(Another 6.7k word chapter)
"This Obon Festival was truly so much fun!"
The bustling liveliness of the Obon Festival was drifting farther and farther away behind them, bit by bit.
The lanterns along the sacred approach path remained lit, their orange glow weaving into a soft line in the night, looking as if they were guiding people toward the direction of the shrine.
The majority of the crowd was still walking upward, the clattering sounds of wooden geta sandals on the stone pavement rising and falling, occasionally mixed with the laughter of children and the residual trailing sounds of street vendors shouting.
But the farther outward they walked, the fainter the sounds became.
Chika tucked both hands behind her back, gently kicking a small pebble beneath her feet with one side of her foot while turning her head to look at Asakura, "Even though I've always been very happy during past festivals, this time is the most delightful!"
"Then you've rejoiced too early."
"Huh?"
Chika, who had originally been waiting for Asakura to ask 'why is it the most delightful' and had already prepared a mental draft in her heart saying 'because the core focus isn't what we played, but rather who I played it with', was instantly stunned.
"Is Asakura-kun playing unhappily?" The young girl asked in confusion: "Could it be that you're throwing a tantrum because we didn't play at that ring-toss stall we passed by just now?"
"I'm not a child." Asakura replied casually.
Chika tilted her head to look at him, blinking her eyes, "Then do you want to head back and do another loop?"
Asakura didn't answer immediately; he stopped his footsteps, his gaze dropping to the ground.
The light from the lanterns cast down diagonally from one side of the sacred approach path, pulling the shadows of the two very long.
The shadows fell upon the ground where stone slabs and soil interlaced, their edges pulled somewhat blurry by the terrain, looking as ordinary as could be.
"Fujiwara." Asakura suddenly spoke up.
"Hmm?" The young girl stopped her footsteps and turned her body around.
"Walk a couple of steps and let me see."
"Eh?"
Chika was stunned for a moment, subconsciously looking around at her surroundings, seemingly checking to confirm whether he was playing a joke.
There weren't many people left outside the sacred approach path; the distant lights wavered, reflecting this area in a state of half-bright and half-dark.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"Just walk a bit." Asakura's gaze remained fixed on the ground.
Chika tilted her head, and though she was somewhat puzzled, she did as instructed anyway.
She gently took two steps forward, her wooden geta sandals stepping on the pebbles and producing a crisp sound, her body swaying slightly before she quickly regained her footing.
She stopped, tilting her head as strands of hair draped down past the side of her face, the young girl looking at Asakura with an adorable gaze, "Like this?"
"Walk one more time."
"Okay~"
She walked a bit slower this time, deliberately lightening her footsteps, pausing slightly with every single step she took before taking the next step forward.
Asakura's gaze consistently remained fixed on her shadow.
Absolutely nothing happened.
"Fujiwara."
"Mhm."
"Try walking a few steps like an Abnormal Titan."
"The request suddenly became so bizarre?!"
"Trust me."
"...If Asakura-kun suddenly pulls out his phone to take photos of me, I will absolutely bite you, you know."
The young girl found it a bit difficult, but in the end, she agreed anyway.
She ran forward a few steps while bobbing her head and swaying her brain, even letting out a strange 'Ga-ou~' cry while running.
To be completely honest, being able to run like that while wearing wooden geta sandals was truly a demanding feat for her.
But the shadow still didn't display any abnormalities.
"Fujiwara."
"How is it?"
"Not quite working, we need to try something else... Next, let's do a Yurchenko-Amanar variation."
"What on earth is that thing that sounds like a special finishing move..."
"Simply speaking, it means running forward."
"Then just say running in the first place—"
"Then, after your body reverses and takes off into the air, immediately do a backflip!"
"Gymnastic moves?!"
"Next comes the difficult part."
"So the previous one actually counted as simple?!"
"Perform a 2.5-twist 900-degree rotation!"
"I can't do that!"
The young girl almost fell flat on the ground.
And right at the exact instant her footstep fell—
Asakura finally confirmed the thing he wanted to see:
The young girl's shadow slightly lagged for a brief moment, exactly as if its network signal wasn't very good.
Asakura's eyes narrowed slightly.
Chika halted her steps, looking down at her own shadow.
