After a few more casual conversations with Miss Tomiko, Saya and I said goodbye to her. Walking out of the mask shop, I handed the mask in the shape of a dragon to Sa, and after she took it, she looked back at the mask shop: "Fold, how did you meet that Miss Tomiko?" ”

"I met her on the first day of the Snow Festival, and I had a few words with her. What's wrong? ”

"Nothing."

She waved her hand, lifted the ghastly looking sprite face, looked it in front for a moment, and then turned it over and put it on her face. Because the size was not right, the mask even covered her neck and was crooked, so it didn't look scary, but rather funny.

"It's too big."

Yarn herself realized this, so she took off the mask, adjusted the rope strap that Tomiko had added on it, and put it diagonally on the side of her face. After doing this, she turned to look at me and smiled: "Fold, thank you." ”

"If only you didn't hate it."

She had chosen the mask herself, and I took it down and gave it to her, which was too disqualified from a gift perspective.

"It's impossible to hate it, because it's something that was given to me at a discount."

She reached out and rubbed the smooth surface of her mask, as if remembering something, and muttered in an inaudible voice, "And it was something that made me understand something very important." ”

"I'm not...... Mommy's tools too. ”

Tool?

My keen sense of hearing made me take her murmur into my ears, and although I was puzzled by the word tool, I could not ask about it, so I could only remain silent, trying to suppress my curiosity. However, out of the emanation of thoughts, I still subconsciously feel that Miss Rokuchi may be hiding some secret, and this secret may have a lot to do with the shady curtain hidden under the calm of this town.

What is it exactly?

……

After meeting up with Shizuna and Rina and them, I took out the mask I chose, and they chose it, Mamura undoubtedly chose the butterfly wing mask, Mika took the fox mask, Rina took the panda mask, and Shizuni took the last tanuki mask indifferently.

After that, we went to the portrait (photo) shop to "take pictures" - in fact, various pigments and material powders were painted directly on thin wooden boards by magic power, and the scene could be brought to life like a camera.

It took more than ten minutes, and at the end of each of us got a vivid and realistic photo of the wooden board from the kind female store manager, on which was a group photo of the five of us. When you hold it in your hand, it will even show a three-dimensional texture with different angles, which is very vivid and realistic.

Afterwards, Meijia felt very regretful, and felt that everyone should draw a separate one, and then take a few photos in pairs. Although this kind of portrait is not very difficult, it is rare to see people in the town who can draw so realistically, and the female store manager is obviously an expert in this area.

We picked out a few more things, and while we were still some time before lunch, we found a place to store our belongings, and then went to the banks of the Tone River, which is suitable for ice blossom viewing, as planned.

At this time, it was the last day of the Snow Festival, but there was still an endless stream of ice flowers floating down the river. The river is nearly 100 meters wide, and groups of slender and tall reeds grow on the banks, which are covered with snow and still swaying in the wind, like graceful virgins.

Since it is winter, the water in the river is not turbulent, and the ice flowers swirl in a comfortable and leisurely manner in the clear water of the microwave, one after the other, quietly flowing down, occasionally revealing a strange and dreamy crystal color under the warm sunlight shining through the clouds.

There are many canoes floating on the riverside, and the flower seekers get on the boats, row to the river to see the flowers, sometimes they can pick up one of them, hold them in the palm of their hands and play with them, and then roll up the written slip of paper, stuff it into the closed flower, and then put it back into the water and let it float into the sea - this is the message of the ice flower.

We stood in the open area of the river and looked at the river, and at a glance we saw several acquaintances, one was a man named Kawakami, who had come to the house on the day of the arrival of Jing Zhuling, and the other were the children of Haoji and Aonuma.

Mr. Kawakami, who had long shawl hair, was paddleing alone on the lake, looking very relaxed. In the early season, the two of them sat on a flat-bottomed boat not far from the shore, and they were noisy as usual, and they could be heard even from the shore.

"Jue is talking nonsense again, how can flowers speak!"

"I've also heard from people that if you don't believe it, you can take it back and raise it. As long as you raise it until next winter, you will be able to hear the flowers talking, but it is said that everyone who hears it will eventually go crazy. ”

"Then why don't you raise it?"

"I don't believe it, why raise it."

……

The two argued about strange questions as usual, and even if the adults around them heard it, they just laughed it off as a strange conversation between children. I also think that this is just one of the strange stories that have been circulating in the town, and there is no truth at all. After all, the activity of ice drifting is said to have been around for hundreds of years, and if there is such a strange and dangerous situation, then how can the town allow this activity to continue to exist?

If it's true, I'm afraid that all the ice flowers will be eradicated directly, and this activity will be abolished.

But I thought about it randomly, the cat deception is all true, so is the other strange talk really groundless?

"Huh...... It's the legend of the ice flower who spoke, and I've heard others say it. ”

Mika showed a look of interest, her eyes turned around our faces, and then she told the legend: "The content of the legend is probably that when a person was watching the ice flowers, he took one back to raise it at home, and raised it for a year without dying. When it came to the winter of the following year, he would hear inexplicable noises when he was at home, so he invited his friends to come to his house, but his friends said that they did not hear it, thinking that it was his delusion. Later, a few days later, someone noticed that he was missing and went to his house to look for him. But ......"

She dragged out her tone and sold the guanzi, until Rina was about to slap her, and then she continued: "I found that everything in his house was distorted and deformed, and he was completely insane, just muttering to himself in front of that blooming ice flower, and he hadn't eaten for days. In the end, it is said that he starved to death, and everyone was helpless against him. ”

"It doesn't sound scary."

Sasha tilted her head and thought about it, as if she had thought of something, and was about to say it, but Mika was the first to reveal the answer: "What is really scary is that this legend has similarities with another legend, which is why it is terrifying." ”

"Yes...... The one of the karmic demons? ”

I groaned slightly, quickly reminding myself of another widely circulated legend – karma. It is said that this was the real thing 80 years ago, and there was a very clever boy in the town who looked down on other people and things, and thought that he had obtained the truth. His arrogance keeps everyone away from him, and he enjoys solitude. And loneliness prompted him to gradually accumulate negative karma, and eventually lost his human form.

He incarnated as an inhuman creature called a "karmic demon", and everywhere he passed, everything was distorted and deformed, becoming hideous and terrifying; Creatures that come into contact with him will become deformed; Food and water can turn into highly toxic substances.

There is a connection between the two legends that "distort and deform" affairs, and it seems that the mana is in a state of loss of control, unconsciously transforming the surrounding matter to the bad side.

"Yes, it's karma. Aren't the two legends very similar? ”

Mika raised her index finger and gestured, "Maybe the ice flower is something that can turn people into karmic demons—just thinking about it immediately becomes terrifying." ”

"It's better not to say these things in public."

Jing frowned, she made a silent gesture, and turned her gaze to Mr. Kawakami, who had asked her questions: "It's not good to be heard." ”

……

PS: The reason for work and the reason for the frustration of the mind, so that it has dragged on until now. I suddenly found myself with a loophole, that is, Maria and Zaoji should have met after school, and I forgot about this in the book, and I got to know them earlier.

By the way, the number of words this week is too low, let's see if I can make up a chapter. But don't expect too much this week, because there are more things to do at work, and we'll see if we can make up for it next week.