Truth is everywhere within range

Eight o'clock at night.

The Kamogawa River is at its most prosperous.

Summer vacation has arrived, and the Gion Festival parade is approaching. On the banks of the Kamogawa River, young girls wearing kimonos can be seen everywhere, walking hand in hand.

The boys and girls of Kamogawa have been a beautiful sight since the Heian period.

After eating ramen, Qiao Qiao was not in a hurry to leave.

"Boss, has anything strange happened near Kamogawa recently?"

he asked.

Daisuke Miyagi was entangled by the statue of the evil god. Although the problem has been solved, the source of the statue still needs to be solved.

"strange things?"

The boss touched his chin.

"Speaking of which, the wild youkai over Mount Hiei have been driven out recently."

said a tanuki.

Mount Hiei is located near Kamogawa. Because the mountainous area is so large, some wild monsters choose to live in Mount Hiei, living in abandoned villages. From time to time, they can disguise themselves as humans and go down the mountain to buy daily necessities.

"That's probably because of that. The Gion Festival is going on recently, so I have to clean Mount Hiei."

The one-eyed man looked slightly drunk and opened his mouth to explain.

"So, the time has indeed come."

The snow girl had already finished a can of beer, and her drunken appearance only added to her temptation.

"Do monsters also participate in the Gion Festival?"

After Hayami Nanase overcame her fear of monsters, she became even more curious.

Now, in her opinion, these monsters are just like her fans. They have their own lives and their own troubles. To use a simple and easy-to-understand metaphor, they are just like foreigners.

"Of course, the Gion Festival was due to the outbreak of the epidemic. People carried the statues from Yasaka Shrine and paraded around Kyoto to pray to the gods to eliminate the plague. It must have been a thousand years ago."

Yuki-onna replied.

"It turns out there is such a history."

Haomi Nanase nodded slightly.

And suddenly I realized that it was a youkai who introduced the origin of the Gion Festival to me, a shrine maiden. There seemed to be something strange about it.

"For youkai, the Gion Festival is also a time to relax. After all, many humans dress up weirdly and go out. It's not surprising that youkai want to show their true nature."

Another raccoon cat answered.

"So, the Mount Hiei side should be the work of the shrine."

Hayami Nanase murmured to himself.

"possible."

Qiao Qiao recorded this incident in his notebook.

"Besides that, for example, there have been some strange people appearing at the Kamogawa market recently."

“Market?”

The market in Kamogawa is also located on the bank of Kamogawa River. It is a small market similar to a rooftop, mixed in among snack bars. After dark, some knickknacks are sold, and it is very popular among lovers walking along Kamogawa.

The owner of Cat Ramen thought for a while.

"There are a lot of strange people. This is Kyoto after all. But as for suspicious people, there are rumors of a ghost vendor recently."

"G-ghost?"

As soon as I saw Nanase, her body tensed up.

At this time, another customer came, and the boss got busy, cutting vegetables and giving a brief talk.

The ghost vendor is an urban ghost-like thing that has recently emerged in Kamogawa Market.

It is said that there is no way to find this store if you specifically look for it. Only a confused person can encounter it by chance.

In the middle of the bustling downtown, customers will suddenly hear a bell ringing and then see that shop.

There are all kinds of things sold in the store, but the most noteworthy thing is that there is always something in the store that customers once liked but have now lost or forgotten.

In the end, most customers will buy that thing back.

However, if the customer didn't notice that thing at the time and bought something else, or didn't buy anything at all.

will be cursed.

"?"

Wait a minute, boss, wouldn't you take care of such rumors?

"Rumors are just rumors after all. Neither monsters nor humans here have really encountered anything similar, so I won't make such a fuss."

The owner of Cat Ramen saw Qiao Qiao's confusion and smiled.

Compared to late-night cafeterias, Neko Ramen pays more attention to balance, the balance between humans and monsters.

It will not favor humans, nor will it favor monsters.

The night is already deep.

Neko Ramen customers left the store one after another.

As soon as the two tanuki cats walked out of the curtain, they turned into a couple wearing kimonos.

The one-eyed man transformed back into an office worker in a suit and tie, except that his hair slightly covered one eye.

The snow girl transformed into a young and beautiful fashionable girl.

They returned to human society, and no one knew that they would transform back into monsters while eating cat ramen late at night.

This is Kyoto after all, and it has always been a gathering place for weirdos since the Heian period.

Saw Nanase feeling a little emotional.

Stop talking about monsters.

Even humans must sometimes wear masks to live in this society.

Perhaps only after returning home from get off work can they show their true selves.

Youkai has Neko Ramen and can talk freely.

Where are people?

Haomi Nanase seemed to understand a little bit, but also didn't seem to understand.

After having a virtual identity online, who knows whether the account behind the conversation is a human or a monster.

Even Hayami Nanase couldn't tell the difference when she learned that there might be some monsters among her Twitter followers.

While he was thinking about it, he saw that Nanase had been dragged to Kamogawa Market.

As the owner of Neko Ramen explains, Kamogawa Market is full of people.

It's like a small festival, with a variety of snack bars and small shops.

"Wow, this looks great, Suzuka wants it!"

Suzuka soon became immersed in the fun of visiting the market. When she saw the cute cat pendant on the roadside, she couldn't help but speak.

"Buy it for me, buy it, buy it."

"?"

You, a big anchor who earns hundreds of thousands of yen every day, still want me to buy things for you?

Qiao Qiao was confused.

But I still paid for it and bought one.

Anyway, it only costs a hundred yen.

Um? Speaking of which, let’s buy a gift for Asano Miko.

Otherwise, she would probably be angry if she found out that she brought Suzuka and Hayami Nanase to the market.

Thinking of this, Qiao Qiao took a look and bought a grenade-shaped pendant.

Well, Miko Asano will probably like it.

"?"

Hayami Nanase saw Qiao Qiao shopping.

Not sure why.

Would anyone like something like this?

Anyway, grenades

While thinking, Hayami Nanase heard a ringtone.

Crisp and pleasant.

The noisy scene around her seemed to leave her.

When he came back to his senses, he saw that Nanase had already arrived in front of a shop.

This is a very ordinary small shop on the rooftop, with many strange-shaped pendants hanging with a certain sense of beauty.

On the table, Hayami Nanase saw many familiar things.

There is an old mobile phone loaded with friends who were once addicted to mobile phones. When I entered junior high school, this mobile phone was thrown away by my mother.

There was a paper crane she folded for the boy she loved when she was a child. On the other side of the crane, her feelings were written. But the boy suddenly transferred to another school, and Nanase Hayami did not express her feelings.

There are novel characters that have been conceived for a long time but abandoned within a day of writing.

There is a pendant that was hung on a schoolbag but was later lost by a classmate.

All are memories of the past.

"Want to buy something?"

The shop owner, a man who looked featureless, looked at Hayami Nanase and asked.