Kamiyagawa moved the shrine of the whale from Takamagahara and placed the young whale's Shikigami in it.

Everything is ready, and the Sorrow and Ocean Shrine is up and running.

The smell of the ocean with a sense of sadness washes back and forth like a tide in the main hall of the shrine, which is mostly made of jade.

You can feel the power of faith being slowly being drawn away.

"That's good, and that's where it works."

Kamiyagawa nodded in satisfaction.

The new shrine was able to get to work so quickly, thanks to the Kropokuru missionaries led by Granny Grass, who had previously spread the name of the whale in the middle world. And once the authority of the shrine was determined, they also reacted quickly and updated the teachings.

Therefore, the name of the god of the whale has officially spread in the perennial area currently under its control.

And I don't know if it's the identity of the lord of the Little Whale Sea Country, plus the reason why he is protected by the three goddesses of the sect, the speed at which he draws faith from the ordinary world is not lost to the veteran Aragami Mary and the Dream Eater Tapir.

"Maybe it's the belief of the sea tribe that feeds back to the little whale, and maybe there is a bonus."

The situation in the ordinary world is good, and it is natural to consider the spread of faith in the present world after that.

However, Genie Animation Studio writer Mr. Miyake has already completed the creation of all six unit stories of the first season of "Miss Mary", and is currently working on the script of the last two units.

The story of the first quarter has nothing to do with monsters like whales.

As an enlightened boss, Kamiyagawa naturally will not command indiscriminately, so that his employees are still in a hurry to revise the draft, and force a character to be stuffed in.

Doing so may degrade the quality of the entire animation.

The image of the whale that came out of the makeshift work may not be as eye-catching as the elaborately carved Miss Mary and the dream-eating tapir.

"Judging by the current operation of the Ocean Shrine, the belief in the whale is sufficient. In reality, don't help the seedlings, wait for the first season of "Miss Mary" created by Genie Animation Studios to really get a good response, and it's not too late to add the role of the whale in the second season. ”

"Or, if you can start Genie Animation Studio, you can use the whale as the protagonist in the future, and then set up other anime or animated films."

I can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, and the eight characters at Genie Animation Studio haven't been skimmed yet, so it's better to operate safely.

……

Osaka, near Kyoto.

On the road leading to the countryside and shuttling through the fields, a commercial vehicle is hurrying.

Hotaru Onizuka Kirita, the god son of Juqiong Shrine, sat in the back row, dressed in casual clothes that was easy to move around, and her hair was tied in a high ponytail, but it was tied up with sandalwood paper, adding a little mystery to her.

The Japanese bow and various runes that the little shrine maiden used were brought with her, and props such as Kagura bells and painted fans were carried in suitcases and leaned on the edge of her seat.

This heavily armed look is obviously out on a business trip.

Last night, several rural villages here held a joint celebration.

At the celebration, unexpected strange things happened, and several children disappeared as a result.

The locals soon called the police, and the matter spread to the countermeasure office branch here, but the branch here had already been dispatched except for the elite spirit masters, so the matter was finally reported to the Tokyo headquarters.

After some scheduling, the little witch received a notice and flew to Kyoto overnight as an expatriate.

Buzz –

Onizuka was resting against the window with his eyes closed, as if he was asleep, when he felt the phone on his lap vibrate.

I picked it up and looked at it, it was a message from Kamiya: [Stay safe.] ]

[Don't worry, don't underestimate me, I'm also practicing well.] ]

Onizuka quickly replied to the message.

I opened the navigation again and looked at it, as if my destination was about to arrive this time.

This time, I will go to the police station in the countryside.

The soul slayer from the Kyoto countermeasures office branch is already waiting there.

The little witch got out of the car with her suitcase and was greeted at the door of the police station.

She was greeted by a middle-aged woman who looked plain, and the expression on her face seemed to be very nervous: "Miss Miko, you're Miss Miko from Tokyo, right?" I'm Sugida, who is in charge of this place temporarily. ”

"Just call me Onizuka." The little witch is only the age of a college student, but the expatriate is already experienced, so she gets straight to the point, "Although I received the notice, but the incident happened suddenly, and I don't know what happened here, can you please tell me about it, Ms. Sugita?" ”

"Of course. Oh, though, Miss Onizuka...... The child, who had been reported missing during the celebration, had been found more than an hour earlier. They are here now, and there are some things that might be better to listen to the two children themselves. ”

"Then take me there."

In this celebration, the two children who disappeared and were found this morning are a pair of sisters.

Because both sisters were victims of the incident and were still young, they were naturally not placed in the inquiry room, but stayed in the office.

The little witch entered the office and saw a pair of little girls who were five or six years apart sitting on the sofa.

After being introduced, it was learned that the sister was a junior high school student, named Shinagawa Misako.

And my sister is still an elementary school student, named Shinagawa Toshieko.

The two sisters were accompanied by adult women who appeared to be their mothers, the younger sister of whom looked terrified, but the older sister's face was more of a little excited.

"Misa-chan, Ree-chan, can you tell this sister a little bit more about what happened last night?"

Ms. Sugida leaned down.

"We've already talked about it once."

Although she is in a police station and faces strange adults, Misako Shinagawa does not seem to be timid.

"Would you like to talk about it again? This Onizuka sister is from Tokyo, and she can solve the bad things that happen to you. ”

"But I don't think anything bad happened to us." Misako Shinagawa shook her head.

"Sister......

The younger sister of the Shinagawa family timidly tugged at her sister's sleeve and spoke in a weak tone.

