I Was Reincarnated in a Modern Day Onmyoji Family - Chapter 17:

The bait problem I couldn’t solve even after 3 days and 3 nights of thinking about it. It was the Onmyoji channel that gave me the answer.

[“No. 4 – Your body is the best onmyodo in the world.”]

Sister Shido and brother Shimabane, plus Shikigami Komainu, who appeared for the first time in the last issue, are giving the opening talk.

[“I like it. I wish I could summon a strong Shikigami too~”]

[“Doggie”.]

Sister Shido hugs Komainu, saying, “He’s so cute!

Brother Shimabane chuckles and teaches us some new onmyou knowledge.

[“The Shido family didn’t inherit the summoning line. If your father or mother used Shikigami, you might all be able to summon Shikigami too.”]

I learned from the previous conversation that each family deals with different onmyojutsu, and that, apart from the basics such as rituals and the handling of amulets, what each family can do is subdivided into smaller groups.

Among them, there are few families that deal with Shikigami, while those that can use powerful Shikigami are said to be prosperous.

I read in a picture book that the founder of the Kyobe family summoned a dragon, but looking at our family’s current situation, we may only be able to summon weak Shikigami now.

[“But I can’t give up! I want to summon a strong Shikigami to fight with me~”]

[“That’s right. There’s only one chance for someone like me to do that.”]

Hoh? Can you summon a new Shikigami?

I was suddenly interested.

The screen switches with the action of Brother Shimabane, and the deformed characters bounce around and explain things.

[“We all know that in Onmyojutsu, we need spiritual power to activate the technique. But actually, there are other things that can be used in Onmyojutsu besides spiritual power.]

[“What do you need to summon a Shikigami?”]

[“Doggie”.]

[“A very special thing that makes not only Shikigami but also all other Onmyoujutsu very strong. It is… our bodies.”]

Brother Shimabane’s miniature character sparkles and shines. It is as if his body itself is a rare item.

[” An Onmyoji has spiritual power in his body, so he can use the Onmyojutsu. So, body parts become very valuable and powerful tools.”]

[“Eh~ I don’t want to hurt my body!”]

[“Of course, all you good boys and girls shouldn’t hurt your bodies. The parts of the body that Onmyoji use are hair and nails that won’t hurt if you cut them. Therefore, Onmyoji must take good care of their bodies and be prepared for any emergency.”]

[“So that’s why my mother told me to take care of my hair! I guess that’s why my mother and father taught me to wash my hair down to my toes in the bathtub!”]

[“If you mix powdered hair and nails into the ink that you use to draw the summoning formation, you can summon a Shikigami that is stronger than when drawn with regular ink,” he said.]

I’m curious about the Shikigami, but I’m more concerned about something else.

The bait that has been bothering me all along, and that I might be able to use my own hair and nails for it.

[“In addition to the summoning formation, parts of the body of the Onmyoji are also used in important rituals. I have heard that even heroes who defeated powerful Yokai of the disaster class used their hair, which they had groomed and grown long since childhood, for their special techniques.”]

[“Wow, then I’ll use my very long hair to make a reliable Shikigami-chan–“]

[“Wait for it. Just because you use a body part doesn’t mean it will be successful. People who cut their hair every year lose their effectiveness because their spiritual power hasn’t permeated their hair, and if they don’t have enough spiritual power, the ritual will fail. You should take care of yourself when you are young and use it as a trump card when you grow up to be a professional Onmyoji.]

[“I see, you have to take care of the body your father and mother gave you!”]

Onmyouji Channel No. 4 closed with a summary of a lesson taught.

I knew the lesson of course, without needing to be told it. However, having experienced reincarnation and knowing more than anyone else the importance of the body my parents gave me, I was about to defy that lesson head-on.

“Oh my, Saint, where are you going?”

“Ummm.”

My reply was all over the place.

I’m sorry, Mother. But I still can’t seem to give up my ambition.

