I teach kendo in Tokyo

Looking at Tamamo, the god suddenly seemed to have an idea: "Jinguji! When I heard this last name before, I thought it was the Jinguji that sells high-end suits. Could it be that it is actually the Jinguji that sells Japanese confectionery? "

Wait, Kazuma thought in surprise, there is a Jinguji that sells high-end suits?

Tamamo nodded: "It's the one selling wagashi."

"I'm sorry, I'm disrespectful. Well... the qualifications of our shrine should have been assessed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Culture and Sports the year before last..."

"You misunderstood, I came to vacation with He Ma."

Lord Ohta: "Oh, I see, I understand!"

Looking at the expression on the god's head, Kazuma felt that he had a deeper misunderstanding.

Tamamo smiled and said: "God Lord Sang, you'd better tell me about this mountain god."

The shrine owner nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay. As you said, we didn't originally 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 up through the stone steps behind the main hall."

Qingliu whispered: "There are still stone steps..."

It seemed that she also had some complaints about the shrine's too-long stone steps.

Only Kazuma could hear Seiryu's voice, and the god master continued without being disturbed: "But at the end of the Tokugawa period, some people began to report seeing the mountain god. According to the local chronicle kept in our house, shortly after the black ships attacked , someone said that they saw Takechiyo, who was missing from a neighboring village, in the mountains."

Kazuma: "Does Takechiyo sound like a little boy's nickname?"

"Yes. At the end of the Tokugawa period, there was a lot of poverty around here. Children who could not afford to be raised would be thrown into the mountains. Occasionally, wolves would attack and snatch away children. The specific situation was not clearly written in the local chronicles. I only know that It was a child who witnessed the disappearance of a neighboring village.”

Kazuma was speechless: "Rashomon...?"

Ryunosuke Akutagawa's masterpiece "Rashomon" uses only three thousand words to write a hell on earth. Kazuma isn't too keen on this article, but he has to admit that it's awesome.

The god continued: "Rumors like this have become common since the end of the Tokugawa period. The basic content is very similar. They are mountain gods who look like giant wolves and missing children who stay with them. The names of the children change often. It can be seen from the side that children often got lost in this nearby human village at that time.”

"Has it been happening since the end of the Tokugawa period? Didn't the situation in the village get better after the Meiji Restoration, and gradually no one threw their children into the mountains?" Kazuma asked.

The Lord of God nodded: "Yes, after the Meiji Restoration, the land inspection was carried out, and the lower-level samurai who were arrogant around here were eliminated. The police team also raided the bandits, and everyone's life suddenly became a lot better. , I will never be able to raise a child again.

"But there will still be wolves that snatch away children. Soon after the Meiji Restoration, the village organized a team to hunt wolves. The landowner in the town made a fortune in Tokyo and bought twenty Winchesters to arm a small team. The foreign gun team, together with the local hunters, went into the mountains to hunt wolves.

"But the results of the wolf hunting were not very optimistic. Several people were injured, and the remaining people were silent about what happened on the mountain. They only said that they encountered the angry mountain god."

Kazuma was stunned: "Twenty Winchesters? This kind of firepower could not defeat tens of thousands of ashigaru during the Warring States Period."

During the Warring States Period, most of the ashigaru were conscripted peasants armed with bamboo spears. Their morale was very poor. There were many battles in which dozens of samurai killed thousands of ashigaru.

20 gunmen with Winchesters ran to the Warring States Period. Maybe the Ashigaru team was demoralized and collapsed before all the bullets in the barrels were fired.

By the way, the plot mentioned by the God Lord looks more and more like "Princess Mononoke".

Could it be that Hayao Miyazaki got inspiration from the legend of this place?

The god just shook his head at Kazuma's complaints and continued: "There are only so many records in the local chronicles. Then the legend of the mountain god naturally exists in the local chronicles. Every few years, someone will always claim to have seen the mountain god."

Kazuma: "I guess every sighting is accompanied by a sighting of the missing child."

"Yes, incidents of missing children also happened from time to time, but no one organized any more wolf hunts. Later, when the Sino-Japanese War broke out, many people in the village also went to join the army. It seems that the sightings of mountain gods suddenly changed from that time on. not enough."

Kazuma's heart skipped a beat. The Sino-Japanese War was the Japanese name for the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1894. After Kazuma traveled through Japan, he intentionally or unintentionally avoided the beginning of this period of modern Chinese history of being massacred by Japan.

He felt uncomfortable at the thought that the body he now occupied was the descendant of the person who had brought so much suffering to China.

Fortunately, the God Lord did not mention the Japanese-Qing War too much, but regarded it as a time node and passed it by immediately.

"When the war with Russia ended, there would be no records related to mountain gods in local chronicles."

