Hanachirusato sat before the mottled fox statue, the fried tofu in her hand still steaming.
She looked down at the plate, then up towards the direction where the quartet had disappeared, her expression beneath the mask full of confusion.
"Those four... who exactly are they...?"
Lumine sat beside her, gently patting her shoulder and smiling, "Don't think too much about it."
Hanachirusato turned her head, her gaze behind the mask a little lost: "But they didn't even listen to my explanation about the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual..."
Lumine smiled: "Because they already knew."
Hanachirusato was stunned.
"They know about the Sacred Sakura's defilement, they know your mission, and they know your fate."
Lumine's voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable firmness.
"That's why they said—'Don't worry, we'll take care of it.'"
Hanachirusato was silent for a moment, her fingers unconsciously tracing the edge of the fried tofu: "But the Sacred Sakura Cleansing Ritual is not that simple. The defilement has accumulated for hundreds of years, even if they..."
"They even beat the Raiden Shogun to the ground."
Paimon floated over, hands on her hips, and said.
"Mere defilement is nothing to them!"
Hanachirusato: "..." (Who exactly are these people?!)
In the distance, deep within the roots of the Sacred Sakura tree.
Jesse, wearing a gas mask, held a giant vacuum cleaner: "Can this thing really suck away defilement?"
Zane adjusted the runes on the machine: "It was modified by the Wolf King, specifically for curse-type energy."
Elliot stood by, holding a loudspeaker, and shouted at the Sacred Sakura tree: "Listen, defilement inside! You are surrounded! Surrender immediately!"
Matt scratched his head: "Can they understand that?"
"Who cares, just suck it up first!"
Jesse pressed the switch, and the machine immediately emitted a deafening roar. The dark defilement was drawn out like a tide, compressing into a black sphere.
Zane casually pulled out a trash can covered in runes: "Done. Just throw it in and seal it."
——————
Zane pushed up his non-existent glasses, the pages of the "Compendium of Soul Magic" rustling in his hand: "Hmm... let me see, precautions for the Soul-Flesh Separation Technique..."
Hanachirusato gently lifted the lower edge of her mask and took a small sip of the immortal's delight tea Matt had given her.
The sweet taste slid down her throat, and this unfamiliar sensation made her eyes narrow.
"Hey, Zane."
Jesse poked the suspicious-looking book.
"Are you sure this thing is reliable?"
"Absolutely no problem this time!"
Zane closed the book confidently.
"Elliot! Come here and be the demonstration!"
"Ah? Wai—"
"Whack!"
Zane slapped Elliot on the crown of his head.
The Hydro Hilichurl Ranger's body instantly stiffened, a translucent blue soul floated out from his head, and his physical body fell straight backward.
"Holy crap! Old Zhang, are you using me as a guinea pig?!"
Elliot's soul gesticulated wildly in the air, then plunged back into his body.
The revived Hydro Hilichurl Ranger pounced and pinned Zane to the ground.
"I told you not to mess with that book! I told you—this mask is pretty good quality?"
"Let go quickly! I'm sorry!"
Zane desperately protected the crooked mask on his face.
"Matt! Quickly pull Elliot off!"
The seven-meter-tall Matt slowly walked over and lifted Elliot like a kitten: "Stop messing around, we have serious business."
Zane scrambled to his feet, tidying his disheveled hair as he walked towards Hanachirusato: "Miss Hanachirusato, are you ready?"
The White Fox Miko gently put down her teacup, the cup clinking crisply against the stone platform.
She took a deep breath, her five-hundred-year-old obsession trembling slightly at this moment: "Yes, I'm ready."
"It might hurt a little."
A faint blue light glowed in Zane's palm.
"Three, two—"
"Wait!"
Lumine suddenly rushed over.
"Are you sure this—"
"One!"
The hand enveloped in soul energy precisely pressed against Hanachirusato's chest.
The White Fox Miko's body fell backward like a disconnected Marionette, and as Lumine instinctively reached out to catch her—
"Whoosh!"
