Seigi's arguments about mercy and righteousness spilled into the falling snow, her voice calm but tight, weighed down by something even she couldn't name.
Raito listened in silence, his face unreadable as always, his hands resting loosely on his knees.
When she finished, the wind whistled softly between the trees.
Raito tilted his head slightly, almost lazily.
"Sounds nice," he said. "But it's not reality."
The words hit harder than any scream.
Seigi opened her mouth to protest—but then closed it again, frustration boiling under her skin. Not because he was mocking her. But because somewhere deep inside her... she knew he was right.
Justice wasn't always beautiful.
Sometimes it was ugly.
Cruel.
Necessary.
The kind of justice she had dreamed of, pure and untarnished, didn't exist in the world outside these mountains.
Even within them... maybe it never had.
The snow kept falling. A slow, relentless weight.
Finally, she whispered, almost too soft to hear, "Even if I wanted to punish the wicked... I can only do it here."
She gestured to the endless stretch of trees and mountains.
"I made this place my prison. My penance. It's ineffective. I can't leave it."
Her voice was brittle around the edges, almost breaking.
Raito, still watching the drifting sky, only gave a slight shrug.
"Then change your prison," he said simply. "Make it something that can move."
Seigi blinked, confused.
Her golden eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"How exactly do you propose I do that?"
There was a beat of silence.
Even Kurai, dormant in Raito's mind, seemed to stiffen, sensing something she didn't like.
Raito turned toward Seigi at last, his blank face almost bored-looking, but his next words were sharp enough to carve through stone:
"Become mine."
The snow seemed to hush around them, as if even the storm wanted to listen.
"I'll be your vessel," Raito continued, as if he were discussing the weather again. "You're strong. You could be useful."
In Raito's mind, Kurai exploded.
"DON'T YOU DARE, RAITO!" Kurai shrieked inside his head. "I SWEAR, I WILL END YOU MYSELF! I AM NOT SHARING THIS BODY WITH THAT ICE WITCH!"
Her rage rattled through his mind like a storm, but Raito didn't so much as flinch outwardly.
Meanwhile, Seigi just looked at him with that same skeptical calm... but her lips curved into the faintest, softest smile.
Ignoring the distant screaming in Raito's mind, she tilted her head thoughtfully.
The idea wasn't... unpleasant.
Lonely.
She had been so lonely.
To share a vessel... to have a presence close again... maybe it wasn't so bad.
Still, she was not a fool.
"Before I agree," Seigi said, her voice even, "you should know. There's a risk."
Raito raised an eyebrow in silent question.
Seigi looked up, watching the heavy gray sky as if gathering strength.
"I'm not like my sister," she said. "Kurai is... broken. She lost most of her power after the sealing. But me..."
The smile faded from her face.
"I'm still intact. If you become my vessel, your body and mind will have to adapt. And if it can't..."
She turned her gaze back to him, serious, solemn.
"...you'll die."
The warning should have been enough to scare him off.
Any sane person would have flinched, hesitated, reconsidered.
But Raito just shrugged lightly.
"I already took in a demon," he said, sounding profoundly uninterested. "What's one more monster?"
Kurai screeched inside his mind, an ear-splitting sound that made even Raito's eyes twitch slightly.
"MONSTER?! I'M NOT A MONSTER, YOU INSENSITIVE PIECE OF—"
But Raito tuned her out, focusing on Seigi's solemn, shining golden eyes.
"Start the process," he said simply.
Seigi studied him for a long, lingering moment.
Measuring him.
Testing the weight of the offer with the instincts of an ancient being who had watched countless lives flicker and fade.
And in the end, something in her heart—something old and tired and unbearably lonely—gave way.
She reached out her hand.
Raito took it without hesitation.
The snowstorm rose around them like a cocoon, and Seigi closed her eyes as she began weaving her spirit into his being.
Deep in Raito's mind, Kurai raged and ranted and wailed, clawing at the walls of his soul.
"I HATE THIS. I HATE THIS SO MUCH. I SWEAR IF SHE TAKES THE LEFT HALF OF YOUR BRAIN, I'M BURNING HER OUT!"
But none of it stopped the inevitable.
Because Raito had already decided.
And Seigi, for the first time in countless years, wasn't sealing herself away.
She was choosing to live again—even if it meant trusting a reckless human, a fool who didn't fear death, and a demon who screamed bloody murder inside his head.
As their hands clasped tighter and the power transfer began, the snowstorm roared to life around them, blinding and wild.
The mountain itself seemed to shudder under the force of it.
And in the heart of that storm, Raito Yakamura smiled—just slightly—as two ancient forces took root inside him, changing him forever.