It was Koroe who found the map.
Tucked behind the backing of an old family scroll, the paper was moth-eaten and half-faded. But the ink still showed the layout of the Sakuma estate as it once was—before the fire, before the rituals, before Himeno died.
Near the koi pond, etched in red:
"Third Gate: Only opens when flesh remembers."
Reiko stood by the pond's edge at dusk, heart hammering. She remembered falling into it as a child—remembered the stillness of the water, the way something had tugged at her ankle.
Koroe scattered rice grains across the surface. They floated… then spiraled inward, as if drawn by breath.
Yukishiro stepped beside her.
"She's pulling you," he said softly. "Your blood remembers."
The water suddenly split.
A hollow groan echoed beneath them.
Stone shifted.
The bottom of the pond gave way to reveal a spiral staircase, carved from bone-pale rock, leading downward into the earth.
---
The air grew colder with each step.
Moss clung to the walls. Faint chanting—too faint to make out—echoed in reverse.
They reached a sealed door, bound with cords of red twine and hair.
Shiki trembled at Reiko's side. "Something sleeps here."
Reiko stepped forward.
The symbols on her body burned. Her fingers moved on their own, untying the cords.
The door opened.
---
The room was alive.
Bones lined the walls—child-sized femurs, rib cages twisted like roots.
A mass of rotting fabric, ceremonial robes once white, sat collapsed in the center like a dead flower.
But it was the wall—a wall of flesh—that made Reiko scream.
It pulsed. A massive, beating heart embedded in it. Veins like roots stretched to every corner.
The walls whispered with each pulse:
> "Welcome, sister."
---
Koroe gagged. Yukishiro stepped in front of her, one hand over his blade.
Shiki whispered, "It's not dead."
Reiko stared at the robes. Then they twitched.
A figure pulled itself from the pile.
A girl—or what remained of one.
Pale. Bones like sticks beneath translucent skin. Her head tilted oddly. Her mouth was sewn shut, like the doll's. But her eyes… were full of rage.
Then—shock.
She stepped closer. Claws dragging behind her.
She sniffed Reiko.
And smiled.
> "Sister."
---
The voice was inside Reiko's head.
Everyone else stepped back, but Reiko stood frozen.
> "Ayame's child," the voice echoed. "Forgotten. Buried."
The girl tilted her head again. Her eyes filled with tears.
> "We were born for him. For Jiroh. I screamed in the dark. But no one heard."
Her sewn lips trembled.
> "Until you came."
---
Reiko's knees gave out.
"I didn't know," she whispered.
The girl placed a skeletal hand on Reiko's head.
> "You carry the vessel. I carried the sin."
Behind her, the heart pulsed faster. The chanting returned—louder. Angry.
> "The seal broke when you dreamed of me."
Reiko's hands trembled. "What do you want from me?"
The girl pulled something from her ribs.
A piece of bone, carved into a charm.
> "A choice."
---
Yukishiro stepped forward. "Back away from her."
The girl didn't flinch. She looked at him… and her mouth twitched beneath the thread.
> "You loved her mother. But you didn't save her."
Yukishiro staggered.
> "You watched her burn."
Koroe chanted a barrier, but it flickered in the girl's presence.
Shiki whispered: "She's not a spirit. She's a seal."
---
Reiko clutched the charm.
"What happens if I take it?" she asked.
The girl stepped close, her forehead touching Reiko's.
> "You will finish what was started."
> "You will house his voice. His will. His power."
> "Or destroy him."
---
Reiko remembered Himeno's broken lullaby. Her mother Miyako's warm hands. Ayame's whispers in her dreams.
"I'm not just a vessel," Reiko whispered. "I'm what's left after all of you."
---
The girl smiled.
And wept.
---
The walls began to rupture.
The heart screamed—not in voice, but in pressure. Flesh peeled back.
Jiroh's face, twisted and incomplete, began pushing through the wall. His eye opened—golden and bleeding.
> "REIKO."
The girl turned, arms outstretched.
"I'm sorry," Reiko whispered.
She ran forward and embraced her.
The seal flared.
Symbols burned across Reiko's skin—until they bled.
The girl burst into ash.
The heart pulsed once… then cracked.
---
Silence.
Then, water. A stream flowed in from the koi pond above, washing away the blood.
The third seal—Flesh—was broken.
But Jiroh had not died.
He had passed into her.
---
Back above, under gray skies, Reiko emerged from the pond with blood down her arms.
Her eyes had changed.
Koroe reached for her but paused.
Shiki looked into her face.
"She's still Reiko," he whispered. "But not only Reiko."
Yukishiro bowed his head.
"It's begun."
---