A remnant of a shattered mind

As soon as Sakuya arrived at Mitsuzawa Temple, she could already hear what the emergency was about. Inhuman shouting and screaming bellowed up from the temple courtyard. It was a possession.

She turned off her scooter and took off her helmet. She got off her bike and began making her way up the steps. She noticed her foot barely hurt anymore. Her body had almost finished healing itself.

Aunt Kanna was already waiting for her at the base of the stairs when she arrived.

"Hurry, child," the older woman said. "We don't have much time."

Sakuya followed after her. The woman turned around and pushed open the wooden gates.

There.

Kneeling in the center of the courtyard, bound by ropes and screaming at the top of her lungs like an injured banshee, was a woman in pain. Veins bulged out of her head, eyes rolled back into her skull. There was a spirit inside her, and it was trying to kill her.

***

Five minutes later, Sakuya was now sitting in a kneeling position in front of the possessed victim. The young woman was out cold, sleeping on the ground surrounded by a circle of salt.

Sakuya had punched her unconscious to prepare for the exorcism. If she hadn’t, the woman would likely be dead long before they could even begin.

The woman was still tied up, but along with that, Sakuya had also added a single strip of shide paper, this one tied to the woman's forehead. The goal of the paper was to weaken the evil spirit inside her, while the circle of salt served as a barrier so the spirit didn’t immediately try to run away with her body.

Everything was set. All they needed was for the woman to wake back up. And since it was taking longer than usual, Sakuya dipped her right hand into the bowl of saltwater beside her, then splashed some of it on the woman's face.

Instantly, the spirit opened its eyes.

It dragged the woman’s body upright.

It was sitting.

It looked left.

It looked right.

Then it looked directly at Sakuya.

"Please. Where am I?" the spirit said in the woman's voice, trying its best to sound innocent. It was so fake, Sakuya was sure even someone as clueless as her little sister wouldn't fall for it.

"Please. I don't know where I am. I don't know what happened," the spirit continued. "I don't know what's happening, I just want to go home."

Sakuya watched in silence. The act might have been convincing if not for the cold, dead glare in the woman’s eyes. It wasn’t even trying to mimic proper body language—no trembling, no frantic glances. Nothing to sell the illusion of a frightened, confused victim.

She cast a quick glance at the rows of paper talismans lining the temple walls. The special kanji symbols, written in Spirit Ink, glowed faintly—an indication that the supernatural was still very much present.

Not that she needed them to confirm what she already knew.

Sakuya turned back to the spirit.

It was grinning.

It knew it had been found out and that its tactics were not working. So now it was just waiting.

“Ikiryo,” Sakuya said, addressing the entity controlling the woman’s body. Her voice was cold, authoritative, devoid of emotion.

The spirit’s grin widened as she continued.

“Exit this body peacefully, or be forcefully pulled out. If I have to do the latter, your only fate will be instant execution.”She secretly hoped it would choose the first option. That way, the victim would remain unharmed. But if she had to rip the spirit out, the woman could suffer serious damage.

Finally, the spirit spoke in its true voice.

“Guardian,” it said, its tone relaxed but carrying a menacing distortion. “Ikiryo, you called me? I suppose that’s true. But what an ugly, ugly name.”It adjusted the woman’s body to sit properly, but the ropes kept it bound. Sakuya knew exactly what it was doing. It had no intention of leaving peacefully. It was merely stalling, trying to waste time until the woman’s body succumbed to starvation or exhaustion—forcing Sakuya to extract it. At the same time, she knew the spirit had figured out her plan as well.

Even if it surrendered, she wouldn’t let it go free. It had already broken the first rule of coexistence—bringing harm to innocent people. And from what Aunt Kanna had told her, the possessed victim was completely innocent.

...

An ikiryo was a malevolent spirit born from intense negative emotions. Hatred. Envy. Jealousy. Sorrow. It was the manifestation of a person's negative feelings towards another person, and it wasn't a type of spirit that could just be reformed. It had to be destroyed.

