I Sealed Sukuna’s Finger#415+416: About to Be Discovered by Little Sister, Time to Properly Punish Yasaka!

"Huff... huff..."

The girl's labored breathing echoed through the mountains. By the time Yura reached Yasaka Shrine, two full hours had passed.

As mentioned before, while technically within Kyoto's boundaries, Yasaka Shrine sat deep in the mountains. Even with the onmyoji girl's skills, the climb from the mountain's base took over an hour.

The ridiculous part was that Yura had rushed out so frantically she'd only realized partway there that she hadn't brought any talismans—meaning she couldn't summon her white tiger for transportation and had to run the entire way on foot.

Good thing she had spiritual power enhancing her stamina. Without it, even a professional athlete couldn't handle this much physical exertion.

But she was almost there now, just a bit further...

The afternoon sun blazed through gaps in the dense mountain foliage, dappling the thousand stone steps with light. The stifling air buzzed with the drone of countless cicadas. Sweat streamed from the onmyoji girl's hair, carried backward by the wind from her sprint.

Yura lifted her face with effort. The torii gate of Yasaka Shrine was clearly visible ahead.

Finally—

Tap.

With the last step conquered, the onmyoji girl's foot landed on the shrine's front courtyard.

She'd made it!

"Ha... ha, cough... ha..."

After sprinting up those thousand steps, even Yura's stamina was reaching its limits. Standing in the courtyard, she bent over with hands on her knees, gasping for breath.

But she couldn't stop here.

Barely catching her breath, Yura straightened up and strode toward the shrine's closed doors.

She reached the entrance and knocked gently.

"Lady Yasaka, are you there? This is Yura Keikain..."

No response came.

This was highly unusual. Lady Yasaka should always be at the shrine—it wasn't just her residence but also the anchor point for the barrier covering all of Kansai.

Besides, Lady Yasaka had no reason to go out, right?

With this puzzlement, Yura mentally apologized for the intrusion, then carefully pushed open the shrine doors.

Creak—

The doors weren't locked. The onmyoji girl pushed them open easily, and cool air flowed out from within.

Just as Yura stepped inside, subtle sounds from deeper in the corridor caught her attention.

It sounded like... water?

But why would there be water sounds in Lady Yasaka's shrine?

Yura grew more curious.

Just as she was about to investigate further, footsteps from around the corridor's corner made her stop in her tracks.

The next second, the golden-haired, fox-eared classical beauty emerged from around the corner, as elegantly beautiful as always but still emanating faint traces of moisture—as if she'd just bathed.

And following behind her was Bokue Keikain, looking completely at ease.

"Brother?!"

The unexpected sight made Yura cry out involuntarily.

At the same time, Yasaka and Bokue emerging from the corner noticed the onmyoji girl at the entrance.

"Ara? What brings Yura-chan here today?"

Yasaka's steps paused slightly.

She'd just finished bathing with Bokue and emerged from the bathroom. Hearing footsteps, she'd thought her daughter had woken up, never expecting it to be Yura Keikain.

Honestly, her daughter would've been slightly easier—at least little Kunou was simple-minded. She'd just be happy to see Bokue and wouldn't care about anything else.

But now it was Yura Keikain, staring straight at them. How could they explain this?

"Um... good afternoon, Lady Yasaka."

Yura at the shrine entrance snapped back to her senses, realizing her rudeness, and quickly bowed in greeting.

But Yasaka simply smiled and waved her hand. "It's fine, it's fine. Yura-chan, you don't need to be so formal."

"Then... thank you, Lady Yasaka."

Calming slightly from her panic, Yura straightened up, glancing at the golden-haired fox-eared beauty before her, then turning to the youth beside her who was winking at her.

"So why is Brother here too? And... Lady Yasaka, you were just bathing, weren't you?"

"Yeah, that's right." Bokue didn't deny it. "Actually, I just got here not long ago. More importantly, Yura, why did you suddenly come here?"

"I came because—"

The onmyoji girl cut herself off mid-sentence, suddenly realizing the topic had been deflected again.

"Wait, I'm the one asking you questions, Brother. Why are you asking me instead?"

"Oh, you've gotten smarter..."

Bokue rubbed his chin.

