It was freezing cold outside, but Kirino Akane, who had been staying indoors, looked pale, and her face was a bit colder than the weather at that time.
After opening the door for Zong Gu, she said nothing and turned around expressionlessly.
"Kirino?"
"...men."
"What?"
Her back was turned, and her body and voice were trembling.
"close the door……"
Walking into the warm room, Zonggu closed the door behind her back to block out all the wind and snow, and then she looked back at him.
"Sorry..." "Sorry."
They both spoke at the same time and stopped at the same time.
"..."
Akane Kirino forced a smile, and Soya picked up the bag in his hand.
"Awaited."
"It's okay." She shook her head, "I suddenly wanted to eat something from the store...come here."
The two walked to the restaurant. Soya opened the bag, took out various grilled and fried foods prepared by Kirino's father, and put them on the plate she took.
Wrapped in tin foil, the food was still hot after walking around in the cold outside, and even a little hot to the touch.
Although the room was warm, he didn't open all the food at once, so he could eat as much as he could.
"Sogu..."
Zong Gu lowered his head and tore off the tinfoil, then casually responded, "Yeah."
"Can you stay today?"
"Can...eh?"
He raised his gaze, and Akane Kirino, who was sitting opposite, stared at him intently, holding a corner of the tablecloth tightly in her hand.
"..."
She is afraid.
Zongya quickly passed the stage of surprise and confusion and realized the essence of the problem.
"Did Kirino see something?"
"..."
She didn't say anything, just stared into his eyes and glanced outside the room.
"Is there a spirit out there?"
She nodded vigorously.
"..."
No wonder he was asked to come here in the name of delivering late night snacks.
"Don't worry." Soya comforted him, taking out a skewer of grilled chicken from the tinfoil he had just opened and handing it over, "It's probably just a wandering spirit passing by."
Akane Kirino immediately shook her head in denial.
"always there?"
"Um!"
He thought of her strange appearance when she left the old house in the afternoon, and asked: "How many days has this been going on?"
"It started appearing the night before yesterday."
Zonggu was immediately surprised.
The peach wood amulet on his chest suppressed his spiritual sense and had a remarkable effect, but he knew nothing about it.
"What does that spirit look like?"
To drive away or destroy it, you must first identify what kind of spirit it is.
If it's just the two of them, or Akane Kirino can't handle it under his guidance, they might as well let the group of shrine maidens blowing wind and watching the snow on the street come over and exterminate them. After all, their job is to remove spirits...
Soya was thinking about it in his mind, Kirino Akane took the roasted chicken from his hand and looked at him for a while.
"She is the daughter of Huangquan."
...
"Akane——"
As soon as she said hello, her daughter came down from upstairs, which surprised the Kirino couple who had just arrived home.
However, the smile on her face quickly dispelled some of their doubts.
"Mom, dad."
"Akane, aren't you ready to rest yet?"
"I'm reading a book." Kirino Akane stopped at the point where the stairs were neither going up nor down, "I'm going to take a rest soon."
"Don't study too late, it's snowing outside... Sotani-kun has been here before, right?"
"Uh-huh."
Kirino Keiko patted the snow on her shoulder and motioned to her husband to take a shower first.
"Did he say anything?"
Akane Kirino thought for a while, "Prepare for the exam with peace of mind?"
"that is it?"
"Eat more."
"..."
Looking at the smile on her daughter's face, Kirino Keiko thought she might just be too stressed and needed to talk to someone.
"Really? I thought Sotani-kun would say a little more."
"He said that he had nothing to comfort my self-confidence. Talking too much might make me feel confused. Just stop talking."
"I see... he is such a mature boy."
"Uh-huh."
After chatting for a few more words, Kirino and his wife went to wash up and rest. Akane Kirino turned around and returned upstairs.
Seeing that it was her, Zonggu returned to the room from the terrace, which had already accumulated a thin layer of snow, and closed the floor-to-ceiling windows.
She closed the door and smiled.
"If it was mom who came in, Zongya would have been discovered even if he was hiding there."
He just shook his head, unable to laugh as easily as she did.
Kirino Akane walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked outside for a while.
It was a dark night, and the falling snowflakes could only be seen through the light from the room, but the strange figures floating in the air were extremely clear.
"It turns out that the daughter of the underworld can fly."
"..."
Zong Gu was behind her, invisible with his eyes, but very clear in his heart. He had already seen the scene of the girl of the underworld covering the sky and the sun.
"What are they doing?"
"Reconnaissance." He closed one curtain, "Or in contact with companions in the distance."
Akane Kirino raised her hand to hold the other side, as if she wanted to take a few more glances, but Soya didn't insist.
"Aren't Kirino scared?"
