A Certain Disquietude

Just as Sumire expected, she couldn’t find anything about cracks in Yomi in her family’s library. She spent the week after her meeting with Aoi sifting through the scrolls and manuscripts, only to come up empty.

There were books from ancient now-extinct clans in a locked section, though. But those books were locked away for a reason — some contained dangerous spells and dark rituals. Only her grandfather held the key to it. Sumire was tempted to ask if she could perhaps have temporary access to it, but that would mean explaining about the whole thing and possibly outing Aoi as a half-yokai.

And she couldn’t do that. She simply couldn’t.

The memory of her encounter with Yuki Onna was still fresh in her mind. It was a proof that even in this modern era, people still viewed half-yokai as something dangerous and repulsive. She didn’t want Natsuno, and now Aoi too, to meet the same end as Yuki Onna’s son.