Inuyasha’s Journey to Immortal

"Aren't you Satoru's older sister? Why do you resent him so much?"

A Li asked angrily.

Hurting your own family might be explained by some hidden grievance—but targeting innocent bystanders? Taking out your anger on children who kindly came to visit a sick classmate? Pushing them downstairs, or even worse, into the street at red lights—those were truly vile acts.

This kind of child was anything but lovable.

"Hmph, none of your business! I'm going to kill Satoru no matter what. He's the one who stole everything from me.

Mom hates me—it's all because of Satoru. She saved only him from the fire and left me behind. That must mean she doesn't love me.

It's all Satoru's fault!"

Mayu turned her back as she spoke coldly.

"How can you say that?"

I couldn't understand the girl at all.

But she also realized—there had to be some kind of misunderstanding. The girl's words were steeped in jealousy and a deep yearning for maternal love.

Especially considering how all of her ghostly pranks had deliberately avoided their mother.

Could it be… something had gone wrong between mother and daughter?

"Mayu, if you're holding on to grief or anger—if there's something you can't let go of—you can tell me. I can speak to your mom for you.

She can't see you now that you're just a spirit, but I can. Maybe if everything is brought out into the open, you'll understand each other better."

A Li spoke optimistically.

Then she gently tried to persuade her:

"And also, you should let go of your resentment. Don't keep doing these awful, evil things…

Or else, you'll truly become an evil spirit."

But these words only made the little girl more agitated:

"There's no misunderstanding.

I'm just a child no one wants.

Mom only has eyes for Satoru. I don't exist to her."

"Mayu, your mother is kind. She's always cared about you. Don't make her even sadder…"

A Li said quickly.

In her brief interaction with the mother, she had already sensed the woman's deep guilt and sorrow. A mother that gentle couldn't possibly be someone who favored one child so cruelly over the other.

But Mayu only grew more furious and impatient:

"Shut up! Stop getting in my way, or I'll kill you too!"

As if to prove her power, Mayu vanished on the spot. Then, large trees and bushes from the nearby flowerbed were suddenly uprooted by an invisible force, flying dozens of meters into the air—before crashing violently to the ground in front of A Li.

The cement ground cracked, pitted with shallow craters.

Startled, A Li instinctively shielded her younger brother Souta with her body.

Souta, now lying on the ground, had truly fainted from fright.

Oh my god, there is an evil ghost!

And it's Satoru's sister!

When the chaos subsided, A Li finally looked up. Seeing the flowerbed in ruins, even she couldn't help but bite her lip in silence.

Humans were so small and powerless in the face of these spirits.

Just the lingering obsession of a ten-year-old girl, after a few months, could create this level of destruction. What kind of devastation could an evil spirit with even deeper resentment unleash?

And thinking back to what had happened two days ago—how a yokai sealed by their ancestor centuries ago had broken free and attacked her grandfather, and how six out of seven Four Soul Shards had mysteriously disappeared, leaving only one fragment behind at the foot of her bed—

All these yokai-related incidents around her planted a quiet seed in her heart:

"It seems this modern world I live in… isn't as peaceful as it appears on the surface."

After taking Souta back to the Sunset Shrine, A Li rushed straight to the hospital.

Satoru had been in a coma for months. She didn't believe for a second that Mayu wasn't involved. The angry little ghost had explicitly declared her intention to kill him.

She couldn't stand by and let that tragedy happen.

She couldn't let Mayu keep going down the wrong path.

Outside the hospital where Satoru was being treated—

A small ghost, invisible to ordinary people, floated quietly in the air.

It was Mayu.

The little girl, fuming with anger, stared at a particular hospital room. She looked at her younger brother lying on the bed, then at her gentle, loving mother sitting beside him—and muttered bitterly to herself:

"Tonight, after Mom goes home… I'll kill the one she loves most—Satoru."

Behind her hovered a Spirit-Worshipping Child Yokai, eyes usually shut in a calm squint.

But now, as Mayu truly resolved to kill her brother, the yokai's eyes widened slightly—shifting from a peaceful squint to a half-open state.

