Editing Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter3

==Chapter 3: The Watery Gnawer @ The Rending Pool==

===Part 1===

The straitlaced sister, Betsuzaki Yuhi, was furious after being summoned by social media.

“You are!! About to fight! One of those Malign Spirit monsters!! I am not letting you go into battle in a skimpy bikini, Onee-chan!!!”

Yelling Yuhi was wearing a bright mint-green long-sleeve hoodie and dark gray shorts. Long sleeves weren’t well suited for New Sea City’s year-round midsummer weather. She also wore a thick belt covered in tools, so the outfit was probably related to a TV station.

“But, Yuhi, do you have anything else for me to wear?”

“I borrowed a spare shrine maiden outfit from Yahirodono-san.”

“Hell, yeah! Now I can finally look like a real pro just like Mugi- wait, it’s falling off of me???”

“Ugh!?”

“I know it’s Japanese clothing, but I thought it’d be easier than a yukata or furisode cause it doesn’t have the thick obi.”

The sisters couldn’t figure out where they had gone wrong, so they couldn’t make it look as nice as it did on the online shrine maiden. It would always open up in front like a bathrobe with an insufficiently tightened sash. Which left her exposed from head to toe. Japanese clothing really was a challenge. But she couldn’t exactly go back to the bikini, so she decided her usual modified short-sleeve sailor uniform would be safest.

“I’m not sure this is safe either. Your belly is still showing, so it doesn’t offer much more defense than the bikini did.”

“Hey, what’s that wonderful smell?”

The sisters opened the door to the nap room (which seemed to function as a certain someone’s second bedroom) and emerged into the office.

This was a detective agency and not a residence, but the kitchenette in one corner did have a cheap refrigerator, microwave, sink, and gas burner.

For some reason, the online shrine maiden was tearfully trembling over there. She seemed to have shrunk.

“Th-the curry is multiplying…”

“What? Like some kind of paranormal phenomenon?”

There certainly was a lot of it. Far too much. There was enough curry for a school sports team’s training camp.

“ ‘How to Make the Ultimate Curry Rice’. I made it exactly like it said to on Cookpod, so this has to be right. And yet…”

Rainy reached over and skimmed through the recipe on Tsumugi’s trifold phone, but she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. So what had caused it to “multiply” like this?

“Look here, Onee-chan.”

Yuhi pointed to the phone’s screen where something was written small in the corner.

(Note: Makes enough for 15)

“Ugh… What, do they subscribe to the idea that curries and stews taste better when you make a ton of it in a giant pot?”

The gyaru sister stared into the middle distance.

And on closer inspection, wasn’t this recipe based on the once-a-week aircraft carrier curry that the sailors always looked forward to? The kind where cooking a single batch made enough to feed 3000?

You could trust what Cookpod said if you liked, but you had to at least read the recipe thoroughly.

Hisame Kouga called for them, so the girls gathered in the reception area.

They checked over the job while enjoying the allegedly “ultimate” curry rice.

Despite being a complete amateur (or maybe because of it?) Rainy immediately raised her hand, leaned forward, and spoke.

“Attention here, everyone! I’m going too! I’m going with you and that’s final. I mean, I’m your friend, so I can’t let this tiny (except in one way) shrine maiden go alone to some super dangerous haunted pool in the middle of the night!”

“Onee-chan has been like this for a while now, but what do you experts think?”

“If we left her behind, she would rush to the haunted pool on her own and get herself killed.” “If we left her behind, she would rush to the haunted pool on her own and get herself killed.”

“Yeah, I supposed so.”

Yuhi’s shoulders slumped at the simultaneous response from the detective and the online shrine maiden.

Hisame Kouga’s natural skills of perception had already revealed Rainy’s personality to him. With perfect accuracy.

Simply put, it would be safer for the overexcited gyaru sister if she was accompanied by someone who could deal with the ghost.

With that settled, it was time for the meat of the discussion. The detective scooped up some curry in a spoon as he got started.

“This job comes from the leisure pool’s chief guard.”

“I doubt the grownup management would ''officially'' acknowledge the existence of a Malign Spirit.”

The online shrine maiden’s head tilt wasn’t her doubting the detective’s words. She was trying to decide if the early dinner of curry she was eating was really good enough to earn the qualifier “ultimate”. It wasn’t bad, but she had been expecting something more like an explosion of flavor in her mouth when she took the first bite.

“The managers who never leave their fancy chairs may not, but this is a hired guard who actually patrols the place at night. He’s going to be afraid of the continuing rumors lending credence to the story of the Malign Spirit.”

“Um, even though he’s an adult?”

