The Crossroads

Something… something was happening.

On any other day he would have heckled Eodugi on the spot—so what exactly is this something?—but unfortunately Bihyung's own impression was identical, and so he couldn't.

And with good reason. A moment ago they had been sitting quietly on a bed in the infirmary. The next, they were standing in the academy's indoor training hall.

"As fellow members of the Baekgwi, neither of you is to put the other's life in true peril. Do you understand?"

For the record, Dueogsi stood at the center of the hall, playing referee. He aimed those words at Lilith in particular, which Bihyung supposed was reason enough to relax. A little. He turned to Senior Eunha, seated at his side.

"Are you sure this is all right?"

"Hm? Oh—Lilith said she'd pull her punches, so it should be fine, but…"

"No. That's not what I meant."

He meant: was it all right for her to step out of Eunha and fight like that?

At the question Eunha let out a soft ah and nodded.

"What she's using came out by borrowing my power. You could say I'm the cell tower, and Lilith's the phone?"

In that sense, the limit of the power Lilith could wield right now was only as high as the Rank Eunha herself had reached. The same held for the quantity of energy. Even so, Lilith was a yokai who had forged a myth. No—a Demon King. The presence of one who bore a Lore stretching back into the remote past was crushing even at the same Rank, and she could seize the advantage against those who had climbed higher still.

Mina.

While Bihyung watched her with open worry, Senior Eunha asked, "That junior's weighing on you, I see?"

"…It'd be a lie to say she isn't."

"Hehe. Worried about your lover?"

The question came in so cleanly that the words jammed in his throat. Lilith was the same way. Were their personalities alike? Why were the two of them so good at striking a person speechless?

"…She's not my lover."

At his denial, Eunha smiled, bright and easy. "But you heard that child's heart too, didn't you, junior?"

"That was…"

Bihyung closed his mouth again.

It was true. The Mina he had seen in the sickroom had been steeped in an affection far too deep to pass off as an ordinary friend. He wasn't fool enough to miss it.

But.

Not yet… I still don't know.

Did his heart pound? It did. Was she attractive to him, as a woman? She was. Taking everything else together, he might already think of Mina as more than a simple friend.

Only—

My situation.

He was someone who had fallen here from another world, summoned by people who had called him with a purpose. He did not know what they wanted, but if it was something even the divinities of the Celestial Realm would desire, it would not be easy. Because he was the one who had to carry that out, he could neither lay his heart bare on a whim nor move lightly. All the more so when this world had yet to strike him as truly real.

A world he had known as a game. A place that, once it became reality, had drawn a little closer. Bihyung stood on that awkward border.

With a heart like this, is it all right to step toward the people who like me?

As a friend, yes. A lover was another matter entirely.

While he turned those thoughts over, Eunha—having heard his answer—smiled with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bright ease.

"So you're saying she isn't your lover yet? Then… that means there's still a chance for this senior, doesn't it?"

"……!"

"Hehe. There. That stiff face finally loosened."

Watching her laugh so playfully, Bihyung only grew more unsettled.

And around then, the spar began.

"Haap!"

With Mina's shout, a spell bloomed in her grip. The most basic spell of the 1st Rank. Among the Five Elements, the Fire Bullet of Fire.

Boom!

Wrought from refined spiritual power, the spell shot out like a bolt and struck the target called Lilith. Or so he thought it had.

"Fufu. For a basic spell, the power is rather high. A child of exceptional talent."

Parting the smoke and dust the Fire Bullet had raised, Lilith walked out without a scratch on her. Click—click. The heels peculiar to her struck the floor of the hall, and the spirit rolling off them was nothing short of formidable. The moment Mina heard it, her own spirit seemed to shrink.

"Oh? To endure even a little of this lady's presence. That is not a thing one can do by achievement alone. Surely you, too, have inherited a splendid bloodline."

"…Shut up."

"How sharp-tongued. And yet… that, too, is a delicacy."

Lilith spread both arms wide and declared it to Mina's face.

In other words: no matter how you thrash, you cannot harm me. An arrogant declaration, plain and simple.

…….

Grit—!

Mina's teeth locked hard enough to crack.

"Then let's see you block this, too."

The instant the words left her, her form began to change. Fox ears sprouted atop her golden hair, and at her waist three tails unfurled. Bihyung's eyes flew wide.

Three tails? She's reached 3rd Rank?

Until a moment ago her strength had felt like roughly 2nd Rank. But the instant the three tails appeared, she put out an aura befitting 3rd Rank, as if this had been her true level all along. He realized she had been suppressing her power. Hiding it.

…Before she ever reached the sickroom, she caught some suspicious presence and clamped down on her strength at once.

So that it might become a hidden move at the decisive moment. And now, with everything she had held back flowing free, this could be called her full strength.

"Oh?"

Lilith's eyes curved in a smile at the three tails blooming along Mina's back. "Now that I look properly, you are of the demon-fox clan."

She was one who had forged a Lore of desire. There was no world in which she would fail to know the gumiho, of a kindred line.

"Different again from we succubi, who seek vital essence through carnal lust—beings who gather human livers to replenish their yang, were they not?"

Through that path, it was said, one who came to bear nine tails could forge a fox bead capable of awakening the truth of all ages. And yet the young fox before her eyes—

She already has a fox bead. Not yet mature, but she has forged one.

Then what in the world had happened when this young fox forged her bead? What she did not know became curiosity, and curiosity soon gave rise to the desire to seek. The eyes of Lilith, myth of desire, glittered.

Whether Mina knew it or not, she quietly closed her eyes and gathered her focus on the yokai power within her.

Vmmm!

