Truth is everywhere within range

night.

Ise Jingu Shrine is particularly lively tonight.

Preparations for the New Year Prayer Festival are still in progress.

Although people are panicked due to various previous incidents, and everyone is not sure whether the New Year Prayer Festival can be carried out smoothly, but work is work after all.

The shrine, which used to be quiet after dark, has now become much noisier.

Jun Kuroda was wearing a formal miko uniform and was sitting in the Kagura Hall.

Along with her, there were several mikos of similar age.

These shrine maidens are the ones who will perform the Kagura dance in front of the Kagura Hall and perform worship services.

Kuroda Jun closed his eyes and stabilized his mind, but Qiao Qiao's words during the day lingered in his ears and he couldn't get rid of them.

Don't come to the rehearsal. What on earth is he trying to say?

Although Kuroda Jun had some thoughts of retreating, he finally came here.

This is a task she must complete.

Music sounded, a melodious melody intertwined with traditional musical instruments such as shakuhachi, shamisen, and taiko drums.

A melody that has never changed since time immemorial.

it's time.

Kuroda Jun opened his eyes and stood up.

Step by step, I walked out of the Kagura Hall.

Outside the temple, there were priests and witches participating in the preparations for the New Year Prayer Festival. Kuroda Jun's father and sister were also among them.

bell--

The Kagura bell in his hand shook, making a clear and sweet sound.

Kuroda Jun dances with slow steps, full of mysterious beauty between movement and stillness.

As the lights flickered, she glanced in the direction of the mountain behind.

it's time.

Kuroda Jun poured spiritual power into his body, trying to trigger that.

However, when she was ready, she suddenly found that it was missing.

"Huh?"

Kuroda Jun's movements stopped, his whole body became sluggish and lacked agility, and then he fell forward.

Snapped--

Kuroda Jun, who fell to the ground, immediately disintegrated into countless corpses that exuded the stench of decay.

"!"

Hideki Kuroda who was present was extremely surprised. He seemed to realize something and rushed to the stage to confirm Kuroda Jun's condition.

On the other side, in a hidden room in a corner of the shrine, Kuroda Jun opened his eyes.

"how come?"

She stood up.

I was about to open the window and take a look at the situation outside.

A hand was placed on her shoulder.

"Are you Jun Kuroda? Tsk, you're not cute."

A clear female voice came from behind Kuroda Jun, making her turn around.

With long silver hair, bright red eyes, and a black and white dress, this woman has a beautiful appearance, with sharp canine teeth exposed at the corners of her mouth.

"Qiao Sang asked me to come all the way here. I can't help but make up for it."

Woman, Sakuraba Kiriye smiled as if she was very angry.

Ise Jingu Shrine, inside the dungeon.

There was silence.

One floor down, there are no priests stationed there.

First, because the security here is very tight, sending people is a waste of manpower.

The second reason is that there are many monsters here, and many of them are good at bewitching people's hearts and controlling their spirits. If something happens, it will be a human life.

In this cage that has been illuminated by lights for many years, a figure shuttles back and forth.

All the priests on the first floor have been put to sleep. At this moment, he is the only one moving in the dungeon.

He skillfully passed through the second floor, and at the same time arranged the spells at some nodes, and then came to the third floor.

On the third floor of the dungeon, the cage has no gaps at all.

All cages are made of steel. After the prisoners are imprisoned, the outside is recast and sealed with cypress wood, and a large number of sealing techniques are used.

It is a complete prison, both physically and spiritually.

The man passed through these prisons.

Outside the prison, there are all kinds of names written on it.

Descendant of Yamata no Orochi, Anaconda.

The mysterious Great Tengu that caused trouble in Heiankyo.

The ghost of Mount Suzuka, Otakemaru.

These are all powerful monsters that have left their reputation in historical legends.

The man was about to place the spell with the spell on the prison.

Suddenly, he felt something in his heart and turned around.

A person stood at the entrance to the third floor.

He was wearing the most ordinary white hunting clothes, and his hands were empty.

However, at this moment, just standing here is enough to make the intruder tremble.

"Where do I start?"

Qiao Qiao, who was wearing a white hunting coat, looked at the person who sneaked into the third floor of the dungeon, held his chin and said as if he was distressed.

"By the way, let's start from the very beginning of the incident, Takashi Aoki's death."

"You met Takashi Aoki during a certain spirit removal process. He is a reporter who likes to pursue strange news. Most spirit removers keep away from him, but you are different. You provided him with a lot of information. He wrote a popular article. After all, he is a spirit exorcist, and the real experience of exorcizing spirits is always more attractive."

Qiao Qiao took two steps forward.

"Well, yes, Takashi Aoki was the first to die, even before Ayako Kashiwagi."

"You told Taka Aoki that someone was going to cause trouble at the Harvest Festival at Ise Shrine, and you provided relatively real and credible clues. Naturally, Taka Aoki couldn't let go of this opportunity, so he came to Ise. However, you were Killed directly, the corpse was made into a living corpse, and a spell was implanted. On that afternoon, you controlled Takashi Aoki to return to the hotel and exploded to death. As for why you took such a strange method of explosion, on the one hand, it was to create We’ll talk about the other side of this later.”

"Of course, there are traces of your forgery in Takashi Aoki's notes. Most of those vague remarks were made up by you yourself. Since you were pretending to be a crazy reporter, no one will be able to hold your handwriting accountable."

"Then came the death of Kashiwagi Ayako."

"I have always found it strange why Kashiwagi Ayako was cut into pieces, why it was made in such a crude ritual, and why her body temperature was maintained to create an illusion."

"Later, I figured it out."

"In mystery novels, there will be a scene like this, where multiple people are killed, each person cuts off a section of the body, and finally a complete body is pieced together, and the murderer pretends to be beheaded and died. Off the head."

"Here, the same tactics are used."

"Of course, Kashiwagi Ayako is indeed dead. She was killed cruelly and without any direction."

"Her death was just to give people the illusion that an evil god was at work, and for another purpose. It had nothing to do with who the victim was. It was probably just because she was Tanizaki Koji's girlfriend, so it was easier to trick her out."

"So, where did her body go after it was taken into custody by the police?"

"After all, if a person dies in an explosion and becomes so bloody and bloody, spread out on the wall, it's impossible to find out whether it is a person or half a person, right?"

"The same corpse 'died' twice in different ways. This is a modus operandi that often appears in mystery novels, isn't it, Mr. Fujinami Shinji?"

Qiao Qiao looked forward.

The lurking figure was clearly the dead Shinji Fujinami.