The middle schooler’s honest question earned a bitter smile from the grownup detective.

“When you’re afraid, you’re afraid. It’s human nature. It isn’t something you grow out of. Reason and emotions are two separate things.”

“Oh, so like how no matter how much effort you throw into sports, it’s never going to get rid of your sex dri- ow!?”

Tears welled up in the gyaru sister’s eyes. The clear glass table meant everyone could see when her sister stomped on her foot. And the detective calmly ignored the quick exchange entirely. An impressive display of maturity.

“Whatever the higher ups might say, it’s up to him to keep himself safe. Just like checking for listening devices and inspecting so-called ‘sick buildings’, you can’t assume you’re safe just because you don’t see anything. The guards want to send in an expert and get their professional opinion. They want to be safe. Even if it costs them a fair amount of money.”

Since this was a job, they wouldn’t be illegally trespassing.

They didn’t ask for anything more than that.

Tsumugi was most curious about something else.

“What’s the star ranking?”

“Single Dread Star. The tentative name is apparently the Watery Gnawer. But these are both tentative, so don’t rely on them too much.”

Both sisters tilted their heads together.

They had been wondering about the ranking system. What made the number of stars rise or fall and who decided on the names? But explaining it to them wouldn’t actually change things any.

They only had to understand the goal here: crush and destroy the Malign Spirit.

If nothing was done, the timid homeroom teacher would arrive at the haunted leisure pool for her patrol. And then she would die. But if the Malign Spirit were destroyed before the homeroom teacher arrived, she could be saved.

Or to put it another way: if they didn’t do this tonight, she would die.

Without a doubt.

“One person has already died. We’re already running late. Don’t let even one more life be lost.”

Hisame Kouga glanced over at the gyaru sister before tossing over the old oil lighter.

The online shrine maiden caught it in one hand.

“Don’t worry. …I will settle this before it’s too late.”

===Part 2===

Once night fell, Yahirodono Tsumugi, Betsuzaki Rainy, and Betsuzaki Yuhi got started.

“?”

One of them, Tsumugi, changed into her shrine maiden outfit in the detective agency’s nap room and stepped out into the building hallway to find a group of small children gathered by the wall. The boy from the Forbidden Hands incident was among them. Also, the gyaru sister was there, but she probably didn’t count as a “small child”.

“Hmm. I still have one barrier left over, so I’ll be careful and build up a combo.”

“That’ll take forever. Anyway, I pay a cost of 2 to activate my special which breaks through all your barriers with the fire element!!”

“Gyahh! Why did you have my exact weakness ready to go, Miss Gyaru!?”

“What are you doing?” nervously asked the shrine maiden from a distance and Rainy turned a pleased look her way after hitting the landlord’s (elementary school) daughter with a powerful attack.

“Having a trading card weak rare tournament. Everything but bottom-tier commons are banned☆”

…That sounded challenging in its own way. It had to take a lot of brainpower to do well.

They said goodbye to the landlord’s daughter and the other children, who had apparently been at cram school and were now waiting for their parents to get home from work. Then they regrouped with straitlaced Yuhi and left the building. The detective was with them this time.

“When did you make friends with those kids?”

“I don’t remember. I’ve just got this big sister aura that makes kids like me☆”

“…What is that look for? You’re not counting ''me'' there, are you?”

The short (but busty) shrine maiden glared at Rainy.

The detective would be driving them to the haunted Rending Pool.

“Come to think of it, is it okay to get your shrine maiden outfit wet? What about that thing tying your hair back that looks like a relay baton…um, whatever that traditional paper tube is called.”

“It’s called hosho paper. This is a city of sea and squalls, remember? It’s waterproofed, so there is nothing to worry about.”

They chatted in the cramped vehicle while Tsumugi pondered the still-unseen Malign Spirit.

But…

“The car’s only going to take you this far.”

Maybe it was classified as a kei truck or as a station wagon, but the detective stopped the small boxy vehicle at the curb. The small vehicle may have been easier to get around with the complex intertwining of land and water routes in New Sea City, but it felt like he had chosen this one intentionally. But just like with coffee, the girls didn’t know enough to say for certain.

The straitlaced sister frowned.

“Wait, aren’t we going to the leisure pool? It’s still pretty far from here.”

“We have the Malign Spirit’s Groan to worry about. I chose a manual vehicle instead of a self-driving one, but it’s still full of electronics. The GPS system is glitching already, so getting much closer would brick the entire thing.”

“Oh… Then we couldn’t use an electric scooter or aquamobile to reach the haunted pool either. We’ll just have to hoof it then.”

