Looking at Yuzao, the mistress suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "Jinguji! When I heard this surname before, I thought it was the Jinguji that sells high-end suits. Could it be that it is actually the Jinguji that sells wagashi? "
Wait, Hema thought in surprise, there is still a Jinguji that sells high-end suits
Yuzao nodded: "That's the one who sells wagashi."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that... The qualifications of our shrine should have been assessed by the Ministry of Education the year before last..."
"You misunderstood, I was on vacation with Malay."
Lord Ota: "Oh, that's it, I understand!"
Looking at the expression of the god, Hema always felt that his misunderstanding was deeper.
Yuzao smiled and said, "God Lord Sang, you should tell me about this mountain god."
The god master nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay. Indeed, as you said, we didn't have the belief in this mountain god here, so you can't see anything related to the mountain god in our shrine. Our shrine has always worshiped The stone on the mountain can be climbed through the stone steps behind the main hall."
Qingliu murmured softly, "There are stone steps..."
It seems that she also has some complaints about the long stone steps of this shrine.
Qingliu's voice was only heard by Kazuma, and the god master continued without interruption: "But at the end of the Tokugawa period, some people began to say that they saw the mountain god. According to the local chronicles kept in our house, shortly after the black ship attacked , Some people said that they saw Takechiyo who disappeared in the neighboring village in the mountains."
Kazuma: "This Takechiyo sounds like a baby name for a little boy?"
"Yes. At the end of the Tokugawa period, the neighborhood was very poor, and children who could not afford it would be thrown into the mountains. Occasionally, wolves would attack and snatch children away. The specific situation was not clearly written in the local chronicles, but I only know that It was a child who witnessed the disappearance of a neighboring village."
Kazuma was speechless: "Rashomon...?"
Akutagawa Ryunosuke's masterpiece "Rashomon" wrote a purgatory on earth in just three thousand words. He Ma is not very interested in this article, but he has to admit that it is awesome.
The Lord continued: "Such rumors have been appearing frequently since the end of the Tokugawa period. The basic content is very similar. They are all mountain gods who look like huge wolves, and the missing children who stay with them. The names of the children often change. It can be seen from the side that children were often lost in the nearby human village at that time."
"Have they appeared frequently since the end of the Bakumatsu? Doesn't it mean that after the Restoration, the situation in the village improved, and gradually no one threw children into the mountains?" He Ma asked.
The Lord God nodded: "Yes, after the Meiji Restoration, the land inspection was carried out, and the low-level samurai who were domineering around here were abolished, and the police team also wiped out the bandits. Everyone's life suddenly became better. , will never afford to raise a child again.
"But there will still be wolves who will take the children away. Not long after the Meiji Restoration, the village organized a team to hunt wolves. The landlord in the town made a fortune in Tokyo and bought back twenty Winchesters to arm a small team. The foreign gun team, together with the local hunters, marched into the mountains to fight wolves.
"But the result of beating wolves is not very optimistic. Several people were injured, and the rest of the people kept silent about what happened on the mountain, only saying that they met the mountain god and got angry."
He Ma was stunned: "Twenty Winchesters? I'm afraid this firepower could defeat tens of thousands of foot light in the Warring States Period."
In the Warring States period, the ashigaru were recruited farmers with bamboo spears, and their morale was very poor. There were many cases where dozens of samurai killed thousands of ashigaru.
Twenty gunmen with Winchesters ran to the Warring States Period. I am afraid that the morale of the Ashgaru team was exhausted and collapsed before the bullets in the barrels were exhausted.
By the way, the plot that the god master said is more and more like "Princess Mononoke".
Could it be that Hayao Miyazaki was inspired by the legend of this place
The God Master just shook his head at He Ma's complaints, and continued: "There are only so many records in the local chronicles, and then the legend of the mountain god will naturally exist in the local chronicles. Every few years, someone will claim to have seen the mountain god."
He Ma: "I guess every sighting also sees the missing child."
"Yes, children disappeared from time to time, but no one organized wolf hunting anymore. Later, when the Nissin War broke out, many people in the village also joined the army. It seems that the sightings of mountain gods have suddenly changed since then. not enough."
He Ma's heart skipped a beat. The Nissin War is what Japan called the Sino-Japanese War. After He Ma traveled through Japan, he intentionally or unintentionally avoided the beginning of this period of modern Chinese history of being slaughtered by Japan.
He feels uncomfortable when he thinks that the body he occupies now is the descendant of the person who once brought so much suffering to China.
Fortunately, the Almighty did not mention the Nissin War too much, but regarded it as a time point, and it passed away immediately.
"When the war with Russia was over, there would no longer be any records related to mountain gods in the local annals."
Kazuma frowned: "Didn't it mean that after the Great Kanto Earthquake in the Taisho era, the village began to abandon children in the mountains because they couldn't afford them? No one saw the mountain god?"