Asakura had never concealed his gaze, and by now the young girl naturally realized that there seemed to be an issue with her shadow. Her originally relaxed expression gradually slipped away, "...It does seem a bit strange."
She raised her foot, lightly tapping the ground.
The shadow wobbled a bit, appearing completely normal.
"It doesn't feel quite like an illusion," her brow knit slightly, her line of sight moving back and forth between the shadow and her own foot, "and it isn't a problem with the light either."
"Mhm." Asakura nodded, "It's not the light."
Chika fell silent for a few seconds.
She tried once more, this time standing on a single leg.
She lifted one foot up, her body swaying slightly as she extended her hands to maintain balance, and the shadow lifted along with her.
Then she fell flat on her face.
The lag appeared.
"Ordinary movements can be completely synchronized, but as long as there is a bit of 'unexpectedness', it seems this kind of lag will occur." She stood up, saving face by forcefully bluffing with a face that said 'everything is within my plan': "Exactly as I predicted!"
"Your nose is still red." Asakura pointed out the flaw.
"Wahhh..." The young girl rubbed the tip of her nose with a bitter face.
Meanwhile, Asakura took a step forward out of nowhere, stepping right onto the edge of her shadow.
The shadow wobbled gently.
Like a ripple stepped out on a water surface.
Chika subconsciously took a step back, "Eh? That just now..."
Asakura's expression relaxed a great deal.
"Fantastic, Fujiwara, you've merely been targeted by a mysterious lifeform!" he reasoned happily.
"No, no, no, where on earth is that fantastic?!" The young girl couldn't resist criticizing out loud.
Asakura snapped his fingers, and a flash of firelight swept across Chika's shadow.
The dark shadow that had raised ripples once again dropped back to the ground, shifting back from 'three-dimensional' into 'flat'.
"Because if there really were an issue with the shadow itself, I wouldn't quite know how to solve it."
After all, the power of magic spells was far too idealistic; heaven knows whether burning a person's shadow would simultaneously cause an impact on the owner of the shadow.
The night gradually weighed down on them. The two had already left the main path, and barely anyone could be seen around them anymore. The light of the lanterns swayed gently in the wind, stretching their shadows long.
"What was that?" Chika asked curiously.
"No idea." Asakura gave a premium answer: "But something has likely gone wrong with the Obon Festival..."
"The festival to send back the deceased..." Chika suddenly hugged her own arms, lightly rubbing them, "Even though it's summer, it feels a bit chilly."
She raised her head to look at Asakura, "As expected, it's an issue with the festival, right?"
Asakura looked toward the distant shrine.
The end of the sacred approach path was brightly lit, and the outline of the shrine appeared exceptionally clear in the night, looking as if it were enveloped by some invisible thing.
"Originally, it was to let 'the things that ought to go back' go back." Asakura's tone was very calm, "But right now it looks like something didn't go back."
Not only did it not go back, it has even arrived in the world of the living.
Chika's fingers tightened slightly.
She looked down at her own shadow once more.
That shadow rested quietly against the ground, appearing completely devoid of abnormalities, looking entirely unlike it had just a moment ago when it seemed as if something were about to emerge from within it.
"Then what should we do?" she asked.
"Don't be nervous, let's look for the source first anyway." Asakura answered.
"The shrine?" Chika blurted out almost entirely as a subconscious instinct.
Asakura cast a glance at her.
She herself was also stunned for a moment, and then supplemented in a small voice, "Because... the organizer of the festival is over there, right?"
Asakura nodded his head, "Mhm."
The Obon Festival itself is a form of expression of a ritual; with no current clues, it is clearly the best breakthrough point.
Chika took a deep breath, seemingly organizing her emotions.
She raised her head to look toward the direction of the sacred approach path. Even with the concealment of the thickets, she could still see people coming and going through the gaps, bustling and bright.
"Then should we return directly to the shrine now?" she asked Asakura inquiringly.
"I'm not entirely clear on what exactly the situation is," Asakura rubbed his chin, recalling the situation back at the Chiba Village campsite when that old tree sprite could sense how much of a threat his very existence posed, so he shook his head, "But considering that I might be a bit conspicuous to certain existences, if we rashly return over there, the mastermind behind the scenes might become alert and consequently flee."
"Then we can't take the front entrance."
