Editing Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 2===

After school, the detective and the online shrine maiden held a conversation.

“We have a job related to a Malign Spirit.”

“Go on.”

“The client is the manager of a factory on the manufacturing float along the city’s outer curve. Are you familiar with First Icemakers?”

“Aren’t they the biggest name in the ice and ice cream industry? I doubt anyone in the tropical New Sea City doesn’t use their products. That said…”

They were discussing a dangerous topic, but they weren’t in the usual(?) detective agency.

They were in a seaside restaurant.

Which was also the gyaru sister and straitlaced sister’s home.

It was of course on one of the many megafloats. The seashore and the sandy beach were entirely fabricated. Everything meant to remind one of the summer sea was. It was a real testament to human technology.

They were seated on the floor using rush mats which had to be there for anyone who was wet from the ocean. And they sat around a low table…maybe about the size of a tea table?

Hisame Kouga, with his silky blond hair and his nice (but actually extremely cheap) suit, stared into the middle distance as he spoke.

“The office’s rundown old air conditioner just had to die on us now, didn’t it?”

“This wouldn’t have happened if you had bought a new one. You were losing money on the power costs every single day you kept that thing.”

“You could have warned me before it came to this!”

“I’ve been warning you every single day lately, but someone refused to listen.”

And so they had evacuated elsewhere today. To the seaside restaurant. It was at least a better choice than making a noisy nuisance of themselves in the neighborhood library or museum.

Of course it was a grownup’s job to pick up the tab. And Hisame Kouga was the only grownup here!

“Heh heh heh. Today, I’ll show you I’m the kind of gyaru who can cook.”

Betsuzaki Rainy was happily working a pair of spatulas at the steel plate.

In a swimsuit.

A gyaru cooking food in a bikini tied with a bow…may have been a draw for customers. Her usual sunglasses were hanging from the thin string linking to the bikini’s left and right chest. Was that meant to draw the eye to your cleavage, gyaru sister? Now that was a pro level technique!

Before, she had been complaining about helping out at home, but she may have been the type to really get into something once she actually started. Which explained why her parents would yell at her to force her to take that first step.

“Okay, okay. Order as much as you want! Yakisoba, takoyaki, okonomiyaki – I can make just about anything made with flour! Mister, you’ll support the local economy by spending big here, won’t you?☆”

The way she mixed in some chopped-up fish sausage and square croutons was the New Sea City style.

Yahirodono Tsumugi sat politely at the table in her school uniform. As a shrine maiden, she could sit in the seiza-style for hours without her legs falling asleep, which was something only experience could bring.

“Does you sister also cook in a swimsuit?”

“My flawless sister who’s preparing for her entrance exams, helps out at the school library, and frequently visits the TV station? No, she gets special treatment. Don’t you think parents should treat their kids equally? But our terrible parents are always forcing me and only me to work at our FtP house.”

The detective suddenly froze in place with his eyes on something.

Tsumugi breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that something didn’t appear to the gyaru sister’s bikini cleavage.

“?”

After grabbing a cold paper cup in both hands and taking a sip of melon soda through the thin straw while tilting her head, the online shrine maiden noticed it too.

The menu posted on a nearby column included the prices.

Based on the paper pasted there, this M-size soda in a paper cup cost 800 yen and the yakisoba, which sounded cheap, was more than 1200 yen once a few toppings were added.

These were inflated tourist prices. The poor professional detective had failed to observe his surroundings when he arrived. Now, what was more economical, the price of an air conditioner during midsummer, or spending time at this seaside restaurant?

Tsumugi stuck out her tongue a little.

“Since the grownup said he’s paying, I don’t have to worry about that.”

“I’ve already been betrayed, have I?”

Yet she knew he would insist he could cover it if she did say something. Even if she offered to pay for her own, he would have refused.

Yuhi had been seated at the same table staying as quiet and unobtrusive as possible this whole time because this was her home yet he had bought her a Ramune and a small pancake. She was as straitlaced as a middle schooler could get, but she had realized her position here was a lot like a hostess being bought some wine.

Tsumugi pointed at something on the table.

“What’s this?” she asked with a tilt of her head.

“Hm?” said Rainy. “A prize for the Commerce and Industry Association campaign. You get one for every thousand yen you spend.”

