Note: This arc is heavily inspired by The Grudge/ Juon series films.

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀.

Otome walked down the stairs with a skip on her steps.

"Slow down." Kusuriuri gently reminded her.
"Hehe, sorry." she rubbed the bottom of her nose with her index finger and grinned stupidly.

Kusuriuri smiled fondly seeing her so happy. He figured he would know the reason for her excitement soon.

"Hey, do you remember that song?"

Ah, so it was this. Music was something she always got extremely excited about.

"Which one?"  Kusuriuri probed her more.

"Aoi tsuki ni terasu nare." She answered with a happy tone.

Kusuriuri nodded, "I do."
"Great! I was just listening to it at places, so got it memorised too." She grinned a toothy smile.

Kusuriuri looked ahead, as they got down from the stairs, "It’s good."
"Hmm." she agreed.

After some time she started singing the song on her own. This was pretty common, she loved music. And it helped that she had a vast knowledge about it, as well as adequate vocal skills.

Kusuriuri knew a lot about music from his experience as well. After a while, he started to sing along with her.

"Shinjitsu o kakattekure.~ That sounds like you." Otome teased him.
"Well, it does." he didn’t deny it.

On the way however, they both stilled. Otome's eyes widened.

"Did you feel that?" she asked, her eyes losing the life in them slowly.
"Yes. This one, it’s particularly resentful." Kusuriuri narrowed his eyes. That in itself was a bad sign.

Otome looked at the house above them. It was a normal house like any other. But the negative energy was basically pouring out of it like a waterfall.

"Wow this, quite powerful I see." compared to her dialogue, her voice sounded extremely deadpanned. Kusuriuri ended up laughing a little, to which she confusedly turned her head to him, "What?"
"Nothing, haha, you just sounded so neutral while saying that." his amusement was apparent in his voice.

Otome shrugged. Kusuriuri nodded in approval, "You really have gotten the hang of it now."
"Pfft- as if I ever was scared of Mononokes."

Kusuriuri squinted her eyes a little at her, "You little cat, so violent. Indeed, you were never afraid of them, however, right now, your mind is definitely more developed and used to spirituality than it used to be."

Otome looked at her with a pouty face in retaliation as he exposed her, making him make another amused expression.

However, the very next moment, both of them looked past the window and saw the silhouette of a girl quickly disappearing there.

"Goodness." Otome furrowed her eyebrows, "It’s an Onryo."

Clink!

Kusuriuri made a face as he looked at his sword clinking on its own. He then looked dejectedly at her at which Otome burst out laughing.

"Hahahhahahah! Does this mean it gave me permission to command it?" She spoke with her hoots of laughter.

Kusuriuri deadpanned, "Shut up. No, it hasn’t."

The sword seemed to disagree, vibrating slightly in his hand, to which Kusuriuri slapped the sword lightly, "You shut up, too." the sword listened to him and stopped in quite a soft manner, as if sad by the reprimanding.

Kusuriuri sighed, "Alright, alright. You don't to be sad. Let us go."

The sword made a few clinking noises without closing its mouth to show he accepted the indirect apology for doing what he did. Otome shook her head fondly.

They felt the darkness of the house increasing as the atmosphere turned even darker. Otome smiled, "Let's go inside, shall we?"

Onryu were Mononokes known to be extremely vengeful. The origin of their existence was their desire for vengeance.

They were more often than not, wronged women in their living times.

"When a person dies in the grip of a powerful rage, a curse is born. Anyone who comes in contact with it, will be consumed by its fury." Otome mumbled to herself as they entered the dark house. Kusuriuri heard it with his already sharp ears, and the very quiet environment helped along as well, "That's right. Where did you know that? This is the first time we came across an Onryo, how did you know it was one when you saw it?"
"Ah...reasons." Otome didn’t want to reveal that it was because of the popular Japanese movie, Ju-on, as well as the very popular franchise of japanese horror films, Ring. Both of them were later adopted into American versions, which were popularly known as The Grudge movies, and The Ring movies.

