"You two hurry up. I can't hold this for long—" Yukari started to warn Sū ěr, but her words slowed down mid-air. She had noticed an anomaly.
It wasn't something they hadn't anticipated, but it was something they desperately hoped wouldn't happen.
The mirror-like surface of the water hadn't changed; it had simply been pierced. Something was poking through—it looked like a growing blade of grass, yet also like shaped smoke. It was an ominous black. It lacked eyes or ears to observe the world, but all three of them could sense this unknown... creature... was observing this world.
Not a single ripple appeared on the water. In truth, once Yukari used her unique power to link the real and illusory moons, this could no longer be called "water."
Compared to this quiet, unknown entity, Yukari was more drawn to Sū ěr—or rather, the thing on his person that could no longer be hidden. It was vibrating, using its own power to push outward. With the sound of tearing fabric, it burst through Sū ěr clothes and flew out. Just as it was about to fall into the center of the pond, Sū ěr snatched it.
A long string of pitch-black Magatama, with only one being a warm jade color. Yukari recognized it instantly. No wonder she hadn't seen the Yasakani no Magatama on that fox during the war—it had been with him all along.
Why has it mostly turned black? Yukari narrowed her eyes.
Before anyone could speak, the unknown entity that had barely shown its tip above the water suddenly trembled. It had noticed the Magatama's movement—or rather, it had found its target, its prey. In an instant, it lunged out of the water!
It was a speed far beyond the limits of a yokai's vision. Before Yukari could even see the shape of the monster, a massive splash erupted before her eyes—it was Sū ěr!
With lightning speed, the moment the creature lunged, Sū ěr threw himself forward and hammered it back down, falling into the pond along with it.
Or rather, he headed toward the Moon.
The eruption of the splash meant the connection Yukari had built with her power was severed. The mirror-smooth surface was no longer calm; ripples spread as the water fell back, and the glowing moon within was shattered into fragments of light.
The moment he hit the water, he vanished, using the mirror-surface as a boundary. No figure remained in the pond. Yukari hadn't intentionally broken the connection; rather, the fragile link she had forged by playing with boundaries had been forcibly torn apart when that man smashed through it.
"...I haven't gone over yet?!" Even with her temperament, Yukari felt a moment of bewilderment. She instinctively looked at where Think had been floating. As expected, the translucent soul was gone. When Sū ěr leaped, Think had followed right behind him.
The ritual array was crushed by the man's foot. The ripples in the pond settled, and the round moon reappeared, but now Yukari, deprived of help, could not open that path alone. She sat there in her water-soaked clothes.
"So, what now?"
"Should I wait for them to come back?"
"...Are they even coming back?"
Yakumo Yukari fell into a state of total confusion.
I grasp the sun and moon, I pluck the stars; in all the world, there is no other like me.
Cough, cough. Just kidding.
Tossing that stray line of poetry out of his head, Sū ěr tried to look more dignified. After all, some people have hundred-thousand-year soul rings, and some don't... luckily, he didn't.
He was, in all likelihood, truly on the moon.
Surprisingly, there was still air to breathe. In fact, when Sū ěr took a daring, deep breath, the air tasted somewhat sweet.
There was nothing wrong with the outside of his head, and it felt normal to the touch, yet he had a strange sensation of being submerged in water. It was like the clogged ears of someone visiting a high-altitude region for the first time—a constant, faint buzzing that wasn't annoying, but rather lent a unique sense of tranquility.
It was a languid, natural sleepiness, definitely not the result of some supernatural influence.
Sū ěr reached out. The moonlight, which looked so cold and distant in Ashihara no Nakatsukuni, felt slightly cream-colored at this close range. it looked exceptionally warm, making his palm look translucent under the glow.
"This is the moon?" Sū ěr couldn't help but ask.
"Is it not?" Think replied.
Aside from her, there was nothing else by Sū ěr side.
That eerie black blade of grass—or unknown creature—had been punched back by Sū ěr, but once he broke through to the lunar surface, it was nowhere to be found, as if it had never existed.
The place was empty. Aside from this round moon, there was nothing.
No rocks, no craters from cosmic impacts, no white soil. Sū ěr felt as if he were standing on a glowing piece of jade. It really did feel like jade—transparent and containing misty, cloud-like inclusions.
It was too flat—so flat there wasn't a single bump or dip. No craters, no ridges. Forget steep slopes or basins; there wasn't even a macro-scale undulation. One only had to look toward the horizon to see the starry sky, completely unobstructed.
It was too fake—fake to the point of unreality. It made Sū ěr wonder if he had truly reached the moon or if he had been tricked by Yakumo Yukari and sent to an unknown alternate dimension.
He only had to turn around and look up to see Ashihara no Nakatsukuni behind him. Blue oceans, brownish-yellow land, dotted with islands at the edges, lush green forests, and the yokai moving along the forest edges or mountain peaks. Thanks to their gargantuan size, they were still visible even from his current position. It was undoubtedly a real-time, synchronized view.
The only problem was the world as a whole.
It was square.