Shion gazed at the girl before her, a sense of bewilderment washing over her.
Those eyes, that expression directed at her, were intimately familiar to Shion; they were the very same glances her sister gave her countless times each day within the shrine.
Her skin was just as fair, yet her face bore the distinct marks of battle.
A cascade of pure white hair fell to her shoulders, fluttering wildly in the fierce wind.
This visage held a striking resemblance to her own, as if it were… her grown-up self.
She was clad in a white cloth dress and a matching cape, both tattered in several places and heavily caked with dust.
“Ayane?…” Shion murmured, her sister’s name escaping her lips.
The girl before her covered her mouth, letting out a soft chuckle.
“So, ‘she’ four hundred years later would be called this name?”
“It’s truly lovely.”
“She?”
“Then who are you?…” Shion extended her hand towards the girl, taking a small step forward.
The girl reached out her left hand, seemingly intending to touch Shion’s.
Yet, in the wind, the moment their hands intertwined, they merely passed through each other.
They couldn’t connect.
Shion stared at her hand in shock.
“Why?”
“Why is this happening?”
“Because I longed to see you, I pleaded with the world to grant us this meeting…” The girl seemed unsurprised by the situation.
Her voice was soft and mellifluous; unlike Shion’s own slightly youthful tone, hers possessed a unique quality—the maturity of an adult mind yet still retaining the essence of a maiden.
“I am truly overjoyed that you responded to my call.”
In the girl’s delighted eyes, a faint glimmer of a tear sparkled, as if someone nearing their final days had at last fulfilled their lifelong aspiration.
“But alas, traversing over four hundred years of time proves too arduous.”
“Thus, I cannot touch you, nor can I embrace you.”
“However, even just seeing you, being able to speak with you, truly, truly fills me with such happiness…”
In the girl’s eyes, the glistening tears became even more pronounced, as she poured out her heart with a voice laden with sorrowful longing.
“I… I don’t know what to say.”
“You feel so familiar, like my sister… yet I don’t recall ever seeing you before.” Shion wanted to comfort the girl, but the words wouldn’t come.
The girl wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes.
“Yes, I understand; your sudden arrival here must bring with it many, many questions.”
“However, your very presence here is, in itself, an audacious act of ‘transgression’ that I undertook on my own initiative…”
“Could you tell me your name?” The girl extended her hand towards Shion and asked.
“My name is… my name is Shion, Hoshimori Shion.”
“A Miko of the Hoshimori Shrine.” Shion said softly.
The girl seemed to savor the name.
“Hoshimori Shion, Hoshimori Shion…”
“Wh-what’s wrong?” Shion asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
The girl gently shook her head.
“Nothing’s wrong, no.”
“I truly love this name; it’s so beautiful.”
“Still, since it is your name, I would have come to love it no matter what.”
The girl looked past Shion, her pupils shifting almost imperceptibly.
“It’s beginning again.” The girl’s lips trembled.
Following the girl’s gaze, Shion turned around.
Only then did she realize she was standing atop the ruins of a collapsed red torii.
Wasn’t this…
The Hoshimori Shrine?
The shrine’s most prominent landmark—the massive red torii—had utterly collapsed.
The main hall of the shrine itself had been so eroded by the passage of time that it was beyond recognition; its walls were peeling away inch by inch, and its roof lay in ruins.
The shrine, situated atop the back mountain, was now surrounded by trees that had all withered, leaving behind only emaciated roots.
The once-vibrant shrine, remembered as being nestled within a lush forest, was now nothing more than a few dilapidated structures teetering precariously amidst the dead woods.
Looking down the mountain from this vantage point, the once-peaceful town she remembered had long since transformed into a landscape of broken walls and widespread devastation.
Countless people screamed and fought amidst the chaos.
Blood, rivers of it, stained the ground a dark, reddish-black, mingling with corpses.
Faded bloodstains were instantly refreshed with new crimson splashes from those who fell.
The sight was utterly horrifying.
Shion’s body gave way; she stumbled to the ground, clamping a hand over her mouth, desperately trying to suppress the surging nausea within her.
Splattered blood, severed limbs, all lay scattered across the ruins of the town.
Countless vibrant lives were crushed and trampled like ants on this battlefield.
Accompanying the rampant death were tendrils of black aura, swirling everywhere.
On this battlefield, Shion could no longer discern any white spirits; only dark, malevolent specters shrieked and roared, clawing their way out of the bodies of the fallen.
“They have been consumed by bloodlust; they will not cease until a victor is decided in this brutal war.” Shion heard the girl behind her whisper softly.
“With countless, countless lives lost, there is nothing I can change.”
“‘You’ have already tried, have striven, have given ‘your’ all…”
“Me?”
“I…” Shion’s mind was a maelstrom of countless disturbing thoughts, rendering her almost incapable of coherent thought.
Just as the girl was about to speak again, her recently upright body seemed to collapse to the ground.
Witnessing this, Shion rushed forward, intending to help her up.
However, Shion’s hand passed directly through the girl’s body.
Of course; how could she, who couldn’t even touch the girl, possibly help her up now?
The girl offered Shion a strained smile, then unfastened her cape.
Shion saw that her body was riddled with wounds, deeper and more severe than those on her face… and from the festering sites of these injuries, the aura of malevolent spirits surged forth.
Shion involuntarily recoiled several steps.
The moment the girl unclasped her cape, the dense, malevolent aura emanating from her body sent a shiver of dread through Shion, a girl possessing the Spirit Suppressing Physique.
“I no longer possess the strength to suppress those malevolent spirits.”
Shion could hear the most profound sigh of helplessness from the depths of the girl’s heart.
The wounds on her body were unspoken testaments to her efforts in suppressing malevolent spirits.
Yet, when Shion had just witnessed the malevolent spirits surging across that battlefield, her own immediate reaction was one of retreat, of escape.
These were malevolent spirits that Shion was utterly powerless to suppress; if she were to step onto that battlefield wielding Spirit Cutter, she would simply be torn to shreds by one malevolent spirit after another, with no other outcome possible.
The girl lifted her gaze to the sky, which had also been tainted a pitch-black, inky hue by countless deaths and malevolent spirits.
Though it was still daytime, the darkness of the sky was something she could not pierce, no matter how much effort she expended; all her endeavors would be in vain.
“Then… is there anything I can do to help you?” Shion knelt down, meeting the girl’s gaze directly.
“Regardless, I also possess the Spirit Suppressing Physique; even if I cannot annihilate all those malevolent spirits, I can at least suppress a portion of them…”
Her only reply was the girl’s helpless smile.