Chika said excitedly, her line of sight shifting toward the woods beside the sacred approach path.
There there were very few lights, the shadows of the trees overlapped, and the ground was covered with fallen leaves. It looked somewhat dark and gloomy. The night breeze swept through the trees, carrying a bit of the soil scent unique to summer woods.
Chika lightly swallowed her saliva.
"...Detour around from over there?"
Asakura cast a glance following her line of sight.
"We can give it a try."
"Then let's go that way." The young girl wearing wooden geta sandals behaved with resolute determination.
"You are not allowed to participate i... cough, I mean, you are not allowed to go." Asakura said.
"Why?!" Chika's little face fell, having already prepared herself for an adventure, as she protested in dissatisfaction.
"If you were a witch it would be one thing, but you are just a muggle. What's the use of you going?" Asakura answered without the slightest hesitation, "To act as a hostage in case a fight breaks out?"
"If it's Asakura-kun, he definitely won't let things turn out like that!" The girl was brimming with confidence in Asakura.
Well, actually, Asakura was also brimming with confidence in himself.
"Flattery won't work either," he said.
"And think about it, Asakura-kun, my shadow turned into that state just now! Although it's solved for now, what if it relapses?!"
Chika continued to argue her point strongly.
Asakura thought about it and felt she had a point.
After all, he wasn't entirely sure what exactly that thing in the young girl's shadow was just now. In case something else really caught the scent and came over to gnaw on Chika, that would indeed be quite bad.
Thereupon, he could only let out a sigh: "Keep close, our time is very tight."
"Is the situation actually that serious?" The girl pursed her lips, her expression solemn.
"Yes," Asakura nodded, his tone heavy, "The late-night slot program I want to watch is about to start."
"Are those even on the same tier, I ask you?!"
☆
After leaving the sacred approach path, the light visibly dimmed.
The ground in the woods was no longer stone slabs, but soft soil and accumulated leaves. Stepping on them would make a faint "rustling" sound, and occasionally the snap of breaking twigs could be heard.
Chika walked a step ahead, her pace much slower than before.
She looked down at the ground, carefully avoiding protruding tree roots, occasionally pausing to confirm her footing.
Even though it wasn't the kind of deep, uninhabited primaeval forest, but an artificial woods with quite a bit of clearance between trees, because the girl's yukata and wooden geta sandals were highly inconvenient in such an environment, she forced herself into a gait that looked as if she might go up to a Secret Garden at any moment.
"It's so dark here, and the path is so hard to walk..." she said in a small voice with a miserable look on her face.
"I already told you not to come," Asakura, walking in front, said helplessly.
"I'm just complaining a bit, petty Exorcist Master~"
The girl grumbled huffily: "If I had known, I wouldn't have worn wooden geta sandals; they're rubbing my feet so painfully..."
Asakura looked back at the stumbling girl—Chika was puckering her face, her brows tightly knit, clearly already unable to handle it. Her footsteps were starting to wander, and she would occasionally stumble, entirely holding on by sheer willpower—he couldn't help but sigh once more.
He walked beside her, the moonlight shifting across his face through the gaps in the tree canopy, leaving his expression somewhat blurry.
"Do you want me to carry you on my back?" he turned his head and asked.
"...N-No need, I feel like it's a bit of trouble for Asakura-kun..." Chika immediately shook her head. Though she said so, her tone carried a subtle hint of anticipation.
She raised her eyes slightly to glance at Asakura, then quickly looked away, as if waiting for something.
"True that." Hearing this, Asakura, who had already turned around and was even preparing to squat down, simply stood up straight.
"Huh, you're really not going to carry me?! How heartless!" Chika widened her eyes in shock, even forgetting to check the path beneath her feet, nearly tripping over.
"No, I just thought of a more efficient method..." Asakura said seriously, casting his eyes over her to size her up, "After all, you look a bit heavy."
"...Is it heavy in the spiritual sense? Can't be helped, Chika here is also a heavy girl..." Chika subconsciously chimed in, her tone carrying a bit of self-abandoning banter.
"It's body weight. Stop escaping reality."
"Guh!" The girl's expression instantly froze. "Don't say things like 'heavy weight' to a young and beautiful JK! That's a taboo word!"
"[Snake]."
"Eh?"
