I teach kendo in Tokyo

On the way to the shrine, there were almost no pedestrians.

When passing by a convenience store, Kazuma found that there was no one inside - there was obviously an OPEN sign hanging on the door.

So Kazuma muttered: "This kind of convenience store is a chain, right? If there is no one at the front desk, won't the head office find out and deduct money?"

"The mountain is high and the emperor is far away." Tamamo said, "Maybe they are replenishing the shelves..."

"No, we were chatting at the snack shop opposite." Someone interrupted Tamamo.

He Ma looked around and saw an old man wearing a convenience store uniform, with a waiter wearing a dim sum shop uniform standing next to him.

The waitresses in confectionery shops like this in Tokyo are usually young girls in their 20s, and their uniforms are usually cute dress designs. The uniform design here is the same as that of the Tokyo store, except that the person wearing it is in his late 40s. Auntie.

After meeting their eyes, the uncle said: "You two came very early. Usually the peak season doesn't start until about a week later."

The waitress smiled and said, "Maybe it's because it's extremely hot this year. I read on the news that it's related to that disaster."

"El Niño, El Niño."

"Yes, that's it," the aunt nodded repeatedly, "it was said on TV that the sea water is getting hotter. I guess the sea water is too hot to go into the sea, so people on the beach have no choice but to come to the mountains to enjoy the coolness."

Kazuma was about to complain, but the uncle spoke first: "How come the sea water is so hot that you can't go into the sea? Are you kidding me? It's not like "The Sinking of Japan"."

"There was no sea water in the Japanese sinking that was so hot that you couldn't go into the sea." Kazuma seized the opportunity to interject, "If the sea water was so hot, the whole world would become a sauna when the heat was released, and humankind would become extinct."

"Will humans become extinct?" Auntie asked in shock.

The convenience store uncle waved his hand: "No, no, by the way, are you two going to the convenience store to buy something?"

Kazuma shook his head, and then pointed to the torii gate at the foot of the shrine: "We want to go to the shrine and have a look. It is said that the bruises sold there are very effective."

"The effect is very good. It is said that it is made from the scalp of kappa. It is very refreshing." The uncle said.

Kazuma glanced at Tamamo.

Tamamo: "The Kappa's scalp cannot be healed from a bruise."

——Just wait for me!

While he was full of desire to complain to Ma, the convenience store man laughed loudly: "What a funny little girl. Aren't you from a club in college? Judging by your age and your appearance... well, there is no doubt about it. Tokyoites.

"Last year we had a group of college students from Tokyo come here, looking for hammer snakes. There was a little girl among them who knew all kinds of monsters. She was simply a 'Dr. Monster.'"

The hammer snake is a legendary creature in Japan, also called an earth dragon. After the war, there were many so-called sighting reports but no evidence could be found. The Japanese people's search for the hammer snake has not stopped, and it feels a bit like the Loch Ness Monster.

In addition, people in Japan like to call people who know a lot Dr. XX. The doctorate here is not a degree, but simply takes the literal meaning of the word: a learned person.

Kazuma: "We are also college students, from Tokyo."

"Are you also looking for hammer snakes?" The convenience store uncle frowned, "Last year, the group of college students were careless while climbing the mountain. Two of them fell off the cliff. One died and the other was injured. The injured one seemed to have turned into a vegetative state. Be careful. , Mountains are not like cities, where a minor injury can lead to death due to lack of timely treatment."

Kazuma and Tamamo looked at each other.

"Can you tell me more about it?" As a future police officer, Kazuma began to ask for details.

"I don't know the details. I work in a convenience store and didn't participate in the search and rescue. Anyway, when we carried him down the mountain, there was no one alive, and there was another one who couldn't move like a piece of wood. The little girl, Dr. Monster, was crying like a baby."

Kazuma raised an eyebrow.

The aunt at the dim sum shop used her inherent skill of "telling gossip" and added a wave of information to Kazuma: "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 convenience store uncle frowned: "It's for everyone's benefit. If this spreads, I'm afraid no one will come to our hot springs in a few years. Without tourism income, we can only rely on the income from the crops we grow. , We are going back to the hard days of the past.”

The aunt curled her lips and stopped talking.

Kazuma: "Was life here difficult before tourism development?"

"Look at what you said, you are indeed a young man in the city. Aren't farmers always suffering?" The convenience store uncle laughed to himself.

Kazuma: "The price of agricultural products in the city is so high, I thought..."

"Bullshit, in order to maintain that high price, the Agricultural Cooperative prohibits us from producing too much. We will not buy the products of anyone who diversifies, and we will not help him purchase seeds and agricultural machinery..."

The convenience store uncle sighed: "We are too far away from Tokyo. Otherwise, you can try to drive to Tokyo to sell by yourself, completely getting rid of the agricultural cooperative. Although the selling price is low, you can sell as much as you have, even if You can make more if you include gas money.”

