The Tsuchimikado Clan (1)

***LEI***

The moment we reached Japanese waters, Seven finally woke up and boy was he pissed.

"Where… San-jie! Shadow Garden, they're…"

"Calm down Seven."

"Where are we?"

"We're on our way to Japan."

"What?!"

The weather immediately reflected his mood and we experiences unexpected waves despite the sky being cloudless blue just a moment ago.

To escape his wrath, we coaxed him as best as we could which included Coby treating him to a local oden shop in Kyoto. Good thing though, our leader has always had a good heart and immediately understood the intention of his third older sister who also turned out to be his grandmother.

"It's awkward calling her grandmother when she looks like someone to be in her prime." Seven reasoned. "And she never really forced me. So third elder sister is still third elder sister."

We reached Nagoya Port a few hours after sunrise and met up with Sir Lee Ryu Jin's contact who immediately gave us our bullet train tickets. We then went our way to Kyoto.

***

We stood in front of a big wooden gate. A plaque written in Japanese Hiragana that read 'Tsuchimikado clan' was plastered at the side of the gate. Our member who had connections to the said clan stood frozen in front of us, looking a little uneasy.

I could feel the weird stares of the passersby as we waited. Well, we were dressed suspiciously; baseball hats, face masks, jackets and all. We definitely attracted a lot of attention.

"Coby." Seven called.

"I haven't been home in a long time." I heard Coby mutter. "I told you before right? I'm an outcast in my family. A powerful family with the backings of the Japanese imperial family and has a lot of merit on their own, but the eldest son is a black lumber."

"Hey, don't say that. I mean I ran away from my responsibilities, you know and pushed it to my brother. We all have our shortcomings and no matter what, we will support each other."

"You don't understand aniki. The Tsuchimikado Clan is special. Have you ever heard of Abe no Semei[1]?"

All of us shook our heads.

"Then are you familiar with Japanese yokai[2] stories?"

"A little."

"Then you'll see."

The gate opened and a man in a black suit appeared and started conversing with Coby. Other than out pure-blooded Japanese member, only Chen and I could speak the language. So we were the only ones who could tell Coby and the man was arguing. It seemed like he did not recognize Coby.

Coby seemed to be getting pissed off because I could see his hands already making small sparks. He finally showed the man a golden ring with the symbol of the Tsuchimikado Clan crest on it.

"My name is Tsuchimikado Kazuki, and I demand to meet my father, Tsuchimikado Kimihiro." he said in Japanese in which I translated to the others.

"Young master! I am very sorry I was not able to recognize you immediately!"

We were then brought inside the property. The compound was filled with traditional Japanese decorations and landscapes. There was a stone garden with a small pond at the center and the rest of the lawn was filled with greenery as well as lots and lots of bonsais with different variety.

We were led inside a spacious room and were asked to stay there while the man, Furuichi, call the clan head.

"Coby," Leo called. "Your family seems pretty awesome. And I just remembered, wasn't Abe no Semei some sort of powerful onmyoji from a long time ago?"

"He was our ancestor."

"So you're like…. Like in the anime?" Calvin was trying to hold his excitement.

Right. Calvin, Tim and Dean were total anime addicts. And Artemis seemed to also like them.

"Are you an onmyoji as well?"

"That's… well… It's complicated."

The door suddenly opened and two people came in; the girl looked about ten years old with fair skin and silky straight black hair, meanwhile, the boy was wearing a dark blue high school uniform and he looked a lot like Coby, only with black hair.

"Onii-chan!" called the little girl and lunged at Coby. The older just accepted the sudden tackling and hugged the girl close.

"Ohisashiburi ne, Hijiri-chan." (It's been a long time huh, Hijiri-chan.)

"Okairenasai, aniki." (Welcome back, older brother.) said the young man.

"Tadaima." (I'm home)

I was so immersed at the three's reunion that I almost forgot about the other people with us. And when I did remember that I still had to translate for them, Chen was already doing it.

"Chichi-ue (Father) will not be coming home 'til dinner." explained the young man who was named Hayato. "There had been many cases lately in the Ministry of Defense that needs immediate attention."

