Everyone held their breath and stared at the end of the corridor. Someone came around the corner, walking normally, with a puzzled expression that somehow put people at ease.
He called out a question, then continued walking.
I saw the yin energy clinging to him. It was even heavier than when he'd left the inn earlier.
Everyone else breathed a sigh of relief.
The director answered his question. Judging by their expressions, he'd brushed him off. The man still seemed doubtful, glancing this way and that.
The director turned back and called out to the people gathered in the courtyard.
Several people started talking all at once, and the director said something else.
The man looked even more puzzled. He anxiously scanned the crowd, grabbed the person nearest to him, and asked something, only to be impatiently brushed off again.
I still couldn't see anything wrong with his expression. But the yin energy was real.
The yin energy inside the inn was growing. More was entering from another direction.
I could even trace a curve in my mind: the route the female ghosts had taken from the shrine to the inn. They had flooded in and completely taken over the place.
By contrast, the yin energy in the woods outside the inn had clearly diminished.
I looked up at the sky.
The snow had stopped, too. It was no longer falling in great flurries. The snow on the ground hadn't melted, but the temperature was beginning to rise.
This change only made everyone more uneasy. Good...
The director talked for a long time before the group finally agreed to enter the inn.
Mrs. Shimada hesitated.
The rest of the Shimada family came out of the inn. Their fearful expressions eased when they saw Mrs. Shimada. Shimada Daiki's mother tried to