The Hidden Scholar - Part 1

Life, Supernatural

During the matches throughout the morning, Aka no Kitsunebi had brought something troubling to her master's attention. Tenman Tenjin, the eye-marked dagger the two found on a previous adventure, had mysteriously sprouted roots and was now digging deep into Kitsunebi's hand. At a cursory examination, Fubuki determined the roots to be that of a plum tree, slowly siphoning blood from his subject's hand. It was a slow process, but if untreated, she would likely die.

As she* pondered how to handle this development, a loud thump behind Fubuki heralded the arrival of a new element. A large bronze casket, just bigger than a person, had apparently fallen from the sky and landed with enough force to splinter the floorboards of the Hashinara viewing box.   Taira no Tokuko possessed enough wherewithal to step in front of the box, largely blocking it from view. With the match going on below, not many in the crowd had noticed the strange parcel's arrival. Kagami had, however, and informed Aotsuki Tsukamoto that it bore a curious engraving on its front: "As the plum blossoms bloom, so too does my resentment. This indignity shall be answered with blood."   Thinking that was probably not a good sign, Aotsuki nevertheless left the box to his companion's judgment.   For her* part, Fubuki had the item carried off by her* flying black fox, ordering the creature to circle the arena until she* had need of it. Some time and more than a few antics later, she* returned to the matter at hand, dropping in on Abe no Seimei at Ōtsu Castle. Aka no Kitsunebi, Tokuko, and Phenex all joined her* on this excursion.   Seimei was quite amenable to helping with the mystery. Certain circumstances had come about, she hinted, that made it advantageous to have a Matsumoto in her debt. After considering Kitsunebi's situation, the legendary onmyōji provided her diagnosis: it was a death curse. The ominous words on the coffer were those of Sugawara no Michizane, a scholar of the ninth century whose unhealthy interest in Yōkai had let a political rival exile him from the capital. Michizane never returned, never got to see his beloved plum tree again, and the day he died, the capital had been rocked by storms the likes of which history hadn't seen. It wasn't clear whether Michizane himself was responsible for this disaster, but the Emperor of the time saw it as such. After restoring Michizane's offices and officially elevating him to a deity of scholarship, the lightning subsided.   As for why Aka no Kitsunebi was caught up in this, Seimei expressed that it might just be coincidence; her own bad luck to have the dagger in her possession. That is, she pondered, unless Michizane's studies on yōkai had at some point led him to Kuzunoha. At this, she laughed.   Seeking to confirm a hunch, Seimei asked to see the bronze casket, at which Fubuki teleported it in. It was just then, coming from a meeting, that Aotsuki and his wife walked in on his adviser exhuming a coffin in the middle of his audience chamber. Beyond a cloud of necrotic dust bursting forth, what was revealed by the broken seal was no worse than a skeleton, its limbs all ajumble from Fubuki's indelicate transportation. On the skull, a pair of bent spectacles were seated, one lens cracked.   This, Seimei declared, must be the remains of Sugawara no Michizane. Therefore, the way to break the curse was clear. Aka no Kitsunebi must take the casket back to the capital in Echizen Province and put an end to Michizane's long exile. There should be an empty grave already there, courtesy of the past Emperor, and likely near the ancient scholar's favorite tree. Fubuki recalled seeing plum trees on her* last visit to the capital, so at least had a place to work from.