NO CHILL! (High School DxD - Human SI Chapter 2)
Three years.
Three years and Yasaka, the leader of the West Youkai Faction still has to deal with the annoying headaches and complaints of the Tamamo-no-Mae Seal breaking incident.
The ingenious Seal of Abe no Seimei, which should have been literally impossible to break, was broken and the catastrophic evil spirit of the ancient kitsune was released.
The Seal was a masterful piece of work, that couldn't be recreated, as no one understood how the reverenced Onmyouji created it. The Seal worked on three paradoxes.
One who removes the Seal must know who Tamamo-no-Mae was, but not fear nor worship her.
One who removes the Seal must have no awakened spiritual power, yet manage to reach her through the barrier that required spiritual power (or unrealistic mental fortitude) to overcome.
And finally, one who removes the Seal must know that there's an evil spirit in the Seal, but not that it was Tamamo-no-Mae.
With these three conditions, no one from the mundane or the supernatural world should have even been able to approach the Seal, or know it's there. Or rather only those without awakened spiritual power can even see the place from the mundane side.
It always amused Yasaka to no end how those of the Tamamo Cult could see all the mundane humans strolling about in the place they knew their Lady was sealed but couldn't approach or find it themselves. If they try to hypnotize a human to do it for them, that magical energy from the hypnosis would alert the Seal and make them lose their way. If they threaten someone, that person simply will not be able to reach the Seal, fainting before they could get there. Somehow the Seal also registers who wants to remove it and activate, and who are protecting it, and let them approach. Not even self-hypnosis could fool the Seal.
And if someone can approach with the intention to remove it they would be repelled. As in the Seal pours an onslaught of negative energy, that would turn anyone away, as those without spiritual power would have no mental defense against it.
And if they can somehow withstand the evil presence and reach the Seal, they literally couldn't remove it due to the conditions enforcing it.
No amount of power someone held, or temptation the malevolent kitsune could have offered would have changed that.
It just physically couldn't have been done.
Yet from the investigation done by Yasaka's subordinates, the one who removed the seal, somehow fit all three conditions.
The basic account of what happened that night, was simple enough once it was figured out.
Someone walked right into the shrine, from the mundane side-thus with no awakened spiritual power-pushed through the barrier's negative energy pressure, knowing that there's an evil spirit within the urn, and unleashed it anyways.
What Yasaka's employed Onmyouji then gathered, was that while the person was then possessed by Tamamo's spirit, they had enough mental fortitude after everything to go all the way to the other side of Kyoto, to the Sacred Pool of Inari.
The Sacred Pool was a special location that existed solely for the Mikos of the Shinto Gods. In order to even begin to use it, Yasaka would have to bath in purified salt water, dance while praising the gods to accumulate divine energy. Then she could bath in the Scared Pool where all her earthly impurities are cleanses, as well as complete filling her with divine energy, that she could host the Shinto Gods, act on their will, or even channel their powers herself.
The pool's energy were so potent, that if someone where to just enter it, the Scared Pool would purify all earthly impurities on them. Meaning their literal body and soul would be scrubbed clean, broken down to such a point that both would be erased, leaving only pure spiritual energy that would add to the pool's reserves.
For someone to throw themselves into the pool, while hosting Tamamo's spirit in their body? It was a grand sacrifice on that person's part, for Tamamo would never corrupt the world with her presence again. The evil nine-tails was well and truly gone now. It is sad that this mysterious person's soul was also reduced to spiritual particles, but their sacrifice will always be something the Youkai Faction would be grateful for.
However, none of that meant that the faction elders didn't stir shit around, either spurring paranoia, jumping at shadows, or trying to use this incident to try and gain more rulership control from Yasaka, or have some demands fulfilled, so they'd stop raising a stink.
It's been three years, there's no way Tamamo or her cult would have been this patient and be this quite without news of some poor souls, kidnapped and ritualistically sacrificed for the evil nine-tails to rebuild her powerbase, or to power some twisted sadistic ritual spell.
Yet again, nothing happened these past three years related to the Tamamo Cult.
It was a peace Yasaka enjoyed and hoped would last.
Now if only the Devils could all go and die, that would make everything in her life perfect.
Almost a millennia ago the legendary onmyouji, Abe no Seimei had fought and sealed the evil Tamamo-no-Mae after her foiling her plan to subvert and control the Japanese Emperor.
He then had split the nine-tail fox's existence in half. One sealed in an urn in a Kyoto Shrine, the other in the Sessho-seki, the rock known as Killing Stone. Some thought Abe no Seimei separated Tamamo-no-Mae's body and soul from one another.
The truth was, in the battle he had destroyed her body, but her soul persisted. Thus he split her spiritual being into two, one holding her power and malevolence, and one holding her knowledge and memories. The Kyoto Shrine held her power, while the Killing Stone held her mind.
