Following Shu through the foggy farmland, I used Focus Attacks to easily defeat terrifying fog monsters and inspected creepy scarecrows. After a cinematic conversation with Shu about whether they were dreaming, which ended with him mysteriously vanishing, I discovered a Hokora Shrine to log my progress.
I needed to follow Shu now, so I peered into the foggy darkness ahead, hoping no four-legged monsters would lunge out of the dark to scare the hell out of me.
Suddenly, a fog monster appeared out of nowhere. It walked backwards for a brief moment, reminding me of the tip that I could use my Focus ability to execute a powerful Focus Attack.
Stepping forward without fear, I unleashed a Focus Attack on the entity, dealing massive damage and making it surprisingly easy to take her down.
Being curious, I decided to check the path she had emerged from, hoping to find hidden items on the other side.
Ahead of me stood another fog monster alongside a creepy scarecrow that I could interact with, though touching it only caused Hinako to remark on how unsettling it looked.
Setting my sights on the new fog monster, I took her down easily using another well-timed Focus Attack. With the area largely consisting of farmland, creepy scarecrows were scattered everywhere.
As I walked deeper into increasingly dense fog, a cinematic sequence suddenly triggered, showing Hinako searching frantically for Shu.
Shu appeared, asking what was wrong, and Hinako poured out her worries about everything happening to them, wondering aloud if they were trapped in a bizarre dream because they just wanted to keep fighting space wars together as kids.
Shu suggested they could pinch each other to find out, but Hinako opted to pinch herself instead, thanking him all the same. Shu pinched himself too, confirming that it wasn't a dream after all, a realization that left Hinako even more confused.
When she looked back up, she realized Shu vanished again. Pushing past the shock, I nearly missed a Hokora Shrine along my path, so I quickly stopped by to save my progress.