"Have you encountered one of them before?" he asked in a casual manner.

A shake of head.

"A Kabuki play then?"
"...Something like that." she sweatdropped smiling nervously. Kusuriuri chuckled lowly, "I assume the lines you spoke before when entering the house were also from the play."

Otome nodded.
"That's nice. That was a useful insight on their part." Kusuriuri approved of it.

Otome grinned as well, "Oh wow, getting approval from an exorcist about something related to curses. That's a great achievement."

Kusuriuri looked at the roof, "There's noise coming from upstairs."
"Hmm? I don’t hear it." Otome looked confused at the sudden revelation.
"That's understandable." he eyed her fondly, "You are not supposed to hear such low noises."

Otome looked offended, "Hey! I have very sharp ears, mind you."
"Hehhe, they are not as sharp as mine though."
"Anyways, why is there noise upstairs?"
"We are not the only ones in this house." he promptly answered.

Otome blew out some air on her nails, "I know that. The Onryu is also here."
"Not that. There are more people here than just us." his eyes narrowed slightly in annoyance. He didn’t like interruptions in his exorcism.

This habit was starting to show more as Otome helped him in exorcisms all the time, speeding up the process. Before, with the people, he could still bear with them being slightly unreasonable and refusing to confess, in which he used his scales to bring out the truth. Even now, he would do the same. But Otome being there decreased a lot of the situation's unpredictability, as she usually predicted the outcomes and cases most of the time, and how they might go. Thus, in most situations, he didn’t have to go far to ask them a lot of questions as he could get the basic atmosphere with her looking all around, something he used to do himself as well before her arrival. It's just that, she was better at it, as her job included having the chance to bw ambushed. Kusuriuri didn’t really have that as what he did wasn’t killing people, but Mononokes instead.

"This is interesting. The house...it has been burned before." She commented with a wry curl of her lips. Her eyes drifted to a corner of the room as she fixated her eyes on it. At this point, noise from upstairs became increasingly clear. The people seemed to be talking about exploring this house. There were a few voices, and presumably there were two men, a young girl, and a middle aged woman.

A little while ago, she already knew it was an Onryo just by seeing a woman's shadow peeking around the window from the inside. Judging by the fact that she knew it was an Onryo just from the appearance itself, made it known to him that she could already outline what could have happened, making theories of her own.

Otome would theorise many things seeing her surroundings, question the people for the confirmation of those theories in her own subtle way to bring out the truth. She figured them out from some very bizarre clues as well.

'What a clever girl. I have my experiences to back me up, but she is just pure wits.' Kusuriuri noted in his head that his daughter had gotten his mind.

'...What the fuck am I thinking? She is not my biological daughter.' he sighed. Otome noticed his sigh and questioned as she turned around, "Everything okay?"
"Yes. I am alright. However..."

This house was going to be quite the trouble.

Kusuriuri could already see the Onryo on the ceiling, looking menacingly at Otome, who couldn’t see it with her bare eyes. His grip on his sword tightened, as his chest also felt tight.

The rage and jealousy in the Onryo's eyes was too clear to see. It couldn’t be concealed.

One could imagine how much hatred it held for a girl who seemed to appear happy.

Although the reality was far more different than it thought. Otome saw the serious expression on his eyes and her gaze became profound.

"What do you see?" she whispered.

Kusuriuri heard a croaking sound coming out of its mouth, "What I should be seeing."

The Onryo seemed to realise that the Kusuriuri could possibly see her, and quickly retreated beyond the ceiling through the upper walls.

Otome made a melancholic face, "It was looking at me, wasn’t it?"
"Mhm. It was." the answer was clear, with his magnetic low voice.

"Let's go upstairs."

Kusuriuri held her right hand, to which Otome was surprised, the older man emphasising, "Stay close to me."

