“I was hoping to see a little brighter place, now I can’t even see the sky…” Shinkuu found herself in another forest after leaving the strange cave. This forest was different, though: like the previous one, the trees were gray and leafless, wrapped in countless thorns; the difference was the incredible height of such trees, which extended far above Shinkuu’s head, the branches intertwining with the branches of the trees at the opposite side of the path, forming a dome. This dome didn’t allowed to see the gray sky, and even in apparent absence of light, the walking girl was able nonetheless to see well with her only eye. Knowing there were no choices, the girl kept walking through the solitary and silent path. Nor a sound or movement, which was a relief after the stress endured thanks to the laughing shadows. The monotony of the forest not lasted long, though: from nowhere, Shinkuu noticed a black feather falling gracefully before her eye. She was able to catch the feather, then she rose her gaze to search for its origin, really astonished to have found something like that. Cra! Cra!. The calling of a crow echoed from above the girl’s head, posing calmly on a branch. “How unusual to see something ‘normal’ in here. Well, maybe is strange because it’s a normal thing”, Shinkuu thought. The crow fixed its gaze in Shinkuu for seconds that seemed minutes. Then, after almost hypnotize the girl, it flew away. “Should I… follow it?” For some reason, Shinkuu had the feeling she should stick close to the bird, so she started to walk a little faster than before. After a while, Shinkuu decreased her speed. Her resistance to physical activities were almost null, after all. So, she lost sight of the black bird. As she was slowly catching her breath, the girl felt at her back a strange sensation, followed by a cold chill that ran through her neck to her feet. She felt as if she was being observed, even if she couldn’t see nothing around her besides trees and… Suddenly, she heard sounds running through the trees. Rustles, like someone was wandering around the forest. “Who’s there?!”, shouted nervously the girl. There was any answer, though. Then, the strange sounds little by little were everywhere, until, Shinkuu finally met the origin of such noise. Strange creatures were standing on various branches near to Shinkuu: they resembling a giant eyeball with a huge mouth full of sharp teeth, standing with a solitary and contorted chicken-like clawed leg. Two bat-like wings sprouted out in the side opposed to their menacing iris. The creatures had their eyes fixed on her, and their smile filled Shinkuu with terror. “What are you looking at?!”, shouted the girl with trembling voice. The creatures didn’t hesitated to move a little bit closer to her, jumping from branch to branch. Realizing the creatures didn’t have any intention to leave her alone, Shinkuu started to walk away. One by one, the bizarre creatures jumped off the branches and flew towards the girl, with a clear intention to use their mouths to bite her. She ran as fast as she have never ran in her entire life, even if she wasn’t sure she was in danger. Her breathing was bad, her legs becoming heavier, until she eventually stumbled and fell. She turn back and saw the creatures getting closer, and that vision made her deeply frightened. In that moment, between the nightmare vision of the flying monsters and Shinkuu, the crow she saw before landed with ease on the ground near to her.

- Why do you run from them? – asked the crow to Shinkuu.

- It talked! – startled the girl for the unexpected talking bird.

- Don’t mind that. Tell me: why do you run from them? – insisted the crow.

- Isn’t obvious? Those things are trying to eat me!

- That is true, but… Have you tried to stare back at them? Maybe a good evil glance could scare those hideous things…

- Huh? I don’t think that…

“Wait” In a second thought, the crow’s suggestion wasn’t that absurd, remembering what happened on the cave before. In that occasion, shadows laughed at her; she laughed back and the shadows went away. Following that reasoning, staring at those monsters should have some effect. With determination and a little of fear, Shinkuu stood on her feet again, while the black bird flew to a branch behind her to watch the scene. With her only eye, the girl stared at all those countless of flying creatures. They seemed to not care at the beginning, but as they got closer to Shinkuu, their movements were slower and clumsy. “What are you looking at?!”, shouted Shinkuu, this time with a clear and loud voice. Her gaze filled with and almost murderous intent, spreading the hate she had being holding in her heart for so long. The monsters flinched, and one by one they flew towards the forest, between the trees. In less than a minute, nor a single beat was heard. Exhausted, the girl fell on her knees, freeing her chest from the anxiety with a big sigh.

- That was a really good frightening look. You did well, girl – said the crow.

- I don’t know who you are, but thanks for your help – said Shinkuu, turning to the black bird – Now… what should I do?

- You can’t turn back – was its answer – You can only go ahead through this path.

- I… I’d like to ask… How far am I from the goal?

- That is up to you. But you can say is not that far from its end.

Before Shinkuu could ask any other question, the crow rose again and disappeared, as if solved in the air.

Another weird event happened, and the solution was quite similar to the other ones. Sigh, it made me remember those disgusting moments in which people stared at me, always with bad intentions… ‘Look how much she’s fat!’; ‘How wonderful big breasts! Let me grab them!’; ‘That girl is an emo. That’s so lame!’. They just looked at me superficially and critiqued me for whatever reason, just to have fun or feeling better about themselves. Anyway, I think I’m getting what this place is all about: is like this place is making me build the courage to respond to the offenses and abuses I received in my previous life. I think I read once about such kind of place in a book… or was it a manga? This could be that place after death and before reincarnation, if Buddhism should be right about the afterlife. Which means… am I being tested? Yeah, that is probably what is happening now. In the Purgatory, one has to clean the soul through some kind of penalty in order to reach Paradise. But this seems more like a test than a penalty. Maybe those strange ‘people’ I’m interacting with since my arrive are some kind of judges, or guides, that help the death soul to pass their own test. So, assuming this is right, I just have to keep walking and wait until the next trial begins. Then, I follow the instructions of the next guide and then proceed, until the final judgment is made. Seems pretty easily to understand. Of course, I could be mistaken, and all this thoughts are meaningless and wrong, but… Then, now that I think about it, when I was running, I got tired, like it usually happened while I was alive. And my body… it should be a soul, immaterial I guess, but I feel it like it was before dying. That is strange. I mean, we aren’t supposed to become ‘souls’, so, immaterial beings? Then, why I have the same sensations I had when I was alive? The more I think about this ‘Ibara’, the less it makes any sense to me. But again, there are out there such incredible and unbelievable faiths and believes that people follow and die for… It’s not that much important if this place makes sense or not, I guess. Ah, who could be the one waiting for me at the end of this? A judge? A person I met in a previous life? A god? For now, I’ll keep walking.