"Well, it's nothing really. I moved my home back to Kyoto, so I came to notify Yasaka first."

Moved back... to Kyoto?

Yura understood each individual word, but somehow the sentence together made no sense.

The onmyoji girl frowned slightly, asking half-hopefully, half-probingly: "So Brother, you mean you're moving back to the main house?"

"Hm? Of course not."

Bokue raised an eyebrow slightly.

"It's a long story. How about I take you directly to my current residence later? You'll understand once you see it. So back to the point—Yura, why did you rush here so urgently?"

"...Yes."

Getting the youth's promise, Yura finally nodded cooperatively.

"The Keikain main house barrier suddenly received an alert detecting a massive object appearing in Kyoto's coastal waters..."

"Oh, that's it." Bokue clapped his hands.

"Perfect, I've already explained everything to Yasaka. Let me take you to see it now."

"Eh? Brother, you know about this? So what exactly is—"

"Like I said, it's a long story. Don't ask now—I can't explain it in a sentence or two. You'll understand when we get there."

Yura wanted to ask more, but Bokue had already pressed her shoulders, turning her around and pushing her toward the door. At the same time, he casually reached back to give a gentle squeeze to the voluptuous curves beneath the beautiful woman's kimono.

"Alright, alright, Yasaka doesn't need to see us out. We'll be going now. I'll visit again when I have time."

"Mmm... okay, go ahead."

Yasaka hadn't recovered from that squeeze yet. Her already flushed cheeks from bathing grew even redder as she bit her lower lip and nodded, her eyes shimmering like wind-rippled lake water.

She watched Bokue lead Yura out of the shrine before they vanished into thin air.

Only after confirming the youth had completely left did Yasaka release a small sigh of relief.

When she turned around, the black-haired girl who'd been in the room next to theirs now stood in the corridor corner behind her, arms crossed and leaning against the wall with a knowing smirk.

"Sister, so that's the child you care for?"

"..."

After a long silence, Yasaka could only sigh.

"Sister, you still won't give up..."

"Give up? Of course not."

Hagoromo-Gitsune narrowed her beautiful dark eyes with an evil smile, touching her finger to her slightly upturned lips.

"I've sworn to sever the bloodlines of both the Keikain family and the Nura clan. This is a fox's revenge, even if it makes Sister hate me."

"Sister..."

But what they didn't know was that at that very moment, high above Yasaka Shrine, Bokue Keikain held the girl in his arms as she gazed at Itogami Island on the distant sea, while he looked down below with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Oh~ Hagoromo-Gitsune, so that's how it is."

<><><><><><><><>

For Yura Keikain, today had been absolutely explosive.

Setting aside the morning, from lunchtime onward, one troublesome thing after another had come crashing down in succession.

From the barrier detecting a massive object appearing in Kyoto's coastal waters, to her frantic sprint to Yasaka Shrine only to find her brother there, to being taken by said brother to see that massive object—Itogami Island—then meeting a large group of women at the Keystone Gate who all seemed to have "extremely ambiguous relationships" with her brother.

Granted, everyone got along relatively well on the surface.

But that was just the surface.

At least for Yura herself, she absolutely couldn't accept that her brother had so many ambiguously-related women outside... and every single one of them was so well-endowed!

Yura didn't even know how so many had suddenly appeared, all living together!

This was... this was just reckless relationship chaos, completely immoral!

In short, after spending an absolutely explosive afternoon on Itogami Island, evening finally arrived.

Yura had eaten dinner on Itogami Island before Bokue sent her home. It was already past seven in the evening—the fiery sunset had long since sunk into the sea, and deep twilight gradually enveloped Kyoto.

❁❁❁❁

Scene shift—

With a flash of golden light, Bokue Keikain appeared with Yura in the Keikain main house's head residence.

Compared to a month ago, none of the decorations or furnishings had changed.

"Alright, Yura, go notify the main house. I'll be heading out now."

In the classical Japanese courtyard with bamboo shadows swaying in the breeze, Bokue set down the onmyoji girl in his arms, gently ruffling her soft black hair.

He hadn't forgotten that when Yura had come to Yasaka Shrine that afternoon, she'd told him she'd come because the main house's onmyoji barrier had detected a massive object in Kyoto's coastal waters.

