is a Japanese manga series written by Midori Yūma and illustrated by Mamenosuke Fujimaru. It began serialization on Kodansha's Pixiv-based Palcy manga service in May 2023. A novel version began publication under Kodansha's Kodansha Taiga imprint in October 2023.
The subtitle of the Japanese version in the early stage of the manga serialization was , which was no longer used from the third chapter onwards. The change was also officially implemented in the sixth volume.
Synopsis Nanao Byakurenji is a girl with high spiritual energy. Before her 15th birthday, she was set up by her cousin Akemi, who caused her kidnapping by ayakashi. An unknown ayakashi left a cursed scar called "spiritual seal" on Nanao's forehead, and left her suffering from exclusion and isolation by most people in her hometown. Until Nanao turns 17, Yako Benitsubaki meets and saves Nanao from her people's abuse. Yako then recognized her spiritual energy level and starts a contract marriage with her, then Nanao realizes that Yako has to ingest women's blood with high spiritual energy in order to survive. They meet different people and ayakashi, deal with many trials, as they support and fall in love with each other.
Characters /
Nanao is a kind and compassionate girl, who's good at household chores and has high spiritual energy. Her cooking has a powerful effect that can make people fulfill their spiritual and physical energy and stay well. She possesses the Great Seal, a talent that Himiko calls extremely rare and even feared by the Great Ayakashi. However, she was initially unaware of her own abilities. This led to her unconsciously activating her powers to seal Ayakashi when she was kidnapped by him before her 15th birthday. As a result, she was misunderstood by her conservative, ignorant, and prejudiced tribe members as having retained the "" from Ayakashi and was subjected to bullying and abuse.After she begins a contract marriage with Yako, she develops true courage and gradually begins to fall in love with Yako, and as the story progresses, she begins to learn about the and explore her own potential.
Yako is the 1st Division Captain of and the present head of the Benitsubaki clan guarding . He's a man with courage and a sense of justice. Due to his family's ancestral curse, he has to ingest the blood of women with high spiritual energy in order to survive, yet it gifts him strong combat capability and ability to speed up recovery. He visits Byakurenji's villages to find suitable candidates for marriage and to provide him blood, saves Nanao from the Byakurenji's abuse and recognizes her spiritual energy level, that makes him start a contract marriage with her. He falls in love with Nanao and promises to kill the ayakashi which left the "spiritual seal" on her.After fighting against Nurriyaon alongside The Imperial Chamber of the Onmyo, and after Nanao sealed Nurriyaon within Tokiko, Yako and Nanao officially held their wedding. On his 26th birthday, Himiko told him that the scar on Nanao's forehead was caused by sealing Great Ayakashi, not the "spiritual seal" left by Ayakashi.
They are married couple shikigami that serve Yako. Zenki is the confident husband who mainly responsible for defense and combat, while Goki is the steady wife who acting as both a head maid and a bodyguard. Both of them serve to support Yako and Nanao.
Yako's father and the Director of . Yaichirou has a good relationship with his children and is supportive of the marriage between Yako and Nanao, but he doesn't delve into the problem of his wife Tokiko's excessive control over their eldest son Takaya. He was formerly Tokiko's bodyguard when she lived in the palace, sometimes sneaking her out of the palace due to the heavy restrictions her mother placed on her. He had known about Tokiko's connection to Nurarihyon but said nothing of it seeing how it effected Tokiko after she attempted to kill Yako when he was a child, causing her to suffer a breakdown over not knowing why she tried to kill her own son while begging Yaichirou not to abandon her.
Yako's mother and 's former emperor's niece. Her father was a member of the royal family, and her deceased mother was from the Shogun. Because of the marriage between the mother's family ancestors and the great yokai Nurarihyon, she inherits the Nurarihyon's gifts derived from her mother's family, each item equipped with special abilities such as being able to hide her presence. After the birth of the second son Yako, who inherited the cursed constitution of the Benitsubaki family, Tokiko began to be overprotective and controlling towards Takaya, while hating Yako to the point of attempting to assassinate him due to Nurarihyon's instincts causing her to hate the Tsubaki Demon within Yako. She also upholds the supremacy of status and descent, that makes her show hostility towards individuals such as Nanao. She attacks Hinata during the Edo Fireworks Festival but accidentally injures Takaya. After her emotional breakdown, she ingests Nurarihyon's Elivir and becomes a Great Yokai to attack Yako and others, later being possessed by Nurarihyon itself. After Nanao sealed Nurarihyon, who had possessed Tokiko, she communicated with Tokiko in her mental realm to understand her true feelings. The two reconciled and reached a consensus to team up against Nurarihyon. Tokiko severed her "Blood Ties" with Yako in the process, resulting in the loss of all memories related to Nurarihyon and Yako, along with a reduction in her lifespan to just one year. The chaos caused by Tokiko led to the Benitsubaki family's status ranking being lowered by the current emperor.
