Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter2

Chapter 2: Those That Didn’t Make It @ Palm Tree Shopping District

Part 1

The latest rumors? Let me think…

Okay, about five years ago there was a fire at a pretty big shrine deep in the forests of western Japan.

The shrine and its grounds were totally destroyed, leaving nothing behind. Apparently a lot of the people who worked at the shrine died and it still hasn’t been rebuilt. I heard it even lost its position as a…religious corporation? You know, that framework created by the government.

But the real rumor is that the shrine still exists.

Tucked away in a corner of the internet.

The shrine, its grounds, and the people who ran it were all burned, yet the shrine’s official site lives on.

Supposedly the site is still being updated from time to time.

But who could be doing it?

Did someone from the shrine survive, has some stranger taken over the site, or are these updates coming…from beyond the grave.

There are plenty of additional rumors about that site.

For example, the shrine’s site is hidden away where you can’t find it with a normal search engine, but once you visit it…

“It’s all nonsense.”

Yahirodono Tsumugi complained to the message board on her phone.

That tended to be the case with random rumors.

She was in the detective agency’s nap room. But while it was called that, it was effectively her second bedroom. The office was rented by Detective Hisame Kouga, but if the black-haired girl ever found him hanging around in the nap room, she would probably be miffed. …Not angry, though.

(Everything here is his. Because he took me in from the burned-down shrine and then lent me a home like this.)

A sliver of the tropical morning sun shined brightly in through a gap in the closed electric curtain. It was comfortable in here thanks to air conditioning, but in the world just outside the glass, it looked like another scorcher was brewing. The thin thread of light traced its way along the girl’s thigh.

She was in her underwear.

Tsumugi was seated on the small bed with her arms around her knees. The gyaru sister had once pouted her lips and said, if that pose naturally squashed your boobs, it was proof that yours were “truly big”, but while it did happen for Tsumugi, she wasn’t sure why it mattered. She languidly stared at the inside of the electric curtain. She had not discovered any kind of new information. She always did this first thing after waking up. She never remembered it, but maybe this meant she dreamt of old times every night.

Of the time before it all burned down.

Of the priest and all the older shrine maidens who had spoke so proudly of the shrine’s more than a millennium of history.

Of those few people even in Japan who could carry out real exorcisms.

“Their last job was five years ago.”

She roughly lifted the long hair from her face with a hand.

She spoke out loud to confirm the information and solidify her own mental image.

“They were tasked with purifying the site before construction of New Sea City began. To pray for the safety of a once-a-century project even greater than an international airport or rocket launch site. It should have been done by the priest’s shrine. And would have if that hadn’t happened.”

Fire filled her mind’s eye.

She saw the torii, the sacred tree, the shrine office, and the main shrine blazing.

And she saw that woman flickering among the flames.

She intentionally drove the nightmare from her mind.

149 deaths. Could anyone have benefited from that horrific incident? Almost certainly. As many as had suffered from it. Count up both sides there and the number had to be in the thousands. Which made it nearly impossible to identify the culprit.

And because the purification of the building site was canceled, the ritual meant to ensure safety remained incomplete…or had possibly been maliciously altered. That could even explain the unusual quantity of Malign Spirits in such a new city.

“Who was it?”

She had asked this question thousands, if not tens of thousands, of times.

That woman had been dyed red by the flames as she stood directly below the torii burning even more brightly than its vermilion lacquer.

She undoubtedly carried the most fearsome rank in the country. She was the only known Quintuple Dread Star.

Which meant the number of lives taken by that terrible Malign Spirit reached five digits…and that was only the known deaths.

“Who was it that summoned you?”

On the other side of the door.

“…”

Someone stood tall.

A girl of only 10 stood tall and was clearly upset even this early in the morning. Her name was Hanagushi Temari. Detective Hisame Kouga sat seiza-style on the floor, so even the little girl in a frilly blouse and jeans stood taller than him.

The usual ritual had begun.

When the girl peered at him from the right, her hands on her hips, Hisame Kouga turned his face to the left. When the little girl tried again from the left, his gaze fled to the other side. The process repeated a few more times before any words left the 10-year-old’s lips. In an icy voice.

“Look at me.”

“…Yes, ma’am.”

“What do you mean you can’t pay this month’s rent?”

