Chapter 26 [Sesshou-Seki Part 1]

Now done with their morning patrol around the big city of Tokyo, Yui and her former student Miku are now on their way to Kyoto via a teleportation spell that Miku was about to activate using a talisman.

Now in the Kyoto area they slowly surveyed for anything that could potentially show that this trip could lead them to a trap set by an enemy.

Where did that Nekomata go when I collapsed anyway...?

We probably shouldn't have left in case she comes back... but I need to get stronger to even stand a chance against her.

With their spells that hide that weren't human at all, they pushed onwards to the location of the aforementioned stone where the so-called "other fifty percent of Tamamo-no-Mae" had been waiting for them.

They were quite fortunate that the sesshou-seki had actually been near Miku's Family's house this whole time, without Miku herself not even knowing a thing about it her whole life until now.

Now with the new found knowledge that they had gotten from one of the elderly that was living in the area who was a little suspicious of the duo as they asked about it, they proceeded with caution towards their destination with their guard fully up...

I can't believe it was just behind my family's shrine... How did I not see it when I was a kid...?

However, Their journey wasn't gonna be as easy as the purple-haired girl had thought...

A few feet away from the stone there were some signs that something was a bit... off about this whole thing. Talismans were all over the nearby trees making it look like there was something that the locals were protecting outsiders-- from the way they were placed in a specific way.

It was as if they were placed there to form a barrier to keep something in, much less to keep anyone out... There was also some miasma around the outside perimeter of the "barrier" that humans couldn't see with their naked eye so easily, unless they undergone some training.

*rustle*

All the bushes started rustling but there wasn't any wind blowing to make them do so...

This could only mean one thing... There was someone- or something hiding any sneaking around them to avoid being spotted by the duo who had their own business to take care of.

"Careful. Something's off here..."

Yui quickly warned her former aprentice taking out her weapon which was the same one that had made her collapse to begin with.

"You musn't, Do you want to collapse again, mentor?"

"Then what do you expect we do then? We don't even know what the cause of that rustling is." Yui's voice sounded much different from the way it did when she spoke with Miku, it sounded like she was mad at her for stopping her from doing anything.

"Well..."

ENEMY DETECTED

A huge-sounding voice came from behind them, the kind of voice that a golem woulf have if it could speak.

"For now... Let's just hide. It looks like someone set a trap and we just triggered it without noticing anything."

They both quickly casted a cloaking spell on themselves as they ran from the dirt path that they had been walking on which lead to the stone onto the foliage one the left side of the dirt path to hide in the meantime.

Just what the hell is going on? Was that a golem that just spoke?

Miku carefully peaked from behind the foliage that they were hiding in, careful enough to not let anyone or anything notice them.

*Thud!*

A golem made out of wood covered on talismans made it's way on the same dirt path that were just on- it was looking for them, the ones that just activated the "trap" that activated it to come out and search.

How can I be so careless... I can't believe I let ourselves in this situation... This makes it worst because she's my mentor...

Miku's face was flushed from the embarassment that she was currently feeling by the thought that she let her mentor see her make a mistake and let both of them activate a trap.

But... How did it activate anyway? I didn't see any trip wires or any talisman that looked like it was for any traps...

*Thud! Thud! Thud!*

The heavy footsteps continued on as it got further and further away from them, they were lucky that the golem hadn't looked through the foliage that they were behind of as it passed by and just went straight without doing anything else.

"Looks like it's gone..."

Miku quickly signalled Yui to get back out onto the dirt path that they were currently one but this time there was a problem...

The talismans that she was expecting to find were now there right infront of them- as if someone had turned them invisible somehow.

"What the- How is that talisman there now?! That wasn't there before, was it?"

The now confused girl tried to approach and examine it but it soon started to catch on fire to get rid of itself.

"Wait! Stand back, that's a special type."

"A special what now?"

Miku was now even more confused that she previously was. The talisman had been there all along but thanks to the cloaking spell that was used on it they didn't notice it at all.

Combined with the way it set itself fire as Miku tried to touch it, it was clear that it wasn't something that anyone could just go up to and touch.

"Looks like it was hiding some classified information..."

Yui put a hand under her chin, deep in thought.

If that was a trap trigger then how was it invisible? Normally one would have to hide it somewhere and not use a cloak spell on it to keep it from being seen...

With Miku still in front of her now being alert, Yui continued her thoughts:

This unknown magic... Who could've possibly done something like this? It doesn't seem like normal humans could trigger this since the sesshou-seki was a tourist attraction.

She soon thought of two possible suspects when it came to who set the trap trigger-like talisman by the dirt path:

1. The village elders from decades ago using a old form of magic.

2. Someone from this time period did this.

From the way it burned that talisman just combusted on it's own looks like it has another unknown spell on it...

Question... After Question came to mind as she continued thinking about what that trap was for, almost forgetting that she had some business with the stone called "sesshou-seki".

"Mentor? Why are you quite all of a sudden?"

Miku started to grow quite concerned about the amount of time that Yui had been taking being quite, deep in thought.

"Shhh, Did you hear that?"

"Hear what? I don't hea--"

*Crack*

Twigs being seemingly stepped on could be heard from a short distance, the source of it was in the foliage that they had just hid in.

[To be continued...]