“Senpai!” The moment Hoshimori Shion saw Igarashi Rie, she nearly collapsed onto the ground from sheer exhaustion. Rie quickly rushed to her side, helping Shion upright.
The curtain of light before them was gradually dissipating. Having lost her strength the instant her nerves relaxed, Shion realized just how incredibly weary she had become.
“Shion-chan, how are you? Are you alright?” Rie asked, steadying Shion by her shoulders.
Shion wanted to put on a brave front, but gasping for breath, she found herself unable to pretend before Rie. She could only shake her head.
“There are too many of them, these evil spirits. It’s impossible to completely exorcise them all.”
Before Shion could even finish her sentence, several more evil spirits lunged at them from their blind spots. However, for Shion, whose perception had extended to nearly the entire battlefield, there was no such thing as a blind spot.
She swung her Spirit Cutter once more, slaying two of the evil spirits.
Yet, continuing like this was clearly not a viable solution. Even with two less, the evil spirits before them still surged like a relentless tide.
Rie continuously summoned brilliant fire elements, but her abilities could only inflict minor damage upon these evil spirits. They lacked the decisive power of Shion’s Spirit Cutter.
“Shion-chan, it seems these evil spirits aren’t targeting us, are they?” Rie took a deep breath, adjusting her breathing during a brief lull in the battle, and asked.
Shion nodded. “That’s right, Senpai. So, if you run out of strength, I can cover you while you escape.”
A sense of profound exhaustion was growing in the girl’s arms. The Spirit Cutter, once wielded with effortless grace, now felt increasingly heavy.
“What are you saying? Don’t be foolish. When I unsealed too many evil spirits that time, I saw you almost die in their beast tide. I regretted it terribly.”
Though Rie was also panting heavily, her tone grew noticeably solemn as she spoke of that incident.
“Didn’t I tell you? In the days to come… you’re going to Tokyo with me.” Rie took another deep breath. “If not in this life, then in the next. As for me, I can wait.”
“Senpai… honestly, at a time like this, you’re still saying such embarrassing things. I absolutely have a way to get you out safely, you know.”
Just as the two girls were once again plunging into a fierce struggle, Shion suddenly felt a gaze pierce through the beast tide of evil spirits, fixing upon her.
Every single evil spirit looked at her with the predatory gaze of a hunter, yet this one particular gaze seemed to be silently screaming, ‘Run, run!’
‘Run?’
‘Is it telling me to leave?’
It wasn’t the temptation of the abyss, but a pure, unadulterated concern for her and Rie’s safety.
Though her physical strength was already failing, her sensory abilities had been pushed to their absolute limit. Shion immediately pinpointed the direction of that gaze.
She looked up, meeting a pair of blue eyes. They were the color of a clear azure sky, yet shrouded as if by a veil of gray clouds.
It was a girl with light blue hair, even paler than Kazama Nanami’s aqua. She stood amidst the surging beast tide, yet the evil spirits that formed it seemed not to perceive her as a target.
They simply swept past her, as if she were one of them.
‘Such a familiar feeling… It’s as if I’ve seen her somewhere before.’
“Senpai! There’s someone there!” After slaying several more evil spirits attempting a sneak attack, Shion quickly extended her hand, pointing towards the azure-haired girl.
“What?!” Rie had just thrown another fireball. An attacking evil spirit, scorched by the flames, slammed directly into the ground, seemingly howling in agony.
Rie looked in the direction Shion was pointing. She shook her head, her fire element spellwork continuing without pause, and in an instant, she plunged back into the fight.
Shion was somewhat surprised. She hadn’t expected Rie to see nothing at all. Shion couldn’t understand why that girl stood unharmed amidst the evil spirits, or why, if she was part of them, she harbored no ill will and urged them to leave.
‘No, now is not the time to think about such things.’ The sensation of weakness returned to Shion’s body.
****
“We’ve bought enough time, Older Sister. Thank you for your hard work. After all, those guys’ target should be me.”
In the sky, a shooting star seemed to twinkle.
On the stage, Ayane held the Kagura suzu high, then bowed, performing the prayer posture once more. This was the finishing move of the Kagura dance.
The sound from the old recorder gradually ceased, and the lingering melody finally reached its end.
“To think I now need to chant an entire Kagura dance to use this move. It’s completely incomparable to how it was back then… Still, providing a safety net for my foolish older sister is no problem at all.”
The stars in the sky seemed to blink, and the light from one particular star grew increasingly bright. Though in this bustling festival, the flicker of a single star would go unnoticed by most.
“Foolish Older Sister, I might not be able to help you much more in the future. Hurry, hurry and become the strongest Miko, one who can protect me.”
****
“Wh-what’s happening?” Rie seemed to feel the ground beneath her trembling. Even the surging beast tide of evil spirits hadn’t caused such intense vibrations.
Shion sensed a power originating from the same source as her own, shining in the sky like a celestial fire, rapidly plummeting towards her. “Is it… like last time? That mysterious power coming to help me?…”
Upon sensing this power, Shion relaxed. The surrounding evil spirits, like hounds scenting meat, barked furiously at the white light flickering in the sky, radiating immense hostility.
At the same time, Shion saw that the light blue-haired girl was also gazing at the sky. Though Shion could no longer meet her eyes, her perception, expanded to its maximum, clearly registered the fear in the girl’s gaze, along with a hint of relief.
“Use that blade… and kill me.”
Shion remembered. In that instant, on that seashore—whether a dream or reality—the girl’s face had shown a gentle, helpless smile. Her voice was beautiful, yet somewhat hoarse. The events of that night replayed in her mind like a film.
‘Protect her!’ This was Shion’s first thought. The celestial fire shimmering in the sky, that power, was harmless to both her and Rie. Only that azure-haired girl, without protection, would surely die!