Kazuma frowned: "Didn't it mean that after the Great Kanto Earthquake in the Taisho era, villages began to abandon children in the mountains because they couldn't afford to raise them? No one saw the mountain god?"

"No. But instead, the legend of the heart-and-liver-eating demon fox began to spread among the villagers."

The Lord God stopped and looked at Kazuma, obviously waiting for Kazuma to ask a question.

So Kazuma asked: "Is this what Mr. Watanabe came to ask that day? What did you say to him? Why did he look solemn when he returned to the hotel?"

There was obvious hesitation on Lord Ohta'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 hide something from me, how can I find out the truth?"

The Lord of God spoke up and asked: "Teacher Kiryu, you learned the information about Mr. Watanabe's abnormal expression from Miss Akanishi, right?"

"So what?"

"I think this is Miss Akanishi trying to confuse things."

"Do you think Miss Akanishi is lying?" Kazuma asked, his voice suddenly rising.

The shrine master shook his head: "No, you misunderstood. Miss Akanishi said that Watanabe-kun looked solemn when he returned to the hotel from the shrine. It is not a lie. But no one stipulates that the truth cannot be used to confuse the audience.

"What I told Mr. Watanabe were just some wild speculations, similar to the urban legends and country stories often seen in supernatural magazines.

"When most people hear what I say, they will only use it as 'ammunition' when talking about things after drinking or picking up girls. Watanabe-kun is very simple. He is the kind of child who will burst into tears because of the plot when watching a movie. His solemn look is normal. He I look solemn here.

"But it has nothing to do with his death. Let me be blunt. I think it was Miss Akanishi who killed Watanabe-kun. She had a motive, but I guess she didn't tell Kiryu-sensei at all."

Kazuma: "Let's not care about whether Akanishi-san is telling the truth or not. I just want to listen to the rural anecdote you told Watanabe-kun. By the way, I really chased a white-haired man who ran very fast last night. More than ten miles away, and you said at the beginning that this is the descendant of the mountain god, but now you want to tell me that this is a rural fantasy?"

The god looked at Tamamo with deep meaning and said: "I'm talking about ordinary human beings. Since you have such a deep connection with the daughter of the Jinguji family, you will definitely not regard it as a country fantasy. .”

"Wait a minute!" Qingliu, who had been sitting obediently and listening, shouted, "What do you mean? Do you want to tell me that the ghost-like thing yesterday is real? Do you want to tell me Do ghosts really exist? Stop joking!"

Seiryu's voice trembled. Kazuma didn't expect that this guy was actually afraid of ghosts.

Just as the Lord of God was about to speak, Tamamo quickly said: "Ghosts do not exist. Even if there are some things that science cannot explain for the time being, they cannot be explained for the time being.

"For example, in some places, voices will appear during thunderstorms. Later, scientists discovered that there are natural magnets nearby. There is a chance that voices can be recorded during thunderstorms and then played back during another thunderstorm. The principle is similar to that of a tape recorder."

Qingliu said with doubt on his face: "This explanation sounds ridiculous!"

Tamamo continued with the example: "Another example is a mirage. Originally, humans thought it was the Penglai Wonderland or the Jade Emperor's manifestation, but now they have discovered that it is just the refraction of light."

Qingliu was obviously convinced by this second example. Although he still had an unhappy expression on his face, he did not refute again.

Lord Ohta muttered: "So this is what is being said now."

"This is not rhetoric, it is fact." Jinguji Tamamo said firmly, "The legend you just mentioned about the mountain god and its descendants, as well as the legend of the demon fox eating the heart and liver of children, must have scientific and logical explanations. Mysterious. It doesn’t exist, the world is scientific.”

Kazuma complained in his mind: Then you should explain your four-channel ears. You don't want to say that the ears on the top of your head are just the hair that is messed up due to sleeping, right?

There is a virtual video host that I like very much in my life called Nekomiya Hinata. The ears on her head are the hair that is messed up by sleep.

The Lord God looked at Tamamo with a very complicated expression. He bit his lip and considered it for a moment, and finally made up his mind and said, "That may indeed be the case. In fact, my grandfather's generation would still go into the mountains to collect herbs, but suddenly something happened One day my grandfather stopped going into the mountains and told my father to collect herbs in the mountains behind the shrine.

"My father didn't understand at the time. Although there were medicinal materials in the back mountain that our family had been cultivating for generations, the types and quantities were not many. You must know that at that time, Western medicine was not popular in rural areas like ours. The nearest clinic was in ten Many kilometers away, people in the village fell ill because of us.

“Unlike now, there are quite large clinics on Hot Spring Street.

"So my father asked grandpa why. After my father kept asking, grandpa finally told the truth."

The Lord of God stopped, his eyes still staring at Tamamo.

Tamamo tilted her head in confusion, as if she didn't understand why the god was staring at him like this.

