The distance from Izakaya Rakusentei to the current residence of the Kirino family is not far or close, it takes about twenty minutes to walk.
It was a cold and silent night, with few pedestrians on the road. The cold wind whistled through the empty streets and alleys. Only Soya and Kirino Akane walked slowly and leisurely.
In other words, Kirino Akane, who was excited about chatting, deliberately slowed down her pace.
"…Then, after hearing that I was going to Danhai University, Hongzi also signed up for the entrance examination of that school."
"Um."
"Obviously there are many good high schools nearby."
"Yeah."
"With her grades, she can actually go to the best county high school. This seems to be her plan before."
"awesome."
"Even if it's private, there are better options."
"Yeah."
Kirino Akane stopped.
"Soya."
"..."
Zong Gu understood that he could not continue to perfunctory.
Fortunately, he didn't listen to a word.
"Shouldn't you be happy that you and your best friend are admitted to the same high school?"
"Best friend?"
"...Isn't it?"
"No, we're just ordinary friends."
She tilted her head and asked, "Why does Zongya think Anko and I are best friends?"
Because you eat together in school, chat together, go to the toilet together, and go shopping together after school...
"Guess."
"Wrong guess."
"Yeah."
"For girls, best friends..."
Kirino Akane was about to start a new topic on this topic, but her eyes paused on the street in front.
"Huh?"
Zong Gu also glanced over there. Under the dim street lights, there was nothing except a closed roadside shop.
"What's wrong?"
"On the ground over there..."
She raised her hand and pointed, and suddenly realized something, "Can't Zonggu see it?"
"..."
He quickly reacted and touched the amulet on his chest.
"Well, I can't see. What's over there?"
"There is a person on the road. No, there is a spirit that is walking and crawling. It looks very reluctant."
Kirino Akane has mild myopia, but she doesn’t like wearing glasses and has to squint to see things in the distance clearly.
"Ah...his body seems to be injured. There is a long wound on his back."
Zongya wanted to stand by and watch, but the girl next to him obviously had another plan.
Recalling what Mrs. Kirino said before, he had to remind him, "Spirit beings are not small animals."
"Huh? What?"
"Are you going to save it?"
Akane Kirino opened her eyes wide, "Is it okay?"
"Can't."
"Eh……"
She thought for a moment and then asked: "Is it 'cannot be done' or 'not allowed'?"
"Both."
"Why?"
In order to completely dispel her thoughts, Zonggu explained patiently:
"The moment it becomes a spirit body, it means that its life has ended. And you are just an ordinary person with a relatively developed spiritual sense. You can see it, touch it and even completely destroy it, but you cannot stop the spirit body.
The demise of.”
This is the "can't do" part, followed by the "not allowed" part.
"And becoming a spirit body not only means losing life, but also losing part of consciousness. As for whether it is memory, emotion, rationality, or something else, there is no way to judge - in other words, it may be aggressive.
"
"..."
Kirino Akane was confused after hearing this, and was stunned for a while, "Really?"
"As you can see, there are injuries on its back, which means it has been attacked; and in an injured state, it is difficult to escape from the hands of the Underworld Army or the Underworld Daughter, which means that the attack it received came from the human world."
She looked at Souya blankly until he came to his final conclusion.
"The people who are chasing this spirit come from the shrine."
"shrine?"
"Except for special circumstances when they accept a commission, they usually only attack the spirits that disturb the human world. They drive away the less influential ones and kill all the aggressive evil spirits."
"That is to say..."
"That's right, what you saw was an evil spirit."
Soya took a breath and exhaled a cloud of white mist, "In order to eliminate it, a shrine maiden was sent from the nearby shrine. It may be that she was not proficient in the use of sword-shaped spiritual weapons, so this evil spirit managed to escape here.
"
"..."
The amount of information was so overwhelming that Akane Kirino was a little shocked in the confusion.
"Why can Soya see so much from a single wound?"
"Because I saw it."
"Eh?"
"Look ahead."
She turned around and found another figure on the street in front of her.
The man had his back to this side. He had white sleeves and scarlet trousers. He was tall and had long black hair hanging down to his waist. He was holding a long bow. At this moment, he just loosened the string and an arrow flew straight into the ground, forcing him to stop.
Evil spirit.
"She is holding a bow..." Kirino Akane whispered.
"Because I'm not skilled in using a sword, if I persist, I might give the evil spirit a chance to escape."
Soya's judgment came from the narrow wound she described, but he soon realized that he was only half right.
Just as the tall witch threatened the evil spirits on the ground with her bow and arrow, another witch ran out from the shadows on the roadside, but she was much shorter, even reaching only the waist and abdomen of the former.
"so cute……"
Akane Kirino raised her hand to cover her mouth, her eyes shining, "Elementary school miko?"
Zonggu's eyes fell on the wooden sword she was holding in her hand.
It seems that she is the one who is unskilled with the sword.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The two people in the distance said something, and the tall miko suddenly shot four arrows in a row, which were so powerful that each one was nailed to the ground;
Then Soya saw Akane Kirino frowning and covering her ears.
He couldn't hear it, but he could guess that the evil spirit was screaming in pain. The little miko had the same reaction as her, and even dropped the wooden sword in her hand to the ground.
"She nailed the limbs of the man...the evil spirit with her arrows."
Kirino Akane explained the current situation to him, her eyebrows frowning more and more tightly, "What does this mean? Is she planning to let that child execute him?"
As if to match her guess, the tall miko bent down, picked up the wooden sword, and forced it into the little miko's hand.
"stop!"
"..."
Soya beside him and the shrine maidens in the distance all looked over. Akane Kirino's expression did not change and she ran forward quickly.
Although she didn't know what she was planning to do, when she saw her approaching, the great witch immediately lowered her head and urged her.
The little witch shook her head in response, so she had no choice but to hold the wooden sword tightly and slash her head with one blow.
The evil spirit disappeared in the sharp wail. She looked at Akane Kirino, who was stumbling, and picked up the little miko next to her before preparing to leave.
When the two sides got close to a certain distance, the three of them suddenly stopped at the same time.
"..."
The two miko looked back at Akane Kirino, and then looked at each other; the latter was stunned for a few seconds, then turned to look at Soya who was still standing there.
"I feel it now!"
Kirino Akane, whose spiritual sense was liberated, consciously felt the "aura" of similar people for the first time.
Zong Gu just nodded, and while walking towards her, he motioned for her to look behind him.
She feels the "aura" of others, which means that the other person also "discovers" her existence.
The tall miko not only stopped but also turned around and walked towards her.
"I am Kyoko Sugawara from Fuun Shrine. Without further ado, are you interested in becoming a miko?"