The moment I stepped inside, a hush settled over the shrine, as though the very walls had exhaled a long-held breath. The heavy wooden doors closed behih a muted thud, leaving only the soft echoes of our movements within the vast hall. The air smelled of old wood and dried inse, a st both a and strangely f.

  I pulled off my boots ahem ly by the entrance, feeling the smooth, timeworn pnks beh my feet. Even in its abaate, the shrine held an undeniable reverence. Yuzu followed suit, stepping out of her boots with quiet reverence, her bare feet making no sound against the cool floor. The bck cloak draped over her small frame fluttered slightly as she took in our surroundings.

  “Bery rexing,” Yuzu murmured, her voice softer than usual, almost as if she didn’t want to disturb the silehat lingered here.

  Dust motes drifted zily in the golden afternoon light that streamed through the broken ttice windows, casting fractured patterns across the tatami mats that lihe floor. Some were torn, the edges curling with age, but their preseill gave the space a sense of warmth. Wooden pilrs, once painted with intricate designs, now stood faded yet steadfast, their surfaces worn smooth by time and touch.

  The shriretched into a vast open space, its high ceiling supported by beams that creaked softly in the occasional whisper of wind. A few faded paper nterns still hung overhead, their delicate forms swaying as if moved by unseen hands. Along the walls, old calligraphy scrolls remaiheir ink faded but their meaning still intact. Prayers, blessings, and wishes left behind by those who once sought guidance here.

  At the far end of the hall, an altar stood, its wooden surface dusted with time but untouched by decay. Small s had bee behind, dried flowers, brittle rice grains, and a scattering of talismans, their inscriptions barely legible. Behind the altar, a grand curtain hung, its fabric frayed yet retaining a quiet majesty. It depicted a gathering of ailed foxes beh a luminous full moon, their

  I swallowed, my eyes flig around the room, taking in every detail as if seeing it for the first time. The shrine’s walls were adorned with faded murals, their depis of fox spirits aial beings barely visible beh yers of dust and age. Lanterns, loinguished, hung from wooden beams overhead, their intricate carvings telling stories of a time when this pce had been alive with prayer and ceremony.

  The altar, once merely a relic of the past, now radiated a soft, golden glow. The brittle s trembled slightly, as if touched by an unseen hand. The old charms and talismans lifted, caught in a slow, spiraling dance before settling back down.

  Ai let out another sharp yip, her eyes refleg the glow of the altar. Her tails fluffed up iement or maybe nervousness. Yuzu, still holding my hand, gripped it even tighter. Her bck fox ears twitched wildly, her usual energy dampened by something else. Awe? Fear? I couldn’t tell.

  “Bery… real…” she whispered. “Not just memory. This shri still remembers.”

  I looked back at the curtain behind the altar. The grand ailed fox figures, their luminous eyes watg over everything, seemed more vivid now, their presence pressing against my mind like an echo from the past.

  "You have returhough you do not yet remember why."

  A soft glow pooled at the base of the altar, spreading outward like ripples on a pond. The light moved with purpose, curling around Ai’s small form before stretg toward me and Yuzu. It wasn’t cold, nor was it warm. It simply was, ing around us like a gentle embrace.

  I took a shaky breath, my heart pounding. “Who…?”

  The air shimmered again, and for a brief moment, I thought I saw something. A figure, tall and draped in flowing robes, with long, elegant tails swaying behind them. Their presence was immense, yet oddly f, like the warmth of a fire on a winter night.

  Yuzu’s breath hitched, her grip on my hand tightening as her bck tails bristled, every strand of fur standing on edge. She took a hesitant step forward, her free hand g at the fabric of her cloak as if grounding herself against an unseen force. The air ihe shri heavier now, thick with something a, something that had been waiting.

  The figure’s voice, soft yet undeniable, echoed through the wooden beams, weaving through the dust motes that still hovered in the dim afternoon light.

  "Little foxes, will you listen to the past?"

  Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the figure began to waver. The glow around it flickered, the air rippling as if disturbed by an unseen force.

  The golden light shimmered again, swirling like mist caught in a gentle breeze, casting long, flickering shadows along the aged wooden floor. The st of old inse, long burned out yet still lingering drifted faintly in the air. The altar, once quiet and still, now pulsed with an eerie yet f glow, illuminating the faded curtain behind it.

