression.

She was silent for a moment.

"To manifest that clearly in daylight, and for the Yin Energy on it to remain completely unsuppressed by sunlight... either its own resentment is far beyond ordinary levels, or someone else has been interfering from behind the scene."

Hikaru nodded, lowering his voice.

"That's what I think too. And Hashira... she was definitely lying."

Miyuki did not look the least bit surprised. She only gave a faint smile, her gaze resting on him with warmth.

"If you had failed to catch even that much, it would mean the past two years of teaching you had produced nothing but a fool."

Hikaru could only manage a pained smile in response.

Miyuki stepped back a few paces.

Her long, slender fingers drew lightly through the air.

Four paper figures appeared at once, hovering in the air before him. Each one carried a different color, and each radiated a faint, steady glow that made it clear these were not ordinary objects.

Hikaru blinked.

"Master, these are...?"

Miyuki looked at him, her voice quiet enough that even the wind might have missed it.

"Hikaru, you have been beside me for four years. Two years learning, and two more carrying the shrine in my place, handling everything that should by rights have been mine to handle. The time has come for you to undergo your coming-of-age rite."

Hikaru said nothing.

Miyuki pointed to the four hovering figures.

"Inside each of these is one of four Fates that every person dreams of. Romance. Longevity. Wealth. Talent. Choose one."

"Whichever I choose, I receive it?" Hikaru asked.

Miyuki shook her head.

"No. Whichever you choose, that is what you will lose for the rest of this life."

The air beneath the peach tree went completely still.

Hikaru looked at the four figures drifting before him.

Romance Fate, not something he particularly valued.

Longevity Fate, there was no one who genuinely wanted a shorter life.

Talent Fate, that one touched directly on his path as an Onmyoji.

And Wealth Fate... he only had to think of the cracked roof tiles above the shrine, the doors rotting at their hinges, and then picture Hashira's thirty-million check, and the corner of his mouth pulled involuntarily tight.

At last, Hikaru closed his eyes, raised his hand, and let instinct and whatever passed for fate guide him.

Ting!

A single chime rang out.

An invisible current rippled through the air around them.

When Hikaru opened his eyes, the paper figure his hand had touched now displayed a line of characters.

[Wealth Fate]

He stared at it and his expression did not change by much. He had mentally prepared himself. At worst, he would simply live a little poorer than before.

But at that moment, the characters spelling [Wealth Fate] began to blur, like ink spreading through wet paper as someone traced a finger across it.

Hikaru went still.

"Master, what is...?"

He turned and saw that Miyuki's face had gone slightly pale.

The weight in his chest dropped immediately.

"Master!"

Miyuki shook her head and smiled, faint and unhurried.

"I'm fine. You did choose [Wealth Fate]. By all natural law, that means poverty would follow you your entire life: even money that came to you would find its way out through one channel or another. But the blurred characters mean that Fate has been partially obscured. Going forward, you may not be wealthy, but you will not be truly destitute either. Enough to live on. Enough to eat and keep yourself clothed."

Hikaru had not even exhaled yet when the System's familiar chime sounded inside his mind.

[Ding! Congratulations. The remaining three Fates have been granted to you.]

[Ding! Romance Fate, Longevity Fate, and Talent Fate have been added to your personal status panel.]

Hikaru startled.

The flicker of elation that rose in him died the instant his eyes fell on Miyuki's pallid face.

He was quiet for a long time before he spoke, and when he did, his voice came out low.

"Master... are you sure you're alright?"

Miyuki only smiled. She stepped forward and lifted a hand, brushing it lightly across his cheek, her voice gentle enough to soften stone.

"The road ahead is yours to walk alone. But there is one thing you must remember: if you ever find yourself truly cornered, turn around. I will always be standing at your back."

Hikaru looked at her, and something inside him went very quiet.

He nodded, and put real weight behind it.

"I know. And I will always be at yours."

Miyuki laughed softly and patted the top of his head.

"All right. Go and get ready. When you come back after finishing this commission, I will throw you a proper coming-of-age banquet."

Hikaru said "Yes, Master," turned, and headed back inside.

He did not see what happened after.

The moment his back disappeared around the corner of the corridor, Miyuki's body shuddered. She took two steps back, raised a hand to cover her mouth, and coughed in quick, sharp bursts.

A line of dark blood seeped slowly through the white of her fingers.

A cold female voice broke the stillness of the courtyard.

"Sacrificing your own Fate for a boy... was it worth it?"

