“According to reports from field journalists, the great fire caused by the oni Ibaraki-Douji in Shinjuku has been effectively brought under control…”
“During this extraordinary period, Tokyo citizens are advised to avoid going out late at night.
If you encounter any abnormal event, please immediately contact the Metropolitan Police Department’s emergency hotline.”
“Communication with government officials is still ongoing.
The latest casualty statistics are currently being compiled.
Please stay tuned for further updates.”
Tokyo, Bunkyo Ward.
Inside the apartment Kyoko Tachibana was renting, the late-night news broadcast filled the living room with tense voices and flickering light.
Kyoko sat on the sofa, staring at the television.
In her hand was a cucumber she had bitten halfway through.
A few seconds later, she realized she had completely lost her appetite.
“That damn bald editor!”
She threw the cucumber onto the coffee table with a sharp thud.
“He kept telling me not to publish the report about an oni appearing in the modern world.
And now look at this!
It’s being broadcast live!”
Her voice was full of anger, frustration, and unconcealed resentment.
“My scoop!
My world-shaking scoop turned into old news in one day!”
Kyoko’s chest rose and fell with anger.
Just yesterday, she had personally witnessed the appearance of the evil oni known as Ibaraki-Douji in Bunkyo Ward.
She had even briefly come into contact with the Metropolitan Police Department’s so-called Supernatural Countermeasures Division.
From that moment, Kyoko had known.
This was not ordinary news.
This was the kind of story that would shake Japan.
No.
Perhaps it would shake the entire world.
A living oni from legend had appeared in modern society.
A monster that should have belonged to old scrolls, shrine records, folktales, and dusty academic papers had walked under the sun, slaughtered armed police, and declared the return of Mystery before a camera.
What kind of impact would that have?
How could any journalist with a pulse not understand the value of such a report?
Kyoko had rushed back to the newspaper office immediately.
She had stayed up all night writing the article, recording everything she had seen and heard, then adding her own analysis and speculation.
She had even taken a huge risk and contacted several old scholars through her own channels, people with some reputation in folklore and supernatural studies, extracting background on the oni of Mount Ooe and the legends surrounding Ibaraki-Douji.
She had thought that with this exclusive report, she could not only win this year’s journalism award, but also push the Daily Times’ sales to an entirely new level.
And the result?
That balding, conservative editor, who only knew how to read the expressions of the higher-ups, had rejected her report on the grounds of “insufficient evidence” and “unclear facts.”
He had even said something ridiculous like, “Publishing this kind of unverified information may cause social panic and affect stability.
We must prioritize the overall situation.”
Prioritize the overall situation, my foot.
Now look.
Only one day later, Ibaraki-Douji had turned Shinjuku’s Kabukicho upside down and appeared on nationwide live television.
At this point, who could cover it up?
Who still dared to call it an urban rumor?
Her exclusive report had been forcibly delayed into secondhand news.
How could she not be furious?
“The legendary oni announced her identity in public like this.
Now, even if someone wants to bury it, they can’t.”
Kyoko took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.
She picked up the remote and lowered the television volume.
But even with the sound reduced, the image on the screen remained impossible to ignore.
A building in Kabukicho had been burned down to its skeleton.
Dark-red flames clung to the structure like something alive.
And above the burning building, two blurry figures floated in the air.
One small.
One slender.
One oni.
One shrine maiden.
Anger was anger, but Kyoko Tachibana was still a professional journalist.
More than that, she was a person with an almost obsessive pursuit of the truth.
After cursing her bald editor enough to release some pressure, her attention quickly returned to the protagonist of this incident.
Ibaraki-Douji.
Even in Japanese history and folklore, that was a terrifying name.
It symbolized cruelty, violence, and power.
The Mount Ooe oni clan to which she belonged had once brought disaster to Kyoto, igniting a bloody conflict between humans and oni and leaving behind countless legends soaked in fear.
And now, that evil oni, once confined to myth, had truly reappeared in the world.
“Ibaraki-Douji has returned…
and now she has openly settled in a shrine, accepting offerings from a shrine maiden and priest?”
Kyoko muttered to herself, her brows tightening.
The television occasionally showed images taken from social media.
Among them was one picture that had been captured from a shaky phone recording.
Ibaraki-Douji stood side by side with a young shrine maiden.
The shrine maiden looked no older than a high school student.
Yet she stood so close to the evil oni and remained unharmed even after Ibaraki-Douji caused such large-scale destruction.
That alone was deeply suspicious.
“What exactly is she trying to do?”
Kyoko rubbed her temples.
“Using Shihou Shrine as a base to revive the Mount Ooe oni clan?”
This was no longer ordinary social news.
It involved the fundamental contradiction between humanity and Mystery.
It involved history.
It involved the future.