Lazy to waste any more words, Asakura grabbed Chika and transfigured her instantly.
In the next second, a small snake appeared in his hand.
The little snake was completely pink, its scales gleaming with a soft luster under the faint light. There was even a rather comical and cute black bow-tie pattern on its head.
"This way there's no problem." Asakura nodded with satisfaction, casually wrapping the little snake around his neck. "Hold on tight, I'm going to speed up."
The small snake raised its head huffily, flicking its tongue "hiss hiss" against Asakura's earlobe, as if expressing strong dissatisfaction.
However, before it could make any more reactions, its head was lightly tapped by Asakura with his knuckle.
"Thud."
"Hiss!" The small snake shrank back, instantly becoming much more well-behaved.
After Asakura was by himself, his speed visibly increased; the night woods did not cause much of an effect on him, and he ran along as if moving on level ground.
The woods gradually thinned out, and the silhouette of the shrine could be faintly seen ahead. Light filtered through from the other side, illuminating part of the wall.
"We're here." Asakura made a sudden stop.
Emerging from the woods, they had already detoured to the rear of the shrine.
This place was completely different from the sacred approach path over there; there were no tourists, nor were there any lanterns, only the quiet night and slightly dilapidated buildings.
The compound wall was an old wooden structure, and the edges of the wooden planks were rotting quite severely; one could even see split textures and mottled marks.
A few broken pieces of shimenawa ropes hung at the corner of the wall, swaying gently with the wind, making one feel inexplicably uncomfortable.
With a light leap, Asakura propped his hand on the wall and easily vaulted over it.
The inner side of the wall was the backyard of the shrine, piled with some wooden boxes and tools, looking like a place the staff would usually use.
"Hiss hiss hiss." The small pink snake asked.
"Mhm." Asakura replied.
"Hiss hiss hiss." The small pink snake said.
"Perhaps." Asakura nodded.
"I didn't say anything, I was just flicking my tongue." The small pink snake spoke in human tongue.
"You can actually talk!" Asakura was greatly shocked.
"Huh, shouldn't I be able to talk in this state?!" The small pink snake also revealed a quite human-like expression of shock.
"Worth researching... but right now there are other more important things to do."
Asakura walked to the side of the wall; this place should be something like a warehouse or a utility room, and he reached out to feel the wooden door.
It was actually unlocked.
He gave it a gentle push.
Nothing happened.
So he pushed harder again.
The door panel wobbled a bit.
No wonder it didn't need a lock; this damn rusted door hinge worked better than any lock.
With a head full of black lines, Asakura mustered his strength before finally pushing the wooden door open.
The wooden door let out a somewhat piercing "creak" sound.
Although this sound was quickly drowned out by the taiko drums and festival music coming from ahead, Chika still subconsciously held her breath.
She poked her head out from Asakura's neck, staring intently into the darkness inside the door, as if someone would walk out from it in the next second.
The warehouse was very dark, but Chika, who had turned into a snake at this time, could be certain that there was no one inside.
"There's a smell of rotten wood." The small pink snake said.
The inside of the shrine warehouse was much quieter than the outside.
The air carried the scent of incense, as well as a bit of the stale smell of old wood.
The wooden floorboards let out a faint sound under Asakura's feet.
He pulled the small snake off his neck, threw it onto the ground, and broke the curse for the young girl.
In the next instant, Chika fell flat on her bottom onto the ground, letting out a somewhat ungraceful wail.
But probably out of fear of being heard, she forcefully covered her mouth and swallowed the wretched cry back into her stomach, leaving behind only an unidentifiable whimper, and a gaze directed at Asakura that was full of resentment, with a hint of tears still lingering in the corners of her eyes.
Asakura did not respond to the girl's resentment; he merely slipped quickly into the warehouse and pulled out his phone to act as a flashlight—the vision brought by the magic spell [Snake] was closer to thermal imaging, which could only see the outlines of objects, but could not clearly see the patterns on them, let alone text or anything of the sort.
Chika's dissatisfaction was quickly overridden by the excitement of exploration, and she began to follow Asakura to search through the clutter for things that could be taken as clues.
"Hey, Asakura-kun..."
"What is it, did you find any valuable clues?"
"Ah, setting that aside for the moment, look over there—"
"Where?"
