"Like the ancestor, with the Reigan, the presence of spirits, yokai, and demons will always be known to you. You will always see them."

"Cursed eyes..." Kuro whispered.

"Although our lineage was cursed, the successive generations of Sakamoto were nothing if not resourceful." Lady Otsuya said as she turned around and led us back into the first chamber. "They've developed various techniques over the generations. The techniques developed include those that employ the Sakamoto family bloodline and the curse, as well as techniques that temper the curse."

Kuro looked around the room in wonder, but all I could see were empty walls and the stone foxes statues.

"And all those techniques were placed in this room, only visible to those with the Reigan."

'That explains it.'

Kuro stopped looking around the room and stared at one particular wall for 5 minutes before his eyes suddenly began to turn back to normal. The changes faded just before they came rushing back and his Reigan fully revealed itself again.

"You'll get better with practice." Lady Otsuya said.

Kuro nodded. "So others can't learn these techniques?"

"All of them were created with the bloodline and Reigan in mind, therefore only you and Chikane are able to learn the techniques in this room."

"What about this one?" Kuro asked as he stepped next to a wall and pointed.

Lady Otsuya turned to Chikane, whose eyes turned into the Reigan. Chikane looked at the wall and then spoke up. "It's the Dance of the Phantom."

Lady Otsuya shook her head. "The Dance of the Phantom requires the Ghost Yin Yang Seal to learn."

"But it says here the First Step doesn't need it."

She turned again to Chikane, who nodded.

"You wish to teach the First Step to your friends here?"

"They've helped me through a lot. And like you said mother, the more power we have the better."

Lady Otsuya narrowed her eyes. "You are absolutely correct. You and Chikane should make sure to commit to the technique to memory. Although it is safe inside the clan compound, going back and forth to this place isn't a good idea."

Kuro and his sister began to memorize the technique before he went over to another wall.

"The Ghost Yin Yang Seal..." He mumbled as he read the wall.

"The Ghost Yin Yang Seal is our Sakamoto Clan's most important technique. This technique is the foundation for many of our other techniques."

"Has Chikane completed this technique yet?"

"How can she? We are trapped in this town. If we take one step out, your uncle would relish in the chance to rid himself of us."

"How do the other clan members usually find the spirits needed for this technique?"

"There is a mass grave in the forests to the west from here, by the border." She said as she shook her head. "But your uncle will expect this to be the first thing you will do. He'll have people watching it."

"Is there any other places?"

"None that your uncle won't know of."

"Did you say you need a spirit?" I spoke up for the first time since we entered the shrine.

"Yes, you know where we can find one, Zai?" Kuro asked with hope.

"Does a yokai count?"

"Do you know what kind of yokai?" Lady Otsuya questioned.

"An onibi."

"How did you run into a yokai?" Kuro asked with curiosity while Hirokazu and Sena watched in confusion, like we were speaking another language.

"It is the season for rain, so it is not surprising for the rare case of regular people coming across them." Lady Otsuya said. "Onibi are one of the more common yokai. Not as powerful as some others, but at this point we can hardly complain. Did you see it in a place of nature or was it perhaps a battlefield? Depending on where you found it, this can affect it's nature."

"I think this onibi is different, and I didn't find it in either places." I said. "It's in my house..."

"Your house!"

We spent most of our free time during the next three days learning the First Step of the Dance of the Phantom with Kuro and his sister.

The technique had two parts to it, and coincidentally, one of the parts resembled the trick that Teru had taught me. But instead of just compressing ki together in my feet, I needed to mold the compressed ki into the shape of a bell before directing the ki downwards.

'Or more like the shape of a rocket exhaust pipe.' I thought.

This was much tougher but from the little practice I got in, there was a noticeable boost from doing it this way.

The other part required us to channel ki to certain acupoints around our bodies before projecting them out forward. While we were doing all this, we were suppose to imagine there was a mirror in front of us that was creating an reflection of us.

Both parts were a much more advanced usage of ki than I had ever done before, so it was a bit of a struggle learning the technique.

Chikane picked up the technique quickly and showed it off to us inside the private training room. While facing us, she suddenly took a step forward before she froze and her body began to float towards us. As she reached Kuro, who was in front of her, she passed right through him before breaking apart like mist, as if she was an illusion.

"Over here." Chikane called out, and we turned to find her on the side of the training room.

"You learned it so fast." Sena said with envy.

"I grew up in the clan, so I am very familiar with the techniques." She explained. "Don't worry, you'll get it soon, sister-in-law."

Sena blushed at her words.

"So this is a movement technique that also projects a still image of yourself at the same time." Hirokazu concluded.

"Like a phantom..." Kuro nodded.

"Alright! I'm going to work harder and master the First Step." Hirokazu declared.

Basho arrived at the training room at that time and delivered a note to me.

"Sorry, but I gotta catch my ride home." I said after reading through the note. "So I'll go on ahead of you guys first."

"I have something I need you to take first." Kuro said.

I went to grab my things and then met up with Kuro at the front door. He had a bag with him, and inside the bag was a large gourd the size of my torso. The gourd had scriptures written all around it, similar to those I had seen on the talismans used by Souji.

"It's a Ghost Sealing Gourd." Kuro said. "It's for sealing the yokai and we might need it if we find another spirit for Chikane."

"Alright." I said, taking the bag. "I'll be waiting for you to take care of my onibi problem."

"Once I learn as much of my clan's teachings as I can, I'll come back to Yamainu." Kuro said as he held out a fist and I completed the fist bump.

Basho escorted me out of the compound and to a large inn in town. I found Jiroemon, Choubei, and the others readying their horses.

Jiroemon spotted me and said, "We usually don't give freebies but your lucky we're going the same way."

"And because we couldn't find another job in this town." Norio added.

"That too."

"And the job paid more than we expected." Norio added again.

"That too..."

"We were compensated extra because of that little 'mistake' from our captain friend. Something that I hope is not a regular occurrence." Choubei said as he appeared from the entrance of the inn.

"You did say political jobs were the most troublesome." Jiroemon chuckled. "The captain must have been livid, to get thrown all over the place by me and then watch as we we're rewarded for it."

"I also said they were the best paying, which is nice when we don't have to deal with surprises." Choubei shook his head as he turned to me. "Are you ready? We depart immediately."

I nodded. "Let's head back to Yamainu."