The Great Onmyōji

“… M-Mura, I… you saved my life, boy.”

“*sniff* … T-That idiot demon was hurting you. B-But I could scare it away…”

“But where did you learn such a technique from? Was it… was that magic?”

Young, little Mura’s face lit up like a star as he was in his dad’s arms, flailing his arms joyously.

“Yes! Kyuken helped me…  He’s in the sword, really, really! In Harusame!”

“In Harusame? Wait, is he here? Right now? Also, who is he? Who’s this Kyuken- I have so many questions, dear Mura…!”

“He’s right there! He’s looking at you… Kyuken, I don’t think he can see you.”

“Oh, by the heavenly ones, what are you made of, Mura? We’ve never bred a wizard before now…”

Miki Kensho, the father to Mura Kensho, put down the little boy and fell on his couch once more, exhausted and drained after having witnessed what could have been his death if not for Mura’s intervention. It was an exhausting day, indeed… to think that a gang of demons would assault them down here in Lower Midi? That was unheard of, really. And little Mura here, single-handedly, scared them away and gave Dōji a scar with the bluish blade that he wielded.

“Kyuken! Let’s show you to Suzaku-nee and Tsurara-nee…!”

Mura ran off as enthusiastic as he was before this whole ordeal took place. Having been scared away by the demons, he had crossed the gravestone that held the samurai ghost. Oh, what a fateful meeting… what a fateful friendship.



Another day passed, and the grandparents had gotten an idea that would calm Mura down as well as keep him occupied with his magic. Miki needed some sakes to fully acknowledge the fact that his only son and child, Mura, possessed some kind of shikigami-conjuring magic. The elders, consisting of Miki’s parents, discussed it with Miki while Mura was eating lunch with his cousins. And the grandparents, after some exchanges of surprise and shock, came up with a suggestion that Miki, frankly, didn’t like to think about at first.

“I believe that it’d help Mura, in the end. Listen closely, my dear son; your son is our grandson. And not once in many a decade have we seen a wizard among us… he’ll start standing out if he gets curious and dwells into it with his cousins and us.”

“… I-I can’t…”

“Son, please understand what your putting your son through in the long run! It will not be permanent, but it will help him master his magic… the Onmyōryō are always looking for potential students to join them.”

“Father, with all due respect…”

Miki almost interrupted his old man as he slowly removed his wooden mask to reveal to them his face… a face that was harmed. Hurt. Injured. Scarred for life.

“It would be… torture. My son is not going away-“

“… I understand.”

Mura’s munching noises mixed well with the noises from all of his cousins. On occasions, he swatted away Tsunematsu’s hand as the other, purple-haired boy donning his ‘Rising Sun’ headband kept picking food from Mura’s bowl.

“S-Stop it, Tsune… that’s my food!”

“I’m still hungry! I’m just taking a very, very small bit…”

“T-Then take from Tsura! Or Kirin! Kirin already left the table-“

“Kirin’s just having a bad stomach! He’ll come back later and ask where his food went!”

And thus, the day passed…

WC: 565

How was it for the Kensho family to harbor a wizard running about? Mura’s performances with Kyuken on his side were the peaks of daily life for his cousins, and they would all gather to watch him throw Kyuken into a wooden sword to make a bluish aura engulf it, sort of like dipping your sword in oil and lighting the oil on fire. It was all a joyous occasion for the little boy and his cousins, but his father was starting to get worried for what the neighboring Midians would think.

In Lower Midi, the concentration of wizards was almost 0%. It was likely that Mura was the only human at the moment who used magic. While there was a long story of magical phenomenon and wizards spread over all of Midi, certain circumstances such as the urbanization, push-and-pull factors and over-all popularity drew all the magic to the north - to Upper Midi, where the Onmyōryō, the Emperor and the present-time Samurais reigned over the country from. Miki had a few encounters with magic users - the term for such a person in Midi was usually ‘Samurai’, but Miki was a traditional Samurai and would often get confused if the term was used to describe Midian magic users, due to which he described them as simply ‘magic users’ - but almost all these encounters happened in Upper Midi when he was out travelling with his family. Only one event with magic here in Lower Midi had happened at the very estate where they lived; the very event that made little Mura interested in magic in the first place.

