The night seemed endless. One by one, the children climbed atop Gabimaru's conjured Shikigami. With a single, sweeping motion, the massive white bird took flight into the stormy sky, carrying four of them, while the colossal stag surged upward with five more.
Only two were left behind: the young boy and his sister, the very siblings Gabimaru had rushed down to protect when he first entered the alleyway.
Throughout the chaos, Gabimaru's concentration never wavered. His hands danced through intricate seals, keeping the thrashing ritual ropes at bay while maintaining the complex spiritual tether that sustained the Shikigami.
But just as things finally seemed to be going according to plan—
Crack! Crack!
The ancient shrine structure behind them began to splinter apart. From the deep fissures spiderwebbing across the weathered wood, Gabimaru caught the chilling gleam of an enormous eye, one that shifted swiftly, darting up and down with unnatural, predatory hunger.
"Ha—?!"
Gabimaru's breath hitched. For a terrifying fraction of a second, his gaze locked directly with a single, horrific green-and-black eye, a slit pupil that resembled the unsettling, unnatural eye of a goat.
Splash!
The shadowy monster he had conjured behind the children splattered into violent mist, collapsing back down into the crimson pool beneath them.
"Tch... My Reiryoku control over that boundary has been disrupted!"
Realising the spiritual pressure around the shrine was warping his constructs, Gabimaru wasted not a single breath. He bolted across the flooded alleyway, sprinting toward the remaining siblings while maintaining the blood barriers holding back the torrent of water and the relentless Shimenawa ropes.
Then, with a deafening split.
CRACK!
The wooden structure of the shrine burst wide open. Out from the shattered darkness lunged long, slender, jet-black arms. The spindly fingers uncoiled, stretching at impossible lengths as they reached straight toward the two helpless children.
"Tch... Oh no...!" Gabimaru's heart seized in his chest.
'I won't be able to get there in time!'
Desperate, Gabimaru snapped his fingers into another intricate seal, commanding the pool of blood surrounding the children to surge upward. It bubbled into a hasty, crude barrier, intercepting the piercing strike of the spirit's dark limb. But the defence held for barely a heartbeat before the slender black hand punched straight through the crimson wall.
Time ground to an agonising halt, stretching into a crawl for Gabimaru.
'It's over...' he thought, his hands trembling against the bitter chill of defeat.
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
His heart thundered frantically against his ribs as those pale, grasping fingers closed in toward the children.
SLUSSH—!
With a sudden, violent tearing sound and a heavy thud against the stone, the horrific black hand severed cleanly from the wrist and plummeted into the floodwaters.
Blinded by a sudden spray of dark ichor, Gabimaru blinked hard, his eyes straining to readjust through the downpour just in time to see the children vanish from where they had stood a fraction of a second before.
Tap! Tap!
Gabimaru felt a light, firm touch on his shoulder. Turning his head slowly, he found Shion standing beside him in her awakened form. Her bound hair fluttered gently against the stormy wind, and her face bore a soft, reassuring smile that instantly cut through the chaos of the alleyway.
"You—!" Gabimaru gasped, his eyes wide.
Shion smoothly set the two rescued children down beside the others. In her free hand, she held the bone hairpin left behind by Mitsuki, the spirit she had fought and honoured before.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
A series of heavy, thunderous gales echoed over the distant quarters of the village. As the townspeople peered up into the pouring rain, they shuddered, drawing back in terror.
"M-Monsters...!" several armed guards yelled, unsheathing their blades and raising their weapons toward the sky.
Normally, ordinary mortals without spiritual sight would never be able to perceive pure Shikigami. But Gabimaru's summons were entirely unique. By weaving together his clan's high-level Onmyodo blood arts with his dense Reiryoku, he had unknowingly accomplished something virtually unheard of: he had given the spiritual constructs concrete, physical manifestations in the material world.
"Mother...! Father...!" the children atop Gabimaru's Shikigami cried out, their eyes lighting up as they spotted their parents in the crowd below.
"Put away your weapons! It's the children!" one of the villagers shouted, gesturing wildly to the guards. "Those young people did it... they actually brought our children back to us!"
The crowd surged forward, parents dropping their arms and rushing frantically toward the giant white summons.
Finally, after what had felt like an endless nightmare, the lost children were reunited with their families. Yet, as the crowd gathered, the atmosphere remained heavy—some parents hovered at the edges with wide, piercing eyes, scanning the crowd in desperate search of faces that were not there.
"Nana...! Shizu...!" mothers and fathers sobbed, pulling their children into suffocating embraces. "Are you alright...? Where were you...?"
"It was so... scary..." the children wept, their voices trembling so hard their words bled into incoherent gasps. Snot ran down their noses and tears mixed with the falling rain as they buried their faces in their parents' arms.
"Where is Kuna...?" another parent pushed frantically through the crowd, her hands trembling as she shoved past the weeping families. "Where is my daughter...??
The woman called out into the rain, her entire body shaking, but no voice answered back.
Several villagers shuddered, quietly looking away, unable to meet her desperate gaze. As the harsh reality settled in, the woman fell to her knees, every ounce of strength leaving her body as she collapsed into the mud.
"Calm down, Keizuko... keep hope," a neighbour urged, kneeling beside her while a small crowd gathered to offer what little comfort they could through her tears. "I am sure those people from the capital will find her. Look at how they brought the other children back to us!"
'If something happens to her... it will be all my fault,' the woman thought, her chest heaving as she sobbed uncontrollably into her hands. 'I'm the one who sent her out today, even though she begged to stay home...'
Back in the narrow, flooded alleyway, the shrine had completely shattered.
The spirit had finally fully manifested itself, and a horrifying, breathtaking sight it was.