After returning, he helped the young wanderer and temporarily won his trust, which was followed by a series of warmth.
"name."
"The wandering spirit."
"Hesitant... No, I asked for your name."
In the kitchen of the Kirino family's old house, the boy across the dining table raised his head.
Her long, blow-dried hair was draped over her shoulders. The clothes she had just changed into after taking a shower were clean and warm, but they didn't fit her well.
"I?"
The two looked at each other, Kirino Akane nodded, and added: "If it's inconvenient, forget it."
He is a homeless man after all...
"Nothing inconvenient."
He lowered his head, stirred his chopsticks, picked up a ball of udon noodles, and was about to put it into his mouth.
"Soya Yoshiaki."
"Sogu..."
The homeless man across from him was devouring his noodles. Kirino Akane silently recited his name and waited until he swallowed the noodles before continuing to ask.
"What's your age?"
"Fifteen years old." He blurted out.
"Eh?"
Akane Kirino was a little surprised, and Soya also paused.
"What year is it now?"
"The era name has been changed." She mentioned it more for no reason, "After the New Year, it will be the 3rd year of Reiwa."
"Yeah."
Zong Gu was obviously aware of the change in the year number, he lowered his head and continued to eat noodles, "That should be seventeen years old."
From being fifteen to seventeen, does it mean that you have been wandering outside for two years without caring about the world?
Kirino Akane guessed, but she just saw that he was very absorbed in eating, so she didn't ask any more questions for the time being.
It's obviously just a bowl of ordinary udon noodles, and the side dishes are as simple as just a few slices of green vegetables...
She held her chin and looked at Zong Gu again. She couldn't understand why the handsome young man in front of her, who was only one year older than her, was wandering outside.
Run away from home?
Or a family accident?
"The wandering spirit."
As if he was a little uncomfortable being stared at by her, Zonggu suddenly spoke.
Kirino Akane was startled, "What?"
He stopped his chopsticks and looked at her, "That's the name of the wandering spirit you just saw."
"Yeah."
"Because it has experienced so many years, its consciousness has almost dissipated.
It has no aggression or ability to attack. It only has the last trace of instinct, which makes it return to the place where it has been for the longest time in life and linger...
In other words, it has always been in this house."
"..."
Akane Kirino's scalp suddenly went numb.
Although she usually lives at home, she spends the night alone here quite often. For example, during the summer vacation every year, she prefers to stay here alone.
It turns out she's not the only one...
"--etc."
She suddenly realized something was wrong, "Since it has always been here, why have I never seen it before?"
"For ordinary people, it is normal to be invisible."
The biting cold rain that forced Soya to come back to borrow an umbrella now became more violent as the wind hit the kitchen window, briefly attracting the two's attention;
Akane Kirino stood up and closed the window completely, and Soya continued to explain after she sat down again.
“In addition to the five basic senses of vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste, the ability to perceive spiritual bodies is called spiritual sense. People with a certain intensity of spiritual sense are called ‘spiritual sensers’.
Ordinary people's spiritual sense is very weak, and even if a spiritual body appears around them, they can only vaguely sense it at most, neither seeing nor touching it, and they don't know why."
This was the first time she heard this statement. She digested it for a few seconds before asking:
"So... it was actually because my spiritual sense suddenly awakened that I was able to see the wandering spirit just now?"
Zonggu shook his head.
"Human spiritual awareness is innate and does not change. Maybe you are special."
Kirino Akane was stunned for a while, comparing her changes before and after, and her eyes naturally fell on the amulet beside her.
The red thread connecting it had broken, which was the main reason why she lost the amulet. She planned to find a new string to string it on after returning home.
"Does it have anything to do with this amulet?"
Soya also took a look and didn't pay much attention. Although in Japan, which is more accustomed to wearing amulets, this kind of wooden amulet is relatively rare.
"Maybe. I have always worn it on my body. It was my grandma a long time ago..."
Staring at the lines on the peach wood, Akane Kirino suddenly remembered what he said before, and her eyes widened suddenly.
"——Wait a minute, wandering spirits are actually human souls, right?"
"Not exactly, but it's okay to understand it this way."
"You just said that the wandering spirit called the wandering spirit would linger in the place where it stayed the longest during its lifetime?"
Zong Gu raised his eyes and nodded quickly.
"grandmother!"
"No... not everyone will become a wandering spirit after death. And according to the speed at which wandering spirits' consciousness dissipates, it will take more than a hundred years to turn into a wandering spirit."
"..."
Kirino Akane was stunned for a while, then got up and left the kitchen.
"If it's not grandma, then it's the other ancestors of the Kirino family..."
