Chapter 160: Hiratsuka Shizuka Wants to Take a Day Off Too!
Human sacrifice.
Just hearing the term made it sound like nothing good.
Luke ventured a guess.
"Sacrificing living humans? The kind of ritual where someone's soul is offered to an evil god to appease its anger and ward off disaster?"
He did not know much about such rituals, but he had heard stories about villages in the past abandoning elderly people who could no longer work deep in the mountains as sacrifices.
Still…
What exactly was that foxlike spirit in Miko's last photo, the one whose face could split open like flower petals?
It did not quite resemble the man-eating evil god Luke had imagined.
"The method is similar, but the purpose is different."
Kasumizuki studied the picture on her phone.
"Rather than appeasing the anger of a ghost-god, it would be more accurate to say that the people of a small mountain village created a divine spirit capable of sealing one."
"The original sacrifices probably included foxes, humans, and perhaps other things as well."
"Their powers observed and balanced one another, eventually creating a spirit with divinity."
Kasumizuki continued,
"The villagers enshrined it and used it to suppress the actual ghost-god they needed to deal with, gaining peaceful lives in return."
"That's probably why its body contains ritual elements like bells and talismans."
"Anyway, that's about all I can determine from the photograph."
Miko hurriedly added,
"Oh, right! Besides the spirit in the picture, there were two foxlike shikigami standing beside it."
Yuria supplied more detail.
"Yes. They had human bodies and wore fox masks."
"Then my guess is probably close."
Kasumizuki nodded.
"It's an artificially created Mountain God, formed through sacrificial rituals for the purpose of suppressing a ghost-god."
"Ah…"
Luke sounded rather disappointed.
"So it doesn't count as an evil god?"
"The actual evil god is the thing being suppressed underneath it?"
He had originally thought he could destroy the spirit above, finish his current mission, then seal the evil god underneath.
Then, next time he received another mission requiring him to deal with an evil god, he could simply unseal it and deal with that one too.
Who could have guessed that the foxlike spirit on top did not actually qualify as an evil god?!
Seriously.
Was he supposed to tell the fox—
'Open the seal for a moment. I'll be right back'?
Yeah.
He was probably getting ahead of himself.
"Why are you so obsessed with evil gods?"
Kasumizuki looked at him speechlessly.
"They're not bosses from some game that drop equipment and experience points when you kill them."
"Though if we insist on categorizing it…"
"That thing could technically be considered an evil god now."
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said."
Kasumizuki glanced toward the two girls.
"According to Miko, that Mountain God offered bells to both her and Yuria, right?"
Miko and Yuria nodded together.
"Then that supports my theory."
Kasumizuki continued,
"Whatever ghost-god was originally sealed beneath it—whether it represented drought, famine, plague, or some other disaster—the suppression probably did bring the village a period of peace."
"But over time, generations changed."
"People moved away."
"The sacrificial rituals were forgotten."
"So the balance maintaining this so-called Mountain God eventually collapsed."
"What remains now is probably little more than its animalistic or corrupted nature."
Kasumizuki scrolled through her phone, looking for similar cases she had encountered before.
"That's probably why it dragged the three of you into its territory."
"And those two fox-masked humanoid shikigami were most likely spirit mediums who accepted those bells in the past."
"In short…"
"That Mountain God has already set its sights on all three of you."
"All three?"
Yuria pointed between herself and Miko.
"Hana too?"
"Yes."
Kasumizuki nodded.
"That girl Hana has extremely abundant life energy, doesn't she?"
"To that Mountain God, she'd basically look like a feast."
"As for you two…"
"It probably wants to turn you into beings like those two fox-masked shikigami standing beside it."
"And those bells were probably something similar to a contract."
Miko remembered how strangely alluring the bell had felt and how firmly she had refused to take it.
She asked uncertainly,
"Then even though we didn't accept the bells, it'll still come after us?"
"Of course."
Luke nodded.
"A god without worshippers isn't some merchant willing to negotiate with you."
"It's a robber."
Kasumizuki added,
"It might offer you a contract because that makes consuming you easier."
"But refusing the bell doesn't really solve anything."
"Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to enter that isolated shrine space in the first place."