“Princess. Japan has a saying: you cannot shake sleeves you do not possess. Since that saying has survived into modern times, we can tell just how many Japanese have loved and identified with the saying and kept it in use. Thus, not paying your bills is a national-”

“Nwohh! You must be working since you’re always so busy. I’ve been watching, you know!? So how in the world is it you’re always in the red every single month and don’t have enough to pay your rent!?”

…This month, the problem was the torn guardrails and meters-long hand prints in the asphalt of the haunted Overlook Bridge courtesy of the Ghastly Crusher’s ultimate slaps, but there was no point in explaining that.

Especially for Tsumugi who had risked her life to battle the Malign Spirit.

Not to mention that the landlord’s daughter, and thus the tiny commander of the rent retrieval squad, wasn’t at all interested in that.

“Can’t you work a side job alongside your detective work? Like flipping burgers?”

“If I did that, it would probably turn into my primary job.”

“And what’s the problem with that? Open a burger shop and start paying your rent like an honest citizen!!”

The nap room’s door opened.

The online shrine maiden muttered sleepily with only the top of her shrine maiden outfit thrown on, leaving her bright thighs bare.

“When’s breakfast?”

Part 2

“It’s time to explore Yahirodono Tsumugi’s home!!”

“…”

“C’mon, don’t be like that. We’re schoolgirls and its after school. Shouldn’t we be having a ton of fun to boost our affection meters to the max? Like sitting around a table full of drinks and chips and discussing ways to revive your shrine.”

With school out and her homework already done, Tsumugi was preparing to head home when someone grabbed at her shoulders. Tightly.

Her gaze wanted to escape to her phone.

“C’mon, shrine maiden whose boobs absorbed all her height. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“I-if you have to ask that, it seems to me the answer is probably no. …But what’s with the tennis clothes?

“While I’m not officially on any team, I do help several of them out. This is the real deal with the special underwear below☆”

The gyaru sister grabbed her miniskirt in both hands and playfully waved it around. Could she be the kind of person who felt the need to wait until she had showered and let her hair dry before she changed into her uniform? …Apparently so.

Tsumugi stuck her thin leather school bag in the box below the seat of the rental aquamobile and took a large step to board it. She didn’t even sense when the facial recognition unlocked it for her.

Then she attached two hairpin-like objects to the back of her head. Those were her helmet. She ran a test with her phone that inflated and deflated something like a flat paper balloon shaped to envelop her head. It was designed to work with tilt sensors to automatically activate, but she had never been in a situation requiring it.

(Is this really safe?)

The aquamobile was something like a personal watercraft that could also travel on land, or like a snowmobile that floated in the ocean. At any rate, it was an amphibious vehicle. Cars and motorcycles required a driver’s license in New Sea City, but it was also a strange city where anyone was free to operate dangerous and unapproved new tech in the name of field testing.

With Terminal Float in the center, a few dozen megafloats were linked together in a fan shape with countless ocean canals running through them like leaf veins, so vehicles were about evenly split between land and sea. Traffic conditions could be checked on the phone attached to the handlebars, so they chose the ocean canals which were currently clear.

And while the two aquamobiles raced along side by side…

“We’re going to your place, right!?”

“Yes, yes.”

“Then I know what achievement I’m unlocking next: bathing with a shortstack who probably has a hell of a time finding bras that fit. There’s no stopping me now (wink).”

“What if speed up and leave you in my dust?”

Unfortunately, both rental aquamobiles were restricted to the same max speed. Even traveling side by side, the wind made it hard to hear each other, so they tended to speak through the phones attached to the handlebars.

Not all the ocean canals were the same. Some were 50m wide like the one Mincemeat Drawbridge crossed, but this one was about the size of a small street. The smallest ones could be hopped over on foot.

The gyaru sister asked something while the contents of the boxy school bag forcibly carried on her back clattered around.

“By the way, aren’t you gonna do anything to keep me quiet? I mean, I saw the underside of the world and learned all those secrets about evil spirits and stuff. So aren’t you going to create a cute summer-exclusive LR shikigami and send her to watch over me to make sure I don’t spill the beans? I’ll even accept a monster type if it looks like a cute plush.”

“Why do you sound so happy about that?”

“If I am going to be caught up in something, it might as well be as fun as possible, right? Well, I already know I’ll be part of some bizarre action stuff, so bring on the legendary rares!”

“Shikigamis aren’t my specialty and I haven’t even been taught onmyodo. …Besides, I don’t need to keep you quiet.”

“Oh, you trust me that much? Go me! I’ve won this shrine maiden’s trust in record time!”

