Editing Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 3===

“It’s here.”

Since it was a narrow multi-tenant building, the elevator was cheap. It was fairly cramped with all three aboard.

Once they arrived at their destination floor, they found a detective in a suit doing something in the narrow hallway.

Hisame Kouga was up on a small stepladder and messing with the fire alarm on the ceiling. Seeing the detective doing that reminded Tsumugi of something: the case he was pursuing.

(The ''Nagatacho Leaders Case'', I think it was. He says it still hasn’t been solved.)

“Aren’t the shared areas a job for the landlord? Why do I have fix this?”

“Because I, the daughter of that landlord, have let you wait until next month to pay your rent. With no interest. So you need to work! C’mon, Onii-chan, you can do it☆”

“(Now that’s scary.)”

“Ah?”

10-year-old Hanagushi Temari was bossing him around from next to the stepladder.

So the usual.

To avoid being dragged into it, Tsumugi pretended not to know them as she passed by and entered through the agency’s door.

“Ohh, so this is the Shrine Restoration Project’s hideout?”

“Do I need to plainly tell you to never call it that again?”

Entirely undaunted, Rainy plopped down in the reception area’s couch and began bouncing up and down.

“This is so cool. It’s a real detective agency. Mugikko, do you spend your nights here instead of at a normal house or apartment!? Now that’s a world I’ve only ever seen on TV.”

“If you include fully online businesses with no physical office, there are more than 6500 registered in Japan alone. Anyone can call themselves one if they want to.”

“You mean a private detective? So the world of TV really is out there.”

“Anyway, you two. I can only offer coffee, but do you want something to drink? I warn you, this agency is poor, so everything here is cheap. And I don’t know how to work the coffee maker, so it probably won’t be any good.”

“I get to drink the vile coffee of a detective agency!? I’ve literally just added that to my bucket list!”

“Not so close.”

Using her palm to distance the overexcited girl(’s face), the online shrine maiden used her other hand to open her trifold phone into tablet mode.

“Okay, now to search for ‘how to make good coffee’.”

“You don’t even know that?”

“Shut up. Don’t interrupt me while I’m searching. Lightly roast commercial beans in a frying pan…no. When using a siphon, you should first…we don’t have anything that fancy here.”

“Um, Onee-chan, what sort of mystery liquid are we going to be served here?”

A detective entered the office while Tsumugi was staring at her screen. It was the poor blond man in a suit.

“Tsumugi, what are you doing?”

The online shrine maiden looked up from the screen with a “nyuwah!”

Even though she had been so irritated just a second before.

“And you two…aren’t here for a job. Tsumugi is showing some slight tension, but the overall mood is cheerful and she has some calm in her eyes. So are you her friends?”

“I-is that a problem?”

“No. It’s a good thing if you ask me. I’ve been thinking for a while that she could stand to enjoy her school life a little more.”

“What business is that of yours? You aren’t going to claim to be some bigshot at the school at your age, are you?”

The gyaru sister blinked in confusion.

But then she grinned for some reason. And she leaned over against the straitlaced sister seated on the couch next to her.

“(That…detective? just casually analyzed her behavior, but that shy little rabbit didn’t seem bothered at all. Does this mean what I think it does, Yuhi?)”

“(Pretending not to notice these things is considered the polite move in every culture on earth, Onee-chan. Can you do that?)”

Two cans of cold coffee were taken from the fridge and plunked down in front of the sisters. The spiritual sense refined by daily training told the shrine maiden nothing good would come of letting those two speak any longer.

It wasn’t clear if the detective himself had been finally released from his work or if he was merely on a short break. Either way, it had no bearing on the online shrine maiden’s finances since ''she also had her income from the internet shrine''.

The gyaru sister leaned forward curiously.

“So what all can a real-live professional private detective do exactly?”

“Well… Did you know more than 5 million people pass through New Sea City’s Terminal Station every single day? That beats out Shinjuku for busiest in the country.”

“Hm? I’m not sure I follow you.”

“I found the barrette a client lost in that crowd. It turned out it had been sucked up by a janitor’s vacuum cleaner. It was a perfectly ordinary hair clip, but her parents had given it to her to celebrate her getting into college and she wept when I told her I’d found it.”

The sisters both gave the detective a double take.

The online shrine maiden sighed.

“And the police had simply told her to give up on it because searching for it would be too much work.”

When this detective accepted a job, he would see it through to the end.