Yet afterward, instead of taking Yura straight back to the main house, he'd kept her on Itogami Island all afternoon.

In other words, theoretically the alarm in the Keikain main house's barrier hall had been blaring all afternoon. If it kept going, those people would probably develop nervous breakdowns from the noise.

Though... knowing the main house people as Bokue did, they'd probably turned off the alarm shortly after it started.

After all, these people had excellent attitudes—when facing an opponent they couldn't even attempt to fight, they'd simply lie down and give up.

Yura hesitated before asking, "It's been a month since you've been back. Won't you say hello to Brother Ryuji and the others?"

"No."

Bokue's rejection was absolutely decisive.

"Ryuji definitely doesn't want to see me anyway."

That was actually true.

Due to the Keikain family system, each generation's main house selected elite talents from the branch families to become the new main house members.

This meant that while Yura called both him and Ryuji "brother," only Ryuji was Yura's actual blood brother, while Bokue had no blood relation to Yura at all.

But Ryuji was an ultimate siscon. Though he had no inappropriate intentions, he was extremely protective about his sister's social circle.

Especially since Bokue was still the Keikain family's acting head, and Yura had been chosen as the next family head. Theoretically, they should be living together every day.

This meant whenever Ryuji discovered Bokue had returned, he'd immediately enter a state where he couldn't eat, sleep, or even think straight.

After all, thinking about his sister living with another man every day—who knew when something terrible might happen?

"It's... not that extreme..."

Yura wanted to deny it, but after thinking carefully, she realized she couldn't. She could only smile awkwardly.

"You never know."

Bokue shrugged.

"Alright, I have other things to do. I'll be going now."

"Mm..."

Yura nodded instinctively. Only after nodding did she realize she hadn't asked when he'd visit next. She wanted to speak up, but when she looked up, the youth had already vanished.

❁❁❁❁

Meanwhile, at Yasaka Shrine—

Outside the bathroom, the golden-haired fox-eared beauty had just finished adding firewood to the furnace. She raised her voice slightly through the wall.

"Kunou, Mommy's added the firewood. How's the water temperature?"

"Thank you, Mommy! The temperature's perfect now."

The little fox girl's young voice came through the bathroom wall.

"Good, that's good."

Yasaka smiled gently.

"Take your time bathing, Kunou. Mommy will be in the sitting room. Just call if you need anything."

"Okay!"

Hearing her daughter's affirmative response, the golden-haired beauty stood up reassured, heading down the corridor.

But just as she rounded the corner heading back to the sitting room, the youth's form appeared behind Yasaka with a flash of golden light. His hands wrapped around the golden-haired beauty's waist from both sides, meeting at her flat stomach wrapped tightly in her kimono, embracing her.

"Good evening, Yasaka."

"Eh... Bokue? Why are you here at this time..."

Realizing the youth's sudden visit, Yasaka's heart instinctively leaped with joy, but then came small complications.

"W-wait, Bokue, not now... Kunou's bathing right now. She'll be out soon. If she discovers us... Anyway, wait a bit. After I put Kunou to bed, then you can do whatever you want..."

"Don't worry, this won't take long."

Bokue held the golden-haired beauty in his arms, his fingertips gently tracing across her flat stomach.

"Remember this afternoon when I came here asking if you wanted to move to Itogami Island? At first you refused, making all sorts of poor excuses. But after I exposed them, you suddenly agreed. Don't you find that strange, Yasaka?"

Even this minuscule action made Yasaka's cheeks flush red.

She bit her lower lip, her jade feet wrapped in white socks and wooden clogs unconsciously tensing.

"I... I don't understand what you're saying..."

"Is that so? Let me put it another way then."

Bokue's hands separated, one high and one low—one finger sealing that garden entrance while the upper hand supported those mountains. He lowered his head slightly to whisper in the golden-haired beauty's ear.

"There's a black-haired high school girl staying at your shrine now, right?"

"!!!"

Yasaka's body trembled violently.

But Bokue wasn't satisfied with just that, continuing:

"And I also know she's called Hagoromo-Gitsune—the same Hagoromo-Gitsune recorded in the Keikain family histories as the lord of demons who ruled Kyoto for four hundred years."