It was a cartoony hermit crab acrylic stand attached to a phone charger.

It was apparently compatible with Plasperia phones.

“I’ll take one then.”

“Are you sure you want the hermit crab one? There’s a seal, a polar bear, a crab, a whale, and lots more. Eh, that cardboard box back there is crammed full of them, so pick out one you like. And given how much Kouga-san’s gonna be paying, feel free to take like a dozen of them.”

The usually dazzling detective actually shrank down and started trembling for once.

The online shrine maiden held the cheap acrylic stand charger in both hands.

“Thanks, but I like this one best.”

This was a form of selfishness.

A little way for the shy girl to have her way.

The straitlaced sister smiled gently.

“If that’s the one you like, then go ahead.”

“Well said, my sister.”

But now it was time to get down to business.

The detective rejoined the conversation. Hisame Kouga could pull himself together when it came to work.

“First Icemakers’ factory is open from 9 AM to 10 PM five days a week, but a worker went missing there at closing time one night. He punched his time card, but he never returned home and hasn’t been heard from since. Since he has no family at home, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when he disappeared.”

“So this happened on his way home rather than inside the large factory? Yawwwn.”

Tsumugi accidentally let out a yawn.

The detective’s briefings were necessary, but they tended to be stiff and lengthy. She ended up reaching up and stretching where she sat.

“Nhh.”

“Hey, hey, hey! I’m the one wearing a bikini here so quit stealing my thunder without even meaning to! I’m talking about your chest!!”

“?”

“Whoa, they really are huge,” whispered the straitlaced sister.

Only the detective maintained his usual unconcerned look.

“Yes, it happened on his way home. Maybe he disappeared, maybe there was an accident, and maybe he was abducted. There are plenty of possibilities, but I have found something of interest. The path the workers take when leaving the factory crosses the Otsugo Water Level Control Canal.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of that. That’s the haunted Vanishing Canal that Chatty was going on about.”

The gyaru sister joined the conversation while serving them some thick and unhealthy-looking bacon (which no one had ordered).

Was Chatty still interested in haunted locations after her bad experience?

“It’s a small seawater canal that flows below a big elevated street, but they say you should stay away from it at night. There are all sorts of rumors about bad things happening there. But Chatty said the scariest part is it isn’t clear what kind of bad things those are.”

That allowed room for “positive imagination”, like that it was the work of a chainsaw-wielding maniac who could be stopped with a gunshot to the head or heart. Whether or not that would actually work, that thought would rid some people of their fear.

There were only vague rumors about “bad things”.

Someone had actually gone missing, but nothing could be done if the actual cause remained a mystery.

These stories were common when it came to mysterious little shrines or jizo status that had their faces or names carved away and no one knew where they came from.

Hisame Kouga nodded before placing a voice recorder on the small table.

That was the detective’s secret weapon. He would switch off his phone to put someone at ease while actually recording it all from his pocket.

“A total of seven factory workers have already gone missing. Their fate is unknown. And while I haven’t confirmed it, I have heard that a few delivery drones have been seen crashing near the Vanishing Canal.”

Yuhi tilted her head while holding her Ramune bottle. (She must have felt it would be rude to not drink any of it at all.)

“That means electronics have been malfunctioning around a specific location.”

“Due to a Malign Spirit’s Groan?”

The online shrine maiden frowned as a voice spoke from the recorder.

It was the deep voice of a middle-aged man.

Probably their client. She couldn’t see him, but she could tell how badly weakened he was.

“This is happening outside the factory, but it happens when we get off work. The amount of worker’s comp they get depends on if they intentionally vanished or if something happened to them. I don’t know if they’re alive or dead, but even in the worst case, I want their families to get as much as they can get. This can’t just be written off as a mystery. I’m sorry, but will you get to the bottom of this?”

“The seven known victims are only the ones who worked for the factory,” explained the detective. “If people are vanishing due to a Malign Spirit, we can’t just ignore it. We can’t let even one more person fall victim to it.”

“I know that.”

Tsumugi stabbed a thin metal spoon into a lavish serving of shaved ice with a scoop of ice cream on top. Yes, nothing was sweeter than a treat bought with someone else’s money.

“I will settle this before it’s too late.”