"Then Hana is in danger!"
Miko immediately grabbed Luke's arm.
"She's fine."
Luke reassured her.
"Hana can't see evil spirits, right?"
"No matter how powerful that Mountain God is, it can only directly interfere with reality inside its shrine."
"So if Hana can't perceive it, it can't hurt her."
"In that respect, it's no different from ordinary evil spirits."
"Unless someone deliberately performs a sacrificial ritual and offers Hana to it, the Mountain God won't be able to touch her."
"Oh…"
Miko finally relaxed a little.
Luke glanced at her.
'This kid is already in trouble herself, yet she's still worrying about everyone else.'
"Let's deal with it tomorrow."
Luke idly played with a strand of Miko's hair.
"It's too late today."
"I'll take the day off tomorrow and handle that Mountain God."
He paused.
"Actually, forget it. I'll request leave right now~"
Luke took out his phone, searched through his contacts, and called Hiratsuka Shizuka.
Come to think of it, this was probably the first time he had voluntarily called Hiratsuka-sensei to ask for leave since saving her number.
Sure, he slept in class and sometimes did not do his homework.
But his attendance record had always been perfect.
Not that there was any perfect-attendance bonus.
"Hello? Hiratsuka-sensei?"
"What?"
Shizuka's dejected voice immediately came through the phone.
She sounded strangely dazed.
Luke could roughly guess what she was doing.
"…Sensei, have you been drinking?"
"So what if I have?"
"Work is already exhausting enough! Am I not allowed to relax after getting off work?"
"Even adults… Ugh~ Adults get tired too…"
"This is so annoying!"
"That brat actually showed off his love life right in front of me! I really want to beat him up!"
"Maybe I should just take tomorrow off too!"
"Ahhh! I want a boyfriend!"
Luke's face twitched as he listened to her increasingly incoherent rant.
The brat who had shown off his love life and deserved a beating was obviously him.
He silently moved the phone farther away.
'Yeah…'
'I really shouldn't have called her right now.'
'Miscalculation.'
Shizuka continued pouring out her grievances from the other end.
Crunch—
Crunch!
"I knew I should never have become a teacher!"
"This job is so annoying…"
"This chocolate has at least a tiny bit of sweetness when I eat it, so why is there absolutely no sweetness in my life?"
"Uuu…"
Of course.
Eating chocolate while drinking alcohol probably made everything taste even more bitter.
Luke sighed again.
Then he cautiously spoke.
"Um…"
"Hiratsuka-sensei, I need to take tomorrow off."
"Take the day off?"
Shizuka paused.
"…Students pay money to attend school and still want days off."
"So naturally, someone who gets paid to go to school should want days off even more…"
"Ugh~"
"I'm talking about myself."
Luke immediately pulled the phone away and turned toward Kasumizuki.
"Can we postpone this for a while?"
He could not take it anymore.
Hiratsuka-sensei's drunken rambling from the other side of the phone was starting to make him uncomfortable too.
'Ugh!'
'I really want to swear.'
"…Sooner is definitely better."
Kasumizuki answered helplessly.
"I don't know enough about that Mountain God to predict what kind of influence it might already have on those two."
At last, Shizuka stopped complaining.
"So what's your reason for taking leave?"
'My reason?'
Luke thought for a moment.
He genuinely did not know what to say.
Was he supposed to tell Hiratsuka-sensei that he needed to rescue some girls and smash apart a corrupted god?
That did not sound like a proper excuse for skipping school.
"For world peace, I'm going to Planet Namek to pick a fight with Frieza!"
Mm.
Now that sounded much more grand and respectable.
Kasumizuki rolled her eyes.
As expected of teacher and student.
Neither one was remotely reliable.
"…Fine."
Shizuka answered after a pause.
"Remember to email me your leave request."
"And if you need everyone to gather their energy for a Spirit Bomb…"
"Remember to call me."
"…Okay."
Luke ended the call.
Hiratsuka-sensei really was drunk.
Though…
Did Hiratsuka-sensei even have any positive energy left?
Wasn't she basically made of resentment at this point?
"Anyway, I got the day off."
Luke put away his phone.
"Let's discuss how we're going to deal with that thing tomorrow."
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