Lord Ohta asked in a precise manner: "It's okay for me to say, right? Don't the Jinguji family know?"

Tamamo: "I really don't know. I won't lie in front of Kazuma, never."

It can be seen from Lord Ohta's expression that this mouthful of dog food caught him off guard.

"That may be something the Jinguji family is hiding from you." The Lord God said.

Kazuma frowned. It seemed that the god master didn't know that Tamamo was the biggest "person" in the Jinguji family.

He turned and looked at Tamamo, confirming through his eyes that even Mao didn't know about the latter.

The priest said: "My grandfather told my father that he met the military police in the mountains. He would never mistake the big cap and cloak with red stripes."

Kazuma and Seiryu shouted together: "Military police?"

Of course Kazuma shouted because in his impression, the military police were all executioners who massacred the Chinese people. Well, Qingliu, maybe it was because the spirit of rock music was inherently inconsistent with the gendarmes like the military police?

After all, people who play rock and roll think about burning things to ashes all day long.

Tamamo seemed very calm: "The old Japanese Army...?"

The priest continued: "Yes, the military police seem to be supervising a group of Chinese-speaking people building the railway. I have never heard of any plans to build a railway nearby before.

"Several military police officers chatted loudly, saying that they would shoot all these people when the railway was completed. My grandfather felt something was wrong and ran back before he was discovered."

Kazuma instinctively felt disgusted, and wanted to travel back to that era again to kill these turtles and save his compatriots.

However, he does not have the ability to travel through time and space at will.

He once again had the idea in his heart of "Why not travel back a few decades and let me go back to fight the war?"

Tamamo: "As expected of the old Japanese Army, they were all a bunch of bastards."

The Lord God glanced at Tamamo: "Miss, are you actually a left-winger?"

"I'm a student of Tokyo University." Tamamo said.

Even the priest of a rural shrine thought it was natural that Tamamo was a left-winger after hearing the words "Tokyo University student".

Lord Ohta no longer dwelled on this issue. He continued: "That day, I told Mr. Watanabe about this matter, and expressed my speculation: the old Japanese Army may have some secret facilities in the nearby mountains, and may be doing Hidden research. Grandma Noda might have just seen them coming to the mountain village to catch test subjects."

Seiryu: "Are you saying they capture their own citizens as guinea pigs?"

"Nothing is impossible. After all, they are a group of guys who are worse than animals." He Ma said.

Tamamo added: "These guys planned to kill 100 million at the last moment of the war. If the Americans hadn't dropped the nuclear bomb, they might have done it."

Kazuma: "It's a pity that the Americans did not send all these people to the gallows. If the Americans had completely liquidated these people at that time, Japan would be better off now."

Tamamo: "Yes, MacArthur committed a heinous crime."

Lord Ohta interrupted the conversation between the two: "In short, as Ms. Jinguji said, the weirdness may not exist at all, and everything is the work of the evil old Japanese army. I told this that day Watanabe-kun. He is a kind-hearted kid and a college student. He is probably a left-wing youth like you."

Kazuma took over the conversation: "That's why he has that expression... Is that what you mean?"

"Yes, so this has nothing to do with his murder. Miss Akanishi must have said this on purpose to disturb the view."

——No, I always feel like it’s more than that.

"Ota-san," Kazuma looked up at the god, "you've been collecting herbs near the place where Watanabe-kun's accident occurred all day long, haven't you found anything strange?"

"What are you referring to? I should have given you all the strange things I found yesterday."

He Ma was speechless.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door.

"What's going on?" God Lord looked towards the office door and asked loudly.

The voice of the working witch Hiroko came from outside: "People from the Tourism Promotion Association and the village office are here."

"knew."

Kazuma asked: "What's wrong? They came because..."

"Preparations for the festival are underway. Today we will start setting up stalls for the festival in the square in front of the main hall of the shrine. We also have to rehearse the parade, so we will be busy." The shrine master stood up, "I have said everything I can. You have to find the remaining clues on your own. Of course, if you have any questions, you can call me anytime. But I guess I won’t have such a large amount of time to entertain you, Mr. Kiryu. According to previous years’ experience, today is the time. A large number of tourists arrived at the hot spring town and the shrine became very busy."

Kazuma: "Is it going to get busy?"

"Yes, starting today there will be girls from neighboring villages coming to work. Hiroko alone can't handle it. In a few days there will be shrine maidens invited from Tokyo by the Tourism Promotion Association, and they will be in charge of the Kannada dance performance."

Tamamo: "Oh? Are you from Tokyo? Then maybe I know him."

Lord God: "Anyway, that's it for today. Regarding the wolf problem 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 go into the mountains to hunt wolves immediately. ."

Kazuma also stood up: "Okay, I'll go ask the Tourism Promotion Association. I won't disturb you anymore."