Until now, Mayu's actions had been more like malicious pranks—though people got hurt, no one had died.

But this time, it was different.

Her soul, growing ever darker, caused the once gentle, eyes-closed Spirit-Worshipping Child Yokai—whose role was to guide and comfort—to rapidly begin transforming into its eyes-open form, one meant to restrain and punish.

Good and evil hang on the edge of a single thought.

Time flew by.

Night fell quickly.

"Satoru's mother, are you heading home now?"

A familiar nurse asked with a smile.

Mayu and Satoru's mother responded with a bow and a warm smile:

"Yes, see you tomorrow."

She had lost her husband many years ago, and just months earlier, her eldest daughter as well. Now, her only emotional support was her son lying unconscious in a hospital bed. She didn't even dare to imagine what she'd do if she lost him too.

Just as this mother was about to step out the hospital doors, A Li arrived just in time.

"Ma'am, excuse me…"

A Li called out to her.

"You're… Souta's older sister?"

"Yes, that's me.

Um…

I'm sorry to ask this, but could you tell me about your late daughter, Mayu?

I know it's a difficult request, but please… I'm begging you."

Asking a grieving mother to talk about her deceased child was undoubtedly rude and intrusive.

As expected, the woman looked shocked by the question.

But to A Li's surprise, the mother didn't get angry. Instead, a look of guilt and remorse surfaced on her face:

"You felt it too, didn't you?"

"Huh? Ma'am, you mean…"

"I know. That so-called evil spirit everyone talks about—the one causing the accidents—it's Mayu.

I can't see her, but I know it's her.

I can feel her presence, lingering near me and Satoru, holding on to her resentment.

Also, I'm sorry for all the trouble Mayu caused Souta and the classmates who visited Satoru.

Ask me anything. Whatever I know, I'll tell you truthfully…"

Now it was A Li's turn to be stunned.

Spirits were beings invisible to all ordinary humans.

And yet this mother said she could sense her daughter.

Sometimes, a mother's love was something incredible.

After that, A Li listened quietly as the story unfolded.

It turned out that on the day of the tragedy, Satoru had suddenly come down with a high fever, so their mother didn't attend Mayu's school observation day as promised. Mayu believed it was proof that her mother only cared about Satoru, so she stormed off in anger.

Their mother, thinking it was just a normal sulk, assumed Mayu had gone out to clear her head and didn't worry.

But while the mother was out grocery shopping, Mayu returned home. Ignoring her brother Satoru's warning, she placed a scarf on the heater to warm it, then hid in Satoru's closet—insisting that he not tell their mom she was home. She wanted to make her mother worry.

Unfortunately, the scarf caught fire.

And Mayu, who had fallen asleep in the closet, didn't realize it until it was too late.

By the time she woke, the house was engulfed in flames.

Since their mother hadn't known Mayu was hiding at home, she braved the fire and, despite suffering severe burns to her arms, managed only to rescue the fever-stricken and unconscious Satoru from the bed.

It was only after the fire was extinguished by the firefighters that they found Mayu's lifeless body in the closet.

"So that's how it happened… There were so many misunderstandings between you and your daughter."

A Li sighed.

The spirit of the deceased Mayu, unable to find peace, had lived on full of hatred—believing her mother only loved Satoru and had abandoned her to die in the fire. In her pain, she lashed out for months—causing accidents and preventing anyone from approaching Satoru.

And now, she was even planning to kill him.

Realizing all this, A Li felt both a wave of relief and a sense of urgency.

Just as she prepared to find Mayu and explain the truth—

CRACKLE!

On the sixth floor of the hospital, the overhead light in a patient room began flickering wildly before exploding in a loud pop. The once-bright room was instantly plunged into darkness.

"That's Satoru's room!"

Both Satoru's mother and A Li turned pale.

They rushed upstairs without delay.

Elsewhere—

At Satoru's family home—

Three elders and one youth traced their way to the source of the spiritual disturbance.

"Elders, this is the place…"