The inner courtyard of the shrine was in absolute chaos. People were scrambling, trying to get out without even knowing the reason why, but the mob was stopped dead in their tracks when eight large pillars descended from the sky and crashed into the ground surrounding the shrine's compound.
Then a transparent, bubble-like sphere spread out from the inner courtyard and surrounded the entire compound. The raging mob stood defenceless by the edge of the barrier.
An argument that broke out between two guys turned into a fight, which led to one of them being shoved toward the barrier. But instead of crashing against it, he fell right through to the other side.
Confused, the guy who pushed him reached his hand out to it hesitantly, but as it came into contact with the barrier, it slipped through.
With his hand still outside the barrier, he took a step closer, then another, until he was completely outside. The onlookers watched intently to see if he was really okay, but they couldn't find any evidence that suggested otherwise, so they started walking through one by one.
Their pace started to pick up once they confirmed that the barrier wall wasn't dangerous, and soon they were moving and struggling just as fast as before.
Leina was at the back of the crowd with Taki, but her mind couldn't be further away. She kept recalling when it happened, when Takae seemingly pulled a drawn sword out of a piece of paper and used it to stab the priestess, how her appearance seemed to change, and how several people in the crowd suddenly froze as the same happened to them.
With the ensuing chaos, she couldn't tell exactly what happened, but the central temple fell apart as it lit on fire, and now it was spreading. Despite the danger, those people who froze were still standing still, even when other panicked people brushed past them. It was as if they were unconscious.
She turned to Taki, noting how the shock of what was happening left her downcast. Leina held onto her hand tightly as more people came up to the crowd, blocking them behind.
They had no choice but to keep moving, or they would get squashed. Soon they were at the wall of the barrier.
Despite looking like thick glass, people were walking through it with ease, which only made her think back to Takae, Miyuki, and Yuriko.
As they approached the border, someone knocked into Taki, and before she could be pulled away from her, she held onto Leina's arm tightly.
The two of them walked out of the barrier and out of the gate of the compound to the main road, where people were much less compacted.
Before she could even decide what to do, she heard a voice call out to her. She turned to see that it was Makoto, dressed in his Doshin uniform.
He rushed to them and, with a worried look, immediately asked, "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," she replied while looking over at Taki as she still held onto her arm. "But I think the shock is getting to her. She should be fine, though, when she calms down."
"I'm glad," he said, looking relieved before turning his attention to the gate and to the guards who were trying to control the chaos.
"What are you going to do?" Leina asked. "Are you going to go back there?"
"I have to," he said, looking hesitant. "It's my duty, but I don't want to leave you alone right now. What should I do?"
Looking at his conflicted expression, she said, "Don't worry about us. Just go and do what you have to. We'll be waiting for you somewhere close by."
"Are you sure?"
"I am. Now go," she replied with a smile. "There's people out there who need saving, so hurry."
He turned to the gate but turned back, saying, "Don't worry. I'll come and find you as soon as I can. Just stay safe until then."
Once she nodded in agreement, he turned and rushed to the gate. The two of them just stood there for a moment before Leina nudged her and said, "Come on, Taki, let's go. It's dangerous here."
She didn't answer, which left her no other choice but to turn and leave, hoping that she wouldn't break away from her.
Back in the inner courtyard, Miyuki and Yuriko stood with their backs against each other, swords drawn.
The people who had suddenly frozen before were now coming to, and all their attention was turned to the two of them.
Looking at their partially disabled disguises, Miyuki noticed a similarity between them, but what concerned her was more immediate than that.
"I count twenty, maybe twenty-five, and each of them is strong," she thought. "They seem like they're all at the level we were a few months ago, which doesn't seem like much, but with their numbers, it's a different story."
Looking behind her, she thought, "It's a good thing Yuriko is here with me since she's the strongest out of all of us right now in terms of raw physical strength, but how far can that take us?"
"We still don't know what kind of blood manipulation techniques they will use, nor how skilled they are with them yet, and half of my attention is on the barrier."
That was when Yuriko said, "Looks like we're screwed, but look at the bright side. At least with the Eight-Layered Sea Sphere, we have them and any other imposters trapped here, so we don't have to worry about the people."
"So what's our game plan?" Miyuki asked.
"You know that I'm not the best when it comes to that, but I'd say that we should try to stay alive and take out as many as we can."
"As if that wasn't obvious," Miyuki said, "but I guess there's no other choice then."
"Yeah," Yuriko said as she got into her stance. Her blade started giving off hints of steam as she tightened her grip.
"We need to hurry up and go and back up Takae so we don't have any room to hold back."
A pulse of white shone from Miyuki, and when it faded, her sword had taken the form of its release, being a thin, all-white blade with stripes of gold.
As she got into her stance too, she said, "I've got your back, so don't worry and go all out."