On the way to the shrine, there are basically few pedestrians.
When passing by the convenience store, He Ma found that there was no one inside—there was an OPEN sign hanging on the door.
So he muttered to Ma: "This kind of convenience store is a chain, right? No one at the front desk will be caught by the head office and deduct money?"
"Emperor Shan Gao is far away." Yuzao said, "Maybe they are replenishing the shelves..."
"No, I was chatting at the pastry shop across the street." Someone interrupted Yuzao.
He Ma Xunsheng looked over and saw an uncle in the uniform of a convenience store, and a waiter in the uniform of a snack shop standing beside him.
The waiters in dim sum shops like this in Tokyo are generally young girls in their 20s, and the uniforms are mostly cute dress designs, but the uniform design here is in line with the shop in Tokyo, except that the people who wear it are almost 40. aunt.
After meeting his eyes, the uncle said: "You two came so early, the peak season usually starts about a week later."
The waiter aunt smiled and said, "Maybe it's because it's so hot this year. I read in the news that it has something to do with that."
"El Niño, El Niño."
"That's right, that's it," the aunt nodded repeatedly, "It was said on TV that the sea water is getting hotter. I guess it's because the sea water is too hot to go into the sea, so people on the beach can only come to the mountains to enjoy the shade."
He Ma was about to complain, but the uncle spoke first: "How come the sea water is so hot that it can't go into the sea? Are you kidding me? It's not "The Sinking of Japan"."
"There is no seawater in Japan that is too hot to go into the sea." Hema seized the opportunity to interject, "If the seawater is so hot, the heat released will turn the whole world into a sauna room, and human beings will be extinct."
"Will human beings become extinct?" Aunt was startled.
The convenience store uncle waved his hand: "No, no, by the way, you two are going to the convenience store to buy something?"
Hema shook his head, then pointed to the torii gate at the foot of the shrine: "We're going to visit the shrine. It is said that the Dieda cream sold there is very effective."
"The effect is very good. It is said that it is made of the scalp of a kappa. It is very refreshing." The uncle said.
Kazuma glanced at Tamamo.
Yuzao: "The Kappa's scalp died from a bruise."
— Wait a minute!
While complaining about his desires with Ma, the uncle in the convenience store laughed loudly: "What a funny little girl, you are not in the club of the university, are you? Look at the age, dress up... Well, there is no doubt that Tokyo people.
"Last year, a group of college students from Tokyo came here. We were looking for a mallet snake. There was a little girl who knew all kinds of monsters very well. She was simply 'Dr. Monster'."
Hammer snake is a creature in Japanese legend, also known as earth dragon. After the war, there were many so-called sighting reports, but no evidence was found. The Japanese folk search for mallet snake has never stopped, a bit like the Loch Ness monster.
In addition, Japan likes to refer to people who know a lot as Dr. XX. The doctor here is not a degree, but simply takes the literal meaning of the word: a learned man.
He Ma: "We are also college students, from Tokyo."
"Are you also looking for a mallet snake?" The convenience store uncle frowned. "Last year, those college students were careless when they were climbing the mountain. Two of them fell off the cliff. One died and the other was injured. The injured one seemed to be in a vegetable state. Be careful." , The mountains are not like cities, a slight injury in the mountains may cause death due to untimely treatment.”
Kazuma and Tamamo looked at each other.
"Can you elaborate?" As a future policeman, He Ma began to ask for details.
"I don't know the specifics. I work in a convenience store and didn't participate in the search and rescue. Anyway, when I carried it down the mountain, one of them was gone, and the other one was as immobile as a log. The little girl of Dr. Monster was crying like hell."
He raised his eyebrows with Ma.
The aunt at the dim sum shop used her inherent skills to "gossip" and added a wave of information to He Ma: "This matter was suppressed by the people from the Tourism Promotion Association. It is said that a lot of compensation was given to those college students to keep it quiet."
The uncle at the convenience store frowned: "It's for the good of everyone. If this gets out, I'm afraid no one will come to our hot spring for a few years. Without tourism income, we can only rely on the income from the crops we grow , going back to the hard days of the past.”
The aunt curled her lips and stopped talking.
He Ma: "Before the development of tourism, was life here very difficult?"
"Look at what you said, it really is the young master in the city. Aren't farmers always suffering?" The convenience store uncle laughed at himself.
He Ma: "The price of agricultural products in the city is so high, I thought..."
"Shit, in order to maintain that high price, the Agricultural Association forbids us to produce too much, and whoever has multiple varieties will not buy his products, and will not help him purchase seeds and agricultural machinery..."
The uncle of the convenience store sighed: "We are too far away from Tokyo, otherwise, we can try to drive to Tokyo by ourselves to sell, and completely get rid of the agricultural association. Although the selling price is low, we can sell as much as we have, even if You can earn even more when you include gas money.”
Hema said "oh", he suddenly remembered the pumpkin he and Qingliu threw when they were running away.
