Though she felt a little puzzled, she did not dwell on it. She nodded to Shobue, then formed hand seals.
"It's about time I headed back."
"Ninja Art: Summoning Technique-Release!"
Shobue had taught her this ninjutsu. Within a certain time limit, someone who had been summoned could release the Summoning Technique and return to their original location.
Perhaps because summoning beasts were the ones who used this ninjutsu most often, ordinary ninja probably did not even know it existed.
With a burst of white smoke, Yui vanished from the spot.
"Hmm... she's gone?" Only after she sensed the familiar presence disappear did Shobue's tense expression relax.
She sighed softly and gazed at the distant moon, a surge of joy rising in her heart. Perhaps that day really is coming...
Meanwhile, inside Yui's home in the Land of Whirlpools...
"Whew..." Yui took a deep breath and collapsed onto the tatami, exhaustion written across her face.
After everything she had gone through that day, her taut nerves gradually relaxed now that she was lying in bed.
She closed her heavy eyelids and slowly drifted off to sleep.
The moment she fell asleep, blood-red beams of light began spreading from the cursed seal on her neck, illuminating the entire room.
Only after the blood-red beams had wrapped her body in a cocoon did the light dim.
In her sleep, Yui had a terribly bloody nightmare. She dreamed that she held a dagger in her hand and plunged it into her own heart.
The pain was excruciating, beyond anything she had ever felt, yet she did not wake.
Looking down, she discovered that her skin had turned deep red.
Beneath her feet lay a circular, blood-red cursed seal.
As she recognized the seal beneath her, waves of panic slowly welled up inside her.
*It's