Chapter Summaries

Yuanli wrote a final letter to her dead mother, Yuanyin, confessing her regrets about their last lifetime and describing Yuanyin’s death and funeral. After laying Yuanyin to rest, Yuanli decided to die.

• Yuanli recalled regretting that she had not stopped Yuanyin from moving to the remote East District of Kanagawa.
• Yuanli described arguing with Toji Zenin over pansies on the way to the hospital, then regretting that she had ignored his grief.
• At the hospital, Yuanli signed the paperwork in Toji Zenin’s place, held Yuanyin’s cold body, and watched her cremation.
• Yuanli wondered whether Yuanyin had wanted her as much as she had wanted Megumi Zenin, and recalled a boy comforting her while she carried Yuanyin’s ashes.
• After laying Yuanyin to rest, Yuanli decided to go to her death and said good night to her mother.

Toji, dazed by grief and unable to face Yuanyin’s death, followed his eight-year-old daughter Yuanli to the hospital. He reached the morgue with her but could not bring himself to take part in the arrangements, so Yuanli asked the doctor to let her sign instead.

• Toji woke from a dream about Yuanyin giving birth and followed Yuanli as she took him to the hospital.
• Yuanli cared for her distracted father on the train and led him along the long walk to the hospital.
• Toji learned from a call from the crematorium that Yuanyin had died and would be cremated.
• Yuanli comforted Toji with a drink and guided him to the hospital despite his shock.
• At the morgue, Yuanli asked the doctor to let her sign the paperwork because Toji could not bring himself to do it.

After Yuanyin died, Toji sank into grief and repeatedly tried to escape his pain, while eight-year-old Yuanli took charge of the funeral arrangements and cared for him. When Toji finally met Yuanli at the hospital with Yuanyin’s urn, she forgave him, and he broke down in her arms.

• Toji refused to look at Yuanyin’s body, then realized he had left Yuanli behind at the crematorium and answered her call.
• Yuanli returned home late with a hearse driver, cared for Toji and Megumi, and gave Toji milk that left him asleep.
• Toji woke from a dream and followed Yuanli to the hospital, where he trampled the pansies she had picked and upset her.
• Yuanli told Toji they would make Yuanyin’s final journey together, but Toji overslept and arrived at the hospital after sunset.
• Yuanli waited with Yuanyin’s urn and told Toji she understood and forgave him, and Toji sobbed as he held the urn.

Eight-year-old Yuanli buried Reason in a remote mountain cemetery and resolved to end her own life after handling Reason’s affairs. She fell on the dark path and broke her arm, but police arrived and called her name.

• Yuanli placed Reason’s urn in a secluded grave and sent the intrusive cemetery worker, Yoshida Tadashi, away.
• Yuanli cleaned Reason’s headstone, burned a letter, and decided to erase her name from the reincarnation records and die.
• Yuanli recalled past lives with Reason as she descended the unlit mountain stairs.
• Yuanli fell, broke her left arm while trying to set it, and struggled onward alone.
• Police found Yuanli in the darkness and called out to her.

Yuanli was rescued after being abandoned on a dark mountain, while Toji realized he had failed to accompany her and rushed to the cemetery. When he saw her injured, he attacked the staff member responsible, but Yuanli stopped him and arranged for them to go to the hospital before facing police questioning.

• A policewoman carried Yuanli down the mountain, and she looked for Reason before spotting Toji among the officers.
• Toji found Yuanli’s note saying she had taken Reason to the cemetery, then went there after learning a child was still missing on the mountain.
• Toji learned that a cemetery staff member had left Yuanli alone and moved to attack him when Yuanli came down injured.
• Yuanli stopped Toji, stood between him and the police, and asked to accompany him to the hospital before they went to the station.
• Inspector Megure agreed to send Yuanli and Toji to the hospital with police officers while paramedics treated Yoshida Tadashi.

During a painful ride over Kanagawa Prefecture’s rough roads, the injured narrator was bounced against Toji’s lap while he mistook her cries for grief and tried to comfort her. His awkward apology brought her tears to a stop, and she told him it wasn’t his fault.

