[UPDATE IN PROGRESS] Onmyou-Pocketville: Fallen Dusk

Chapter 36: Into the Dark

Disclaimer: Somewhere in this chapter there is a sequence where some distressful, violent, and horror themes may be seen. Please read with caution or stay clear from it if you are not comfortable with said themes.

Keeping the red folklore book close in her arm, Emiko approached the doorway, following Emi. "Who's there?" she wondered, her golden gaze focusing on the light through the opening, where morning sunlight passed through the tiled windows of the corridor. She sighed in relief as the voice was friendly, inviting, welcoming, but very old indeed. Not some silly ghost playing tricks, she thought.

The feline stepped in very slowly, but calmly, just as Emi ushered her inside the room. An elderly tenneko, with a slender but aging and frail body, her legs noticeably trembling beneath her. Her markings were cinnamon-brown, similar to Ami and Tomomi's, which meant that she was a relative, a member from Tomomi's generation. The tips of her dark, holly mane faded at the tips, and her pale blue eyes behind a round pair of glasses were hazy and foggy, just like morning mist. Her long, dark tail waved back and forth slowly like a flag in the wind. A white rose sat in her mane, and a pale pink cloak draped over her back like curtains. Around her neck, below her pearl collar was a small red drawstring bag, its string around her neck like a necklace.

She was closer to Emiko's age, though Emiko was more alert and lively despite her injured knee, whereas the feline was visibly slowing with age.

Just after the old tenneko stepped in, Emi helped Ami with the Sakura Crown by removing it from her head, placing it back on the cushion on the desk. Then, in her gijinka form, she moved the crown off the desk and to the side, right on another red zabuton.

Ami sighed in relief after getting such a weight lifted off of her. "Emiko, this is our aunt, Princess Toshie." she said afterwards. "She's our mother's sister."

Emiko, keeping in mind her knee, bent over to rub Toshie on the head, scratching behind the ears. Toshie smiled, purring quietly and her tail swinging. "You're quite a pretty fox."

"May I see what's in the sack?" Emiko asked, clutching the bag in her paw gently.

Toshie nodded, then said, "I believe it's something you're looking for." She dipped her head as Emiko removed the string from her neck, then opened the drawstring bag, pulling it open with her delicate claws. Inside was something a tad smaller than the size of Emiko's paw concealed in white cloth, along with a small folded note. She placed both of them down on the desk, first opening the note.

For the Otherworldly Folklorist, our flame of hope.

Do protect this jewel well, as it is the most powerful of the three Hoshibana.

Emiko suppressed a gasp, then opened up the cloth, finding exactly what she thought it was. That pale red jewel with the glimmers of its petals, reflecting off her round face.

The Star Lily.

The jewel was in the shape of an eyelash lily, and reminded Emiko of the astonishingly shiny and diamond-like ornamental carvings of little figures and objects from crystal that she owned herself.

It's the last one.

Emiko was so focused on the shining aura of the jewel that it even made her silvery-blue eyes glow. "Where did you find this?"

"I came to help Yuri, Chouko, Yasu, and Sosuke. I saw both of them scrambling around the palace, and we came across this jewel in the Grand Omori Shrine. We saw Yuzuki guarding it in the Sanctum, then she gave it to us."

Eva's fur fluffed up once hearing that name, which was of another queen who was just as notorious as Masuyo. "Yu-Yuzuki?! She of all spirits gave you this?!"