After watching the Ommyoji channel, I realized once again that spiritual power is the standard for the power of an Onmyoji.

It seems that the absorption of mysterious creatures that raise my spiritual power was more important than I thought.

Operation to capture the mysterious creatures.

I must do it even more than before.

The trump card is hair, which has been carefully grown since infancy. It is important, but if one’s spiritual power is fundamentally improved, cutting one’s hair every year will be enough to penetrate one’s spiritual power.

I, who have trained to control spiritual power with my tentacles, can’t just gather spiritual power in each part of my body.

After all, I think I should increase the total amount of spiritual power produced while I am a child.

My hair is finally just starting to grow out, and for the most part it’s just soft hair.

If I cut this hair, my mother would definitely notice.

The scissors are out of my reach to begin with. I now hate my parents’ love of hiding dangerous things in high places when their children become able to stand.

The contradiction of how to get the food, …… in spite of …… own body, but not easy to get it, haunts me.

When I returned to my bedroom, I looked down at the towel that served as my pillow and saw my loose hairs on it.

I was told that a baby’s soft hair grows back and becomes the same hair as an adult. I was told that even if I went bald, it would not be a problem.

“Easy peasy, I got it.”

Unlike fingernails, you don’t have to cut your hair to get it.

I’m reminded now of an all too common physiological phenomenon.

But that’s crazy.

I slept all my life until I could walk, and if I had hair on my pillow, I would have seen it. But now that I remember, I haven’t seen my own hair loss in the last year or so.

What if the mysterious creatures ate them without my knowledge?

I don’t know the truth, but I can make a trap out of this.

I quickly extended my tentacles out of the bedroom and placed a hair in the darkness to serve as bait.

The hair was surrounded by a thin mesh of deformed tentacles that spread out thinly, so that when it approached the hair, I could sense its presence and instantly capture it.

Not yet…

Not showing…

Hey, how many hours has it been?

It must have been at least three hours.

And yet, there is no sign of any prey.

Could this be a failure?

When I think of hair used in witchcraft, I think of the scene where the hair is cut in a slash at the moment of using the technique. That was a movie, so I don’t know how a real Onmyoji would use it.

However, if you can collect hair and use powerful Onmyoji techniques, even the Onmyoji channel would say, “Keep the hair you lose.

In other words, naturally shed hair cannot be used for onmyoujutsu, which means it is probably worthless.

Then what should I do: ……

“Reiroku, komete miyu.”

Let’s try to freshen it up.

I think the difference between hair that has been cut and hair that has fallen out is whether or not spiritual power remains…

Then I can put spiritual power into it again.

“Sukkoku, nachimu.”

Perhaps because it was my former body, the spiritual power I poured into it permeated quickly.

It was the first time for me to try pouring spiritual power into another object, but it was no different from the action of moving spiritual power outward, which I had become accustomed to through tentacle manipulation.

I poured a full amount of spiritual power into my hair and immediately placed it in the dark.

“Here it comes!”

This time, I didn’t have to wait three minutes before my prey was on the hook.

This familiar feeling was definitely that of a strange creature.

I captured it with my tentacles and brought it right up to my eyes.

“I can’t see it.”

The tentacles definitely feel like they are holding the mysterious creature, but my eyes don’t see anything.

Moreover, the creature that is trying to escape seems to be slipping through the tentacles at this very moment. It’s a strange sensation, as if I have a hold on it, but I don’t. I throw it into my mouth before it can escape.

“As usual, I am sorry.”

But this muzziness is habit-forming, I guess.

Yes, even though I couldn’t see it, the mysterious creature still existed.

I feel a surge of spiritual power as I instantly kill that thing that fell into my stomach with a wave of spiritual power.

I see, after all, spiritual power is all-important.

It is not the hair itself, but the spiritual power contained within it that is important.

Thus, I took the next step toward becoming a Onmyoji, and at the same time, I was reunited with the mysterious creature.