[UPDATE IN PROGRESS] Onmyou-Pocketville: Fallen Dusk

Chapter 35: A Forgotten Generation

Chapter Warning: themes of horror and unsettling themes

The transition from the waking world to the realm of spirits felt as if Emiko sank into chilling water. She slowly rose from the tatami mats, her tails spreading out like an unfolding paper fan after the invocation to consult Kanon's spirit on dealing with Masuyo, who was once her mother.

Once again she visited that empty, desolate remnant of what was once a monumental palace. All the life and splendour which once thrived throughout the royal residence were washed away like mere twigs being carried away by a river. But at the same time, it was not. Emiko had to keep that constant spark in her ancient mind: that she was in the dream realm.

The room was one of the drawing rooms of the palace, where one royal or more could just stay and relax for a bit. Except that there was none to do so. The room presented itself as if it weren't touched or visited in a long time, and charcoal grey spots crowded around the cherrywood beams supporting both the walls and ceiling like an excruciatingly horrible case of mould. The tatami mats didn't seem too affected, though a few visible spots were around. In the alcove, the scroll with a landscape painting of malachite hills was faded, a reminder that time can and will wash away memories for good.

In instinct, she clenched the wooden handle of her walking stick and kept it close to her chest. After all, it concealed an important sword that she used when fighting off a hostile ghost, not just serving as a tool to help her walk around as one of her knees was affected from a fall she had weeks earlier and her increasing age.

Emiko crawled all the way to where a small bookshelf stood, filled with a few books bearing dusty dark maroon covers. She took one and flipped through its pages, though most of the kanji were incomprehensible to read as they were smeared from the moisture emanating through who knows what.

Emiko tapped on the heartstone of her bracelet, but it didn't seem to be responding. Not even the Eclipsed Heart could decipher most of the text aside from a few words, which were "talisman", and two important words: "Shinnui" and "storm". It was obvious she knew what "Shinnui" meant, but the word "storm" had caught her off-guard.

The storm, she thought to herself again. The forbidden storm of miasma, known by another name, which must not be uttered in any ear. A storm so enormous and widespread it would shroud all the reaches of Onmyou during the Great Bleak.

The Great Bleak was the term Onmyoujin used to describe the event that would happen if it weren't for the Shinnui Ceremony and its sacrifices. A massive wave of a miasmic and infernal force coming from a gate that shall not be named would shroud Onmyou for generations.

She remembered there was a certain tome which contained writings on how to keep the so-called "storm" away, which was likely the same book Malorie and Tia skimmed through. The Shinnui Ceremony was key to appeasing whatever rift may escape from the hellish Yomi, which would bring the "storm". Hence why the previous Onyx Tortoise of the distant north had explained to the Otherworlder Kate that the queendom will become victim to the "storm" of miasma without the rites of the ceremony to keep it at bay. It was a ceremony of both sacrifice and exile.

As she continued to look through the pages of the book with the smudged text, an act of the erasure of a piece of history, she found a page which had text that was much more legible to read, even with the Eclipsed Heart.

In the darkness, I saw the queen.

She looked back at me in the distance. Her eyes were like the embers' last glow. Her jewels reflected off that same glow.

She seemed angry, but it only showed up in those eyes of hers.

I feel like I'm being spirited away. By her.