Eight o'clock in the evening.

Kamogawa is at its most prosperous.

Summer vacation has arrived, and the Gion Festival parade is approaching, and on the banks of the Kamogawa River, you can see young men and girls wearing kimonos and walking hand in hand.

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

After eating ramen, Qiao Qiao did not leave in a hurry.

"Boss, have you seen anything strange near Kamogawa recently?"

He asked.

Daisuke Miyagi was entangled in the statue of the evil god, and 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 monsters on the side of Mt. Hiei have all been driven out recently."

A tanuki said.

Mt. Hiei is located near the Kamogawa River, and because of the large mountainous area, there are also some wild yokai who choose to live in Mt. Hiei, living in abandoned villages, and from time to time they can disguise themselves as humans and go down the mountain to buy daily necessities.

"That's because of that, it's not going to be a Gion festival lately, so I'm going to clean up Mt. Hiei."

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

"So, it's really that time."

The Snow Maiden had already drunk a can of beer, and her drunken appearance added a bit of temptation.

"Will youkai also participate in the Gion Festival?"

Nanase became more curious after overcoming her fear of youkai.

Now in her opinion, these monsters are actually the same as her fans, they have their own lives, their own troubles, and in simple and easy-to-understand metaphors, just like foreigners.

"Of course, the Gion Festival was due to the outbreak of the epidemic, and it must have been a thousand years since people carried out the idols of Yasaka Shrine and paraded around Kyoto praying that the gods would eliminate the plague."

Snow Maiden replied.

"It turns out that there is still this kind of origin."

Nanase nodded slightly.

Suddenly, I realized that it was a youkai who introduced the origin of the Gion Festival to me, a shrine maiden, and it seemed that there was something strange about it.

"For youkai, the Gion Festival is also a time to relax, after all, many humans will go out dressed in strange ways, and it's not surprising that youkai want to show their true bodies."

The other tanuki answered.

"So, the side of Mt. Hiei must be the handiwork of the shrine."

Nanase muttered to himself.

"Possibly."

Qiao Qiao recorded the incident in a notebook.

"What about other things, for example, at the market in Kamogawa, there have been some strange people recently."

"Is the market ......?"

The Kamogawa River Market is also located on the banks of the Kamogawa River, and it is a small baza-like market that is mixed with snack bars, and at night, it sells knick-knacks, which is popular with people walking along the Kamogawa River.

The owner of the cat ramen thought about it.

"There are a lot of strange people, after all, it's Kyoto, but if you want to talk about suspicious guys, there have been rumors of ghost vendors recently."

"Ghosts, ghosts?"

Nanase suddenly tensed up.

At this time, another guest came, and the boss got busy, cutting vegetables and talking briefly.

The ghost hawker is an urban weirdo that has recently sprung up at the Kamogawa Market.

It is said that there is no way to find this shop when I deliberately searched for it, and only those who are confused can meet it by chance.

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

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

Eventually, most of the customers will buy it back.

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

will be cursed.

“？”

Wait a minute, won't the boss take care of such rumors?

"Rumors are just rumors after all, neither the monsters and humans here have really encountered anything like this, and I won't make such a fuss."

The boss of the cat ramen saw Qiao Qiao's confusion and smiled.

Compared to a late-night cafeteria, cat ramen focuses more on balance, the balance between people and youkai.

It doesn't favor humans, and it doesn't favor youkai.

It was late at night.

The customers of the cat ramen left the store one after another.

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

The one-eyed approach turned back into an office worker in a suit and leather shoes, but his hair slightly covered one side of his eye.

The Snow Girl has transformed into a young and beautiful fashion girl.

They return to human society, and no one knows that they will turn back into the form of a youkai in the cat ramen in the middle of the night.

After all, it's Kyoto, and since the Heian period, it's been a gathering place for weirdness.

Nanase was a little emotional.

Don't talk about youkai.

Even human beings sometimes have to wear a mask to live in this society.

Maybe it's only when they get home from work that they can show their true selves.

Yokai have cat ramen and can talk freely.

What about people?

Nanase seems to understand a little, but he doesn'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 Nanase Hayami, when she learned that there might be some youkai among her Twitter followers, she couldn't tell the difference at all.

Between thoughts, Nanase has been pulled into the Kamogawa Market.

As the owner of the cat ramen said, the Kamogawa market is full of people.

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

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

Suzuka soon immersed herself in the fun of visiting the market, and when she saw the cute cat pendant on the side of the road, she couldn't help but speak.

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

“？”

A big anchor who earns hundreds of thousands of yen a day still wants me to help buy something?

Qiao Qiao was puzzled.

But I still obediently paid for it and bought one.

Anyway, it's only 100 yen.

Well? Speaking of which, let's buy a gift for the Asano shrine maiden, too.

Otherwise, if she knew that she had brought Suzuka and Hayami Nanase to visit the market, she would probably be angry.

Thinking of this, Qiao Qiao glanced at it and bought a pendant in the shape of a grenade.

Well, Asano shrine maidens should like it.

“？”

Nanase saw the shopping of Qiaobashi in Hayami.

I don't know why.

Would anyone like something like this?

No matter how you say it, grenades are ......

While thinking, Nanase heard a bell ringing.

Crisp and pleasant.

The noisy scene around her seemed to leave her.

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

This is a very ordinary small house shop, and there are many pendants with strange shapes and a certain aesthetic feeling.

At the table, Nanase saw a lot of familiar things.

There is an old mobile phone loaded with a friend who used to be addicted to mobile phones, and when he was in junior high school, this mobile phone was cleaned by his mother.

There is a paper crane folded to the boy she liked when she was a child, and on the other side of the paper crane, her heart is written, but the boy suddenly changed schools, and Nanase did not convey this intention when she saw it.

There are characters who have been conceived for a long time, but they are abandoned within a day of writing.

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

It's all memories of the past.

"Do you want to buy something?"

The shopkeeper, a man who didn't look like any features, looked at Nanase Hayami and asked.