If Ibaraki-Douji truly intended to revive the Mount Ooe oni clan, then this would become an unprecedented disaster for Japanese society.
“…This Shinjuku fire is probably only a prelude to attacking Kyoto again.”
On the screen, the casualty count for the Shinjuku Great Fire continued to climb past one hundred.
Kyoko felt a chill crawl up her spine.
But what worried her most was not the news.
It was the clock on the wall.
The hands had already reached eleven at night.
“The biggest problem is…
why hasn’t that child Kyo come home yet?”
Normally, Tachibana Hibiki would already be home at this hour.
Today, he had only sent her a message after school saying that he had an appointment with a classmate and would return late.
After that, his phone could not be reached.
He had not replied to LINE either.
That made Kyoko feel as if a heavy stone were hanging from her heart.
“Didn’t I tell him to come home right after school and not wander around outside?”
Kyoko paced anxiously through the living room.
“If something happens to him, Nadeshiko will definitely kill me.”
The more she thought, the worse her imagination became.
Then, just as her thoughts were spiraling out of control, the sound of a key turning in the apartment door suddenly came from the entrance.
Click.
In the quiet night, that sound was shockingly clear.
Kyoko’s head snapped toward the door.
Her heartbeat accelerated at once.
“I’m home.”
The door opened.
“Sorry.
The trains were suspended, and the network signal was affected too.”
Before his aunt could begin questioning him, Hibiki Tachibana had already given his explanation while changing into indoor slippers at the entrance.
He placed his schoolbag on the entryway cabinet with movements so natural they seemed almost boring.
As if he had only experienced an ordinary late return.
He knew Aunt Kyoko must have been worried half to death.
That was why he threw out the most reasonable explanation first, leaving her less room to interrogate him.
Kyoko had already opened her mouth, ready to scold him.
But when she saw Hibiki’s slightly tired yet calm face, the words became stuck in her throat.
“Aunt, you saw the report about the Shinjuku fire, right?”
Hibiki changed his shoes and walked into the living room.
He looked up at the television.
On the screen, the news was still replaying footage of the building burned down by hellish karmic fire.
The blurry shadow floating in the air remained the focus of the broadcast.
Hibiki’s face showed just the right amount of surprise and curiosity.
Like an ordinary high school student who had only just learned about the matter.
“I didn’t expect the legendary oni to actually exist.
And it even formed a contract with a high school girl.”
His tone carried a suitable amount of emotion, as if he were discussing a strange incident that had nothing to do with him.
“Mizuki Mirei…
I was still with her this afternoon.”
Hibiki added it casually.
At the same time, his eyes swept over Kyoko’s reaction without leaving a trace.
“That shrine maiden with Ibaraki-Douji is your classmate?”
The moment Kyoko heard Mizuki Mirei’s name, her eyes widened.
She rushed toward Hibiki almost by reflex, pressed both hands firmly on his shoulders, and fired questions at him like a machine gun.
“Are you sure?
The girl standing beside the evil oni?
The one people are calling the Oni Miko?”
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Kyoko’s mind.
That Oni Miko, Mizuki Mirei, was actually Hibiki’s classmate?
Why had she approached Kyo?
Did she have any ill intent?
“Kyo!
Are you okay?
Do you feel strange anywhere?
Were you cursed?
Did anything touch you?”
Kyoko looked Hibiki up and down nervously, afraid that he might have been contaminated by something ominous.
She knew very well how dangerous supernatural incidents were.
Especially incidents involving evil spirits.
Ordinary people dragged into such things could lose their lives without even understanding why.
“Aunt Kyoko, curses are a bit much…”
Hibiki rolled his eyes with practiced helplessness and leaned back slightly, trying to free himself from her grip.
“Actually, the Mizuki family and our family can barely be considered old acquaintances.”
He spoke in a relaxed tone, as if mentioning something completely ordinary.
“Don’t you remember Shihou Shrine?”
Hibiki reminded her.
“Although it has declined in recent years, it used to be rather well known, right?”
Hibiki spoke nonsense without changing his expression or heartbeat.
Of course, it was not entirely nonsense.
He was not lying.
He was merely choosing which truths to say.
Was he supposed to tell Aunt Kyoko that the evil oni who had just created the Shinjuku Great Fire with Mizuki Mirei and forced the Metropolitan Police Department to retreat was actually him in disguise?
“Is…
is that so?”
Hearing the words “Mizuki family” and “Shihou Shrine,” Kyoko scratched her cheek, a little embarrassed.
Something in her memory had indeed been stirred.
“Now that you mention it, I think I do have an impression.”
She really did remember such a Shinto family.
But after breaking away from the Tachibana family, she had long since pushed that sort of family-network information to the back of her mind.
“But Kyo, are you sure you’re fine?”
Kyoko’s worry had not completely faded.
“That is a shrine maiden serving an evil oni.”
