Chapter 109 - White Lies

After a minute of anxious wait, Kotone sees Fumio look away from his phone.

"Well. You're not on any wanted list. At least not yet. I can't find anything about the Oonishi either. They probably sealed the news about what you did. Congratulations." Fumio tells her.

"T-that's good…" She is relieved for now.

"It's great news." Fumio smiles at her, feeling just as relieved.

"Hm?" He suddenly frowns as he snaps his face to random direction.

"What is it?" Kotone asks.

"Scan around." Fumio tells her.

Kotone concentrates on feeling out the atmospheric spiritual energy and "Huh?", she feels what Fumio just detected.

"Feels familiar." She notices.

"It is. Let's go." Fumio leads the way.

A few seconds later, the two are atop the bamboo walls, standing on the bamboo leaves, both staring stunned at an object drifting slowly towards their direction.

"Is that…" Kotone cannot believe it.

"It is…" Fumio says and as the object gets in his reach, he grabs it.

"I thought Kichirou-san finds it valuable. What is it doing out here?" Kotone wonders aloud.

"It's… Huh… It's a different one." Fumio says in interest as he caresses the wood chip on his grasp, one that is similarly sized as the one that was owned by the Oonishi.

"Wow…" Kotone, knowing what the thing is used for, cannot believe that something so valuable just came to them on its own.

"Wait… Wasn't Gin-san tasked by boss to look for other wood chips?" Fumio asks.

"He was… We haven't seen him in a few… real-world weeks, so it must be really hard to find one… but here is one." Kotone feels bad for Gin.

Fumio frees the wood chip from his grasp and lets it drift in the air once again.

Soon, the wood chip descends to the garden, and tries to burrow through the ground. This is enough for Fumio and Kotone to realize that it is heading to the direction of Red's cave under the hill.

"Okay." Fumio quickly picks up the wood chip.

"I've got an idea." He tells Kotone.

"What is it?" Kotone asks.

"When boss finds out you let Gentarou live, he might not like it. He might get angry even. But if you present this to him… maybe you can appease him?" Fumio suggests.

"But what if Kichirou-san already knows of this? After all, it looks like it's going home to his cave." Kotone asks.

"It's fine. Let's decide what we'll do based on boss' reaction when you hand it to him. If he gets pleasantly surprised to see it, then he doesn't know about this. If he looks at you weirdly, then tell him that you just fetched it for him." Fumio suggests.

"O-okay… But you know him. It's like he can read minds." Kotone is hesitant.

"Well? I'll just be honest and tell boss it's my idea if we get caught." Fumio assures.

"Y-you don't have to. This is my mistake, my fault." Kotone is against the idea.

"I feel partly responsible. If I had ended Hideki, and if I hadn't taught you how I did it…" Fumio is about to say that had he not taught Kotone how to cripple a superioris' powers, she would have not have had that option and instead had gone in for the kill; which does not sound great.

"Never mind. I feel responsible." He assures her.

A few moments later, the two find themselves in Red's cave, finding the portal to the treasure fragment's dimension, activated.

"Huh. He's back." Fumio says. Only Red can open the portal after all.

"haaa…" Kotone takes a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Let's go in?" Fumio asks.

"Yeah. Let's get this over with." Kotone nods.

Fumio decides to enter first but as he is about to, *fwahhh* he is repelled by the portal's light veil, forcing him to take a few steps back.

"*gulp*" Kotone swallows nervously.

"You think he heard us earlier?" She asks, her resolve to talk to Red evaporating immediately.

"Relax. Try entering first." Fumio tells her, sharing Kotone's fear.

Kotone nods and steps in the portal, successfully entering the treasure fragment's dimension.

As soon as she enters, she immediately sees a noticeable change.

The farms no longer look like traditional farms which crops blanket the vast land. Instead, it is as if she is in front of skyscraper-sized shelves. Each giant compartment of the giant shelves contains a parcel of farm in it, which lush crops are grown.

"Good lord…" Just looking at the structure makes her feel insignificant and small.

Then something else catches her eyes; a large clay oven. Something that brings her painful memories.

The oven is what Red had her and Fumio use to bathe in Xoz'gekal's flames. Even though the experience made her skin as tough as copper, the memories of it still give her cold sweats. Especially because the process burnt her long silky hair, making her unavoidably bald. If it weren't for Red's hair-growth concoction, she never would have gotten her head hair back quickly.

She finds something unusual with the oven today however.

Xoz'gekal is on top of it, infusing blue flames inside the oven. She never saw Xoz'gekal use his flames inside the pocket dimension except for when he uses it on her or Fumio. This scene takes her curiosity and she quickly joins the demon.

"Kotone-chan… what are you doing here?" Xoz'gekal asks.

"I'm looking for Kichirou-san..." as Kotone states her purpose, she notices that Xoz'gekal is looking pale.

"Are you okay?" She asks in worry.

"Yeah. I'm just… approaching my limit." A soon as Xoz'gekal said that, he stops infusing flames to the oven, and he falls to his knees.

"Xoz-san! Are you okay?" Kotone has never seen the demon looking so weak.

"I'm fine. Just need some breather… damn." Xoz'gekal stands up and jumps down to the ground.

The next moment, Kotone sees 'door' of the clay oven and from inside, Red steps out. Kotone frowns seeing Red fully clothed, his hair not burnt.

"Kotone. Hello." Red greets her.