But the issue still lied there… the other families living near them would likely be paranoid if a magic user walked among the Kensho family. There had always been disputes between the families over occupation of land and many other territorial matters, so having a potential wizard as your ace came out as a nigh ultimatum that Miki had under his sleeve for the future. Such paranoia would invite the worst, and Miki was experienced enough to foresee such an outcome…

While he was thinking about this, it made him realize the wisdom behind his father’s, Shōmei’s, words. Mura needed to be kept at a safe distance from paranoid, potential magic haters who would take any opportunity to even the weight between the families. That meant that what the old Kensho suggested - sending Mura to Upper Midi to join the Onmyōryō - suddenly didn’t seem like such a terrible idea. Not that it was in the first place, but Miki had more personal reasons to why he wouldn’t want that to happen.

The poor father and only parent to Mura held deep scars in his heart after his wife’s death to sickness. While Mura was too young to fathom the weight of this loss, his father had wept for seven days straight; this caused his face to wrinkle and his eyes to dry, and it made him look terrible. This was the reason behind the wooden mask that Miki wore at all times; it sheltered his sorrow over the loss of his beloved Keiko.

“… Mura! Mura, come over here…” Miki called out for his son. He soon realized that Mura was still outside with his cousins, in which the father stood up and walked towards the wooden floors edging the gardens. There, he spotted Mura, Tsurara, Kirin and Naga chill under one of the cherry trees after a long day, holding a sort of siesta. The old man called out again: “Mura! Can you come over here for a second…?” Miki’s voice had a sudden, high pitch for a brief moment in the middle of his sentence, but it returned back to his normal, deeper voice right after. Mura didn’t catch notice of this, but he heard his father call for him, so he stood up and walked towards him with a straight back and raised head in respect to his father and the head of the clan who had summoned him.

Miki, however, wouldn’t treat Mura as a mere, respectable member of the same clan. He was his son; his blood and flesh and nothing else. Miki kneeled down to meet Mura at the same height and asked: “Is… is Kyuken nearby right now?”

“Mhm! He’s right next to me… y-you can’t see him? You too?”

“… No, unfortunately not. I believe that only you can see Kyuken right now…”

Miki rested his hands on Mura’s shoulders and gulped, trying to make things clear to him.

“You know… you know that we don’t possess magic. No one else in your clan can see Kyuken, and no one else in your clan can use a sword like you did back then. It will, soon, begin scaring people here… so… s-so…”

“… W-Wait, Dad, do you not want me to use magic…?”

“… *sigh* There’s nothing wrong with your magic, don’t worry. However, you’re still young and inexperienced. You need to learn how to use your magic, so you don’t cause any accidents in the future.”

“B-But I won’t hurt anyone! I swear…!”

“I know, I know, but look at your cousins… and look at me, your aunts, your uncles. Even your grandparents. None of us are wizards. You’ll stand out and cause things without having to do anything… I know that it sounds unfair, but this might help.”

Miki pulled up a piece of paper and handed it to young Mura, helping the little boy close his hands around the paper.

“Your dear grandfather contacted the Onmyōryō in Upper Midi. Do you know who-“

“I-I’m going to Onmyōryō?”

“Mhm. You’ll learn how to use magic from them and other wizards there. You’ll be safe among their ranks. Once you’ve become an Onmyōji, you can then return to us…”

Mura’s face lit up again, a smile expressing his excitement to meet other wizards who reminded him of that event back then. Miki saw the joy on him, and despite not wanting to be separated from his son, this would definitely help Mura mature as a wizard. If he came back as a full-fledged Onmyōji, then he would be of great help to his family. That was what Miki believed, deep inside…

WC: 1042
TWC: 565 + 1042 = 1607

Horse carriage. They could be heard from several blocks away with how the wooden wheels hit the smooth, stoned roads. Not all roads were stony, and every time that you went out of a village or town area, then the roads would start becoming smoothed dirt. These horse rides usually took them a while, but this was going to be a long ride. Mura had made himself comfortable on his seat next to his father back in the wagon, spending the time either A: pointing at stuff or B: sleeping. Mura was a type of kid that had a lot of energy for a very short amount of time, then went to take a nap to refill. This was slowly melting into a state of laziness later on in his life.

