Matsuda Jinpei: ".."
He wanted to take back what he had said earlier; his amnesiac childhood friend, Hara Kenji, still showed some changes in his personality and how he conducted himself.
That change was subtle; you couldn't even say he had become unlike Hara Kenji. It was like mint chocolate chip ice cream—the kind that might leave you feeling inexplicably speechless for a split second when you first see it.
After thinking calmly for a few seconds, Matsuda Jinpei made an analysis. That was, Hara Kenji had gone from being composed and subtle in both his outward conduct and inner feelings, to being completely open both inside and out.
His actions just now were a complete attempt to charm Kisaragi Chiyo by utilizing his looks and his conversational skills.
If an evil spirit uses charm on a human, does this act mean they have completely cast off the mental burdens of being human after death?
Matsuda Jinpei felt that this question was well worth researching.
Not at all.
*
"Are you going back now?" Matsuda Jinpei asked, his voice tinged with hesitation as he looked at Kisaragi Chiyo, who was holding the Bernese Mountain Dog puppy in her arms.
After taking off his sunglasses, he tucked them into the breast pocket of his black suit jacket. Standing a few steps away with his hands in his pockets, his striking features took on a complex and magnificent hue under the setting sun.
It was like an oil painting where the colors had been blended together uniformly, carrying a sense of loneliness that lingered after a grand and magnificent curtain call.
Kisaragi Chiyo gazed into those teal-colored eyes, recalling that single glance exchanged amidst the sunlight filtering through the branches, which felt somewhat too bright in his memory.
Today was indeed colorful and eventful, but his original purpose for coming to the amusement park remained unfulfilled.
Kisaragi Chiyo thought it was quite a pity, never realizing that while he was looking at her, she had also become a part of the scenery in his eyes.
The daylight was fading, twilight was sinking in the west. Although night had not yet arrived, the hem of her clothing brushed against the sky. The hazy light softened that cold expression, as the raven-haired young man glanced over from a distance, his silver earrings swayed; the moment their eyes met, Matsuda Jinpei subconsciously held his breath.
He heard his own voice asking calmly, "Do you want to go take a look at my shrine?"
Even he himself hadn't quite figured out why he had made such an invitation at that moment.
So when he saw the slightly surprised expression appear on Kisaragi Chiyo's face, Matsuda Jinpei suddenly felt a slight urge to back down.
He averted his gaze as if nothing had happened, continuing without the slightest change in expression or tone, ".. I just thought that it might help with your collection of novel material.. Aren't you quite curious about this matter?"
Matsuda Jinpei explained his sudden impulse as best he could.
"Alright." Kisaragi Chiyo didn't think too much about it, nodding in agreement after a brief moment of thought.
Just as Matsuda Jinpei had said, he was indeed a bit curious. Besides, since he was already here, going to take a look wouldn't take much time.
"But you know a suitable place where he can have a good sleep?" Kisaragi Chiyo lowered her eyes, looking at the little Bernese Mountain Dog sleeping peacefully in her arms. At this moment, even if he were to play with the puppy's soft ears as much as he liked, the little one wouldn't offer any resistance.
"You." Matsuda Jinpei hadn't expected Kisaragi Chiyo to agree so readily; even if she held the same trust in him as she did in Hara Kenji, she shouldn't have been so completely unguarded.
Matsuda Jinpei felt a sense of guilt for the dark, almost voyeuristic thoughts and suspicions he had harbored before.
Kisaragi Chiyo.
Matsuda Jinpei chewed on this name repeatedly in his mind, as if by constantly repeating it, he could dismantle and fully understand the owner of the name.
But that was simply impossible.
The other party was a living, breathing human being, not some mathematical problem with a fixed answer, nor a result that could be easily calculated through a series of steps.
If he truly wanted to understand what she was made of, or something even deeper and more intimate, then the first step certainly wouldn't be as simple as writing down an equation.
But.. why did he want to understand Kisaragi Chiyo?
Matsuda Jinpei felt somewhat bewildered.
Because of Hara Kenji? As Matsuda Jinpei led Kisaragi Chiyo toward the lounge, he silently asked himself this question.
