Editing Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 6===

Silence fell for a bit.

None of the girls said a word.

The online shrine maiden wasn’t about to say every last single living human was a good person. That was obviously false after what they discovered at the Vanishing Canal the other day.

Maybe it wasn’t every single resident of the Apartment of Many Deaths, but most of them were attacking the Threat Scapegoat as a group. Like that was a ritual meant to ward off evil. Even though she hadn’t done anything wrong. Malign Spirit Hasshaku-sama had learned what was happening to the young child she had taken a liking to and gotten mad about it.

Who was truly the evil one here?

The gyaru sister spoke to get the conversation going again.

“So is the next step to take turns keeping an eye on the Threat Scapegoat’s surroundings? It sounds like that’s where Hasshaku-sama will show up.”

“But, Onee-chan, aren’t we focusing on the wrong opponent here? If we want to save that girl, we have to do something about the grownups in the apartment, not the mysterious ghost.”

“Hasshaku-sama ''hunts down'' the child she takes a liking to, so won’t it be a bad idea to ignore her either way?”

Happiness from Hasshaku-sama’s point of view wouldn’t necessarily allow the human to stay alive. She would likely take the Threat Scapegoat away and kill her in the name of removing her from the dangerous world of the living.

''But…

“…”

The online shrine maiden unfolded her trifold phone as she listened.

She started up a map app.

The gyaru sister tilted her head.

“Hey, what’re you-”

“Wait.” Tsumugi’s fingertip stopped on the screen. “I was right. Hasshaku-sama’s activity pattern doesn’t make sense. Tracking her based on the witness accounts gives us data at a fairly high frequency. There’s a two hour lag here between 5 and 7 PM.”

“?”

“There was a traffic jam at the same time. Don’t you remember? When we left the TV station, they had grounded the shuttle drones because they could be struck by lightning. That meant more people were taking the surface route.”

She had of course never heard of a Malign Spirit driving a car.

Why would the traffic conditions influence this one’s actions?

“It’s also weird she would only target the extras if she wanted to end the reproduction drama.”

“Hm? But, Yahirodono-san, weren’t more of them affected than anyone else because there’s so many of them?”

“Or the stars, the director, and the producer were all avoided because their security is too tight, while the extras were a lot easier to go after.”

The three girls exchanged a look.

That was the correct choice when the goal was to prevent filming from continuing, but it seemed a little too human.

Was this Hasshaku-sama really a Malign Spirit?

Weren’t they forgetting a fundamental fact here? Tsumugi considered it for a bit and then grimaced.

There was one person without an alibi.

“It can’t be…”

She had no actual evidence.

But something did appear in the back of her mind.

She had been the sole survivor when a large shrine was burned down.

The worst of the Malign Spirits, Hibashi-sama, was responsible, but she had been told someone else had summoned her.

At the time, she had been nothing more than a burden.

But in that moment when she couldn’t trust anything in the world, who was it who hadn’t hesitated to reach out a helping hand?

“No, it can’t be!!”