• The police car jolted along Kanagawa Prefecture’s rough roads, repeatedly throwing the narrator’s injured arm against Toji’s thighs.
• Toji held the narrator on his lap and told her to sleep, while the officers mistook her pain-filled crying for a display of father-daughter affection.
• As the narrator cried, she remembered how she had taught Yuanyin to comfort others and resented that Yuanyin had left Toji without enough time to learn from her.
• Toji awkwardly apologized, and the narrator stopped crying and told him it wasn’t his fault.

Toji confronted his guilt over failing Yuanli, apologized, and protected her during the ride to the hospital. After Yuanli forced Yoshida Tadashi to drop his threat against Toji, she returned home and resumed planning her death, only to discover Toji burning the last photograph of her with Yuanyin.

• Toji realized that Yuanli needed a sincere apology, and he held her protectively when she fell onto his lap in the police car.
• Toji apologized to Yuanli and recognized how often he had failed to protect or care for her.
• Yuanli threatened Yoshida Tadashi with Quasar until he promised not to press charges against Toji, then secretly broke her healing arm again to preserve her injuries.
• Yoshida Tadashi confessed at the police station and was detained, while Toji learned to feed Megumi Zenin after they returned home.
• Yuanli planned her death and searched for a photograph of Yuanyin, then found Toji burning the last picture of Yuanyin and her together.

After Toji burned the photograph of Yuanyin, Yuanli withdrew from him, while both father and daughter struggled with grief and guilt. They finally tended each other’s burned hands, offering comfort and a first tentative step toward reconciliation.

• Yuanli rescued part of a photograph of herself and Yuanyin from the fire, then shut herself away from Toji and searched the house for other pictures of Yuanyin.
• Yuanli found Toji asleep beside the television and watched a film about Ayako and Ryosuke, reflecting on how they each coped with losing someone they loved.
• Toji forced himself to open the wardrobe, tore down a candid photograph of himself and Yuanyin, and burned it without realizing Yuanli’s hidden photograph was beneath it.
• Toji struggled to apologize as Yuanli avoided him, and he grew weak after going nearly two days without sleep or food.
• Toji found Yuanli sitting beside him on the sofa and clumsily applied ointment to her burned hands; Yuanli then tended his wounds and reassured him.

While searching Yuanyin and Toji’s documents, the narrator found a marriage certificate with Yuanyin’s half of the photograph cut away and understood Toji’s pain through memories of past losses. The chapter left Toji and the narrator walking home together after a meal, quietly protecting one another as they grieved Yuanyin.

• The narrator found Yuanyin and Toji’s marriage certificate with Yuanyin’s half of the photograph cut away, and saw Toji’s distress.
• The narrator recalled a past life during the Sengoku Period, when Yuanyin befriended Princess Tsukuyomi and the narrator clashed with her son, Sesshomaru.
• Sesshomaru told the narrator that his father, Tōga, had married a human woman after a three-year countdown that left Princess Tsukuyomi facing abandonment.
• The narrator connected Princess Tsukuyomi’s vigil over the dying Yuanyin with Toji’s present grief, then put the documents away.
• The narrator took Toji to a nearby fried chicken restaurant, where he gradually regained his composure while thinking of Yuanyin.
• On the walk home, Toji gently guided the narrator to the inside of the road and shielded them from the cold.

The narrator tried to restore a scorched photograph of Yuanli, then prepared to go to the cemetery with tools for testing a suicide plan. Toji turned back when the narrator walked away and brought them to a children’s drawing class, where the dangerous contents of their backpack threatened to expose their intentions.

• The narrator failed to redraw Yuanli’s face on the damaged photograph and put the fragments away.
• The narrator packed nylon rope, sleeping pills, and kitchen knives into a red backpack and set out for the cemetery.
• Toji stopped the narrator from leaving and led them down the street; the narrator recalled years of feeling excluded by Yuanli and turned away from him.
• Toji searched for the narrator and caught their backpack strap, choosing to walk forward with them instead of letting them disappear.
• The narrator held Toji’s shirt as he took them to a children’s drawing class, where the teacher asked what supplies were in their backpack.

The narrator recalled her first encounters with Toji and later accompanied him to a children’s drawing class, where she realized he was trying to make amends. As Toji began to earn her trust, he kicked down a biker who grabbed her backpack, exposing the dangerous tools she had hidden inside.

