Leaving that uneasy feeling behind, I arrived at the shrine.
The shrine I had reached.
But as soon as I got there, I couldn’t help but notice something off.
The shrine’s weather felt distinctly chilly, like autumn had set in.
Just moments ago, the heat had been enough to drive me mad.
I wasn’t dumb enough to dismiss this as just my imagination.
Something’s here.
Something in this place was messing with the weather.
That was my conclusion.
And maybe because of that, the senses in my body—which hadn’t worked properly for years—began to awaken.
My hearing grew more sensitive to the sounds around me.
My sense of smell picked up the scent of blood amid the grassy aroma.
My vision expanded, taking in more details and feeding them straight to my brain.
As my senses sharpened, I braced myself like a hedgehog, ready to bristle with spines at the first sign of a predator.
I scanned the surroundings cautiously for a while.
Nothing.
My heightened senses told me clearly: no one was here.
No matter how many times I reviewed the information, the answer stayed the same.
There were no “enemies” here.
Reaching that conclusion, I relaxed my sharpened senses and let out a deep sigh.
“Yeah…
what would be here, anyway.” It seemed my past experiences had made me overreact.
Worst case, even if I spotted something weird, what could I do about it?
With this frail body, calling the cops was my only option.
Get it together.
I’m not the old me anymore.
I was Takuya now, not the guy from before the possession.
After a moment of self-reproach, I headed to the back of the shrine to meet Misaki, who was waiting there, and have lunch.
Arriving at the back, I froze at the sight before me.
Snow was piled thick on the ground behind the shrine.
I stood stunned by the surreal scene for a moment.
“Miss, it doesn’t look like he’s coming.” “N-no, he said he’d definitely be here!” Voices drifted from the snow-free wooden porch: Misaki’s, from our meeting the other day, and another that carried an air of elegance.
I turned to look at the porch, where two figures stood.
One was Misaki, whom I’d seen recently.
The other…
“Oh my.” She had pale skin and wore a white yukata, her long straight white hair cascading down.
“It seems the young lady was right—he really did come.” She was a woman whose appearance seemed utterly inhuman.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Have you ever heard of a Yuki Onna, or Snow Woman?
She’s a yokai that anyone who’s watched anime or likes yokai would know.
She’s a snow spirit or yokai from Japanese folktales, a frequent guest star in literature, comics, and anime whenever yokai appear.
So why am I bringing her up now?
“It’s cold, so drink it right away or it’ll give you a headache.” “Ah, y-yeah…” Because she was sitting right in front of me.
I shivered from the intense chill radiating from the teacup the Yuki Onna handed me.
Flustered by this bizarre situation, I was at a loss, but the girl who’d brought this yokai along seemed totally unfazed.
“Try it.
Yuki-nee’s tea is seriously delicious!” No, she didn’t seem to have a care in the world.
I’m on the verge of dying from nerves here, and she’s acting like it’s nothing.
I desperately held back the urge to flick her forehead and asked Misaki instead.
“Drink this once it’s a bit lukewarm.
So, why is the Snow Woman…
I mean, why is she here?” Misaki looked at me like why are you asking that?
“Because you didn’t seem bothered by her at all, big bro?” I nearly gave in and flicked her forehead for real, but luckily she explained before I could.
“J-just kidding.
Truth is, the clan is doing a big yokai extermination today and took almost every ghost and yokai with them.
So I just brought one of the ones assigned as my escort.” Basically, she was the only one left, so Misaki grabbed her?