-Spirited Away-

In the vicinity of Mt. Hikami, people have been mysteriously disappearing without a trace.

One such girl is Miu Hinasaki.
She awakens to find herself in an old, half-flooded building.

-Shadow Reading-

Among the residents of the Villages at the foot of Mt. Hikami, a certain unique ability has been passed through the ages.

This ability, known as "shadow reading", enables the user to view the shadow, or "trace," of someone lost in inexplicable circumstances. This is not unlike the "psychometry" practiced elsewhere.

Yuri Kozukata accompanies Hisoka Kurosawa, a woman who possesses the shadow reading ability, to an abandoned inn on Mt. Hikami.

A few days have passed since Yuri's introduction to shadow reading at the abandoned inn.

Since then, Hisoka has gone off somewhere and hasn't returned. Yuri worries for Hisoka, but isn't sure how or where to start searching.

As she sits waiting at the antiques shop, a girl named Fuyuhi Himino shows up, claiming to have enlisted Hisoka to help her find a missing person.

While searching for her friend, Fuyuhi Himino ended up taking her own life.

Having witnessed Fuyuhi's final moments, Yuri knows she wasn't alone when she died.
What of that other woman who killed herself in the same way?
Not to mention that mysterious shrine maiden, sodden from the rain...

Yuri managed to locate Hisoka's Camera Obscura, along with a charm she always liked to wear. For now, she must return to the antiques shop alone.

Ren Hojo, a writer, is haunted by a recurring dream in which he kills a young girl during a ritual.

He receives an album of Postmortem Photographs, located on his request by Hisoka.
Upon viewing one of the photos, Ren recognizes the very scene from his dreams.

Eager to delve further into this puzzling mystery, Ren heads to the abandoned inn in person this time, bringing along his assistant, Rui Kagamiya.

The photo album left behind by the innkeeper was put together by a folklorist who lived on Mt. Hikami. As Ren and Rui explored the inn and traced the spirit of its owner, a ghost tried to lure Rui to suicide. Then, through the pouring rain, an ominous shrine maiden appeared.

Ren and Rui left the mountain with more questions than when they started.

With Hisoka still missing, Yuri recalls what she witnessed on the mountain:
Fuyuhi, taking her own life while entranced by a malevolent spirit, and the bodies of dead shrine maidens washed up at the Pool of Purification.

These disquieting images leave Yuri with no doubt that Mt. Hikami houses some kind of horrifying secret.

Yuri takes the Camera Obscura that she found on the mountain and begins searching for a token that will lead her to Hisoka.

Using the Camera Obscura, Yuri found a number of missing person files connected to Mt. Hikami.
She is now more determined than ever to head back to the mountain and find Hisoka.

After finding a missing persons file on Hisoka's desk, Yuri realizes Hisoka had been looking for Haruka Momose.

She recalls what Fuyuhi said when they passed the Shrine of Dolls: "Haruka... She's here."

With this in mind, Yuri heads to the Shrine of Dolls, hoping that if she finds Haruka, she may just learn of Hisoka's whereabouts too.

Yuri finds the missing Haruka Momose in a reliquary in a cave beneath the Shrine of Dolls.

She takes the girl back to the shop.
Haruka is in no state to talk and can't explain what happened to her.

That night Haruka is visited by Fuyuhi's ghost, which takes her back to the mountain.

In the course of their investigation, Ren and Rui learn of Keiji Watarai, a folklorist who settled on Mt. Hikami.

His writings are certain to be a treasure trove of information about the mountain and its peculiar folklore.

Ren and Rui happen across a video tape that may just indicate the way to Watarai's residence.
Ren and Rui set out to find the folklorist's house, relying on clues from a video recording.

As they passed through the Shrine of Dolls, the white-haired girl from Ren's dreams appeared.
She asked why he didn't bring her token, then vanished.

Ren and Rui arrived at the Veiled House, where they discovered several of Keiji Watarai's writings on the customs and beliefs surrounding Mt. Hikami.

They escaped the house, only to see it vanish in a thick veil of mist.

After being brought back from the mountain, Haruka disappeared again.
This time, she seemed to be led away by the ghost of her friend, Fuyuhi.

Yuri recalls one more open case from Hisoka's file:
A missing girl named Miu Hinasaki, who went to Mt. Hikami in search of her mother.

Yuri takes Miu's token with her and sets out for the mountain, hoping that the key to all the disappearances will be waiting there.

Miu Hinasaki was found in a reliquary within the Shrine of the Ephemeral.
Yuri attempted to glance the sleeping Miu's memories, but found the tables turned against her.

It seems Miu also possesses the same shadow reading abilities as Yuri.

Yuri managed to rescue Miu from the Shrine of the Ephemeral, but obtained no new information about Hisoka.

The only clues she has are a photograph found in the Camera Obscura and the vision she saw when she touched Hisoka's charm.

These lead Yuri to believe Hisoka is somewhere upstream.

Clinging to this last hope of finding her friend, Yuri heads towards the Lake of the Departed, located on Mt. Hikami's summit.

Yuri followed Hisoka's trace to the shore of the Lake of the Departed, where it vanished into the mist.

