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

Natsume Fanyu stood in front of the gate, looking at the ancient mansion.

Rin Jinguji stood half a step behind him, having left the group of black-clad bodyguards at the end of the driveway.

"You were right not to let them in."

Natsume Fanyu said.

"They can't see it, coming in would just be suicide," Jinguji Rin said calmly.

Natsume Fanyu turned around and glanced at her, only to find...

"Miss Jinguji, are you... trembling?"

Rin Jinguji's back tensed for a moment.

She didn't refute it, because she was indeed trembling.

But it wasn't out of fear; it was because the scent emanating from this mansion was exactly the same as the scent of the night her mother disappeared seven years ago.

"Let's go."

Natsume Fanyu withdrew his gaze and pushed open the door.

Rin Jinguji followed in his footsteps.

The moment she stepped across the threshold, she felt a distinct resistance.

"This is..." she frowned.

"Barrier..."

Natsume Fanyu stopped and took a closer look.

"And it's upside down."

"It's not about keeping outside things out, but about keeping inside things inside."

Behind him, Jinguji Rin, who was already somewhat lost in thought, didn't notice that he had suddenly stopped.

There wasn't enough time to stop.

The entire weight of the person hit his back.

In that instant, she clearly felt something pressing down on her solidly before the rest of her body.

"..."

The air suddenly became very hot.

Rin Jinguji froze on the spot, as if burned by her own body heat.

Natsume Fanyu turned his head slightly without turning around, but his voice was noticeably lower than usual.

"Miss Jinguji".

Jinguji Rin suddenly came to her senses and finally took a half step back.

"You shouldn't have stopped so suddenly," she said, her tone still cool, but the last syllable of her voice tightened slightly.

Natsume Fanyu composed himself and did not continue the topic. He simply lifted his foot again and continued speaking:

"This barrier turns the entire mansion into a one-way passage."

"People outside can come in, but people inside can't get out."

As he spoke, he looked towards the main house and slowly said:

"Including the things in the main house."

The shoji doors of the main house were tightly closed.

The door paper was covered with densely packed talismans, which covered the entire surface from the other side of the door.

Unlike the talismans that fall without wind outside.

These talismans are still firmly stuck to the door, as if sealing something.

"Your family's exorcist is quite skilled." Natsume Fanyu walked to the door.

"Unfortunately, they went in the wrong direction."

"What do you mean?"

"He's not protecting this mansion." Natsume Fanyu reached out and touched the paper door.

"He's feeding the thing inside."

The words fell.

The talismans on the door paper all lit up with a dark red light, as if countless eyes had opened at the same time.

"Step back."

Natsume Fanyu's voice suddenly changed tone.

It was neither the previous nonchalance nor the calmness when facing evil spirits.

It was a kind of cold that made Jinguji Rin instinctively feel her hair stand on end.

The talismans on the door paper began to burn.

Dark red flames seeped from every stroke of the brush, spreading along the paper door and outwards like blood vessels.

Within seconds, the entire front of the main house transformed into a door burning with dark red talismanic flames.

Then, the door opened.

It wasn't pushed away.

It is the door itself, concave and twisted inward, open like a mouth.

The space behind the door is not inside the main house.

It was an absolute darkness from which even light could not escape.

Footsteps echoed from the depths of darkness.

Step by step, at a leisurely pace.

Rin Jinguji stopped breathing.

Because along with the footsteps came another sound.

A voice she hadn't heard in seven years, yet had never forgotten for a single day.

"cold."

The gentle female voice came from the darkness.

"Rin, it's Mom."

Rin Jinguji's fingernails dug into her palm.

She didn't move, didn't respond, and didn't even change her expression.

He just stared intently at the darkness, at the thing that was about to emerge from it.

"Come here, Rin." The voice continued:

"Let Mom see you."

A bare, pale foot stepped out of the darkness, with a ring of bluish-purple finger marks remaining on the ankle.

Then comes the second foot.

Then came the white skirt...

Rin Jinguji remembers that she wore that dress on the day her mother disappeared.

And then...

One hand.

It emerged from the darkness and beckoned to her.

"cold."

The woman who emerged from the darkness had the exact same face as she remembered.

Gentle eyes, a curved mouth, and a small beauty mark under her left eye.

Everything is the same as it was seven years ago.

Besides the five finger marks on her neck that were slowly tightening, there were also other marks.

And the hands that were gripping her neck were her own.

Rin Jinguji looked at her mother.

Or rather, looking at the thing wearing the skin of its mother.

She pulled her right hand out of her pocket.

He was holding a short knife in his hand.

The blade was covered with intricate Sanskrit inscriptions, and its edge gleamed with a cold blue light.

"Seven years ago, you took her away."

Rin Jinguji's voice was eerily calm.

"You're standing in front of me dressed as her now, are you trying to make me hesitate?"

The thing tilted its head.

A smile that was completely unlike any other smile appeared on the mother's face...

The corners of his mouth were pulled too high, and his eyes were curved too deeply, as if someone was pulling muscles under his face, trying to imitate the expression of "smile".

"Rin has grown up, she's grown up so much."

The thing spoke in a mother's voice.

"But..."

It released its grip on its neck and opened its arms to Jinguji Rin.

The fingerprints on my neck disappeared the moment I let go, and my skin returned to its smooth, intact state.

Don't you miss your mother?

Rin Jinguji's hand holding the sword was trembling.

It wasn't because of hesitation.

It's because of anger.

Of course she wanted to.

Every day, every night, every time I close my eyes.

She would always remember the look in her mother's eyes when she last looked at her...

That look in her eyes, even though she herself had been dragged into darkness, was still mouthing "Don't be afraid."

And now, this thing, wearing her mother's face and speaking her mother's voice, stands before her.

Ask her, "Don't you miss your mom?"

Rin Jinguji moved.

She stepped forward, the dagger drawing a cold blue arc in the air, aimed straight for the creature's throat...

A hand reached out from the side and grasped her wrist.

The force wasn't great, but it precisely hit the point where the force would be applied to her joint, causing her knife to stop in mid-air.

It is Natsume Bonyu.

"Let go." Jinguji Rin's voice was as cold as ice.

"Look carefully." Natsume Fanyu didn't let go, his gaze passing over her and landing on the darkness behind that thing.

"It is not the true form."

Rin Jinguji followed his gaze.

Behind that thing, in that absolute darkness, something was moving.

It's not one person, and it's not a group of people.

It is the darkness itself, slowly writhing, expanding, and contracting.

It resembles the internal organs of some giant creature.

The "mother" standing in front of her was nothing more than a tentacle extended from that thing.

"Breaking it won't help." Natsume Fanyu released her wrist.

"You need to hit the one in the back."

Rin Jinguji remained silent for half a second.

"Can you see it?"

"I can see it." Natsume Fanyu's gaze never left the darkness.

"A little more than you see."

He didn't say where the "more" was.

But Rin Jinguji noticed that the color of his pupils had changed.

It was originally dark brown, but now it has turned into a color that is close to dark gold.

"cold..."

The "mother" spoke again, her voice filled with grievance.

"You brought someone else to see Mom?"

"Mom is so sad..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

A huge white figure emerged from the shadow behind Natsume Fanyu.

It was so fast that even Jinguji Rin could only catch a fleeting afterimage.