• The narrator remembered waiting in the nursery for Yuanyin while Toji visited her and appeared unsettled by the babies’ crying.
• Toji interrupted a teacher who accused the narrator of lying, dumped a boy’s art supplies in front of her, and followed her out of the crying classroom.
• Toji found the narrator’s discarded drawings, recognized himself in them, and sought a drawing class as a way to make things up to her.
• The narrator and Toji walked home, and she reflected that she hoped Megumi could anchor Toji without making her anyone’s anchor again.
• A biker grabbed the narrator’s backpack, Toji kicked him down, and the torn bag spilled the narrator’s hidden tools—including a kitchen knife near Toji’s shoe.

Toji confronted Yuanli about the rope, pills, and cleaver she had gathered, then later understood that she had been planning to die and faced his own suicidal despair. He put the knife away when Yuanli came to him, resolving to stop running from their grief and help her.

• Toji beat the Biker Gang members after they resisted, then questioned Yuanli about the rope, pills, and cleaver she had collected.
• Yuanli claimed the items were fishing tools, while the Biker Gang members panicked and accused her and Toji of being psycho killers.
• Toji called the police, then removed knives, pills, and other dangerous tools from the home to keep them away from Yuanli.
• Toji stood with the cleaver from the Inventory Curse Worm and regretted leaving Yuanli alone through her mother's death and funeral.
• Toji realized Yuanli was not unbreakable and that his avoidance had pushed her closer to death.
• When Yuanli hurried into the room, Toji put the knife away and gently stroked her head.

Megumi went with Toji to a midnight gathering for the film “Moscow” and discovered that director Ayato had become trapped in grief over the dead Ryosuke. She used void energy to destroy the monster formed from his shadow and urged Ryosuke to let go of his memories.

• Megumi noticed that Toji had been watching and following her since Yuanyin's death, and reflected that she had trapped him by keeping him close.
• Megumi found a flyer for a “Moscow” fan gathering and invited Toji to accompany her.
• Megumi and Toji climbed to a mountain café, where director Ayato spoke about the film after the actors failed to appear.
• After the gathering, Ayato embraced a monster formed from his shadow, while his elderly parents and cousin tried to reach him.
• Megumi recognized that the monster held Ryosuke's memories and used void energy to destroy it, telling Ryosuke that clinging to the past could not bring love back.

After Yuanli saved Ayato Nanami from a Curse, she watched Kento Nanami struggle to make adults believe what he had seen and left him with a warning to trust the right people. Feeling isolated and unable to tell Toji who she really was, Yuanli found comfort in Megumi Zenin’s words and decided she wanted to stay in this world with him.

• Kento Nanami called for an ambulance after Yuanli saved Ayato Nanami, and he calmly cared for his family while checking Yuanli for injuries.
• Kento told the police that a monster had attacked his cousin, but the officer dismissed him after Ayato mentioned his recent treatment in neurology and psychiatry.
• Ayato caught up with Yuanli to ask where her comforting words had come from, and she told him the line itself was not what mattered.
• Yuanli whispered to Kento that the Curse had been real and that he needed to learn whom he could trust with the truth.
• A salesman ignored Yuanli’s refusal and directed his pitch to Toji, deepening Yuanli’s sense that nobody respected or understood her.
• Megumi Zenin told Yuanli not to cry, and she decided she would stay in this world with him for as long as she could.

Yuanli tried to connect with her younger brother Megumi Zenin, who had become withdrawn after apparently arriving with memories of another life. After Megumi revealed that he had been fifteen in his previous life, Yuanli realized he might need comfort and wanted to embrace him.

• Yuanli found Megumi wary and distant, and tried to care for him without forcing him to accept help.
• Megumi struggled with his unfamiliar young body, spilled his breakfast, and later left warm coffee outside Yuanli’s room in return for her consideration.
• When a cleaver fragment injured Yuanli’s ear, Megumi attacked Toji while trying to protect her, and Yuanli separated them.
• Yuanli brought Megumi cocoa milk and asked whether he was Megumi Zenin; he confirmed he was Megumi but hesitated over the Zenin name.
• Megumi told Yuanli he had been fifteen in his previous life, and she resolved to try offering him a comforting embrace.

