Chapter 49 The Aftermath of the Battle (POV Junko Hoshino)

POV Junko Hoshino

— Report, Ryunosuke-kun. — waved tiredly at the old, if not 'ancient' Ayakashi, the others in the hall, equally tired, prepared to listen intently.

— Hai! — A man in his forties with a scarred face bowed respectfully to the lords and the others in the hall. — A search party of Yokai had scoured all the districts of Torado. They found numerous bookmarks of delayed curses, simple human explosives and mines, and chain-and-key bookmarks to create cursed places. At this point, no more than ten percent of the land remained to be cleared.

Junko wasn't quite sure why the Ayakashi were doing this. No, there were theories and speculations, but none of them had been confirmed. The woman turned her head sharply and hissed through clenched teeth.

Many Ayakashi Union fighters had died that night, but no fewer enemy mages had fallen. I remember that everyone was surprised by the number of foreign mercenaries, because they weren't expected in such numbers. Rarely have wars been fought without these people, but in this case they were unprepared.

Besides, as it turned out later, this operation was a kind of border, a line that, once crossed, began an open war. The masters suspected, and oracles and spies confirmed, that the operation would be hot, so they prepared for it. Very seriously.

The mages deliberately created the situation to draw attention, to draw out the troops, and to destroy them in one fell swoop. The lords had prepared for that, so they pretended to be trapped until the last moment. Junko was having a hard time at that time.

She had not fully recovered yet, but she could not let the mercenaries kill the weak or those who were not suitable for close combat, so she rushed into battle again and again. She didn't count how many lives she had sent to the other world and how many she had left behind, but at some point she came across a tall, bulky man who had tattoos all over his face and even his tongue, which he kept sticking out and making faces with.

This sorcerer hit her with his volcanic glass club, breaking four ribs and a collarbone, but he died too — Junko stuck his tanto into his kidneys, and a second later Nanao, a bakeneko, came and literally tore his head off with her claws. The woman then fainted, and what had happened was revealed to her by Wakana, who had been monitoring the operation with her powers all along.

According to the Spiderwoman, the Overlords had deliberately placed reinforcements in such a way that they were barely strong enough to hold on. So, time after time, the enemy threw in more and more troops to try to break through the defenses.

The alien commander fell for the ruse, and for a good two hours, he "added fuel" until the ayakashi unleashed the oni, bakeneko, and ookami and attacked from both sides at once. It was impossible to win, but there was a one-on-four exchange, and many oni were killed, but not so many bakeneko.

After the enemy retreated, they began to count the survivors and collect the dead, and it turned out that the foxes that were supposed to protect Sora were badly wounded and barely survived, and the guy himself was never found. The last place where his magic and traces of blood were found bore the mark of a serious fight.

What happened next is unknown, but it was rumored that there were traces of "Self-Burning", a suicidal kamikaze technique in which the mage turns into a bomb and little is left of the body.

But thanks to Kami, Wakana says that Sora seems to be alive, but she can't say anything else. It's like something is hiding him, and even with rituals, it's hard to tell if he's alive or dead. But it's better than a clear verdict. Among other things, Junko wanted to know why they were sent there? What was the point of it all? She even asked Tenno-sama openly, and she said that according to the predictions, nothing irreparable would happen to him, but the boy would gain serious experience in real battles.

After these words, Mystic Kyoto almost suffered a great loss, but the Yuei bodyguards managed to stop the wounded mother. It was the injury that prevented the Heavenly Fox from dying, but the fire magic was so strong that the explosion blew away half of the palace and some of the surrounding buildings. No one condemned the woman, and the Ookami publicly declared that they recognized Junko's right to revenge.

Days passed, the woman came to her senses, hoping for the best and communicating only with four reasonable people: Wakana, the head of all ookami in Japan Giniro Kiriko, the tanuki elder Se Taitamonoku, and the bakeneko spotted gray Shishi Nanao.

With the latter, it is unclear on what basis, but the woman became a true friend. When Junko came to her senses and stopped trying to kill Lisa, she was invited to work meetings for some reason.

The woman didn't quite understand why, because she didn't want to marry the proposed fiancé. She didn't feel that urge at all. But after the first five-hour meeting, Se-dono took the woman aside and told her that the Lords had performed some terribly complicated ritual to find out that Sora was alive. But that was the maximum information, and there was no magic to get more than that, so they had to rely on spies.

This news brought hope to the woman's heart. Junko knew and recognized that the plan to marry her son was not in the spirit of her clan at all, but the boy is now actually clanless, since the clan was not even accepted by Miyazaki, not to mention the broken Hoshino altar. The promise to rebuild it was the only thing that made the woman agree to this plan.

The woman didn't care that it wouldn't be fair to her son. For thousands of years, alliances had been cemented by dynastic marriages, and in the case of the homeless Hoshino, this step would help restore its former glory, and Sora, when he realized the full meaning of it, would surely recognize his mother's right. Now it was a race against time, for his seventeenth birthday was only two years away, and after that, it would be much harder to lead him to the right step.

And that's if the boy doesn't do something stupid, like get married and have a child — that would cause great complications, because in a dying family there are no bastards, and the child will be recognized as the heir.

Even if the child is not officially accepted into the clan, it will inherit the power of blood and magic, and the lack of a family altar will not allow for correction, and the mother of the new spark taken as a wife will automatically become the eldest wife.

According to their plan, the proper rituals of the alliance should solve everything, and the shared magic of the spouses and allied clans would help restore the Hoshino family altar to the same state and form it was in before the split.

— ...There were also traces of dragon flames found....

The last words caught Junko's attention and she decided to listen.

— The traces of the use of flames indicated that someone had destroyed some traces, but nothing specific could be determined.

— Alright, continue with your work. — One of the lords nodded. — Mirei-san, what will the intelligence say about the results of the battle?

— The clans have clashed, and now they are finding out who is to blame for such losses. — A beautiful brunette with rectangular glasses and a business suit that fit like a glove around the gorgeous figure of a woman in her prime spoke. — Agents report that there has been a request for contracts with U.S. mercenaries, as well as negotiations with the tribes of New Zealand, but no results yet. — The young beauty with the short haircut kept a frown on her face to make her look more serious, and from time to time she adjusted the glasses enchanted for durability and indestructibility, like now. — Ahem. There was an ambiguous situation regarding China. — Mireille paused again, her green eyes sweeping over the gathering, and continued. — The temples, clans, mercenary and assassin guilds have shown no interest, focusing all their attention on Indonesia. However, there are reports that Lan Yushen is in Japanese territory .....

This news caused an unprecedented reaction, and it took a few minutes for the crowd to calm down.

— We were able to find out that Lan Yushen had contacted her clan after the battle of Torado without hiding, and that a Fire Temple unit would arrive in two days. We don't know Lan's goals or motives, but she is under constant surveillance at various levels. If anything happens, Lan will not be able to escape — she will be led by all the highest temples of the Vesti Cathedral....

The rest of the story passed Junko's mind. Even the news that the Council of Vesti had entered the game did not interest her as much as the mention of the Chinese clan, which for more than a millennium and a half had played an important role in both the magical and the ordinary world, being the guardians of the Temple of Fire — the place where the mythical Fire Bird of Life, Balance and Loyalty sometimes comes. Somehow, she couldn't remember more, but Junko felt that she had forgotten something very important, and she should have remembered it yesterday...