Quarter-finals: Because I couldn’t

"Over here!" Takashi sharply turned the corner, reaching the main avenue with determination as his companion shouted. It was now sunset in the Takachiho that Izanami had crafted for them. The festival stalls were deserted, standing as silent witnesses.

"It's ten blocks to the hill. I can make it."

A yūrei attempted to block his path. You won't make it.

"Now!"

Takashi mustered his strength and passed beside it, unperturbed. Now, he could pass through the yūrei if they tried to touch him. Perhaps due to the urgency to protect Nao, possibly due to his courageous heart, most likely due to both, but they seemed to have lost their grip on him. The yūrei seemed to mill around the festival stalls, engaged in activities or sampling food, before attempting to catch Takashi again. Ironically, the festival appeared to be alive.

"Inari, these yūrei..." His tender heart couldn't help but feel pity for those souls that sought to clutch him. "Are they trapped in this form for all eternity?"

The fox could run at an impressive speed beside him, keeping pace effortlessly as its paws trotted like a dog greeting its owner at the door.

"No, thankfully. They endure suffering until they resolve their own emotions, and then they can rest in peace. No evil lasts forever, as the saying goes."

Takashi felt a measure of relief, and the yūrei seemed to become more translucent.

"Hey, Takashi," Inari continued. "Do you know why Izanami especially wants the three of us to remain here?"

"Because she's the deity of death, right?" Takashi shouldn't have found this amusing given the circumstances, but his football-oriented mind momentarily pictured Izanami as Inari's derby rival. The classic match between life and death. "That's why you said she seeks revenge against you."

"That's part of it," Inari responded, now galloping to maintain pace. "But there's more. Do you know her story?"

"About Izanami? She was Izanagi's spouse, and both are considered creator deities, right?"

"Yes. Both were divinely tasked with creating the islands and gods that would populate Japan. They breathed life into the islands, into Hiruko, the god of fortune, and Awashima, the goddess of maternity. However, when they created Kagutsuchi, the god of fire, Izanami suffered fatal burns and descended here, to the Underworld."

Another yūrei ahead. Takashi sidestepped left and then dodged right, toppling it without even a touch.

"Izanagi decided to retrieve her from the Underworld, but upon gazing upon her face, he found she had become a decomposed figure. He fled from her and sealed the exit with a celestial stone, forever locking up this place. That unfortunate act condemned her existence, and since then, she has resided here, attracting the souls of the departed."

"That's why... ah!" Takashi had enough reflexes to pivot on his ankle and avoid a yūrei that had lunged toward him.

"Go on?" Takashi couldn't discern if Inari was speaking ironically or seriously. Perhaps both.

"Izanami considers that if she was abandoned here, without rescue, everyone must suffer the same fate."

Inari took a few seconds to reply after the comment. She could afford to, as the shadows had receded while Takashi was distracted by the story. "You're quick on your feet, it seems. I liked that about you from the first time we met."

"Thank you." For the first time in the Underworld, Takashi smiled openly.

"That's very good. You'll need that quick mind for what's to come."

He could imagine that it referred to the rest of the memories and trials, but he didn't pay much attention to it. There was a lot on his mind at that moment.

"Inari, that memory... did it really happen?" 

Takashi didn't find the usual silence of the deity surprising at all, although he genuinely appreciated that Inari didn't say something dreadful. Regardless, it didn't matter. He had to reach the hill where he had felt Nao's lips for the first time, and then figure out what to do. As he tried to, each yūrei he passed rekindled his spark of hope, and with every block he covered, his desire to embrace Nao once more intensified.

"Wait for me, Nao. I..."

His thoughts were abruptly cut off. Something had appeared in front of him.

"Ah!" He collided with a long, solid object, falling onto it. "What is..."

'Nobeoka champion.' The wooden newspaper stand prominently displayed the outcome of that recent tournament, where Tsuno had come in last.

You've failed again.

"Huh?"

The yūrei were approaching, slowly but steadily, as the atmosphere filled with eerie, high-pitched melodies.

"What?"

His phone appeared beside him. He focused on the sender: the girl who, based on his recollection at that moment, had jumped after him off that cliff. The how and why were too far from his mind as he remained hyper-aware of his surroundings.

He had eleven messages and two missed calls from Nao.

You didn't save her.

Why don't you know what's happening?

"Ah! What's this?" Takashi crawled back in fear, sitting against the wall of a house.

"It's your fears!" Inari shouted as it arrived at his side. "Izanami can materialize them against you here, but they're not real!"

Takashi looked around, seeing the yūrei slowly but ominously approaching. He closed his eyes and resolved to continue, even though his goosebumps intensified his sense of insecurity.

"Let's go!"

He stood up, toppling one of the figures and forging ahead despite feeling dazed. His fears were the usual suspects, but now they were no longer centered on him.

You won't make it.

She doesn't believe you can do it.

It’s pointless.

The shadows impeded his path, driven by those thoughts that barred his way. One by one, they confronted him ruthlessly, but one by one, Takashi left them behind.

"Why didn't I stay by your side?"

He heard many notifications, saw many newspaper stands, and felt his hair stand on end as a yūrei approached, but he managed to enter the hidden path through the trees.

"Nao!"

He was close now. He had to be.

"I'm coming for you!"

As he set foot into that secluded hiding spot, Takashi was overwhelmed by a deafening, high-pitched noise that froze him, knocking him down as if a defender had swept his legs. The burning sensation on his face meant little as he looked up at the torii before him.

"Huh?"

The place had changed once more, with night falling upon the Takashi of the memory to offer its lunar glow, who slowly approached the illusion Nao in her blue yukata like a precious gem shimmering in the darkness, beneath the torii.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," he told her. "Shall we?"

Nao had begun to respond when she felt a light touch on her hand. To her surprise, it was she who had grazed the tips of her fingers against his.

"Ah, I..."

Her words were drowned out by Takashi's compassionate gaze. That was when she realized his deep brown eyes were beautiful. "You told me you don't like crowded places, right?"

"Oh, eh..."

Nao's shyness ebbed away as she felt the gentle grasp of Takashi's hand, the warmth of their contact setting her cheeks aflame.

"Let's go," the boy with the kind eyes said.

As the real Takashi observed how the illusion between the couple continued its story, the Nao inside it lowered her gaze, partly hiding a bashful smile as she tightened her hold. "Let's go."