Chapter 64: A Fatal Mistake

The story goes back to a few minutes earlier.

***

By the time You arrived at the train’s connecting vestibule, the Shinkansen had just passed through a tunnel. The signal bars on his phone jumped a few times before stabilizing, and he pressed the answer button.

“Hello—”

“You, how was Hakone? Did you get along well with Chihaya and the others? Did your spiritual power sensing go smoothly? How’s your Curse Art training coming along?”

Masako’s voice came through the receiver with that motherly, deliberately casual cheerfulness. Before You could answer, she kept going, firing off a barrage of questions like a machine gun.

You opened his mouth, ready to answer each one in turn.

Then his brain suddenly went buzz.

No wait. He’d forgotten something very important.

They’d decided to head back to Tokyo on a whim without asking Mom for permission beforehand. The group had just checked out of the hotel, bought tickets, and boarded the train. That alone wasn’t a big deal—like Mai said, what difference did it make where they hung out? If they wanted to come back, they just came back. But the real problem was—Mom had said that learning Curse Art must not be revealed to Dad. That was the bottom line, and he should have known it.

He looked down at his hands.

The spiritual power was right there, resting quietly inside him. He’d trained for five straight days in Hakone, from “Purification” to the root parts of “Healing,” running his spiritual power through countless repetitions. It was no longer that faint, barely-there state from when he’d first sensed it. It was now a real, stable presence within his body.

And he was currently sitting on a Shinkansen bound for Tokyo, about to arrive home.

The moment he got off the train and saw Dad—Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto himself—could his spiritual power possibly be hidden?

You’s back went cold. He could feel sweat trickling down the back of his neck, sliding all the way down, dampening a small patch of his T-shirt. He didn’t know what Dad would do if he discovered You had spiritual power. But no matter what, he couldn’t let Dad sense it while he was completely unprepared.

He obviously couldn’t count on Dad turning a blind eye to the blatant spiritual power radiating from him—there was no way Dad wouldn’t notice. He had to find some way to cover it up before this could be smoothed over.

But the biggest problem right now was this: he’d never learned any technique to conceal his own spiritual power fluctuations.

Chihaya had never brought it up, and he’d never asked. At the time, he’d subconsciously figured there was still plenty of time in Hakone to learn new Curse Arts. But yesterday’s phone call had made all of them completely forget that critical detail.

You felt like a player in a game who’d charged straight from the newbie village to the final boss’s lair.

“What’s wrong, You? Why did you suddenly go quiet?”

Masako’s voice came through the receiver, tinged with confusion. Several seconds had passed without him making a sound. In her memory, You wasn’t the type to hem and haw like this.

You took a deep breath.

“Mom… I think I messed up.”

There was a brief silence on the other end.

Then Masako’s tone shifted—from that light, motherly teasing to an uncommon seriousness.

“What exactly happened? Tell me slowly.”

You took another deep breath and quickly reported everything from the past few days. From sensing his spiritual power to worshiping himself as a god, to learning “Purification,” to Incantationless Casting, and then starting to practice “Healing”… He said it all in one breath.

When he got to the end, he paused, his voice dropping.

“And then… we decided yesterday to head back to Tokyo on a whim. Bought tickets. Already on the train now. We’ll probably… arrive in about an hour.”

He knew full well that hiding anything at this point was pointless. Mom was his ally.

Masako listened, silent for a few seconds.

Then she let out a sigh. You could feel her shaking her head through the phone.

“You child… honestly.”

Her tone carried that helpless, scolding quality a mother has for her son, and her voice rose slightly.

“How could you not tell me about something this big? You just decided to come back halfway through?”

She paused.

“This is going to be troublesome. There are indeed techniques to conceal spiritual power fluctuations, but there’s no time for you to learn one now. No matter how simple the technique, you can’t master it in an hour.”

You’s heart sank.

“Then what do we do?”

Masako thought for a moment.

“Alright—after you get off the train, don’t come home. Find a hotel and stay for a few days. Practice the concealment technique until you’ve got it, then come back. If you managed to learn Purification in just five days, this technique shouldn’t take you much longer.”