However, Sakuya needed to learn about its origin. If a person in the village harbored such extreme hatred for the young woman in front of her, she worried if just exorcising the spirit would be enough.

Things might get physical.

...

"Who sent you, Ikiryo?" Sakuya asked the smiling spirit in front of her. "Whose emotions in the village were you created from?"

Instead of replying immediately, the spirit just kept staring back at her. Cold, dead eyes. Horrifying, mischievous grin.

The spirit knew something. Sakuya didn’t. The young spirit guardian didn’t like that.

"Answer me!" Sakuya demanded, her eyes briefly flashing with energy. Her hands were balled up into fists on her lap, and she was desperately holding herself back from getting up and simply beating the demon out of the woman.

She had left him alone.

Jumo.

She had left him alone with something that might have been on its way to cause him harm.

She wasn’t certain. She just had this feeling. And now this thing in front of her was trying to waste her time. Time she could have been using to confirm that he was safe.

Aunt Kanna, who had been standing in the corner observing, suddenly cleared her throat. A signal for Sakuya to keep her emotions in check.

The girl took in a deep breath and exhaled. Then she turned her attention back to the spirit and spoke calmly.

"Watashi ga dare ka wa wakatte iru deshou. Watashi ni nani ga dekiru ka mo wakatte iru. Soshite, watashi ga anata ni nani wo suru ka mo wakatte iru. Nan-dokimo umarekawatte mo, nan no katachi wo totte mo, watashi wa anata wo koroshi tsudzukeru. Anata ga dareni yotte umidasa reta no ka mitsukeru made.

Watashi wa, anata ga hito wo yadoshite mo koroshi tsudzukeru. Sono katei de yadoshita hito-goto korosu koto ni natte mo.

Ima, erabi nasai. Eien no shi ka, ichido kiri no kyūsai ka. Watashi ga hoshī namae wo ataenasai. Erabe."

Translation:

"You know who I am. You know what I can do. You know what I will do to you. No matter how many times you are reborn, no matter what form you take, I will continue to kill you. Until I find the one who created you.

I will continue to kill you, even if I have to kill the people you possess. Even if I have to kill them in the process.

Now, make your choice. An eternity of death or a single salvation. Give me the name I need. Choose."

There was a brief moment where the spirit’s eyes gleamed with something akin to recollection. But then the familiar glare soon returned. It was smiling again.

That was it.

She was done talking.

Sakuya launched forward and grabbed the woman by the face. Digging her fingers into the flesh, she said a small prayer.

"Kamigami yo, watashi ni chikara wo ataete kudasai. Kono jaaku wo harai, kono onna wo mamotte kudasai."

"Spirits above, give me strength. Remove this evil. Keep this woman."

Then, with all her strength, Sakuya pulled upward and outward, aggressively removing the dark, stretched-out shadow demon hiding underneath.

The ikiryo.

There was screeching.

Screaming.

Blood.

Then silence.

...

Now standing in front of the goma, the sacred fire Kanna had started in a corner of the temple, Sakuya prepared to throw the spirit in while it thrashed around wildly. Her hand, holding the demon, was dripping with blood from her fingers. Although the young woman was no longer possessed, she had suffered major injuries from Sakuya's assault while trying to remove the demon. Kanna had rushed the woman into the house for treatment, leaving Sakuya alone in front of the flames. The sooner she could watch the thing burn, the sooner she could go back to Jumo.

The creature kept screaming random nonsense—nonsense that only Sakuya herself could understand. Just like how she was the only one who could physically hold on to an incorporeal being like the spirit, thanks to her spirit guardian abilities.

"This is not my doing!

You did this to me!

You are the evil one!

You are the bad one!

Let me be!

Let me free!

You are the evil one!

You are the bad..."

Sakuya tossed the creature into the fire.

It screamed.

She was not in the mood.