“You have no traditional background to support your claims, so no one will believe a word you say about the occult. Telling people you saw a ghost will only ruin your own credibility. Upload a video of you making the claim online and it will, well, haunt you for the rest of your life.”

“Oh, I see. So it’s like that, is it?”

“It’s like the risk of artificial additives.”

“…”

“No one wants to know the risks that would be a real problem for them. Everyone wants to spy on the secrets of different industries, but the truths they want to find are the ‘Oh, is that all?’ ones. It would be a problem for all of them if there was a real threat there. That’s why no one believes in spiritual phenomena. The power of groups is a frightening thing. Viewing the dangerous as safe has the shared benefit of putting everyone at ease, so it is a very powerful effect.”

(Come to think of it, wasn’t it around here?)

“Huh? Mugikko, are you taking a detour to the shopping district?”

“More or less.”

With that curt reply, Tsumugi drove up the ramp-like harbor to exit the ocean canal and got off the aquamobile on the sidewalk. For some reason, Rainy pouted her lips, bent over, and leaned on an n-shaped bollard pole. She forcibly squished he boobs against it and spread her arms in a mysterious pose of invitation.

“What? Is this not enough for you, shrine maiden? Then I’ll put some real heart into it: fall in lovey-lovey-looove☆”

“Your sister is right behind you and that is your problem to deal with.”

“Nwohhhhh, why are you staring at my underwear, Yuhi!?” “It’s kind of hard not to when you put it on display for everyone to see, Onee-chan!!” The angry shouting (with one of them sticking her miniskirted butt out behind her) scared Tsumugi, so she kept out of it.

“Anyway, Yuhi, are you on the way to a meeting at the TV station?”

“I’m still not done discussing this with you and you still haven’t apologized.”

“So are you here for library committee stuff? That would explain why you’re walking around in this heat instead of studying for your entrance exam.”

The gyaru sister pushed past the issue with a smile.

They had already released the rental acquamobiles onto the land street. They would use their rubber continuous tracks to either automatically return to one of the charging stations around the city or be rented by someone else first.

The two other than the gyaru sister were sort of awkward together.

“Hello… I am Betsuzaki Yuhi. I think this is my first time introducing myself?”

“Yuhi-chan. Th-th-that’s a really normal name compared to your sister…”

“That’s the thing, Mugikko. Our stupid parents learned their lesson with me and went with something normal for their second kid. But it really hurts her if you call it plain or boring, so be careful, okay?”

“Don’t worry. She can’t do more damage than you already have, Onee-chan you dumbass.”

For some reason, they ended up friending each other on social media too. Was this like how grownups would exchange business cards?

There was no need to tell Yuhi about the online shrine and all that. This would be sufficient to contact each other.

That aside, Tsumugi noticed Yuhi had a slightly mismatched way of speaking. She used a more boyish first-person pronoun, but otherwise spoke normally for a girl.

“Have you ever heard that a soccer player who initially learns to kick the ball with the wrong foot and then later corrects that habit can turn into someone who can shoot with either foot when necessary?”

“?”

“When she was little she talked just like a boy, but she started trying to fix that when she got self conscious around the teacher she fell in love with. Ugh, what a waste. She was so cute back when she was following me around talking like that.”

“Do you have to bring that up…?” said a barely audible voice.

Apparently that was a touchy subject Yuhi didn’t want to be teased about. Tsumugi had far too many of those herself. This was also a good lesson in how dangerous it could be to have a sister. That gyaru sister could be frightening.

“Ah ha ha. Everyone’s got their little quirks. I mean, so do you, Mugikko.”

“M-me? Eh? Eh? Where?”

“Right there. You start to use a more feminine first-person pronoun and then chicken out.”

“…”

“Working hard to break free of your shyness?”

Now it was the online shrine maiden’s turn to puff her cheeks out like a squirrel and tremble. With tears in her eyes. Why was she being teased here when she wasn’t even Rainy’s sister!?

Apparently none of it mattered to Rainy herself. The verbal machinegun continued as the three of them walked through the shopping district.

“So then I told that worried guy: It sounds to me like you what you wanted wasn’t to build a party of only female characters to enjoy a harem adventure, but to make the main character a girl and go hunting giant enemies like that. …You want to be the cute girl avatar (with a deep, sexy voice). So go ahead and make your VLTuber debut and become the ultimate heroine of your dreams! Heh hehh!!”

“Onee-chan, how did you get sidetracked this far from talking about our favorite miso soup ingredients?”

