Sugawara Takayuki, the father of Kyoko and Tamako, was forced to inherit the Fuyun Shrine in his twenties and served as an ordinary person who has been a Miyaji until now. What he denied was not his daughter, but the foundation of the spiritual enlightenment behind her
, an institution that wanders between the living and the dead.
It is just that after thousands of years of development, most ordinary people will never come into contact with the institutions in their entire lives, but in fact they have influenced or controlled all the shrines and temples in Japan, openly and secretly. The two sides complement each other and Fuyun Shrine.
It is also one of the countless veins that extend it.
Takasugara Sugawara cannot deny that the institution and its sent spiritualists have actually enhanced the influence of the shrine in the local area with various abilities and means that ordinary people cannot understand. Therefore, since he inherited the shrine, his arrangements for the institution have been made.
It is disgusting but not resisting, and cooperates tepidly in the process.
After a few years, he and his wife's first daughter, Kyoko, came to the world and were soon discovered to be the Spirit Awareness.
The senior of Noma Nan, an institution witch who was about to retire at that time, once congratulated him like this: "If it is well trained, Mr. Sugawara will be more relaxed in all aspects when this child grows up."
After a long consideration, Takayuki Sugawara acquiesced to her implication.
As the witch said, Kyoko grew up, she really grew up to be a child who was very outstanding in all aspects - especially the idea of exorcising evil spirits and guarding the world.
At the age when most of her peers were still confused, she had replaced her father and became the actual leader of many social affairs in her shrine. At the same time, because of her identity as a spiritual person, she became an unbreakable bond between the institution and the Fuyun Shrine.
Sugawara Takayuki was freed from having to contact with institutional affairs that he hated. He began to be active in various social activities and social engagements under the name of a clergy, indulging in pleasure, and even becoming a well-known local "star" Miyaji.
But he didn't expect that his and his wife's second daughter, Yuzi, was also a spiritual scholar.
Takayuki Sugawara was determined to let his youngest daughter Tamako grow up naturally, but he could not stop Kyoko from his intentional or unintentional influence on his sister.
And he soon discovered that Kyoko loved her sister more.
Although she was asked to join the institution early, she would practice some skills to deal with spirits in her daily life, but she never forced herself. In Kyoko's opinion, it was enough to have her in the bond between the institution and the Fuyun Shrine.
This coincides with Takayuki Sugawara's idea, and he has become particularly satisfied and grateful for his eldest daughter who has taken on important tasks for him and even the entire Sugawara family.
Therefore, when Kyoko suddenly expressed that she planned to let Tamako take over her, the shocked and angry Takayuki Sugawara lost his composure and called the institutional spiritualists represented by her daughter "outliers".
Although he quickly apologized, Kyoko, who realized for the first time that his father did not recognize his actions and pursuits, could no longer make up for the impact and harm he suffered from it.
"I won't resent my father, but I won't forget what he said."
“…”
After listening to Kyoko explaining the whole story of the father-daughter confrontation, Soya took a deep breath and looked out the window speechless for a long time.
This is an inevitable contradiction between the two generations with completely opposite ideas of the Sugawara family. After a long period of burial, it becomes extremely intense as soon as it bursts out. The inseparable family affection between father and daughter and sister makes the contradiction complicated and difficult to understand.
Like the plum rain outside the window, it erodes each other darkly.
On the night when he killed Zhilei, the hand he stretched out to Kyoko became the greatest thrust to turn the contradiction that should have continued to dive onto the table - if he had not invited Kyoko to be his companion
, she would not have the idea that she would leave the shrine sooner or later, nor would she choose to let her sister take over the burden.
Now, he is still stagnating, and she has devoted her body and mind, "to give everything for it" as she said at the time.
If you want to ask what he can do for her at this moment, it seems that the only thing left is to reject her follow-up, allowing the most intense part of the father-daughter conflict to directly eliminate this option.
“…”
But he couldn't do it.
When he walked out of the tram in the morning and returned from the other side to the car, he realized that he could no longer let her go.
"Kyoko."
She raised her head and looked over.
Zong Gu sat down beside the bed, hesitated for a moment, but still pulled her hand that was outside the quilt and held it in the palm of her hand.
"Thanks."
She looked at his fingertips, "What..."