Two pure white light figures rose from the shell.
On the left was the familiar Hanachirusato, and on the right... was an elegant white fox woman wearing a divine priestess's crown. Her wide sleeves billowed without wind, and a cunning smile played on her lips.
"Oh my~"
Kitsune Saiguu's soul stretched.
"That was a really long nap..."
Hanachirusato's soul trembled as she reached out: "Lady Saiguu... it really is..."
"You silly child."
Kitsune Saiguu gently flicked Hanachirusato's forehead.
"You've made yourself quite a mess."
The physical body on the ground suddenly coughed violently.
Everyone looked down, only to see Hanachirusato's body undergoing astonishing changes—her pale skin regained color, all defilement within her was cleansed, and her organs regenerated.
"Physical body reconstruction complete."
Zane nodded in satisfaction.
"Now, please Hanachirusato return to your body... Wait! Miss Kitsune Saiguu, where are you going?"
Kitsune Saiguu, floating mid-air, was looking into the pond as a mirror: "This spiritual body state is so convenient, I can even pass through walls~"
"Stop messing around!"
Zane grabbed Kitsune Saiguu, who was trying to escape by phasing through a wall in her spiritual form, with practiced ease, like catching a disobedient cat.
He took the vacuum cleaner Jesse handed him and, under everyone's stunned gaze, "whoosh" sucked Kitsune Saiguu's soul inside.
"Eh? Wait! I still wanted to play!"
Kitsune Saiguu's spiritual body flailed in the air, her wide sleeves passing through Zane's head.
"You can't stay outside in this form for too long."
Zane propped the vacuum cleaner on the ground and gestured to Elliot.
"Got it!"
A blue glow of Hydro element flashed around Elliot, and he instantly transformed into a torrent, rushing out.
Immediately, sounds of chaos erupted from the direction of Grand Narukami Shrine in the distance—
"Elliot! What are you doing here?!"
"Those are omamori for worship!"
"Stop! That's the last box of fried tofu—Ow, ahhh!!!"
Three minutes later, Elliot, sporting a head full of talismans, sped back, clutching a large handful of pinkish-white fur, each strand shimmering.
"Done!"
Elliot handed the fur to Zane.
"And I took a box of three-color dango as interest, by the way."
He shook the dessert box in his other hand, and Yae Miko's furious scream echoed from afar.
Zane gently placed Kitsune Saiguu's spiritual body on the ground, spreading the precious fox fur into a small cushion.
He pulled out a glass bottle labeled "Instant Body Reconstruction Agent," the liquid inside swirling with a suspicious pink glow.
"This is formulated with Bailu's saliva and the Yaoshi's Path energy."
Zane uncorked the bottle.
"Theoretically, it can adapt to any spiritual body..."
"Wait!"
Lumine suddenly stopped him.
"The formula you used last time turned a Samachurl into a fire-breathing Slime!"
Zane offered an awkward yet polite smile: "This time I added some Path energy from the Equilibrium Star God as a stabilizer."
Before anyone could stop him, the entire bottle of potion was "splashed" onto Kitsune Saiguu's spiritual body.
Blinding white light erupted, and the air filled with the scent of cherry blossoms and lightning.
When the strong light dissipated—
"Oh my~"
A languid female voice sounded.
Lying on her side on the ground was a peerless fox immortal. She elegantly propped herself up, her snow-white tail gently sweeping across everyone's stunned faces.
"A body unused for five hundred years, it feels a bit rusty~"
Hanachirusato sat there dazedly, then plunged into Kitsune Saiguu's embrace.
The latter gently stroked her hair, then suddenly raised an eyebrow as if noticing something: "Huh? Why do I have a tuft of pink fur on my tail?"
"Well, about that..."
Zane guiltily took two steps back.
From a distance, Yae Miko's furious roar could be heard: "Elliot!! I'm going to stuff you into the Sacred Sakura tree as fertilizer!!!"
"Ahem, don't mind that strawberry dalieba."
Elliot said awkwardly.