Pushing open the heavy doors of the Kurosawa House, a violent thunderstorm suddenly breaks out. A suffocating, heavy presence fills the air. The flashlight in Mio's hand flickers twice before dying completely. Plunged into darkness and unable to adjust, a blinding flash of lightning tears through the night sky, revealing countless panicked spirits desperately fleeing the manor.
The flashlight dies
In a flash of lightning, Mio catches a glimpse of Mayu turning left ahead. 'Mayu!' Her heart tightens, and she immediately gives chase.
Looking up, Mio aims her camera at the second-floor railing and captures a male figure looking down ('Vanishing: Man Looking Down'). The door on the right side of the hallway is firmly locked with a 'Twin-Rhombus' crest. Unable to open it, Mio has no choice but to follow Mayu's path to the left.
Passing through the dim hallway to the Flickering Room, a terrified man's scream echoes from the void: 'The Kusabi is coming...!' A face twisted in fear suddenly appears. Mio quickly snaps the shutter ('Vanishing: Man Hiding') and picks up the 'Frightened Man's Note' where he appeared. In the corner of the room, she also finds 'Folklorist's Note 3'. As she tries to open the door, it locks from the outside, and a bone-chilling cold creeps up from behind. The vengeful spirit of a brutally murdered man ('Hostile: Man Slain by Kusabi') lunges at her! Mio calmly focuses her camera and successfully purifies him.
After the exorcism, the door unlocks. Turning right, Mio sees Mayu slowly walking deeper into the house ('Vanishing: Mayu Going In'). Running forward, she photographs a panicking villager ('Vanishing: Fleeing Man'). At the corner of the hallway, Mio crawls through a hole under the railing, crouches down to aim into the gap, and finds 'Twin Doll 7'.
Passing the outer corridor corner, spiritual malice gathers again. The gruesome spirit of a woman ('Hostile: Woman Slain by Kusabi') blocks the path. After a tough battle, Mio walks to the end of the hallway to pick up 'Spirit Stone: Faintly Glowing Ore' before turning to open the door.
The moment the door opens, Mio quickly raises her camera and again captures Mayu's back as she heads deeper ('Vanishing: Mayu Heading In').
Anxious, Mio steps forward, only for her foot to bump into something cold—a young woman's corpse with her mouth brutally sliced half open! Gasping, Mio backs away in terror. Just then, a pale flash of lightning illuminates the Great Hall. To her horror, the entire room is littered with mangled corpses! In the center of this bloodbath stands a woman in a white kimono, completely drenched in blood, and behind her looms a massive monster radiating absolute death—the 'Kusabi'.
A woman in a white kimono, drenched in blood
The woman's laughter is shrill and mad. The moment the Kusabi notices Mio, it takes heavy steps, slowly closing in.
Faced with this invincible, invulnerable monster, the Camera Obscura is useless. Consumed by extreme terror, the world seems to lose all color, turning into a dead black and white. Mio runs for her life, fleeing into the Courtyard, sprinting up the stairs, and hiding breathlessly guided by a crimson butterfly. Only when the suffocating pressure completely fades does the Kusabi's shadow disappear into the darkness.
With the crisis averted, Mio enters the Guest Room Hallway broken open by the Kusabi. Passing through to the Guest Room at the end, she enters a room with flickering lights. Turning right, she captures Mayu being guided by an unseen force ('Vanishing: Guided Mayu').
The door ahead is secured with an ancient lock bearing a 'Triple-Rhombus' crest, unyielding no matter how hard Mio pushes.
Through the thin door, Mio calls out frantically: 'Mayu! Mayu, are you in there?'
From the other side, Mayu's weak, ethereal whispers reply: 'We escaped together... Everyone... died... I was... waiting for you... We promised to be together...'
A lock requiring the Triple-Rhombus Key
Seeking a way to open the door, Mio returns to the Guest Room. The phantom of a man holding a strange camera appears ('Vanishing: Man with Camera Obscura'). Where he stood, Mio picks up 'Memo: Alarm Lens' and 'Photo: Guest Room'.
Equipping the newly acquired lens, Mio uses the 'Reveal' function from the angle shown in the photo. With a resonance of spiritual power, an old bookshelf manifests out of thin air in the empty corner! Mio murmurs in surprise: 'It returned to how it was in the photo...'