Kazuma said "Oh", and he suddenly remembered the pumpkin he and Qingliu had thrown when they were escaping.

According to the uncle, Qingliu and her family, Bai Feng, help farmers go to the city to sell melons. Is this a good 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 from the convenience store stood up and patted his butt: "Okay, it's time for me to go back to work. I saw Grandma Noda walking this way. You guys have to go Hurry up to the shrine, Hiroko will leave early from time to time because she has to take care of her sick grandma."

The uncle said as he walked towards the convenience store.

Kazuma saw an old lady not far away pushing a wheelchair heading this way, with a shopping basket on the wheelchair - she must have used the wheelchair as a trolley and crutches.

This is probably Grandma Noda.

When the old lady saw the uncle opening the door of the convenience store, she smiled and said, "Yamada, you are lazy again."

Kazuma was about to say that Japan is really full of mountains and fields, when his uncle sighed helplessly: "Just say my surname is not Yamada... Oh, Grandma Noda, you are still the same, right?"

"Yes, I've been troubling you all this time." The old lady pushed the wheelchair to the convenience store, put on the handbrake, and then put most of her body weight on the wheelchair.

The convenience store man not named Yamada picked up the shopping basket on his wheelchair and went into the store.

Grandma Noda turned to look at Kazuma and Tamamo, and said with a smile, "Hey, whose descendant is back?"

As soon as Kazuma opened his mouth, the aunt at the snack shop responded: "They are not young people from the town, they are college students from Tokyo."

"Huh? Students? Today's students grow up so fast, so tall, and this girl, ugh." The old lady was speechless.

Kazuma also glanced at Tamamo, her profile really made people "tsk".

"You are back for summer vacation, right?" Grandma Noda continued to chatter, "We can catch giant unicorns here that are not found in Tokyo."

It seemed that the old lady was completely confused and thought Kazuma and the others were elementary school students who went back to the countryside to spend their summer vacation.

This situation is quite common in Japan.

At the beginning, it was just the beginning of the economic boom. In order to reduce the burden during the summer vacation, urban families sent their children back to the countryside to live with their grandparents.

Later, Japanese scholars gave a legitimate reason for this behavior: let children get close to nature and receive natural education.

Later, this became a standard feature 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 keep diaries of the insects they raised as part of their summer vacation homework.

This kind of thing gradually became the "Ye Qing Hui" of the Japanese, which directly gave birth to the game series "My Summer Vacation", and also influenced games such as "Harvest Moon" and "Pokémon".

However, Kazuma glanced at Tamamo again, wondering how confused an old lady like her must be to treat her as an elementary school student.

At this time, the convenience store uncle brought out a basket full of things and put it on the wheelchair: "Okay. See you next week."

Grandma Noda took out a stack of neat and odd bills and handed them to the convenience store uncle: "Thank you, Yamada."

The uncle hesitated to speak, but finally chose not to complain about the old lady and accepted the money to finish the job.

The old lady released the handbrake of the wheelchair and pushed the wheelchair in a circle in front of the convenience store to complete the U-turn. Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Kazuma: "By the way, kid, this is not Tokyo. It's very dangerous at night. No matter what. How happy you are, when you hear the village hall loudspeaker start playing that... it's da~ da~ da~"

The old lady pieced together the melody with different high and low daahs.

"From the New World." Kazuma said the title of the song directly.

"Yes, that's it. This kid is so smart!" Grandma Noda nodded repeatedly, "When you hear this, you must go home. Bad kids who don't go home will be captured by the demon fox living in the mountains. Demon fox. , I like to eat the heart and liver of children the most.”

Tamamo smiled and said, "Okay, we get it."

"Especially for a pretty girl like you!" Grandma Noda looked at Tamamo and warned, "She likes it the most!"

"Don't worry, Kazuma-kun will protect me." Tamamo said, waving 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 shrine god will bless you." Grandma Noda waved her hand, turned around and pushed the wheelchair back slowly along the way she came.

Kazuma watched the old lady go away, turned around and said to Tamamo: "Let's go to the shrine quickly. It seems that we have to pay homage to the shrine's god, otherwise we will be eaten by the evil fox."

Jinguji Tamamo pouted and made an awkward expression: "I don't know how to eat it."

"No way? Monsters should often eat people, right?"

"No way, it's not Elder Tang. In fact, there is a paradox here, haven't you noticed? Generally speaking, according to the setting, only big monsters can transform into humans for a long time, and small monsters can't maintain their human form, so that means they can transform into humans. It's relatively noble, so that's why monsters try to become human, isn't it?

"Theoretically, monsters shouldn't eat humans. After all, no one - no monster would go to great lengths just to look like food."

Kazuma thought about it and it seemed to make sense.

As a human, Kazuma Kiryu didn't want to turn into a pork sausage.

