After Sugawara Kazukazu left, only the mutilated bodies of his subordinates remained.
Warm blood still flowed from the dead. The night was deep, and cold gusts swept in haphazardly, filling the room with an unbearable stench of blood.
"Little Ume, are we going to find Kazukazu now?"
Alluka gently shook Uraume's arm. She was slightly shorter than him, with a few loose strands of hair clinging to her cheeks. Her eyes were guileless, and she still looked as harmless and innocent as ever.
Uraume's hand paused in midair, then settled on Alluka's head and ruffled her hair.
"Let's wait until morning..."
Night was when curses were active. With their strength, the two of them could be torn apart by those monsters if they let their guard down.
If Sugawara Kazukazu's wish had really come true, he could indeed do whatever he pleased within Tōsandō.
They would have nothing to worry about, either.
Besides... Uraume had a bad feeling. He kept feeling that Sugawara Kazukazu was no longer the person he had been before. If they approached him, that monster might even kill them both.
"Okay."
Alluka nodded obediently.
They wandered around outside the temple entrance. The vegetation on the mountain had withered, leaving nowhere to shelter from the cold. With no other choice, Uraume and Alluka returned to the place drenched in blood.
Fortunately, the place was filled with cursed energy residue left by that curse and Sugawara Kazukazu, so no other curses dared set foot there.
Like a pair of lost puppies, Uraume and Alluka huddled together through the long night.
When hazy morning light filtered through the roof tiles, the two of them left the dilapidated temple together.
The snowy ground they had crossed on their way here was no longer pristine white. Broken branches from dead trees, footprints of varying depths, and craters in the ground all reminded them that yesterday had been no dream.
"Shall we follow him and take a look?"
Uraume turned his head to ask Alluka what she thought.
With no one to guide them now, neither knew which way to go.
They did not know where this road would lead, just as they did not know when the heavy snow would stop.
"Little Ume! I hear something up ahead!"
After they had walked for who knew how long, Alluka heard a hubbub of voices ahead.
Alluka leaned out from behind Uraume and saw a crowd moving through the mountain woods ahead, scattered flames flickering in the dim night.
The lights instantly made her eyes brighten.
"Little Ume, there are people up ahead! Should we go take a look?"
"Not yet."
Unlike the optimistic Alluka, Uraume felt something was wrong with the scene before them.
He could sense a very dangerous presence ahead.
It was powerful-far too powerful for him to handle.
Uraume's expression stiffened. Just as he was considering what to do, someone suddenly appeared before him.
"Hmm? Two children covered in blood? One has an ice-forming cursed technique, and the other... a companion cursed spirit? How interesting."
A boy wearing a Black Court Cap and a white Kariginu stood before them, bending slightly at the waist as he examined them.
A whole crowd trailed behind him, their armor clearly emblazoned with the Flying Plum Crest.
Compared with Sugawara Kazukazu, their clothing was far more costly and refined.
"My lord! Where are you going?"
They held torches soaked in tung oil, as though trying to light up the night.
But the boy in white at their head paid them no attention.
"You look interesting, especially you... Does that strange thing on the mountain have anything to do with you two?"
He pointed at the bewildered Alluka, his azure eyes gleaming in the firelight.