In pervious episode ...
Reiko was chased by the demon name Nukekubi from the well . In the way ..... Reiko found the girl that she saw on the shrine ... Kasumi Sakaki ....
By the weird power of the locket on her neck safe Reiko .... After all of th incident , she finally get out of the forest and she reach the soul dance ritual but ....
What she see was the dead body of her father lying on the ground
Branches had speared through the cheeks , jaws and eye socket and blood dripped down but finger was still moving ..
With the dress she recognized it was her ...
" DAD ! "
What will happend next ..... ? .....
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July 23 , Saturday , 1986 ....
Hairama Hospital ....
The steady hum of the hospital machines filled the silence like a dull lullaby. Reiko lay on the hospital bed, her arm hooked to an IV drip, her chest rising and falling in slow, shallow breaths. Her once snow-white dress, now cleaned and folded on the table beside her, still held a faint stain—a ghost of the blood from the forest.
Tatsuya sat beside her, his hand clutching hers like it was the last warmth in a frozen world. His eyes were sunken, rimmed red from sleepless nights and endless grief. Otaki stood near the window, arms crossed, watching the gray skies over town, as if waiting for something—anything—to make this feel like a dream.
But it wasn't a dream.
And it all started with the Soul Dance Ritual.
FLASHBACK - TWO NIGHTS AGO
The ritual was strange from the beginning. The torches burned low, casting flickers across the shrine as masked dancers in white robes began their slow, rhythmic steps. Tatsuya stood with the crowd, clutching the photo of Miyako, tears staining the edge.
Reiko had just reached the shrine after escaping the forest, breathless and confused. The moment she stepped into the courtyard—
The wind stopped.
The sky darkened unnaturally, like the moon itself had turned away.
Then she appeared.
The same flying head—the Nukekubi—but her form no longer only a head. A twisted spirit cloaked in crimson robes, hair floating in the air like drowning weeds, eyes glowing with starvation and hatred.
The crowd panicked, screams echoing across the valley. But the dancers continued, as if possessed.
The shrine's protective wards failed. The spirit soared down.
Tatsuya, seeing Reiko like girl frozen in place, ran. Without hesitation, he threw himself between his daughter shadow figure and the vengeful spirit.
"Get away from her!!" he had screamed.
The spirit whispered, "You look just like him..."
In an instant, tendrils of darkness pierced through his body—branches from an invisible tree—stabbing into his cheeks, jaws, and eye sockets. Blood sprayed across Reiko's face.
And the last thing she remembered…
Was his hand reaching out to her. Trembling. Trying to say something.
And then—darkness.
PRESENT - HOSPITAL ROOM
Reiko's eyes flew open.
The ceiling light blinded her for a second, and she jolted upright—only to feel the searing pain across her chest. Her scream startled the nurse who rushed in with a doctor.
Otaki stood beside her almost immediately.
"You're awake…" she said, voice quivering.
"Where's... Dad?" Reiko asked, her voice hoarse and barely above a whisper.
No one answered.
Just silence.
And the weight of truth she already knew.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. Her body trembled, not from pain but from the crushing guilt.
Then the door opened.
A tall, pale-skinned man with sharp silver hair and eyes like winter frost entered the room. His presence seemed to calm even the machines.
"Reiko Shinazaki," he said, stepping forward. "I am Shin Kazumi, exorcist . Otaki-san called me."
She blinked. Her vision blurred.
"Kazumi…?"
The name felt familiar—but it wasn't his face she remembered.
It was Kasumi.
The girl in the shrine. The forest. The one who saved her.
Reiko clutched her locket.
That was when it hit her.
She couldn't remember Kasumi's face.
Her name, her voice—yes.
But her face was gone. Blank.
Like someone had wiped that part of her memory away.
She looked at Shin again.
"Have we met before?"
He gave a strange smile. "Not yet. But we will be working together now."
"Why?"
"Because," Otaki interrupted, "The ritual has awoken something. And Reiko-chan… it's not over. That spirit—Nukekubi—was only the beginning."
Reiko stared down at her wrist. The blue braided thread was gone.
Her heart dropped.
"Kasumi…"
And for a moment, she swore she heard the faint echo of a child's voice, soft and distant—
"Do you think we're friends…?"