Her gaze still carried a trace of scrutiny.
In the supernatural world, many things were not as simple as they appeared on the surface.
“Don’t worry.
My relationship with her is fine.”
Hibiki rolled his eyes again, his tone carrying a hint of dissatisfaction at Kyoko’s overreaction.
“She’s not some witch who curses everyone around her for no reason.”
He waved a hand.
“Let’s not talk too much.
Aunt Kyoko, I still have to finish my draft.”
As he walked toward his room, he added with complete seriousness, “Even if an oni appears in the world, even if the apocalypse arrives tomorrow, the deadline won’t move.”
The bedroom door closed with a bang.
Kyoko stood in the living room and sighed, frowning.
“This child…”
Inside the room, with Aunt Kyoko’s worried gaze shut outside the door, Hibiki Tachibana’s expression changed.
A smile slowly appeared on his face.
The smile of someone whose plan had succeeded.
“After being busy for an entire day, it’s finally time to harvest.”
After this series of operations, he had finally broken the blockade placed by Japan’s upper echelons around the news of the oni’s appearance.
From the moment Ibaraki-Douji first appeared and made contact with modern society, the government departments and Metropolitan Police divisions controlling information about Mystery had been trying to suppress the truth.
They did not want ordinary people to know that supernatural power existed.
They wanted social stability.
They wanted to keep Mystery under their own control.
But Hibiki did not want that.
His system needed Human Order Foundation.
And the source of Human Order Foundation was humanity’s recognition, fear, awe, and belief toward Mystery.
Only by allowing Mystery to truly return to the world, only by making ordinary people believe in and fear supernatural power, could he obtain a steady stream of energy.
The connection between Mizuki Mirei and Ibaraki-Douji had become the wedge he used to break that blockade.
A sharp wedge.
It made the existence of the Mount Ooe oni clan more convincing.
No longer a vague legend.
No longer an isolated monster sighting that could be sealed behind classified documents.
Ibaraki-Douji had appeared alive before the public eye and had even established a clear connection with a member of human society.
A shrine maiden.
This would undoubtedly strike the worldview of ordinary people with enormous force.
It would make them begin to reexamine the world they lived in.
“Classmate Mizuki, I really have to thank you this time.”
Hibiki picked up the shimmering Heroic Spirit card.
On the card was Ibaraki-Douji’s image.
An innocent face.
A cruel smile.
The corners of Hibiki’s lips curled upward.
He knew Mizuki Mirei was probably still in tremendous shock and confusion.
But no matter what, she had already taken the most critical step.
And his gains today were not small.
First, he had used the [Awakening] Mystic Code to open his Magic Circuits.
The process had been smoother than expected, almost as if it were meant to happen.
After that, he transformed into Ibaraki-Douji and found Shihou Shrine.
Using the opportunity created by the macarons he had given Mizuki, he successfully formed a contract with her.
Hibiki silently complained in his heart.
This protagonist is truly clever.
He even eats the desserts he gives himself.
Of course, he knew those macarons had been bought by him.
But the Ibaraki-Douji he played had eaten them so happily.
In that sense, it counted as making full use of resources.
Finally, he had created the Shinjuku Great Fire, allowing the name and terror of the Mount Ooe oni clan to resound across Japan once again.
[System Prompt: Detected that the mysterious event related to “Shinjuku Great Fire” is continuing to ferment…]
[Observed a significant increase in human society’s recognition of “Mystery.”]
[Human Order Foundation +30]
[Human Order Foundation +5]
[Human Order Foundation +5]
The crisp system prompts rang in Hibiki’s ears one after another.
To him, they were the most beautiful music in the world.
“It was worth all that trouble.”
Sitting in front of his computer desk, Hibiki stretched.
His joints gave a few soft cracks.
“The rate of Human Order Foundation gain has increased by more than five times.”
He knew very well that the Shinjuku Great Fire had done more than raise Ibaraki-Douji’s reputation to an unprecedented height.
It had completely broken the official monopoly on supernatural intelligence.
From now on, all of Japanese society, perhaps even the entire world, would be forced to face the existence of Mystery.
His combination of moves had made the existence of the evil oni public.
It had also placed Ibaraki-Douji in Shihou Shrine, turning her from a vague legend into a tangible Oni God with a visible foothold in modern society.
No matter how much the officials wanted to suppress it, the dam had already cracked.
Hibiki could almost foresee it.
In the next few days, discussions about Ibaraki-Douji would spread wildly across the internet.
Speculation.
Analysis.
Fear.
Worship.
Doubt.
Excitement.
All of it would transform into a steady stream of Human Order Foundation and pour into his system.
“The show has only just begun.”
Hibiki leaned back in his chair and looked at the Ibaraki-Douji card in his hand.
“The Shinjuku Great Fire is only the prelude.”
…..