Chapter 147: Kamikawa Mitsu Is Supernatural

Kamikawa Mitsu: "……"

She had guessed right again—the Ashiya family really did only have the two of them left.

"Nii-san, why are you staring at my mouth?" Kamikawa Chie noticed that, while she had playfully put on the grand drama of the famous shrine family being reduced to just the two siblings, Kamikawa Mitsu was looking at her lips.

At once, she touched her lips.

Is there a grain of rice on my mouth or something?

At this moment Kamikawa Mitsu withdrew his gaze. "Nothing, I just wanted to see if my little sister's mouth would glow like a consecrated ritual implement."

"Huh? A consecrated mouth? Nii-san, what are you talking about?"

"Nothing, just a bad joke."

"Oh, I see."

Kamikawa Chie nodded cutely, thinking to herself, Nii-san's bad joke is really lame.

Then they chatted idly for a while.

Seizing the chance, Kamikawa Mitsu spoke again.

"Whether or not our family is a shrine family, anyway, like I told Chigo before—even if we are a shrine family, you can't act recklessly. Be a good student and study. Whatever comes up, Nii-san will handle it."

His meaning was clear: bringing up the shrine family again was to drive the point home to Kamikawa Chie once more, to make her remember that whether they were a shrine family or not, she had to remain a student and could not get involved in the supernatural.

Children all worship hot-blooded heroes.

He was afraid that if Kamikawa Chie ever learned the Kamikawa family was the Ashiya family, and a crisis arose in the future, she would throw herself into danger because of that identity.

"Okay~" Kamikawa Chie obediently nodded, flashing a sweet smile. "Got it. I'll just hide behind Nii-san and that'll be that."

……

Aichi Prefecture, Japan—the Tsuchimikado household.

"Kamikawa-kun is a descendant of Ashiya Dōman?" Tsuchimikado Xia Mei heard Tsuchimikado Kenji's words and covered her mouth with both hands, utterly shocked. "Grandpa, you're not joking, are you?"

Hearing this, Tsuchimikado Kenji shook his head and pointed at his own face, which wore an equally astonished expression.

"Do I look like I'm joking? Director Takahashi told me this himself just now, and there's no way he'd make a joke like that."

As he said, matters involving the supernatural were no joking matter—especially when spoken by Director Takahashi, who, as a senior official, had to be accountable for his own words.

Immediately after.

Tsuchimikado Kenji took out a document and handed it to Tsuchimikado Xia Mei.

"This is the information investigation on Kamikawa Mitsu's family."

Not long after.

After reading the file, Tsuchimikado Xia Mei, wearing a stunned expression, finally believed that Kamikawa Mitsu was a descendant of Ashiya Dōman.

Seeing this, Tsuchimikado Kenji gestured for Tsuchimikado Xia Mei to sit down, then said slowly:

"When Director Takahashi came to find me just now, he didn't just deliver the file on Kamikawa Mitsu's family to our house—he also came to ask whether we had known all along that Kamikawa Mitsu's family was the Ashiya family.

Our Tsuchimikado family's ancestor, Abe no Seimei, and Ashiya Dōman were sworn enemies. From the standpoint of relationships, the two are quite closely connected.

And now, Xia Mei, you and Kamikawa Mitsu are close friends.

Director Takahashi and the others assumed that our Tsuchimikado family had actually been in contact with the Ashiya family all along—or at least, even if we weren't, we knew the Ashiya family's movements and knew that Kamikawa Mitsu's family was the Ashiya family.

I had to work really hard, argue this way and that, talk until my lips were worn out, before I could finally convince Director Takahashi and the others that we had no prior knowledge that Kamikawa Mitsu was a descendant of Ashiya Dōman."

No wonder Director Takahashi and the others were suspicious.

Damn it—Abe no Seimei and Ashiya Dōman were sworn enemies, and then in this generation, the descendants of the two are close, like bosom friends. Just thinking about it feels off.

The most crucial point: Tsuchimikado Xia Mei transferred schools to Arakawa Ward. Why that particular school of Kamikawa Mitsu's, out of so many schools in Arakawa Ward? And why, of all the boys in the class, Tsuchimikado Xia Mei had only an ordinary relationship with them, yet was especially close with Kamikawa Mitsu?

