The Tragic Truth

The whole affair originated over a hundred years ago, centering on the Hata Clan that lived upon this land. This branch of Toraijin from the Huaxia continent had settled here long before the capital was moved to Heian-kyo. During the city's construction, the advanced technology they possessed provided immense assistance, and through that process, the Hata Clan grew and prospered.

The young girl was born during the clan's golden age. Her father was the Hata Clan Leader at the time, a man of brilliant talent and boundless energy, regarded as one of the most outstanding patriarchs in their lineage. He had many children and was revered by many, and among his most ardent admirers was the girl, his youngest daughter.

Her experiences were remarkably similar to those of Mokou. Both deeply admired their fathers, yet as illegitimate daughters of a younger line, they were overlooked within the rigid structure of a noble, feudal household. Placed behind the legitimate primary wife, the favored concubines, and a pack of dominant elder brothers, their status was actually quite low—barely above that of the household servants and lesser than that of many retainers.

To the patriarch, their primary value was as tools for future political marriages to secure the clan’s interests. Yet despite this, they yearned for their father’s acknowledgement and affection. In her longing, Mokou had even gone so far as to steal the Hourai Elixir to take revenge on a princess for her father’s sake.

This girl, however, did not have such an opportunity. Instead, she was born with exceptionally powerful spiritual power. This innate gift brought her many strange abilities; had she been properly taught, she could have become one of humanity's top-tier spiritual practitioners. Unfortunately, neither she nor anyone else in her family realized this. She was seen as nothing more than a minor, insignificant noble girl, and this ignorance planted the seeds of the tragedy to follow.

The girl hungered for her father’s attention, but in his eyes, the youngest illegitimate daughter could never compare to her elder brothers. Her long-standing, unrequited longing gradually soured into jealousy and resentment. She hated her brothers for monopolizing their father’s love, leaving her only cold indifference.

This was initially nothing more than silent malice. The girl lacked the courage and the means to act against her brothers. She never imagined that this resentment would channel through her natural spiritual power and innate talent for spells. Without any conscious ritual or incantations, she placed a powerful curse upon her brothers through sheer subconscious intent.

The effects of the curse soon manifested among the patriarch’s sons. They died one after another. The Hata Clan could not understand what was happening; they tried every method at their disposal, yet they could not stop the heirs from passing away. The manor descended into a spiral of grief and terror. The innocent girl herself was terrified by these sudden accidents, never dreaming that she was the one who started it all.

As her brothers perished one by one, the girl began to harbor a small, desperate hope: perhaps now, her father would pour all the love he once gave them onto her. But the reality was the opposite. Watching his beloved sons die, the clan leader’s grief made his temper grow increasingly volatile and cruel. He did not cherish his remaining family; instead, he turned to verbal abuse and physical aggression. After being treated with such hostility, the girl’s hopes were shattered. Gradually, her inner self began to resent the father she once loved. Once more, her subconscious triggered her immense spiritual power, and the patriarch was suddenly struck by a debilitating illness.

The Hata Clan Leader was all too familiar with such sickness. As his strength waned, he obsessively researched the symptoms, finally confirming its true nature: a curse. To combat this unknown malice, he brought out the clan's ancestral treasure—the Masks of Hata no Kawakatsu.

Over many centuries, these masks had manifested powerful Tsukumogami. Following the will of Hata no Kawakatsu, they protected the patriarch, shielding him from the curse. He then began to investigate the source of the malice. However, the loss of his sons had left him deeply paranoid; he trusted no one, and so he conducted his search in absolute solitude.

With the protection of the masks, the clan leader temporarily avoided death, but he remained in a state of partial corruption by the curse. His mental state deteriorated rapidly. His constant seclusion with the masks led those around him to believe he was being possessed or bewitched by them.

As the girl grew, so did the power within her. Consequently, the subconscious curse she projected intensified. Both her father and the masks began to warp under the strain, their sanity fracturing. Just as the clan members were about to take it upon themselves to summon an Onmyoji for an exorcism, the patriarch finally identified the source of his ruin.

To the girl, it seemed to happen in a heartbeat. Her father, driven to the brink of madness by his torment, sought her out privately. He fell upon her in a rage, beating her. Desperate and terrified by this sudden brutality, the girl screamed for help, but none came. In the moment when her father tried to kill his own daughter with his bare hands, the dormant power inside her exploded. The overwhelming energy vaporized the patriarch’s body and shredded his very soul.

From that day on, the Hata patriarch ceased to exist. Upon waking, the girl could not bear the weight of her parricide. She lied to her clan and to herself, claiming her father had simply departed on a sudden journey. Since his mental health had already been noticeably failing, the family believed her. To bolster her fabrication, she stole the masks he had always carried and claimed he had given them to her as a parting gift. From then on, she remained night and day with these masks—the only witnesses to the truth. And in her hands, the temperaments of the Hata no Kawakatsu masks began to undergo a sinister change.

To further her self-delusion, she needed a scapegoat for her father’s disappearance and death. The masks, which knew the truth, became her target.

In her subconscious mind, she refused to admit her brothers had died because of her or that her father had tried to kill her. She blamed it all on the masks, reimagining them as cruel, murderous monsters!

The girl’s subconscious formed a new curse. Under her influence, the masks rapidly fell from being protective family treasures to wicked yokai, their memories replaced by her lies.

These deluded masks orbited the girl. They believed they were the ones manipulating her mind, but in reality, they were being puppeted by her subconscious. Forgetting their true past, they became the vile monsters she needed them to be.

The murderous nature of the now-demonic masks led to a slaughter. In a single night, everyone in the Hata residence was massacred. When the masks gleefully prepared to devour the girl and claim her power for themselves, they realized their fatal mistake: they were absorbed by her instead, completely losing their individuality to become a part of her being. In that process, the girl ceased to be human and became a yokai, forever dwelling in this ancient manor, toying with the spirits of the dead and weaving a web of self-deception to immerse herself in eternally.

...

"So... that is the story of this other 'me.' Ultimately, she is just an ignorant girl who possessed a power she shouldn't have, leading her to inadvertently commit a grave sin and trigger a wave of tragedy..." Facing Miketsu, the girl in black calmly finished the tale. Hearing this story, both Tsuruha and Miketsu fell silent for a long while.

"What a truly... strange and tragic story."

"Yes... I never expected things to turn out this way..." Miketsu scratched her head, staring at the massive surge of demonic energy rising from the manor as she fell into thought.

A father complex, a shut-in, timid, yandere, and a girl who fabricated her own reality... Given such an unstable collection of traits and uncontrollable power, she had birthed a sequence of disasters. Faced with such a being, how was she supposed to handle it?

Just then, Miketsu noticed the Qin Xin mask in her sleeve beginning to tremble again. She knew it was trying to tell her something.