"Didn't Zonggu say that they won't attack me?"
In view of her previous fearful performance, she probably felt that this reason was not very convincing, so she turned around and smiled.
"With Souya here, I don't feel scared."
"I really envy you. I'm scared to death myself."
Zong Gu looked outside, "Although they didn't come for me this time."
Not only the Kirino family, but traces of the Underworld Daughters can be seen wandering around everywhere in the vicinity. This is the main reason why Kirino Akane has been so scared these two days - even if she knows that they will not hurt her, it does not affect the horror of seeing that pale face.
human level.
Combining her words with what he saw at this time, Zongya also roughly understood what the witches he met before were doing.
"These girls of the underworld are weaving a big net to detect and block all the whereabouts of the 'prey'. The location of the Kirino family happens to be a node in this net."
The cold underworld atmosphere condensed into clusters around it, even affecting the weather. With such a large formation, they must have discovered traces of the most powerful evil spirit;
In addition to obeying their master's instructions, the Underworld's Daughter and the Underworld Army from the other world would only act according to instinct. Although the goals of both parties occasionally reached agreement, the only thing the shrine could do was cooperate with them.
Both sides are carrying out large-scale operations, and that peerless evil spirit will most likely be caught this time... No, it should be eliminated directly;
Except for him, who used his amulet to hide, the other evil spirits who were insignificant could not escape either.
This also means that when the storm completely subsides, a large number of girls from the Underworld wandering around Kinki will return to the other world - and he will also be temporarily free.
"Don't watch anymore."
Akane Kirino closed the curtains on the other side, went back behind the door, and locked her door.
"Sorry, Souya has to stay here for one night."
"fine."
She took out a quilt from the closet and spread it on the floor of the room. This is where Zonggu will rest tonight.
"Can you turn off the lights?"
"Turn it off."
The two got into their respective beds, Kirino Akane turned off the light, and the room suddenly became dark.
The wind and snow were blowing, there was a faint light shining through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and there was a faint fragrance on the quilt.
I don't know how long it took before the silence was broken.
"Sogu, are you asleep?"
"No."
There was a rustling sound from the bed, and the girl lying on her back turned over, facing the quilt on the ground.
Her eyes had adapted to the darkness, and she could vaguely see some of the conditions on the ground.
He also turned around.
"Zonggu seems to know something."
"..."
He was stunned, and after a while he realized that she was talking about what was happening outside.
"Just a little guess."
Zonggu told what he saw on the street at night, combined with his guesses.
"I see……"
After hearing what he said, Akane Kirino's voice showed a hint of relaxation, "I really hope everything goes well."
"Feel sorry."
"Hey, why do you need to apologize?"
In the darkness, Soya touched the bulge on his chest and said, "If it weren't for the fact that he lent me the amulet, Kirino wouldn't have to worry anymore."
In order not to embarrass him, she even pretended to be nonchalant two days ago.
"——In my opinion, invisible horror is more terrifying."
"Yeah."
"Yes."
She answered firmly, "Even if Souya returns the amulet to me now, I won't be able to help but take it off...after all, I am still a 'newcomer'."
"..."
From "invisible" to "visible", she is indeed a new person.
What's even more troublesome is that her curiosity is still very strong.
"Although I still felt scared when I saw it." Kirino Akane continued, "But after Soya explained it, I felt a lot more at ease... It turns out that the fear mainly comes from the unknown."
However, Zong Gu felt that her arrival broke the peace and plunged her into a complex whirlpool of curiosity and fear. She didn't know how to respond for a while.
She didn't wait for his reply for a long time. Although she cared about it, she didn't ask any more questions and changed the topic.
"By the way, has Sogu been able to see spirits since he was a child?"
"That's right. Except for Kirino, all spiritual awakeners are like this."
"That's why you know so much?"
"No."
Zong Gu took a long breath, "In the past, I just knew that I could see things that others couldn't see."
"People like us are rarer than Kirino imagined. Unless we are discovered by our own kind, it will be difficult for us to have the opportunity to realize the true nature of ourselves and the world."
"Everything I know was learned from the mouths of various spirits I met after living in hell."
"Eh?"
Akane Kirino was stunned for a moment, "So spirits can still communicate with people?"
"Yeah, but it's just the kind where the dissipation of consciousness is not too serious. They tell jokes, lose their temper, and try to shed tears when they cry."
"..."
She looked at the ground. Zonggu in the quilt remembered something and fell into a long silence.
After a while, he was the one who broke the silence.
"Except for spiritual beings like the Daughter of the Underworld who were born under the will of the creation gods, other supernatural beings are called 'ghosts', 'ghosts' or 'monsters' by ordinary people...their original names were all '