According to the uncle, Qingliu's family, Bai Fengfeng, helped farmers sell melons in the city. Is it a great thing
No wonder the melon farmer was so respectful to Qingliu.
Kazuma wanted to continue asking about the mountaineering accident last year, but the uncle at the convenience store stood up and patted his butt: "Okay, I should go back to work too. I saw Grandma Noda walking this way. You are going to Hurry up at the shrine, because Hiroko has to take care of his sick grandma, he will leave early from time to time."
The uncle walked towards the convenience store while talking.
Not far away, Hema saw an old lady walking here pushing a wheelchair with a shopping basket on it—she probably used the wheelchair as a trolley and crutches.
This is probably Grandma Noda.
Seeing the uncle open the door of the convenience store, the old lady smiled and said, "Samada, you're being lazy again."
He Ma was about to say that Japan is really full of mountains and fields, when the uncle sighed helplessly: "Just say that my surname is not Yamada... Oh, Grandma Noda, you are still the same, right?"
"Yes, I have been bothering you all this time." The grandma pushed the wheelchair to the front of the convenience store, put on the handbrake, and then put most of her body weight on the wheelchair.
The man from the convenience store, not surnamed Yamada, picked up the shopping basket on the wheelchair and went into the store.
Grandma Noda turned her head to look at Kazuma and Yuzao, and said with a smile, "Hey, whose family's youngsters are here?"
As soon as He Ma opened his mouth, the aunt in the pastry shop quickly replied: "They are not young people from the town, but college students from Tokyo."
"Huh? Students? The current students grow so fast, they are so tall, and there is this girl, tsk." The old lady was speechless.
Kazuma also glanced at Yuzao, her silhouette really made people feel "tsk".
"Are you back for summer vacation?" Grandma Noda continued to nagging, "We can catch big unicorns that are not available in Tokyo."
It seems that the old lady has been completely confused, and regards Hema and the others as elementary school students returning to the countryside for the summer vacation.
This is quite common in Japan.
In the beginning, it was only the early stage of economic take-off, and urban families sent their children back to their grandparents in the country to live in order to reduce their burden during the summer vacation.
Later, Japanese scholars compiled a legitimate reason for this behavior: let children get close to nature and receive natural education.
Later, this became a standard of education. Japanese elementary schools began to arrange various summer vacation topics during the summer vacation, allowing students to observe and record the flowers and plants they planted, or the insects they raised to keep a diary as part of their summer vacation homework.
This kind of thing has gradually become the "Ye Qinghui" of the Japanese, which directly gave birth to the series of games "My Summer Vacation", and also influenced games such as "Harvest Moon" and "Pokémon".
However, Kazuma glanced at Yuzao again, just how confused she must be for a curvy old lady to treat her as a primary school student.
At this time, the convenience store uncle came out with a basket full of things and put it on the wheelchair: "Okay. See you next week."
Grandma Noda took out a stack of banknotes with odd parts and bills and handed them to the convenience store uncle: "Thank you, Yamada."
The uncle hesitated to speak, but in the end he chose not to complain about the old lady and just accepted the money.
The old lady released the handbrake of the wheelchair, and pushed the wheelchair around in front of the convenience store to complete a U-turn. Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly remembered something and turned her head to look at Kazuma: "By the way, kid, this is not Tokyo. It's very dangerous at night. No matter what How much fun you had, when you heard the speaker in the village hall start to play that... that's da~da~da~"
The old lady pieced together the melody with different high and low clicks.
"From the New World." He Ma said the title of the song directly.
"That's right, that's right. This kid is so smart!" Grandma Noda nodded again and again, "When you hear this, you must go home. Bad kids who don't go home will be captured by the demon fox that lives in the mountains. Demon fox , I like to eat children's hearts and livers the most."
Yuzao smiled and said, "Okay, we know."
"Especially the darling of a pretty girl like you!" Grandma Noda looked at Yuzao and exhorted, "She likes it the most!"
"Don't worry, Hema Jun will protect me." Yuzao said and waved to the old lady, "We still have to go to the shrine, if we don't go, the shrine will be closed."
"Okay, go to the shrine and pay your respects, the Misha God will bless you." Grandma Noda waved her hand, turned around and pushed the wheelchair back slowly along the way she came.
Hema watched the old lady go away, turned to Yuzao and said, "Let's go to the shrine as soon as possible, it seems that we have to pay respects to the shrine god, or we will be eaten by the evil fox."
Jinguji Yuzao pursed her lips and put on an awkward expression: "I don't know how to eat."
"No way? Monsters should often eat people, right?"
"No, it's not Elder Tang. In fact, there is a paradox here, haven't you noticed? Generally, according to the setting, the big monster can transform into a human for a long time, and even the little monsters can't maintain the human shape. It's more noble, that's why monsters are working hard in the direction of transforming into humans, isn't it
"Theoretically, monsters shouldn't eat people. After all, no one—no monster will try to do everything in order to look like food."
After thinking about it with the horse, it seems to be such a truth.
