Butterfly's Curse

The Corruption

Black clouds are hanging low covering the sun, while the rain of blood keeps pouring down nonstop. The forest looked different from last time. This time it wasn't covered completely in darkness, but there was a red-hazy fog. The red-hazy fog was covering the red forest completely, making it all most impossible to see their surroundings.

When Mifuyu and Satoru left Leiko's house, it was too late. The blue butterfly couldn't be seen around anymore, it was like it had vanished with the intention of not being found. Mifuyu knew he had lost too much time with Satoru. Because of that, they didn't have a guide, and worst, they have lost their way in this vast forest.

Mifuyu and Satoru have been wandering aimlessly through this forest for a while, while the path behind them had vanished. Sometimes both of them could hear the laughing of some children through the wind, being carried like a evil melody by the breeze. And time after time, they could see a shadow fading away into the fog.

Every time the shadow appeared in front of them, it would have a different appearance. Sometimes the shadow would resemble a kid, while other times an adult. They probably were different shadows. Different shadows lurking in the fog, hiding behind the trees waiting for an opportunity to lured them towards their clutches.

Mifuyu had asked Hifumi to guide them through this forest, but he told him that he didn't know the way. That he could only guide him through a distortion and not through the corruption. He didn't understand quite well his grandpa's words, everything was too confusing for someone like him to fully comprehend.

Hifumi last words to his grandson, was to follow one of the shadows that appeared in the distance. That one of those shadows could know where the exit is, and that it could be Yugen trying to guide them. He told him, too, that he didn't have much time left to waste, that he needed to choose fast before it was too late since the corruption was advancing at high speed behind them.

When Mifuyu looked behind him for the first time in a while, the whole place was turning into a black color. The corruption was advancing like a devouring fire, consuming the entire place and the air started to feel suffocating.

"What happens if the corruption catches up to us?" Mifuyu asked, wanting to know more about the red butterfly's corruption.

"You'll be corrupted, meaning that you would lose all your senses and become a corrupted shadow." Hifumi answered.

Mifuyu didn't quite get it. "I thought that only happened when the red butterfly consumes your life?"

"The shadows you'd encounter in the shadows' forest are different. Those shadows are the souls of the children that the red butterfly has consumed, their souls were saved by Yugen. Yugen gave them a place were they could call home, saving them from being lost spirits. The corrupted shadows are the children that the red butterfly trapped inside her distorted realm. Once those children were trapped in her distortion, the corruption caught up to them making them become evil spirits," Hifumi explained. "Once you encounter a corrupted shadow, you will soon notice the difference between the shadows living in the shadows' forest."

Hearing the explanation of Hifumi, Mifuyu felt kind of relieved. Even when Yugen was bounded to the red butterfly for the wish he granted her, he was saving the soul of the children the red butterfly had consumed. Yugen never had been a bad person, just like Hifumi, he was trapped in the circle of the red butterfly's hatred.

"I know you will be able to escape from this corruption," Hifumi said.

His grandpa's words gave hope to Mifuyu to escape from this corruption. "If the red butterfly has been only consuming the life of children, that means the shadow that appears as an adult could be Yugen, right?"