“Maybe some slight shaking ordinary people can’t pick up has rattled her brain? These megafloats are out on the ocean. And there was already something wrong with her from the moment she began – with no prompting – to talk about about which of the green onion and tofu was the seme and which was the uke. …Oh.”

“What is it, Yahirodono-san?”

“There really is one here. Excuse me a moment.”

The straitlaced sister watched on in confusion as the online shrine maiden lit a bundle of incense sticks with an oil lighter. When she waved those side to side, spreading smoke around, something appeared even in the blazing shopping district full of bright sunlight.

Shock covered Yuhi’s face.

“Whoa!? …There’s, what? Just a back coming out of the wall?”

“Looks like she’s fused with the wall. A woman must have melted into it from the other side. Probably died alone and- gyah.”

Both sisters must have passed their limit and tearfully grabbed onto Tsumugi. It was the standard test of courage reaction, but it was a bit much in the blazing sun. It was also dangerous when she was holding the incense sticks.

“Ugh, pwah. Most Malign Spirits are a mutation of the soul caused by the conditions of their death, so there are a lot of failures that end up unable to move at all. Then they are either bound to a location or become a stain on the wall.”

“So is that why you end up with toilet ghosts? I can’t imagine someone choosing to haunt a bathroom.”

It was unlikely this ghost could do anything with only a back, but a Malign Spirit was a Malign Spirit. Tsumugi handed the incense sticks to the gyaru sister and dealt with it using a bottle rocket. But that wasn’t the end.

“Wh-what? Why is there just a head sticking out of the vending machine slot? Where even is that guy’s body?”

“He must have died a fairly dramatic death. Oh, move your legs, there’s one under the car too.”

Setting off bottle rockets and firecrackers around town could easily cause a panic, but this was a tourist city floating in the ocean. No one noticed as long as she matched the timing to loud noises occurring outside the Groan’s range: a parade using explosives, an LCD ad truck loudly playing a trailer for an online drama full of gunfire, etc.

The straitlaced sister’s eyes darted here and there in fright.

“By the way, Yahirodono-san, I like the way you fan the fireworks out in your hand like that. It’s like a magic trick.”

“Do they teach that in shrine maiden training? You have great control. There must be a long history behind that technique.”

…It was probably best if she didn’t tell them she had learned to do this by practicing fanning out out the somen noodles before putting them in the pot. She had only received that oil lighter after the shrine burned down, after all.

“So you even defeat the little ones?” curiously asked Yuhi.

“Their strength doesn’t matter. When a truly harmless person dies, they go to the underworld without any lingering regrets. That a Malign Spirit remains in this world is enough to know they are made of regret and jealousy. So whenever I notice one, I make sure to deal with it.”

“Huh? But didn’t you say something about being given jobs? Don’t you wait until someone hires you?”

“If these Single Dread Star weaklings are allowed to grow, I might have to risk my life battling them later. Besides, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to wait until someone’s killed and a job comes in.”

As they approached the train station, they began seeing a lot of weird people around: a miniskirt maid washing a shop window with a Febseze exorcism set, a strange female fortuneteller, a self-proclaimed spiritual underground idol whose performances in small clubs were supposedly always accompanied by a spectral appearance.

“The adults in the high-tech corporations working in this city have to be aware of the existence of Malign Spirits and the Groan. Even if they refuse to publicly acknowledge it. I mean, whenever a Malign Spirit appears, all the drones and self-driving vehicles in the area run into trouble, so it directly affects their results.”

“They know it’s so dangerous? Then why do they stay here in New Sea City?”

“Malign Spirits don’t only appear here.” The modern shrine maiden conveyed a frightening truth to the ignorant straitlaced sister. “This is the country’s largest public road testing area and there are tax breaks for working here. Anyone who wants to be the leader in the fields of self-driving, powered suits, transportation mobility, and drones is best off sticking with New Sea City even if it comes with some risk. That said, they don’t want people demanding a recall because of unexplainable errors, so a lot of my jobs come from large corporations wanting to keep this all a secret.”

“Huh? So you mean you’re fighting for the benefit of us all? That’s so cool!”

Fire.

The burning sacred tree, shrine office, and main shrine. The blazing torii. And the woman standing below it.

“…My motivations aren’t all that great.”

“?”

Anyway.

“This city is only three years old. This is probably the only city of a million permanent residents in the country without a single large Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine. That creates a lot of room for niche industries.”

For example.

