"At this point, we can only step on the gas." Hara Kenji cupped her face, his soft and cool lips pressing against Kisaragi Chiyo's eyes.
Just as Hara Kenji had said, after time was intentionally accelerated, they arrived directly at the night of the third day following a moment of trance.
And at this moment, there was still one hour remaining before the start of the Courage Test.
"I see." Kisaragi Chiyo sighed softly, stood up, after thinking for a moment in the living room, decided to take her phone and some other things she might need.
Hara Kenji watched Kisaragi Chiyo packing his things and smiled, but he did not stop him.
It might be better to wear that light brown short trench coat," Hara Kenji suggested with a smile. "That garment is quite loose, so it can hide your figure.
Of course, it could also hide other things, like a fruit knife or something..
"Time to head out." Kisaragi Chiyo put on a hat with an expressionless face. He did not forget to put the amulet given by Yamae into his pocket. As the lights went out, the room fell into darkness, Kisaragi Chiyo stepped into the elevator.
*
The school at night looked somewhat eerie and terrifying, especially with the many tall, dense thickets of trees planted around the campus; as the wind blew through them, the sounds they made added a touch of horror movie atmosphere.
"Is everyone here?" Ghost Kobayashi, with her short hair, stood on the steps, counting heads.
According to the previous plan, all members participating in the Courage Test were to gather at the entrance of the school building first. In addition to classmates, there were some voices that sounded unfamiliar, who could be the other members of the Paranormal Phenomena Research Club mentioned by Ghost Kobayashi.
This included Kisaragi Chiyo and Ghost Kobayashi, who was taking attendance, for a total of nine people.
Kisaragi Chiyo was the last to arrive. When he reached the assembly point, he immediately saw Yamae chatting with someone nearby. She was wearing a comfortable tracksuit today, her mid-length hair was tied into two braids with pure white ribbons, hanging down over her chest.
“Oboshima.” Yamae waved at him, her eyes shining like pearls in the dark night.
This wasn't Kisaragi Chiyo's thought; it all stemmed from my own emotions.
Kisaragi Chiyo could hear her heart thumping rapidly in her chest, her voice faltered as she struggled to speak, seemingly still troubled by what Yamae Eminami had said to her that night.
Knowing what's troubling me..
She can solve it?
Does Yamae really know what she is talking about? Why would she know?
These two questions have troubled me incessantly over the past few days, occasionally even making me forget the anxiety of being watched by a killer in the shadows.
Should I go find Yamae and ask her directly to get a clear answer? This thought has surfaced and struggled within my mind countless times, only to ultimately lose to my cowardly, retreating emotions. Maybe I should just let it go..
Even though I knew it was useless, the feeling of escapism provided me with a brief moment of peace. However, the occasional glances I exchanged with Yamae during class breaks.. those looks seemed to be telling me that Yamae had known everything about me for a long time, much longer than I had imagined.
A sudden surge of memories was forced into his head, causing Kisaragi Chiyo's movements to slow for a moment, successfully causing him to miss Ghost Kobayashi's question regarding his group assignment.
Since there are no objections," Ghost Kobayashi clapped his hands, "then we will enter Building A as these groups. As for the grand prize that was hidden in advance, it is tucked away somewhere within the school building.
Activities naturally need prizes to motivate everyone, the prizes were entrusted to club members who were not participating in this activity to hide them in the school building in advance. Therefore, even as the club president, Ghost Kobayashi was completely unaware of where the prizes were hidden.
"Isn't it more fair this way?" Yamae walked to his side. Kisaragi Chiyo watched the pairs walking together, only then realizing that he had been assigned to the same group as Yamae.
It had to be said that Kisaragi Chiyo was quite satisfied with this grouping; at least he wouldn't have to think of any other excuses to actively seek out Yamae.
*
"Oboshima-san." Building A had long been abandoned, so the wiring was old and damaged beyond use; the light from the flashlight became the only thing providing a sense of security in the pitch-black corridor.
"Have you heard the stories about the abandoned school building?" Yamae's face remained gentle and soft even in the dim darkness, as she spoke to him while walking.
"What kind of story?" Kisaragi Chiyo asked with feigned curiosity, his eyes constantly scanning the surrounding darkness, on guard for anything that might jump out from within.
