Shota is surrounded by monsters!

"It's a lie...it's not real...it's like a dream."

Seeing the person she had been thinking about day and night suddenly appear in front of her, Kagura began to doubt reality for a moment.

Then, the girl's tears fell.

"Yellow Spring!"

"Kagura..."

Huang Quan stepped forward into a sunless area, embraced Kagura who rushed towards him, and gently stroked her hair as if comforting a child while looking at her crying.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Kagura was already unable to speak; she hugged Yomi tightly and kept murmuring the three words.

As a ghost, Huang Quan was naturally not happy to be held like this by an exorcist. But she still wore that bright, moon-like smile and said to Kagura, "Don't apologize, I'm the one who should apologize."

"No, it's all my fault. If I hadn't been able to keep believing in Huang Quan..."

"Those things are in the past."

Huang Quan gently pushed Kagura away from his embrace, looked into her bloodshot eyes, and said, "Forget it."

"Um……"

Kagura nodded vigorously. Only then did she realize that...

"ghost?"

"Hmm. Right now, I'm just a little ghost. But don't worry, I haven't hurt a single person since becoming a ghost."

Seemingly afraid that Kagura would misunderstand her, Yomi added a sentence.

"The Underworld..."

"This time I came here mainly to see you," Huang Quan said, looking at Kagura. "Because... in this world, you are the person I worry about the most. However, seeing that you have regained your spirits and even made breakthrough progress in your swordsmanship, I am relieved."

"no!"

Kagura sensed the parting in Yomi's words and quickly said, "I need Yomi! I'm still very weak, and I need Yomi to guide me. I'm not strong at all, and I'm still crying like a little child..."

"Fool."

Huang Quan gently flicked Kagura's forehead with his finger and said, "I'm a ghost. If I stay in this world forever, wouldn't that mean there's something I can't let go of? Do you want me to live like that?"

"……don't want."

Kagura was silent for a moment, then shook her head, but immediately said, "I don't want to lose Yomi again!"

"Life is a constant process of meeting and parting."

Huang Quan looked at Kagura with a sense of relief and said, "Only in this way can one grow up."

"Kagura, you are already an excellent exorcist, an excellent adult."

Seeing that Kagura had fallen silent again and was not saying anything except crying, he changed the subject and said, "Let's talk about something else. How's school and work going?"

So the two began to talk, and talked for more than an hour. Kagura told him everything that had happened every day since she disappeared from Yomi, and all the longing she felt in her heart each day.

Yomi simply listened, laughing along when she heard something interesting. Hearing Kagura's longing, she gently stroked Kagura's back.

"Please apologize to Uncle Tsuchimiya for me."

Kagura, already in tears, lay in Yomi's arms, feeling the familiar warmth, and slowly drifted off to sleep. But upon noticing Yomi stand up, she immediately opened her eyes and looked at him.

Are you leaving?

Kagura realized something, and although she was very reluctant, but...

Being able to chat with Huang Quan like this is already the greatest happiness.

"Alright. The Lion King is yours now. As for this umbrella..."

Looking at the umbrella in her hand, Yomi said to Kagura, "If you have time, just return it to Senjougahara."

"Haragihara, she..."

“I had already met her before coming here. She… is very strong.” Huang Quan thought of his half-disciple and said, “Stronger than both of us.”

"Alright. It's almost time."

"and many more……"

Kagura suddenly seemed to remember something, picked up her phone from the side, and quickly asked, "Can I take a picture?"

"I want to preserve this beautiful Huangquan sister forever."

“Okay.” Huang Quan did not refuse Kagura’s suggestion. He walked to her side, hooked one arm around Kagura’s neck, and took the phone with the other, pointing the camera at the two of them.

It's been so long since I've taken a photo like this.

"Look at the camera, Kagura."

"Ah."

"3, 2, 1..."

"Click".

Kagura quickly snatched the phone from Yomi's hand, and only breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Yomi's face clearly printed on the photo.

However... there were tears streaming down Huang Quan's face in the photo.

"The Underworld..."

Kagura looked at Yomi beside her, only to find that her figure was gradually becoming blurry.

"Yellow Spring!"

"Don't rush, Kagura."

Huang Quan smiled, tears streaming down his face, and said, "I will always, always, always protect you. No matter which world we're in."

"Because...you are my last and most precious treasure. Kagura."

Kagura tried to reach out and grab Yomi's hand, but her hand had already turned into a soft, warm light and gradually began to disappear...

"elder sister……"

"I go out for a while."

Shota got up from the tatami mat and said to his mother, Rea, and Mashiro, "Come back before dinner."

"go……"

Rea originally wanted to ask Shota where he went, but after sensing a slightly sad aura about him, she didn't ask any further.

Come back soon.

"Ah."

Nodding to Rea, Shota jumped out of the window and headed out of the city.

On the way, I picked up a bottle of wine.

Then he came to the woods outside the city, the place where he had fought, where he had killed someone for the first time, and where the girl had sacrificed herself.

Shota, in his cat form, plopped down on the ground, clutching the sake bottle in his hand. He opened the bottle with his teeth, took a sip, and then looked at the empty forest and said, "Want some?"

As he spoke, he spilled some of the wine on the ground.

"Tell me, why did you become a ghost? You suddenly attacked me, and then suddenly said goodbye."

Originally, Shota's feelings for Yomi were ordinary, no, even admiring. But just now, looking at that deserted corner of the room, where no one entered his dreams while he slept, where no one was plotting to kill him every day, where no one was watching him with their eyes.

I always feel empty.

My heart, the heart that was slowly healing, suddenly felt empty.

"Hello, judging from your school uniform... you must be from Sakura Academy, right?"

"Then we might have a chance to become alumni in the future. By the way, what year are you in?"

"I will be transferring to your school next month. I look forward to working with you then."

"Hello everyone, I am Isayama Yomi. I look forward to your guidance from now on."

"Let me introduce myself again. I am Isayama Yomi. My profession is exorcist. I have a wide range of hobbies. My life goal is to bring glory to my family."

"Don't you think so? Kousaka... Kousaka Taotie? Kousaka Taota?"

"Will-you-kill-someone-you-love, because-of-love?"

"I thought that Kagura or Kiyuki who had come to her senses would come to me first, but I didn't expect it to be you."

"I... I hate you so much."

"My only wish is that Kagura can live a good life."

"Because you are a monster, you won't mind these things."

"Kousaka-kun, actually I'm a little curious about you. Unfortunately, I used to be an exorcist, and you were a yokai. So, we can't be friends."

"No, it's goodbye forever."

"...HELLO~Kosaka-kun."

"I'll kill you!"

"Thank you."

"Goodbye."

……

"That's not enough at all, even just a bottle of wine..."

Shota tossed the empty bottle aside, pressed his body against the ground, and lay prone, hoping to close the distance between himself and the other person a little.

"Even at the very end, you still managed a smile."

There is no other hope, but that is all I have of you.

"A very beautiful and charming smile. Isayama Yomi."

Exorcist Isayama Yomi...

“Isayama-kun.”