At present, Rozen had no intention of actively seeking trouble with the Onmyo Agency. Unlike Tsuchimikado Harutora, he wouldn't transform into a terrorist.
His main priority was to find Natsume and Suzuka.
Both of them were shikigami. Although they were living humans, they had already formed a shikigami contract with him.
Under normal circumstances, there should be a spiritual link between Rozen and Natsume and Suzuka, allowing them to sense each other's locations, engage in telepathic communication, and establish contact.
However, their current contract was the earliest version of Rozen's self-developed shikigami contract, which was vastly inferior in structure compared to the one he had now.
Their connection was significantly weaker, easily blurred by any barrier, let alone the sheer distance between them, leaving only a faint sense of their existence and nothing more.
As of now, Rozen could only vaguely sense that Natsume and Suzuka were far away from Tokyo. Beyond that, he couldn't even determine their general direction, and at times, even the weak connection would cut off completely.
This was likely because, while on the run, Natsume and Suzuka had concealed themselves with barriers or jutsuryoku to avoid detection.
If they had been under Rozen's current shikigami contract, then while distance and barriers would still have an effect, the interference wouldn't be nearly as severe. Only if the contract targets had fled to the other side of the planet or were obscured by a divine-level barrier would their connection be this faint.
Once Rozen found Natsume and Suzuka, he had to immediately upgrade their contract.
This wouldn't be difficult.
Since the core contract remained the same, only the structure had evolved through Rozen's decades of research and refinement, the moment he touched Natsume and Suzuka, their contracts would instantly upgrade to the latest version without any additional process.
Rozen had deliberately designed his contract this way so that any enhancements he made to the Beast Vassal contract would immediately overwrite the old version. Otherwise, if every contract update required re-establishing the contract from scratch, it would be far too cumbersome.
Once Natsume and Suzuka's contracts were upgraded, their connection with Rozen would become much stronger.
Specifically, Rozen's control and influence over them would be greatly enhanced, and the spiritual link between them would become more fluid. At that point, Natsume and Suzuka would be able to borrow more of Rozen's jutsuryoku through the contract, significantly boosting their power.
It was important to remember that since returning to this world, Rozen had converted all of his mana into jutsuryoku, possessing an enormous spiritual energy reserve on a planetary scale.
Even if Natsume and Suzuka could only borrow a tiny fraction of this vast energy, it would still grant them an immense power boost.
Of course, if they were true shikigami—meaning spiritual entities—the process would be much simpler.
Since Natsume and Suzuka were still living humans, they couldn't be classified as spirits like gods, Buddhas, ghosts, or dragons, which were inherently Spiritual Disasters—manifestations of spiritual energy given form.
Because spiritual entities were made of condensed spiritual energy, simply receiving their master's spiritual energy would result in a direct surge in power.
On the other hand, Natsume and Suzuka, as humans, couldn't grow stronger just by absorbing spiritual energy. They could only use that energy to cast spells, increasing the potency of their jutsuryoku.
Naturally, there were pros and cons to both sides. Proper shikigami, being spiritual entities, were far more restricted by their contracts. If their master wasn't around, their power wouldn't increase but instead diminish. If their master were defeated, they would be thrown into violent nuclear fission-like turbulence, potentially losing their material form entirely and becoming unable to fight.
Conversely, Natsume and Suzuka, as living beings, weren't affected by such drawbacks. Since they already possessed physical bodies, they wouldn't experience any form of material destabilization.
The distinction between humans and spiritual entities remained firm—having a human as a shikigami was an extremely rare occurrence.
At the very least, in this world, Rozen hadn't seen anyone other than the Tsuchimikado family use human beings as shikigami.
Even Souma Takiko's Yase-Doji were different—they had only become her shikigami after reviving as ghosts following the deaths of Dairenji Shidou and Mutobe Chihiro. They had never served as her shikigami while alive.
It could only be said that the Tsuchimikado family, as the Onmyodou head family, was truly unique. A tradition of using humans as shikigami was likely unheard of anywhere else in the world.
After Rozen had digressed from the main topic for a while, he finally refocused his attention on Kurahashi Miyo.
"In any case, I currently have no intention of openly opposing the Onmyo Agency. You don't have to worry about me causing chaos in Tokyo," Rozen said, smiling as if he had already seen through Kurahashi Miyo's concerns.
"Of course, I won't go looking for trouble, but if someone comes after me first… well, I will retaliate."
Upon hearing this, Kurahashi Miyo sighed helplessly.
She knew exactly what Rozen meant by that statement.
With Rozen's current level of spiritual energy, unless he deliberately concealed it, the Onmyo Agency's Special Agents had likely already detected him.
Since that was the case, an encounter was inevitable.
And yet, Rozen had not immediately used Invisibility Jutsu to hide his presence.
It wasn't because his spiritual energy had grown so immense that even his Invisibility Jutsu couldn't suppress it.
Kurahashi Miyo was certain that Rozen's growth in jujutsu was just as significant as his increase in spiritual energy. If he wanted to use Invisibility Jutsu to suppress his jutsuryoku, he could definitely do so.
But he hadn't—likely because he wanted to confront the Onmyo Agency and declare his return.
This meant that news of his return would soon spread.
Then, the Tsuchimikado family would definitely take action and might even return to Tokyo to meet Rozen.
It was a well-calculated plan.
However, as a result, a significant conflict was bound to erupt.
How can I minimize the damage?
Kurahashi Miyo had an idea.
"Speaking of which, the academy's rooftop still houses the Tsuchimikado family's celestial altar. Since this place was originally Yakou's Onmyo Academy, the altar has remained there."
Kurahashi Miyo suddenly brought this up.
Upon hearing it, Rozen immediately understood her implication.
A smile spread across his face.
"Well then, would you mind if I took a look at it?"
Rozen's words carried deeper meaning.
Kurahashi Miyo smiled as well.
"By all means."
Thus, Rozen left the headmaster's office.
Meanwhile, Kurahashi Miyo issued a notice.
"If the Onmyo Agency arrives, tell them that the person they are looking for is on the rooftop."
With that, everything was set in motion.
Before long, numerous vehicles pulled up outside the Onmyo Academy's main building, and a large number of people stepped out.