In her place, a woman appeared: the same dark presence seen in Hisoka's photograph.
Unable to inflict any damage with the Camera Obscura, Yuri's only option was to run.

Yuri recalled the outline of a large torii gate over the misty lake.
Could that be where Hisoka was headed?

When Yuri returns from Mt. Hikami's summit, she quickly collapses from exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Miu is also in an unnaturally deep slumber.

Worried that some unwanted visitors may be on their way, Ren and his assistant Rui decide to watch over the girls through the shop's surveillance system.

Ren is watching over the sleeping Yuri and Miu on the surveillance cameras, but he passes out.
He has a dream where he's chasing after Rui.
When he wakes up, both Yuri and Rui are gone.

He finds Miu getting ready to leave for Mt. Hikami, taking Yuri's Camera Obscura with her.
The door shuts behind Miu, leaving a bewildered Ren behind.

Miu wakes up to discover that Yuri has been taken to Mt. Hikami.

She borrows Yuri's Camera Obscura and heads for the mountain, against Ren's advice.
She hopes not only to find Yuri, but some clues to her mother's whereabouts as well.

As Yuri waded into the mist over the Lake of the Departed, she was stopped by Miu.

The distance between the girls seemed to narrow.
Losing their parents at a young age and being able to see into the souls of others...
The girls have more in common than they may have first realized.

Yuri still hasn't found Hisoka, while Miu still searches for her mother, Miku.

The eerie dark figure that appeared at the lake may just hold all the answers.
But why does she keep calling out to Yuri?

Ren checks the surveillance footage only to discover that Rui has also been beckoned away to the mountain.

He recalls the dream he had after he fell asleep:
Rui was inside the Veiled House, a.k.a. the Watarai Residence.

Ren knows this is where he must head next.

Ren found Rui in a reliquary in the Veiled House, only to be pulled in himself.
He awoke in an unfamiliar building.

An old woman dressed in white led Ren to a room in which Rui was waiting dressed as a bride.
This seemed to be the room in which weddings between the living and the dead are held.

Rui suddenly changed into a fearsome bride wearing black.
Then, in a flash, they were back in the folklorist's house.

There, they encountered Ren's friend Kazuya, whose own wedding to a ghost went horribly wrong.

The Veiled House vanished into the mist, with Kazuya still inside.

Having brought Yuri back from the Lake of the Departed, Miu stays awhile at the antiques shop.

Convinced her mother, Miku Hinasaki, is somewhere on Mt. Hikami, Miu knows the only way to find her is to follow her shadow.

To do so, she needs the help of Yuri's Camera Obscura.

Miu finally found Miku on Mt. Hikami, where she had entered into a Ghost Marriage at the House of Joining. Miku explained her desperate wish to be reunited with her beloved, pleading for Miu's forgiveness.

Miu led her mother away from the mountain and back to the antiques shop.
Miu and Miku lay side by side and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Yuri ponders what she saw at the Lake of the Departed:
Hisoka's shadow vanishing into a thick veil of mist.

She recalls the tall torii gate rising from the lake, marking the entrance to the Shrine on the Water.

Could Hisoka be in that shrine?
Yuri knows she must find a way across.
She goes to investigate the Shrine of the Ephemeral.

Yuri boarded the Boat of Passage and was taken to the Shrine on the Water, the final destination for shrine maidens set to become Pillars.

Yuri found Hisoka inside the shrine and took her safely back to the antiques shop.
The bond between the two of them grew even stronger.

Rui, Miu, Miku, Hisoka and Yuri all fall into an unusually deep slumber.

Ren fears that while this persists, the defenseless group may be vulnerable to attack.
Time to get back to those surveillance cameras.

Ren knows he must find out what's going on with Mt. Hikami before something comes to pay a visit...

Ren learned of the true purpose of the rituals performed on Mt. Hikami.

The mountain acts as a boundary between the world of the living and that of the dead.
A place at which the souls of the visitors were returned to the water from which they were born.

Shrine maidens absorbed the memories of the dying, and when they could take no more, they were sacrificed in reliquaries.

Ghost Marriages served to console and strengthen the souls of those sacrificed.
Wedded couples were thrown into the darkness that leads to the Netherworld.

Water connects everything.

Caught up in the madness of Mt. Hikami, Yuri, Miu, and Ren Hojo all make their way there, each for their own reasons.

A heavy fog descends, as if to snuff out all hope of escape.

Yuri wakes to find the shop full of mist. She makes her way up the mountain, Glancing many spirits on her way, and finally reaches the Shrine on the Water.
Through the doors at the back of the inner sanctum, she reaches the Shadowspring, and confronts Ose Kurosawa.

Meanwhile, Ren, following a hint from Rui who is talking in her sleep, returns home and finds the Bundle of White Hair, Shiragiku's token and the source of his recurring dream.
Walking in Dr. Asou's footsteps, he travels to the House of Joining with the two tokens, to choose between Shiragiku and Ose.

Miu dreams that her mother has left again. She follows her to the Twilit Peak, and finally catches up with her at the Lake of the Departed.
She is able to express her feelings at last, and listen to what Miku has to say.
As she accepts her solitude, they come to a place where spirits stand in the water under the eternal sunset.
Miu begs Miku not to leave, and Miku promises she won't.