Hyakki Yakoushou

Ritsu's grandfather, Kagyu, possessed a mysterious and formidable power. Ritsu, having inherited this same gift, had been able to see spirits and demons since his earliest days, frequently encountering the supernatural. One night, Ritsu found himself drifting into a dream-a vivid recollection of a strange experience from his own childhood.

Ritsu realized that the young girl's spirit had infiltrated the house during his mother's tea ceremony class. He tried to track down the intruder hidden among the guests, but instead, he found himself swept up in the ceremony and forced to participate.

Even after the tea ceremony class had ended, a pair of zori sandals remained at the Iijima residence, their owner nowhere to be found. A few days later, during another class, the conversation turned to a young girl in a kimono who should never have been there in the first place...

Suspecting that this was the very same spirit he had encountered in his childhood, Ritsu decided to uncover her true identity. To do so, he initiated the game of "Mekakushi-oni"-the same Blindman's Buff he had seen in his dreams.

Having lost his eye to the spirit in the game of "Mekakushi-oni", Ritsu dreamed of being surrounded by roaring flames. It was an eerily vivid dream-one where he felt as though he were witnessing the inferno through someone else's eyes.

Ritsu's cousin, Tsukasa, arrived at the Iijima house after he summoned her to ask about their shared childhood. According to Tsukasa, a haunting image lingered in her mind: a young child dressed in a purple kimono adorned with small white flowers...

As Ritsu drifted into a light slumber, he dreamed of a time when his grandfather, Kagyu, was still alive. He remembered the "Mekakushi-oni" game from his youth-the day Kagyu had intervened to save him. It seemed the old man recognized the girl in the kimono, as if he knew exactly who-or what-she was...

Having finally unmasked the girl in the kimono, Ritsu initiated the game of "Mekakushi-oni" once more to reclaim his stolen eye. Both Tsukasa and his mother joined the circle, but amidst the ritual, Aoarashi began to move with a suspicious, lingering shadows of his own.

As Tsukasa leafed through an old album, she froze. There, in a faded photograph from sixty years ago, was her grandfather as a young boy-standing right beside the girl in the kimono.

It turned out that Sumiko, one of the students in the tea ceremony class, was the granddaughter of the girl in the old photograph. Seeking the full story from Sumiko's grandmother, Ritsu and Tsukasa set off in their car to find the truth.

Sumiko's grandmother began to speak of the other person in the photograph-her own elder sister, "Kinuyo Arakawa". It was the beginning of a tale both eerie and sorrowful, woven with shadows of the past.

At last, the truth about the girl in the kimono, "Kinuyo Arakawa", was unveiled. Her sister recounted the tragedy of those distant days-and revealed the dark destination where the spirit of Kinuyo had been drifting all these years.