Miracle Summoner

That day, the game of hide-and-seek between Rozen and Kurahashi Kyouko never stopped.

Especially for Rozen, who not only perfected the art of hiding his spiritual energy using the secret techniques of Invisibility Jutsu but also concealed his physical form. He weaved through the crowded streets, vanishing suddenly into thin air, blending seamlessly into space, leaving no trace of his presence.

This, of course, was the result of his mastery over Space Manipulation Magic.

Back in the Sixth Singularity, due to the influence of the Holy Lance, the singularity itself was on the verge of collapse. Moreover, with the Holy City, which served as the Holy Lance's outer shell, being completely isolated from the outside world and later transforming into the Tower at the Ends of the World, it even summoned forth the very end of the world, causing the disintegration of human history itself. Under such circumstances, Rozen's Space Manipulation Magic was virtually useless.

After all, when the world itself was collapsing, trying to manipulate space within such a distorted reality would require an extremely intricate and complex magic formula, something beyond the capabilities of an ordinary person—even he wouldn't be able to achieve it on the fly.

Even Rozen, despite possessing Thought Acceleration and Thought Partitioning, which allowed him to construct complex formulas through parallel processing, could not freely and instantly execute them. As a result, he had all but abandoned the use of Space Manipulation Magic in that singularity.

But in this world, there were no such limitations.

Rozen could use Space Manipulation Magic freely and naturally. Not only could he traverse Tokyo at will, but perhaps he could even move freely across the entire country without issue.

Moreover, Space Manipulation Magic wasn't his only means of teleportation—he also had the ability to perform far step, a high-level technique from the Imperial Style Onmyodou, which allowed him to travel at high speed through spiritual veins.

This particular jujutsu technique was considered an advanced method within the Imperial Style, but Rozen had already fully mastered it long ago. Now, in a city like Tokyo, where spiritual veins were everywhere, it was the perfect method for rapid movement.

Thus, Rozen alternated between space transfers and moving through spiritual veins, making himself an elusive phantom, appearing in every corner of Tokyo.

Yet, despite this, Kurahashi Kyouko still managed to stay on his trail, appearing on street after street in pursuit.

Although she lacked Rozen's astounding proficiency in jutsuryoku and magic, which allowed him to materialize and vanish in an instant without a trace, her determination was exceptional. She didn't rely solely on taxis but also used trains, motorcycles, and even bicycles to chase him down tirelessly through the streets.

This girl possessed an unknown ability—one that allowed her to track Rozen no matter how elusive he became. She always managed to pinpoint his location and pursued him through various means, forcing him to constantly relocate, leaving her grasping at empty air.

Yet, despite missing her target time and again, Kurahashi Kyouko refused to give up, persistently tracking Rozen with unwavering determination.

Her sheer perseverance and resilience left Rozen in awe.

"Maybe I really underestimated her."

Thinking back, Rozen realized he had never truly tried to understand Kyouko.

Perhaps, to Kyouko, Rozen's existence had already become an inseparable part of her life. But for Rozen himself, she was merely someone he had met once in childhood, then reunited with at Onmyo Academy, where she constantly challenged him. Thanks to Natsume standing up for him, his interactions with Kyouko had been limited. It wasn't until the spiritual disaster terror attack incident that they had any meaningful conversations, and even then, it was during a crisis, leaving little room for real interaction.

Despite this, Kyouko remained so fixated on him, so persistent—it was almost incomprehensible.

But perhaps, this was what people called fate.

In any case, Rozen bore no ill will toward Kyouko. On the contrary, he actually admired her to some extent.

"I just don't understand why she's so stubborn."

From Rozen's perspective, there was no reason for Kyouko to go this far for him.

Yet, Kyouko not only did so but was also determined to become his shikigami, something that left Rozen both impressed and exasperated.

"Are all girls like this?"

With a complicated mix of emotions, Rozen continued playing hide-and-seek with Kyouko.

Truthfully, if Rozen really wanted to disappear, even Kyouko's ability wouldn't be able to track him down.

At this point, Rozen's jutsuryoku far surpassed anyone in this world. Even if the legendary Abe no Seimei himself were to appear, he likely wouldn't be Rozen's match.

The same applied to Yakou—Rozen had already surpassed him.

While Rozen's jujutsu knowledge originated from Raven's Wing Records, which contained all the jujutsu knowledge that Yakou had gathered and developed in his lifetime, it was supposed to mean that Rozen's jujutsu proficiency would not surpass Yakou's.

But that was only in theory.

After all, even Yakou, despite being backed by the Kurahashi and Souma families in collecting nearly all jujutsu systems throughout history, had only managed to analyze, deconstruct, reconstruct, and refine them into the militarized Imperial Style Onmyojutsu system. His jujutsu knowledge was undoubtedly vast, but at the end of the day, he was still human.

Some jujutsu had long been forgotten by him.

Some, though remembered, had yet to find an appropriate application.

And given his finite spiritual energy and limitations, there were many techniques Yakou knew but simply couldn't perform in practice.

For example, Daiitoku Mantra was originally a large-scale ritual spell that was extremely difficult to use without multiple practitioners. There were countless other jujutsu that Yakou, due to various constraints, either had to modify, discard, or forget entirely.

Meanwhile, Rozen had acquired all of these jujutsu from the very beginning through Raven's Wing. After tirelessly training for decades, he had systematically mastered and realized them all. Not only that, but he had also refined and optimized many of them through his own insights and adaptations.

Furthermore, even if two different people used the same jujutsu, the power and effectiveness would differ based on the practitioner. By this point, Rozen had long surpassed Yakou in jujutsu execution.

Under these circumstances, Rozen had plenty of ways to evade Kyouko's pursuit entirely, making himself completely untraceable.

But he refrained from doing so.

Because deep down, he knew—given Kyouko's sheer determination and stubbornness—if he truly disappeared, she might take extreme and reckless actions in response.

Considering this, Rozen dared not vanish completely and instead chose to play along.

"If I just wear down her patience, surely she'll give up."

That was Rozen's assumption.

Unfortunately, he still didn't understand Kyouko well enough.

In the end, not only did Kyouko refuse to give up, but she even pushed herself to the extreme.

Rozen soon realized that, after continuously using her ability multiple times, Kyouko's spiritual energy had begun to weaken—until, at last, it became dangerously faint.

Then, she stopped moving altogether.

"…That idiot."

Rozen let out a wry smile before vanishing into space once again.

This time, however, he reappeared—right in front of Kyouko.