"Like the sound of diving in the swimming pool at midnight, the mannequins in the infirmary, the dark shadows knocking on doors in the dormitory building.." In this slightly terrifying atmosphere, Yamae's soft and slow voice carried a peculiar significance.
“What exactly are you trying to say?” Kisaragi Chiyo stopped in her tracks and looked at Yamae, who was also looking at her.
"Stories need a medium, they need a core; you must understand what currently exists before something else can come to be." A smile played on Yamae's face.
“For example, first there is this land beneath our feet, then a school is built upon it, only after that do students arrive,” Yamae explained thoughtfully. “But in different stories, the sequence of events varies. Take the sound of diving in the swimming pool at midnight, for instance; although the swimming pool existed first, in the context of the campus's inexplicable stories, the sequence should be the midnight diving sounds occurring first, which then gave rise to the existence of the story 'the sound of diving in the swimming pool at midnight.'”
"And the abandoned school building naturally has its own stories as well." After speaking at length, Yamae finally led into her true purpose.
“Are you trying to say that the school building must first be abandoned before it can become an 'abandoned school building'?” Kisaragi Chiyo frowned, feeling that Yamae shouldn't be such a reckless person.
Telling its paranormal stories at a paranormal location is like asking a pen divine how it died; both are considered taboos.
"Don't you feel suspicious?" Yamae acted as if she hadn't seen his expression, continuing on her own as she grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs, step by step.
What on earth happened here to cause it to be abandoned?
Red blood appeared on the stairs, on the thirteenth step.
It was fresh, as if it had just fallen not long ago.
“I heard that one year..” Yamae's voice remained calm and gentle, as if she couldn't see the blood on the ground, as she led Kisaragi Chiyo toward the classroom in the very back.
A man burst into the school building wielding an axe, he began attacking the students indiscriminately. Poor, defenseless students died one by one, falling repeatedly under the man's axe.. Since that incident, this school building has been abandoned, but the deceased students have no way to leave the school; they wander within the school, waiting for an opportunity to let go of their hatred..
"So those incredible things happening at the school are actually caused by the deceased students?" Kisaragi Chiyo looked at Yamae Emina, not understanding what role she played in all of this.
“Yes.” Yamae didn't seem to have any intention of hiding anything from her. “Oboshima, do you still remember what I told you that night?”
"I.. remember," Kisaragi Chiyo heard her own voice answer. In a sudden moment of clarity, she realized that since entering the school building, she hadn't heard Hara Kenji's voice anymore; she hadn't even realized that Hara Kenji was no longer by her side.
We met a long, long time ago.. You were too young back then, so it's only natural that you've forgotten the promise between us.
Yamae turned her head and looked at her with a smile, a smile that for some reason made me hallucinate a fox.
I have been watching you, your situation, everything about you.. I know everything about you." There was a hint of pleasure in Yamae's voice. "You will definitely come back here.
Eh?
[I] looked at Yamae's face in confusion—that familiar yet strange face—as a forgotten memory suddenly surged into my mind.
When I was little, so little.. I seemed to have fallen gravely ill, after my parents found no medical solution, they eventually turned their hopes toward another method.
I was taken into a shrine.
Kitsutama Shrine.
It is said that the Fox Messenger's daughter was the same age as me, watching me with curiosity through a fox mask.
That was my daughter, who died young." The young Shrine Priestess did not seem surprised that I could see that Fox Messenger. "Only a pure soul can serve by the side of the Fox God.
And so, in order to keep her daughter's soul, the Shrine Priestess made her a messenger of the Fox God.
The Fox Messenger can heal you, but at the same time, she will demand a price from you.
"Sometimes it's just money, sometimes it's items.. sometimes it's.." The Shrine Priestess fell silent, as if it were something not particularly optimistic.
A friend." The girl wearing the fox mask stared at me for a long time before speaking, her amber eyes reflecting my blank and pale face. "I want a friend.
The contract is sealed.
My illness was cured, after that, I should have stayed as a friend to the Messenger, but my parents paid an unknown price to secure a reprieve for me.
Sixteen years old.. I had to return at sixteen, or else I would suffer the Fox God's backlash and die a violent death.