"Good job on Gentarou, by the way." He says as he tosses something to Xoz'gekal.

"Thanks boss." Xoz'gekal says and leaves for the portal immediately.

"Uhh… Thank you?" Kotone is taken aback.

"Yes. A very clean job." Red nods.

"Huh?" Kotone is confused.

"I'm sorry, I didn't trust you, so I checked in the Oonishi to make sure that you didn't leave any loose ends. To my surprise. You did it perfectly. You even made him disappear. The Oonishi seek the help of other clans to look for Gentarou." Red keeps nodding in approval.

"B-but… I di-" Kotone's stomach sinks.

Being mistaken for a perfect murderer makes her feel worse than bad. So she takes a deep breath and a glint of resolve appears in her eyes.

"Kichirou-san… No… Sensei. I have a confession to make." She starts telling Red of exactly what happened.

A few minutes later, Kotone is done confessing everything to Red, including her fears and thoughts of the matter.

"I see… Well. That isn't so bad either." Red nods.

"You're not…" Kotone is surprised by Red's non-reaction.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm a bit disappointed. But that raises an interesting question. Where is Gentarou right now? Maybe him being 'missing' is a ruse, and that they are actually looking for you. Maybe a fellow clansman of his who has been eyeing his position finished him off for you. Whatever the case is, you left loose ends." Red says.

"I-…" Kotone looks away.

"I'm willing to take any punishment, Sensei." She accepts her fate.

"No punishment. But responsibilities. If this bites us in the ass in the future, be sure you're powerful enough to fix it. And I'm not going to interfere." Red says.

Even though this is the first time that Red is talking to her this seriously, Kotone is relieved.

"I understand, sensei." She accepts the responsibility.

"Good." Red nods.

"That's right… Did you block out Fumio from entering here?" Kotone asks.

"Hm? No. Why? He can't get in?" Red asks.

"Yes. He was repelled by the portal." Kotone reports.

"Interesting…"

...

"Boss." Fumio greets Red as soon as Red and Kotone leaves the pocket dimension.

"Kotone said you can't get in?" Red asks.

"I can't." Fumio nods.

"But I'm not in a hurry to go back in there. Instead… Kotone found this for you." He then takes out the wood chip and hands it to Red.

"Oh… nice…" Red grins as he scans the treasure fragment with his spirit sense.

Fumio and Kotone are pleased by Red's reaction.

"I'm guessing you can't enter because of this." Red says.

"Why?" Fumio asks.

"I'll explain in due time." Red shrugs.

The explanation is pretty simple.

A pocket dimension cannot contain another object that contains an equally or superiorly classed pocket dimension to it. From Red's scan on the new wood chip, he figures that it contains a pocket dimension inside of it, which is of the same level as the pocket dimension of the first treasure fragment he activated, therefore cannot be contained inside the first treasure fragment's pocket dimension.

Pocket dimensions like the ones inside Red's, Fumio's, and Kotone's storage rings meanwhile, are inferior to the treasure fragment's pocket dimension, so they can be used inside the treasure fragment's dimension.

"Now. Try going inside." Red then gestures Fumio to go in the portal.

"Okay." Fumio nods and he dives in to the portal.

As if proving Red's guess, Fumio disappears in the portal.

Just a few seconds later, Fumio steps back out of the portal.

"Boss… That's a high-tech lookin' f*ckin farm!" Fumio says in excitement.

"Uhuh…" Red waves off in dismissal.

"Now… This is interesting." He says, feeling a very slight movement from the wood chip on his hand.

"Boss. Release it." Fumio says, and Red does so.

The three cultivators then see the wood chip drift down, until it reaches the ground and starts burrowing on it.

"That's where I buried… Huh." Red gets interested as he digs out the activated wood chip with his spiritual energy and drags it to his grasp.

They then see the new wood chip float back up to follow the activated wood chip.

"So... that's why." Kotone expresses understanding on behalf of Fumio and Red.

"Where'd you find it, Kotone?" Red asks.

"I uh…" Kotone is not a good liar.

"Okay. We found it right outside the …" She comes clean about how she and Fumio got their hands on the treasure fragment.

"Ah… It's hundreds of years before you two can try to fool me. Just one question collapses your lie." Red is amused finding the two's original plan of lying to him.

Fumio and Kotone are embarrassed, but relieved of Red's reaction.

"But… based on the speed of how the treasure fragment is drifting, why didn't it arrive much earlier?" Red then questions aloud and as the words come out of his mouth, a few guesses appear in his head.

He then suspends the two treasure fragments next to each other, and lets the two treasure fragments do their thing.

The next moment, the two treasure fragments join together, the surfaces where the two fragments attach, *click* perfectly fit.

He then scans the second treasure fragment and just as he expected, it is not activated.

"Of course, it's not that simple." He nods.

He then takes the two treasure fragments apart and manipulates the first treasure fragment and suspends it a few meters away from him.

Then, he releases the second treasure fragment from his grasp, letting it drift to the activated treasure fragment.

As the second treasure fragment is halfway on its way, Red deactivates the portal, making the second treasure fragment fall to the ground, unmoving.

"Ahhhh…" Fumio and Kotone are mystified.

"Fascinating isn't it?" Red tells them as he returns the two treasure fragments to his grasp.

"But this means disturbance, if not trouble." He ponders.

"Why?" Kotone asks.

"We don't know how many pieces are out there and how many of them have owners."