The story begins with an eight-foot-tall lady surrounded by ghost story ladies.

The time-stopping effect of the chaotic clapper continues.

Natsume Fanyu withdrew his gaze and looked again at the gap woman clinging to Ogata Mayuko's back.

That exquisitely beautiful face was still buried in the nape of Mayuko Ogata's neck, her fair arms wrapped around her waist like vines.

The entire scene was frozen in time, like a double statue forgotten in a corner of the exhibition hall, eerily beautiful, and so eerily captivating that it was impossible to look away.

Natsume Fanyu did not rush to make a move.

He is waiting.

The thing he sensed when he used his "Insightful Eyes" to see the true nature of the Gap Woman.

That silk thread that extends from the gap in the woman's heart all the way to Tokyo Bay.

That's not the fate line.

It is a thread formed from obsession.

So fine as to be almost invisible, yet so resilient as to bind a spirit to the world.

Five seconds. Ten seconds. Fifteen seconds.

The silk thread slowly emerged in the morning light, pale golden and slightly luminous, like spider silk warmed by the sun.

Following the direction of the silk thread, Natsume Fanyu's gaze passed over the floor-to-ceiling windows, over the layered rooftops of the port area, and over the gray-blue sea of ​​Tokyo Bay.

He eventually stopped at a location that he could not see directly, but could clearly perceive using the "Great Luo Cave Observation".

There was an abandoned shrine there. The torii gate had collapsed, and half of the roof of the main hall had collapsed, leaving only a few pillars supporting the rickety beams.

He saw it.

At the other end of the thread, something was tied.

It was neither human nor spirit; it was a crack.

A crack that floats in the air, doesn't belong to any object, and just exists out of thin air.

It was only a finger's width and an arm's length, with rough edges as if it had been forcibly torn open from the inside by something.

On the other side of the crack, something was peering through the gap.

That thing had no shape, no appearance, and not even a fixed sense of existence.

But it is definitely there.

On the other side of the crack, one gazes upon the world on this side of the crack in a way that transcends sight.

Natsume Fanyu withdrew his gaze.

He couldn't help but sigh to himself:

"It seems this 'Ghost Story Lady' is quite extraordinary."

The root cause is surprisingly significant!

Ordinary gap women are born from ordinary gaps.

The gloom and forgetfulness accumulated in those neglected, narrow spaces have solidified and taken shape over the years.

But the source of this strange tale is not the crack in the door or the crack in the wall.

It was that gap that connected "somewhere" and "here".

The place that crack led to was one that even his Great Luo Cave Observation could not completely penetrate.

This means that her dimension of existence was a whole order of magnitude higher than that of her kind from the very beginning.

She can exist in any crevice, not because she is in a crevice, but because she herself is the projection of the concept of "crevice" in the present world.

Moreover, the aura emanating from the cracks belonged neither to this world nor to the afterlife.

It doesn't even belong to any space he knows.

Rather, it's somewhere deeper.

A place where even he had only read snippets of information about in ancient books and fragments.

The woman in front of me, who was born from that crack, was actually born from that crack.

Born in the crack between two worlds, it exists alone in the narrow darkness where even light cannot penetrate.

I don't know how many years have passed.

Looking at the outside world, at those people who can breathe, have heartbeats, and touch each other, yet never able to reach out a hand.

Natsume Fanyu cleared his mind and turned to look at the eight-foot-tall lady beside him.

Morning light streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, making the eight-foot-tall lady's white shirt almost transparent.

The teardrop-shaped curve beneath the fabric undulated quietly.

Her face still possessed that ethereal, aloof elegance, with a touch of detachment and compassion found only in the statues of Guanyin in temples.

But Natsume Fanyu knew what a turbulent possessiveness lay hidden beneath that ascetic face.

"Okusan," he said.

The eight-foot-tall lady tilted her head slightly, her clear, cold eyes looking down at him from above.

"What do you think of this ghost story lady..." Natsume Fanyu's voice was unhurried.

"Would you be suitable to help us better improve that spiritual realm?"

The eight-foot-tall lady was stunned for a moment.

I obviously didn't expect him to make such a suggestion.

"you mean?"

"Because the mirror was broken, cracks appeared in the spiritual realm inside."

Natsume Fanyu raised his right hand, palm up, as if he were holding something unseen.

"If those gaps are not filled, the spirit realm will be unstable after it is built, like a room with drafts on all sides, which will never be comfortable to live in."

He lowered his hand and shifted his gaze to the gap woman clinging to Mayuko Ogata's back.

"And this Miss Ghost Story, she was born from a crevice, and can live and move through any crevice."

"This ability is perfect for perfecting the Spirit Realm."

"She can better fill in those broken edges and those cracks that cannot be closed, and she can also flow through the gaps to stabilize the spatial structure of the entire spirit realm."

He paused for a moment, then switched his tone from "presenting the plan" to "providing supplementary explanations".

"Moreover, her conceptual ability to 'confirm relationships' through names is also quite remarkable."

"Once you know the other person's name, you can establish a one-way channel."

"This ability may play a significant role in the future."

"Of course, if you, Okusan, don't like this idea, we'll find another way to handle it."

After saying that, he didn't continue.

He simply looked at Madam Bachi, waiting for her response.

The eight-foot-tall lady's fingers curled slightly.

Beneath the white shirt, the fabric, stretched to almost transparent, undulated slightly, its curves swaying gently with each breath.

She raised her eyes, gazed at him for a full three breaths, and then spoke:

"Okay," she said.

Two words.

The chill remains, the tranquility remains.

But Natsume Fanyu noticed that when she said those two words, she gently clenched the hem of her shirt at her side.

The hem of the white shirt barely covered the top of her thighs, and the corner she was clutching was crumpled into a soft swirl.

This was a decision made by Madam Bazhi after careful consideration.

It wasn't because what he said made sense, nor because the gap woman's abilities were indeed useful, nor because she would live more comfortably after the spirit realm was perfected.

It was because he asked her.

He treated her as the master of the spirit realm and sought her opinion.

He handed the decision over to her, saying, "If you don't like it, we'll try another way."

So she said yes.

It's not because the woman with the gap deserves to be taken in, but because he deserves her acceptance.

"Then it's settled."

That's all.

Natsume Fanyu raised his left hand and gently tapped his finger.

A dark golden light suddenly shot out and pierced into the woman's brow.