As my mental condition grew increasingly severe, my parents brought me back to this place.
"Have you remembered everything?" Yamae looked at me with a smile. She gently took my hand and led me to push open the classroom door.
That killer, that nightmare, that man—he was killed, surrounded by a black spiritual entity.
He died just like that, so simply.
This is truly killing two birds with one stone." Yamae looked very happy, clapping her hands. "I was originally wondering how to deal with these spirits; I couldn't just let someone die prematurely to appease their wrath, right? As it turns out, a sacrifice has delivered itself right to my doorstep.
Why?" I stared at the dead man for a long, long time before finally finding my voice. "How.. how did you know, Yamae?
"Because I have always been watching you." Yamae looked at me, her amber eyes narrowing slightly; she looked so much like a fox.
I subconsciously squeezed the amulet in my pocket, suddenly remembering how every single year, my mother would give me a blue amulet and instruct me not to lose it easily.. A massive, absurd thought surged through my heart.
If you could say, if you could say that those real hallucinations were created by the dead man before me to take revenge on me.. then those false hallucinations.. could they be related to Yamae?
The amulet was the bridge connecting me and Yamae; so, so it turns out, she has truly been watching over me all along.
My body was ice-cold, but my mind was growing hazy; I knew that everything was already over.
..
Kisaragi Chiyo opened her eyes to the familiar ceiling above her. Her body was sunk into a soft bed, the subconsciously comforting environment told her that she had awakened from the dreamscape.
Kisaragi Chiyo thought back to the events that had occurred in the dreamscape, gazing at the familiar patterns on the ceiling with a sense of confusion.
It turned out that he had been mistaken from the very beginning. That idiot Miki had been deceived; this Curse Dwarf had never been a Curse Dwarf from start to finish.
He should have realized much sooner that the thumbtacks and the name on the dwarf were something Miki had added himself later on.
And the true purpose of this dwarf should be called a Dream Doll, used in spirit-summoning rituals to allow deceased souls to possess them, while that dreamscape naturally originates from the memories of the dead.
As for the lingering curse-like power mentioned above.. if he isn't mistaken, it should be the filth left behind after that Fox God disappeared.. because in the Dreamscape, the Fox God's power had clearly begun to weaken; if it were still in its prime, Yamae, as the Fox Messenger, wouldn't be reduced to eliminating the grudges of ghosts through that kind of method.
But, if the Fox God has already disappeared.. then Yamae, as the Fox Messenger, probably wouldn't be able to maintain her existence anymore, right?
-----------------------
Author's Note: You can think of this Dreamscape as a relatively free-form puzzle-solving game. While the main plot of the Dreamscape is fixed, there are multiple possible endings.
The three days leading up to the Courage Test are a critical period for finding clues; if done correctly, one could even send the killer to jail.
But because of Kisaragi Chiyo's actions, the plot jumped straight outside of its intended course and was forcibly revised, skipping directly to the grand finale.
Thank you for the support, my little angels. Mwah! 030
Chapter 125
There is a saying that rings true: nothing new happens under the sun.
While the fall and disappearance of gods is not common, it is certainly not something new.
One day, a black ship from afar anchored in Edo Bay. It was from that day onward that Shinto began its decline, an unavoidable consequence in the development and progress of human civilization.
Nearly one hundred and seventy-three years have passed since the end of the Edo Period, the amount of upheaval involving gods, yokai, the like experienced during this time is something Kisaragi Chiyo, as a human, cannot even imagine.
Gods can die too; this realization had been deeply ingrained in his heart through his grandmother's teachings since he was a child.
Humans need gods, so faith was born; and gods need faith, so they bestow blessings upon humans. In this seemingly stable cycle, once the believers die off—or rather, once the gods are no longer needed—the gods who have lost their faith will naturally suffer the erosion of time through day and night, until the last shred of their power is exhausted and they perish.
And as the eras changed, it was not only the high gods of Takamagahara who were affected; among them, how many minor deities were ruthlessly crushed into ash by the wheels of history?
Take the Mechano Family, for example; they were once a powerful clan of exorcists, with many branches clinging to that flourishing tree, but now only a few families remain.