“Your child—” Natsuno gasped as he trudged through the snow, each step seeming like a mountainous effort, before stopping next to Sumire. “Your son— What’s his name?”

Yuki Onna looked surprised, but in a voice that tinkled like a glass chime, she uttered one name, “Nowaki.”

“A half-yokai, correct?” Natsuno asked, sounding amazed. “A male snow-spirit. A very rare kind of yokai.”

“How did you—” Yuki Onna stopped, shaking her head. Tears fell from her eyes, freezing before they could roll down her cheeks. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing else matters anymore.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss”, Natsuno said, and somehow Sumire could tell that he really meant it.

“Sorry?” Yuki Onna wept. “Sorry doesn’t bring him back. Nothing will!”

“I know, but—”

“They burned him!” Yuki Onna shrieked, and the wind picked up its speed once more. “They dragged my son from our home and burned him alive!”

“I know!” Natsuno shouted back. “But keeping his soul within you is starting to degrade your sanity. You’ll turn into a malicious force of disaster, and you won’t remember him anymore!”

“I don’t care!” Yuki Onna wailed.

“I do!” Natsuno returned, but his voice softened. “I do care for you and your son, and I’m sorry that it has to end like this. But you don’t have to meet your end too.”

Yuki Onna was silent, and Sumire could only watch as the two of them exchanged words. The wind somehow calmed and the snowfall even lightened slightly.

“You’re affected by the shift in Yomi. It’s whispering empty promises to you, isn’t it?” Natsuno asked. “But you know that, don’t you?”

“I— I—” Yuki Onna faltered.

“You don’t have to listen to it, and you don’t have to listen to me either”, Natsuno said. “But my friend here is a yokai hunter. She can seal you into Yomi, where you and your son’s soul may rest eternally.”

“What—?” Sumire turned to Natsuno, bewildered.

“C-can you really do that?” Yuki Onna asked timidly, as if scared. Yuki Onna, a powerful yokai, was scared of Natsuno, a half-yokai.

“Sure thing!” Natsuno chirped happily, unaware of the absurdity of the whole situation as he grinned from ear to ear. “She’s very powerful, you know?”

“What I meant is… if I can take my son with me”, Yuki Onna corrected.

“Oh! Hm”, Natsuno contemplated briefly. “Well, half-yokai are still yokai at their core. I’m sure Lord Enma won’t mind if you take your son’s soul to Yomi instead of the Underworld, though we can ask to be sure.”

Sumire stared at Natsuno, and Yuki Onna let out a small titter.

“Alright”, Yuki Onna said. “You may seal me, then.”

“Are you sure?” Sumire asked, suddenly feeling unsure herself.

“Nothing awaits me in this plane of existence anymore”, Yuki Onna smiled wanly at her, as if they were not battling just a few moments ago. As if they were not trying to murder each other. “My husband betrayed our family for his human kin, and my son is no longer alive. I have no worldly attachment beyond this body I wear.”

Sumire considered Yuki Onna’s answer briefly before giving the powerful yokai a resolute nod.

“Alright. I will seal your son first, if I may…?”

Yuki Onna nodded and plunged her hand into her crystalline chest before taking out an glowing icy orb. She pressed her forehead to the orb, whispering something too quiet for Sumire to hear, before letting it float toward Sumire.

And in that moment, the fragility of the situation struck Sumire. Yuki Onna had entrusted her with something indescribably important — her son’s soul — which she could destroy without further thoughts. A proper yokai hunter would banish Yuki Onna into Yomi without making peace with her, so why should they care about one lost soul?

They should, Sumire thought, and maybe that made her a flawed yokai hunter.

“You who reign over Takamagahara, whose blood runs in our veins”, she began to recite, but she paused briefly to choose her next words. “Lend us the light to send this innocent soul into your domains.”

If she wanted to be completely honest, she didn’t know if changing the sealing spell would work. She just thought it was the right thing to do. After all, Yuki Onna’s son, Nowaki, was not a malicious yokai, nor was he an evil spirit. He was just a child.

A child like Natsuno, Sumire realized.

But the bizarre thing was, the spell worked. The icy orb that floated over her hands flashed in brilliant golden glow, before dissipating into flecks of light. Sumire turned her attention back to Yuki Onna.

Yuki Onna’s expression was full of grief, but she no longer raged like the blizzard she created before. Her hands were clasped together by her face as she continued to stare at Sumire’s hands, where her son’s soul had disappeared, and suddenly, Sumire thought about the mother she never knew.

“Are you ready?” Sumire asked Yuki Onna, her voice strained as she tried to dispel the tightness in her chest.

Yuki Onna turned her gaze back to her, her eyes full of unshed tears.

“I am”, she answered, and Sumire, gripped by an unusual childishness, held her hands forward. Yuki Onna gave her an odd stare, but put her crystalline palms over Sumire’s.

They were freezing cold, yet at the same time felt warm.

“You who reign over Takamagahara, whose blood runs in our veins, lend us the light to guide this soul into your domains”

Yuki Onna closed her eyes as her corporeal body began to dissipate into thousands of tiny snowflakes, her face serene and a small sad smile curled on her lips.

And just like that, she rejoined her son’s soul in the eternal embrace of Yomi.

The snow didn’t disappear immediately, but at least the blizzard stopped and the sky cleared. Sumire’s hands were still outstretched, and only then did she realize what she was doing. She pulled her hands back and balled her fists by her side.

“Are you okay?” Natsuno’s voice cut through the silence, breaking Sumire out of her maudlin thoughts.

Was she okay? Sumire mulled over her answer. She had fulfilled her duty as a yokai hunter, yet somehow her heart was heavy. She wished the mother-son pair didn’t have to end like this. She wished they could live happily, secluded deep in the mountains and safe from people like her.

She wondered if she would feel the same if she didn’t know about the reason behind Yuki Onna’s rage.

“I will be”, was all she could answer.