Hisame Kouga himself never seemed bothered by it.

An elementary schooler had asked him to find a trading card blown away in the wind, he had run all around town chasing a small bird that escaped from its cage, and he had gotten a couple back together by identifying the unfortunate misunderstanding tearing them apart.

His jobs were always like that.

Because no matter how trivial and trifling a matter was to everyone else in the world, he knew better than anyone just how important it was to he person currently crying over it.

So he couldn’t abandon them.

And he would reach out his hand.

Without hesitation.

It wasn’t all exciting investigations into toxic affairs and murder most foul. You were sorely mistaken if you thought those jobs were the only way to protect people’s smiles. When he took part in a case as a detective, he made sure everyone involved came out smiling. He hadn’t given up on a single one. The girl thought he deserved more credit than he got for that. A lot more.

…However, this did mean his jobs never made him much money. Even though an expert in investigation really should be able to investigate a client’s ability to pay beforehand.

“Oh, right. I should return this before I forget.”

Tsumugi tossed the old oil lighter to the detective.

“What? So that’s a rental?”

Rainy’s obvious disappointment put a bitter smile on Hisame Kouga’s face.

“Because I have exactly none of the power known as a ‘spiritual sense’. So this Imperial Exorcism Igniter, which lets you borrow the power of Konohana-no-Sakuya-Bime, would be completely wasted with me.”

“So you share the treasure between everyone? Rie said the other day that the ‘sharing’ is the most wonderful word humanity ever came up with.”

Did Rainy’s smile here mean she thought she too was someone who could make good use of it? Even though her decisions and actions during the Ghastly Crusher incident could easily have gotten her killed?

Straitlaced Yuhi raised her small hand and asked a hesitant question.

“Umm, should people like us really be getting involved in this? I don’t know much about Shinto, but we’ve never gone through ritual purification or any kind of training.”

“Yeah, and I’m a private detective who use to be a police detective. I have nothing to do with shrines or the priesthood.”

“A cop turned PI!? Wow, I can’t believe a super rare job history like that really exists!!”

Rainy was apparently a fan of police dramas and detective stories. The gyaru sister’s interest, usually reserved for the online shrine maiden, was now directed at the detective too.

“Like I said, I have no spiritual sense, so I can’t see Malign Spirits even with the lighter.”

“Wait, I thought anyone could see them if you used the strange lighter and incense sticks.”

Hisame Kouga only shrugged at Yuhi’s surprise.

The oil lighter and incense smoke only made them ''easier'' to see. It did nothing for people who couldn’t see them at all. It was that sort of world. …Which meant both the sisters had a troublesome talent.

“So while I do work with Tsumugi, I can’t join her on the front line. The most I can do is use my phone to provide intel support from a distance. And even that stops working once communications are cut off by the Groan. Before, there was nothing to be done if she collapsed in a haunted location, but now she finally has some friends who can drag her out of the darkness if she’s in a bind.”

“Are you stupid? I have never let a Malign Spirit defeat <span style="font-size:125%">'''bwah bwah bwah'''</span> why <span style="font-size:125%">'''bwah bwah bwah bwah'''</span> my head <span style="font-size:125%">'''bwah bwah bwah bwah bwah'''</span> hey <span style="font-size:125%">'''bwah bwah'''</span> don’t rub my <span style="font-size:125%">'''bwah bwah bwah bwah'''</span> wait <span style="font-size:125%">'''bwah bwah bwah'''</span> everyone’s watching <span style="font-size:125%">'''bwah bwah bwah bwah!'''</span>”

Tsumugi tried to look away and sulk, but then she suddenly broke. Her face was bright red and her eyes rolled around wildly. All because the detective had suddenly placed his large hand atop her hand.

Hisame Kouga, who didn’t seem to have noticed, pushed the black-haired girl’s head down as he lowered his own. Tsumugi’s hands were still flailing fairly wildly, though.



“Please help me keep Tsumugi safe.”



When the sisters left the building, Yuhi spoke first.

“He seems like a good guy.”

“He does.”

An adult willing to bow his head for someone else was powerful. It showed they had control over their emotions.

“My teacher at school has gotten older without actually growing up, so he could learn a thing or two from that guy. I still don’t have a good handle on his relationship with Yahirodono-san, but maybe they ended up that way through trial and error.”

They felt good about this visit.

But then Rainy realized something.

“Hold on. This isn’t Mugikko’s house at all, is it!?”