The online shrine maiden seemed accustomed to it. She silently exited the vehicle and the sisters hurried after her.

It was humid, but not all that hot. The city’s heat was likely being absorbed by the night breeze and the ocean waterways spread out like leaf veins.

The detective rolled down the driver’s side window and called out to them.

“Don’t die, okay?”

“You can count on it.”

In no time, the city was transforming into ''that sort of place''.

They didn’t want a police officer questioning them, so the three girls stayed in the shadows as they moved. As if some invisible force were luring them into the depths of the darkness.

The gyaru sister spoke up while chomping on a fish sausage as a late-night snack.

“Tch. And after I went to the trouble of getting a swimsuit when I heard we’d be fighting in a pool. I’d been interested in that leisure pool for a while. Too bad this weird stuff is happening there.”

It was hard to tell if she was clueless or trying to distract herself from her fear. Tsumugi felt no desire to respond in earnest. Instead, she looked at her trifold phone and…

“Why do you want to swim so badly? Doesn’t your family run in a seaside restaurant?”

“Sure does. On a super cheap coastal area full of small inns, BnBs, and souvenir shops. A stunning view completely manufactured by human hands! And since it’s home, it doesn’t work like a part-time job. If I’m just hanging out at home, I have to work for free with no time off. I hate the beach. Swim there and it damages your hair and skin! So what I want is to swim with everyone at a luxurious and fancy freshwater leisure pool!!”

Yuhi would of course live in the same home, but she only shrugged. Of course the responsible one didn’t have any real complaints. Stating your personal opinions was not guaranteed to get a response out of everyone.

“Lady Nine Tails> …Destroying a human body with water, hm?”

While the online shrine maiden messed with her phone, she saw a comment from a busty nine-tailed fox woman wearing an oiran-style kimono. Of course, that was only a 3D avatar.

The internet shrine’s chat page was constructed a lot like an online meeting room where a large number of people could enjoy pleasant conversation, but when speaking one-on-one, all the instruction windows left little room on the screen. But Tsumugi didn’t feel like unfolding the trifold phone into tablet mode right now.

The woman’s screen name was Lady Nine Tails.

She was one of the especially nasty occult freaks who hung out on the underground internet shrine.

“Lady Nine Tails> That is possible.”

“Other than using a metalworking machine that cuts it with ultra-high pressure water?”

“Lady Nine Tails> With ordinary free fall. It can easily happen from a large bridge or cliff. I won’t give any actual numbers because it isn’t a pleasant topic, but the medical world has a formula for calculating the odds of death based on body weight and fall distance. Quite precisely, I might add. Unlike in action movies when the hero jumps into a waterfall basin, a human will die if they hit the water after falling from a sufficient height. Generally, the impact knocks them out and they drown, but it is ultimately a matter of degree. Under the right conditions, you can even break bone.”

Was she operating a shortcut key, or was she fidgeting in front of her monitor? In the small square frame, Lady Nine Tails squished a paper lantern balance ball with her kimono butt.

“Lady Nine Tails> However, this is a water slide built to national safety standards. I can’t say I have ever heard of pieces being torn from a human body after hitting the water at that speed and angle. It almost sounds like a scientific explanation, but it isn’t really one. Be careful. True hauntings do not noticeably oppose science. These vague gaps are where the real thing lurks. Secretly and unnoticed.”

A fist-sized object emerged from a trash dump in the darkness and scurried between the gyaru sister’s legs. Rapidly. And furrily.

“Pweeeee!?”

Scared and shrieking, Rainy froze helplessly in place before realizing the creature that had vanished into a sidewalk flower bed was a hamster.

The online shrine maiden didn’t even look up from her phone. She was busy speaking with Lady Nine Tails.

“A-a hamster? Stray hams are a thing!?”

“Have you never paid any attention while walking around, Onee-chan? There are no natural wild animals on a collection of megafloats out in the ocean. Cats, rabbits, hamsters – we only have former pets and their offspring here.”

“That’s so adorable! Just one more reason to love New Sea City.”

“Lady Nine Tails> (By that logic, you can’t deny the possibility of giant crocodiles in the sewers.)”

“Onee-chan, it might not be so cute in the future. Without the ordinary food chain in place, they could end up rapidly multiplying.”

“Lady Nine Tails> You could say the same thing about the occult.”

“…”

While the friendly sisters chatted, the online shrine maiden remained silent.

With a population of a million and ten times that counting tourists, this was a large city, but it was only three years old. As a completely artificial structure with no history to it, it was a special environment that completely lacked any holy grounds such as Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples.

