Roughly twenty minutes earlier, Mura and Lilith had just left the grounds of Sekien Academy. Fortunately, Mura was old enough to pose as an older brother that stopped in to deliver a forgotten lunch to his little sister Tomoe. Sadly their attempt had been in vain after discovering from the principal that she was absent.

Pondering on their next move, Mura walked out of the school gates as the young yokai followed behind.

“Think she’s playing hooky?” Mura asked, looking over his shoulder at Lilith.

“Probably. It’s what I would do, anyway,” she shrugged before perking up. “Soooooo, since we can’t find her, how about we try to recover some of my memories?”

Mura nodded to himself. Tomoe wasn’t going anywhere and it was doubtful that Goetia would try to attack her again after Shuten’s last stunt not too long ago. It had been so long since they made an attempt on unearthing Lilith’s past life as a human four years back. Now that they were stranded on Earth, now seemed as good a time as any.

“Sure, we can do that. Anywhere you wanna look?”

Mura slipped his hands into his pockets as Lilith questioned internally.

“Hmm… I’d say the first thing we really need is a name. We can try to visit some of the cemeteries in this area, look at the names on the stones?”

Mura smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

“Sounds like a plan! Any idea where the nearest graveyard is?” he asked.

“Not a clue!” Lilith chirped as her smile faded into a look of disappointment.

“Well, that’s why we ask questions. Come on, someone has to know,” Mura said as he took Lilith’s hand.

—I really hope we find something. We don’t even know if Lilith was buried at all! There’s never been a yokai I’ve heard of that died peacefully…

Not wanting to dwell on such morbid thoughts, he brushed them into the far corners of his subconscious and led his friend toward the sidewalk. There were quite a few people walking past them. Mura scanned the faces of the humans with careful eyes, looking for someone that wasn’t in a hurry and seemed old enough to know the locale.

After a few seconds, he spotted an elderly man with a thin mustache coming off the intersection’s crosswalk and onto the sidewalk they were currently standing on.

“Excuse me, sir?” Mura asked, leaning in to talk to the man.

The older man stopped and looked at Mura with a questioning and worried gaze.

“Thank you,” Mura began. “I was wondering if you could point us in the direction of the nearest cemetery.”

The man’s eyebrows relaxed, giving off the impression that the gentleman assumed Mura was up to no good.

—Are people always that tense around here?

“Yes, um, the closest is a small one not too far from here. You just take a left across this intersection and then continue straight until you reach a flower shop. It’s across the street from there, you can’t miss it. Big walls surrounding the whole place, mhm.”

The old man nodded to himself, as if reaffirming the directions he just gave. Without another word, he left the conversation and continued on his way.

“Oh, uh, thank you again!” Mura called out over the crowd and the man turned and smiled back.

Mura started walking across the intersection like the man said. He turned to look at Lilith, who was avoiding eye contact.

“What?” he asked.

“You numbskull… You really don’t know how Japanese culture works, do you?” Lilith sighed with a shake of her head.

“Well, considering I spent nearly my entire life in another realm, no. Did I do something wrong?”

Lilith sighed again with a weak smile.

“You can’t just… walk up to someone and ask them something like that! Even I still remember that most people here don’t like being approached by strangers. They’d just rather not get involved.”

“Jeez, that’s a bit weird,” Mura remarked. “I wasn’t rude, was I?”

“Nah, just forward. At least you were polite about it, so you redeemed yourself a little,” she said cheekily, nudging Mura in the side.

They rounded the left and continued straight on, making their way past a food stand that tempted their nostrils, bellies and wallets with its appetizing aromas.

“Stay strong, we’ll get something afterwards,” Mura commented, answering Lilith before she could ask.

“Uggggggghhhhh! Fine,” she complained back.

They reached a small flower shop embedded into the collection of tightly packed buildings. It looked old, but pleasant and comforting. Two elderly women tended to a pot of forget-me-nots, both wearing matching rings. Lilith took notice of one of the ladies and her daisy-shaped earrings.

“Those are pretty. Wish I had some like that,” she said to Mura longingly.

The other woman overheard Lilith and smiled.

“Oh, those? She’s had them as long as I can remember, haven’t you Hana?” the woman asked the other.

The lady with the daisy earrings smiled as her eyes lit up, prompting a smile from Mura and Lilith.

Spotting the weathered walls across the street, Mura tugged Lilith along. They crossed the street, making their way toward the entrance of the cemetery. Even from the outside, they could spot the obelisk-shaped grave markers and detect the dry scent of old incense.

“Well, we’re here! Let’s start looking!” Lilith said happily.

She let go of Mura’s hand and ran off before turning back to face him.