Not long after, a faint sound of copper was heard in the living room outside.
bite--
Eating half of the udon noodles, Soya thought that the girl in front of the Buddhist altar probably had a lot to say to her ancestors who had vanished into thin air;
As a result, within half a minute, she returned to the kitchen.
"Suddenly I remembered that the land owned by the Kirino family was purchased more than sixty years ago."
"……Yeah."
...
Putting down his chopsticks, Zonggu wiped his lips and took a deep breath.
"Thank you for the hospitality."
"Okay, you're welcome."
Kirino Akane looked at the bottomed noodle bowl, saw him looking out the window, and asked: "Mr. Sotani, are you ready to leave?"
"Um."
"Continuing to wander?"
"..."
Zonggu nodded and lowered his eyes.
"almost."
The clothes on my body are a bit loose, and they are still the same style from the previous era, but their thermal insulation effect is much better than the previous pieces of tattered cloth that can only be called clothes.
"Thank you for your clothes, hot water, and this delicious bowl of udon noodles."
Zong Gu stood up and looked at her seriously, "It's just that I don't have the ability to repay you now."
"No, no... Mr. Sotani also said a lot of strange knowledge, which opened my eyes. There is no need to repay me or anything." Kirino Akane waved her hand and looked out the window again, "But it's still raining now."
"Umbrella……"
"No problem - I mean, you can wait until the rain stops before leaving."
Zonggu shook his head, "Those things chasing me will not stop. They may have followed their breath and chased them here."
"Eh? What?"
He hesitated for a moment, and considering that since she could "see", she was not an ordinary person, he didn't hide it.
"Daughter of the Underworld."
"..."
Kirino Akane was startled and quickly remembered where she had seen this name.
"Is she the girl from the underworld mentioned in Kojiki?"
"That's right."
The girl was even more surprised, "Are you Izanagi-sama?!"
"No... the targets pursued by the Daughter of the Underworld are far more than just the creation god."
"Gods really do exist... Are everything in the creation myth true?"
"Not really."
After taking a hot bath and eating a large bowl of noodles, Zonggu couldn't bear to part with the long-lost warmth, but after all he didn't dare to stay too long, so he headed out.
"I don't have time to explain more. If you are really curious, you can go to the nearby shrine and ask.
The shrines in the Kinki area seem to have very high requirements for the clergy, the most important of which is the strength of spiritual awareness. I think they will also be very interested in you, and they won't hide much about something of this level."
"A shrine?"
Akane Kirino paused for a moment. Soya had already walked out of the kitchen and looked left and right.
"The exit is on the left."
He nodded with his back turned and turned to the left.
She followed immediately, turned back after a few steps, grabbed the amulet on the table and stuffed it into her pocket;
When she chased her out of the kitchen, she saw Sogu had stopped and was staring at her in surprise.
"Eh..." She subconsciously lowered her head and looked at herself. There was nothing unusual, "What's wrong?"
"Gone."
Akane Kirino was even more confused, "What?"
"When your spiritual sense reaches a certain level, you can detect other people with similar spiritual sense in a small area. Just like I just said that even though my back was to Miss Kirino, I could still feel your presence..."
Zong Gu said and closed his eyes again. What he saw with his spiritual eyes was as dark as his current field of vision.
"But now, I feel nothing."
When he opened his eyes again, Kirino Akane stretched out her hand, with the small peach wood amulet placed in her palm.
"Maybe it's because of this?"
She flipped her hand and the amulet fell straight down, but she nimbly caught it with the instep of her feet, and then rolled to the floor.
"What now?"
"I can feel it..."
Zonggu looked at her, then bent down to pick up the amulet that was still warm. The newly restored sense was cut off immediately, and he was filled with surprise and uncertainty.
"What the hell is this?"
"That...Mr. Zong, Zongya!"
Kirino Akane's voice suddenly became panicked, but his attention was still on the amulet in his hand.
"What?"
"What does the daughter of the underworld you are talking about... look like?"
"..."
Zong Gu suddenly raised his head and followed her straight gaze to look behind him.
There was nothing in the empty corridor.
But in Kirino Akane's eyes, this is obviously not the case:
"Are you wearing black clothes? Your face is very white and your hair is very long..."
Staring at the woman in black robe who was getting closer, she didn't expect to see this pale face here again.
"She's looking at me..."
The girl trembled involuntarily, not only because of fear, but also because of the cold breath that hit her face, covering her from all directions.
She seemed to be in a piece of ice dozens of centimeters thick, extremely cold, with nowhere to escape, and suffocating...
"I'm sorry..."
A little warmth from the palm of my hand quickly spread throughout my body, stopping the freezing and letting the fear disappear.