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

"What do we do now?"

Rin Jinguji, holding her mother who had regained her human form but was still unconscious, asked.

"You decide."

Natsume Fanyu took a step back.

"It eats the offerings from your Jinguji family, lives in your Jinguji family mansion, and its umbilical cord is still attached to your mother."

"According to the rules, its life belongs to your Jinguji family, to you and your daughter."

Rin Jinguji looked down at the baby.

The baby opened its eyes at that moment.

There was no white in the eye, no pupil; the entire eyeball was a cloudy yellow.

It looked at Jinguji Rin and then did something she had never expected.

It smiled.

It's not the twisted smile of an evil spirit that mimics human expressions.

It's a smile that only a baby shows when seeing a close relative.

Rin Jinguji remained silent for a long time.

Then, she cut the umbilical cord.

The moment the umbilical cord snapped, the entire upside-down sky trembled violently.

The sleeping faces opened their eyes all at once, and the consciousness of the seventeen missing persons awoke from their woven dream.

The baby did not disappear after the umbilical cord broke.

It simply closed its eyes and curled up even tighter, like all newborn babies.

Then, it began to sleep.

"Aren't you going to kill it?" Natsume Fanyu asked.

"It is a fetal deity that was conceived after being worshipped by our family for hundreds of years at Jinguji Temple."

Rin Jinguji picked up her mother and stood up.

"Although I don't know why my family did this, nor do I know why my mother was willing to sacrifice herself for it."

"But I know that its existence is definitely related to the entire Jinguji family."

"Therefore, I will first take it back to the entire Jinguji family, and ultimately leave the decision to my mother and the entire Jinguji family."

Natsume Fanyu stared at her for a long time.

Then he laughed, the kind of laugh that says, "This client is interesting."

"As expected of the eldest daughter of the Jingu family, her considerations are truly thorough."

"In that case, let's give it a name first, or at least a surname."

Rin Jinguji pondered for a moment, then said:

"From today onwards, it will belong to Jinguji."

The words fell.

The upside-down sky flipped.

The darkness faded, light streamed down from above, and all the distorted space instantly returned to its original position.

The main house is still the main house.

It's still a shoji gate.

The afternoon sun at three o'clock shone through the cracks in the window, cutting neat slats of light on the floor.

Seventeen missing persons lay sprawled in the corridor, breathing steadily, but still not awake.

In Jinguji Rin's arms, her mother's fingers twitched.

"cold..."

"The sound... is too loud..."

"I woke up my sister..."

younger sister.

Rin Jinguji was stunned.

The mother actually regarded this fetal deity as her sister?

She looked down at her other arm.

The curled-up baby was nowhere to be found.

Instead, she held him in her arms, together with her mother.

The baby's eyes were still closed, but there was a trace of drool at the corner of its mouth; it was sleeping soundly.

"mom..."

Rin Jinguji's voice trembled slightly.

"You just said...sister?"

The mother did not answer.

She fell asleep again.

This time, I truly fell asleep; it wasn't because I was swallowed up, trapped in an illusion, or struggling day after day for the past seven years.

She was just asleep.

A smile played on his lips.

Rin Jinguji stood still, holding her mother and the baby, without moving.

Until a hand reached out and waved in front of her.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your heartwarming reunion as a mother and daughter."

Natsume Fanyu's voice pulled her back to reality from her daze.

She looked up and saw him with his hands in his pockets, giving her an expression that said, "What I'm about to say might be a bit of a mood killer."

"only..."

"My landlady is still waiting for me to come back."

How much do you want?

Rin Jinguji was very direct.

This is the way the Jinguji family does it.

"Name your price," she said.

The Jinguji family never breaks their word.

Natsume Fanyu did not answer immediately.

His gaze passed over her, over her sleeping mother in her arms and the baby who had just acquired a surname, and landed behind them.

It eventually landed on the mirror.

After the seal was broken, it fell from the center of the upside-down torii gate and is now leaning against the base of the colonnade.

The mirror's surface was covered in cracks, and within each crack, a faint, lingering golden-red glow remained...

Those were the traces left by Rin Jinguji's blood seeping into the seal.

"All I need is that mirror."

Natsume Fanyu said.

Rin Jinguji followed his gaze.

If Natsume Fanyu doesn't take it, she'll have someone dispose of it herself.

"That broken mirror?"

Her tone was tinged with surprise.

It wasn't because she didn't want to give it; quite the opposite, she was even happy to let him take it.

That mirror carries the nightmares of generations of the Jinguji family; it is what trapped her mother and the place where that "younger sister" was born.

If Natsume Fanyu doesn't take it, she'll have someone dispose of it herself.

To her surprise, that's all he wanted.

Who is Natsume Bon'u?

A snap of her fingers shook off the evil spirit that had been haunting her for weeks.

A hand seal suppressed the entire distorted space.

That terrifying shikigami, who even she could sense as an instinctive threat, was three meters tall and dressed in mourning clothes, yet in front of him she was as docile as another species.

What would a person like that lack?

But you can never have too much money.

unless...

"make a deal."

Rin Jinguji didn't ask any further questions.

Natsume Fanyu smiled, then walked over, bent down, and picked up the mirror.

The moment it touched the mirror, the golden-red light remaining in the cracks flickered slightly, as if in some kind of response.

He then put the mirror in his pocket and turned to walk towards the door.

"Okusan".

He spoke in his mind.

A soft "hmm" came from the void.

"Soon, you will have a home that you can change to suit your wishes."

silence.

Then the voice that only he could hear rang out again.

This time it wasn't "um".

It carries a hint of uncertainty...

"real?"

Natsume Fanyu did not answer.

Only the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

He certainly didn't just have a sudden whim and casually pick up a piece of junk to use as a decoration.

That mirror, which served as the vessel for the seal, bore the power of the Jinguji family's worship for generations, and also contained the entire spiritual essence of the fetal deity at its birth.

After it shatters, although it loses its sealing power, it retains its essence of "containment".

It's like a used container; the contents have been emptied, but the container itself remains.

If you use the right method... fix it.

It then transformed from a mirror into a spiritual realm.

A structure that can change at will according to the wishes of the eight-foot-tall lady...

Family.

There is no need to dwell in his shadow anymore.

It no longer needs to exist as a "shikigami" bound by the contract.

Rather, it is a spiritual realm that truly belongs to her and that she can completely control.

This was also the promise he made on the night he first entered into a contract with Lady Eight Feet.

Natsume Fanyu couldn't help but recall his "first night" with the Eight-Foot Lady.

Under the moonlight in Tokyo Bay.

The eight-foot-tall Lady, regarded by countless exorcists as the embodiment of calamity, looked at him with her cold, clear eyes...

He asked a question that he has never forgotten.

"You...you won't abandon me, will you?"

He initially thought it was just a test.

I only understood it later.

That was the answer that Lady Bachi had been waiting for since the day she was born.

And now...

Natsume Fanyu wanted to give his dear Okusan a better answer than "I won't lose you".