Ibara didn't originally plan to go to Sapporo with the others.
The invitation was forwarded by Shishida. Apparently, his grandmother was entertaining inviting him and his friends for a New Year celebrations. According to his somewhat sheepish description, the entire class would find space to house there if they so desired. Ibara would ordinarily just give them their blessing to enjoy their outing. Her idea of rest – especially in the winter – was to remain holed up in the warm confines of her abode, wrapped in her blankets, vines, and with a mug of hot chocolate warming up her hands.
It was only when she overheard Kaibara and Monoma talking about local landmarks did she stop to listen and consider. According to their photography buff, the area nearby their resting place was lush with ruins overtaken by nature and never quite reclaimed by civilization – perfect to take pictures of. Some of these were churches and chapels of the Faith, dating back even to the onset of Quirks.
Though Ibara preferred her churches safe and welcoming, something about seeing – perhaps even visiting – an abandoned, ruined one sparked a bit of a guilty pleasure in her. How did these structures of the Lord hold up all these years? Did anyone visit them for something other than haunting sights? Could they perhaps be restored and welcome believers once more?
Before she reflected that a promise of maybe seeing such a place might have been a bit of a weak reason to go, she was already outfitted with everything needed for such a journey.
"Ha. Tsubu owes me one hundred yen." Setsuna snickered upon seeing Ibara's loaded backpack. The thornette raised an eyebrow in a silent question. "I knew you wouldn't resist the call to adventure once Sen mentioned the churches."
"That's… there's nothing wrong with that, is there?" She replied a little too fast and a little too sheepishly, seeing as the lizard girl's grin only grew.
"Not at all~ Hope you'll have fun out there~"
Not counting her, Shishida, and Kaibara, there was five more of her classmates tagging along.
The most surprising one was no doubt Kamakiri. "I just like nature, alright?" He grumbled when questioned. "You're goin' because of them churches, and you don't see me bothering you about it."
"He's going because of that new insectarium they set up—"
"I will toss you out the fucking train, Kuroiro."
"No tossing shall occur." Reiko mumbled from her sleeping corner, tucked in-between her headrest and her Majestic-themed blanket. "Lest you invite a most terrible wrath of a roused spirit disturbed from her slumber."
"Nothing to be ashamed of, Kamakiri!" Pony piped in cheerfully. "I'm going because of anime convention!"
"We just need to make sure we coordinate our outings." Shishida pointed out, though his eyes were still down in his book. "Both for the sake of a smooth stay here and in case of emergencies."
"Agreed. We all want to get the most out of Shishida-san's grandmother's gracious invitation." Ibara nodded. Their furry Vice-Prez shook his head with a chuckle.
"I'm afraid grandmother is going to be most displeased that there's only seven more people with me, and not a whole class."
"I don't know if we'd be able to survive Monoma staying for holidays." Kaibara hummed, himself more concerned with calibrating his camera.
Through all of this, Manga – the other person going on the convention with Pony – remained fast asleep, his speech bubble shaped into three Z's.
Although Grandma Shishida's huge mansion was on the outskirts of the Sapporo agglomeration, Ibara and Sen still had to take a local train to their destination.
"The first one isn't far from here." Kaibara hummed once they left the dusty old train station and exited into the village proper. It was a far cry from the grand lights of cities that Ibara had grown accustomed to during her stay in the UA. Things were much slower and less advanced in these rural parts. "Got everything?"
"Including an emergency flare, yes." Both of them carried backpacks loaded with necessary things for what would no doubt become a day-long venture. Daylight was in short supply during winter, and so they set out as early in the morning as they could. The sun had yet to fully emerge from under the horizon – which meant they would spend a whole chilly day walking around.
Ibara even came equipped with a tailor-made cap to shield her thorns from the cold. It looked a little silly, but given the situation and the place, they probably looked out of place in these parts already – just a couple of big-city tourists doing whatever it was that big-city tourists did. "Alright. There's about three Christian ruins around these parts." Sen explained, rolling out a map of the area. "There's a small shrine the closest from here, a bigger church, and another shrine the furthest to the west."
"Anything else of notice?"
"Well, the whole place is teeming with prospective shots." He replied with a slight chuckle. "On our way to that shrine we'll pass by a gully, a lake, and the ruins of a Buddhist monastery, at the very least."
"A lot of things around these parts. Are rural areas like that usually?" Sen tapped his chin in thought.
"It varies. You'll never have a shortage of nature, but the ruins just happen to be here and there. Most people in Japan live in cities or near cities, so a lot of them are overlooked."
"It's such a shame… just how much history is lost here?"
"Guess we can unearth at least some of it." As they reached the edge of the village, about to set off into the wilderness, Ibara took notice of an older gentleman – give or take in his seventies, dressed in a thick gray winter coat – waving to them. "Yeah, I see him too." Sen nodded, eyes following the greenette's. "Let's see what he wants?"