On the bookshelf, Mio finds 'Folklorist's Note 2' and 'Crushed Celestite', triggering the [Side Event: Seijiro Makabe]. Through the spirit stone's resonance, an old memory floods Mio's mind—years ago, folklorist Seijiro Makabe and his apprentice Ryozo Munakata visited Minakami Village, meeting the head of the Kurosawa family and the twin sisters...
In the memory, Seijiro whispers gravely: 'So this is Minakami Village... The ritual that must never be spoken of... And the place that must absolutely not be seen... If I photograph that place with the Camera Obscura...'
Seijiro Makabe and Ryozo Munakata arrive at Minakami Village
The Kurosawa twins
Returning to the Guest Room Hallway, Mio captures a male shadow walking inward at the corner ('Vanishing: Man Entering Room'). Following him into the Master's Room, she photographs him deep in thought ('Vanishing: Whispering Man'). At his location, she picks up the 'Triple-Rhombus Key Tag'; turning to investigate the ancient mechanism nearby, she obtains 'Ritual Book: Taboo'.
Mio notices a photo under the railing. As she reaches for it, the photo slips and falls straight down to the Entrance floor below.
The dropped photo
Mio takes the stairs back to the first floor. Before entering the Great Hall, she walks to the end of the hallway, turns left, and photographs 'Twin Doll 8' in the dark corner.
Entering the Great Hall, right where the Kusabi and the bloodstained woman had appeared, Mio picks up 'Folklorist's Note 4'. Walking out to the Dirt Hallway, she turns left and captures a fleeing villager ('Vanishing: Fleeing Villager').
Back at the Entrance, Mio picks up the dropped 'Photo: Servant's Room'. Looking at it, she murmurs: 'The place in this photo... hides the Triple-Rhombus Key.'
Returning to the Dirt Hallway, Mio captures terrifying residual images at the corner: creeping black shadows, a brutally dragged man, and the killer dragging the corpse ('Vanishing: Trailing Shadow', 'Dragged Man', 'Shadow Dragging Man'). Following the trail of blood for a few steps, Mio turns left and photographs a hidden figure through the window ('Vanishing: Man in Closet').
Following the blood trail to the dead end shown in the photo, Mio aims her camera and uses 'Reveal'. In a flash of spiritual light, the sealed wall turns back into a wooden door, exposing the hidden room! Mio whispers: 'The hidden place is restored...'
Entering the Servant's Room, stained with blackened blood, she finds 'Spirit Stone: Green Glowing Ore' in the corner. Switching lenses to focus inside the room, she captures a trembling bound spirit ('Vanishing: Frightened Man') and picks up the crucial 'Triple-Rhombus Key' where he faded.
Just as Mio grabs the key to leave, two spirits murdered by the Kusabi violently attack from the shadows! Mio calmly fights them off one by one, filled with anxiety: 'I need to find Mayu, fast...'
Stepping out of the room, Mio immediately turns left and aims out the window, capturing a lonely figure standing under a tree in the courtyard ('Vanishing: Woman Waiting in Courtyard').
As Mio prepares to cross the Great Hall back to the second floor, that terrifying black-and-white silence falls again—the invincible Kusabi appears to block her! Dodging desperately through the narrow hall, Mio uses obstacles to shake off the pursuit, sprinting upstairs to the flickering room.
Inserting the 'Triple-Rhombus Key' into the lock, the door opens with a click. Entering the Doll Room, past the messy furniture, she finds Mayu collapsed weakly behind an ornate folding screen.
Folding screen
From behind the screen comes Mayu's broken, heartbreaking murmurs:
'We promised to be together forever... That's why we ran away together... Everyone... died... Everyone... is dead...'
Mio hurries past the screen, finding Mayu unconscious from exhaustion. Aching, Mio crouches to support her sister. At Mio's gentle calls, Mayu slowly opens her eyes.
Mio asks worriedly: 'Mayu... what happened?'
Mayu's eyes are hollow, trembling as she mutters: 'Someone was calling me... telling me to come back... And then... perform the ritual again...'
Mio is shocked: 'The ritual...?'
Suddenly, Mayu tightly embraces Mio as if holding onto a lifeline: 'We have to stay together... forever... forever...'
Feeling her sister's cold body, Mio gently pats her back, soothing her: 'Yeah. We promised, didn't we... For now, let's just get out of here.'