Chapter 25: Interlude: Portals and Spells

It didn't take Sōta long to discover the new faces in the Higurashi Sanctuary. Jin was more than loud enough for himself and Toya, adding Chu to the mix was just adding insult to injury. It was nice though, seeing Rinku playing with some of the other children, giggling as he used his yoyo's as toys for a pride of feline yōkai in their true forms.

It was always so interesting whenever someone new joined them, even if the questions were usually the same. Taking back his thoughts he turns to answer another well thought out question from Toya. It was clear that between the two of them Jin was the one who thought on his feet, but Toya was the one to go to for actual tactics. "In spite of the vast array of power levels and species in the Higurashi Sanctuary, no we do not have any discrimination or caste system."

He nods his head over to where one of Jaken's many kappa-spawn was purchasing clothing from a teenage storm elemental yōkai many orders of magnitude stronger than he. It was easy to see from their postures alone that Sōta's words were true, then he clarified something that only highlighted the situation more. "The merchant is Sōten-chan, one of my adopted nieces, and the kappa is the 235th son of one of Sesshōmaru-san's vassals."

Sōta grins at their flabbergasted faces, "That means that the kappa is haggling with the adopted daughter of a kami who is also the mother in law of the kappa's liege lord. And since Shiori-chan, who makes the clothing and handles all of the women while Sōten-chan deals with the men, has just walked over there, it appears that she's loosing." The group of them remain in the market for a while, Sōta answering more questions while they try to wrap their minds around this strange place where nothing they have come to expect as important seems to matter.

"Everyone here is family, the reincarnation of a family member, married to someone in the family, or has been invited by one of the Higurashi. Not every soul is reincarnated inside the sanctuary, bunches of them take the opportunity to experience the outside world every so often as human or yōkai depending on where they want to see. Often times they come back with a new addition, which is why the sanctuary is so big.", is really the only explanation he can offer.

Then, Jin asked Sōta's favorite question to answer. How do all of the yōkai handle being trapped inside the shrine with the human world just a few steps away, but unable to go due to the threat of the Spirit Detective? Sōta just grins. "Jin-san, you and Toya-san have been fighting together for a long time, so you should be able to sense each other even when you're suppressing your aura's, right?" Jin nods rapidly…"Och! Yeah me n' Toya were one a' the best pairs fer missions back in the makai." Cheered even further by the wind yōkai's enthusiasm Sōta asks him if he could perform a spell on him.

With Jin's agreement Sōta takes them to the exit of the sanctuary that leads to The Little Mountain. Sōta pulls two sutra off of the board next to the torri that delineate the exit while Jin and Toya stare at the kami who pokes his head over the side of the hill. Catching sight of Ambrosia, Sōta bows to his green haired nephew. The child kami giggles, waives back at them before turning back to watch the white deer feeding on the grass on the other side of the hill.

Sōta takes Jin's hand and wraps the sutra around each wrist, and when the last one is placed, Jin's appearance remains fundamentally the same, but all of his yōkai characteristics disappear leaving an oddly dressed red haired, blue eyed Irishman in his place.

Toya stares in surprise, and Jin jumps around making note of how much of a restriction he is under to force him into human constraints, but that he can free himself as easily as peeling off the two sutra again. Jin amuses himself by putting them back on again and taking them off and wonder out loud if he would get stronger faster if he trained with them on.

Sōta tells him that each sutra only had enough power in it to work for a week, but that constantly flexing your magic while wearing them would cause them to degrade in just a few minutes, a safety feature that Dekuyume included so that the disguise wouldn't become a deathtrap. Because if there was one thing that Dekuyume was good at, it was planning for the worst case scenario.

With a mischievous grin that would make Shippō proud of his favorite uncle he drops another bomb on them, "On a side note, there are more sutra next to the portal to the makai that do something similar when you write the name of a yōkai species on them."

"You, have an open portal to the makai."

"Yep." And pointing up at a white palace on an adjacent hill while trying not to laugh, he informs them. "It can be accessed through the portal just inside the gates to the Moon Palace on that hill over there. The portal butted up against the side of the cavern underneath it, is an access door to the original exterminator village so no one has to go to the mortal plain if they don't want to."

"Exterminator village! Wait, back up… The Moon Palace?!"

"Yep."

"The Moon Palace."

"Yep."

"The residence of the Lord of the West before the divide."

"Yep."

"But that was supposed to be on the west side of Japan."

"There's an excellent explanation for that. You see, technically Deku-neesan is a land kami, and she gives great welcome to the family presents."

"That's some present."

"Yep. Just wait until it's your turn."

"What do you mean my turn?"

"Well. You're one of us now aren't you."

"Yep!..Oh…Wow."