Yōki's face twisted in her sleep as though she were trapped in a nightmare. She struggled to break free... and after a long while, she finally escaped it and suddenly opened her eyes.
But the next moment... Yōki felt as if she were about to suffocate, as though her heart were about to stop.
Above Yōki, a terrifying, ugly face with two horns on its head appeared before her.
Yōki wanted to scream, but she found she could not make a sound. The evil oni noticed that Yōki had seen it and lunged at her with a horrifying, grating laugh. Just as Yōki fell into despair, a bolt of lightning appeared around her. The sudden lightning caught the oni off guard and blasted its head into nothingness.
"Ah..."
Only then did Yōki finally cry out.
At the same time, everyone else woke up at once.
"Yōki, what's wrong?"
Mei rolled over and sprang to her feet with Raikiri in hand, hurrying anxiously to Yōki's side.
"I..."
Yōki kept gulping down air, as though she had yet to recover.
"Calm down first. Take it slowly..."
Mei comforted Yōki, then began checking their surroundings. Sure enough, she found something strange—the temperature... was abnormal.
However... Mei could not sense any yokai aura. She checked the barrier again, and it was intact as well. No yokai had entered.
Mei had great confidence in her barrier. Even Nura Rikuo could not enter it without her noticing.
After carefully searching the temple once more, Mei found nothing.
"Lord Mei, there was... there was a terrifying yokai..." Having recovered somewhat, Yōki stood up with fear written all over her face and spoke to Mei tremblingly.
Though she sometimes sympathized with yokai, this was the first time she had encountered one so terrifying. It had truly frightened