"In that corner near the ceiling on the right side of the room."
Asakura followed the direction pointed out by Chika and looked over, and then he saw a surveillance camera head subtly flashing a concealed red light.
"Ah..."
He froze for a moment.
Well, it seemed that what was used for theft prevention wasn't just the rusted door hinge.
Without hesitating for even a split second, Asakura raised his index and middle fingers: "Domain Expansion: Minovsky Particle Dispersion!"
The red light on the camera head instantly went out.
"With any luck, no one should be coming over here for a very long time." Asakura said.
After all, the range of his Domain Expansion was quite far; he estimated that many people's phones and other devices over at the Obon Festival would experience problems because of this, causing a certain degree of commotion. As the host, the shrine would definitely be overwhelmed and frantic, leaving them with no spare energy to notice this corner.
"What if we're out of luck?" Chika asked.
"If we're out of luck, they will be turned into a snake by me."
Chika: "..."
So it turned out that being out of luck meant that the person who discovered them would be out of luck?
While talking, the two continued to rummage through the boxes and chests in the warehouse.
There was quite a bit of clutter in the warehouse, and many things looked as if they were filled with a sense of story, weathered and mysterious, such as a Hina doll with growing hair, boxes covered in talismans, a bronze mirror stained with what was probably bloodstains...
Just clearing the things that looked useful out of the pile of clutter required quite a bit of time and physical energy.
One in a flash, almost more than an hour passed.
"Cough cough, so much dust... Huh, this box is completely full of books?" Chika rummaged a cardboard box out from the corner. Inside were many stale books, and there were even some thread-bound volumes. She opened one with great interest, but then said with a bitter face, "Wahhh, it's completely filled with Chinese characters..."
"Hence why it's the relaxed education generation..."
Asakura shook his head while taking the ancient book from the young girl's hands to take a look.
Then he also put on a bitter face: "Fuck, why is it all Classical Chinese..."
Fortunately, although he had been intensely brushing up on the academic knowledge of Japan over the past two years, the accumulation from his previous life wasn't entirely lost after all. Being rank one in the grade wasn't just for show, and stumbling along, he could still comprehend about seventy to eighty percent of the book's contents.
"What is written inside?" Chika asked curiously as she watched Asakura rapidly flip through the pages.
"It's something like a local gazetteer or a fudoki," Asakura complained with a furrowed brow. "Aside from the sickening flattery toward the local big shots of each era, most of it consists of trivial, petty matters, along with some records of ritual activities organized by the shrine. None of it mentions the Obon Festival though... The handwriting of the person who wrote this book is truly hideous, I can't even recognize half the words..."
"There are still a lot of books like this in this box." Chika said as if presenting a treasure, "And then beside this box, there are many more boxes like this."
Asakura opened a box next to it, which was also completely filled with a pile of similar books. This couldn't help but give him a bit of a headache—reading Classical Chinese was fine, but the fact that the account was written in a font that could practically be called wild cursive gave him a headache.
"Do we have to look for records of the Obon Festival in so many books..." Chika made a 'wow~' mouth shape, "It seems Asakura-kun's late-night slot show won't be happening."
"It's more than just missing the late-night slot..." Asakura scratched his head and sighed in distress.
Who knows when they will finish reading so many books. If only the True Sight Realm could still be used.
Suddenly, a voice rang out at the entrance of the warehouse.
"If you are looking for relevant records of the Obon Festival—"
Asakura: "[Snake]"
Chika: "Waah, shouldn't Asakura-kun listen to what the other party has to say first? It feels like a very important setting..."
Asakura: "I'm a cutscene skipper."
Chika: "Don't mix up games and reality! In reality it's not called a story plot, it's life, life!"
The two looked toward the doorway together. Naturally, there was no longer any human figure there, only a little snake flipping its belly up.
However, a pattern on the little snake's head that looked like black-framed glasses made Asakura feel subtly familiar.
He extended his hand and made a phantom stroke: "Dispel the spell."
Thereupon, the little snake instantly burst apart, turning into a beautiful young girl with black hair and golden pupils.
"Isn't this Miko-chan!" Chika exclaimed in surprise.
"It's Yotsuya..." Asakura was also somewhat surprised.