As if answering the power surging through her body, the fox bead trembled, fine as a plucked string. That tremor became a melody, then a wave, laying a single thread of change through yokai power that raged like a tide.

Kwaaaaa!

The current that had been flowing with quiet dignity swelled as fierce as a river bursting its banks. At the same time, the yokai arts she wielded grew stronger.

"Demon Fox Art."

Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Void. All five of the Five Greats were poured into the art, and mist began to spread around her.

Kugugung!

That was the beginning. What had been a training hall shifted by degrees, and shaded greenery unfurled all around.

This is…

Bihyung had seen it before. No—more precisely, it was not this scenery he had seen, but this situation.

The space Mina's ancestor showed, back then.

Illusion art. That yokai art, which bewitched others, toyed with the senses, and made light of phenomena themselves, had been unleashed.

When?

He was stunned. What kind of effort did a person have to pour out in a single month for something like this to be possible? But the one more shocked than Bihyung ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was the referee, Dueogsi.

"Great Vessel Yokai Ascension! You've mastered that already!?"

Just as one who held a primary affinity in every one of the Five Elements was said to have achieved Five Energies Returning to the Origin, Great Vessel Yokai Ascension could be reached only by forging an affinity with all of the Five Greats. It was what Dueogsi had spoken of before—a new path that had opened before Mina. And she had cleared it in the short span of a single month.

Bihyung could only stare, dumbfounded.

…Does she grow just by breathing?

Was this what happened when you had two or more bloodline traits tied to talent? He'd thought that was the peak. It wasn't. Mina Coin had punched through the ceiling and gone sailing into space.

Grrrr…!

A beast's cry rolled from the mouth of a mountain wrapped in fog. The instant he heard it, Bihyung turned his head, and a fox came walking out through the mist.

No. Not one.

The single fox became two, then four. Splitting, multiplying, the foxes had become an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠enormous mountain before he knew it. From the summit of that mountain of foxes, Mina looked down at Lilith with a low, heavy gaze.

"Demon Fox Procession."

With that short command, the demon foxes born of the illusion each took up an attribute of the Five Greats and came flying in—a rapid fire of yokai arts, hundreds strong.

Against Lilith, it did not land.

"Fufu."

She merely lifted a hand, light as anything, and a crimson mist began to unfurl around her. It wrapped her like a length of cloth and, at the same time, stopped what came on like a great shield. Watching, the crease between Mina's brows deepened.

She's holding back.

Perhaps an obvious result. From the first moment they faced each other, she had sensed that her own presence could never reach the yokai called Lilith.

Even so—

…….

Mina clenched her teeth. It wasn't that she wanted to show Bihyung she was better than that woman. She had no wish to become someone who blocked his path out of that kind of jealousy. Even so, there was only one reason the will to win blazed in her chest. That woman had hurt Bihyung.

And still that brazen attitude. It pisses me off.

But Lilith, too, was someone she would have to live beside, shoulder to shoulder, as fellow Baekgwi. She could not carry this feeling forever. All the more because she had yet to see Lilith mount anything resembling a real attack. She was not dull enough to miss what that meant.

She's doing this so I'll work out the knot inside me.

Then, just as she wished.

Mina drew Shinsuseon and closed her hand around it. A single attack. Through it, she meant to spend every feeling she had.

Yokai arts are cast, at their root, through yin energy. Spells are the opposite.

Then what if she used both at once? It was a notion that could only come from someone who did not know the principles of the world—and, at the same time, an inspiration that had risen in a genius without peer.

If I try—kh!

But the instant she attempted it, she understood why it could not be done. Yokai power and spiritual power met, fought savagely, and bit into each other. The energies would not become one.

…Is there no way?

If it was possible, one huge blow. She wanted an attack that could pierce the defense Lilith had spread ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and actually reach her.

I have to. If I'm going to stay at Bihyung's side.

She wanted to stand beside him. To walk with him always. And at the end of that road, to be someone with whom he could help and be helped. That single-minded wish planted lightning in her mind.

…Ah!

Crackle!

As if a current had leapt, realization settled behind her eyes.

Why was I trying to do it inside my body? All I have to do is set the ratio on the outside and let them collide.

For Bihyung, who possessed the Yin-Yang Incarnation, it was a method he had no need to use—one he would never choose, since it only wasted energy. But for Mina, an ordinary half-yokai, it became the first thread of enlightenment.

Fwoosh!

The instant she snapped Shinsuseon wide, the Fire of the Five Greats leapt up as if clinging to the fan's ribs. And in the direction of her gaze, the fire of the Five Elements rose.

"Haap!"

She swung Shinsuseon hard.

Flutter!

The yokai flame clinging to the ribs shot forward and met the fire of the Five Elements once more.

Kugugugung!

As if recoiling from each other, they raised a violent roar. Even so, the flame—weighted just a little more toward yokai art—broke through the Five Elements, swallowed even that fierce recoil, and was born again as a still greater fire. For an instant, her flames burned purple.

"Hah?"

A hollow little laugh escaped Lilith as she watched. "From that child, a possibility like this…"

The rest could not be heard.

KWAGWAGWANG!!

A savage blast filled the training hall.

"…What."

Bihyung, watching, could only be dumbfounded.

"That's what a genius looks like? In that instant she collides yin and yang and builds herself a foothold to grow?"

In truth, a message like this had risen before his eyes.

Merely climbing to 3rd Rank in the space of a month was already enough to astonish. Now she was surpassing even that, about to set a foot in 4th Rank. And somewhere, a certain someone who had only climbed this far on a heaven-sent opportunity and racial privilege was left wondering whether he was even allowed to feel sorry for himself.

Good grief.

Bihyung was swallowing the sigh when—

Ding!

The messages were not finished.

Hm?

Qualification? What qualification?