SUSPICIONS
"Last night, the small town of Kintai in Kato Prefecture was completely pillaged by fire last night, but luckily everyone survived with only 6 injured. The fire started for about 45 minutes before the fire fighters reached the town and took about 4 hours to completely extinguish the flames. The loss of goods to the flames amounted approximately up to 4 billion yen as most of the buildings and shophouses have been completely desecrated, sparing nothing within it. The root cause of the fire is still being investigated, but the residents reportedly saw evil ghost spirits invading the town en masse and ravaged the town..."
Ruriko stared at the morning local news, bewildered by what she saw. The place the shrine – and the whole area – resides was just at the outskirts of Kintai Town, and she could not believe that a town could be razed to such a wasteland overnight.
Her phone rang just then. She picked it up. It was Chisato, her sister.
"Ohayou, Chisa-nee."
"Ruriko! I saw the news about Kintai Town being burned down! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. The shrine's fine too."
"Phew, thank goodness! I thought that fire might have spread to your place too. You should have seen how big that fire was!"
"I know. I saw it in the news just now. I just hope they'll be fine. I'll go to the shrine to pray for the people's well-being."
They talked on for a few minutes after that, before Chisato hung up due to household matters. As Ruriko put down her phone, someone walked towards the living room. It was the two newcomers, Daisuke and Toruki.
"Ohayou Kamamura-san, Hayakawa-san. Had a good night's sleep?" greeted Ruriko.
"Ohayou, Inoue-san. Yeah we did, thank you very much. Kudos to the environment here, wish I could have this back at my home," said Daisuke.
"We thought we should familiarise ourselves with the environment here so we've just decided to stroll around this area for a bit. Should be able to return by noon or something," Toruki said.
"Hey if you'd like to, I could personally give you a tour around here, you know, to show you around," Ruriko offered her help.
"Never mind the trouble, we prefer to walk around and discover things ourselves, but thanks for the help," Daisuke replied, humbly rejecting her offer.
"Alright then, just don't get lost in the woods!" Ruriko reminded before the two men headed off.
Shortly after sending them off, Ruriko went to don her green hakama, and set off for the shrine with a broom in her hand.
"Whaddya propose we do next?" asked Claudine.
"Hard to decide. The best we could do is to adapt to this environment, and start making full use of ourselves without magic. We'd find our chance to return eventually," replied Neinheart.
"Agreed. We have no choice otherwise," Athena said in support.
"Speaking about adapting, Irena might have some problems with this," said Neinheart again, as all heads turned to Irena, whose face turned gloomy at the thought of living in this world.
"It's not that, I just don't like those two other guys who came here. They... sigh, I just feel very uneasy with them around. I-I really have a bad feeling about this," Irena complained.
"Hey guys, you might wanna check this out," Xenon, who picked up an English newspaper out of curiosity, called out.
The others went to Xenon and read the small article that was squeezed among other miscellaneous articles.
"Kintai Town Ravaged by Flames..." Neinheart read out the title.
They continued to read the article, getting curious as they read more and more of it.
"Invasion of ghosts... oh my, that must have been awful," said Irena.
"It's still not confirmed, though, even though it says many had witnessed it," Xenon clarified, "Wait, are ghosts and spirits are supposed to exist here?"
"Hmm, based on the strict rules of the reality, I don't think so," Athena replied.
"Kintai Town... It's the town that's just near our place! Ruriko said this place is just at its outskirts!" Claudine exclaimed in realisation.
"Should we go and help them?" asked Irena.
"Not necessary. It happened last night while we're all sleeping and they have already been evacuated now. Plus, we couldn't really help them the way we used to help other people," reminded Xenon.
"Neinheart, whaddya think?" asked Athena.
Neinheart remained silent. He had sunk to his thoughts while the others were conversing, trying to make links between all that happened. After a while, he finally spoke.
"I-I can't shake the feeling that this place has something to do with that."
"Huh? Whaddya mean?" asked Athena again in confusion.
"We're near a shrine, and not just a shrine, but a whole long corridor of tombstones. I assume the spirits might have been summoned from here to destroy the town. You're right to suspect them, Irena."
"Who?" Irena asked.
"Those two. I'm not sure about it, but they could be behind this."
"Well, in any case, let's not be hasty about conclusions. If those two are strong enough to conjure spirits we would not be able to defeat them like this, too," Athena advised, "But well, if what you say is true, we shouldn't let our guard down either."
"I'll stay up for the night. If anything happens I'd call everyone up," Neinheart volunteered.
Neinheart tried to keep himself awake as everyone else were asleep. The environment of the mountainous area was too calm and quiet to fall asleep to, and more often than not Neinheart found himself dozing off to the gentle moon light and the cricking of crickets.