It doesn't add up.

No matter how you look at it, something fishy is going on.

"I really didn't expect Kamikawa-kun to be a descendant of Ashiya Dōman."

Tsuchimikado Xia Mei was still in shock.

The next moment.

As if remembering something, Tsuchimikado Xia Mei hurriedly said: "Wait! Grandpa, since Kamikawa-kun is a supernatural descendant, doesn't that confirm the NH137 incident was also an event related to the supernatural?"

"Yes, the government has already classified the NH137 incident as a supernatural-related event, and also…"

"And?"

"And not only that—the advisory panel of the Supernatural Response Department analyzed and concluded that Kamikawa-kun might be different from our Tsuchimikado family—he might actually be supernatural."

Through Tsuchimikado Kenji relaying Master Konghai's words with slight modifications to the government, the government was now well aware that modern people at shrines and temples knew of the existence of the supernatural, but did not possess supernatural power.

Because long ago, yokai and the supernatural had taken the step of hiding and vanishing from this world, taking the cultivation methods of the supernatural with them.

For this reason, in today's world, shrines and temples have no supernatural power.

The Tsuchimikado family is the same—merely supernatural descendants, with no supernatural power.

But!

The advisory panel of the Supernatural Response Department believed that Kamikawa Mitsu might not only be a supernatural descendant, but also possess supernatural power.

The exceptionally clever Tsuchimikado Xia Mei was first startled, then immediately realized the reason behind the panel's analysis: "Is it because of the NH137 incident?"

Tsuchimikado Kenji nodded:

"Although Kamikawa Mitsu's written statement after the NH137 incident explained things well, when all is said and done, a Gao Zhongsheng who can fly a plane and pull off so many high-difficulty maneuvers is just too shocking—especially the plane drift later on.

Now that his identity as a descendant of the Ashiya family has come to light, this becomes all the more intriguing.

A descendant of a figure famous throughout the ages performing near-impossible, high-difficulty aerial rescue maneuvers—what a coincidence that would be.

Over eighty percent of the advisory panel are convinced that Kamikawa Mitsu must have used supernatural power to pull off those high-difficulty rescue maneuvers—or rather, he used the high-difficulty rescue maneuvers to cover up his use of supernatural power."

Tsuchimikado Xia Mei fell silent.

The advisory panel's analysis was perfectly reasonable.

However, Tsuchimikado Natsumi still had doubts:

"But Grandpa, when the supernatural and youkai left, they took the supernatural cultivation methods with them, so this world has had no supernatural ever since. Without cultivation methods, how could Kamikawa become supernatural? You can't just say the Ashiya Doman family got special treatment, can you?

If that were really the case, then by rights our Tsuchimikado family's reputation and standing are no different from the Ashiya Doman family's — why didn't we get special treatment?"

The next second.

Tsuchimikado Kenji resolved her confusion: "Regarding this point, the advisory group has analyzed it. It's true that people of this world have had no supernatural ever since, but what if Kamikawa wasn't born in this world?"

"Not born in this world?" Tsuchimikado Natsumi was stunned.

Immediately after, Tsuchimikado Kenji nodded.

"Yes, not a person of this world. Natsumi, do you still remember? Master Abe said he had never returned to this world since the Heian era, and had always been in the world guarded by the Abe family.

From that sentence, combined with the earlier supernatural-youkai incident, you don't need to think to know that besides this world, there should be many other worlds in existence — for example, the supernatural world of Heian Kyoto where Tamamo-no-Mae resides, the Six-Eyed Youkai world where the Lord of Mountains and Seas of Strange Beasts conducted experiments, and the floating-island-like world of Abe no Nakamaro that was seen in Tochigi Prefecture.

Sitting guard over a world for over a thousand years — do you think a family could possibly not have taken root and multiplied descendants there?

Born in a world where the supernatural exists, and moreover in an ancient supernatural family — how could there be no supernatural cultivation methods, how could one not be supernatural."

The words echoed in her ears.

Tsuchimikado Natsumi's expression changed.

"Grandpa, you mean Kamikawa was born in another world?! And the supernatural of the Ashiya family in that world sent Kamikawa to this world to grow up?"

"Mm, that's how the advisory group analyzed it — it explains why Kamikawa Mitsu would be supernatural."

……