Megumi Fushiguro found himself in his two-year-old body in 2004, living with Toji and Yuanli, his sister by blood. As Yuanli patiently respected his boundaries, Megumi began to understand that her gaze and affection were unlike the frightening attention he had endured before, and he accepted a brief hug from her.

• Megumi woke in a toddler's body in 2004 and mistook his return to the past for a nightmare or a memory of his death.
• Megumi recognized Toji as his father and discovered Yuanli had placed a cushion beneath him to protect him from a fall.
• Megumi recalled how Fushiguro Tomomi's frightening behavior had made him wary of women, and Yuanli quietly left a blanket beside him when he tensed at her approach.
• Yuanli gave Megumi space and treated him with care, but Megumi misread Toji's bloody knife and Yuanli's bandaged ear as signs that she was in danger.
• Megumi spoke with Yuanli, revealed his real age, and accepted her request to give him a brief hug.

Yuanli cared for Megumi as he struggled with sleeplessness and traumatic memories of the Shibuya Incident. She reassured him that he could choose whether to remain in the memories or return to the house, and that she would stay beside him either way.

• Megumi accidentally broke Yuanli’s coffee cup while trying to help, then cleaned up as Yuanli watched.
• Yuanli noticed Megumi’s exhaustion and later found him trembling outside her room after another sleepless night.
• Megumi relived the Shibuya Incident, recalling Gojo’s sealing and Nanami’s death before Yuanli’s questions helped calm him.
• Yuanli brought Megumi warm milk and told him he could choose whether to stay in the battlefield memory or return to the house.
• Megumi realized Yuanli had given him the space to choose, and he began considering which memory to face.

Yuanli took Megumi out in the rain, where he admitted he wanted to grow up quickly so he would not burden her. Remembering how Yuanyin’s expectations had shaped her own childhood, Yuanli asked Megumi to let his body and soul grow at their own pace, and he agreed while taking her hand.

• Megumi told Yuanli he had made up his mind, and she accepted his bowl without pressing him to reveal painful memories.
• Yuanli prepared to shop in the rain, and Megumi asked to come along so he could choose something himself.
• As they walked, Megumi worried that he was making trouble by slowing Yuanli down and said he wanted to grow up quickly.
• Yuanli recalled how Yuanyin had urged her to grow up and how a glance during a gunfight had made her fear she was a burden.
• Yuanli asked Megumi to remember his name as Megumi Fushiguro and give two-year-old Megumi Zenin time to have a childhood.
• Megumi agreed, took Yuanli’s hand, and said that both two-year-old Megumi Zenin and Megumi Fushiguro wanted to hold it.

When Megumi developed a dangerous fever, Yuanli rushed him to the hospital with Toji and received help from newly transferred officer Hiromitsu Morofushi. Toji tried to leave his family in Morofushi’s care, but Yuanli confronted her own neglect and told Toji that she and Megumi needed him.

• Yuanli woke to find Megumi burning with fever and hurried with Toji through the rain to seek medical help.
• Hiromitsu Morofushi drove them to the hospital, where Yuanli thanked him and recognized the meaning behind his name.
• After Megumi was taken into the ward, Toji walked away, and Yuanli wondered when he had begun to escape the constraints she had placed on him.
• Toji waited for Morofushi with a knife, intending to provoke an attack and leave Yuanli and Megumi in the officer’s care, but stopped when Yuanli appeared.
• Yuanli introduced Toji to Morofushi, concealed the knife with help from the worm, and led Toji away from the officer.
• Yuanli realized she needed Toji and apologized, asking him to stay with her and Megumi.

While caring for Megumi in the hospital, Yuanli discovered that Yuanyin’s memories had prompted him to call her Lili and embrace her. She stopped the hug and asked him to return to his own feelings, leaving him to choose whether to act as himself rather than follow his mother’s wishes.

• Yuanli remembered Yuanyin, their two puppies, and the tender days they had shared.
• Megumi offered Yuanli apple slices and called her “Lili.”
• Megumi recovered memories of Yuanyin telling him to care for and hug Lili, and realized that Lili was Yuanli.
• Megumi embraced Yuanli and said that he was Megumi.
• Yuanli stopped the hug and asked Megumi to tell her what he remembered.
• Yuanli told Megumi she wanted his real feelings, not actions driven by Yuanyin’s memories, and asked him to give her back the real Megumi.