"The portrait artist from the Higher-ups has sent word. Kenjaku will make his move tomorrow at Maihama Station."
"Captain, will you win?"
"Guaranteed to lose."
October 20, 2018. Kyoto, by the banks of the Kamo River. A few scattered idlers sat fishing on the stony beach below the embankment.
The stream murmured, willow branches swayed, and the river wind was bone-chilling. As the year neared its end, even couples rarely strolled along the Kamo River; only the fishermen braved the cold.
*Could it be?* He suddenly recalled the description of Xuanming, one of the Twelve Ancestral Witches in mythology—a ferocious beast covered in jagged bone spikes. Could he also grow bone spikes all over his body? Would he transform into the Xuanming form?
Chapter 198