A swing of the blade, a decisive cut. A snowy-white arc of light accompanied the girl’s dance-like movements, sharply slicing through the bodies of the beast-like malevolent spirits.
For some unknown reason, the malevolent spirits appearing at today’s Autumn Festival were… unusually frenzied.
While it was common knowledge that these spirits, especially those in beast-like forms, lacked intelligence, their relentless, almost suicidal assault put considerable pressure on Shion. They attacked as if… their very existence didn’t matter.
Then again, it was debatable whether these malevolent spirits possessed the concept of ‘life’ at all.
Realizing her mind had wandered, Shion quickly shook her head, forcing her focus back onto the battle at hand.
Black mist had almost entirely enveloped her. Despite being in a relatively open clearing within the forest, Shion could no longer see the surrounding trees, let alone the moon.
The dense mist even carried the stench of blood. Although she hadn’t sustained any injuries yet, the air was thick with suffocating smoke and gore.
As Shion swung her blade once more, she suddenly realized that the near-blinding, acrid mist had forced her to close one eye to alleviate the stinging pain. This momentary closure, however, led to a significant misjudgment in her strike.
The arc of light from her Spirit Cutter completely missed the charging beast-like spirit.
It was then that Shion understood. The spirits’ fierce assault wasn’t necessarily unintelligent; rather, it was a tactic to force her to concentrate solely on eliminating the weaker ones, preventing her from noticing she had been completely surrounded by the dense fog.
At that moment, a black malevolent spirit lunged, its clawed hand reaching for the girl’s face.
“No, this isn’t good!”
****
“Beep, beep, beep…”
When the automated female voice on her phone announced, “The number you have dialed is currently busy,” Nanami felt an urge to smash her phone against the ground.
Beside her, Shigure watched Shion fail to answer the phone yet again. She squatted down, irritably tugging at her hair. Her once neatly styled golden bob was now a tangled mess.
Sakuya, though calmer than Shigure, who had stomped her foot several times, also harbored a bad premonition. However, she dared not voice it directly. Instead, she patted Shigure’s shoulder, saying, “It’s alright. Let’s wait for Ayane-chan. We can ask her after she finishes her Kagura dance.”
“But, but… my heart won’t stop pounding for some reason, and it’s beating so fast… I’m so worried… I’ve called over a dozen times! Even if she’s busy, she would at least tell me!”
Shigure’s voice rose to a near-scream by the last sentence. Sakuya paused, a flicker of panic in her own heart, but she took a deep breath and continued to pat Shigure’s shoulder, trying to calm her down.
Nanami still wanted to try calling Shion again. She had already hastily put up a ‘Temporarily Closed’ sign on her stall, even though she still had some leftover salmon on her counter. Ultimately, however, she didn’t press the ‘dial’ button again. She feared that if Shion didn’t answer this time, Shigure would surely burst into tears.
Ayane continued to dance gracefully on the stage, the light, ethereal sound of the Kagura suzu drifting across the entire Autumn Festival grounds through the loudspeakers. Yet, nearly twenty-five minutes had passed since Ayane first appeared on stage.
While Ayane’s dance was truly beautiful, rivaling her elder sister’s Kagura dance without a doubt, Shigure, with her excellent math skills and acute sensitivity to numbers and time, immediately sensed something was amiss.
‘Isn’t Ayane-chan dancing for a bit too long?’
Shigure had specifically observed Shion practicing the Kagura dance when she had visited to thank her previously, and had even done some… rather sacrilegious things in the sacred shrine. Thus, she had noted that Shion’s complete Kagura dance only lasted about ten minutes.
Therefore, a strange thought began to form in Shigure’s mind.
‘Is Ayane-chan… stalling for time?’
As this thought surfaced, fine beads of sweat began to appear on her face.
She had personally witnessed Shion risking her life to exorcise malevolent spirits, absorbing a vast amount of malevolent energy into her own body to help Shigure and her grandmother break their family’s curse.
If there truly was an urgent matter that forced Shion to have Ayane perform the Kagura dance in her stead, Shigure could only imagine a rampant malevolent spirit outbreak.
This was why she was so worried, calling Shion again and again, hoping to confirm that she was merely tied up with something else. From Shigure’s perspective, exorcising malevolent spirits was incredibly dangerous. Last time, if Shion hadn’t directly absorbed those spirits, both of them might have perished.
“Please, please, just pick up!” Shigure silently pleaded countless times while calling, but neither she nor Nanami managed to get through.
That was why Sakuya’s comfort felt so utterly hollow to Shigure.
‘Will she… be alright?’
Shigure clasped her hands together, the tear streaks still visible at the corners of her eyes, as she gazed at the distant night sky.
But at that very moment, Ayane, still on stage, seemed to sense something.
She swung her hand with considerable force, a movement starkly different from her previous gentle and graceful gestures on stage. From her fingertips, shaking the Kagura suzu, a streak of white light flashed.
****
Shion had almost braced herself to endure the malevolent spirit’s tearing bite to her face. She could practically see the black fangs formed from coalesced malevolent energy.
But the next instant, a white curtain of light appeared between her and the malevolent spirit. The moment the spirit’s body passed through the light, it was as if it had been torn apart by countless white blades, dissolving into a wispy black mist.
The instant this light curtain appeared, more malevolent spirits, like wolves scenting fresh meat, ferociously lunged forward, only to be instantly pulverized into dust by the white barrier. Even the black mist that had surrounded Shion began to dissipate somewhat due to this radiant barrier. Shion immediately regulated her breathing. Although she didn’t know where this light curtain originated, it had at least bought her precious time to recover.
“Shion-chan!”
A flash of fire tore through the black mist, revealing a vibrant splash of bright red at one corner of the oppressive darkness.
“Senpai!” Shion recognized the familiar red and quickly sent out two arcs of blade light, eliminating the malevolent spirits near Rie.
“I’m here to help you!”