Although he didn't want to admit it, aside from the reason involving his good friend, there was also a bit of his own personal selfishness mixed in.
Just why? Matsuda Jinpei was completely baffled; he couldn't understand why he had developed such a desire to devour the other person.
The other person was not his prey, he was not some kind of hunter.
But it was like a primal hunger for food deep within his nature; his insatiable taste buds and stomach were screaming, wanting to swallow the other's flesh and everything else to fill the emptiness.
It was as if only by doing so could he feel alive again.
Matsuda Jinpei's gaze grew heavy as he bit the tip of his tongue, quickly tasting a hint of blood.
Not long ago, he had glossed over his own questions and asked the ghosts in the amusement park. The answer he received was that there was a human with a pleasant scent, but an aura that was somewhat frightening. If Boss Matsuda hadn't been by his side, even the carefree Kobayashi probably wouldn't have chosen to approach.
“..”
So, this could only mean there was something wrong with him?
Matsuda Jinpei took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. At this point, he had to begrudgingly accept that after possessing a yokai, his personality seemed to have a bit of a perverted streak.
Although he could still restrain his appetite, he could not stop his gaze from lingering on her.
He watched Kisaragi Chiyo take off her black haori and cover the little furry puppy that had curled itself into a ball.
A slender back and the nape of the neck revealed when the head is lowered.
He moved without a sound, yet he did not miss a single detail or an inch of skin, his gaze licking over her with an obscure and dark intensity, leaving nothing but an ambiguous aura in the air.
"There." Kisaragi Chiyo gently tucked the puppy's clothes in. Wrapped in that familiar scent, the once restless puppy grew calm once again.
If we walk over now, we should arrive right on time.
Okay." Matsuda Jinpei replied, his voice carrying a raspiness he hadn't even noticed himself. "Let's go.
*
In the broad daylight, the sincere of heart cannot find a trace of him.
Night comes, night we travel.
..
In the vast darkness, one can glimpse the person praying upon the stone steps.
Coming alone and going alone.
..
Just as that ballad described, the night manifested within the dense forest, where moss-covered stone steps stretched out as far as the eye could see. Even Matsuda Jinpei's silhouette vanished, as a cold, ethereal white mist drifted through the woods, half-hidden and half-revealed, with occasional specks of cold, phosphorescent light, bright as fireflies, flickering through the undergrowth.
Kisaragi Chiyo tilted her head up. The shimenawa rope woven from straw hanging from the dilapidated vermilion torii gate was like a door that required no pushing; it served as a silent reminder to the humans who visited this place that once they passed through the torii, they had entered the domain. From that point on, one must be careful with every word and action.
I thought I was a well-connected person?" Kisaragi Chiyo smiled self-deprecatingly as she looked at the stone steps leading upward, "I thought I could take a shortcut and skip the formalities.
Is this also a kind of test?
His misty gray eyes narrowed slightly as Kisaragi Chiyo reached out, a speck of cold phosphorescent fire landed on his fingertips. It swayed weightlessly, its body so weak that it could be easily blown away, as if silently urging Kisaragi Chiyo to step onto the stairs.
Kisaragi Chiyo looked at the spark of phosphorescent fire and gave a light chuckle, then brought his two fingers together, easily pinching the spark between his fingertips.
When he released it again, the phosphorus fire seemed intoxicated, stumbling as it fell into Kisaragi Chiyo's palm, before swaying and floating upward once more. After circling Kisaragi Chiyo once, it drifted a few steps forward.
"Heh.. I understand." A low laugh escaped from between her lips. Urged by the phosphorus fire, Kisaragi Chiyo stepped onto the stone stairs leading to the shrine.
-----------------------
Author's Note: Thanks to all the little angels for your support, mwah 0330
Chapter 49
The trees on both sides were like silent, quiet shadows, looming in the darkness, either watching or raising their hands. In the places where the moon above the night could not illuminate, heavy shadows surged, like waves crashing from a black sea, attempting to drag the people on the shore into them.