How would Malign Spirits grow and evolve in a twisted city with such thin spiritual defenses? There was no way to predict it because, even on a global scale, a place like this was unprecedented.

Mutations were possible.

Then the straitlaced sister made an exasperated comment.

“Yahirodono-san, you shouldn’t walk around with your eyes on your phone.”

“Nh.”

“Lady Nine Tails> She’s right, you know? Don’t die a stupid death before even reaching the actual haunted pool, Miss Manager.”

Nothing any of them said stopped Tsumugi from staring at her phone’s screen. She grabbed the gyaru sister’s short-sleeve sailor shirt with her other hand and tugged it a few times.

“What, you want me to guide you? Th-that’s so cute! You act like you don’t care about me, but you trust me this completely!?”

“(Huh? Is this cute creature threatening my position as the little sister?)”

Meanwhile, they arrived at the leisure pool in question.

This was the haunted Rending Pool.

The online shrine maiden finally looked up from her phone.

“I’m hanging up.”

“Lady Nine Tails> Fine. Phones aren’t well suited for legit haunted locations anyway. Come back alive. I want to hear about this real haunting from my position of safety. I want to hear all about it.”

The back employee entrance was unlocked. Probably courtesy of the client. The chief guard. Shy Tsumugi greatly appreciated this kind of support that didn’t require direct contact.

The gyaru sister, who tried to get as much direct contact as she could get, moved right up against the online shrine maiden.

Apparently she was afraid.

“Ughhh. The atmosphere here is totally different. Maybe cause I already know someone died here.”

Tsumugi had just one warning for the girl who insisted on holding hands with her.

“I need to use my hands, so if you’re afraid, stay behind me.”

“D-d-d-d-don’t be absurd! You’re so little, so I need to protect you! I’m not afraid and I have a courageous heart, so my job is to stay up front as the tank!!”

“Move. Are you trying to get us all killed? Staying in front of me just gets in my way.”

They entered the facility through the back, but they didn’t see the pool itself.

The gyaru sister lamented (while trembling).

“One half of the facility is a huge commercial complex: a restaurant, a sauna, a sporting goods store full of swimsuits – they have tons of stuff there. Oh, I’m so jealous. I wish our restaurant could have anything even half that nice.”

“?”

“Wouldn’t passing through there be the quickest way to the pool? See, look. It’s unlocked.”

No, that wasn’t why the online shrine maiden had frowned.

But Rainy was right, so the trio followed that path.

The interior was filled with sweltering heat. The air conditioning inside may have been off because it was actually cooler outside. The air felt like being in a packed train or a bath.

Which created the illusion of human body heat.

Like they were being slowly crushed by some giant invisible bodily organ.

As they navigated the dark passageway with some help from their phones’ LED lights, a sudden light flashed from the wall.

“Dwabh!!? O-oh, it’s just a vending machine? My poor heart…”

“Onee-chan. It saves energy by only lighting up when someone is nearby.”

“Can’t breathe,” mumbled Tsumugi.

Because the terrified gyaru sister was holding her tight and pulling her head into her chest.

This place was supposed to already be haunted, but the vending machine was still running. The effects of the Groan must have been uneven, maybe due to he great size of the facility when the outdoor pool was included.

Also, a lot of paranormal phenomena could actually be reproduced using technology. Like strange noises coming from an empty room in the dead of night, a piano playing on its own, or a portrait’s eyes lighting up.

“A-anything catch your attention, Mugikko?”

“This,” said the online shrine maiden, pointing to the floor.

At a round mark about 8cm across. Like the stain left after a clear liquid dried.

Yuhi tilted her head.

“There’s a vending machine right here, so someone probably just dropped their drink and picked it up.”

“The size doesn’t match commercial drink cans and bottles. I can’t be certain, but I think it was a flower vase. Maybe they spilled some water when taking it away, but I detect a faint chrysanthemum scent.”

A vase on the floor or ground. Had a guard or someone taken it away before the online shrine maiden arrived because it would look bad? That sounded plausible, but hadn’t the young woman been torn apart and killed in the pool? So why had the vase been left here?

Marks left by a dried liquid had left several lines on the floor. It must have dripped from somewhere. The online shrine maiden followed the dried stains with her eyes and found they led to a small shared office next to the vending machine. Most likely, something had oozed out from the gap below the frosted glass doo-



:::'''Kabam!!!



“Eek!?”

It wasn’t the gyaru sister this time. The straitlaced sister suppressed a shriek.

A human hand print appeared on the shared office door’s frosted glass. Did it come from the other side, inside the office? None of them dared move for a bit. They watched as they heard a sound like a finger scraping at the surface of some breath-fogged glass. Lines slowly formed in the glass. No, those were words being written out.

