When Adam left the basement of the house, Nezuminosuke had already left on the Oboroguruma. He could travel back to Ukiyo using Burrow but that would be too exhausting. Instead, he decided to wait for the trains to start operating again and get something to eat in the meantime. He was feeling peckish after working up an appetite downstairs.
Adam was initially headed for the yakiniku restaurant where they had supper earlier. However, on the way there, he recalled spotting a night market near the restaurant and decided to eat there instead.
The area was buzzing with activity despite the late hour. Many of the stores had closed, but some bars and izakayas were still open for business. Drunken men wearing suits could be seen carousing while hopping from bar to bar. Meanwhile, a woman was puking her guts out in an alleyway while her friend rubbed her on the back. Further down the road, a lone man was making his way home with unsteady steps.
Adam entered one of the izakayas and ordered every item on the menu. Pumpkin was still feeling full from earlier, so he didn't order anything for him. As for drinks, he hasn't touched any other drinks ever since he obtained Shuten-dōji's Gourd. He spent the time dining in relaxation until the izakaya closed at sunrise and made his way back to Ukiyo.
Inside her room, Kuzunoha was admiring a seemingly ordinary lock of hair on her palm. A stack of tomes and a wooden box were placed neatly in front of her.
"So that's what inside the box? Hair?" Adam plopped down on a cushion prepared for him.
"Hair? Surely you jest! This is no mere hair. No, it would be blasphemous to label this unadulterated essence of a kami as hair. Consuming this would grant a human hundreds of years of life. If a yōkai ate this…" Kuzunoha tilted her head upward and dropped the lock of hair into her open mouth. She chewed for a while, savoring the flavour, before swallowing.
Adam could feel her yōki surge for a moment before stabilizing at a level noticeably stronger than before. He was surprised by its effects but did not regret handing the Sadako's shintai over to Nezuminosuke. After all, the quantity of energy in the reiishi he obtained was far greater than the shintai Kuzunoha had just consumed.
The only problem was Adam couldn't just swallow the reiishi like Kuzunoha did. Reiishi would need to be first processed before the reiki could be absorbed, usually by turning the spirit stones into pills through alchemy. However, unless performed by accomplished alchemists, the complicated process often ended in failure. That was also the reason the onmyōji mainly used the reiishi for spellcasting.
Fortunately, Adam had a major advantage over other onmyōji. A piece of reiishi was currently submerged in Shuten-dōji's Gourd. He initially came up with the idea from seeing Chinese medicinal wine made by infusing herbs and ingredients in alcohol, and had been experimenting with various fruits and herbs to enhance the flavour of the sake. When he saw the reiishi in the caverns, the idea immediately took root in his mind. Before arriving in Ukiyo, he had already verified that the idea worked, albeit time consuming.
"Hmm, splendid! What a pity there isn't more." Kuzunoha ran her tongue along her lips with a regretful expression before finally looking up at Adam. "I have heard the details from Nezuminosuke. As promised, these are the divinations records left by Seimei-sama."
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Adam picked up one of the tomes and flipped through the content. After verifying their authenticity, he stored the tomes in his inventory. Kuzunoha watched as he made the tomes disappear with a raised eyebrow but said nothing. Once he was done, he turned back toward her.
"What do you know about Sadako?"
"Nothing much, I am afraid. I did not even know she was not Karasuma's subordinate but one of his collaborator until last night." Kuzunoha picked up her Japanese pipe atop a lacquered wooden ashtray. "However, I might have an inkling of her origins. Have you heard of the honji suijaku theory?"
"You're saying Sadako is a local manifestation of a foreign deity?" Adam rubbed his chin.
Kuzunoha took out strips of tobacco from the drawers of the ashtray and rolled them into a ball before stuffing the ball into the bowl of her pipe and lighting it up. "That is the only explanation why an unknown kami would still possess so much power during the Latter Day of the Law, let alone capable of crossing over the veil between worlds."
"Where do you think she's from?"
"If I had to guess… China. After Nezuminosuke returned, I called in a few favours. On the surface, Kuroda is the ringleader of a cult named The Circle and has ties with a local yakuza group." Kuzunoha took a puff from her pipe. "However, after digging deeper, they traced the source of his funds back to China."
"China…" Adam folded his arms. "And?"
"That is all." Kuzunoha shook her head. "The trail ended there."
"I see." Adam nodded, frowning. "What about Sadako's connections with the Tsuchimikado clan? Is the government going to act on this?"
"There's no conclusive proof of their treason." Kuzunoha took another puff from her pipe. "Furthermore, even if there were, it would be hard to indict them for an act of treason against the previous administration, especially with the amount of power they currently wield."
The two continued their conversation for a while longer before Adam bade farewell with Kuzunoha and headed for Haneda Airport. With his ever increasing experience in using glamour, he slipped by the security at the airport without a hitch and boarded a plane about to depart for Hong Kong. Compared to the cruise he took travelling to Japan, the return trip finished in a blink of an eye.
It was late in the afternoon when he returned to his rental apartment. It was too late for lunch and a little early for dinner but he was starving. The in-flight meal wasn't even enough to whet his appetite and his last meal before that was at the izakaya in the early morning.
As Adam hadn't seen his favourite disciple for a while, he decided to treat her to a meal. However, when he knocked on the door to her apartment, there was no one home.
"Well, time for the pendulum." Adam took out a reiishi tied with a leather cord and let the spirit stone dangle from the other end. "Let's see, where is she?"
With a deep breath, Adam channeled his yōki into the reiishi, causing the spirit stone to swing in a circular motion. As he closed his eyes and focused on the movement of the pendulum, he felt a subtle pull whenever the reiishi pointed in a certain direction. Following the guidance of the spirits, he passed through the streets of the city, disregarding the curious gaze of onlookers. While it was possible to tap into his own intuition for answers as well, he was consulting the spirits nearby in this case. Finally, to his surprise, the pendulum led him to a fancy-looking restaurant overlooking a busy intersection.
As Adam stepped into the restaurant, he spotted a waitress talking to a young girl at the reception counter.
"If you don't have enough to pay for the meal, you'll have to make a phone call to your parents."
Jiayi placed her hands together. "Please, can't I pay off the bill by washing the dishes?"
The waitress crossed her arms and shook her head. "Of course not, that would be child labour!"
"But… Ah—" Jiayi finally noticed Adam watching the show from the sideline. "Sensei!"