Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume9 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 3===

After reaching the appointed meeting location, Haruaki and Fear converged with Konoha and the rest of their group inside the shrine's confines. Judging from the fact that nobody called the cellphone he had lent to Fear, Haruaki knew that no one's search succeeded.

'Did you search properly!?'

Typing these words on the screen with an impatient look, Fear thrust the phone in front of Konoha's face. Sighing as though saying "when did you learn how to enter text on a cellphone?", Konoha replied:

"I did search properly. I know that being unable to speak is very 
serious, but trying to vent your frustrations on me won't help... Ah, hey, hold on!"

As though saying "Did you search properly!? Did you!? You didn't!", Fear rubbed the cellphone hard in Konoha's face. Not satisfied with that, Fear even went as far as to shove the cellphone together with the "Did you search properly!?" message in between Konoha's cleavage.

"Kyah... Hey, stop it right now! U-Ueno-san and Kuroe-san, how did your searches go?"

"We came up emptyhanded as well. Unfortunately, the search area is too wide."

"Yeah, if only we had some sort of clue... Haru, did you try asking the shrine maidens who are selling the talismans?"

"I did, but none of them recognized the descriptions."

At this moment, Fear dropped her gaze and stared at the cellphone, typing something. The screen she then showed to everyone said:

'bcuz they r jst smallfry! shrine maidenz boss shld no!'

"What excessive typos, I've never seen anything like 'shld no' before. Say, do shrine maidens have a so-called boss...?"

While saying that, Haruaki suddenly realized. Although a so-called shrine maidens' boss probably did not exist, there was someone in charge of managing the shrine maidens. They probably should try asking that person.

"Yeah, anyway, let's first try to find that person. But who knows where?"

Even if they conducted an undirected search all over the place, Haruaki did not think that would bear fruit. Hence, he tried his luck by asking one of the shrine maidens at the talisman vending area: "We have important matters to discuss." As it so happened, it was the shrine maiden's turn to have a break and she was willing to pass the message along. After a short wait&mdash;

The person who appeared was&mdash;naturally&mdash;this shrine's chief Shinto priest.

"I am Hayakawa, this shrine's chief priest... Are you the people who wanted to discuss something with me?"

The man was over fifty with a fair amount of white hair. His slender physique was clad in a white outfit. Haruaki gulped and inquired as politely as he could because this man might be completely unrelated to the two girls.

"Yes, we're really sorry to make you come out specifically for us. Uh, what I'd like to ask about is... Umm, is there a shrine maiden here called Chihaya with dyed hair? Also, is there someone else named Isuzu?"

Hearing these words, the Shinto priest instantly frowned. Then after glancing at his surroundings, he lowered his voice and said something exceedingly relevant.


"''My daughter''... Chihaya, has she caused you any trouble?"