"No. But instead, the legend of the heart-eating demon fox began to spread among the villagers."
The Almighty stopped and looked at He Ma, obviously waiting for He Ma to ask questions.
So Kazuma asked: "Isn't that what Watanabe-kun came to ask that day? What did you say to him? Why did he look so solemn when he returned to the hotel?"
There was obvious hesitation on Ota's face.
Kazuma asked: "What did you tell them? Tell me! Don't you want to find out the truth about Watanabe-kun's death? If you have concealed something from me, how do you want me to find out the truth?"
The priest asked back: "Mr. Kiryu, you got the information about Watanabe-kun's abnormal expression from Ms. Akanishi, right?"
"So what?"
"I think Miss Akanishi is confusing the public."
"Do you think Miss Akanishi is lying?" He Ma asked, his voice suddenly raised.
The shrine master shook his head: "No, you misunderstood. Miss Akanishi's statement that Watanabe-kun looked solemn after returning from the shrine to the hotel should not be a lie. But no one stipulates that the truth cannot be used to confuse the public.
"What I told Watanabe-kun were just speculations, similar to urban legends and country tales often seen in supernatural magazines.
"When most people hear what I say, they will only use it as 'ammunition' for drinking or picking up girls. Watanabe-kun is very simple. He is the kind of child who will cry when watching a movie because of the plot. His expression is dignified and normal. He Here I look dignified.
"But it has nothing to do with his death. Let me just say it, I think it was Akanishi-san who killed Watanabe-kun. She had a motive, but I guess she didn't tell Kiryu-sensei at all."
Kazuma: "Leaving aside whether Miss Akanishi is telling the truth or not. I just want to listen to the country tale you told Watanabe-kun. By the way, I really chased a white-haired man who was running fast last night. Ten miles away, and you said at the beginning that this is the son of the mountain god, but now you want to tell me that this is a rural legend?"
The god lord looked at Yuzao meaningfully, and said, "I'm talking about ordinary human beings. Since you have such a deep relationship with the daughter of the Jinguji family, then you certainly won't treat it as a rural legend. .”
"Wait for me!" Qingliu, who had been sitting obediently by the side, yelled, "What do you mean? Are you trying to tell me that ghost-like thing from yesterday is real? Are you trying to tell me? Do ghosts really exist? Stop kidding!"
Qingliu's voice trembled, and Hema didn't expect that this guy was afraid of ghosts.
As soon as the divine master was about to speak, Yuzao said, "Ghosts don't exist, and even if there are some things that science can't explain temporarily, it's only temporarily unexplainable.
"For example, in some places, there will be voices when there is a thunderstorm. Later, scientists discovered that there are natural magnets nearby. When there is a thunderstorm, there is a probability that the voice will be recorded, and then played in another thunderstorm. The principle is similar to that of a tape recorder."
Qingliu said suspiciously: "This explanation sounds like a lie!"
Qingliu continued to give an example: "Another example is a mirage. Humans thought it was the Penglai Fairyland or the Jade Emperor's appearance, but now they also find that it is just the refraction of light."
Qingliu was obviously convinced by this second example, although she still had a displeased expression on her face, she didn't open her mouth to refute.
God Master Ota murmured, "So that's what the rhetoric is now."
"It's not rhetoric, it's a fact." Jinguji Yuzao said firmly, "The legend of the mountain god and his descendants you just mentioned, as well as the legend of the fox eating the heart and liver of a child, must have a scientific and logical explanation. Mysterious Does not exist, the world is scientific."
He Ma complained in his heart: Then you can explain your four-channel ears, you don’t want to say that the pair of ears on the top of your head are just your hair curled up from sleeping, right
A virtual video host named Makomiya Hinata that Ma Masei really likes, the pair of ears on the top of her head are set to be her hair curled up from sleep.
The God Lord looked at Yuzao with a very complicated expression. He bit his lips for a while and finally made up his mind to say: "It may be true. In fact, in my grandfather's generation, they would still go to the mountains to collect herbs, but suddenly One day my grandfather stopped going into the mountain, and told my father to collect medicines in the mountain behind the shrine.
"My father didn't understand at the time. Although there were medicinal materials planted by our family for generations in Houshan, they were not many in variety and quantity. You must know that in that era, Western medicine was not popular in rural areas like ours. The nearest clinic was in Ten Many kilometers away, the people in the village are sick because of us.
"Unlike now, there are quite large-scale clinics on Hot Spring Street.
"So my father questioned grandpa why. After my father kept asking, grandpa finally told the truth."
The divine master stopped, his eyes still fixed on Tamamo.
Yuzao tilted her head in doubt, as if she didn't understand why the divine master was staring at her like this.
Lord Ota asked word by word: "I said it's okay, right? Don't the Jinguji family know?"