The two Seals were connected, one can not be destroyed without the other. The urn can't be unsealed due to the paradox conditions, and the Tamamo within the Killing Stone can't be freed, except under the condition that she acknowledges and admits her wrong deeds, face her evil nature and overcome it.
Meaning, she's have to exorcise her evil from her own spirit, in essence, it would be the same as reducing her to a newborn in power as she purified herself.
However, should somehow the Seal on her power be released, eventually that half would reach out to the one in the Killing Stone, and have enough power for her full self to break out of the Killing Stone.
The incident of her Power Half being released should have resulted in her return, but somehow her Power half was overwhelmed and destroyed. It seemed like the fox spirit was destined to be stuck in this damned rock for eternity. Or worse, it breaks and she's thrown into the clutches of Izanami-no-Mikoto in Yomi.
The fox spirit shuddered at the thought. She had evaded death so many times, she is sure the Shinto Goddess of Death would show Tamamo her displease personally.
Yet something completely unaccounted for and unexpected happened.
Because Tamamo's Power Half had been exorcised and its energy purified by the Sacred Pool of Inari, technically the condition for Tamamo's Mind Half was fulfilled.
It took time for her to realize this once the leftover energy of her other self returned to her, and with it the accompanying memories. Then it took further time and effort for the fox spirit to push her way out, and break free from the Sessho-seki
The bottom of the Killing Stone at one side broke, and a small body crawled out.
"I'm...I'm free?" The reformed and whole kitsune spoke with her own mouth for the first time in over a thousand years. "I'm free!" She shouted in joy.
Then her eyes widened in horror at the sound of her own voice. So young and squeaky. She looked at her hand, and followed from that to her own body to see her body had reformed into that of a child.
"No, no!" Tamamo fell to her knees in despair.
All her power. Gone.
Freed at what cost.
She remember the body that unsealed her other half.
Doing so as training to awaken his own Ki.
"Damn you! Damn you!" Tamamo roared, but it sounded like a baby kitten's shout. She remembered the name from that boy's mind, and itched it into her own as a target of her revenge. "You will rue the day you dare treat me as some fodder and stepping stone, Hajime Kenji! Rue!"
The tiny fox shook her loli fist at the sky in that rage that once shook all of ancient Japan. It caused some birds to be startled.
"I will have my vengeance!" Squeaked the loli fox.
The world was cruel and unfair.
"Did you hear, Kenji?" Asked my excited sister. "They say that a bit of the Sessho-seki broke down. Archeologists can now study the insides of the ancient rock."
To think I could have been so blind, so ignorant.
"They said the insides are mostly consistent with what they thought, but the center was hollow, and there was some liquid inside, like embryotic fluid."
In order to improve and grow one need knowledge, yet had I been so prideful as to only take inspiration from one source.
"Hehe, they say the Sessho-seki could have been some pre-historic egg this whole time." Murayama laughed as she narrated what the new reported said on the TV. "Now they're saying it could have been gas that had some bacteria that we're not immune to. Hopefully nothing bad happens, or no one gets sick."
Human ingenuity and imagination didn't extend only to anime and manga, it existed in other form too. Western fantasy and sci-fi novels were also a source, yet I never thought them worthy of consideration.
I mean sure, Touki and Senjutsu allowed me to reach higher abilities with my body, or put massive pressure by just sucking all the malice around me, but I could have added more routines to my training, had I the knowledge.
"Hey, do you think the spirit of the nine-tails fox is what broke the stone?" Murayama asked in a joking tone, before looking closely at me to see me looking down.
How sickening. I'm disappointed in myself, in how pride prevented me from discovering, and thus walking this path of strength earlier.
Ten years into this new life, if I had discovered this earlier, how far could I have gone.
"Are you listening to me? What are you reading?" Murayama sat next to me, and leaned over my shoulder to see what I'm reading.
Although I can at least acknowledge that absorbing the negative energy of the world, allowed me to gave a convincing "I'm weak and sick" performance, so I can stay at home and train however I want, without wasting time in school.
"Dune by Frank Herbert," I said with a sniff. "It's such a tragic story, but it's so deep with a lot of creative ideas."
Prana Bindu. Weirding Way.
What else have I missed out on!
Still as they say, the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, the second best time is now. I will starts right after Murayama goes out with her friends! My parents thankfully are busy, and I'm "well" enough to be home alone. Joy!
...Thinking about it, the Prana Bindu sounds like Seimei Kikan, or Life Return, from Rokushiki, and the Weirding Way sounds like Observation Haki. But it's like trying reaching that goal from a different angle.
This needs further training and experimentation!
Murayama patted my head.
"Hehe, you're so cute sometimes, Kenji. Never change."
AN: Time to praise the sun next chapter. I mean the Ripple and how to incorporate it with everything. Then start interacting with the wider DxD world again.