Summer was close and Miku had just been hired as a journalist, she was a university freshman, so this was a great opportunity for her to gather experience. The first job she was assigned to do was to write a review about a Shinto shrine located in a village somewhere in Tokyo. Thus Miku packed her things and went on a journey. She put a white Lolita-like shirt on, a blue skirt and of course, her red glasses. While she was waiting at the train station, she took out her notebook and started taking notes about what she had done until now. She knew that this seemed kind of pointless but she figured out it might be useful eventually. Her senpai had already arrived in the village yesterday "you will cooperate with Megurine Luka in this project, she will be there one day before you to take care of the preparations" was what her boss told her. Miku didn't really know what preparations he was talking about but she felt kind of shy to ask. The girl approached the drink's machine and bought a cold chocolate milk, she inserted the straw in it and when it was about to touch her lips she looked at the clock and stopped. It was already four o'clock, the train was supposed to have arrived fifteen minutes ago, was there a delay? Miku suddenly felt insecure, she thought that maybe she wasn't meant to get to that shrine for some reason, but she just sighed and sat again, waiting for the train.
The train finally arrived, to Miku's relief. She got in and turned her Ipod on, she stared through the window and then she just started daydreaming… Upon arriving to the village, it was already evening, the train had been delayed one hour and Miku was hoping no one would scold her. She left the station and walked through a path in a bamboo forest until she reached some stairs that led to the shrine. Before doing anything she purified herself by washing her hands with sacred water that was kept in the shrine. After that, she kept walking until she met the priest who would keep them in the shrine as guests.
"Good evening" Miku said politely and timidly.
"Oh, good evening." Responded the priest, he seemed like a calm middle aged man.
"I'm sorry for arriving so late… the train was delayed and…" Miku tried to explain nervously.
"Oh, do not worry about that. Please come with me." The man guided Miku to the main gate of the shrine and then, they entered a small room.
"Megurine-san, your kohai has arrived." Said the priest.
"Nice to meet you." Miku bowed.
"Nice to meet you too." Answered Luka straightforwardly while she was sitting on the tatami. The room was small and slightly empty, there was a circular window a traditional wardrobe, a scroll which was hanging in the wall and also a paper lamp.
"You shall excuse me now." Said the priest. "I should let you talk about your job."
"Ah, yes!" said Miku surprised. "Thank you very much!" she bowed forming a right angle.
When the priest was gone Miku sat on the tatami in a polite position and Luka looked at her somehow coldly which made the girl feel really nervous and scared "Am I going to be scolded? Am I going to be scolded?" she kept thinking.
"You are late." Luka finally said.
"I'm very sorry, the train was delayed." Answered Miku nervously.
"Hmm… I see… Well, let me explain you the details… I believe the boss didn't bother to tell you anything." Said Luka kind of annoyed.
"Well… that's…" Miku didn't really know what to say so she just listened to Luka.
"Let's see, we're going to say here for one week. We are planning to write a review of this shrine and of other places of the village generally. The review will have to be at least ten pages long, including some stories that will explain our journey in detail. Moreover, we will also write about the traditional foods and the nature of the village. And oh! We also need to take photos." Luka explained while she was unpacking her things.
"Okay, umm… thank you very much, I will do my best." Answered Miku.
"Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you that we will be sharing this room."
"O… okay…"
Miku wasn't really used to sharing room with other people but she didn't really have any other option, furthermore Luka seemed like an interesting person to Miku, very concentrated in her job… Apart from that, she really reminded her of a girl she used to play with every summer, in her father's village, but one day when she was nine, Tako-chan (which was how Miku called the girl) disappeared. Maybe Miku should ask her about that but, she felt too shy to do that right now and also she didn't remember Tako-chan to be such a cold girl…
"Wh… what should we do now?" Miku asked shyly.
"Oh well, what do you want to do? We don't really have something to do today." Responded Luka as she was reading some book she had just taken out of her bag.
"Umm… I don't really know…" Answered Miku and after that there was a long awkward silence, though the only who felt awkward was probably Miku, as Luka was reading her book calmly.
"Umm… excuse me… what are you reading, Megurine-senpai?" Miku intented to start a conversation, Luka lifted her head and looked at Miku.
"Oh, this!" Luka pointed at her book. "It's about some urban legends about spirits and such, I figured out I should get inspired, maybe we could include something like that in our magazine."
"Oh… and… umm… wouldn't it be rude to make up rumors of the shrine?" Asked Miku curious.
"We're not going to make them up; we're going to look for clues." Luka was looking at her book again.
"Oh, I see…Well… I'll go out for a while…" After that Miku got up and left the room.
That was the only moment Luka really stopped paying attention to her book and looked at the door that Miku had just closed. Luka, after thinking about it for some seconds, decided to follow Miku and thus she opened the door and reached Miku.
"Wait, where are you going?" Asked Luka slightly surprised.
"Umm… well… I'm not sure…" Responded Miku, even more surprised to see Luka showing interest in her.
"Would you like to go for a walk with me then?" Asked Luka with an emotionless expression, or maybe extremely confident, Miku couldn't really tell which one of the two it was.
"Where are we going?" Miku asked after accommodating her glasses.
"We're going to explore the forest." She could have sworn hearing a hint of excitement in Luka's voice.
Miku followed Luka silently, she wasn't able to utter a word, however she kept observing her surroundings and analyzing every single detail she saw. They went down the stairs and crossed the toori* (*kind of gate found in Shinto shrines). After that they entered a bamboo forest, it was late, so it was quite dark.
"You'll be able to see the fireflies here; we should take some photos when they appear, I think." Remarked Luka with a smile and Miku thought that it was the first time she actually saw Luka smile.
"Yes, I'll do my best." Miku smiled too. At that moment both girls looked at each other in the eyes and smiled… then suddenly the Earth started shaking and they looked towards the shrine which was covered with a red cloud.