  I turo Yuzu, meeting her wide-eyed gaze. Her bck fox ears twitched, uainty and reition warring in her expression. Ai, who had been silent until now, let out a small, uain whine, pressing herself against my leg.

  I inhaled deeply, steadying myself as the shrine seemed to exhale with me, the unseen presence waiting for an answer.

  “…Yes.”

  The altar shuddered, a deep rumbling eg through the shrine’s wooden beams. Then, without warning, a burst of fire erupted from its ter, swirling upwards before densing into a floating, holographic-like regle. The golden glow around the altar flickered, casting eerie shadows against the walls as an undeniable aura of mystery settled over us.

  Within the regle, an image slowly formed clearer than any TV I had ever seen. A woman sat at the edge of a cliff, her long, flowing purple robes billowing in an unseen wind. The staff in her hand shimmered with ahereal glow, and her sharp violet eyes gazed toward the shrine… but not as it was now. No, in the proje, the shriood proud and untouched by time, its tates freshly painted, its walls sturdy and unblemished.

  My brain barely processed the significe before my mouth acted on its own.

  "Wow, she's hot!" I blurted out.

  Karma was swift and merciless. A small rock from the ceiling dislodged itself and bonked me squarely on the head.

  “Ouch.”

  The soft voice, which had carried a tone of serenity before, noened with urained irritation. “Silence!” it shen, after a brief pause, it muttered, “…but yeah, you’re right. Having that kind of big boobs should be illegal.”

  Yuzu made a strangled orween horror and agreement. Ai let out a fused yip, her tiny eyes dartiween me and the floating projeeanwhile, I rubbed my sore head, staring at the se before us, my curiosity now outweighing my embarrassment.

  Who was this witch? And why was she watg this shrine from so long ago?

  The image flickered slightly, but the figure of the witch remaieady. Her violet eyes fixed on the shrine in its flory.

  “She’s… the Sealy Seal Witch,” Yuzu muttered, her voice ced with unease.

  I turo her sharply. “Wait, is she the one you were talking about? The one you and Natsumi entered?”

  “Bery yes,” Yuzu nodded quickly, her bck fox ears twitg. “She bery notto aged wan bit here.”

  That was uling. If this proje was from the past, it should’ve shown a younger version of her, right? Yet, the wit the image looked exactly as Yuzu described, unged by time.

  “I see…” I murmured, gng back at the flickering vision. “I wonder what she’s doing there.”

  As if answering my question, the purple witch held her staff tight, as she poiowards the shrine from miles away, still standing on the cliff.

  “Darkness bcker than bd darker than dark… I beseech thee, bih my deep crimson. “

  “Wait a mihis sounds simir…” I muttered.

  “The time of awakening eth. Justice, fallen upon the infallible boundary, appear now as an intangible distortions!"

  My jaw dropped. “Wait, wait, wait. THIS SOUNDS WAY TOO FAMILIAR!”

  "I desire for my torrent of power a destructive force: a destructive force without equal! Return all creation to ders, and e frome the abyss! “

  “Explosion!”

  The moment the final word left her lips, the entire proje trembled. A blinding surge of violet energy erupted from the witch’s staff, swallowing the cliffside in a swirling vortex of are power. The sheer force of the explosio shockwaves across the nd, ing the air itself.

  The image flickered violently, dist uhe immense magical pressure. In the vision, the shrine, once pristine, shook uhe force of the spell. Trees bent as the wind roared, the ground trembling as the bst illumihe sky in a fiery purple glow.

  I stood frozen in pce, my mind struggling to process what I was witnessing.

  “That’s… literally Explosion Magic,” I choked out. “That’s literally the t!”

  Yuzu, ears fttened against her head, clutched my sleeve. “Bery dangerous! Yuzu remembers now, bery scary dy!”

  The holographic image tio py, the explosion slowly dissipating. Smoke and dust obscured the surroundings, but when it finally cleared, something was wrong. The shrine remained intact, untouched by the bst—yet, the very air around it seemed ed, as if the magic had done something far worse than just destru.

  Then, for the first time, the wit the vision spoke directly to the shrine, her lips curling into a smirk.

  “So, that wasn’t enough, huh?” she mused. “The’s see just how long you keep your secrets from me.”