Ubiji was gone.
Great Yamato Toyo-Akitsu remained forever at sunset, yet beneath the trees where grass grew and orioles sang, no one would ever again await that graceful, handsome youth with a blade of grass in his mouth.
Outside the little thatched cottage surrounded by red spider lilies, the cries of newborns echoed.
The Netherworld was the end of all life.
Children born here were destined to bear extraordinary fates!
Inside the Japanese-style room, Subichini's pale blue hair spread across the floor, and sorrow lay hidden deep within her azure eyes.
She knew that her beloved elder brother was no longer among the living. This was fate.
And the two infants in the swaddling clothes before her were the continuation of the life of the one who would never return.
She would swallow her grief and raise these two children to adulthood.
"Hehe." Tongtong wore an oni mask larger than her face and deliberately snarled, "Xiao You, Xiao Qiong, this is hell Kindergarten. Naughty children get thrown into boiling oil! Awoo, awoo~~~!"
For some reason, the two children suddenly stopped crying... Then, clutching their tiny hands together, they began to giggle.
"What? That wasn't fun at all~."
Seeing this, Tongtong sulked, tossed away the oni mask, and stomped her little feet in a huff!
Whirr... Beyond the door, the spinning wheel that had long become the background sound of this place stopped. An elderly woman's kindly voice came through. "The clothes are ready~. It's my first time weaving for newborn little ones. I wonder if they'll fit."
Whoosh. The door slid open a crack, and a gray skeletal hand placed two baby-sized kimono sets before it.
Subichini said gently, "Thank you, Granny!"
"What about mine? What about mine!" Tongtong asked.
"I wouldn't dare weave your clothes carelessly..."
The woman said