The shikigami came in the deep of night. Touka had been asleep for perhaps an hour. Yozora sat on the veranda of the hermitage, reading the air from the mountain's southern slope. Mist drifted thin and pale, blurring the outlines of the cedar trees. It was an ordinary night. From the east, it came. Not a sensation of impact. Something quieter, more insidious. A pressure like pushing a fingertip against the membrane of a barrier—slow, seeping. Yozora rose to her feet. From the west, it came too. Simultaneously. (——Two directions) The next moment, pressure came from the south and north as well. Four directions, all at once. Yozora's silver-white eyes traced the shape of the barrier that spread across the entire mountain in her mind. The east was crumbling. If she repaired it, the west would fracture. If she held the west, the north would push back. A war of attrition. (Two elderly humans——they would go this far) Half in exasperation, Yozora left the hermitage. The mountain's guardian was not raising a barrier against a yokai, but facing a direct assault of force from an elderly human couple of onmyoji. The situation was too distorted to even laugh at. She glanced back once at Touka's guest room. Beyond the partially opened shoji, Touka slept. Her violet hair spread across the bedding, her face turned toward the room. A peaceful sleeping face. Her breathing was quiet, and tonight she slept without screaming. ——After confirming that, Yozora burst toward the middle of the mountain. ＊ Not even seconds had passed since leaving the hermitage. Touka's arm burned. In the depths of sleep, heat ran through her. Her breath stopped. From her left wrist to her elbow, a curse mark began pulsing a dark red. It took less than a second for her to be torn from sleep. "——" No sound came out. Her throat felt blocked. Her body curled on the bedding. Each time the mark glowed, a sensation like something tearing from inside her arm shot through her. But something more terrifying was happening. Her body moved. Not by Touka's will. On the bedding, her body slowly rose. Touka had not commanded it. She tried to stop it, but it would not stop. Her feet touched the floor. She stood. Normally, as if she had stood of her own accord. (Stop it) She tried to scream. No sound came. Her feet began walking down the hallway. Her own feet. She could see the wood grain of the hallway with her own eyes. But she could not stop. She descended to the earthen floor. She put on sandals. Her hand reached for the hermitage door. Her own hand opened it. The night air touched her cheek. She was crying. Since when. Tears traced her cheeks, falling from her jaw. She watched her own body move with her own eyes. The more she tried to stop it, the more the mark on her arm glowed dark red, and her body would not obey. "[crying]Yozora-san…… Yozora-san, help me…… My body won't listen to me……!" Her voice finally came out. But Yozora was not there. She was on the mountainside. While sealing the fractures in the barrier, she was not within earshot of Touka's voice. The sound was swallowed by the night mist and vanished. Touka's body continued walking downward, away from the mountain. ＊ The moment Yozora sealed the crack that had run along the eastern side of the barrier, she stopped. The presence from the direction of the hermitage had vanished. (——Touka) She half-abandoned the barrier. She could feel the northern membrane wavering. It did not matter. She ran down the mountain path as if flying. When she returned to the hermitage, the guest room's bedding was empty. The door was open. In the direction down the mountain, she sensed a presence. She burst onto the mountain path. Twenty meters ahead. Touka was walking. In her night clothes, in sandals, treading the soil of the mountain path. Her back was visible. Her violet hair swayed in the night wind. From the irregularity of her breathing, Yozora could tell she was crying. "[serious]Touka" She called her name. Touka's feet stopped. Her body stopped——the next instant. A dark red light exploded. The curse marks across Touka's entire body blazed all at once. Not just her arms. On her neck, her shoulders, her back, on places usually unseen, dark red patterns surfaced and glowed. Something overflowed from her body. A tempest of spiritual energy. Yozora created walls of spiritual energy with both hands. She drew in the mountain's spiritual energy and transformed it into a barrier. She could withstand it. That was what she thought. She was naive. The wall shattered. Not a sensation of impact. Not even the sensation of tearing paper. Simply, everything Yozora had created was blown away in an instant. The barrier of spiritual energy as a Kagari and all. The scale of Touka's talent far exceeded Yozora's prior estimates. Yozora's body flew through the air. She was slammed against the slope beside the mountain path. A rock struck her shoulder. A dull sound. Her foot caught on a tree root as she tumbled down the slope. From the direction of the hermitage, came the sound of collapse. The sound of the southern wall crumbling from the