A gentle hush hung over the threshold as Yuto lowered the mask, breath shaky, vision swimming with the afterimages of another life's heartbreak. The crowd parted as Koma and Rin guided him into the shadow-laced streets, not with urgency, but with the gravity of companions who understood the weight now pressing upon him.
The spirit city itself felt changed vivid, more alive, but somehow more fragile. Lanterns bobbed overhead with new intention, their golden light sweeping patterns across the damp stones. At every turn, echoes danced: laughter, tears, the hush of secrets yearning to be told. And in the near distance, the Night Parade was gathering.
"Are you sure you're ready?" Rin asked, voice gentle as her tails brushed against his sleeve.
Yuto steadied the mask in his lap. "I need to see need to remember. It's the only way to keep from repeating the same pain."
Koma grinned, all mischief gone from his dark eyes. "You sound like a proper Mediator at last."
They slipped among the swelling festival crowd as the Night Parade began its intoxicating march. At the head strode masked spirits in brocade sashes, silver bells at their wrists, and lanterns swaying from antlered poles. Behind them, clusters of fox, tanuki, and all manner of forgotten deities paraded in harmony if only for tonight each sharing a story or song with every step.
The city's music wrapped around Yuto, disorienting and beautiful. The lines between the present and his visions blurred: he saw the old bridge-binder's desperate plea echo in the calls of a masked dancer; the heartbreak of fox and tanuki woven through flute melodies mournful and bright.
Rin soon led them to the festival's heart, an open plaza carpeted in paper wishes and memory charms. There stood a temporary shrine, erected only for the Night Parade a place for participants to offer tokens of remembrance: ancestral dolls, fragments of faded obi, even children's toys.
Yuto hesitated, origami crane and the mask both heavy in his hands. He realized the parade was as much a vigil for the lost as a celebration for the living. Taking a breath, he stepped to the shrine, placing both tokens one of hope, one of pain among the offerings.
A hush fell. Whispered prayers curled into the sky, carrying fragments of everyone's longing. As bells and chimes sounded, the golden aura around the tokens flared bright. Yuto felt a wave of relief and deep belonging, as if the city itself had chosen, at least for now, to accept all parts of his journey grief, memory, and possibility.
He turned and saw others approaching children in vivid festival wear, an elderly spirit with willow-green hair, even gruff tanuki and elegant foxes who had once been rivals. One by one, they added their relics, their burdens, their joys to the growing shrine.
Koma looked on, pride softening his features. "We parade so we don't forget. Sometimes that's all it takes a night to remember, a night to forgive."
Rin squeezed Yuto's shoulder, her gaze luminous in the lantern light. "You're not mending this city alone anymore."
As the Night Parade wound deeper into the city, growing raucous and joyful, Yuto stepped back, shoulder to shoulder with his friends. The mask and crane glowed together on the shrine a promise that the wounds of the past were not just to be buried, but to be seen, honored, and outgrown.
Above, the endless dusk brightened as countless lanterns drifted skyward, painting the Hidden City in hope and remembrance for another year.
End of Chapter 13