“Let………………me…………………out…………”

And then nothing.

One second. Two. Three.

“…”

“Hweh? Wait, you’re actually opening the door!?”

Ignoring Rainy’s attempts to physically stop her, Tsumugi grabbed the knob and threw the door open.

The room was empty.

The two meter space was completely deserted. The enclosed space must have made the air as damp as human breath, which slowly wafted out toward them. The straitlaced sister’s cheeks tensed.

“No way. Why isn’t there anyone in there? Then how do you explain the writing we just saw?”

“Th-there’s some color on the floor. Like it was peeled away.”

The gyaru sister, who was fearfully clinging to Tsumugi from the side, was right.

:''Ou……ends……ea

It was nearly illegible, but there was some writing in a blocky bluish typeface meant for children.

There was more of interest too. The online shrine maiden looked at her palm and then approached the frosted glass.

(It’s really low down? And this hand is so small. Which would mean…)

“Y-Yahi-Yahirodono-san, that’s enough in here. I mean, we’re here for the pool! There’s no need to make any detours. Right?”

The straitlaced sister was rushing her more than the gyaru sister.

But these things tended to catch the eye when you least wanted to find them.

“Salt,” muttered the online shrine maiden with a soft sigh.

It was below a bench by the wall, where it was meant to go unnoticed.

A small plate had two or three tablespoons of salt piled up on it.

Tsumugi had borrowed the oil lighter which could actually defeat a spirit, so she doubted this would accomplish much of anything. For one thing, salt only worked as a celebratory talisman when it had been purified first. There were many different ways of using it, so it wouldn’t necessarily be effective if you ''only'' set it out without the necessary knowledge.

But…

“Th-there’s salt over here too.”

“Onee-chan. It’s everywhere, isn’t it? I’m seeing another pile each time we turn a corner.”

…If the salt didn’t accomplish much of anything, then was the excessive amount of it a sign of just how anxious the person placing it out had been?

“Looks like it’s been here a while.”

“Wait, you can tell, shrine maiden?”

“It comes with the job.” The online shrine maiden pointed here and there. “Do you see how some of the salt looks brand new and some of it has begun to dissolve after its surface absorbed moisture from the air? From the look of it, the oldest ones were set out more than a month ago.”

The straitlaced sister frowned.

“Huh? But that would mean they were putting out salt before the deadly pool accident even happened.”

“…”

Then what had they been so afraid of that they began putting out all this salt?

The gyaru sister considered it for a bit.

“Wh-why did a Malign Spirit appear in the leisure pool to begin with? Do you think the managers would know?”

And it would have to be something traumatic.

They continued through the commercial complex, using the emergency exit lights to guide them. And Tsumugi grabbed the doorknob leading back outside.

The door clanked and resisted her attempt, so she frowned.

“It won’t open?”

Next to the door was a keypad with the numbers 0-9. One of the silver latch types seen on the doors leading to a train station office. Was this door locked on the inside meant to protect the routes leading to the courtyard-like outdoor pool after hours?

The buttons were gray and not lit up, but there were enter and cancel buttons in addition to the numbers. That suggested it was an electrical device, but they had already seen the earlier vending machine working.

Maybe it was wrong to rely on the Malign Spirit’s Groan here.

The chief guard may have left a different door unlocked, but it was a large facility. Finding the right door with no hints or signs would be difficult.

So what now?

A sudden click rang through the darkness. The straitlaced sister had unlocked the door.

“Wh-wh-what are you doing, my sister? How did you know the code!?”

“The commonly used numbers are more worn and the spring feels looser when pressing the button.”

“So what?”

“Onee-chan, is it really that confusing? The giant integrated resort to the west apparently has gamblers who can accurately determine the rotation speed and biases of the slots and roulettes just by listening to them turn.” Yuhi opened the stainless steel door. “Honestly, didn’t you know I visit the TV station a lot?”

“Th-that doesn’t explain anything…I think?”

“It does.”

The middle schooler’s firm reply forced the high school online shrine maiden to back down. She used the gyaru sister as a shield. In wharf roach mode. Now, did Yuhi’s skill come from practice with props and such, or was it based on knowledge found in screenplays?

They exited the building once more.

They climbed a gentle slope meant for wheelchairs to reach the large open pool reflecting the stars in the sky above.

The temperature seemed to have dropped by a few degrees. Was that…due to the pool’s water?

Or was this chill a more spiritual thing?

Rainy looked puzzled.

“They have something laid out here too… The poolside looks all cluttered.”

