It took quite a moment to go beyond the city, where the old cemetery was located. It had to have something to do with the temple in the Noroi clan, as it was the closest to the clan district. At least that’s what Ren concluded.

They entered a dirt road that seemed to head somewhere, but at some point, as they were passing by a forest, they pivoted, entering a slim and winding overgrown path that went into the woods. At first, the surroundings weren't that unusual, but soon the whole atmosphere began to change.

The clearest mark was the path itself. As soon as Ren couldn't any more distinguish it on the ground, the vibe of his surroundings became grimmer. The trees themselves started to turn darker and were more twisted. As they progressed, the vegetation also dwarfed.

When they reached a corroded, practically falling apart, metal fence that seemed to surround the graves, it was at a point that the trees were completely black, twisted, and spooky. The graves themselves also looked horrible. Most of the stone tombstones were broken, covered in a thin layer of moss that had this sickly yellowish color, mixed with a bit of bronze, which was blending with all the rust on what was left of the iron bars confining the area.

There was a paved road going through the middle, but the plants claimed it for themselves, completely enveloping parts of the path. The visible stone plates were uneven, dislocated, and often crumbled.

The little bit of light, making it past the entangled branches, creating a dome of sorts, straight above their heads, was nowhere near enough to illuminate the graveyard. Plenty of shadows danced in the corners. Bugs were buzzing in the air, and from time to time a rustle, cry of an animal, or just the wind, would startle them, prompting them to look in different directions, searching for the source of the sound.

After a few steps in, the saiin stopped, prompting the two of them to do the same.

"We are very close. I can feel it. We should prepare," she deemed, and without waiting for any reaction from them, she placed the basket on the ground and began taking out different objects.

She started with paper talismans. Two stacks of many. She put one of them on top of the basket, while the other she took with her.

"What are you doing?" Ren asked.

"I’m setting up the circle to confine the ghost," she replied.

As if to further reinforce her words, she started to place the paper talismans on the ground, quite densely, but it also seemed that she was going to claim quite a bit of the area for her circle.

Finished with one stack, she grabbed the other, but this time she put them everywhere around – on the graves, ground, trees. While the first batch was made with black ink, the second had the symbols written in red. As a matter of fact, those talismans were identical to the ones that adorned her robe.

"The red ones are for protection. They can also reinforce the circle," she explained, noticing that they were observing her carefully before she grabbed the rest of the talismans and added them to those she already placed around.

Finished, she reached once again into the basket and took out a bag of salt. She used it to create lines that connected the black talismans into a proper circle.

Ren's keen ears caught that she was whispering a prayer of sorts as she was doing it, but he couldn't understand the words, as they appeared to be in Japanese.

There was a bit of reassurance in the fact that he didn’t have to face this difficulty alone, but he still began to feel sick as he saw the whole process of preparations come to an end. After all, it indicated that now he was supposed to carry the baton.

As if to confirm it, Hiroshi put his hand on Ren’s shoulder and whispered, "I’ll give you the pill now, but remember, use it only after you see the ghost. You are not alone here, so if he was to detect your shinryoku after taking the pill, and the two of us hiding at the back, he could not show up. We need to lure him out first."

"You will have to lure the ghost close to the circle," the Saiin joined the conversation, but she didn’t care to be quiet at all. "I will chant from a distance, so he won't be able to reach me easily, and I have my own protection," she touched one of the talismans on her robe, "but you will still have to keep him away as much as you can. If I sense you are not doing a good job, I’m running away. If you keep him busy for long enough, my chant should weaken him to the point that pushing him into the circle should be possible, and then the next step will be much easier. I reinforced the circle enough that it should keep him confined without issue, which will give me enough time to use a different chant to put him into your Jujin," she explained. "So the success of this all lays on your shoulders. If you can buy enough time, then there is a good chance we will make it, but…"

"But I have to be able to match the Hearteater," Ren finished for her.

"Yes," she agreed.

At that moment, both of them looked at Hiroshi. The doctor sighed.

"What do you want me to tell you? That the pill will be enough? I have no idea. It will make you strong. Probably stronger than any candidate, but will that be enough?" He shrugged his shoulders. "I can't give you that answer. I can only wish you luck… Or advise you to abandon this idea. But you don't want to hear that, do you?"

"No, I don't," Ren agreed. "I want to try. Just remember… If anything goes wrong, we need to escape."

"The ghost shouldn’t chase us beyond the cemetery. He won’t be able to go too far away from the grave, where the remnants of the body lay, so if we are careful, the attempt should be relatively safe, as long as this pill will put you on par with the Hearteater," Reiko said.