As he tried to fight off the sleep that was trying to invade his mind, he heard a clear sound differing from the surroundings. He tried to listen more carefully. Footsteps. They went on within the house outside the room they were in. After that, it was the sound of sliding doors. The sound of footsteps continued thereafter until they eventually trailed off.
He mustered all his will to get himself awake and stood up. He went and check the guest room that housed the two other guests and to his expectation, it was empty. He ran back to the room, waking everyone up.
"They went towards the shrine, you say?" asked Ruriko.
"Yes. I heard the footsteps going in that direction."
"Let's not waste any time, then. We must get to the shrine immediately," Athena declared, to the others' agreement.
They hurried to the shrine, trying to find out what was happening over there.
As they approached the shrine, they saw something they could not believe: hundreds of spirits have already risen from the shrine's entrance, and they are dashing out of the area, exiting the shrine out from the area.
"Oh no, we're too late!" Neinheart lamented.
They ran into the shrine, amidst the many spirits that were rushing out of it. As they came to the corridor where the tombstones reside, they saw spirits emerging out of the tombstones. Along the long hallway, they saw the two men, who were back-facing them as they arrived.
"What have you done?" Athena yelled out to them. As the two of them turned, all of them gasped in shock.
"Ahh, you've arrived just in time to see such a magnificent view!" Damien said. "I have just chanted a spell that released the imprisoned souls of the dead into the living, and their vengeance shall provoke them to haunt the people forever."
"Why are you doing this?" Athena yelled in anger.
"Have you not noticed? As soon as the dead take over this world, so too will the Dark Lord expand his territory! And we planned to make tombstones out of y'all, so that you, too, could contribute to the expansion of his influence!"
"Then we shall not allow you to do this!" Claudine yelled as she pulled out a pair of daggers and rushed towards them. She had them with her all the time, for whence her guns would break, such as when she crossed the portal.
The two commanders simply stood there. As she came nearer, Von Leon simply held out a hand. Claudine's advance was immediately halted as a barrier formed from his hand. As she was still striving to get a grip of herself, the others had already started to attack. They too, however, were not strong enough to break through their defenses as they had already lost their powers.
"My slaves," Damien called out as the crew was recovering, "your masters are in dire peril. Protect your masters at all costs!"
The spirits, which were originally rushing towards the shrine entrance, suddenly changed their course and launched themselves towards the heroes instead. Ruriko merely stood in horror as she saw how the spirits started to desecrate the heroes, who looked rather helpless but still struggled to fight on, while the two commanders merely laughed at how they were still trying.
"Ruriko, go... and find some help..." she heard Neinheart calling to her. Without wasting time, she rushed out of the shrine and down the hill, heading towards the next nearest town. It was some kilometres away, but nevertheless she still ran, determined to find any help she could. They were almost no traffic at the road leading towards the shrine, and as such she could not hitchhike even if she desperately wanted to. At last, she managed to arrive, panting and wheezing. However, what she saw was an even more tragic scene.
The whole town had already went into flames, suffering the same fate as Kintai Town last night. The town was plagued by evil spirits, and people were messily evacuating the town, while help has yet to arrive. She could only stare as her last beacon of hope faded into nothingness. The next nearest town was already out of the prefecture.
Ruriko went back to the shrine, exhausted from all the running. All nearby towns have suffered the same fate as Kintai Town, and the crew were all still fighting the evil spirits. They were clearly on the losing side, as they had been deprived of their powers to begin with. Out of desperation, she walked back into the shrine, now a place of grim and chaos, trying to find any last hope available.
She walked through the shrine courtyard and went straight to the main hall, where the grand statue of the hayato still stood proud. She knelt down in front of the statue, palm-to-palm, praying in vain that all that happened would stop. Tears started to leak from her eyes as she did so, considering how much had happened in her place and yet she could do nothing to stop that.
As one drop of her tears started dripping to the ground, something remarkable happened. A green streak of light jolted from where her tear had dripped and transmitted through the ground at light speed before hitting the base of the statue. As it hit, the whole statue temporarily lit itself in green before it ceased to glow. Immediately after, the whole statue started to rumble, as it appeared to be straightening itself. The hayato is coming back to life.
Ruriko watched in awe as it all unfolded before her. The hayato walked down from his base, raising his katana. He turned backwards and stepped into the long hallway, surveying his surroundings. Several spirits noticed his presence and started dashing towards him. He did not fret even a bit. As they came closer and closer, he swung his katana, which radiantly shone as it collided with the spirits, immediately dissipating the attacking spirits.
"What's this? How could this be? This is not supposed to happen!" she heard Damien exclaiming in surprise, "My slaves, attack him! Spare no mercy!"
Was that a hallucination that would occur before death? Ruriko was not sure of that. She collapsed on the floor as she watched the hayato battling against the spirits.