A terrible maelstrom of yin energy was brewing when Adam and Nezuminosuke arrived at the cavern where the ritual was taking place. The air saturated with yin energy caused them discomfort but they were able to safely step into the chamber. Meanwhile, Izumi was forced to take cover outside the vortex as the violent energy almost tore her incorporeal form apart.

From within the swirling sea of energy, Kuroda was barely visible as he grovelled before the hokora and chanted fervently at the top of his lungs. "…O-kami-sama, please send down your divine punishment on these blasphemers!"

"Come on, we have to stop him before he completes the ritual!" With his arm shielding his face, Adam pushed his body against the incoming yin wind. However, as they approached the eye of the storm, the wind lashing against them became stronger and they experienced a throbbing pain gnawing at their very souls. With each step, the pain grew until neither of them could advance any further. With no other choice, they retreated until the pain was bearable.

Still within the vortex, Nezuminosuke struggled to catch his breath while resting his hands on his knees. "What… do we… do, Edamu-sama? We… can't get… any closer… like this."

Adam took a few deep breaths before taking out a stack of talismans and handing half of them to Nezuminosuke. "This should be close enough. Keep your distance from the shrine and set these talismans on the ground."

"Edamu-sama?" Nezuminosuke recognized the talismans. These were the same ones Adam made him place outside the house. However, he didn't understand how they would help in the current situation.

"No time to explain, go!"

The pair split up and periodically left talismans on the ground after walking a set amount of distance. Before long, they created a circle of talismans around the hokora and met on the other side. The storm of yin energy started to subside when they started their work. By the time they were done, the winds had completely stopped and the walls of the cavern covered with glowing crystals were revealed.

"Reiishi, huh? That explains how Kuroda was able to pull the ritual off." Even if Kuroda was suitable as a vessel for Sadako, he would still need to create a large enough opening through the veil between worlds for her power to pass through.

Reiishi, or spirit stones, were crystallized forms of reiki and were used as spellcasting components by onmyōji as well as tributes to the kami by kannushi. Throughout history, spirit stones were declared controlled goods by the incumbent and even a single fragment of spirit stone found in the private possession of an individual would cause heads to roll.

"A reiishi deposit?! How?! I thought the bakufu had taken control over all of them in the country?!" Nezuminosuke stared at the glowing crystals with his mouth agape.

"Maybe they missed this one?" Adam shrugged.

"Impossible, they employed members of the Tsuchimikado clan to divine their locations. Unless…"

"Unless a higher-up from the Tsuchimikado clan deliberately concealed the location of this deposit, huh?" Adam rubbed his chin. "Well, as interesting as this is, I believe we still have unfinished business."

The pair finally turned their attention to the hokora and Kuroda's motionless body. When his chanting was stopped by the silence talismans, the backlash from the ritual destroyed his mind. His body was still alive but his mind was long gone.

"It's finally over, now we just need to—" Adam's words were interrupted by a loud crack as a bolt of lightning struck Kuroda's body from the clouds of yin energy hanging above them. "Stop her!"

"Leave it to me!" Nezuminosuke charged forward and tried to tear apart Kuroda's body with his claws but failed to even leave a mark. Failing that, he attempted to drag the corpse away from the hokora but it was like the corpse was nailed to the ground.

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Meanwhile, Adam moved toward the hokora but a barrier prevented him from getting any closer. Furthermore, he could feel an ominous presence observing him from inside the hokora. He first attempted to burrow under the barrier but discovered the barrier extended into the ground. He then tried getting rid of the barrier itself but neither his attacks nor his talismans had any effect on the barrier. After several more fruitless attempts to bypass the barrier, he gave up and returned to Nezuminosuke.

"What should we do, Edamu-sama? At this rate…" Nezuminosuke looked toward Kuroda. Bolts of lightning continued striking his twitching body and it appeared as if he could come alive at any moment.

"Maybe we should make a break for the—" Adam glanced toward the exit and noticed the barriers blocking the exits. "Nevermind, I don't think our host wants us to leave just yet."