Yako's older brother, who's in charge of the Research Center 1 of . Takaya is smart and he treats valued individuals and colleagues with gentleness and friendliness. He also has a rich knowledge and expertise in developing items. Due to Tokiko's excessive control, he was restricted in both his personal life and interpersonal relationships. At first, he disagreed with the marriage between Yako and Nanao, and he spoke to Nanao with an impolite attitude, but he changed his mind when Nanao showed tenacity against Tokiko. As the story progresses, he begins to support Nanao and improve his relationship with Yako, while resisting Tokiko's ideas and actions. / Yako's younger sister and the 3rd Division member of . Sayoko is talented, virtuous, and skilled in spells, but she sometimes shows a stern side. She has a good relationship with the family except her mother and is supportive of the marriage between Yako and Nanao. She married into the Kokujo clan before Yako met Nanao.
Yako's youngest sister. Yozakura has an outgoing personality. She has a good relationship with the family except her mother. She returns to the Yamato Empire shortly after Nurarihyon's attack to visit with her family. She is considered a prodigy having mastered all of the spells in the Yamato Empire at a young age and is currently studying magic in Great Britain. She is supportive of Yako and Nanao's marriage.
Rentarou is the 2nd Division Captain of . He's calm and judgmental and is skilled at using sniper rifles. He is the third son of a noble family that was forced into the Chamber of the Onmyo due to a scandal. Based on the influence of his contract with shikigami Kamihime, he must abide by the rule of staying single for the rest of his life. He used to be the vice captain of 10th Division, and was the leader of Yako's team at that time.
Tatsuo is the 2nd Division member of and Hinata's younger brother. He's outgoing but not good at observing social atmosphere, dislikes the domineering attitude of nobles.
Hinata is a member of Takaya's research institute in the Research Center 1 and Tatsuo's older sister. She interacts well with Takaya and treats Nanao very kindly. She and Takaya assisted Nanao in measuring spiritual energy during the captain's meeting. However, without knowing it, she was included in the investigation report about Takaya's possible contacts by Takei, which made her listed as an excluded target by Tokiko and shocked when she witnesses Takaya being stabbed by Tokiko to protect her, and then severely blames Tokiko for manipulating and hurting Takaya.
Himiko is the 3rd Division Captain of and belongs to the Kokujo clan guarding . As the captain with the highest spiritual power and oldest age, and a key figure in opening , she possesses outstanding talent for barrier spells, but is also eager to cultivate the next generation. She intervenes in Amon's attempt to investigate the incident of Nanao, who has been detected to have high spiritual power, and helps Nanao analyze her spiritual seal and explain the "Five Great Spells", assigning Sayoko to guide Nanao.
Natsuhiko is the 3rd Division Vice Captain of . He's shocked by Nanao's powerful energy during the testing of spiritual energy. He is the grandson of Himiko Kokujo and is gifted in barriers like his grandmother.
Amon is the 4th Division Captain of . After the havoc caused by Shinobu and Takei are calmed down, he serves as the host of the captain meeting and discussed with other captains how to capture Takei who is on the run. Without Yako's consent, he dispatches Yukiomi to bring Nanao to the meeting site to assist in the investigation. He openly questions Nanao's experience of being kidnapped by ayakashi during the captain's meeting, as well as his attempt to explore her spiritual power qualifications in depth after Nanao is detected high spiritual energy. The action is interrupted due to Himiko's intervention, and he is also taught a lesson by Sara and Maria for the offensive incident mentioned above.
Hideyo is a doctor who works in the hospital of and belongs to the Suitengu clan guarding . He is upright, kind, and possesses advanced values, which makes him a reliable ally of Yako and hates unjust phenomena such as discrimination and persecution caused by excessively backward cognition and superstition. When Yako asks him to help diagnose Nanao's "spiritual seal" caused by ayakashi, he criticizes the Byakurenji clan for abusing Nanao and lack of correct understanding of ayakashi. He and his son Yukiomi are also supportive of the marriage between Yako and Nanao.
Hideyo's son and the 4th Division member of . Yukiomi is one of Yako's best friends. He's cheerful and charming, yet rational, possessing shrewd intelligence gathering abilities. Like his father, he hates the distorted social phenomena caused by overly conservative ideas and prejudice discrimination. He is also a key figure in facilitating the encounter between Yako and Nanao, having heard the rumors of Nanao's spiritual power.
Sara is the 5th Division Captain of and belongs to the Suitengu clan. She is skilled in swordsmanship and using spells to summon souls for combat, as well as communicating with souls. She has a voice with soul energy, which enables her to conduct a leading dialogue by reciting the real name of the target, and make the target whose real name is recited respond to her forcibly, so as to collect information. She has a crush on Rentarō. She's unhappy that Amon openly exposes Nanao's heavy experience of being left with "spiritual seal" by ayakashi at the meeting site, and she's shocked by Nanao's powerful energy during the testing of spiritual energy. After Takaya clarifies the misunderstanding regarding Nanao's spiritual energy qualifications and Himiko intervenes in mediation, she and Maria teach Amon a lesson and become one of the captains who make friends with Nanao.
Shiro is the 5th Division member of and belongs to the Daidaiin clan guarding . During the captain's meeting, he reveals intelligence about Takei's past with the support of Sara.