“Look, Onee-chan. That looks like a giant sign.”

“It says the leisure pool itself is closed. They probably plan to use this chance to complete all the maintenance they can.”

The online shrine maiden quietly added that making the best of a bad situation like that wasn’t uncommon.

Blue tarps, paint cans, large reels of power cables. It got in the way and threatened to trip them in the dark, but there were at least some bonbori-shaped construction lights set up here and there. The lights being on may have been more of the chief guard’s remote assistance.

A leisure pool seemed like it would have large lamps or gaudy decorative lights, but those things were commonly switched off during emergency closures.

(With this and the vase, I really wish our supposed helper would stop partially hiding the evidence.)

Overall, the pool formed a large weaving loop, like a race circuit. Some parts were quite wide, but the bends were only a few meters across. There were also diving boards and water slides on either side of the distorted loop.

Was that the deadly slide?

New Sea City must have had some kind of safety standards because there were tall lifeguard stands and warning speakers set up at a set interval along the winding leisure pool. …But those standards hadn’t been enough to prevent a paranormal death.

The night breeze was blowing the pool water, producing quiet splashing sounds in the dark.

Rainy frowned.

“Hm?”

“What is it?”

“Well…maybe I’m being influenced by the salt we saw before. Because it can’t be real.”

“Stop dragging it out and say what you mean.”

“It’s just…does the air smell kind of salty to anyone else? ''Like rotting seawater''?”

It wasn’t much compared to a bloody fallen warrior or countless hands emerging from a tunnel wall, but it was still an impossible phenomenon. Needless to say, the hundreds of tons of water filling the pool was freshwater disinfected with chlorine.

Tsumugi pulled her phone from her shrine maiden sleeve.

Not even the initial lock screen would appear. Only a dead black screen stared back at her.

She detected a quiet but unstable high-pitched ringing in her ear.

The Groan.

“It’s here.”

===Part 3===

Their phone lights and flashlights weren’t going to work anymore. They couldn’t rely on those LED light sources.

Tsumugi lit a bundle of incense sticks with the old oil lighter.

If the Malign Spirit wasn’t visible, she only had to improve the conditions for visibility. Like light spilling in through the gap in a curtain transformed into a single beam by the dust in the room.

It was near one of the bonbori-shaped construction lights that flickered like the beating of a heart.

An unnatural shadow hovered there.

The pool’s surface rippled. The enormous shadow floating there suddenly rose up.

The gyaru sister immediately tried to push down the straitlaced sister and the online shrine maiden kicked Yuhi to send both sisters tumbling. And just as they fell…



''Vwoosh!!!



A shape larger than a van burst from the water and flew in a large arch through open air. After failing to devour its target, the thing crossed the poolside to crash headfirst into more water.

“A sha-” Rainy shouted from the hard poolside where she lay holding her trembling sister. “A shark!? What was that!? It looked like a huge-ass shark!?”

“That distinctive white and black pattern and the neat rows of teeth… No, that was a killer whale, Onee-chan!!”

“Don’t bother trying to identify it. This is something else taking that form.”

The Ghastly Crusher had had hands meters across, but she hadn’t had a body like that in life. This was just a more extreme version of that.

Had it left the range of the incense smoke, or could it swim below the bottom of the pool once it was in the water? It had to be bigger than the pool’s depth in places, yet it managed to hide below the surface of the water. With something like that hiding invisibly in the pool, it would be surprising if people weren’t dying.

Wasn’t its tentative name the Watery Gnawer? That seemed apt.

The 8m long killer whale was the most powerful mammal. But this wasn’t actually one, nor was it it an abandoned pet that’s resentment for its owner turned it into a ghost.

Outside of some highly unusual exceptions, Malign Spirits were generally the human dead transformed.

There was no real requirement for the Malign Spirit to actually part the water’s surface as it swam around. The Watery Gnawer was fixated on showing off its size. That sense of feeling big when wielding a powerful weapon was unmistakably human.

The online shrine maiden pushed the lit bundle of incense sticks into the gyaru sister’s hands.

“Split the fire between the two of you! You chose some fireworks back at the office, right? Fighting and winning is the only path to survival here!!”

“Hey, wait. That’s a killer whale, right? The thing swims, so wouldn’t it be a good idea to keep away from the pool? Let’s make a party full of snipers who can chip away at its HP! I’m saying we should keep a safe distance and start shooting fireworks like craz-”

A black shape climbed up from the edge of the pool.

That was no killer whale. It was a hideous monster with countless thick octopus or squid tentacles attached to the back of a ferocious killer whale’s arrowhead-shaped head. Had it unraveled? Maybe it was something like an enormous, violent tadpole with many, many tails.  Each of the tentacles’ suckers waslarger than the girls’ heads.