She paused, and a hint of approval crept into her voice.

“Still, I have to say, coming up with the idea of worshiping yourself as a god was quite unexpected. Looking back now, that was a lapse on my part—otherwise, that spiritual power sensing stage would have exposed you right in front of your father.”

By the end, Masako’s voice carried a hint of lingering fear as well.

You let out a breath. Mom was right—he was overthinking it. Get a hotel for a few days, practice the technique, and it’d be fine. But then again, knowing Chihaya’s personality, she’d definitely blame herself for this. With that in mind, a different thought crossed his mind.

“Mom, I want to ask you something.”

“What?”

“When it comes to concealing spiritual power fluctuations, do Onmyoji have a way to do it?”

There was a second of silence on the line.

“Onmyoji?”

Masako’s tone was clearly surprised.

“Why are you asking about that? If it’s them, then yes, they do. Onmyoji talismans have some quite clever uses, and they’re very convenient.”

“Just… asking out of curiosity.”

You’s voice sounded a bit weak.

Masako didn’t press further.

“Well, that has nothing to do with your situation, does it? Unless you met an Onmyoji in Hakone or something? Ever since the Onmyoryo was abolished in the Meiji Era, Onmyoji have become extremely rare. Most of the Legacy has been severed. Even descendants of famous houses don’t necessarily know any real techniques.”

You mentally retorted: if you could call it “meeting,” it was more like fate. Though he’d only seen her twice, didn’t even know her name, and she didn’t exactly seem fond of him.

But talismans—that word caught his attention.

He started to get excited.

This might be an opportunity. That sounded way more impressive than a support-type Curse Art. If he could get her help, maybe he’d have a chance to learn it. Of course, first he’d have to get her to actually acknowledge his existence.

“You? You’ve gone quiet again.”

Masako’s voice came through the receiver with a hint of amusement.

“You’re cooking up some scheme again, aren’t you?”

You let out a guilty “Uh.”

“No no—”

“Don’t try to fool me. Every time you wanted to sneak snacks as a kid, you used that exact tone.”

You shut up.

Masako let out a soft laugh.

“Fine, whatever. I trust that you know what you’re doing. But—”

She paused, her voice taking on a playful edge.

“If you’d like to bring that young Onmyoji lady to meet your mother, that would be even better.”

You nearly threw his phone across the car.

“You—”

This was insane. He hadn’t said anything—how did Mom know the Onmyoji was a woman? He’d only asked whether Onmyoji had a method. And Mom just knew? What kind of Miko was she? She was a fortune-teller!

“How… how do you know it’s a woman?”

The moment those words left his mouth, Masako’s light, cheerful laughter came through the receiver. Her tone grew playful, carrying a triumphant “just as I thought” satisfaction.

“Oh my my, I just made a wild guess. I didn’t expect—it really is a girl.”

Her tone shifted from soft laughter to pure, unguarded smugness.

“Impressive, You.”

You’s temples started to throb.

“Then it’s settled. Bring her to meet me.”

“Wait—”

“Beep. Beep. Beep.”

She hung up.

You stood there holding his phone in the train’s vestibule, listening to the dial tone, feeling completely done with the world.

Mom had actually tricked him.

So annoying.

And she’d hung up on him too.

The girl didn’t even want to acknowledge his existence, and Mom wanted him to bring her home to meet her?—You’re giving your son way too much credit.

***

Meanwhile, in Tokyo.

In the living room of the Tsukimiya family residence, Zhenyue sat on the sofa, flipping through a book. Sunlight streamed through the window, casting a warm glow across his profile. His expression was calm, just as it always was.

Masako hung up the phone and walked back into the living room from the hallway, the smile on her face impossible to suppress.

Zhenyue looked up and glanced at her.

“Was a simple phone call to You really worth smiling that much about?”

She sat down beside him, sinking into the sofa, and said playfully.

“Oh Omikami-sama, that’s a woman’s secret.”

Zhenyue shook his head and went back to reading.