So right now, he was sleeping. Miki ruffled his hair and looked upon his son, a bit paranoid on where he was taking him. Upper Midi was, to some Midians, a cultural shock; while many values and cultural icons were shared, magic just filled the air. He had seen onis walking about, beasts being incinerated by a single touch, and he could’ve sworn that there was a dragon living in a sea that he sailed over one time.

The scenery turned snowy as they were carried over the mountains parting Upper and Lower Midi. Mura had been covered by a coat while sleeping still, and Miki was starting to get nervous. “W-Why is he sleeping so much, now? Is it… maybe I’m just paranoid. This is a whole new experience for him…” A small, nervous chuckle escaped his mouth, revealing small clouds of air floating out and freezing down once it got exposed to the temperature outside.

The mountains looked beautiful, honestly. From afar, that was… when you ventured into the mountain passes between them, you were met with frost, grey, windy noise and a depressing atmosphere. Despite all of this, the mountains separating Upper and Lower Midi harbored many creatures - both organisms of ordinary builds and genetic structures, and also organisms who had been absorbing Ethernano from the cold air around them. They looked colorful, but they still looked like ordinary animals like snow leopards, red pandas (or in this case, blue pandas) and golden hawks.

Mura, sadly, slept through it all… but he would have the opportunity to witness so much more than this. If only he knew…

…

…


WC: 404
TWC: 1607 + 404 = 2011

…

*scrabble*

“…?” Mura’s heavy eyes finally opened a little, and by looking at his rested face, he had gotten quite a chunk of sleep throughout the ride. He didn’t know exactly how long he had been asleep, but he rubbed his eyes and assumed to stay awake for now. His neck was a little sore, though, so he stretched out, held his arms out and felt free, carried by the wind - or rather, by the horse carriage that he and his father were still passengers on. Speaking of, his father had been awake the entire time, the bags under his eyes hidden behind his funny bird mask.

Mura was about to speak up to him, wanting to figure out whether his father actually fell asleep sitting up or not, but his voice was drowned out by… buzz. This buzz was nigh omnipresent, all around him, and his ears couldn’t pinpoint the source as clearly as out in the wide, grassy fields he called home. No, this buzz… it was the sound of a large city. Oh boy, what a city…


A highly populated civilization was a description fit for Naramoto, the largest city located in Midi. There was a shadow over the carriage as they passed under the tunnel that cut through the wall and entrance into the city’s first district, where Mura spotted houses made of red coloring akin to the shrines and temples from his hometown. But that wasn’t what caught his attention the most; despite the colorful nuances, the aroma in the air, it was the liveliness and buzz of so many people passing by that had him watching the most. He had never been to such a populated place before… it was scary, even. It was so much calmer back home, so to think that people lived like this… so socialized… was this where he was going to live now?

“Dad… this place is…”

“It’s quite the city, right? Well, what else could you expect from the giant of attention in Midi…?” Miki responded with a small chuckle at the end, “Don’t worry-“

“Ooooooh! Kyuken, look! Dad, we haven’t eaten all day… pleeeeaaaase? I need lots of energy for the Onmyōryō,” the little shaman explained to his father while pointing at a steaming opening into a shop of sorts. Steam escaped the flapping cloths covering half of the view, and said cloths spelled out the word ‘Yakitori’ or grilled chicken skewers, a delicacy that the people of Naramoto dined on occasion. Mura’s mouth was watering a little, so Miki found it necessary to ask the carrier to make a break, so they could fill their bellies and be sated before they reached the temple further up the mountain that watched over the city.