Miyuki raised her head, completely unsurprised.

From within the shadow of the trees, a woman in deep violet robes had appeared at some point unannounced. Her presence was as sharp as a blade's edge, her features beautiful and full of poorly concealed displeasure.

It was Miyako.

Miyuki wiped the trace of blood from the corner of her mouth and smiled lightly.

"Of course it was."

Miyako's jaw tightened. She raised one hand with a sharp motion.

The three paper figures Hikaru had not chosen lit up at once, their characters blazing with layered light, the colors ancient and luminous and faintly sacred.

"Five-Colored Providence. All three of them. Five-Colored Providence." She stared at Miyuki. "Tell me, what kind of monster are you trying to raise?"

Miyuki only smiled, looking perfectly at ease, as though it had not been her own mouth the blood came from moments ago.

"My student was already exceptional. I simply gave his fate a small... lift."

"A small lift?" Miyako's expression twisted with something between fury and disbelief. "Every person at their coming-of-age rite receives one. You had him keep three. And then you obscured [Wealth Fate], which is the same as forcing a rewrite of destiny. That is no different from throwing half your remaining life away for him."

Miyuki leaned back into the rocking chair and rested her head against the soft pillow embroidered with peach blossoms, her tone perfectly unhurried.

"He made this pillow for me."

Miyako choked on whatever she had been about to say.

After a long silence, she produced one short curse under her breath. Then she gave a cold sound and flung a small porcelain vial toward Miyuki.

Miyuki raised her hand and caught it, blinking once.

"A Yin-Yang Pill?"

Miyako turned her face away.

"Don't die before I get the chance to surpass you."

The words left her mouth, and her figure vanished.

Miyuki's gaze followed the direction Hikaru had gone, her expression softer than anything the light that afternoon deserved.

She murmured, barely above a breath:

"I won't die. If I did... who would look after him?"

At that same moment, in his room, Hikaru was going through his pack: ritual implements, talismans, cinnabar, and the balance showing on the cracked and web-splintered screen of his phone.

He exhaled.

"Barely enough left for the train."

But then he thought of Hashira. Of the Wraith that had stared directly at him in the middle of the day. Of the wound in Miyuki's soul that grew a little heavier with each passing season.

His eyes cooled, slowly and quietly.

Once this commission was done, he would have money to buy medicine.

And once this commission was done, he could take the initiative against whatever had already set its sights on him.

Hikaru drew in a long breath and called up his status panel through the System.

-----

[Name: Mikage Hikaru]

[Age: 20]

[Rank: Senior Onmyoji, Stage 8]

[Advancement Requirement: 60,000 Merit Points]

[Skills: Talisman Craft (Intermediate); Barrier Seal (Intermediate); Paper Figure (Intermediate)]

[Fates: Romance (Five-Colored Providence); Longevity (Five-Colored Providence); Talent (Five-Colored Providence); Yin-Yang (Heaven's Chosen)]

[Current Merit Points: 41,000]

-----

Hikaru rubbed his jaw and muttered to himself.

"Before, I only had the Yin-Yang Fate. Now I have three more on top of it."

Right. The Yin-Yang Fate had come with his new-arrival gift package when he first arrived in this world. The other three were what he had just received after Miyuki performed the Onmyoji coming-of-age rite on his behalf.

He frowned slightly. He had no idea how high the rank the System referred to actually went, but he suspected the ceiling was not close.

In his mind, a proper power scale ought to sound like something: King, Emperor, Sovereign Lord... something with weight. And "Five-Colored Providence"? The System had not explained it.

'Probably above Five-Colored there's Six-Colored, Seven-Colored, maybe even Ten-Colored. In which case, my Fates aren't actually that rare.'

Hikaru decided not to dwell on it. Even if his Fates were modest, he still had the System. Reaching the highest rank was only a matter of time and work.

What mattered right now was advancing.

The Onmyoji ranks were divided into five major tiers: Onmyoji, Senior Onmyoji, Onmyoji Master, Grand Onmyoji, and Onmyoji Sage. Each tier was further split into ten stages.

He was currently at Senior Onmyoji, Stage 8. One more push and he would reach Onmyoji Master.

After one last pass over the changes to his Fates and Merit Point balance, he closed the panel and shouldered his pack.

He stepped out the door into the last light of afternoon, which lay long and golden across the old wooden steps of the shrine.

And inside his chest, a cold and quiet premonition had already begun to take shape.

'Tonight is not going to be peaceful.'