June 15, morning.
After resting nearby for the night, Akaseki and the others were ready to venture deeper into the Underground Ruin.
"So? About last night..." Akaseki approached Ranwu, glancing toward Miroku as he spoke.
Standing some distance away, Miroku noticed his glance and answered with a sweet smile.
But at his mention of it, Ranwu's expression turned grave. She whispered, "Don't let your three Uchiha go down with us. Have them stand guard outside... and make sure they stay well away!"
She was clearly talking about A Jie, A Yang, and their companion.
"Huh?" Akaseki froze, then immediately caught on. "You mean..."
Ranwu nodded.
Akaseki understood at once. Miroku must have foreseen something happening to those three!
He was just about to go find them when he stopped, asking hesitantly, "But aren't a Miko's predictions... supposed to be unavoidable?"
If defying fate were so easy, Miroku probably wouldn't have been ostracized.
Yomi had said that the Miko's difficult position came from their constant predictions of disasters they couldn't prevent. That led people to believe, deep down, that the Miko themselves brought those disasters...
"We can't just do nothing, can we?" Ranwu asked urgently.
Her urgency wasn't entirely for those three. After all, she barely knew them. Mostly, this had made her think of her own situation!
The "future" they had encountered in Rōran had left Akaseki, Ranwu, and Minato shaken, desperate to change it.
None of them had spoken openly about it, but all three had been living under an invisible weight ever since.
It wasn't just the unknown enemies ahead. It was also the pressure of not knowing whether the future could be changed!
Akaseki had it a little easier...
In his estimation, Future Akaseki probably hadn't possessed the Immersion System. That gave him more reason to believe