Story:

Violet Witch stood there a moment longer, staring at the empty square where her Nobu-kun had been.

Then her shoulders dropped, and she said, to no one in particular, in the small betrayed voice of a woman cheated out of something precious:

"...My holiday. Bel—you have ruined my holiday. Two years of wait, and the moment it finally got good, the apocalypse moves in downstairs—"

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I hope whatever root cause is under that mountain appreciates the scheduling."

And then there was nothing left to do but feel it. So they went—each to their own quarters throughout the shrine—the sisters to the room where his second-favorite fan had never been found, Kenshin to her camp command where five empty bowls still stood washed, and Shiro to the miko dormitory where Ai and Mai had already gone quiet without being told why.

The shrine returned to its business, the wards hummed, the mountain smoked, and everyone processed the remainder of the farewell in their own way, behind their own paper doors.