Welcome back, Shisui Uchiha.

How exactly had the journey to the Land of the Dead ended?

Arata's memories were already a little hazy.

But some scenes remained firmly etched into his heart:

Ushi no Toki pulling him fiercely into her arms afterward, sobbing at the top of her lungs and desperately crying, "Lord Onmyoji! Lord Onmyoji!"

The girl had even dropped the Straw Doll and wooden mallet that never usually left her hands.

Xueli slowly putting away the Flower of Life and turning her face aside, though he could still see crystalline tears falling from the corners of her eyes.

Oto kneeling on the ground just as she had when they first met, her hands clasped in devout prayer...

In short, it was wonderful to have survived the ordeal that the lady in red had unwittingly imposed upon him.

Well,

even two or three days after returning, Arata still did not know who the woman in red sleeping within the coffin was, much less remember her face.

All he knew was that she was a powerful being from the same homeland as him, and that she had fallen asleep again after bestowing her favor.

But destroying the Divine Court...

Just what sort of identity and background would someone need to say something like that?!

Whenever he recalled the red-robed woman's bold declaration,

Arata could not help shivering slightly.

Arrogant.

How utterly arrogant!

Something else was worth mentioning.

After Yama, the Lord of the Underworld, saw him escape certain death, he actually reversed his earlier firm decision and allowed Higanbana to take the coffin to the Sanzu River, the boundary between the realms of the living and the dead.

In exchange, however,

if the Celestial Realm deep within the Sanzu River or Yamata no Orochi, sealed within Hazama, stirred up trouble in the Underworld, Arata