As humans, Kiryu and Ma didn't want to be like pork sausages.
It is impossible for the monster to expect to become its own ration.
Yuzao opened his mouth and changed the subject: "The college students who came here last year, I don't know which university they are from."
Kazuma: "I'm here to find Hammer Snake, and there is a girl named Dr. Youkai in the group. It seems to be a club related to ghosts or monsters. It can't be a club about paleontology, right?"
"If it's a club in the direction of paleontology, there shouldn't be Dr. Yokai in it." Yuzao said.
He Ma: "Maybe... it's the New Ghost Talk Research Club of another school?"
"How come, there should be a second such strange research meeting." Tamamo mercilessly complained about the club she was usurping.
"But don't you think that what we are doing now is a bit like the beginning of a new strange story?"
He and Ma paused, glanced at the empty streets, and continued: "A small town far away from the secular world, with peculiar folk customs, and incidents, and the mysterious old lady who gave us something like a warning, let's live together Yeah."
Yuzao raised her eyebrows: "It seems...it really is."
"There's also the chirping of cicadas, isn't it very suitable to set off the atmosphere?" He Ma added.
Yuzao was about to reply, but suddenly stopped and looked up.
He Ma also stopped and followed her eyes curiously, so he saw the big horn of the village office on the top of the telephone pole in front of him.
"Yes, there are also Dvořák and "From the New World", which are also particularly suitable for exaggerating the horror atmosphere." He looked back and said so.
Yuzao: "No, what I'm looking at is not the trumpet."
Kazuma looked up at the horn again, and this time he finally noticed the crow standing on the wire that seemed to be a circle larger than a normal crow.
The crow and the horse looked at each other, not afraid at all.
Many crows in Tokyo are not afraid of people, but the crows in Tokyo are used to it.
Moreover, crows theoretically act in groups like pigeons. A single crow landed on a telephone pole and stared at people like this, which always gave people the feeling that it was a familiar or simply a monster.
So He Ma asked, "Do you know each other?"
"I don't know. The Yatengu I knew was hit and killed by a ghost."
Hema was shocked: "Wait, Yatengu can still be killed by ghosts?"
"sure."
"He should be a powerful monster, right? What kind of ghost can kill Yatengu?"
"A Phantom Fighter of the Air Self-Defense Force's Yoyogi Air Force."
Is it that ghost! !
Tragedy appeared on Yuzao's face: "His last words before he died were: 'The twin J79 turbojet engines are so powerful!'"
That must be fierce!
"'I admit that humans are stronger, ah, I really want to try to fly at twice the speed of sound, oh.'"
He Ma: "Wait a minute, what's going on with the 'Karma' at the end?"
"Bidding, try to use onomatopoeia to express the scene at that time." Yuzao said.
Be serious! Dead people—dead monsters!
He Ma was about to complain, when the crow on the top of the telegraph pole croaked, flapped its wings and flew up, and flew away under the gaze of the two of them.
A few black feathers slowly fell from the sky.
Kazuma caught a feather and handed it to Yuzao: "Can you tell if this is an ordinary crow?"
"I can't see it." Yuzao replied quickly, "I used to be able to see it, but now even I, who is always 17 years old, are 18 years old. Even if I go for a B-ultrasound test, I should look like an ordinary human being." .It's getting harder and harder to discern weirdness."
He pursed his lips with the horse, brought the feather in his hand close to him, and observed it carefully.
It is indeed no different from ordinary feathers.
Tamamo's hair, as long as she keeps her ears in the same state, is just the hair of a beautiful girl who has been carefully cared for.
Hema was about to stuff the feather into his pocket, but Yuzao stopped him: "Don't take this thing with you. Although divination is useless now, it's still no problem to find the location of your 'personal items'. I I often tell where my glasses are thrown.”
Kazuma looked at the glasses on the bridge of Tamamo's nose, and the image of Tamamo who couldn't find the glasses and had to do fortune-telling came to mind—hmm, kind of cute.
Yuzao frowned slightly: "Why are you laughing, it's normal to not find glasses, especially when you're already wearing them."
More, cuter
Scratching his head with Ma, in order to keep the image of Yuzao in his mind from collapsing, he decided to change the subject: "In this situation, should I ask A Mao to send the knife over? Which knife is more suitable for killing demons and demons?" ?”
"No need." Yuzao shook his head, "For strong human beings to slay monsters, a wooden sword is enough, and it has always been like this. Only weak people have to rely on famous swords such as An Gangdouziki."
He was stunned, he felt that there were many stories hidden in Yuzao's words, and was about to ask in detail, but she looked at her watch and urged: "It's getting late, hurry up and go to the shrine, and then go back to the hotel to turn on the air conditioner. "
Only then did Kazuma realize that he was already sweating profusely, so he nodded and said, "Okay, hurry up, I'm almost dehydrated, I hope the shrine has water to drink."
The two of them took another step towards the shrine.
The big crow that had just flown away flew back again, landed on the top of the horn, and looked at the backs of the two of them quietly.