Let's Do an Exorcism

A call comes in from Mai's mother, who begs Rin to attend the audition and steady Mai, too anxious to go on without her. Rin is about to decline when her grandmother urges her to attend so she will carry no regrets. Rin finishes her account by revealing the tragedy that followed: a car crash claimed Mai and her mother while they drove to collect her, a loss she pins on herself. Taking this in, Seiko concludes that the Onbusuman is Mai, awakened to Rin's senses by the kintama, and cautions her not to relax around it, for the creature is no longer the friend she remembers.

Momo notes that she cannot feel the yokai at all, and Seiko explains it stays concealed, able to be lured out and banished only at the audition site. Seiko brings in the Hayashi, a festival float shouldered by several men, and moves everyone to the school. There she lays out the plan: the float performers can drive off the Onbusuman once Mai relives her final day along a path tracing the crash site and the venue, while the school's lurking spirits are pulled toward the Onbusuman's gravity. When the spirit bears down on Rin and the building's ghosts stir awake, Seiko calls for the procession to begin, catching Okarun off guard after she sticks him with float-hauling duty. The school then springs to life to stop them from leaving.

When Mai locks up before the tryout, her mother phones Rin for help, and Rin's grandmother encourages her to go, only for both Mai and her mother to die on the road as they come to fetch her. Seiko warns that the Mai-spirit will eventually kill Rin unless they draw it out, and since onbusuman are timid, she enlists the Hayashi and their float bearers to coax Mai forth by retracing the fatal route and the venue. The stirring music rouses the school's own spirit, bringing the building to life.

Released on October 17, 2023, this eighteen-page chapter is titled Let's Do an Exorcism. It falls within Volume 15, the Onbusuman Arc, and the Kintama Hunt Saga, sitting between Chapter 124 and Chapter 126.