After all, there is no way a monster can expect to look like his own food.

Tamamo changed the subject: "The college students who came here last year, I don't know which university they are from."

Kazuma: "We're looking for Hammer Snakes, and there's a girl called Dr. Yokai in the group. I feel like it's a paranormal or monster-related fan club. It can't be a paleontological fan club, right?"

"If it's a paleontological hobby club, there shouldn't be Dr. Yokai mixed in," Tamamo said.

Kazuma: "Maybe... it's a new ghost story research group at another school?"

"How could it be? There shouldn't be a second such strange seminar." Tamamo complained mercilessly about the society she was usurping.

"But don't you think that what we are doing now is a bit like the beginning of a new ghost story?"

He Ma paused, glanced at the empty streets, and continued: "A small town far away from the world, with strange folk customs, incidents, and a mysterious old lady who gave us something like a warning, Qi Huo That’s it.”

Tamamo raised her eyebrows: "It seems...it's true."

"And the chirping of the cicadas is perfect for setting off the atmosphere, isn't it?" Kazuma added.

Tamamo was about to reply, but suddenly stopped and looked up.

Kazuma also stopped and followed her gaze curiously, and saw the village hall's loudspeaker on the top of the telephone pole in front of him.

"Yes, there are also Dvořák and "The New World". This one is also particularly suitable for exaggerating the horror atmosphere." He retracted his gaze and said.

Tamamo: "No, what I'm looking at is not the speaker."

Kazuma looked up at the horn again, and this time he finally noticed the crow standing on the wire, which seemed to be slightly larger than a normal crow.

Crow and Kazuma looked at each other, not afraid at all.

Many crows in Tokyo are not afraid of people, but that is because crows are accustomed to the large number of people in Tokyo.

Moreover, crows can theoretically move in groups just like pigeons. A single crow landing on a telephone pole and staring directly at people always gives people the feeling that it is a familiar or simply a monster.

So Kazuma asked: "Do you know him?"

"I don't know him. The Crow Tengu I knew was killed by a ghost."

Kazuma was shocked: "Wait a minute, Crow Tengu can still be killed by ghosts?"

"sure."

"He must be a powerful monster, right? What kind of monster can kill Crow Tengu?"

"Phantom fighter of the Air Self-Defense Force Yoyogi Flying Team."

Is it that ghost? !

Tamamo's face showed sadness: "His last words before his death 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 flying at twice the speed of sound, gah.'"

Kazuma: "Wait a minute, what happened to the last 'Gaoh'?"

"Hey, try to express the scene using onomatopoeia," Tamamo said.

Be more serious! Dead people - dead monsters!

Just as Kazuma was about to complain, the crow on the top of the telephone pole let out a croaking sound, flapped its wings and flew away, flying away as the two watched.

A few pieces of black feathers slowly fell from the sky.

Kazuma caught a piece of feather and handed it to Tamamo: "Can you tell if this is an ordinary crow?"

"I can't tell." Tamamo replied instantly, "I could tell before, but now even I, who have always been 17, are now 18. Even if I go for a B-ultrasound or other tests now, I should look like an ordinary human being .It’s becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the weird.”

Kazuma pursed his lips, held the feather in his hand close to him, and observed it carefully.

It's really no different from ordinary feathers.

As long as Tamamo's hair doesn't return to the state of her ears, it's just the hair of a beautiful girl that has been carefully cared for.

Kazuma was about to stuff the feather into his pocket, but Tamamo stopped him: "Don't bring this thing with you. Although divination is useless now, it's still okay to find the location of your 'personal belongings'. I I often tell where my glasses have gone."

Kazuma looked at the glasses on the bridge of Tamamo's nose, and the image of Tamamo who couldn't find her glasses and had to do fortune telling came to his mind - well, it's a bit cute.

Tamamo Liu frowned slightly: "Why are you smiling? It's normal to not be able to find your glasses, especially when you are wearing them."

Cuter, cuter?

Kazuma scratched his head. In order to keep the image of Tamamo in his mind from collapsing, he decided to change the topic: "In this situation, would it be better for me to ask Amao to send the sword? Which sword is more suitable for killing demons? ?”

"No need." Tamamo shook his head, "If a strong human being wants to slay demons, a wooden sword is enough. It has always been like this. Only the weak must rely on famous swords such as Atsuna Dojikiri."

Kazuma was speechless, he felt that there were many stories hidden in Tamamo's words, and when he was about to ask in detail, she looked at her watch and urged: "It's getting late, go to the shrine quickly, and then go back to the hotel to turn on the air conditioner. "

Only then did Kazuma realize that he was sweating profusely, so he nodded and said: "Okay, hurry up, I'm almost dehydrated, I hope the shrine has water to drink."

The two took steps again and walked towards the shrine.

The big crow that had just flown away flew back again, landed on the top of the speaker, and looked at the backs of the two people quietly.