The sole survivor of a burned-down shrine who is desperate to keep its site up and running.

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 bwah bwah bwah why bwah bwah bwah bwah my head bwah bwah bwah bwah bwah hey bwah bwah don’t rub my bwah bwah bwah bwah wait bwah bwah bwah everyone’s watching bwah bwah bwah bwah!”

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!?”

Part 4

It was not actually accurate to say that site had naturally developed on the underground side of the internet.

It didn’t benefit the site administrator to exist there.

Just like a map of price gouging restaurants or a list of the easiest convenience stores to rob, it really came down to the major search engines deciding the site felt criminal and distancing themselves from it. In this case, by viewing the site as the poor victim. In other words, it was a condescending and unwanted favor. As a result, it had become a mysterious site that would never show up simply by typing in the name and a special illicit plugin had to be added to your browser to find it.

It had originally been the official site for a certain Shinto shrine.

Did the ruins of shrines and churches always become dens of monsters? The site had become a gathering place for experts whose love of the occult had led them to waste more than half their life. And of course, the real connoisseurs preferred the real deal. It was a lot like cheaply buying a building where a murder occurred and renovating it into a horror-themed book cafe.

The internet shrine’s home page had a number of subpages listed and the Talk Corner was something like an online conference room. The screen was divided into several windows, each with the shrine’s grounds as the background.

The usual suspects with too much time on their hands were filling those square frames with their flashy Youkai-themed avatars. One regular account had taken the monstrous theming so far it wasn’t clear where the face even was. It was early morning, an inauspicious time on the boundary between day and night, but there were still people there.

“Lady Nine Tails> I sense a trend in the newcomers. Is that fan-shaped collection of megafloats, New Sea City, the latest fad?”

“Clam Mommy> The quality and quantity of the tragic archives here are on another level. There’s something wrong with the administrator (complimentary)”

“Snow Sister> But that administrator is currently pouring most of her attention into the advice column and the daily fortune telling meant for light users, isn’t she? This could make the site more accessible and ruin it for the rest of us.”

“Joro Spider> Don’t worry. That extreme introvert doesn’t know how to appeal to light users.”

“Yamanba-chan (Brown)> Could you change your name to Jorogumo? Translating it makes it sound like you’re talking about an actual spider!”

There were of course plenty of people on the site not wearing avatars. Those users tended to be on the lighter end and there were different parts of the internet shrine for both types.

The regular known as Lady Nine Tails copy-pasted over the text from a different board.

“Sugar Doll> I can’t stick to my diet. Help me, Shrine Maiden!”

“Shrine Maiden> I can teach you a way to motivate yourself using bad smells. Keep it up and you won’t have any trouble.”

“Goddess in Love> We aren’t actually dating yet, so would handmade sweets be too much? Ahhh, I want to put them in his mailbox right this instant! I haven’t done anything wrong have I!?”

“Shrine Maiden> Why are you even asking me? You’ve already done it.”

“Cute and Popular> It’s almost my birthday, but I asked some subtle questions and my boyfriend says he has work that day. Has he forgotten, or is he planning a surprise? Either way, I’m afraid asking any more questions will only make things worse. Shrine Maiden, what should I do?”

“Shrine Maiden> He’s simply forgotten. And for this he deserves death.”

Was this a standard action she had saved to a shortcut key, or was she actually doing it all seated in front of a phone or tablet? The fox-eared kimono beauty breathed an exasperated sigh while squishing a balance ball (designed to look like a clear, white paper lantern) below her kimono butt.

“Lady Nine Tails> Thoughts?”

“Yamanba-chan (Brown)> Incredible.”

“Snow Sister> She blows them all off after a single line. That’s the kind of cold reception I could fall for.”

“Lady Nine Tails> With her making such a mess of that, this oasis for us tactless occult freaks should be safe for a century more at least.”

Part 5

“Good, good.”

It was early morning at a cafe near her home. The shrine maiden in a short-sleeved sailor uniform stretched her back while still seated and massaged her shoulders as if to signal a job well done. …Apparently it was true that large ones gave you stiff shoulders. Then she folded her notebook-sized tablet back into a phone.

A snort escaped her small nose.

“Another perfect job. …It feels good to eliminate people’s worries and bring them happiness.”

Tsumugi must have let her guard down thanks to the wireless earphones she was wearing because she said this out loud. This must have coincided with the quarter hour because she was given a list of the latest news articles based on her interests. As someone neck deep in the underground internet (against her own wishes), she found the articles from the open search engines to be so peaceful and adorable.