"Let’s do this," Hiroshi said as he took out the casket from under his arm, then opened it, revealing a round, black ball, slightly bigger than a pea. It was laying atop a square-shaped, brown piece of paper, slightly folded, and put on top of a black cushion, that filled most of the inside of the casket.

The doctor presented the whole thing to Ren, who took the pill with the piece of paper, wrapping it in this makeshift confinement for the time being.

"Remember to take it when the ghost appears," Hiroshi instructed.

"I know," he assured before glancing at the two of them for the last time. Then he took a deep breath and turned around to leave, heading toward the center of the graveyard.

A few steps in, he pulled out his Jujin. He wasn’t sure if it was his eyes deceiving him, but Ren could see this faint, black steam coming out of his cursed sword. He even wiped his eyes with the back of the hand that was holding the pill, but the vision persisted.

‘I need to focus,’ he chided himself, deciding to ignore this detail and focus solely on the dangers around him. He had no idea when or where the Hearteater would appear, so he needed to be on high alert all the time. He resumed his walk after this brief pause, but his pace was decreasing with each step. He really wanted to look over his shoulder to check how far his companions stayed behind, but he was afraid to lose sight of what was in front of him in case the enemy would show up.

The noises made by bugs flying by, or the rustle caused by some small animals, didn't help; they only increased his anxiety. Even the wind itself seemed to be mocking him, as the whistle created by it further intensified the spooky atmosphere.

To make things worse, the canopy above seemed to get denser, cutting off the already limited access to light, and increasing the amount of shadows around, which seemed to move and shift in unnatural ways. A few times, he could swear he saw the ghost rushing from one hiding spot to another, caught in his peripheral vision. But as he focused on those particular places, each time there was simply nothing in that spot.

This created a feeling that time froze in place, and he was trapped in a moment stretching out into infinity. He got so nervous that he began circling, to have an eye on his surroundings, as he moved forward, sometimes rapidly turning around, alerted by the fake signals coming at him from the environment.

This allowed him to notice that his companions were already far enough that he couldn't see them. With his heart racing and adrenaline filling his veins, his nerves seemed to be reaching their limits. At that moment, feeling as if he was going to collapse, he first felt it. A chill ran down his spine, prompting him to give a rushed, quick look around and spot a particularly grim-looking tree with branches twisted as if it was trying to embrace a broken tombstone placed right between its roots. It had already claimed that old stone for itself.

At that moment, he had no doubt that it was the grave of the Hearteater. As if to further confirm his conviction, the dark smoke began pouring from the cracks of that very tombstone, and it started to form first into the silhouette of a man. A scruffy-looking samurai, with tattered, dirty clothing and a blade stuffed behind his partially torn obi.

He had long, black hair, tied into a ponytail, and a straw of grass in his mouth. His eyes appeared to be holes leading into an absolute void. Upon closer inspection, he even noticed blood splattered on the fabric and the man’s skin, but it was so heavily mixed with dirt that it wasn’t easy to spot with just a single glance.

Not wasting any time, he unwrapped the pill with the shaking fingers of the hand that held it before showing it into his mouth and swallowing. He could feel it going down his throat, but except that he didn’t experience any changes. At least not at first.

Meanwhile, the Hearteater fully materialized. The black smoke was still present around him, leaving faint wisps as he moved, while a prolonged groan left his mouth. His lips trembled as if he wished to speak something, but no words formulated in the first couple of seconds. Then his nose twitched, and the absent gaze shifted, focusing on Ren.

"Hunger… Huuuungeeeer!" he mumbled.

At the same moment, Ren’s vision sharpened like never before. He felt this intense heat in his belly, emanating to the rest of his body. Suddenly, he felt as light as the wind, accompanied by a sense that he could force his body to make impossible moves. There was so much power in his hands and legs that he had this profound certainty that he could cut down mountains if he only desired to do so.

In a flash, the Hearteater appeared right in front of him, and in his hands, a completely black katana formed, which he used to strike Ren down. The young warrior blocked it, pulling his Jujin in the last second, just enough to block the attack.

The face of the ghost twisted in fury. His sharp teeth got exposed, and they were covered in blood as if the spirit had just feasted on raw flesh.

He stepped back, only to move forward, striking once again. This time from an angle and much stronger, but Ren was also fully ready to defend since he managed to fully pull out his weapon. Both swords clashed, striking sparks as if two titans wrestled with one another. The clang rendered the whole vicinity silent.

The power behind the Hearteater's strike was enough for Ren to feel the ground giving in under his feet. He gritted his teeth and slammed the ghost straight in the chest with the palm of his hand, forcing him to fall back.

The fight was on.