"Not all monsters want to be saved — but some are still worth saving."
---
The rain hadn't stopped since the shrine.
Reiko sat beneath the cracked overhang outside her apartment, notebook open, pages fluttering in the wind like desperate wings. Her eyes burned from lack of sleep, but the sentence she had written glowed like fire in her mind.
"Shin Kazumi is a Vessel Host — but not the first."
Beneath it, a name: Asigawa Reina. Murdered in 1925. Bound in silence beneath Miya-zaki Shrine.
It didn't make sense. Shin had helped her — even protected her when the glyph activated in the Prayer Hall. He wasn't a puppet. He wasn't like the others.
He couldn't be.
Could he?
---
Kino met her at the school library after dusk.
She was armed with two things: a flashlight and a stolen copy of The Records of Hairama: Forbidden Chapter from the faculty archives.
"It was locked in a drawer behind the faculty lounge microwave," Kino whispered. "Like that would stop us."
Reiko flipped through the brittle pages as thunder cracked outside. Dust clung to every word.
And then — a paragraph in red ink.
> "When the soul of the Vessel awakens, it seeks not freedom — but memory. It wanders until it finds a familiar body. Sometimes a mirror. Sometimes a bloodline. The god does not forget."
Kino exhaled. "That means… Shin's possession isn't complete."
"Or," Reiko murmured, "it is him. But part of him — a piece sealed inside his own bloodline since the last Vessel died."
They both looked at the flickering light overhead.
Kino bit her lip. "Do you still want to save him?"
Reiko's hand tightened around her notebook. "If there's even a sliver of the real Shin inside that Vessel… yes. I have to."
---
They returned to Miya-zaki Shrine after midnight.
The rain had stopped, but the air felt heavy — like walking underwater.
Reiko had brought incense, her mother's old cleansing charm, and a photo of Shin when he first arrived as their teacher — taken secretly by Kino during class. He looked distant. Sad. Not cursed.
They lit the incense at the foot of the shrine.
Nothing happened at first.
Then the wind began to whisper.
And the shrine doors — once sealed by rope and iron — creaked open.
Inside, the same hollow space. The cracked altar. The faint scent of lilies.
But there, in the corner — a girl's skeleton, bound by faded prayer scrolls.
Reiko swallowed. "Asigawa Reina…"
A sound echoed — footsteps. Not theirs.
From the shadows, a figure emerged.
Shin Kazumi.
His coat was soaked in rainwater. His silver ring glinted in the dark.
"You shouldn't be here," he said, voice low, trembling.
Kino stepped back.
Reiko didn't.
"We found out the truth," she said quietly. "You're not just a teacher. You're the Vessel's next host. Maybe… you already are."
Shin's jaw clenched. "You don't understand what it wants. What I've seen."
Reiko stepped forward. "Then tell me."
He looked up — and for a moment, the veil lifted.
His eyes were tired. Human.
"I can feel her," he whispered. "The girl from 1925. Reina. She screams in my sleep. Begs me to remember a life I never lived."
A pause.
"I don't want to hurt anyone."
Reiko reached into her bag — pulling out the cleansing charm.
"This won't destroy the god," she said. "But it might give us time. Time to find the real seal. Or… or sever her link."
Kino nodded, hands shaking but steady. "We can fight this. But you have to let us."
Shin looked at the charm. Then at Reiko.
And for a moment, his hand twitched forward — reaching.
But suddenly—
Black feathers exploded around them.
The shrine trembled.
And a voice echoed from the walls:
> "Too late… The key has awakened… The Vessel has chosen."
Shin fell to his knees, clutching his head — screaming.
Reiko rushed forward.
The shrine glowed red.
The god was rising.
And time… was running out.
---
To Be Continued.