And so, the travel was reaching its destination for the two Kensho’s… and while they filled their bellies with grilled chicken skewers, only fate knew of the turn of events and the strings bound to bring certain people together from the very first step of Mura’s into the world of magic…

WC: 510
TWC: 2011 + 510 = 2521

The ride wouldn’t wait for too long, though, as the carrier had other business to attend to after the two Kensho’s reached their destination. After said carrier burped in relief and satisfaction from the grilled chicken skewers, he jumped up on his convoy and readied the horses… but he was taken by surprise when the convoy suddenly dropped down with a crack! It almost caused his heart to jump out of his throat, but as he turned back and looked around in worry, it turned out that a group of young teens had accidently hit one of the back wheels of the convoy by using a small shikigami as a football.

Well… it was assumed to have been an accident, but the scene with the panicking carrier and the two, confused samurais appeared to amuse the kids. It was only when a much taller and bulkier man wearing a nice, long robe and thick beads around his neck approached them with a vein about to pop out that they suddenly felt the need to show remorse and regret. It turned into a ramble between the carrier and the tall, judge-looking individual; while the latter wanted to take responsibility, the carrier was eyeing daggers into the kids, which only made the latter person’s anger towards them increase with how much trouble they had caused for him.

The wheel, however, still needed to be fixed. That could take a while, so Miki sighed. “I believe that we’re unable to continue on your convoy, my good man. Please, let me pay you for your favors up until now-“

“Ah, wait!” the old man with the black robes called out to Miki and raised a hand, seemingly to attempt a brake on the samurai’s words, “Where are you people going? The vehicle can be fixed in a hurry…”

“T-That will not be necessary… those robes. You must be a member of the council here, right?”

The black-robed elder smiled as a seeming foreigner recognized his status, before he approached the convoy. “Yes, for I am a physician in the court of the Emperor. These insolent brats ruined this wheel of your ride, I believe?” the physician answered before moving his hand right in front of the injured wheel. Said wheel would rise up and suddenly support its fair share of the weight of the convoy, almost floating back in place again. It didn’t fix itself back, but it still managed to hang on to the carrier’s ride as if it was fixed completely. Miki got to experience this up close, and so did Mura and the carrier himself.

This was a strange spell that the physician used.

“!” Miki’s eyes widened under his mask, “I-Is it fixed, already?” The physician nodded proudly and followed up: “Allow me to express my apologies by accompanying you to your destination. Wherever that may be.”

Ah, that was very considerate of him… although, Miki didn’t see the necessity in that. However, the man wanted to apologize like this, so Miki could live with it. “Very well… we’re heading for the Onmyōryō. My son shall join their ranks-“

“Your son…?” the physician repeated with quite the suspicion in his eyes. He would lower himself a little and eye Mura, the little boy eyeing the bigger mage back with darting eyes as if this was a staring contest. A few seconds passed before the physician pulled Miki away. “Please excuse my rudeness, o masked one, but…” the physician whispered to the other, having Miki about as confused as a kid hitting puberty for the first time, “Are you sure that it’s a good idea to send your own blood to the Onmyōryō?”

“… Yes, I’m positive. He knows how to cast spells and see dead spirits, so I must have him refine those abilities,” Miki answered not as discreetly as the physician.

“I sensed his magic, my good sir… do you have any idea, any idea at all about the requirements needed to join the Onmyōryō?” the physician explained.

“Requirements? What do you mean, exactly… uh, name-“

“Oh, my name is… Shōki. B-But yes, you see… I do not like to admit it, but I have tried entering the Bureau for ages. They do not let anyone in, especially not kids. I do not think that he would be able to keep up with them, either… it sounds like an awful idea, if I may express my sincerest opinion on your matter.”

The way he talked surely had Miki in deep thought. As it was, Miki was listening to a complete stranger whom he had never met before, but the sir was a wizard who could sense Mura’s potential… so he must have had a point. Then again, it felt odd… was the Onmyōryō that demanding? Miki thought that his father, Shōmei, had arranged things already and had ties with the Bureau.

It was a strange outcome, but the physician suddenly had other business to attend to. He did lead the carrier and his convoy to a craftsman who could repair the wheel, but Miki and Mura were left to reflect on his words and apparent warning. To think that a stranger, albeit one with power and influence like that of a physician in the Emperor’s court, would be so direct in warning them about the Bureau itself…

The next night would have to be spent in an inn.

WC: 899
TWC: 2521 + 899 = 3420