“New for Gourmets – Be Fooled No More! How to Make the Ultimate Curry Rice”

“Hmm.”

The daily morning special at the cafe today had been a small curry. Along with the standard vegetables and chicken, it had included cheese, chopped-up fish sausage, and croutons (which she mostly knew from corn potage). This was known as New Sea City style. She appreciated a recipe for the ultimate curry rice, but she would have preferred not to be shown it while already eating curry.

(But I guess I am interested.)

“Online Shrine Maiden> You don’t have to do anything for dinner. I’ll make it.”

“Detective> Where did this come from? …Wait, did you break something? Like an antique vase?”

“Online Shrine Maiden> What are you so afraid of, you poor detective? Your office is full of 100-yen items. I just want to try out a new recipe.”

At any rate, it was time. Tsumugi stuck her trifold phone in her skirt pocket. Her school uniform had a breast pocket, but she didn’t use it. Her excessive chest stretched the pocket so tight she had trouble getting anything inside. … And when she had only just started going to her school, she had forced her phone in the breast pocket and then nearly jumped out of her skin when it suddenly started vibrating. He hadn’t known what he was doing, but that detective had been sending her a bunch of unimportant rapid-fire social media messages! And thanks to that, she had gathered all the attention in the middle of a quiet class at the start of the school year before everyone’s friendships were fully set!!

“Ahem.”

She had better things to do than blush about that memory.

Tsumugi left the cafe and walked to a roadside charging station. She released the thick lock on the ground and pulled out something like a skateboard with T-shaped handlebars. She wanted her hands free, so she hung her bag from the metal hook below the handlebars and locked it in place. …This was partially because using her flat school bag’s shoulder strap would accentuate her chest size. She also made sure to equip the hairpin helmet. Then she switched her phone on and off to make sure the battery and wireless had connected properly.

These rental electric scooters were maneuverable and convenient, but the extremely small wheels meant even slight bumps were frightening and they tended to slip on wet manholes or the white lines. Also, they were generally ridden standing up. A girl who paid insufficient attention to her skirt could end up shining a little too brightly and spread happiness around the city, so you had to be careful.

While riding along the street lined with palm trees and solar panels, she heard the sound of skidding shoe soles from behind her. That was a trick to make your presence known with a model that lacked a horn.

“Morning.”

Betsuzaki Yuhi pulled up alongside her. She apparently used a square backpack.

This was their first time meeting without the gyaru sister around. This girl was a friend’s middle school sister. …That made it a little bit awkward. If she weren’t driving, Tsumugi’s eyes might have been drawn to her phone. But also…

“Eh? A seat?”

“They added this accessory as an option recently. I thought this would make it easier.”

“It looks more like an electric bike with that.”

That certainly seemed convenient to Tsumugi who had no greater defense with her miniskirt than someone riding a bike while standing up on the pedals. She decided to try out that option if she saw one around.

After going their separate ways to their respective schools, Tsumugi tossed her rental electric scooter in the large charging station installed near the school and walked the rest of the way.

In her classroom, someone gave a sleepy wave while resting her head on her desk.

“Mornin’.”

“Oh, you’re here early.”

“Of course I am, Shortstack-chan. Big Bro Detective Kouga-san told me to look after you. So now it’s up to me to help you with the Shrine Restoration Project!!”

She was being a little much.

Their homeroom teacher entered the classroom a bit late. Saitou Aiso was a timid puppy girl(?) known for being even more nervous than your average student teacher. The beautiful woman with long wavy hair and a suit was acting weird this morning.

“O-okay, everyone, please take your seats. Today’s first announcement is…gym class today is at the pool, so please make sure your valuables are safe. And apparently some of you have been changing in the bathroom or an unused classroom lately, but you need to use the locker room. Um, and also…”

“Gyaru Sister> Man, talk about ‘this meeting could’ve been an email’.”

They secretly chatted on their phones while listening to their teacher.

“Online Shrine Maiden> I feel bad for the teachers since they have to do everything in a standardized way.”

“Chatty> Okay, you bored girl, pay attention to the civil servant trying to do her job. And what’s with that crazy ‘Online Shrine Maiden’ name? Yahirodono-san, do you play phone games when you’re bored in class?”

“Nyuwahh!!??”

“Y-Yahirodono-san?”

Their homeroom teacher’s confused voice and every eye in the class were bearing down on her.

