Chapter 296: Trap

Characters (in order of appearance)

 * Yoshimori Sumimura
 * Kumon
 * Tokimori Hazama
 * Shiguma
 * Sumiko Sumimura
 * Madarao

Summary
Yoshimori wonders who his new opponent is as he enters the mysterious door.

The Unnamed Man explains to Kumon that by trapping the boy within the doors, they have split the fighting force. He warns Kumon not to let the boy escape. Kumon is confident, because only he can open the doors, and the only open from the outside. The man announces that it is time for him to begin stage three.

Yoshimori finds nothing but darkness on the other side of the door. Shiguma suggests that they escape quickly, but a Sensory Kekkai detects nothing. Shiguma then suggests narrowing the Kekkai's range in order to raise the sensitivity. Yoshimori eventually finds what appears to be the house. Shiguma says this is because the doors were last near the house, so this is likely an imprint of the last thing they saw. They soon find imprints of the eight doors as well. Yoshimori is impressed with how much Shiguma knows, but Shiguma says he is only saying things that Yoshimori knows subconsciously. Yoshimori finds a central ninth door that the others are connected to. The door will not open, so Yoshimori simply tears through it with brute strength. The door vanishes, leaving him outside and quite some distance from the house. Realizing it was a trap, he races back to the house, only to find that Sumiko Sumimura's Shikigami has driven away the enemy. She coldly instructs him to fix the entire house tomorrow.

The following night, the Shikigami explains Yoshimori's mistake: without him, the training doesn't get done, and more importantly, the lord was left unprotected. She stresses that he cannot leave the lord's side. Madarao bursts in, having just recalled something important about what happened yesterday. Someone knocks on the door, and Madarao instantly recognizes both the smell and the energy as someone from yesterday. The unnamed man phases through the wall, and Kumon appears at the window. The man reveals that he is the Founder, Tokimori Hazama.