"That's only prudent to do."
As it turned out, the older gentleman – with a face that spoke of an eventful life; devoid of the left eye and with the tip of the pointed left ear missing, amid lesser scars here and there – wanted to issue a warning. "If you're looking for the churches, they're haunted."
"...haunted?"
"Some folks saw a weird creature thing skulking in the dark near the ruins." The old man explained. "Most folks here don't have any of them weird features like city slickers do, and we all know each other around these parts. It was no animal either, walked on two legs just fine." The two students looked at each other, clearly not convinced. The last time they were dealing with a "ghost", it turned out to be a sleepwalking Hagakure.
...but if the "weird creature thing" wasn't a local or an animal… "Some kind of villain trying to lay low?" Sen suggested uncertainly. The old man laughed and shook his head.
"In here? We'd be hard-pressed to find a common robber, let alone one of those TV-worthy types." He said, waving off the concern. The two hero hopefuls cast themselves uncertain looks. "But perhaps it's nothing." Laughing again, the old man turned to leave. "Don't let the old man's ramblings mess up your vacation, younglings."
Ibara and Sen cast each other a look again. "Want to go to that church first?"
To say the ruin was "out of the way" wouldn't quite do it justice.
Once they were off the old road – desperately in need of repair, Sen thought in annoyance, after nearly losing his teeth from a sudden trip in a tractor wheel-shaped hole – it's been fifteen minutes of ponderous trek through the icy conifer forest. The Drill user prouded himself on being able to scale through the wild with relative ease – but these particular woods seemed to have it out for him, offering nothing but thorny branches, gnarled vines and layers upon layers of shrubbery.
Ibara was doing only marginally better, though it almost felt like some of this treacherous nature was parting before her to make things easier for her. Or maybe he was way more tired than he thought he was. Soon enough, the church in question appeared in the field of vision, hidden on a small snowy meadow between the tall pinetrees.
Though she was silent, Sen could feel Ibara's distress upon seeing it: what once was must have been a quaint homely place was nearly reclaimed by nature. At the same time, holy smokes, what a place; the oak growing inside the totaled belltower was something else. This was a one in a million place, and there was a high possibility that somewhere between these ruined bits lurked a villain of some kind.
That, or one of the locals seeing things. Hopefully the latter. "We should enter first." Ibara nodded, taking her cap off to let her vines flare – and then shudder as the cold attacked them. "If there's evil afoot, we must be prepared to fight back."
"I've got the flare ready." He nodded, procuring the single-use flare gun. Ibara's Quirk was more suited for defense and apprehension, even in unfavorable conditions, and the flare was bound to be seen by local police officers or, hopefully, a rural hero on patrol. "After you, Shiozaki." The greenette hummed in assent, settling her backpack down as quietly as possible before stepping inside past the overturned pew onto the cracked floor.
The church had definitely seen better times, and yet, she could still feel the faint familiarity as she assessed the time-worn environs. The layout was about the same as the church where she attended as a wee believer together with her grandparents. The confessionals were to the sides, the left one missing a part of its doors; the remains of once beautiful stained glass windows haunted the edges of the walls, but she could still recognize one of them; Jesus recalling Lazarus from the dead.
All Stations of the Cross were intact, save for the missing twelfth and thirteenth. The altar, covered in snow falling from the hole in the roof – which would normally cast sunlight right on top of it; a display of poetry Ibara could appreciate – rested undisturbed; to the side stood a Gothic pulpit, once on four, now on three legs and balancing precariously not to topple. The tabernacle rested in the back, the golden box pried open in an affront of a blasphemy.
...and before the altar, knelt in silent prayer on one knee, was a man.
Ibara forced herself to still her breathing for a moment – but a precarious step on a cracked floor revealed their position. Still she stood in place, even after Sen hissed in a warning – the man at the altar seemed content to give them a moment before he finally rose. He had a sword by him, which he supported himself on, and some manner of armor reminiscent of a medieval warrior.
As he turned to face them, the two students were greeted by a stoic mask hidden in a tall, pointy helmet; wrapped and crowned with steel thorns. After a moment of confusion, she recognized it as a penitent's wear, stylized as some sort of a Christian warrior monk – someone from far away. From very far away.
The Penitent's head tilted just slightly, regarding Ibara's thorny hair.
So that's a silly idea I'm into now that I replayed some Blasphemous. One of the sidequests there involves gathering the remains of a girl named Tentudia, whose hair was long, thick thorns - not unlike those of Ibara. Coupled with our Vine girl being strong of faith in Christianity and Blasphemous's religion of choice being a dark take on various Christian themes, the idea wrote itself.
As for the name of the fic, I took the theme naming of spells in Blasphemous (prayers) being named after various Spanish song types, and used what little I know about Japanese music to do the same here. Hopefully you can put up with my ramblings while waiting for other bigger work of mine. ^-^;