While thinking of a solution, Adam stared into the clouds of yin energy with his hand propped against his chin when an idea struck him. He took out a spirit-ward talisman and the talisman burst into flames upon coming in contact with the air. His face brightened upon witnessing the phenomenon.

While spirit-ward talismans were primarily used to keep stray spirits from entering one's home, the effect was achieved by absorbing the yin energy from the air. So, rather than ward spirits from a location, it dissuaded them from staying by making the location inhospitable for them.

Adam continued taking out more spirit-ward talismans. One by one, they burned up as the first one did. However, it started taking longer for the talismans to catch on fire. Normally, the spirit-ward talismans could last for a few months and only burn up once it was no longer usable. If the talismans were taking longer to catch fire, it could only mean the concentration of yin energy in the air was decreasing. Most noticeably, there was no longer any sign of lightning falling from the clouds above.

Once all the spirit-ward talismans were used up, Adam took out Abe no Seimei's Reifu Brush and approached Kuroda. The latter had opened his eyes and was glaring at him intensely with eyes filled with hatred. It was clear the current occupant of the body had much to say about "his" current predicament.

"Hold our friend down."

"Yes, Edamu-sama!" Nezuminosuke lunged at Sadako and pinned her to the ground.

"How dare you—Blasphemers! Do you even understand what you are doing?! I am a kami! Unhand me!"

Adam ignored Sadako and started drawing on Kuroda's body with the brush and his own blood. Each time a spirit-ward talisman was completed, the talisman burst into flames and left a burn mark on Kuroda's skin. At the same time, Sadako's struggles became weaker. Near the end, Sadako stopped struggling and spent the rest of the time glaring at him as if committing his appearance to memory.

"Mortal, I'll remember this." Kuroda's body dropped limply to the ground like Sadako was never there in the first place.

"Is it over?" Nezuminosuke stared at Kuroda's body with a complicated expression.

"Not yet." Adam walked over to the hokora and opened the tiny doors. He picked up the small wooden box inside and turned to Nezuminosuke. "Now, it's over."

"Edamu-sama, I am sorry but I need to bring that back to Kuzunoha-sama."

Adam tossed the box in Nezuminosuke's direction and the latter frantically caught it before it hit the ground. "Fine, but I'm keeping everything else inside this cavern."

Nezuminosuke glanced at the piles of debris scattered throughout the cavern before nodding to Adam. "Of course, I wouldn't dare to ask for anything else."

Once Nezuminosuke left, Adam started work collecting his spoils.

First up was Kuroda's body. Even though the skin of his body was covered with sigils, the internal anatomy was still in perfect condition. In fact, the body was still biologically alive much like the nure-onna. However, without a soul core, Kuroda would be much more difficult to control than the nure-onna. Adam wouldn't be able to do anything else while controlling Kuroda unlike what he did before with the nure-onna.

Next up was the room full of crates filled with reiishi stored in a side chamber of the cavern. After noticing the piles of debris littering the cavern as well as the empty crates near the hokora, Adam knew that Kuroda and his cronies had been mining the reiishi. Otherwise, he wouldn't have so easily handed the wooden box from the hokora to Nezuminosuke. If he could, he would have taken all of the crystal clusters growing out of the walls of the cavern as well but he didn't have the time to mine them.

Now all Adam had to do was collect his payment from Kuzunoha and then catch the earliest plane out of Japan. He had no intention of staying in Japan even for a second longer than necessary after angering a kami, especially one with ties to the Tsuchimikado clan. Once outside of Japan, he wouldn't need to worry about her unless she had followers overseas as well.

***

Nightmare - Urban Legends

Main Objective: Resolve 7 paranormal events (5/7)

Side Objective: Find the missing child (1/1)

Side Objective: Investigate the school haunting (1/1)

Side Objective: Solve the cruise murders (1/1)

Side Objective: Exorcise the Kuchisake-onna (1/1)

Side Objective: Desecrate a hokora of Sadako (1/1)