The pressure from all sides was so great she wanted to die.

She had made the classic mistake of joining the friend group chat with her secondary work account. This was the first she had heard of being able to join with a different account as long as the phone ID matched. She hid her face and phone behind a raised textbook like a growing child eating an early lunch and she tried to secretly recover from her mistake, but her fingers felt so awkward on her phone’s screen as it rested on her desk. Excuses spiraled through her mind, but…

“Gyaru Sister> Whoa, Mugikko. They’re resting on your desk. lol”

“Chatty> Wow, that’s crazy. Now that’s some overflowing resources.”

“Rie> I can almost feel their weight.”

She briefly wondered what they were talking about before arriving at the answer: her chest. This had distracted Chatty and the rest from the secondary account, but heat still filled her face. She looked over a little nervously as the fluffy teacher said something.

“And while I’m sure you know this, you shouldn’t be wandering around the city at night without a very good reason. I-I will be out patrolling, okay? If our eyes happen to meet out there, you could be suspended!”

The students saying things like “So she’ll be out ‘inspecting’ a night pool on the taxpayer’s yen?” or “I go to a cram school, so I have a good reason” apparently couldn’t be bothered to use their phones and keep their chatting a secret. Saitou Aiso clearly didn’t know how to respond.

Part 6

“Are you patting your ears again? You were doing that before.”

“Ugh, I still feel like I have water in there. Am I imagining it?”

The students were allowed to choose between a few different styles of school swimsuit, but the most popular at the moment was the racing swimsuit style. A high cut one. A swimsuit which fully, if tightly, covered the body was reassuring, but it also allowed no escape for the sweat when stuck out on the sunny poolside listening to your teacher talk on and on. Why didn’t this school have an indoor pool?

(And the full-body defense also makes it harder to adjust when it shifts out of place. …Like in the chest.)

“Dammit, Rie. I know you can’t swim, but do you have to grab onto me so tight when I go to rescue you? With your arms and your legs? Sigh, I really thought I was going to die…”

“Th-that’s your fault for approaching me from the front.”

Rainy normally had her hair all done up in the gyaru style, but even she went with something more subdued when they had pool class. She looked so different when she removed her swim cap and let her hair down.

That aside, New Sea City was about the only place that had an outdoor pool class in May. That was the tropical weather for you. Maybe it wasn’t a great place for Rie and her Osaka-style elegance.

At any rate, Rainy proclaimed her exhaustion and let her shoulders droop as she walked barefoot down the hallway. Walking must have made her swimsuit ride up because she adjusted the cloth in the rear with her index finger.

“Don’t you think they should add a pool locker room next to the pool? Chatty was saying the same thing! The main one is too far away! I took a shower, but now I have to walk through this sticky air!”

“But the school is air-conditioned.”

“This is filthy land air. What was even the point of wearing myself out in the water now?”

Apparently it wasn’t just the students who got noisy during the lunch break. As they walked through the school, they heard a voice coming from the faculty room. It was the familiar voice of their class’s homeroom teacher, Saitou Aiso.

“Ehh? You mean the night patrol is for more than just the shopping district? Wh-what do you mean a haunted location?”

“Oh, this has nothing to do with ghosts. We just have to check every area rumored to be a hangout for delinquents or a hookup spot for poor couples.”

“Then why do the rest of you get ordinary convenience stores and karaoke places? Th-that only leaves the super dangerous and haunted Rending Pool for me!”

“Okay, time for a break. After eating lunch, I need to focus on my afternoon classes.”

“Excuse meeee!!”

She was a timid woman, so this likely wasn’t the first time she had gotten the short end of the stick like this.

Rainy sighed in exasperation.

“The grownup world sounds rough. Man, I am not looking forward to that.”

“…”

Part 7

After school, raindrops were pattering on the window.

At more than 500 kilometers south of Tokyo, the weather of New Sea City was temperamental and sudden downpours and lightning strikes were common. It really was hard to believe it was officially part of the Greater Tokyo Area.

Homeroom Teacher Saitou Aiso stood in the middle of the hallway operating her tablet. Partially because she felt like doing this on her faculty room computer would stain her search history.

She searched and searched and found only ominous results.

“The Rending Pool is for real.”

“Was it a young woman who died? Supposedly her body was torn to pieces in a pool they claimed was safe.”

“(Official Police Statement) A portion of the remains have yet to be located. (heh)”

“The place tries to make itself look perfectly safe, but if you look around, you’ll see they have piles of salt sitting around. They’ve known the place is dangerous before anyone died and still kept it open for business.”