"Asakura-kun actually turned her into a snake without even seeing clearly who she was?" Chika complained, "Miko-chan is so pitiful!"
"It was just a reflex... More importantly, Yotsuya, why are you here?"
Asakura hurriedly shifted the topic.
"I..."
Miko opened her mouth, but her voice caught in her throat. The process of just going from 'being turned into a snake' to 'restoring human form' had clearly caused a significant mental (worldview) shock to her. Her gaze was still somewhat blank, and her body was frozen in place, as if her brain hadn't completely caught up with reality yet.
She subconsciously raised her hand to touch her own face, then looked down at her own fingers, confirming that she was indeed still in a 'human' state, only then letting out a slight sigh of relief.
After a few seconds, looking exactly as if she had finally found her language ability again, she took a deep breath and spoke out, bit by bit, about the dream she had had earlier, as well as the words spoken by her father who existed in her home in the form of an earthbound spirit.
Her speaking speed was not fast, and she paused a few times in the middle, appearing as if she were reminiscing, or organizing those unsettling details.
When speaking of certain parts, her voice would unconsciously lower, even carrying a touch of tension that she herself hadn't noticed.
The warehouse fell silent for a time.
"...The inversion of life and death."
After a moment, Asakura leaned against a wooden box on the side, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the edge of the box, repeating the phrase in a low voice.
His gaze cast down slightly, rapidly organizing the clues in his mind, his tone gradually becoming clear.
"Speaking of it this way, what appeared in Fujiwara's shadow earlier—perhaps it wasn't a pure 'shadow abnormality', but rather some deceased who have already run out from the 'opposite bank of the river'."
Having spoken to this point, he paused slightly, looking exactly as if he had grasped some key point.
"Wait a minute..." His brows furrowed slightly, his tone lowering a bit, "'They will return along the path of the lights. First the shadows, then the voices, and finally the positions'..."
"Is this... what that child said earlier?" Chika reacted almost instantly.
She subconsciously leaned forward a bit, her eyes widening slightly, her tone carrying obvious surprise and realization, "But wasn't she a chunibyo?"
"It's not an impossible thing for a person with extraordinary senses to be treated as a chunibyo by their family." Asakura shook his head, his tone remaining calm, "After all, for ordinary people, that level of 'seeing' is inherently very difficult to understand."
As he spoke, his gaze sank slightly.
"The reality is that those 'deceased' right now—let's call them that for the time being—are indeed starting to manifest from the shadows."
The air turned slightly stagnant for a fleeting instant.
Chika subconsciously cast a look down at the ground.
The warehousely light was dim, and her shadow was pulled very faint by the flashlight's beam, its edges blurry, appearing as ordinary as could be.
...But she had already seen its unordinary state.
She lightly sucked in a breath and shifted her gaze away.
"By the way." Looking exactly as if she had suddenly remembered something, she looked back toward Miko, "What did Miko want to say at the doorway just now?"
She tilted her head slightly, her tone recovering a bit of its usual lightheartedness, "For you to find your way over here, it shouldn't just be because of that dream, right? There must be other things to say, right?"
"Ah, yeah." Being asked this, Miko visibly blanked for a moment, then hurriedly nodded her head.
She slightly organized her thoughts, her hands unconsciously gripping the hem of her clothes, her tone becoming serious, "Before I came, I specifically sought to understand the situation of the Obon Festival here from the shrine's shrine maiden."
Having spoken to this point, she paused a bit, looking exactly as if she were checking to confirm her memory hadn't made an error.
"She said that this shrine's Obon Festival... has always been like this."
"..."
Asakura fell silent for a brief moment.
He did not speak, but merely let out a light sigh, his line of sight turning a bit subtle for an instant.
It seemed the young girl's intelligence was exactly having no intelligence.
"However, it is said that a very, very long time ago, the procedure of this shrine's Obon Festival ritual underwent changes." Fortunately, the young girl hadn't truly come to exhibit nonsense literature, she followed up saying: "That was during the early Sengoku period; local powerful clans and samurai families, for a certain purpose, once had the local shrines and temples modify the ritual."
"A certain purpose?" Chika immediately chimed in, her tone carrying obvious curiosity.
She leaned forward a bit, her eyes lighting up, "What is that?"
