As mentioned earlier, Kyoto's layout followed strict planning—its districts were clearly divided into imperial palace grounds, government offices, residential areas, and commercial zones.
Kamo no Tadayuki's residence was situated precisely within the governmental quarter of Kyoto.
Ordinarily, in Kyoto's bureaucratic hierarchy, even the Head of the Onmyōryō—the highest-ranking official within the Bureau of Onmyō—held only the court rank of Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade. Meanwhile, the rank of Doctor of Divination was Junior Seventh Rank, Lower Grade, equivalent to that of an Onmyō Daion—an official responsible for night duty, attendance, and document supervision within the Bureau—whose position was Junior Seventh Rank, Upper Grade.
However, those were standards for ordinary times.
In this current age of chaos—where humans and yōkai coexisted uneasily, and the spiritual and physical realms overlapped—the status of Shinto practitioners had changed dramatically.
For instance, the renowned Great Onmyōji Abe no Seimei, serving as Head of the Onmyōryō, now held the court rank of Senior Third Rank, Upper Grade.
Institutions like the Onmyō Bureau, Shinto shrines, and Buddhist temples were no longer mere symbols of faith—they had become the pillars ensuring the very survival of the nation.
In such turbulent times, for Onmyōji, this was both the best and the worst era.
Those with genuine talent and strength could rise far beyond what their official rank would normally allow, gaining rewards and recognition beyond their station. But for those who sought only comfort and complacency, it was a time of constant peril—each day could bring death.
Thus, any Onmyōji who managed to hold a high position in this age undoubtedly possessed real ability.
And upon arriving at Kamo no Tadayuki's residence, Satsuki confirmed this firsthand.
Through her Tenseigan's vision, she saw that the entire Kamo estate was enveloped in multiple layers of barriers. Threads woven from sacred Shinto power and talismans interlaced to form powerful wards—so intricate that even a great yōkai would struggle to break through them.
And that was merely what lay in plain sight.
In the unseen layers beneath, Satsuki could sense numerous shikigami moving about, as well as the spiritual energies of tamed mountain spirits and ghosts circulating through the wards, maintaining their function.
These signs alone revealed that the Onmyōji who had crafted these barriers had reached the level of Ten Thousand Laws at One's Command—a master capable of manipulating the transformations of the Five Elements freely and harmonizing countless forms of spiritual energy without conflict.
However—judging by what followed, the master of this residence might have... questionable character.
For instance, Satsuki once again felt that familiar, unsettling sensation of being watched.
Without changing her expression, she activated the Tenseigan to trace the source of the surveillance. It didn't take long to pinpoint the watcher's location atop the roof. The instant her gaze swept casually in that direction, her eyes flashed—and a massive gravitational pull burst forth from the Tenseigan.
The man on the roof clearly hadn't anticipated this sudden shift. "Aiyaya~!" he cried, tumbling from the rooftop like a ball.
Thud~~~!
When Satsuki approached the spot where he fell, the man was sprawled flat on the ground in a starfish shape, his eyes spinning in dizzy spirals.
But his white hair, weathered face—clearly in his fifties—and the family head's ring glinting on his finger revealed his identity. It seemed that this... overly youthful-minded man was none other than the head of the Kamo family himself.
Kamo no Tadayuki, hm?
So he was the source of those repeated instances of being spied upon earlier.
No wonder he was famed for his mastery of divination. His "peeping" skills, at least, were truly advanced.
Despite his reputation, Satsuki's expression didn't change. But since this was their first meeting—and under such awkward circumstances—she decided to feign ignorance for the moment. Meanwhile, Ruri stepped forward, her tone sharp and unfriendly.
"And who might you be?"
At those words, Kamo no Tadayuki hastily flipped over and tried to stand. Unfortunately, as he moved too quickly, a painful crack echoed from his lower back.
Immediately, Satsuki watched as sweat beaded across his wrinkled forehead, his lips twitching uncontrollably in agony. His face shifted through a vivid palette of blue and white, twisted in barely contained pain.
"Old man~ if you want to scream, just scream. Even I, a shikigami, feel pain just watching you," Ruri remarked, unable to hold back a laugh at the sight of the man writhing like a cartoonish fool.
A moment later, a chorus of pitiful groans and wails filled the courtyard...
After a while, the old man finally recovered, looking completely defeated. "Ah, I'm getting old... useless now. Maybe I should just dig myself a grave and bury myself already."
He had said that half in jest, hoping the younger generation before him would console him and ease his embarrassment.
But, of course, Ruri was anything but a proper or sympathetic system.
