"The Treasure doesn't matter. The Will Seeds are the priority... Hare, still no sign of them?"
Ren reached out and accepted the black box containing the Treasure from Kallen.
It was just a Treasure with no practical use; since Kallen was willing to give it to him, Ren wasn't going to refuse out of false politeness. Especially since the Palace's collapse had already begun.
Standing within the Yae Shrine on the rear mountain, Ren could see the horizon in the distance being steadily consumed and erased by encroaching darkness.
Like the end of the world, the deep, empty darkness slowly but surely crept towards the rear mountain where Ren and the others stood.
"Now, I can detect some unusual reactions. If that reaction is indeed the Will Seeds you seek, Joker, then there might be clues you need behind this door."
At Ren's persistent inquiries, Hare finally provided useful feedback. She slowly raised a slender white hand, pointing towards a secluded room in the corner of the Yae Shrine.
"That's the shrine's storage room, used to store things we don't normally use. Sakura doesn't recall storing anything called 'Will Seeds' in the shrine storage, though."
Yae Sakura explained the location Hare had pointed to, her brow slightly furrowed. No matter how hard she tried to remember, she couldn't recall putting Will Seeds, or any stones for that matter, in the shrine storage.
While Sakura was still deep in thought, Ren had already proactively walked over to the storage room door, seemingly untouched by the aftermath of the previous battle, and pushed it open.
The moment the shrine storage door opened, a faint, ethereal sakura-pink light emanated from the dim floor inside. Ren's eyes lit up. He quickly walked forward, and as he got closer, the true nature of the faintly glowing object became clear.
"Found it! A Will Seed!... But it looks kind of strange."
Floating slightly above the storage room floor was a pink crystalline object emitting a deep glow, exuding a lethal aura, resembling both a stone and polished jade. Unlike what Ren remembered, this pink crystal, which Hare sensed as a potential Will Seed, wasn't skull-shaped but rather an irregular cube.
"I don't remember putting anything like this in the storage..."
Following closely behind Ren, Yae Sakura's eyes widened slightly in surprise as she saw the pink crystal floating in the shrine storage.
Under the watchful gazes of Yae Sakura, Kallen, and Hare, Ren reached out and grasped the slowly rotating pink crystal in his red-gloved hand.
"This is—?!"
The instant Ren touched the pink crystal, a flood of unfamiliar memories surged into his mind. It was the memory of a young Yae Sakura attempting to escape the village with her younger sister, chosen as a sacrifice, only to discover her sister's tendons had already been severed. She could only watch helplessly as her sister was killed by the ignorant villagers.
After absorbing this memory, Ren finally understood the cruel and brutal event that occurred "four years ago," as righteously declared by the villagers.
He also understood how Yae Sakura had been bound by the curse of her promise, filled with resentment towards the villagers yet still acting against her own will, protecting them like a tool.
Along with the surge of unfamiliar memories from Yae Sakura, Ren even felt a vicarious, abyssal, twisted rage ignite within him—a fury that clearly didn't belong to him.
"That's it! That's the five bucks I missed out on! Although the appearance is slightly different, this is definitely a Will Seed."
Within two short breaths, Ren suppressed the rage brought on by the Will Seed's memories. In truth, he had immediately dispelled the influence of Yae Sakura's rage.
However, the sheer inhumanity and ignorance of the villagers' actions in the Will Seed's memory infuriated even Ren, a mere observer, igniting his own genuine anger.
Fortunately, this Palace was about to be destroyed. Standing within the rear mountain shrine, Ren could even faintly hear the screams of the Yae Village residents as they faced the end of their world. This provided Ren with a small sense of comfort and catharsis.
"Thinking about it, it makes sense. The deadly sin and Treasure of each Palace are different. There's no reason for the Will Seeds to be mass-produced clones of each other. ATLU$ must have gotten lazy and reused the same model again."
Gaining access to the Palace Ruler's crucial memories upon obtaining a Will Seed was a feature that had been implemented during P5R's development but was sadly cut from the final version.
Since Hare said it was a Will Seed, and it let Ren see the Palace Ruler's important memories just like a Will Seed should, its color even matching Yae Sakura's signature color as the Palace Ruler, then this irregular cube definitely was a Will Seed!
"Is this the Will Seed you've been searching for, Joker? If this is it, I happen to have collected two more. Here, take them."
Kallen's small white head peeked out from behind Ren's shoulder. She had heard Ren's mumbling and, although she didn't understand everything, she grasped the fact that the pink crystal was the Will Seed he sought.
Under Ren's astonished gaze, Kallen reached into the pocket of her purple, form-fitting dress and pulled out two more irregular, sakura-pink cubes identical to the one in Ren's hand.
"These are... the other two Will Seeds?!"
Ren hadn't expected the two Will Seeds to come to him before he even started searching. He instinctively reached out and took the two pink Will Seeds Kallen offered, his fingers brushing against hers.
Instantly, two more distinct memories flooded Ren's mind.
One was the memory of Yae Sakura, succumbing to darkness, finally snapping and slaughtering all the villagers of Yae Village, only to be stopped and sealed by Kallen.
The other memory was from an even younger Yae Sakura, before she became a miko, happily playing with her sister under a cherry blossom tree.
Perhaps because the little girl hadn't grown up yet, although Ren could immediately recognize Yae Sakura in the third memory, her sister playing with her under the cherry blossom tree seemed slightly different from the one in the first memory.
After Ren absorbed the memory fragments carried by the three Will Seeds, the pink Will Seed in his hand, along with the two irregular crystals Kallen held, rapidly spun and collided, seamlessly merging into a single, larger sakura-pink cube.
A faint, crimson light flickered within the large cube.