Kei: That mirror—— Ryougetsu, right? Maybe we should prioritize the search for that. There’ve already been victims, after all.
Me among them.
And as long as we neglect to do something about those two oni, even if we did strengthen the Ohashirasama’s seal, it would be like watering a bush outside of your garden.
Tsudzura: That settles it—— except, how should we go about searching for it? Hmm……
If it was something so easily found, the police would have found and returned it to the museum a good while ago.
Ah? Actually, they would probably still be keeping it in custody as evidence in a murder case, wouldn’t they?
If that turned out to be the case, it would be kept under watch in a safe place, and we couldn’t get to it very easily.
They probably wouldn’t believe us if we said it was a mirror possessed by oni, and it doesn’t seem like curses are necessarily illegal——
Kei: ——Eh? What?
Pulled by the hand, I turn to face Tsudzura-chan.
Ah, that’s right. Tsudzura-chan has some incredible influence to throw around, doesn’t she?
Tsudzura: Kei-oneesan, just a little would do, so could I have some of your blood?
Kei: Ah, okay, wait just a sec——
——wait, huh?
Kei: Eehh!? Again!?
It’s not like I have a problem with giving her blood or anything, but if I’m going to be drunk up like a snack any time she feels like it, my body won’t last!
Tsudzura: Ah, I didn’t intend to drink your blood, Onee-san. I will be using it to search for them.
When I pull my body from the table and offer my neck, Tsudzura-chan refuses me with a *pata pata* wave of her hand.
Kei: Heh?
Tsudzura: It is because those mirror oni drank your blood, Kei-oneesan. I will be using the attraction of your blood to the blood they’ve taken to locate them.
Kei: You can do things like that?
Tsudzura: Well, I am no longer a normal person, after all.
She speaks the words as if they were plain as day, and *pyokkori* the fox ears and tail show their faces.
Kei: Y-yeah……
She tugs at my finger, and when I offer it, bites.
Letting float a single leaf upon the surface of a water-filled basin, she drips one drop of my blood upon its upturned side.
Kei: It seems a little like a compass, doesn’t it?
Tsudzura: The reasoning behind it is much alike, actually.
Tsudzura: Now, proceeding——
With a lowered voice, Tsudzura-chan whispers a tongue-twisting mess of gibberish in the leaf’s direction.
Kei: Huh? What’re you doing?
Senba: She’s blowing a kotodama into that leaf.
Sakuya: Oh! It moved!
Setting adrift a number of concentric circles atop the water’s surface, the leaf twirls around within the middle of the basin.
Tsudzura: ——We have it.
Even though she made no effort to suppress it with her fingers, the leaf’s turning comes to an abrupt halt.
Sakuya: Then, now all we have to do is go in the direction it points, huh?
Tsudzura: Ah, please be sure not to flip it over—
Sakuya: You don’t have to tell me something like that.
Sakuya-san takes basin in hand and walks.
Facing in the direction the leaf points, then correcting her orbit…
Sakuya-san takes basin in hand and walks.
Facing in the direction the leaf points, then correcting her orbit——
Kei: Sakuya-san, why are you walking around in circles?
Sakuya: Well, you were standing in the way, so I took a detour, but then the darn thing changed direction on me.
*caw caw*
Senba: Sakuya-san… there is something wrong with you……
Sakuya: Although, if it’s gonna point us in the direction of Kei’s blood, it’s natural enough that she’d be source number one.
Even as she admits it, she still thwacks at me. *bashi bashi*
Uuu! Come on, that hurts!
Sakuya: Anyway, right now, with our target being what it is, it’s plain enough you should remove the original, ya think?
Tsudzura: Tahaha… I forgot that completely! As long as I fail to exclude Kei-oneesan and myself, we would be chasing them to the end of the Earth, wouldn’t we—?
Fasting forward, then.
Tsudzura: So, this time, everything is in order. Or at least, it is not reacting to Onee-san or myself.
Senba: Now then, Tsudzura-sama, shall we go forth and slay an oni?