Suzuka Gozen's sorrow, annihilation in the depths of winter

After emerging from the Memory Vortex, Otakemaru fell briefly silent.

For a moment, he found himself unsure how to judge the demon who, at their first meeting, had struck him as seductive and fond of petty tricks.

At the end of the story, he had seen Higanbana find that band of utterly wicked thieves. While fulfilling her promise to drag them down to hell, she had also brought a jade pendant back to that old grave.

It was the pendant that the fool in the memory had clutched so tightly.

And it was something she had chosen to do herself, something the merchant had never mentioned.

Otakemaru, too, had an obsession most people could hardly imagine:

[Mount Suzuka was his home. He would never go anywhere else!]

Even during his campaign against Heian-kyo, he had used divine power and a ghost ship to bring the entire polluted Mount Suzuka along with him.

That was why he had empathized so deeply with both the wealthy merchant in the Memory Vortex and the comrade described in his account. It was also why his impression of Higanbana had begun to change.

"Clack, clack."

The clattering of skeletal bones beside him abruptly brought Otakemaru back to his senses.

Looking toward the sound, he saw that the ghost general who stood guard over this unusual dream had already started walking into the distance.

The onmyoji and his elder sister were walking together as well.

Seeing this, Otakemaru hurried after them, his thoughts still unsettled.

But as he looked at their backs, the tangled emotions in his eyes did not fade at all.

Remembering how readily he had declared outside that he would exorcise Higanbana, and how he had drawn his blade against an old friend for the sake of Mount Suzuka's survival, Otakemaru flushed with