Because, by the time Kamo no Tadayuki finished speaking, Ruri was already standing beside a freshly dug hole, a shovel slung casually over her shoulder, and gesturing politely toward it with a please, go ahead motion.
A long, awkward silence followed.
"Ahem, ahem... on second thought, I just remembered I have something to attend to at home. Yes, yes—burying myself can wait. Maybe... another time."
Satsuki, watching from the side, said nonchalantly, "Although this is the Kamo family residence, may I ask what you were doing on the roof, Elder?"
"Why, sunbathing, of course!"
Straightening his robe and smoothing his hair, Kamo no Tadayuki clasped his hands behind his back and sauntered closer, his expression one of mysterious pride—as if hiding a great secret. He muttered under his breath, "This is my home, after all. And I, a very famous Onmyōji—why, even that boy Abe no Seimei is my—"
"Onmyōji? You mean you're the Kamo family's Onmyōji?" Ruri interrupted dramatically, cutting him off at just the right moment.
Kamo no Tadayuki cleared his throat, attempting to regain his dignity. "Ahem, yes, indeed, I am—"
"Alright, alright, I get it. Just an old peeping tom who doesn't know how to act his age," Ruri said with exaggerated disdain.
"You—you! How dare you slander me like that!" Kamo no Tadayuki sputtered, pointing at her with wide eyes.
"Hmph. How's it slander when it's true? I saw you with my own eyes, using spiritual sight to peek at my master from the rooftop—and then falling and throwing out your back when you got caught."
Kamo no Tadayuki's face turned crimson with embarrassment. "I told you—it wasn't peeking! It was spiritual observation! For an Onmyōji, such a thing cannot be called voyeurism!"
"Enough, Ruri," Satsuki finally intervened, breaking her silence to give the flustered elder an out. "Don't tease Master Kamo anymore."
After all, she didn't particularly care what he had been doing moments ago.
What truly interested her was something else entirely.
"Master Kamo," Satsuki said evenly, her golden eyes glinting with quiet focus, "you seem to be quite interested in me, don't you?"
Spoken by a woman with such a striking and overtly revealing appearance, the words should have sounded flirtatious—inviting, even.
But with her serene, almost detached expression, and those golden eyes that seemed to contain the depth of an endless sea, the question instead carried a sharp and probing weight.
Kamo no Tadayuki immediately sensed the underlying test within her words. The divinatory beast shell within his body, attuned to spiritual disturbances, began to pulse with warning signals.
Coughing lightly, he hurriedly shifted the topic. "Ahem, since it was this old man who invited you both here, I should start by saying that I've already heard from Keimei about the incident at the shrine outside the city earlier this morning."
"So it was Master Kamo who summoned us," Satsuki replied politely. "But it was only a minor yōkai problem, hardly worth mentioning."
"If an Earth Spider counts as a minor yōkai…" Kamo no Tadayuki gave her a long look. "Then I fear there are few beings in Kyoto you'd consider 'great yōkai.'"
"In that case," Satsuki said evenly, pointing toward the roof he had just fallen from, "was Master Kamo's purpose in inviting me merely to express gratitude—perhaps in that particular way?"
The old man's face turned an impressive shade of green.
Tch. The master's tongue is still as venomous as ever, Ruri thought, inwardly delighted to see someone else suffering the same verbal sting she'd often endured.
"Er…" Kamo no Tadayuki, a seasoned bureaucrat, quickly found a way to recover. "This old man has spent most of his life in Heian-kyō, meeting countless shrine maidens and exorcists. Yet never have I encountered one as exceptional as you, Lady Miko. I must confess, I was overwhelmed by curiosity. Please forgive my momentary lapse—yes, forgive me."
"Master Kamo overpraises me. I'm sure it was simply a misunderstanding."
What? Ruri almost thought she'd misheard. Did my master just… give someone a way out? Did the sun rise in the west today?
But her relief was short-lived.
"Then those two previous instances of spiritual observation from within Kyoto," Satsuki continued mildly, "were also the result of your uncontrollable curiosity, I presume?"
Now that was a direct hit. Were there any bystanders present, the situation would have been mortifying beyond measure.
"Ahem, truth be told…" Kamo no Tadayuki stammered, "it's an old affliction of mine. I occasionally suffer from… sleepwalking. Hard to control, you see."
Inwardly, however, he was genuinely startled—not by embarrassment, but by realization.
Most of his earlier reaction had been performative. As a veteran bureaucrat, he knew how to navigate social discomfort. (Except for that one painful back injury—that part had been painfully real.)
What truly surprised him was that this young shrine maiden had actually detected his surveillance. His divinatory sight was a refined form of Onmyō Five Elements Vision, a high-level art that merged one's perception and spirit with the flow of nature itself.
