мѕ.gяα¢є αη∂ мя.муѕтєяу •𝔐𝔬𝔫𝔬𝔫𝔬𝔨𝔢•

Sҽα Mσɳʂƚҽɾ Fιϝƚԋ Cԋαρƚҽɾ

❖ ── ✦ ──『✙』── ✦ ── ❖

"Is the Umizatou gone?" The minstrel, still nauseous from the vision, came back.

"What's a "hollow boat"?" The girl with the beauty mark asked Kusuriuri.

Although, the one who answered the question was the one who loved the attention more than the stoic womanizer: Genyousai.

"I can tell you." He intervened, feeling miserable. "It's a boat made of huge hollowed-out logs."

"It's hollow inside? You can't get out of a boat like that, though." Her high-pitched voice mixed with surprise and worry reached all ears.

"No, but that's the way it's supposed to be." "What?! Why did Genkei's sister get into a boat like that?!"

No one responded. Instead, the sound of chains echoed through the ship.

"Oh! The sound of chains!" The blue-eyed monk felt the anxiety rise. As a way to counter the noise, he covered his ears. But the vibration always managed to get him. "The chains which were tied around the Utsurobune!"

Kayo looked worried at her friend, knowing that she was sensible to those kinds of sounds, but she found herself looking up, to the sky. Befuddled, she also moved her head in the same direction. When an eye appeared in the dark void that surrounded the ship, the ex-servant was even more dumbfounded.

"She knew it was going to happen?!" Her confusion reached high levels.

With that, the water from the pond on the deck flowed and became a bloody substance, painting it all red. Chains fell into the liquid, wrapping something below where the human eye could visualize. The chains were gold and unlike the normal circular link, those were fish-shaped. Thus, something emerged from the depths of the ship.

The chants of the suspicious monk weren't effective. His fear had arrived and it wasn't an illusion.

"It's the Utsurobune!" Genyousai exclaimed, not believing his eyes.

"It's not an illusion, I can see it too!" Kayo was completely terrified. Was Genkei's fear able to transmute and affect all the other denizen's minds? The girl couldn't find the answer.

"Genkei-sama, what happened fifty years ago?" The scaredy-cat of the bunch, Sogen, wanted to just learn the truth and leave that place alive. It was his only wish. "Why did your sister get into the Utsurobune?"

The hollow boat stopped rising. It was colorful, with a lot of drawings decorating the exterior. A piece of art in the form of the demise of a human sacrifice, the prize to pay for witnessing. 

A sound came from the inside. Nails ripping through the tree's wood: something wanted to get out, or at least, make its presence known.

"What is this sound?" The minstrel took a few steps to examine it closer. "It's coming from inside."

"Something is scraping the wall." Shinju specified.

"It's a person! There is something inside!" The man with makeup screeched.

"She's been in here for fifty years? But that's impossible!" Kayo also got nearer, her face showing all her worry while her trembling hands displayed her fear.

The monk's apprentice fell to the ground, losing his mind slowly. "I can't take it! I can't... I can't stand such fear!"

On the other hand, the blond man remained calm. Like all the time he had been traveling through Japan in search of more supernatural victims, he was focused on his job, losing all his emotions and what others could feel. It was him versus the entity.