Kisaragi Chiyo walked upward without looking aside, following the direction guided by the scattered, star-like cold phosphorescent lights, stepping up the stone stairs one by one.
At first, there weren't many of them, only a few lonely sparks of phosphorescent fire, their flickering bodies swaying as they pointed the way ahead, seemingly ready to extinguish at any moment. But when Kisaragi Chiyo tried to turn his head to look at the darkness stirring within the woods, hundreds or thousands of phosphorescent fires emerged from nowhere.
Their tiny bodies formed a galaxy, obscuring Kisaragi Chiyo's vision. They circled around him, silently urging him to keep moving forward and not to linger here for too long.
Kisaragi Chiyo's footsteps paused for a moment. He lowered his eyes and bowed his head, listening intently.
In a daze, he seemed to hear the sound of some wailing or screaming coming from the woods; that terrifying sound was like the voice of a yokai capable of luring humans, causing Kisaragi Chiyo to experience a momentary lapse in consciousness.
By the time he came to his senses, he realized that speckles of phosphorus fire had fallen like snow upon his hair, shoulders, clothes.. The strange sound in the woods had vanished at some unknown point, as if what he had just heard was merely Kisaragi Chiyo's hallucination.
"What was that??" Kisaragi Chiyo recalled the rumors about this Nameless Shrine that he had seen on the forum. But to his disappointment, he didn't remember a single sentence mentioning the strange cries in the woods.
“Is it another instance of something not recorded?” Having gained his first experience, Kisaragi Chiyo ignored the interference of the corpse lights and stared into that darkness once again, but he heard no sound at all.
"Was it just a coincidence?" After waiting for a moment, Kisaragi Chiyo withdrew her gaze with some regret. Just as she was about to continue moving forward, a familiar voice came from ahead, answering her doubt.
“That is resentment.”
Matsuda Jinpei had appeared silently a few steps ahead of Kisaragi Chiyo at some unknown time.
He gazed down at Kisaragi Chiyo, the teal eyes appearing to hold dancing clusters of ghostly flames, far brighter than the moon in the sky.
“Resentment?” Kisaragi Chiyo repeated, then he suddenly flashed a smile, one that carried a hint of coldness and danger.
"I see." Kisaragi Chiyo nodded slightly, then raised his head to look at Matsuda Jinpei. It was at this moment that he suddenly realized the moon in the sky tonight was larger and rounder than any he had ever seen before.
The full moon hung behind Matsuda Jinpei, looking like an eye, silently watching everything illuminated by its light.
Merciful yet indifferent.
"I've heard that the moon being too close causes tides." Kisaragi Chiyo watched as Matsuda Jinpei suddenly blurted out such a thing.
And besides, I've also heard that a full moon can make humans become even more crazed and deranged.
"Are you talking about the moon?" Matsuda Jinpei froze for a moment after hearing Kisaragi Chiyo's words. He turned his head to look at the moon in the night sky, the gentle moonlight falling upon his face and softening his sharp features.
“What do you think of it?” Matsuda Jinpei asked.
“It?” Kisaragi Chiyo blinked slowly, suddenly feeling that Matsuda Jinpei had indeed asked a very interesting question.
Because he had realized that, in Matsuda Jinpei's words, the moon did not seem to refer to an object or some kind of entity. His question was more like he was asking Kisaragi Chiyo for her views on a person who was living and concrete.
"How strange." Kisaragi Chiyo stared unblinkingly at Matsuda, as cold phosphorescent flames danced between them like summer fireflies, brief and brilliant.
“It's moving.” Although the moon orbits, it doesn't seem to be moving like that, as if it were on patrol, suddenly shifting from the left to the right like someone playing badminton in the sky.
“That was the previous master of the shrine.” Matsuda Jinpei fell into a brief silence because of Kisaragi Chiyo's metaphor, but in the end, he couldn't help but let out a light chuckle.
In this way, that originally dazzling face, now tinged with a lighthearted smile, appeared even more blinding.
At the very least, Kisaragi Chiyo was genuinely stunned for a few seconds.
The previous one?" Kisaragi Chiyo raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say before that it was an abandoned shrine?