April 30, 2024, 5:37 a.m. Rain.
Beside Hongyuan Temple Cemetery.
Dark clouds blanketed the sky. The ethereal sound of tides faintly echoed through the misty drizzle, and every so often, Spiritual Power from another world drifted down with the rain.
Nanjō Emi held a black umbrella, her expression still blank. Rainwater dripped steadily from its edge into the mud beside her feet, dirtying her expensive leather shoes.
The funeral was very simple, with few people present. Suppressed sobs of grief came from ahead of her, but they failed to move Nanjō Emi's expression.
Patter, patter.
Nanjō Emi followed the sound of footsteps and glanced back, seeing two people walking straight toward her in school uniforms.
Uesugi Tetsu and Tokugawa Ririko.
They seemed to have hurried there, so neither had an umbrella. The drizzle had soaked their hair and thin uniforms, making them look particularly miserable.
"You're here?"
Nanjō Emi pointed at the black-and-white girl already mounted in a picture frame up ahead. "Say goodbye to Mafuyu."
Ririko stood blankly for a moment.
She slowly clenched both fists, lowered her head, and squeezed her eyes shut. She let the rain stream down her cheeks and drip away together with the blood flowing from her palms.
Uesugi Tetsu, however, was different. He merely stared silently at the cheap picture frame and the faded photograph within.
No one knew what he was thinking.
"Uh, Sister Nanjō." She heard Uesugi Tetsu say, "Wasn't Mafuyu talking to us yesterday evening?"
She replied flatly, "Yes. So it happened that night."
Then Kurosaki Akira, dressed in a black suit, and more than a dozen Onmyoji walked up before Nanjō Emi and bowed in unison.
"I'm sorry."
Kurosaki Akira rarely apologized, but today he lowered his head sincerely. Otherwise, even he would not have been able to forgive