Hearing all the noises coming from outside, Ririsa walked back into the house with a look of distress on her face.
"It looks like something's happening in the square or at the shrine, and the chaos is spreading all the way here," she said to Ayako and Kanami, who were sitting on the open mat in the room by the door, with one of the twins on each of their arms. "I guess you really were onto something, Kanami, when you said something would go down tonight."
"I suppose," she replied awkwardly, "but for now, it's best that we just stick to staying inside, and whatever it is that's happening will be diluted enough by the time it gets to this side of town that it just becomes noise."
"I get that, but what if it's more than just some unrest?" Ririsa asked. "Being uninformed could come back to sting us."
"I guess we have no choice but to take that risk, then," Kanami said.
Following that, she began to notice the look of distress on Ayako's face, one that made the ever-lively Airi as quiet as a ghost in her arms.
"Is everything okay?" she whispered. "Are you worried about the others?"
"I am," she replied, "but I'm more worried about the fact that Hyogo isn't back yet. If he's still wandering out there, he could get caught up in it."
"I didn't want to say this now," Kanami said after hesitating, "but he told me that he was going after Lloyd and that I should keep it a secret."
"Why?"
"He didn't say."
After hearing this, Ayako took a long time to brace herself before she finally said it out loud.
"Hey, big sis, I wanted to ask, are you okay with this?" she asked. "With this life that we're living now. Do you regret anything or blame anyone for what happened back then?"
Kanami hesitated before replying. "I would be lying if I said that I didn't wish things had gone a better way, that Dad had never died, that Ashiro had gotten to go out in a better way or at least gotten a chance to change, but that's all in the past now. Right now, we have people who are going to look up to us someday, so we can't come off as unsure, right?"
"You're right," Ayako said. "I wish I could be half as brave as you."
"You are."
"Thanks, but I don't deserve that. I'm selfish and petty and full of regrets. That's why I want to change," Ayako said as she gently lifted Airi and rose to her feet. "There's so much that I need to get off my chest, so much I need to apologise to you for, but there's something else I need to take care of first."
"What are you talking about?" Kanami asked, a look of worry and confusion on her face.
"You don't have to worry about it for now," she replied, "but just know that I need this, or else I can't go on. I need to be brave, so wish me luck."
As she said that, she walked up to Ririsa, who had left and come back into the room just then, and gently handed Airi over to her.
"What's wrong?" Ririsa asked.
"I need to leave," Ayako replied, trying to walk past her, but Kanami stopped her dead in her tracks.
"Where are you going? Don't just leave without explaining anything. This isn't like you."
Ayako put her left hand on the frame of the wooden door and gripped it hard as she said, "Don't worry about it. Just trust me. You know that I would never lie to you."
As she said that, she walked out into the narrow hallway and left through the door. After she did, Ririsa turned to Kanami and asked, "Did something happen?"
For a long time, she didn't answer, but when she did, she said, "The thing she did with her hand, the way she gripped it hard against the door. She only does that when she's lying, but why would she hide something from me after we've come so far together?"
Ririsa didn't know how to answer her, so she just watched as Kanami fiddled with Haruno's tiny little fingers in silence.
As she walked through those same streets again, the difference in the atmosphere was suffocating to Ayako, what with all the noises and yelling and people running back and forth, but she kept steady.
Every now and then, she would bump into a person or two, but this didn't deter her. As she walked over the bridge, however, she stopped and looked down at the bank of the stream beside it, right where they had found him.
It felt like she was living that moment over and over again with every second she stood there, but she couldn't look away. Then, the memory of his answer came to her, and suddenly, she didn't feel as ensnared there as before.
"I have to go," she told herself. "This isn't a time to be selfish. He's waiting."
As she said that, though, she couldn't help but grip the wooden railing again. Then, with that same hand, she softly passed it over the pin in her hair before walking away.
The lights further down the road looked brighter than they normally would, as if entire buildings were on fire up ahead, but luckily enough for her, her destination wasn't immediately that way.
She took turn after turn until she came upon the workshop. The cold breeze that blew in as she opened the door sent a chill down her spine, so she walked in as fast as she could.
The light from outside was pouring in, so she didn't bother to light a lantern. Despite that, she didn't need the light anyway because she knew that place like the back of her hand.
She walked into the back room and fiddled around in the dark until she found it, wrapped in the same cloth as when she had taken it from Mr. Nishimura, but this time it felt different in her hands.
Regardless, she had found what she came for, so she took it and walked out, closing the door firmly behind her without looking back.