Chapter 157: The Hidden Shrine!
By the time the school clock pointed to six in the evening, the summer dusk had begun to settle outside the windows.
The once-lively hallways and classrooms gradually returned to their usual after-school silence.
Yurikawa Hana had invited Yotsuya Miko and Niguredo Yuria to meet at the school entrance.
"Why did you suddenly decide we should watch a movie today? Weren't we going shopping?"
Miko looked at Hana curiously.
Their schoolwork was not particularly heavy, but by evening, Miko still felt somewhat tired.
She could handle wandering around the mall, but sitting through a movie made her worry she might fall asleep halfway through.
Besides—
'Have any interesting new movies even come out recently?'
Miko lightly touched a finger to her lips and thought.
"No, no, no! Today's movie is supposed to be amazing!"
Hana planted her hands on her hips and raised one finger as though lecturing Miko.
"You have to enjoy good things early, or someone else will take them first! You know what they say—never miss your chicken!"
"It's 'never miss your chance'!"
And nobody was going to steal the movie from them!
Miko lowered her head helplessly.
Hana really was energetic as always.
Still, Miko did not particularly mind either way.
She turned toward the little mushroom beside her.
"What do you think, Yuria-chan? About watching a movie?"
"Hm?"
Yuria raised her head and looked between them.
"I'm fine with anything. I'd just be going home alone anyway."
"Then let's go!"
Hana exclaimed excitedly.
She pulled out her smartphone and opened the navigation app.
Following the route displayed on the screen, the three girls set off toward their destination.
They chatted and laughed all the way until they reached a long flight of stone steps.
Dense trees covered in green leaves surrounded them.
There did not seem to have been any signs of people nearby for quite some time.
"Hm? Are we taking a shortcut?"
Miko looked around at the lush greenery in confusion.
This stone path did not look like anything leading toward a modern movie theater.
If anything—It resembled the approach to some kind of shrine.
Miko glanced behind her.
There were more identical stone steps stretching downward.
'Was the road we just came from… like this?'
"Maybe it's some secret shortcut nobody knows about."
Hana did not care much.
"Anyway, let's just follow the navigation!"
She continued forward.
"Maybe we should go back."
Having spent a long time searching for paranormal locations, Yuria naturally sensed something was wrong.
She immediately tried to stop the other two.
Back when she used to investigate haunted places, her Yin-Yang Eyes had been much weaker than they were now.
She could only see relatively weak evil spirits.
But regardless of strength, evil spirits tended to favor cold, secluded places with few people.
The lush, deserted surroundings before them fit that description perfectly.
Yuria was about to remind Miko of this when Miko turned and smiled at her.
"It's fine. Our phones still have signal, so it shouldn't be that dangerous."
"Hm?"
Yuria looked confused.
Miko tightly grabbed Yuria's hand.
With her other hand, she rapidly typed and sent messages on her phone.
Then she whispered,
"Don't look back."
The three continued following the navigation.
Unlike their cheerful conversation earlier, only Hana's happy humming remained now.
After walking in silence for a while, Yuria finally could not suppress her curiosity.
"What did you see?"
"A lot."
Miko answered simply.
As someone who also possessed Yin-Yang Eyes, Yuria immediately understood.
She also noticed that Miko's hand had become sweaty.
"It's okay."
Miko smiled at her.
"I already told Sensei."
Soon, the long path finally came to an end.
"You have arrived at your destination. Navigation ended."
What greeted them was not the signboard of a movie theater.
Instead—A shrine torii stood before them along the approach.
'It really is a shrine!'
Miko quickly scanned the area beyond the torii.
Even the carefree Hana finally looked completely confused.
"That's weird. The movie theater's navigation definitely says it's here."
Hana lowered her phone and carefully looked ahead again.
The shimenawa hanging from the torii, the tamagaki fence beyond it, the shrine building, and even the offertory box all clearly proved one thing—
The place that should have been a movie theater was unquestionably a shrine.
"Really?"
The talented actress Miko leaned over with an equally confused expression and looked at Hana's phone.
"Did the navigation mess up?"
"I don't know."
Hana looked around.
"But whatever. The scenery here is really pretty…"
"Hmm. There doesn't seem to be anyone around, though."
She opened her wallet and prepared to walk through the torii toward the offertory box.
"Since we're already here, we might as well pray."
"Would a hundred yen be enough for the offering?"
Miko immediately remembered what Luke had told her when she once asked him about gods.
'Miko, if you're in trouble, ask a legitimate organization for help. Don't go looking for some shady underground gang breaking the law.'
'Mm. I'm specifically talking about those abandoned shrines out in the middle of nowhere.'
'If you really encounter something like that, contact me immediately.'
The situation before her fit that warning perfectly.
Combined with the strange things she had seen along the way, Miko hurriedly grabbed Hana's school bag before she could toss coins into the offertory box.
"Don't randomly worship things when you don't even know what they are."
"Otherwise, you might end up getting involved with something troublesome."
Miko raised one finger and continued,
"You know the saying—if you worship something bad, that bad thing might latch onto you."
Hana was suddenly pulled to a stop.
She turned around in confusion.
"Really?"
"Yep."
Miko immediately pointed toward Yuria.
"Yuria is an expert in this stuff!"
"Huh?"
Yuria froze for a moment before catching Miko's meaningful look.
"Ah! Right, right!"
"You absolutely shouldn't worship unknown gods."
"Bad luck would be the least of your problems. It could even put your life in danger!"
Miko and Yuria worked together perfectly.
"Eh?! That's scary!"
The innocent Hana immediately believed her friends and abandoned the idea of making an offering and praying.
But Miko and Yuria could not relax at all.
They had already felt that the entire journey today was abnormal.
There was an ominous feeling surrounding everything.
And Miko had personally seen the evil spirits that had appeared somewhere along the route behind them.
They possessed twisted humanoid limbs and grotesque faces.
Their hungry gazes remained fixed on the girls as they blocked the path back.
Miko did not know what would happen if they forced their way through.
But the instinctive sense of danger alone was enough to stop her from bringing Hana and Yuria anywhere near them.
And now—Before them stood a torii.
A shrine that seemingly worshipped some unknown god.
Remembering Luke's warnings, Miko did not relax for even a moment.
She remained firmly outside the torii.
'What are those evil spirits doing now?'
"This place really is pretty."
Miko murmured.
"Let's take a picture."
She quickly took out her phone and opened the front-facing camera.
"Hm? We're taking a picture?"
Hana noticed the phone and looked over curiously.
"I just want to see whether the lighting is bad."
Miko pushed Hana slightly out of the way and used the camera angle to check behind them.
The evil spirits had stopped far away from the torii.
Their ravenous eyes were still locked firmly onto the three girls.
Yet not a single one dared to move any closer.
'Are they afraid of the shrine…?'
'Or something inside it?'
At the very least—This place should be relatively safe.
'We'll stay here and wait for Sensei to rescue us.'
Miko had only just made up her mind when a burning sensation suddenly spread across her lower abdomen.
Her heart tightened.
Yuria, who also carried a protective talisman, felt the same burning heat.
And then—Both girls felt something above them.
A gaze.
Looking down from high overhead.
…
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