"Some memories don't die—they're buried. But even graves can be dug up."
---
Three Days Later — Mount Ubara, Kyoto Prefecture
The air was thin up here.
Dry grass crunched beneath every step, and the clouds above hung low, nearly touching the jagged peaks. On the side of the mountain, nestled between dead trees, lay an ancient burial site—a forgotten graveyard, surrounded by cursed stone markers carved with warnings too old to read.
Sora stood at the edge of the field, staring at the ground.
His breath was shallow, his body still weak from the last incident.
Rei watched him carefully, her arms folded.
"Why would the Shadowborne cult want this place?" she muttered, scanning the tombs. "It's not on any cursed registry."
"It's not a curse site," Sora said quietly.
"It's a memory site."
She looked at him.
"You're remembering again, aren't you?"
He didn't answer.
---
They moved deeper into the field. Wind howled between the stones, but again—no echo. Not a single sound bounced back from the mountainside. It felt like sound itself was being devoured.
Sora's hand hovered near his side, cursed energy pulsing slightly from his fingers.
But the shadows weren't reacting normally.
They were fading, dimming, like they were afraid of something ahead.
---
At the center of the graveyard stood a stone pillar.
It was taller than the others. Smoother. And sealed with five ancient cursed paper charms, all pulsing faintly.
And carved into the base of the stone:
> "Here lies the one who should not have remembered."
No name. Just that.
Rei touched the stone with her gloved hand.
> "This grave…" she whispered.
"It's yours."
Sora stepped back.
"No. I've never been here."
She turned to him slowly.
"But it knows you."
---
Suddenly, the ground shuddered.
The sky dimmed.
And from the space between the stones, a figure rose—not out of the ground, but out of memory.
Her hair was long and dark, her robes stitched with crescent sigils, her face featureless—no eyes, no mouth, no expression. Just a blank face staring forward.
And around her?
Silence deeper than before.
Even the cursed energy in the air froze.
Sora's breath caught in his throat.
She wasn't radiating power.
She was erasing it.
---
Rei reached for her blade.
Sora stopped her.
"Don't. She's not a curse."
"…Then what the hell is she?"
The woman in the veil took one step forward.
Sora's shadow recoiled behind him.
> "Buried light returns," she said, her voice like a dream.
"The Moonless Son awakens."
Rei narrowed her eyes. "Another cult freak. Great."
But the woman didn't attack.
She simply raised one hand.
And pointed at Sora's chest.
> "Inside you lies the grave we never finished digging.
Let us finish it."
---
In a flash, Rei moved—sword unsheathed, slashing at the veiled figure's arm.
But the blade passed through air.
No resistance.
No contact.
Sora barely had time to speak before the space around them folded.
And suddenly they were elsewhere.
A memory, bleeding into reality.
---
A room with no windows. No floor. Just floating doors.
Each one pulsed with memories—most locked.
Rei stood behind him, gripping her sword, eyes wide.
Sora stumbled forward, drawn toward one of the doors.
It pulsed with that same black crescent he saw at the shrine.
> "This is your head," Rei whispered.
"This is you."
Sora reached out.
The door swung open.
---
A child, alone in a white room.
No windows. No sound.
Just an endless voice repeating one sentence:
> "You are not real. You are the void made flesh."
Rei saw it too.
The boy in the room—looked just like Sora, but smaller. Eyes glazed. Body shivering.
> "Who did this to you…?" she whispered.
Sora shook his head.
He didn't know.
But before he could step closer—
The veiled woman appeared behind the child, placing a hand over his eyes.
And the boy vanished.
The door slammed shut.
---
They were yanked back into reality.
The graveyard again.
Sora gasped and dropped to one knee, coughing.
Rei knelt beside him. "What did they take?"
He looked up slowly.
> "Not what they took.
What they tried to take."
His eyes flickered silver.
> "They wanted to erase the part of me that still remembers pain."
---
The veiled woman began to fade—her job unfinished.
But before she disappeared, she whispered one more phrase:
> "When the final moon sets, your name will mean nothing."
Then she was gone.
No explosion. No drama. Just gone—like a thought slipping from your mind.
---
Rei helped him to his feet.
"You okay?" she asked again.
He shook his head.
"I'm starting to think I never was."
---
Elsewhere — Underground Ritual Site
A dark chamber flickered with blue flame.
The cultist from the archives knelt before a massive circular seal etched into the floor.
Behind him, more figures appeared—hooded, masked, and whispering in unison.
> "He still resists," said the lead cultist.
"But we have found the crack."
A small doll was placed at the center of the circle.
It bore Sora's face.
The cultist lit it with cursed flame.
> "We no longer seek to kill him," he said.
"We seek to rewrite him."