"Big sister?"
Mio Amakura looked around, but no one could be seen in the dark alleyways around them. Mayu Hinase turned her phone and swept its light around as well. Those Vengeful Spirits from earlier had been far too troublesome; one of them had watched the front while the other watched the rear, and neither had paid attention to Mayu Amakura in the middle.
Even so, neither Mayu Hinase nor Mio Amakura believed that Mayu Amakura could have left on her own. Her left leg was injured, and she limped whenever she walked. The two of them had slowed down earlier to match her pace. Otherwise, if three teenage girls really took off running, those evil spirits would not have had an easy time catching them.
But how had Mayu Amakura vanished just like that?
"Do you know where she went?"
Mayu Hinase looked at Mio Amakura in confusion and asked. Mio shook her head with an equally puzzled expression. Then she looked around again, seemingly noticed something, and let out a scream.
"Big sister!!"
As she shouted, Mio Amakura spun around and ran into a nearby alley, with Mayu Hinase hurriedly following after her.
The two girls passed through the alley one after the other and arrived before a large mansion at the front of the village. There, they finally saw Mayu Amakura limping toward the mansion as if something were drawing her in. Several crimson butterflies fluttered through the air ahead of her, seemingly guiding her way.
"Big sister!!!"
The moment she saw Mayu Amakura, Mio Amakura shouted again. Yet Mayu Amakura seemed deaf to her sister's calls, walking straight ahead as though guided by something. Mio Amakura and Mayu Hinase hurriedly chased after her, wanting to grab hold of her.
Then something unexpected happened.
Mayu Amakura appeared