"I want to thank Kyoko for choosing to believe me at that time... Now that this is happening, I still choose to continue to follow me." He paused, "What I want to say is that I will believe Kyoko in this way."
"Anyway, I will stand on Kyoko's side."
“…”
Kyoko looked at him calmly for a while, and when his eyes became hot, he lowered his gaze again.
"So too...thank you."
"Following Zong Gu is the most important decision in my life. It will not change, nor will it be shaken..."
For some reason, she began to constantly explain why she was following him so firmly.
"Because the goal of Zong Gu is consistent with me and the organization, everything is for peace of the world. This is my lifelong ideal, and only Zong Gu can do this..."
She said that he had a lofty and noble goal, and was willing to spend his whole life to solve the problems that had plagued the world for thousands of years; she also said that his understanding of various spirits was beyond the reach of the world, and he was good at it, so he did not deal with it without him.
The unresolved spirit, even the gods, also said that although he was unforgivable, he would always complain while properly solving all the troubles that others had lost. Every time he acted together, he was the one who put the most energy into it.
As the person said..., Kyoko choked up.
"No matter...no matter where Zong Gu goes, who is by his side..."
He had responded to her expectations - he would stand on her side and become her most determined supporter of her pursuit of ideals - this was enough.
But she still has wishful thinking that she cannot say.
"I have always been... Zong Gu's companion, and I have the help..."
She lowered her head and stopped looking at him. The hazy in her eyes was full of his intimacy with another girl holding hands.
"So... Please don't forget my existence, either."
The wind and rain outside the window seemed to have stopped at this moment, and there was no other sound.
"I won't forget."
Zong Gu sat closer, grabbed the tenderness and held it between his hands.
"Even if we fall into the underworld again in fifty years and never meet again, I will never forget Kyoko." He stretched out his fingers, and his palms were close to her palms, "No matter how you are a hunting god, you are
Companion, or... something else."
She raised her gaze and stared at him, "What else... what is it?"
"friend?"
“…This means the same as the companion.”
Zong Gu smiled and looked into her eyes, "People you care about, people you can't ignore, and people you want to stay together."
She seemed to smile, then buried her head and wiped the foundation of her eyes on the quilt.
Threads of long hair were draped down from both sides and hung to his ears. His hand reached over and pushed the black hair behind his ears.
“…”
She subconsciously avoided the side and then pressed it up again before he stopped.
The cheeks and palms rubbed gently, conveying each other's temperature.
She lowered her eyes, "Student Zong Gu cares too many people."
The fingertips stroked the corners of the eyes that were still wet, and touched the soft earlobes. Zong Gu couldn't help but want to touch more.
"It's nothing compared to those who care about me."
"Student Yoshikawa...for example, Yoshikawa, Kirino and Asaki." She raised her gaze in his palm, "Isn't there enough?"
"I can't help but care about them every day...just like I can't ignore Kyoko."
She was not satisfied with this answer, and she turned her face and buried it in his palm again. The wet and slightly hot breath kept slashing her palms, and Zong Gu didn't want to slash his hands.
Time in the room became sticky, and the world outside the window was still running on its own.
The rain seemed to be getting heavier, and the cars crushed the water on the ground, making a rustling sound.
One after another, it is the prelude to the arrival of night.
"It's already dark."
"Um."
"Go and eat something."
Kyoko smiled, and although she was reluctant to end this quiet and alone time, she nodded.
"Um."
Zong Gu was reluctant to let go of the softness of his hands, and he had already let go, and gently pinched her cheek twice.
“…”
She just glanced at him and said nothing.
After leaving the express hotel where I had been staying for nearly a day, it was completely dark. The two of them walked into the drizzle with umbrellas and stopped at the intersection of red lights.
Zong Gu stood a little forward, his eyes crossed the sparse crowd in front of him, and looked at the bright mall in the distance.
"Let's go to the underground street I visited in the morning."
"good."
Kyoko had no objection, he could go anywhere he wanted.
Waiting at the intersection, one hand holding an umbrella while the other hand is still empty.
Looking at his side face, her gaze fell on the naturally drooping hand again.
“…”
After hesitating for a few seconds, she had just reached out her hand a little while Zong Gu suddenly turned his head and she immediately retracted.
"The green light is coming."
With his expression unchanged, Kyoko turned the umbrella in her hand.