“Thanks again for taking me… It means a lot, really,” she said before turning away to look for names on the graves.

Mura smiled to himself as the etching on his chest began to ache.

—Ugh… The Tamashiryoku present here is strong. At least the place isn’t blessed to the extent of that shrine Amano worked at.

“Hey, wait up,” Mura said as he walked over to where Lilith was currently. “See anything?”

Lilith was kneeling in front of a small grave marker with dried flowers left on it. Her eyes were focused on the name present, carved into the stone slab.

“You okay? Lilith?” Mura asked to no response.

“Sorry, I just… felt really nauseous all of a sudden,” Lilith finally answered. “I was passing through all these stones, looking at the names. Then suddenly, this one triggered something inside me…”

Mura took a look at the name Lilith was referring to.

“Kaori Nagamine. Maybe… that’s your name?”

“Is it? I dunno, it can’t be that easy. Things never are when it comes to our shitty luck.”

“Well, it has something to do with you? Why else would reading that name cause such a reaction?”

Lilith paused, thinking it over. If this truly was her name, then she was looking at all that remained of her human existence. No one ever really sees their own gravesite, such a thought haunted her and made the girl’s skin quiver.

“It seems suspicious… I mean, look at the death date. March 15, 2094…” Lilith trailed off.

“That’s four years ago. Same amount of time you’ve spent as a yokai, Lilith…”

—I better commit this to memory since I don’t have a camera or notepad handy. From the date of birth to the date of death, that’d leave this Kaori girl at age fifteen when she died. That’s pretty damn close to Lilith’s physical age... Freaky.

Mura placed a hand on Lilith, helping her off the ground. Suddenly, Mura felt a sudden twinge of pain in his chest as Lilith winced too.

“You feel that?” Lilith asked, looking up at Mura.

“Yeah, Tamashiryoku spiked up. Something’s going on over there,” he said, pointing at a long row of graves not too far ahead.

Mura and Lilith ran toward the source of the surge, their Anima Stains itching underneath their skin as they neared closer. Closing in on the target, Mura could make out a figure.

“Wait, is that—“

“Holy shit, it is!”

It was Tomoe of all people, kneeling on a large family grave where one typically offered incense and prayed. Mura couldn’t believe his luck, even beginning to question where else fate would lead them today.

As Mura approached her, he could tell she wasn’t herself. Was she bewitched? The demon approached the schoolgirl from behind as Lilith stood back.

“Tomoe?” he said calmly, trying to get her attention.

Something resembling a mumble escaped from her lips. Mura reached forward and touched her shoulder with his hand.

“Tomoe!” Mura said firmer, jostling her shoulder after she remained in her daze.

“Not so hard, she isn’t a bottle of steak sauce!” Lilith called out, hands on her hips.

The shaking however seemed to work, waking Tomoe from her apparent trance. The girl turned slowly, revealing a tear-stained face with puffy eyes to Mura’s vision.

“I-It’s you!” Tomoe gasped, blinking to see if she was still in a daze.

Mura smiled as did Lilith, wanting to comfort the girl.

“Long time no see, Tomoe!” Mura said. “Sorry for shaking you there, but we sensed something weird nearby and wanted to see if you were okay. In fact, we were originally looking for you to—“

Tomoe cut Mura off mid-sentence.

“You’re a real demon! You’re not a hallucination!” Tomoe stated in a frazzled manner.

“Whoa, hey now! Don’t go shouting that out!” Mura said cautiously. “I guess they didn’t wipe your memory after all.”

“So someone did mess with my mind! I knew everything wasn’t a dream! Glad to see you two again though! Now, where’s Shuten? We gotta kill him, you promised me remember?”

Mura looked at Lilith, who looked back at him worriedly.

“Listen, um… We can’t really do much of anything right now,” Lilith said.

“Huh? B-But you guys, you have magic powers! And a magic sword-spear thing!” Tomoe said with wide eyes, mimicking Mura’s former weapon transforming with her hands.

“We don’t have those anymore… That’s the thing. Because of something that happened, we pretty much… can’t… do those crazy things anymore,” Mura explained.

Tomoe blinked in surprise.

“So… care to explain what I missed? If we’re in this together, you have to tell me everything. No more secrets!”

Mura looked at Lilith who nodded, giving her approval. Mura sighed and sat down next to Tomoe on the grave site as Lilith sat beside her as well.

“Alright then. You want the truth?” Mura said, pulling down his shirt collar to reveal the stained mark on his skin to Tomoe’s shocked eyes. “Buckle up then, kid. If you thought the shit before was crazy, then you’re in for a treat.”