“Does that look like a simple sea creature to you?”

“!!!?”

The terrified gyaru sister frantically searched her skirt pocket and found a fish sausage. It felt like a waste, but it would serve as a valuable decoy. She tore the thin wrapper off with her mouth and tossed it to the water to their side like fish bait.

The monster didn’t even glance that way.

It was coming for them. Using its many tentacles to lumber along the poolside.

“No way, whyyy!?”

Seeing the gyaru sister tearful and frozen in fear, the online shrine maiden sighed and pulled several bottle rockets from her large sleeve. She lit them and sent them toward the Watery Gnawer. She drew its attention toward herself.

That turned its back to the gyaru sister.

Rainy immediately aimed a single huge firework tube toward it.

“N-now’s my chance!!”

The many tentacles parted and something else emerged.

A new shark head. But the snout narrowed down unusually, becoming something like a long, long horn.

Was it a sawshark? It almost looked like a fencing saber.

Rainy did not want to be run through by that thing.

And that wasn’t the only new head. Like a giant flower, a total of five heads were spread out in different directions. There was no front and back to it now. The gyaru sister’s eyes widened.

“What the hell!? That one’s an astropecten starfish! Or is it a feather star!?”

“You know some unusual things, Onee-chan.”

“For all the good it does us here! So can it turn into any sea creature!? Whoa, here it comes!!”

The Watery Gnawer’s saber-like protrusion thrust sharply forward.

The air was compressed.

But Rainy’s body was not rent apart.

Just as Yuhi used her incense sticks to light the fuse, lots of colorful smoke obscured their view.

She created a smokescreen.

A thick octopus or squid tentacle swept out horizontally to slash through the air.

At its tip was a giant spiny shell resembling a turban shell. A giant clam’s shell could weigh more than 200kg and this rivaled that. It acted like a giant morning star or a crane’s wrecking ball.

But the straitlaced sister’s magnesium flash diverted its aim.

When the blunt weapon loudly crashed down, all the poolside’s tiles were torn up.

It wasn’t very powerful, but Yuhi’s firework had managed to divert the enemy attack and protect her loved one.

One’s choice of firework reflected who they were. This was different from the online shrine maiden’s focus on lethality with bottle rockets and firecrackers and also different from the gyaru sister’s love of flashy things.

“Oh, right. Rainy…”

The online shrine maiden looked around to see Rainy was running sharply out from the smokescreen. In fact, she continued on and jumped straight over the 2-3m wide pool. Like a competitive skateboarder or climber, she actively used the obstacles to her advantage. But while they had managed to turn aside the Malign Spirit, they would be in trouble if it figured out their pattern. Because Malign Spirits were originally human.

Targeting it with fireworks from multiple directions gave them an advantage, but it also increased the risk.

(I need to support both sisters soon! I can’t let the Watery Gnawer remain in control!!)

Tsumugi clenched her teeth. Even at a distance, she had to stay sharp.

The drum-sized shell resembling a turban shell or a Venus comb was cut away from the swinging squid tentacle and thrown. That spiky blunt weapon could tear flesh and bone.

Unlike a round ball, it bounced to the sides, making it hard to dodge.

When Tsumugi attempted to avoid it, something grabbed her right leg.

No. At some point barnacles had grown up, linking her sandal to the poolside tile.

“Tch!!”

She dropped a firecracker to blast the barnacles, but that meant wasting two seconds.

Letting it touch her was a problem in and of itself, but she would have to worry about that later. At more than 200kg, the blunt weapon was as heavy as a large motorcycle. She ducked low to just barely avoid the giant bouncing spiral shell.

She heard the chain link fence behind her bending and tearing. That would have been her had it hit her.

“Damn you!!”

The gyaru sister ran in and launched a series of twenty bottle rockets like a machinegun. The thing used its tentacles to side step out of the way, but the band of light pursued and finally hit. The Malign Spirit tried to escape into the pool, but it seemed to have swollen too large to move well. The killer whale head cut off the other four heads and leaped quickly toward the water with the sucker-covered tentacles trailing behind. It flew in a large arc.

Rainy staggered to a stop and clicked her tongue.

“It’s too fast!! And blasting it with all that wasn’t enough to take it down!!”

“Then we just have to hold it in place and hit it with everything we have. Yuhi-san.”

“Eh? Me?”

“Only you can do this.”

===Part 4===

It really was fast once in the water.

At this speed – in this world – it would be a challenge to hit it with fireworks.

