In Rabbit God Town, preparations for August 6 had been completed, and August 7 arrived amid the explosions of fireworks.
The predawn sky blossomed with multicolored flames. Fireworks burst in clusters, dazzling points of light scattering into streamers before falling in sheets like meteors.
Kannagi Shichiro's body had been placed in a vermilion palanquin. Establishing a link between the physical body and the Rabbit God through inscribed runes was merely the first step; the remaining ritual would be completed during the fireworks festival.
The priests and the heads of the three families had gathered together. Seeing that this body had not undergone the mutation that had occurred in the past, they could barely conceal their delight—the century-long curse might truly end with this generation.
Surrounded by the ceremonial procession, the heavily made-up body, draped in red and adorned with finery, sat with its eyes closed, cradling a wooden Rabbit God Idol in both hands. Poised between life and death, it bore the aspect of a corpse. Even if it truly inherited divine power, it would likely be a ghost rather than a human.
But that no longer mattered. Once fate's wheel began to turn, it could not be stopped. Everyone was merely seasoning within it—some ground to dust, others barely clinging to life, no more than a speck in the eyes of gods over the long passage of time.
Qi Si, dressed in a red suit and trousers, floated above Rabbit God Town in spirit form.
The long-absent symptoms of Soul Weightlessness had relapsed under the Instance's mechanics. Freed from the shackles of his physical body, his mind instead became much clearer.
It was as though he had suddenly risen from the bottom of the water to the surface, pulling himself free of chaos and ignorance and reconnecting with emotions