Chapter 323

"A certain profile 'Alterego'?"

"You should have seen the other side that is more like a monster, 'Alterego'." Asaya Doman naturally found a seat under the attention of everyone, and leisurely opened the folding fan in his hand and began to make up stories, "Hakusan 'Hakusan', borrowed half of the name of the great god Hakusan Binae, the white fox."

"…Should we stop Mr. Doman from spreading rumors?" Ritsuka Fujimaru, who was still at school, asked Abe Haruaki, who stayed at home, sincerely.

"Who cares?" Abe Haruaki said this in a rage and disappeared from the communication channel completely.

"When Asaya was alive, he probably didn't care about her thoughts." Edmund briefly recalled the information of the two Alteregos, and answered Fujimaru Ritsuka firmly, "We have already done the operation of sending Abe to the Throne of Heroes by making up stories, so there should be nothing to care about just two ordinary fabricated sentences."

"But I think this shouldn't be just a couple of random words... Mr. Cave King." Masahiro, who had just returned home, was busy reactivating the communication array to contact the control room, so he also responded using the consciousness communication channel.

Without being stopped by any of his companions, Asaya Michimitsu continued with his own story before Iwanaga Kotoko and the others could respond: "We are each other's halves - although we introduce ourselves as a certain side 'Alterego', she and I should be considered the two most important sides of the 'Legendary Great Onmyoji Abe Haruaki'."

"...the two most important aspects." Iwanaga Kotoko glanced at Abe Harusai and Ashiya Hanae standing in front of her, and intuitively grasped the most likely answer, "That is, the two sides facing humans and facing monsters - I think I guessed it right? But why did you show up alone?"

"That involves the secrets of our past." Asaya Michiman raised his finger and gestured to Iwanaga Kotoko with a smile, "This is not something we can talk about in front of everyone right now - let's get back to the topic of this incident."

"First of all, I was there when the Kyoto case happened."

——Of course, hint magic is a must.

Even though he had a legal identity document recognized by the world, Asaya Michiman was still accustomed to using a magic of suggestion to blur other people's memories when facing unimportant people - unless he specifically mentioned it, even after special training, the police officer who was responsible for collecting statements from all the commissioned people that day would not be able to remember that he had seen such a person.

Although generally speaking any magician can react and figure out how to deal with this kind of low-level suggestion magic, even a professional in the mysterious field cannot break the effect of the suggestion magic without noticing anything unusual if the person is completely unprepared when receiving the suggestion.

So, after Asiya Doman pointed this out, the four people who were also at the scene reacted instantly.

"you--"

"So you are——"

"You are the person who was standing not too far away from the crime scene at that time!"

"Ah...you are the one who looks the calmest and most indifferent in the whole place."

"Well, that's it. Anyway, let me first tell you what I found there." Asaya Doman cleared his throat and slammed his fan shut to signal everyone to be quiet. "You should all know the results of the inspection of the client's body that day, right? Whether it's the police's initial inspection or the judgment of the commissioned detectives, the client should have died long before we heard that scream."

"So, you guys got there earlier than I did. Did you find anything unusual there?"

"I didn't find any traces of monsters at the scene." Iwanaga Kotoko spoke up and gave her own observations. "Although the client's death was unreasonable and the condition of the body also proved that this was not an ordinary death case, I did not find anything unusual at the scene - and I later asked a local monster..."

"It seems that the results of your inquiry have turned out to be unexpectedly abnormal." Asaya Doman smiled and looked at Iwanaga Kotoko. His green eyes seemed to be able to see directly into the heart of the young god of wisdom.

"Well, the monsters I asked that day all said—" Iwanaga Kotoko said seriously, recalling the answers she got from asking the monsters that day, "'There's nothing there.' Not only that, they didn't see anything. And the mansion itself... From my observation, it's a bit too 'clean'."

"So, what did that Abe-classmate discover?" Asaya Michiman turned his gaze to Abe Harusai with a smile.

"We don't have much to say about the scene itself - after all, we are not professionals." Abe Harusai and Ashiya Hanae exchanged glances and told Ashiya Michiman what they found that day. "The only thing we found there is that the monsters actively avoided the mansion, just like they relied on instinct to avoid Mr. Sakuragawa."

"Do you want to know why the scene is so clean? Do you want to know why the client looks like he has been dead for a long time? Do you want to know why so many people are gathered in that courtyard?" Asaya Daoman tapped the folding fan in his hand slowly and asked the crowd three questions in succession with a smile, "The answer is simple - this is an opening play carefully prepared by someone."