"The shrine maiden isn't clear on it either." Miko shook her head, her tone a bit hesitant, "However... the head priest of the shrine at the time once speculated that it was probably to enhance the legitimacy of their struggle for political power."
When she said this, her voice unconsciously grew a bit softer.
It was as if even she herself felt that this statement was somewhat distant and a bit out of reach.
"The early Sengoku period..." Asakura, however, didn't seem to pay attention to those explanations, but instead repeated the point in time in a low voice.
His brows furrowed slightly, looking exactly as if he were rapidly converting the timeline in his mind.
"In other words—it was roughly five hundred years ago?"
"Something like four hundred... five hundred years ago." Miko nodded her head.
"Is there any problem with five hundred years ago?"
Chika turned her head to look at Asakura, still bearing an 'I'm curious' expression.
She tilted her head slightly, strands of hair sliding down from the side of her shoulder, looking at him with bright eyes. Clearly, the young girl, who frequently played board games, realized that this might be a key node in solving the mystery.
"It's nothing major..." Asakura shook his head, not telling them about the 'miracle'.
However, if there indeed existed supernatural entities among the samurai families and nobility of that era that were similar to the old tree sprite or even more ancient—and upon sensing the arrival of the 'miracle', they conveyed this fact to the upper echelons of humanity—then, those greedy humans attempting to seize the 'miracle' by tampering with religious rituals to grasp that power in their own hands, such a development would actually make sense.
By the same token, a 'miracle' is not capable of achieving absolutely everything.
The old tree sprite and its kind spent five hundred years accumulating power, and only when the 'mystery' descended did they truly manifest as ancient yokai.
Manifestly, the samurai families and nobility five hundred years ago expended great effort to push forward the reform of the rituals, yet they did not gain any harvest of significant weight. It was merely for the sake of face or out of laziness to expend further effort, so they did not change the rituals back.
It was precisely this ritual that, after continuously settling over a span of five hundred years and with the reinforcement of the 'mystery's' descent, finally began to erupt with unexpected effects this year, achieving the 'miracle' of reversing life and death.
"Excellent... I've finally seen the true essence of this incident's problem." Asakura muttered.
Should he use the magic spell [Candle] to burn the ritual away?
No, the ritual has already been completed; even if it is burned away, it is already impossible to alter the progression.
Then should he simply burn the 'miracle' away?
Asakura pinched his fingertips, just about to use [Candle] to test-burn it, but his heart jolted, feeling that something wasn't quite right, so he opened the future to take a look.
Then he saw himself, upon using [Candle] against the 'miracle', getting backlashed by the magic spell, his entire body roasted inside out until crisp and aromatic.
It seemed that the status of the 'miracle' was above [Candle].
Could it be that there is absolutely no way to stop this ritual?
Asakura felt a bit vexed.
No, that's not right.
Thinking about it carefully, no matter what kind of ritual it is, it cannot possibly operate out of thin air; there must definitely be some sort of carrier in existence—
"Five hundred years... ritual... shadow... the deceased... opposite bank of the river... returning along the path of the lights..."
Wait a minute? Lights?
That's it! Those lanterns drifting in the river!
"Fujiwara, do you know where that river beside the shrine leads to?" Asakura asked.
"Tokyo Bay, right?" The young girl said, sticking out her tongue, "Sorry, I don't know the answer, I was just talking nonsense..."
"It merges into that small nearby river called Huoshaojing, which is a tributary of the Hanamigawa." Miko answered, "Originally there wasn't a small river beside the shrine; this current one was artificially dug out five hundred years ago for the sake of the ritual."
Asakura gave Miko a deeply meaningful look.
"Let's go."
"What about these books?" Chika asked.
"There's no longer any necessity to look at them."
Asakura shook his head, then took the lead in walking out of the warehouse.
Compared to the stuffy air inside the warehouse, it was much more comfortable outside.
He took a deep breath, walking toward that small river beside the shrine.
At this time, the bustling scene of being completely filled with lanterns from just now could no longer be seen in the small river; only a few small lanterns were still drifting in the water.
"Fortunately we're in time..." Asakura said as he walked toward the river.
"Huh? Asakura-kun, are you going to go swimming?"
Chika asked in surprise.
