保護者の目
The Guardian's Eyes


Sakuya: Kei! Hey, where'n the hell did you---

Sakuya: ---Wait, why are you here?

Kei: We made up. Huh? Our side has increased, but your side is down?

I restlessly search, but see no trace of that girl and her baby white fox.

Kei: Sakuya-san, what happened to them?

Sakuya: I let the runaway girl and her fox go. It's all good, right? Make a wrong move and things could get outta hand, anyway.

Kei: I guess... but, "get out of hand"?...... It's crazy for a kid that small to run away from home, Sakuya-san. You have to give them custody...

Sakuya: No worries, she's fine. Looks like she has plenty of money, sense, knowledge, power, she'll pull through fine, the little punk. Isn't she just a trooper?

Kei: But still......

Sakuya: There's gotta be some reason for a kid to run away. Just let it be.

Sakuya: So, why is Uzuki here?

Kei: I thought she came to this mountain, so I went to meet her. Looks like I have a talent for reading people, huh?

Sakuya: ......Uzuki, why can't your hardheadedness chase off Kei, of all people?

Uzuki: Even my blade has been defeated, today as well. Yesterday she even had an oni behind her.

Kei: Ahaha, today she mistook me for an oni and knocked me over, but in a game of perseverance, victory is mine.

Sakuya: Listen to you... not a care in the world.

Uzuki: With her like this, anything you say is probably said in futility.

Sakuya: ......Good grief. When you combine the age old Hatou happy-go-lucky attitude with Mayumi's stubbornness, the resulting personality is a thing you just can't deal with in a crisis.

Sakuya: With only stubbornness on Uzuki's side, she can only bend in the face of it.

Kei: Wah, casual badmouthing? You aren't praising me at all?

Sakuya: Of course I'm not praising you in the least. And my opinion that you need to get yer butt back home hasn't changed, either.

Sakuya: Because you spew out "I still haven't seen my dad's house, okay!?" I give you a ride here, only to have you pull out and go cavorting with oni.

Kei: Uzuki-san isn't an oni!

Sakuya: She might as well be one. If you want to conquer a barbarian, become one. That's been this country's way of doing things since antiquity.

Sakuya: The ancient leader of the Onikiribe, the head of the Onmyouryou, Abe no Seimei, was the love-child of a monster fox and a human, anyway.

Kei: Uuu---

Sakuya: ......So, Uzuki. What do you plan to do? What plans do you have in mind for Kei?

Kei: Wait a sec, I was the one who......

Sakuya: No way. I can't just allow someone with no goals in life to associate with you.

Kei: Wah, not even my mom has ever said that to me......

Great, the surrogate guardian comes to meddle.

Kei: Sakuya-san, you let that little runaway girl do her thing, then complain about my choice of friends?

Kei: Is she some stranger you only met a few times? Or are you picking on me because you and Uzuki-san don't get along?

Sakuya: There's that too, but this is a time of crisis.

Sakuya: So, Uzuki.

Uzuki: As long as I am nearby, I can protect Kei-san from oni. If I kill those oni twins, the threat will be lifted, am I right?

Sakuya: Well, we should have you do that for us, at least.

Uzuki: However, the problem is that the Nie no Chi will attract another oni, and yet another.

Uzuki: The barrier over this region seems to serve in hiding that existence from outside perception, yet Kei-san came from the outside at the same time I did.

Uzuki: But, Kei-san, until very recently you'd been raised outside, not even aware of the existence of oni, right?

Kei: Yeah. For ten years, I've been far away from here.

Uzuki: Sakuya-san. How did Kei-san manage to hide the Nie no Chi?

Sakuya: Ahh, that's probably because of that. Kei, hand me your cell.

Kei: ...... Kei's "keitai," (cell) did you make a funny?

Sakuya: Don't be a fool. That charm, it's on the strap, right?

Kei: Ah, you mean the one from my grandmother?

I see, I get it now.
If making an easy target for oni is an inherited trait, then my ancestors must have dealt with the same problem.
Since Hemidzuka is okay, they must have been "settled" here in the truest sense, but being unable to go on the Ise Pilgrimage must've been inconvenient. (TN: Ise - one of Japan's more famous shrines. People of the Edo period viewed the pilgrimage as a required event, at least once per lifetime.)
That's where the Hatou familly charm comes in. The effect, to make the owner harder to target by oni or other people. With this, the ancestors of Yajikita fans everywhere can rest easy. (TN: TN: Based on a 1958 film, Yajikita dochu sugoroku, where two samurai travel to Ise Shrine, presumably on a pilgrimage, but really to get away from their wives. On the way, they are beset by all sorts of misfortune and misunderstandings.)

Kei: Here you go.

Sakuya: Have a look.

As she takes my phone from the right and passes it left to Uzuki-san.
With her left eye, Uzuki-san stares silently at the attached blue stone.
As if the blue color reflects in her vision, her deep night-colored eyes seem to give off a blue light.

Uzuki: ......I see, so that's it.

Kei: What? What happened?

Uzuki: This stone has had power woven into it in a method I'm familiar with. That power is what protected you until now.

Kei: Ah, I thought so. So as long as I hold this stone, oni that don't know about the Hatou family won't go through the trouble to target me, then?

Uzuki: That's it exactly. But the power in this stone is nearly exhausted. If we don't recharge it, it won't last for more than a few months.

Kei: ......Ehh!?

So the power of this stone is like a cell phone battery, and has to be recharged or else - but wait.

Kei: What do I do? I'm a goner even if I go home, Sakuya-san!

Sakuya: ......Yeah, I hate to admit it, but we need Uzuki's help.

Kei: But, but, I'm okay with it, but our homes and schools are different, so we can't just be together all the time......

Of course, I'd be overjoyed if Uzuki-san would stay and protect me all the time, but with my grades, getting into her school would be absolutely impossible.
For a local school, mine isn't exactly bad, though---

Kei: ---Aita!

Unto my head, spinning out of control, the flat hand chopping down *peshin* applies the brakes.

Sakuya: Hey you, were you listening properly to what Uzuki's telling you?

Kei: ......Umm...?

Sakuya: She said it's in a method she's familiar with, didn't she? In other words, Uzuki can recharge it, right?

Uzuki: Not exactly in a single day, however.

Sakuya: Wonderful. This means we can't leave the barrier region until it's recharged.

Sakuya: Of course it'll be different if Uzuki manages to deliver before the expiration.

Uzuki: That would be fine with me.

Kei: You can't, Uzuki-san. I can't give you that much trouble. It's okay, I can wait.

Sakuya: So you say, but that would cause more trouble.

Sakuya: That's how it is. If you have to protect Kei, it'll interfere with your precious duty, right?

Uzuki: It won't be a problem.

Kei: A-and, if I'm a target, I could at least serve as bait, you know?

Sakuya: That won't be necessary. At any rate, that boy won't lay a finger on Kei.

Kei: Really?

Sakuya: Nozomi and Mikage are the problem here.

Uzuki: But they only move after sunset, and using talismans can prevent invasion. It is possible to fulfill my duty while ensuring Kei-san's safety.

Press circle once more and then check your divergence map.
Note the branching of the white line and pick the appropriate path below.
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