Akinori leaned against the wall as he waited for Touma to get out from school with Keisuke, who was covering his face with his hood. They had done this because they were a bit worried about Touma, who had to deal with Natsume more than they did, going to the same school, but at least they weren't in the same class. 

"Hey guys," Keisuke jumped a bit upon hearing Touma's voice as he joined them. 

"Yo, Touma," Akinori greeted. 

"Hey," Keisuke recovered quickly and greeted him too. 

"Ready to go look for the cure?" Touma asked the two of them. 

"Of course," Keisuke nodded. 

"Why wouldn't we be?" Akinori gave a small smile to him.

"All right then, let's go," Touma smiled back at them, before they headed off to the Arihoshi shrine.

They somehow ended up talking about Lightning Speed Age on the way back, so Akinori learnt a lot about the game in the process. He found it very interesting, so Touma and Keisuke offered to teach him how to play it. He immediately agreed, and the 3 of them arrived at the Arihoshi shrine laughing and smiling.

Mitsue looked up from her daily fortune-telling, "Okaeri nasai, Akinori."

"Tadaima, baabaa," Akinori greeted back.

"Ohayou, Baabaasan," Touma and Keisuke chorused as they slid their shoes off. 

"It's good to see you two," Mitsue smiled. "What do you need?" 

"We're looking for some spells to bring Soranaki down," Touma shrugged, lying without hesitating.

They had agreed not to tell her about Natsume, because she would definitely tell Ayame, and in turn cause a huge riot, which they didn't want. Plus, they didn't want to have Natsume's hate directed to other people. They had agreed to keep it between the three of them. 

"Okay then, be careful. The storage room is kind of dusty," Mitsue warned. 

"Got it," Akinori nodded, so the 3 of them headed off to the said room. 

Inside the room, the 3 of them looked around. 

The room was clock-full of scrolls and scriptures from a long time ago, which were collected for a long time by the Arihoshi clan. 

Touma was confused, "How do we look for what changed Natsume when we don't even know what happened?" 

"...Wow, I never realised that," Akinori started laughing a bit nervously. "Sorry guys-" 

"You don't have to apologise, Akinori," Keisuke interrupted him as he squatted on the ground, looking at a shelf, or, more specifically, at a certain scroll on it. "Because we already found the spell Shutendouji used." 

"HUH?!" They both looked at him in shock. 

"How did you know?!" Akinori looked shocked. 

"Look here," Keisuke pointed to the scroll which he was looking at. There was a weird shade of dust on it, being lighter than other parts. "This part's been tampered with, meaning that it was touched recently." He carefully took it out and put it on the ground. Then, he sat on the ground. 

Touma and Akinori looked at each other, before they sat on the ground too and surrounded the scroll. 

Keisuke carefully opened it, "Let's hope my deduction is right." 

Touma and Akinori's eyes immediately widened seeing the contents.

"T-This is...."