“Given how much they lose each day they’re closed, they can’t not reopen their doors just because the cause is unknown. They’ll find a way. I bet more people are going to die. Those places always get worse once they’re known to be haunted.”

“Saitou-sensei.”

Saitou Aiso jumped and turned around when someone called her name.

She saw a familiar woman’s face.

“Y-Year Head, what locations were you assigned?”

“A few izakayas in the shopping district. I can’t imagine high schoolers going there, but it’s best to be safe.”

And then she would likely stay there a while to do some drinking. Along with the others who had made the assignments.

Meanwhile, Saitou had to go to the Rending Pool, where someone had actually died. At night. On her own.

“D-do we really have to check out a haunted location?”

“All of our locations are equally dangerous. If you find anything there, it’ll be some drunk.”

“Um, then would you mind swapping assignments with-”

“Why should I do that? You need to forget this silliness about ghosts and start showing your senior teachers the respect they deserve. So can we discuss this like professionals?”

“…”

It was always like this when people found excuses not to do something themselves and then forced it onto someone else.

Kindness was never a factor in their arguments.

Nor were the feelings of the person on the receiving end.

“Anyway, I will complete my job and you will complete yours. Simple, isn’t it? So do make sure you patrol that leisure pool tonight. There are only so many of us teachers, so we need to split up and check out each of the dangerous locations around the city. We must keep our students safe.”

With that said, Year Head Haramori Yoshiko promptly left.

She would be joining her close friends among the older teachers to enjoy an evening of drinking while the younger Saitou was left alone to visit a haunted location during the shadowy night. Ghosts were unrealistic. Saitou knew that intellectually. But what was that about someone actually dying? Could that leisure pool be home to someone capable of doing something not even the police could explain?

No, that was an excuse.

She couldn’t try to force an explanation for what she was feeling right now.

The evening downpour hammered against the window.

Homeroom Teacher Saitou Aiso muttered to herself, her head lowered.

“This isn’t a job for a teacher. And effort isn’t enough to make your fear go away.”

Around a corner in the hallway, Yahirodono Tsumugi heard that comment with her back against the wall.

This matter was complicated by the fact that the Malign Spirits was real. It wasn’t mere superstition and it had the ability to kill.

It was plain to see what would happen to that powerless homeroom teacher if she carelessly visited a real haunted location like the Rending Pool late at night.

(Which means I have to get there first and defeat the Malign Spirit before that can happen.)

Tsumugi silently left that place and operated her phone in one hand.

“Online Shrine Maiden> I accept the Rending Pool job. Speculation is fine, just send me the Malign Spirit’s rank and basic specs. As much as you have.”

“Detective> Then we should meet in person. This is perfect timing.”

“?”

Why was this perfect timing?

What about this did he not want overheard? It was best not to spread around word of Malign Spirits’ existence, but there was no real punishment if it was discovered. In fact, Rainy and Yuhi had ended up part of the team in that way.

The real reason people in this business kept secrets was to avoid the many questions ordinary people would inevitably ask. It was a matter of compartmentalization, just like how professional entertainers did not invite amateur guests to their dressing room or backstage (even though they knew it would delight them).

Tsumugi tilted her head and used both hands to pull out a cheap rental umbrella in the entranceway. When it popped out, she staggered back from her own excess momentum. Only afterwards did her phone chime to show it had worked with the facial recognition to pay for the umbrella rental. Thanks to swimming class today, she was carrying more bags than usual and now she had an umbrella to deal with. She didn’t want to have to drive a vehicle like that, so she decided to walk to the nearest dock and take a water bus. The self-driving taxis were too expensive for a single passenger.

By the time she arrived at the multi-tenant building and boarded the elevator, the rain had completely let up. Now the folded-up umbrella was only in the way. The weather in tropical New Sea City really was even more temperamental than in the mountains.

She arrived at the floor she wanted and opened the usual door to the detective agency.

And was greeted by a girl in a colorful bikini.

“Yahoo!! I hope you’re ready for a trip to a fashionable leisure pool tonight!!!”

The online shrine maiden’s mouth formed a small triangle.

The gyaru sister had turned the place into her playground.

Apparently the detective considered this “perfect timing” because Tsumugi could evict this reckless exhibitionist idiot from his office.

Two masses contained by a swimsuit jiggled before Tsumugi’s eyes.

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