shockwave. The sound of the garden fence shattering. Only the sound of destruction echoed through the night mountain. Touka was on her knees at that spot. The tempest had subsided. Temporarily. Power drained from Touka's body, she collapsed from her knees, both hands pressing into the mud of the mountain path. A fragment of freedom returned to her body. In her field of vision, Yozora appeared. Halfway down the slope, pressing her shoulder, trying to push her body upright. Blood seeped from her left shoulder. The black robe had darkened. Mud and leaves tangled in the black hair that reached her waist. Touka's chest tightened for a reason other than pain. Something contracted sharply. That Yozora's face, that wounded Yozora's face, looked so small to her—it was unbearable. ——But she still did not know the name of that emotion. She tried to run toward her. Her feet stopped. (——If I get close, the tempest will come again) She did not know when her body would move next. If the same thing happened as before. If the same tempest came again. If Yozora was blown away again. She could not stand. She could not approach. Touka remained with both hands pressed into the mud, unable to move. A thought sank into her mind. Slowly, but certainly. (Because I am here——Yozora is hurt) There were words Yozora had spoken to her ten days ago. You are not wrong. Talent is not a tool. Words she had heard on the veranda that morning, but they did not reach her in this moment. A tool moved of its own accord. It hurt someone precious. Fifteen years of words came flowing backward. Fifteen years of being told to live only to use her talent. Fifteen years of waiting in a room surrounded by barriers, feeling the walls draw closer. Fifteen years of being told her value existed only because she had talent. (I am nothing but a tool. My grandparents were right) Touka's hands trembled. Mud pressed into the spaces between her fingers. Her knees were cold. And she fell to the deepest place. (I——it would have been better if I did not exist) The moment those words took root in her mind, something vanished. The will to resist disappeared. The curse moved. Heat spread slowly. Not just the marks on her arms. From the deepest part of her body, from the innermost reaches of her spiritual energy, the curse began to erode. The edges of her consciousness began to blur. Color faded. The night mountain receded beyond the mist. Her body tried to move again. But this time, Touka herself had no strength left to stop it. ＊ Yozora descended the slope. Pressing her shoulder, grasping tree roots with her hands, she came down in a tumble. She reached Touka's side and knelt. In the mud. The knees of her robe became soiled. Blood traced from her shoulder down her sleeve. Touka's eyes had already begun to lose focus. Whether she was looking at Yozora or not was unclear. The color of her pupils was fading. The pale crimson was becoming ashen. Yozora took Touka's hands in both of hers. They were cold. Soiled with mud. Slender and trembling. "[serious]Touka" Her voice was low. Wrung out. "[serious]You are not a tool" Touka's pupils moved faintly. They turned toward Yozora. But they did not focus. Whether she was looking at Yozora's face or at something beyond her, it was unclear. "[serious]Your coming here was not chance. I will protect you" It was unclear if the words reached her. Power drained from Touka's hands. Even as Yozora's hands gripped back, Touka's fingers did not move. Yozora did not release Touka's hands. She poured her own spiritual energy into her. She drew in the mountain's spiritual energy, trying to push back the curse's erosion into Touka's body. She felt power leaking from her wounded shoulder. The output was insufficient. She could see the collapsed southern wall of the hermitage. In the night, wood scattered. The garden fence shattered, the turnip seedlings trampled. The garden Touka tended every day. The place where she had been nipped by a Hitotsume, fallen and gotten covered in mud, and laughed. Touka's hand was visible. Her muddy fingers extended without strength in Yozora's hands. Yozora did not close her eyes. Watching all of it, she wrung her spiritual energy. With the intention of using the entire mountain, she wrung it. The curse's progress slowed slightly. Only slightly. But it did not stop. Yozora alone could not stop it. The night mountain was silent. As if the tempest from moments before had been a lie, there was no wind. In the distance, a kodama mouse called. It cried once, then fell silent. Touka's breathing grew shallower. Yozora, still holding Touka's hand, turned her gaze toward the direction outside the mountain. South of Mikagura Mountain, beyond the mist, beyond the Towatari River, toward Hibari Village. Further still, toward Kasuga City. The mountain's guardian asking humans for help. Yozora knew the weight of that choice. She knew the meaning of the non-interference pact, the complexity of human onmyoji society. And yet. Touka's hand was still warm. Faintly, but unmistakably. Yozora's profile grew stern and tight in the night mist.