Kei: But, really, Nozomi-chan and Mikage-chan were……
She said that, much like Kei-kun and Yumei-oneechan, she was a human who became an oni.
And I can’t help but think that there’s some kind of reason behind it.
Kei: It’s true, that the two of them were doing awful things, and I hated it when they sucked my blood and all, but……
Yumei: That’s true… they were living a pitiful life, weren’t they?
Kei: Yeah.
She did say she had no regrets about becoming an oni, but, can anyone really say that her second life was a full and happy one?
Until I undid the seal, she had been bound for who knows how many hundreds of years…
Then, right after gaining freedom, she was cut down, and it took another ten years before she moved again…
In a span of time so long that I can barely imagine it, she spent the most of it shut away, and yet…
To say that she had no regrets about it…
Yumei: Let’s at least give them a proper burial.
Lifting the edges of the wrapping cloth with her white fingers, she bundles the mirror fragments as she speaks.
Yumei: The Ohashirasama Shrine Tree, you see… it has the power to change the souls in grounded stasis into butterflies, allowing them to pass on.
Kei: Oniguruma… (TN: Literally, “carriage of spirits.” In certain Asian legends, butterflies ferry the souls of the dead to the other side. Fatal Frame 2 is a popular application of this legend. If you want to learn more, play Uzuki’s route.)
Yumei: Yes. If we let them board the carriage of souls, even they can pass on.
Kei: Is it okay to bury them?
Yumei: Yes. For those two, it’ll be fine. It won’t affect the Hashira seal.
Onee-chan smiles, takes the cloth wrap in hand and stands.
Yumei: Shall we go, then? Uzuki-san, can we leave the house in your care?
Uzuki: I suppose so. I still do not fully trust this oni, so I might as well remain as a watch.
Though I don’t think she needs to be so strict in her vigil, we still have Sakuya-san, who had a serious injury, and Tsudzura-chan, unconscious, in this mansion.
If those two regain consciousness with no one else in the mansion, I bet they’d be worried, and having Uzuki-san watch the house is reassuring.
Kei: In that case, I leave it in your care.
When I turn my eyes to the garden, the afterglow of twilight has long been wiped away, and in place of the sun, the moon of fifteen nights casts its light proudly in the starry sky.
The period of day is already night…
The allotted time where people return to their homes, and oni gain freedom in their place.
Kei: It’s night now…… but it’s okay, right? All that about Kei-kun targeting me was a misunderstanding.
Kei: And these two won’t appear anymore, after all.
Yumei: Let’s go see them off, and hope they can go across without falling astray. So that next time they return, they can each live a life without hardship.
(Kei): Well then……
(Kei): This circle of atrocity we’ve fallen into… has to be cut off somewhere.
Uzuki: ……In other words, you’re telling me to let you go?
(Kei): No…… Like I promised, once I fulfill my goal, my head is yours.
(Kei): As long as there’s no one who resents my head becoming yours, the circle of karma will end there. Am I wrong?
Uzuki: No……