"How could that be possible... It's just that if I haven't guessed wrong, the name of this artificially dug-out river should also be 'Something-jing' rather than the more common 'Something-gawa'. Because for lanterns... or rather, for raw souls, this is not a river, but a path leading to a land of miracles that allows them to return to the mortal world once again."
Asakura stepped one foot onto the surface of the water, and the magic spell [Scale] unfolded beneath his feet, making him feel exactly as if he were stepping on solid ground.
He strolled on the water's surface just like that, walking slowly toward the front.
The young girls exchanged a glance, and then followed close behind him step by step.
——So 'that' had existed here all along in such a grand and imposing manner, yet it had never been discovered by anyone, because the Obon Festival is a festival held in the summer, and for ordinary people, walking on the surface of a river in summer is obviously impossible.
Being unable to walk on it, they naturally could not see the place where the path led.
The three of them walked forward along the river for a stretch of the way like this.
Suddenly, the scene before their eyes underwent a change.
Just like a brand-new world, it slowly unfolded before their eyes——
What stood before them was no longer a river, but a long flight of stone steps.
The stone steps extended all the way out from beneath their feet, looking as if they had no end.
Step by step, orderly and ancient, radiating the vicissitudes of five hundred years of accumulation.
Lanterns were lined up on both sides, their orange firelight swaying slowly in the night, looking as if someone were gently blowing air in an invisible place.
The flames brightened and dimmed, yet in the very next instant they would always wobble somewhat unnaturally, as if responding to some sort of silent call.
The air was very quiet.
Yet it was not without sound.
The fine, broken sound of water drifted over from afar, faintly allowing one to hear water currents pouring down from a high place, falling into an invisible depth. That sound was very distant, yet it also felt as if it were pressed against the ear. Looking up along the stone steps, the entire mountain body looked as if it had been hollowed out; a massive waterfall cascaded down from a suspended precipice, the white water flow glinting with a cold light beneath the moonlight, forming a bizarre contrast with the warm lamplight around it.
In the center of the stone steps, a vermilion torii gate stood straddling across.
More than one.
Further up, there were more.
Even further away, there were still more.
Layer upon layer, looking like a path leading to some destination that was concealed by multiple tiers.
A full moon hung in the night sky, bright to the point of being nearly piercing to the eye.
Moonlight poured down from the gaps between the cloud layers, illuminating that building suspended at a high place.
That was no ordinary shrine.
It looked more like a city.
Tier upon tier of eaves expanded outward, and lamplight spilled out from every single layer of window frames, like golden blood flowing slowly in the darkness.
The entire building was suspended in mid-air, propped up by the waterfall and the rock walls, yet no real support could be seen.
It just existed there quietly, as if from the very beginning it did not belong to this world.
Lanterns were not only on the ground.
They were also in the air.
One by one, they floated upward slowly, like lamplights released into flight by someone.
They had no wind, yet they were still moving, passing over treetops, passing over torii gates, and ultimately disappearing before that massive full moon.
And at the edges of the stone steps, something was moving.
It wasn't the wind.
It was light.
Pale blue shadows floated up from between the cracks of the stones, drifting gently across the ground.
They had no fixed shape; they were merely wisp after wisp, wandering along the edges of the lamplight. Sometimes clinging to the stone steps, sometimes rotating around the lanterns, looking as if they were observing, and also looking as if they were waiting.
When one's line of sight attempted to chase after them, they were unexpectedly no longer there.
Walking further upward, the air began to turn cold.
It was not a change in temperature, but a kind of indescribable "sense of distance."
It felt as if with every single step trodden upward, the world beneath one's feet——or rather, reality——became a bit further away.
The darkness behind them did not disappear.
The light ahead, however, grew brighter and brighter.
Until that shrine completely occupied their field of vision.
The lamps and fires were brilliant, the golden light dyeing the entire night into a warm hue. Yet the closer they approached, the more they could sense a certain discordant place.
There was no one here.
To be precise, there were no living people.
There was no sound of footsteps, and no sound of talking.
Even the wind seemed to have stopped.
Only the lamps were burning.
Only the water was falling.
There were also those pale blue shadows that had covered the stone steps at some unknown point, resting quietly on both sides, looking as if they were waiting for something.
Or——
Waiting to head from the opposite bank to the present world, returning to the world they thirsted for.