Tamamo: "I really don't know. I won't lie to Kazuma, ever."
It can be seen from the expression of God Lord Ota that he was caught off guard by this mouthful of dog food.
"It may be that the adults of the Jinguji family are hiding it from you." The priest said.
Hema frowned, it seemed that the god master didn't know that Tamamo was the biggest "person" of the Jinguji family.
He turned his head and looked at Yuzao, and confirmed through his eyes that Mao didn't even know about the latter.
The Lord of God said: "My grandfather told my father that he met a military policeman in the mountains. He will never admit the big cap and cape with red stripes."
Shouted together with Ma and Qingliu: "Gendarmerie?"
He Ma shouted naturally because in his impression, the military police were the executioners who slaughtered the Chinese people. Well, Qingliu, probably because the spirit of rock and roll is inherently at odds with dog legs like the military police
After all, people who play rock and roll are thinking about burning something all day long.
Tamamo looked very calm: "The old Japanese army...?"
The Lord continued: "Yes, the gendarme seems to be supervising a group of Chinese-speaking people to build the railway, and I have never heard of a railway construction plan nearby.
"Several gendarmerie officers chatted loudly, saying that they would shoot all these people after the railway was completed. My grandfather thought something was wrong, so he ran back before he was discovered."
He Ma instinctively felt disgusted, and wanted to travel back to that era again to kill all the turtles and save his compatriots.
However, he does not have the ability to travel through time and space at will.
Once again, he had the idea of "why not travel through decades and let me go back to fight the war".
Tamamo: "As expected of the old Japanese army, it's all a bunch of bastards."
The divine master glanced at Yuzao: "Miss, you are actually a leftist?"
"I'm a student at Tokyo University," Tamamo said.
Even the priests of the country shrines, after hearing the words of Toyo University students, take it for granted that Tamamo is a leftist.
Lord Ota didn't bother with this issue anymore, he continued: "I told Watanabe-kun about this that day, and expressed my speculation: the old Japanese Army may have some secret facilities in the nearby mountains, and it may be doing Unspeakable research. Grandma Noda may have just seen the scene where they came to the mountain village to catch the test objects."
Qingliu: "Are you saying that they catch their own citizens as test subjects?"
"Nothing is impossible. After all, they are a group of guys who are not as good as beasts." He Ma said.
Yuzao added: "These guys planned to kill 100 million jade at the last moment of the war. If the Americans hadn't dropped the nuclear bomb, they might have done it like this."
Kazuma: "It's a pity that the Americans didn't send all these people to the gallows. If the Americans had completely liquidated these people at that time, Japan would be a better place now."
Tamamo: "That's right, MacArthur's crime is heinous."
Lord Ota interrupted the conversation between the two: "In short, just like Miss Jinguji said, the weirdness may not exist at all, and everything is done by the evil old Japanese army. I told this that day Watanabe-kun. He is a kind boy, and he is also a college student, and he is probably a left-wing youth like you."
He Ma took over the conversation: "That's why he has that expression... Is that what you mean?"
"Yeah, so this has nothing to do with him being killed. Ms. Akanishi must have said this on purpose to interfere with her sight."
— No, I always feel that it is more than that.
"Ota-san," Kazuma looked up at the divine master, "you have been collecting herbs near the place where Watanabe-kun happened all day these days, haven't you found anything strange?"
"What are you referring to? I should have given you all the strange things I found yesterday."
Talk to the horse.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
"What's the matter?" God asked loudly, looking towards the door of the office.
The voice of Miko Hiroko came from outside: "People from the Tourism Promotion Association and the village office are here."
"knew."
He Ma asked: "What's the matter? They came to..."
"Preparation for the festival. Starting today, we will set up stalls for the festival on the square in front of the main hall of the shrine, and we will also rehearse the parade. It will be busy." The priest stood up, "I have said everything I can say, You have to find the rest of the clues by yourself. Of course, if you have any questions, you can call me at any time. However, I don’t think I will have such a large amount of time to entertain you, Mr. Kiryu. According to the experience of previous years, today should A large number of tourists arrived at the hot spring town, and the shrine became very busy."
He Ma: "Will it get busy?"
"That's right. From today onwards, girls from neighboring villages will come to work, and Hiroko alone can't handle it. In a few days, there will be priestesses invited from Tokyo by the Tourism Promotion Association, and they will be in charge of Kagura dance performances."
Yuzao: "Oh? From Tokyo? Then maybe I know him."
God Lord: "Anyway, let's stop here today. The problem of wolves, and the white-haired man last night, maybe you can talk to the people from the Tourism Promotion Association. For the safety of the tourist season, they should immediately go to the mountains to fight wolves .”
He Ma also stood up: "Okay, I'll ask the Tourism Promotion Association, and I won't bother you."