Given the sheer strangeness of what they were experiencing, even Think couldn't offer any solid advice.
"...Is it really okay to just assume someone is dead?" Sū ěr said, somewhat speechless. "What if they're still alive? Say, sleeping in a cave or sealed away? It's normal for yokai to do that to survive, right?"
Though he said yokai, he was thinking of various vampire legends.
"True, but it's unlikely~" Think floated toward the moon. "In this era, even the gods seem to have vanished. It looks like a heavy disaster occurred... otherwise, they wouldn't have let their presence be relegated to fiction by humans."
Think observation wasn't sympathetic. They both knew the "gods" they referred to were more like humans—using underhanded tactics like ambushes and poison. As long as they won, they could be worshipped as Gods of War. It was laughable.
Compared to the Japanese gods, even the Greek ones seemed like paragons of morality... well, "the pot calling the kettle black"? It was hard to say which was better.
"Indeed." Sū ěr nodded, recalling the gods of Yamato and Izumo. "But they might be hiding because of some danger? Just like the sealed Gate of Takamagahara."
"Mhm. From that perspective, our sudden dash out here was a bit reckless," Think said, rubbing her chin.
If there truly was something that scared both gods and yokai into hiding... what would it be?
A world-ending monster?
"Let's go back. I still suspect that well," Sū ěr said, voicing his thought.
"Then let's just dig it up," Think suggested, raising a finger. "Turn over the whole plot of land and see what's underneath."
"...As long as it isn't something dangerous."
Sū ěr was swayed. He took one last look at the bright star, the grey moon, and the shimmering stars in the universe. The next second, he dropped back the way he came.
Alarms blared once again.
Instead of returning to the library, Sū ěr and Think stood where he had first arrived in this era—at the bottom of the well.
The girl in the sailor fuku was gone.
Sū ěr immediately began an excavation.
Scraps of broken wood and hemp cloth were tossed out of the well. During the process, they found another anomaly.
Though the well was covered, there were gaps for air and rainwater. It shouldn't be a sterile vacuum. Yet, both the ancient wooden boards and the hemp cloth remained resilient, as if time had not moved for them.
No rot, no decay. Sū ěr even saw white carvings on one board after wiping away the dust; it felt slightly damp to the touch.
He removed the soil layer by layer along the bottom of the well wall. No abnormality occurred until he dug up a skeleton, leaving the alert Sū ěr and Think feeling a bit... deflated. Their vigilance seemed wasted.
"...A T-Rex?"
"...A yokai?"
"?"
After a moment of silence, Sū ěr and Think both guessed simultaneously.
Meeting Think sharp gaze, Sū ěr gave a dry laugh. "I was wrong. I can't tell the species, but these are definitely yokai bones."
The bones were curled in a fetal position; the yokai's death seemed very peaceful, not like it had struggled to survive. While digging up a yokai's remains was remarkable, digging up bones in this well was actually within their expectations.
As Sū ěr dug deeper and wider, the playful banter vanished.
"Should I keep digging?" Sū ěr sighed, looking to Think for her opinion.
"No need," Think looked around. "Digging further doesn't have much meaning... if all we find are these."
Under Sū ěr control, the soil didn't just exit the well; it flowed out, so it didn't take long.
In the underground cavity lit by magical light, a small mountain of white bones sat before Sū ěr. Some were large, some small; some were beast-like, some humanoid. There were even several skeletons nearly identical to modern humans, which Sū ěr suspected were the remains of gods.
Why were they all buried here?
What was this shrine built upon?
A battlefield? A slaughterhouse? A graveyard?
These bones were just bones, long since stripped of demonic energy or any ability to cause anomalies. The only strange thing was that, like the wooden boards, they hadn't rotted away.
Suddenly looking up, Sū ěr sensed something approaching and pricked up his ears.
"Grandpa, can we really exorcise spirits with just this?"
"Haha, the most important thing is sincerity toward the gods."
Sū ěr remembered the first voice—the girl who had "driven him off"—and the second was a raspy, old man's voice.
"Sin— But, but don't we need a grand ritual! This is too simple!"
"Rest easy, Kagome-chan . Didn't we check just now? Only the cover was pushed aside. We just need to put up new talismans."
"And that man! That man!"
The girl was noisy, a perfect display of a middle-schooler's energy.
"Don't worry. When yokai come to the door, just treat them to a meal. That's your grandpa's 'advice from experience'."
"What kind of experience is that! Ah! Grandpa, have you seen a yokai? What do they look like?"
"Hmm... they are shameless scoundrels who steal your sake to your face on the first meeting, and they're very lecherous. Best you don't meet them, Kagome-chan."
"What?! There's no such yokai! Grandpa is lying to me again!"
"Hahaha, that's no lie. Your grandpa, I..."
The grandfather and granddaughter were chatting leisurely as they walked toward the back hill of the shrine. Below, Sū ěr and Think exchanged a silent glance.
It didn't take long for the girl named Kagome and her grandfather to arrive. Their pleasant chat came to an abrupt halt—they both saw the mountain piled beside the well.
A mountain made of earth.