There was no doubt about it. This was another tragedy, a tragedy about what it meant to be an exorcist.
"Your big sister will help you, okay?"
"Really?"
Sanae lifted her head and looked at Miko through tear-filled eyes. Miko could only nod.
"Really. I'm not lying to you."
She hadn't planned to get involved in something like this. The people involved were already dead, after all. It wasn't as if she could bring them back to life. And what did the Amamiya Family's own problems have to do with an outsider like her?
But...
Miko glanced at the little girl, who had finally stopped crying, and sighed.
She felt that after the girl had begged her this much, it would be wrong not to help.
"Tell me what happened."
"Mm... It's like this..."
The little girl took the tissues Miko pulled from her bag and wiped her tears and nose. Then, slowly, she explained what had happened.
It was simple. Her father and grandfather had started arguing over her mother.
When her grandfather, Amamiya Tengo, learned that her mother, Amamiya Muxia, had died long ago, he'd been furious. He'd cursed her for ruining Amamiya Xingqiu's life and for never fulfilling her duties as a mother. He was resentful of her death and even felt that she should never have existed in the first place.
Those words, however, had enraged Amamiya Xingqiu.
"You don't understand anything! You don't know anything! You'll never understand what Muxia did... Sanae, let's go. Let's get out of here."
Xingqiu tried to drag Sanae away, but the old man blocked the door, apparently furious at such outrageous words.
"You can leave if you want. The Amamiya Family doesn't welcome you. But your daughter—my granddaughter—shouldn't have to suffer alongside you. That woman gave her nothing. She