According to Hayato, the current Tsuchimikado Clan had their hands on the Ministry of Defense and the current clan head, Tsuchimikado Kimihiro, was its minister. I noticed that as Hayato explained a few points, he was trying his best not to reveal the Tsuchimikado Clan's real line of work.

"Where's mother?" asked Coby.

"Mother is doing a purification ritual in the mountain shrine with Sakura-aneue."

"Sakura, huh."

"Coby, who's Sakura?" asked the nosy Chen.

"She's my younger twin sister."

Chen gasped in surpise.

"You have a twin sister? So Lei-ge and I aren't the only pair of twins around!"

"By the way onii-chan, you seem to have changed. You seem to be… stronger? But the aura of fire is back around you." Hijiri started tearing up. "Has the seal been broken? Is it going out of control again?"

"Hijiri!" called Hayato in a stern voice. "You must not say strange things to outsiders."

"But Hayato-onii-chan! The fire is going to hurt Kazu-nii-chan again!"

She cried even harder. Hayato and Coby tried consoling her but she just cried even more. She suddenly stood up and started walking away, but she tripped and scraped her knee.

"Hijiri!" Coby immediately attended to her, but Hayato pushed him away.

We were all speechless at the actions of the young man.

"Hayato!"

"You don't know since you've been gone for a long time aniki but Hijiri is now a miko[3]. Unless you are her guardian, she cannot be carelessly touched by people without spiritual powers." Hayato said bitterly. "Especially male ones."

"Hayato…"

"Why did you return aniki? What do you want? Father already made it clear a long time ago that you can do whatever you want since you're not like us. Why did you bother to come back?"

Coby did not answer and just listened to the criticism of his younger brother. I even heard something about being useless which actually pissed me off. But it was a family matter so I could not interfere needlessly.

'So that was what he meant.' I thought, remembering Coby's expression when talking about his family.

My attention switched to Hijiri who kept crying while cradling her wounded knee. Suddenly, in the middle of the brothers' argument, a tendril of lightning passed between them and hit the wooden pillar. The room was engulfed in silence and all eyes turned to Calvin whose hand was held in front of him.

"Seven-hyung asked me to stop them." he said.

"Well, the temperature was rising." Seven seconded. "And truthfully? It was getting annoying."

"We can't understand what they're saying but I knew they weren't agreeing on something."

"Who… No, what are you guys? You… you useless brother! You brought demons inside our home!" Hayato suddenly whipped out paper talismans.

'Right, they're onmyojis. And what did he mean by 'useless'? This kid's getting on my nerves!'

He was about to cast whatever spell he was trying to cast but the talismans burst into flames. My gaze landed on Coby whose eyes were like on fire.

"Hyung," Coby said to my direction. "Please heal my sister."

I just nodded and made my way to the crying little girl. Hayato tried to stop me but Coby stopped him with his blazing hand.

"Get out of my way."

"Just let him do something about Hijiri."

I crouched on the floor. "Hey Hijiri. Let this onii-chan see your wound, okay?"

"But… strangers should not touch me."

I flashed a smile. "I'm friends with your Kazu-nii-chan. I promise I won't hurt you."

"Really?" I nodded. "Okay."

I gathered my energy on my right hand and covered her wound. My hand started shining a golden tinge and seconds later, the injury vanished.

"Whoa! It's… it's healed! I don't even have to get into the spirit pool to heal it!" she marveled.

I smiled once again and helped her up. Afterward, I faced Hayato and tried to flash a stern expression.

"Hayato-kun, we are here to talk to your father about an important matter. This talk of pride is not what we came for. If you do not accept Coby, no, Kazuki in your family it's none of our business. But we, me especially, consider him as part of our family. And anyone who hurt my family will pay for it dearly. And I don't care if you're a kid." my voice was dangerously low and I was pretty sure despite the good lighting, there was a shadow cast over my eyes.

I already had enough of him berating his own older brother. It just didn't sit still with me. The kid obviously needed major disciplinary action.

"Ah, we're not demons as well." I added.

The door suddenly opened and I felt an unusually strong pressure of power.

"That's enough."