In that state, he was no different from the wind passing through the courtyard or the water flowing by the river. Only Abe no Seimei had ever managed to see through it before.
"Perhaps your disciple didn't mention it," Satsuki said offhandedly, gesturing toward her golden eyes. "But these eyes of mine allow me to see many things invisible to others."
"Indeed, they are most remarkable divine eyes," Kamo no Tadayuki said, raising an intrigued brow. "May I ask what they are called?"
"Tenseigan," Satsuki replied without hesitation.
"Tenseigan?" he repeated softly.
The term did not sound fabricated, yet in all his years studying the Onmyō arts and secret spiritual texts, Kamo no Tadayuki had never come across such a name.
"Even so," Satsuki added quietly, "the Tenseigan has its limits. The more I see, the clearer it becomes how much I do not yet understand."
Kamo no Tadayuki finally grasped the subtle message behind her words. This extraordinary shrine maiden had come seeking answers.
"This old man has lived long and is a native of Kyoto," he said with a faint smile. "If there is anything I can do to assist Lady Miko, I will gladly oblige."
"In all of Kyoto, if we're talking about sources of information, most people would say the Intelligence Bureau of the Imperial Cabinet is the most well-informed—but that only applies to mortal affairs. When it comes to the secrets of the divine and spiritual, the only true authority lies with the Onmyōryō, or more precisely, the Department of Divination, which I oversee."
Having led them into one of his residence's inner chambers, Kamo no Tadayuki seated himself neatly upon the tatami floor. Accepting a cup of tea from a nearby shikigami, he took a sip before asking, "So then, Lady Miko, what kind of information do you wish to inquire about?"
"The most conspicuous thing in all of Kyoto right now," Satsuki began directly, "is the massive Spiral Seal. Can you tell me about its origins, Master Kamo?"
"Oh~? You're able to perceive the nodes of the Spiral Seal?" Kamo no Tadayuki's brows lifted slightly in surprise. But soon he nodded with understanding. "Ah, yes, that makes sense. With those divine eyes of yours, it would hardly be difficult."
"As for the Spiral Seal," he continued, "it was created by that boy Ashiya Dōman, Doctor of the Onmyō Division. He spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort setting it up across Kyoto—so much that his hair turned white before his thirtieth year."
At that, Kamo no Tadayuki's tone shifted. "However—regarding the purpose of that Spiral Seal, I'm afraid only Dōman himself, and perhaps Abe no Seimei, who commissioned it, know the true reason. There is no third person alive who understands its full intent."
Ashiya Dōman—his name was indeed well-known throughout Kyoto. A great Onmyōji often mentioned alongside Abe no Seimei, the leader of the Onmyōji. The Dōman family had passed down its techniques for generations, famed for their mastery of shikigami and their role as Kyoto's hidden guardians.
Satsuki recalled that she had already crossed paths with one of their descendants—the young Onmyōji Hanakaiin Kaede, who bore traces of that bloodline.
"Oh? Even the great Master Kamo, the most knowledgeable man in Kyoto regarding divine mysteries—the one who merges himself with nature to observe all things—claims ignorance on the matter?" Satsuki's tone carried faint skepticism.
"It's not that I don't know," Kamo no Tadayuki replied candidly, "but that I cannot say."
He placed his cup down and met her gaze solemnly. "You, Lady Satsuki, are also a practitioner of the divine path. You should understand that some Onmyō arts—if revealed before their formation is complete—can bring about grave consequences."
"Grave consequences?" Satsuki repeated calmly. "Then allow me to ask a question that won't cause any disastrous effects. Since you preside over the Department of Divination, you must be well-versed in the history of Shinto—and the hidden truths buried beneath it."
"Ah, now that's my area of expertise." Kamo no Tadayuki's face brightened, pride returning to his tone. "In all of Kyoto, there's no one better informed about our ancient history than this old man."
"In Shinto history," he began, "the most pivotal chapter was the ancient war between the Kunitsukami and the Amatsukami. That long and devastating conflict nearly obliterated the pantheon of the Eight Million Gods. The human world, too, was thrown into chaos—yōkai proliferated, wars broke out, and civilization collapsed, forcing humankind to retreat behind fortified walls for survival."
As he spoke, Kamo no Tadayuki's expression grew increasingly solemn. He paused, staring intently at the shrine maiden before him.
Satsuki, however, showed no sign of unease. Her tone remained calm as ever. "I wish to know," she said slowly, "what reason could drive them to such extremes—to bring about such ruin, and yet still choose to turn upon one another."
Setting her golden gaze upon him, she concluded, "Master Kamo, can you enlighten me?"