Paimon: "So, you mean..."
Chizuru: "I had been hiding on this beach, awaiting the day of my final demise. But they just happened to build Akitsu Yuugei here, awakening me from my slumber."
"I don't want them to become overly enthusiastic about interacting with humans after hearing the legends of Mr. Kamai and the Samurai. That would only repeat the past mistakes..."
Rejecting encounters out of fear of parting—this was the reason behind all of Chizuru's actions.
Paimon asked about the incident where someone had been trapped on the beach. Many people visit Akitsu Yuugei, yet Chizuru seemed to have singled out that one person for particularly harsh treatment.
"My power has weakened considerably. Most of the time, I rely on accumulated props to scare people, making it inconvenient to reveal myself when crowds are present. But that scoundrel was insatiably greedy. He tried to steal the decorations displayed at Akitsu Yuugei, intending to sell them for a high price back home."
"That's why I used my Yokai Power to punish him, teaching him a lesson."
Paimon crossed her arms, looking thoughtful. "I see... I never expected you to have such a strong sense of justice."
This was Paimon's endorsement.
Heizou pulled out the hagoita he had found nearby and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this is your true form—the very hagoita used by the yokai Kamai and the human samurai in the Akitsu Haneasobi centuries ago."
"Influenced by powerful Yokai Power, you gradually developed sentience. You were the closest witness to their story."
"After centuries, even with Yokai Power preserving it, the hagoita itself is nearly decayed. You can barely maintain your own existence, so naturally, you can only resort to scaring people with small tricks."
"At the same time, this hagoita is precisely the target object for the Third Round Test of Courage."
Just as Heizou finished speaking, Yae Miko approached with a miko and Yuna, the cloud spirit. Simultaneously, Yae Miko's voice echoed:
"Perfectly correct! What an intriguing deduction."
"Lady Yae? And Yuna's here too! Miko Sister's here too? Weren't you supposed to be missing?!" Paimon exclaimed in shock.
Yae Miko smiled. "Congratulations, little ones, on passing the Third Round Test of Courage."
The miko smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry, but this was actually Lady Yae's arrangement..."
Yae Miko covered her mouth with a delicate giggle. "Hmhm, well? Did I give you quite a scare?"
"Since fear stems from the unknown, the more chaotic the situation, the better. Ideally, even the staff should mysteriously vanish. Only then can it truly be called a 'Test of Courage'!"
"You really were trying to scare us!"
Lumine and Paimon crossed their arms, Lumine's expression a mix of annoyance and resignation.
Paimon: "Yae Miko and Miko Sister, fine, but Yuna, what are you doing here?"
Yuna: "Actually, I was delivering fried tofu when I got intercepted halfway by..."
"Ahem..."
Yuna's explanation was cut short by Yae Miko's pointed cough. She gave Paimon a sheepish smile and a knowing look.
Paimon immediately caught on, glaring angrily at Yae Miko.
I knew it! If there really had been fried tofu in Chinju Forest, how could I, Paimon, have wandered around for so long and not found a single piece?
So you've been intercepting them all along, Yae Miko!
Yae Miko instructed the miko to inform the Test of Courage participants that the winner had been determined, then turned to speak with Chizuru.
Yae Miko had sensed Chizuru's awakening consciousness the moment it occurred. At the time, Yae Miko was still a small pink fox, perched on Kitsune Saiguu's shoulder during the Mikawa Flower Festival.
"I heard you whispering to yourself, reminding yourself to endure and avoid contact with humans," Yae Miko said.
"You've been blaming yourself all along, haven't you?" Yae Miko continued. "In your heart, Kamai and the Samurai met through Akitsu Haneasobi, and you feel inescapably responsible."
At that time, Chizuru's consciousness was still hazy, unable to manifest in her current form.
During Mr. Kamai's interactions with the human Samurai, she experienced a flood of emotions—and a profound question lingered:
"Lady Yae, as a renowned great yokai, you must know far more than I do. I wish to ask you... again and again, we meet, and again and again, we part. These fleeting moments rush by, leaving behind only longing and sorrow. Do our encounters with humans truly hold any meaning?"
-
Player World.
Players who had reached this point in the game eagerly answered Chizuru's question:
[Of course there's meaning! History progresses because of countless ordinary people, with life passing down through generations, each building upon the last...]
[Doesn't that saying go: "Reach out and touch, even if only for a fleeting moment of light"?]
[Life gains brilliance through connection. If Kamai and the Samurai had never met, this story wouldn't exist.]
[Regret is a lesson life forces us to learn, whether you're a God or a Mortal...]
-
By the sea, Yae Miko gave the same answer.
"Why not? You played Akitsu Yuugei with the Traveler. How did you feel?"
"It was fun, but..."
"But your reason tells you it's wrong, doesn't it?"
Yae Miko then told Chizuru the rest of Kamai's story with humanity:
"The samurai's name was Yanagiha Takuto. He had another identity: the founder of the Azure Gale Isshin-ryu, a school of kendo said to have originated from his sparring with Kamai. The third-generation headmaster, Tominaga Tadashi, was also a close friend of Kamai's. The two fought side by side until the very end, five hundred years ago."
"The blade Tominaga wielded was the very one passed down by the samurai. For Kamai, his past regret finally dissolved."
"I see..." Chizuru pondered, lost in thought.
Yae Miko continued, "We yokai are indeed different from humans. To us, human lifespans are fleeting—mere passersby in the blink of an eye. Yet the bonds forged through our encounters never truly break. Instead, they endure and transform, continuing on in new forms."
"Don't let this trouble you. Time passes swiftly, life is as ephemeral as morning dew. That's precisely why we must seize the moment and savor every joy. You, of all people, should understand what I mean now."
-
[Life passes on endlessly through generations, yet the moon above the river remains nearly the same each year.]
[If one considers the ever-changing nature of things, even heaven and earth exist only for a fleeting moment. But if one focuses on the unchanging essence, both the world and oneself stretch into eternity. Why, then, should we envy anything?]
[Fighting side by side—was that the Archon War?]
[So, did all the great yokai of the Mikawa Flower Festival die five hundred years ago?]
-
At the beach, Itto burst onto the scene with the Little Yokai Trio, yelling at the top of his lungs:
"Hey Everyone!"
Paimon: "Itto? How did you find us here?"
"Ha ha! This great lord has already heard the whole story from Hitomi, and I know you won the final round of the Test of Courage!" Itto turned to Chizuru. "We even know who she really is! So I talked it over with the others... ahem, listen up! To celebrate the end of the Test of Courage, we're planning a joint Mikawa Flower Festival!"