Otome could understand the reason. Onryos were absolutely no joke, even among Mononokes. They were not easy to deal with and became extremely powerful in most cases. Some very prominent Onryos were the Kuchisake Onna, Yuki Onna and Okiku.

But the one that she remembered correctly was Ju-on. Saeki Kayako.

Kayako was one of the most over powered horror movie antagonists she had ever seen.

What made her so terrifying was, no matter what anyone did to stop her, Kayako would always come back. There was seemingly no way to end the curse. Burning down the house, exorcizing, running away from the place of the curse, nothing.

Nothing worked.

If one came to interact with Kayako, the place where her curse was in, her victims, or even objects that once belonged to her, even once in any way possible, their fate was certain death. There was no way to survive it. Kayako was simply too powerful of an Onryo to be stopped.

The reason for that was very clear. Kayako's mother used to take out demons from other possessed people, and feed them to Kayako, using her body as a container for them. Though it had no effect on her at that time, it definitely made a humongous impact after she died, as she died in the hands of her own husband with her neck being snapped, making the birth of a curse so powerful, nothing could contain it.

Maybe if there was someone like the Kusuriuri who could kill her Mononoke, then maybe she would have been able to rest in peace.

Either way, Onryos are extremely problematic. And it was no wonder that Kusuriuri was being careful.

Otome felt slightly sorrowful thinking that she was the reason why he was being so careful. If he had come alone, maybe he wouldn’t have to worry so much.

Kusuriuri saw the blank face and questioned as they reached the second floor, "What's wrong? Why are you upset?"

Otome shook her head, "Nothing. How did you know I was feeling upset?"
"Do you think I am idiotic enough to not know how to read you after staying with you for more than a year?" He raised an eyebrow. Otome smiled, "I suppose you are right." she didn’t elaborate much, which just made him upset.

He caressed her head, "Tell me after we get this over with." Otome just looked at him with her large eyes and didn’t say anything more.

At this point, they both heard footsteps behind the curtain by the window.

Otome narrowed her eyes, "Didn’t we hear footsteps before we came upstairs?"

Kusuriuri's lips became a thin line, and he didn’t say anything. All he did was clasp her hand tighter, enough for her to feel his long nails.

"Oyaji?" Otome could only get even more worried, as her forehead was curved in worry.

Kusuriuri could feel the Onryo growing more and more enraged. It wanted to kill both of them, but couldn’t due to Kusuriuri reciting spells under his breath. It knew that he was an exorcist. But that made it even more enraged.

Otome didn’t say anything as she could gradually feel the intense dark energy.

"Wakka."
"Yes?"

Kusuriuri turned around, "Do you remember what you said before coming in here?"

Otome nodded, a serious look on her gaze, "When someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage, a curse is born."
"Correct." Kusuriuri's hand on her never let go, as he pulled out a few talismans, as they burned down, revealing the Onryo's location for a short while.

Otome didn’t expect this demon to look so enraged. Was it that angry?

"It's a woman. And Wakka, she seems especially angry at you. Because well, you are a woman too."
"There's nothing to be angry about when it comes to me, I can assure." Otome's looks were beautiful, and even her sadness couldn’t mask it. He felt the Onryo grow angrier, and he felt himself go angrier as well, "Stop getting jealous of other women. So what if she is more beautiful and happier than you think you are?" He had a rasp to his voice that made it clear that he was annoyed at the Onryo for being jealous of Otome. He couldn’t hide his annoyances when it came to his daughter. Otome could only helplessly smile at his father, although the sweetness of her father standing by her side was very much intact in her.

"Anyone who comes in contact with the curse, will be consumed by its fury." Otome reminded the second part of the phase she had uttered before.

"The rage is a staple." Kusuriuri reminded her, "We need to exorcise her soon."

"Onryo, your truth and regret, shall be known." this was a command, not a request. He meant business.

Otome kept staring at the scale leaping out of Kusuriuri's hand, as it placed itself in front of them.

And the scene changed.