Of course, the Watery Gnawer did more than just run.

It leaped in large arcs from pool to pool. Even when there was a solid poolside in between. The Malign Spirit zigzagged around like that, approaching its targets.

Red and blue filled its vision.

A smokescreen.

But that was no obstacle when it could simply attack from outside the screen. The smoke would spread in all four horizontal directions, but it didn’t travel very far up.

It decided to make the final attack from above.

Its sharp head and tentacles sliced through so much water before bursting from the surface and soaring high.

''Gween!!!

It made an odd noise.

It had hit a ''solid roof'' which shouldn’t have existed over the outdoor pool.

Had a large sign lying on the floor been tied to the speaker supports with wire or something? So it crossed a narrow section of the winding pool? With three of them, that would be physically possible.

“Whoa, we actually got it!?”

“If it didn’t want its view blocked by the smokescreen, it would naturally try to get a look from above. And when we’re the ones guiding its actions, we can easily lay a trap! Including when and where it will jump!!”

The Watery Gnawer had forcibly broken through the thin sign, but it had lost a lot of its momentum. Instead of reaching more water, it fell to the poolside between.

This created a short blank. A pause.

But this Malign Spirit had shown it could move on land.

Tsumugi and Rainy moved forward together.

“This is our one and only chance. I-if this doesn’t do the trick…”

“Don’t worry.”

The shrine maiden spoke with certainty.



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

===Part 5===

The homeroom teacher had been crying in private.

She couldn’t go to her students about this and the other teachers were the ones who had forced this onto her in the first place.

She was all alone.

This wasn’t a test of courage she had chosen for herself.

She had been forced against her will to violate a taboo.

She had said effort isn’t enough to make your fear go away.

That was exactly right.



Go to hell, Malign Spirit.

Don’t think you get to toy with other people’s lives in your hands just because you died once already!!

===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.”

===Part 7===

The leisure pool’s Watery Gnawer had been defeated.

There should be no more victims.

The homeroom teacher nervously patrolling the city with a flashlight in hand would return to school tomorrow without issue.

After parting ways with the sisters, Yahirodono Tsumugi returned to the detective agency on her own.

“Is it over?”

“Of course,” replied the shrine maiden with black hair tied back as she tossed the old oil lighter to the detective.

Yes.

There hadn’t been any problems.

“The older Betsuzaki sister was charmed and lured by the Watery Gnawer, so she would have tried to protect it.”

But Hisame Kouga was a detective. He had no convenient spiritual sense at all. But he knew how to arrive at the truth without relying on that sort of inborn talent.

So with three simple words, he arrived at the heart of the matter.



“''Was it hard''?”

The online shrine maiden pressed her forehead against his chest.

She was trembling.

She was suppressing the sobs, but she knew he would still feel them.



''“How could you…?”



Those words were born of misunderstanding.

Rainy had been charmed by the Malign Spirit, preventing her from seeing what it didn’t want her to see.

But those words had still come from her heart.



''“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!?”



“I know all that.”

Tsumugi couldn’t forget the look in Rainy’s eyes.

That gyaru sister was always the center of attention and overflowing with cheer, yet that had been the tearful look one gaze a child murderer.

“What I’m fighting are people’s souls, they are still human no matter how much they’ve changed, and they are all victims who were killed… But once the change happens, nothing other than utter obliteration will stop those Malign Spirits. If I don’t do that, I can’t protect the living! Not a single one!! I’m well aware I’m trapped in that catch-22 of contradictions!!

She had done the right thing, but she couldn’t call herself just.

This was a reminder that she was ultimately a dark existence.

“But I will still choose the souls of the living… Because I don’t want anyone else to die! Because I don’t want to even imagine anyone I know becoming a new Malign Spirit! Yes, yes. I imagine a true saint would elegantly wrinkle her brow, call it ‘horrid’, and refuse to go along with it. Maybe this makes me selfish!! But I won’t back down. Never, ever, ever… I will not let the living be killed to soothe the pain of the dead!! This world exists for the living. I won’t bend on that! I will protect this ordinary world! At the risk of my one and only life!! No one else will approve of what I’m doing? So what!? Why should I care!? Uwehhh, ahhhhhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

She felt a soft sensation.

It was the detective.

He held the weeping girl in his arms and gently rubbed her head.

“If this hurts you…”

Detectives were experts at guiding people to the right answer.

This man knew the girl better than anyone but he was not allowed to fight by her side. Nevertheless, he refused to accept that meant there was nothing he could do for her.

“If you can work to help a friend and cry when your feelings are hurt,” he said. “It means you are a ''living'' human. You can be confident of that.”

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