"It was a declaration of war against someone he imagined."

"We already know that the mastermind behind these events is Asaya Doman." Iwanaga Kotoko, who has the highest status here, spoke up, signaling Asaya Doman to say something useful. "He is the only pervert who likes to play with corpses so much."

"You all probably know what the ability that ordinary people think Abe Haruaki uses most is, right?" Asaya Michimitsu, who can share Abe Haruaki's first treasure with the rank of Alterego when certain conditions are met, looked at the people in front of him calmly, "The use of shikigami. The impression that ordinary people have of Abe Haruaki is that he is a great Onmyoji who is good at using shikigami."

"But, Lord Haruaki's use of shikigami is basically like the princess asking us for help - his shikigami are all weird with their own lives and autonomous consciousness..." Lifa said halfway, and decisively stopped talking, looking at Ashiya Doman who was sitting in the center of everyone's sight, "The guy that Xiaohuae and the others met that day, was actually a shikigami created by that pervert, not an ordinary corpse!?"

"Shikigami don't just refer to these monsters that obey the Onmyoji's orders." Asaya Michiman took out a piece of white paper from his sleeve, folded a lively fox, injected magic power into it, and controlled the origami fox to run in front of everyone. "There is also a kind of Shikigami that has no life, no self-awareness, and is controlled by the Onmyoji like a puppet - for example, origami Shikigami."

"However, the materials chosen by this 'Ashiya Doman' to create the shikigami are really in bad taste."

"How can it be just an ordinary corpse?" Ashiya Michiman caught the origami fox that ran back to him and looked in the direction of the legislature. "The family over there are all shikigami made from corpses by that 'Ashiiya Michiman' - if you simply manipulate the corpses, the corpses will still decay naturally."

"Only after being transformed into a shikigami will it reveal its original form as a corpse when it loses the control of the Onmyoji and re-enter the natural process of corpse decay."

"When did we receive the commission?" Asaya Michiman turned his attention to the four people gathered at the entrance of the Monster Temple and confirmed the details with them. "When did it officially arrive in Kyoto? Have you ever thought about whether the commission was sent by the client before his death, or whether it was carefully prepared by 'Asaya Michiman'?"

"I have thought about this."

Three people gave the same reply - only Ashiya Hanae looked at Abe Harusai blankly, as if she didn't know why she was abandoned by her companions.

"We believe that this was an event that was planned by Michiman Asoya from the moment the commission was sent out." Kotoko Iwanaga responded to Michiman Asoya as a representative.

"Then I'll give you some information." Asaya Doman put away the origami he made temporarily and officially entered the main topic of this conversation. "If the Onmyoji wants to accurately control this kind of shikigami without self-awareness, he must be nearby - this is an iron rule that even Abe Haruaki cannot violate."

"The area is within Kyoto. On that day, 'Ashiya Doman' would not have left Kyoto at the latest. He was at the crime scene recently."

"That means..." Everyone was shocked by the information provided by Asiya Doman.

"Unfortunately, I checked everyone at the scene that day." Asaya Michimitsu spread his hands helplessly to everyone, "No one had similar marks on their bodies, and there was no sign of disguise - so I stayed that night, ready to wait for the shikigami to lose control and reveal his connection with the Onmyoji, so as to track down his whereabouts."

"So, what's the result...?"

Everyone held their breath.

"The spiritual power threads that connect the Onmyoji and the Shikigami are emanating from Kyoto and heading towards Tokyo." Asayamichi was satisfied to see the expressions of the four people who lived in Tokyo change, and continued, "However, these threads will disappear without a trace from the observer's sight as long as the observer leaves Kyoto Prefecture."

"So I can only determine the location of that guy in Tokyo, and there is no specific location. Also, the corpses of the monsters you brought today were also picked up in Tokyo, right? Maybe if we take some time to check Tokyo, we can get a more accurate result."

"We understand." Abe Harusai and Iwanaga Kotoko exchanged glances, then looked directly at Asaya Doman, "Then, could you please hand over the bodies of these monsters to the side 'Alterego' who represents the 'Children of the White Fox' for inspection? No, perhaps, she can play a greater role in this incident than you..."

"This is the only thing that won't work." Asaya Michiman smiled and rejected the two's proposal. "She said she didn't want to work with the man who ate the meat of a mermaid, so she handed this incident over to me. After all, it's the instinct of all living things to be afraid of their natural enemies who feed on them."