Editing Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 6===

The online shrine maiden’s many bottle rockets and the gyaru sister’s thick one-shot fireworks pierced into the grounded Watery Gnawer. They burned it away, gouged inside it, and detonated within. Writhing and tearing off its tentacles, that former human thing opened its mouth wide toward the empty air above and released a mournful bellow.

The shrine maiden did not even consider fulfilling its regrets so it could pass on to heaven.

That twisted and broken soul had to be utterly and entirely obliterated.

That was probably true, but the gyaru sister bit her lip a little.

She saw a small hand inside the killer whale’s great maw.

A small child’s hand.



“……………so……………lone……………ly……………”



And a voice.

A preadolescent soprano voice rang in the back of Rainy’s mind.

It was a small boy’s voice.

She was drawn in. As she saw each of the lines on that hand wriggling, a vision appeared in her mind.



“Mo………mmy……………help………………me…………?”



A leisure pool.

A crowd of strangers in the hot sun. Terribly inadequate air conditioning.

Someone was crying and shouting, but despite all the people no one came to save him.

An illustrated “Our Friends in the Sea” encyclopedia.

An ordinary shared office not even two meters across. Sweat dripping endlessly.

A small hand that couldn’t reach the knob no matter how much he reached.

A space cut off from the world and a young life intentionally abandoned by a selfish adult.

(He wanted to find her.)

The gyaru sister stopped moving.

(He still wanted to find the mom who abandoned him. Is that really the only reason this boy still clings to this world?)

Yes.

Malign Spirits were the result of a human dying and undergoing a transformation. So wouldn’t they naturally carry a conviction extreme enough to keep them in this world even after death?

“Wai-”



''Boom!!!

Nevertheless, the online shrine maiden’s bottle rocket blasted the small hand within the great maw.



It was pierced through and detonated from within.

Something that remained so young was blown apart like a paper doll and the giant silhouette created from a mixture of sea creatures melted away.

That must have been the “core” of the broken and twisted soul.

The core of the child who had continued to reach out in a desperate search for the warmth of the mother who had betrayed him.

She destroyed it without hesitation.

“How could you…?”

Rainy’s eyes widened as far a they would go, but the pupils in the center had shrunk down.

Words spilled from her.

The online shrine maiden was right. She was, but still!!

“How can you do this!? Malign Spirits were human once. That boy only wanted his mom. But you just march in and kill him without even hearing what he has to say!?”

Tsumugi didn’t speak a word.

She simply approached and grabbed the gyaru sister’s clothing.

She yanked down on the modified sailor uniform’s skirt, revealing a bit more of her skin.

There was an unnatural discoloration just below Rainy’s navel.

In the shape of a small child’s hand print.

From internal bleeding.

“He wanted his mother.”

The gyaru sister had mentioned already being interested in this leisure facility. And she had known her way around the corridors and shops without checking her phone.

Which meant she had already visited to check the place out.

Her new bikini had been bought at the sporting goods store in the commercial complex here.

Had something invisible touched her then?

“''So whenever he found a young woman who resembled his mother, he would tear away the bottom of her torso and kill her.'' He didn’t care who it was – he was only after the warmth of her flesh and blood for his own satisfaction. And once the guts had cooled, he would begin his search anew. In an eternal cycle. Are you saying we should just leave the Watery Gnawer here?”

“…”

Rainy watched the child’s hand print fade away.

The hand that had wanted to to tear away the bottom of her torso.

The sign of that innocent intent to kill silently vanished.

The online shrine maiden breathed a cynical sigh.

“A big sister aura that makes kids like you, huh?”

“Everyone but you could see it, Onee-chan. From the start.”

The straitlaced sister couldn’t look her sister in the eye as she said it.

She was the one who had helped her change out of the swimsuit and into the shrine maiden outfit.

That was why the detective had sought the online shrine maiden’s help after seeing the gyaru sister in her bikini.

That was why Yuhi had groaned “ugh!?” when the shrine maiden outfit had slipped off her sister in the nap room.

They had all seen it.

“Do you really think a third year middle schooler like me, who should really be studying for the entrance exam, would have accompanied you to a haunted pool at night otherwise? Or choose defensive fireworks like a smokescreen or a flash of light? …I chose to fight because I was worried about you.”