SUBMIT

02

        Geto didn't want to bring Menreiki along as they searched for the rest of her masks, but she and Kitsunemen were rather adamant that they go along. There were pros and cons on allowing her to come with him, but there was one con that stood out above the rest and filled his head. That con was none other than her being sealed away again and his face being revealed as the one who released her. Although they had Mahito following along to assist in finding the mask, Geto still didn't feel right in letting her come. But, in the end, it was futile to keep her at bay considering that she yearned to be one again.

So here he was in Kobe, Hyōgo, framed on both sides by two strong curses. Menreiki to his right and Mahito to his left. None of them were particularly focused on searching for the mask, if he had anything to say about it. Mahito was more interested in the humans and watching them intensely. Menreiki continued to have her eyes closed with the bag of bread still clutched to her chest and knees pulled close to her chest. Kitsunemen was her eyes, ears and mouth in this state when she fell unconscious, so he was lucky that at least someone was focusing on their objective. Kitsunemen spoke softly, the same volume he took whenever Menreiki fell asleep, "If there are shrines erected here then we should check those places first."

Geto nodded his head in agreement. Kitsunemen was much smarter than Geto thought, if he had to be perfectly honest. Taking his words into account, Geto thought about the various temples that were in Hyōgo. There were too many cities for them to look into which would waste their time. They had to move quickly since sorcerers from all around Japan were most likely already aware of Menreiki's awakening and attempting to hunt her down to seal her away again. Geto stared at Kitsunemen through the corner of his eyes which caused the mask to cease its movements around Menreiki as it stared at him, "Is something the matter, Suguru?"

"No, I was just remembering that you and the other masks are noh masks, right?"

"That is correct," Kitsunemen affirmed, which caused Geto to think again. The seven sorcerers that each took a mask of the curse Menreiki split up into different areas to make sure that none of the masks could find one another. Tengen took one and now resides within Tokyo and another mask that held Kitsunemen was in Kyoto. Of course, the location of Menreiki's masks will always change to throw anyone off if they attempt to go after her masks, which made it difficult for Geto to pinpoint a location. The only lead he had for the other five masks was Hyōgo.

Geto silently led them to a shrine that he had particular interest in. The Ikuta Shrine, being one of the oldest shrines in the country, still stood sturdily in place. Considering the fact that Menreiki was older than a lot of other curses, he thought it was a good attempt to try and see if any of the mask holders left it there. It was still daytime and filled with visiting humans when the three arrived.

The first sign that they were on the right track of finding Menreiki's missing masks was that she opened her eyes. The second sign they were doing good was the abundance of cursed energy that gathered in one area. The third sign was actually being confronted by some dumb sorcerers. They were rather confident when they stepped in front of them, some holding more nervous body movements than the rest. It was actually almost respectable that they were this cocky.

"Excuse me, but would you guys kindly move out of the way? I would like to pray," Geto calmly declared, attempting to make it seem as if he had nothing to do with retrieving Menreiki's masks. The man in the center sneered, "You can't trick us, buddy. With two cursed spirits hovering with you, you're obviously not here to pray. Are you the one who released the damned curse, Menreiki?!"

Mahito chuckled as he snapped his fingers, "Looks like these pesky humans don't even know much about Menreiki. Much less her appearance considering she's right here."