"But ......" Misako Shinagawa looked Onizuka up and down, and became radiant again, "Sister Onizuka, you are so beautiful!" Well...... It's not impossible to tell you again for your sister. ”

"Thank you then, Sister Shinagawa."

The little witch who was praised by the middle school girl who was born in the country with starry eyes was a little speechless.

How to say it, I feel that this Shinagawa Misako is a bit like a radio wave girl who does her own thing.

Onizuka moved a chair, pulled out a notebook, and sat down in front of the Shinagawa sisters.

The two police officers in the office walked out of the door temporarily with Shinagawa's mother.

Then, the telling of the story begins-

……

In the countryside of Kyoto, there is a large mountain called "Hibiki Mountain".

Around Hibiki Mountain, there are several villages.

Every autumn, these villages come together to hold a festival called the "Echo Festival".

Shinagawa's mother's hometown was near Hibikiyama, but after getting married, she moved to Osaka with her husband, this time taking advantage of the break to take their two daughters home to visit relatives.

Yesterday morning, the eldest daughter heard about the unique echo festival around Hibiki Mountain, and she was very interested, and begged her mother to take her to see it.

Originally, there was no special arrangement yesterday, and Shinagawa's mother complied with her daughter's wishes.

That night, I drove to the place where the celebration was held.

The surrounding areas, including the villages where the festival is held, are located in relatively high mountainous areas. The festival venue is a little further up the hill and is a square next to the reservoir lake.

When the three mothers and daughters of the Shinagawa family arrived, the festival had already begun.

There is a stage in the center of the square, surrounded by red and white lanterns and vendors.

"I thought it was just a small festival in the countryside, but it was much more lively than I imagined!"

My sister Misako enjoyed the atmosphere of the celebration.

They bought octopus balls, apple candy, and grilled squid to eat, and the food at the festival is also common in other places, but I don't know if it is due to the lively atmosphere, but I always feel that the food at the festival stalls is a little more delicious.

After shopping for a while, Misako took her mother and sister to fish for goldfish.

The nets used to catch goldfish at Japanese festivals are made of glutinous rice paper, which is easy to break.

It's not for everyone to fish too much.

But Misako had been prepared for this, and took advantage of her mother's conversation with the villagers on the side, and quietly took out the small net that she brought that would not break.

When Shinagawa's mother came back to her senses, her eldest daughter was already squatting on the edge of the pool of the stall, and she had caught almost sixty or seventy goldfish seriously.

The stall owner's uncle's face turned green.

Shinagawa's mother, who reacted, hurriedly grabbed her eldest daughter, apologized to the stall owner, and finally only picked two goldfish and put them in a plastic bag to distribute to the two daughters, and put the rest back in the pool.

After staying at the celebration for more than an hour, a voice came from the loudspeaker in the center: "It's time for the celebration ceremony, please gather the children." ”

This is a special event of the Hibikiyama Echo Festival.

It has been said in this area since ancient times that "the echo is the response of the mountain god". There used to be a custom to stand on the rocks jutting out from the top of the mountain and shout when wishing for a good harvest, rain, or other wishes.

This is how the Echo Festival evolved.

This custom is still practiced today, and when the "Echo Festival" comes to an end, the finale is for the children to climb the mountain and shout their wishes.

"Go, go, that sounds interesting!"

As soon as she heard that there was a special event, Misako immediately became interested.

However, the event itself is nothing, and Shinagawa's mother, who is a local, also participated in it when she was a child.

And she had seen it just now, and there were acquaintances from her mother's family who presided over the celebration.

Shinagawa's mother explained to her acquaintances, asked them to take care of her two daughters, and then asked the daughters to follow the group of children at the celebration.

The children divided into several groups, led by several adults who presided over the celebration, and began to climb along the slender mountain path along the stone steps towards the halfway point of Hibiki Mountain.

Every few sections, there are escorting adults with lanterns to guide the way, and there are four or five adults at the front and four at the back. With the light of lanterns, the surroundings are not too dark, but the farther away from the light of the festival, the more terrifying the atmosphere in the mountains increases at night.

"Sister......

Toshieko, who is still an elementary school student, gets scared as she walks, and grabs her sister's clothes.

No one spoke along the way, only insects and birds could be heard.

And because most of the team are children, there is a feeling of testing the courage.

Toshieko was young and tired after walking along the mountain trail for a while. And I began to regret that I shouldn't have come with my sister, but should have stayed with my mother.

Grumbling in their hearts, the team came to an open place.

A huge rock protrudes from the surface of the mountain, and the people stand on top of it.

Toshieko looked nervously around and felt a little relieved to see that there was a fence around her.

"Now, go to the front in order and shout your wishes."

The adult in charge of the guide said.

Soon a boy in the front row stood on the edge of the railing and shouted.

The first little boy was very brave, and when he came up, he confessed loudly to the object of his affection.

However, it is estimated that the people he likes are not in the party for tonight's celebration, after all, most of them are boys and only a few girls who come to participate in this kind of event, including the Shinagawa sisters who came from the city to visit relatives on vacation.

After a short while, the boy's echo echoed in the mountains.

Everything is normal.

My younger sister Toshieko, who had settled down a little, also began to think about what she should shout when it was her turn.

Why don't you just make a wish to make yourself smarter?

Just thinking like this, Toshieko suddenly heard her sister whisper, "Just now, what was the voice?" ”

"Isn't it just an echo?"

Toshieko was speechless.

The heart said that he knew the common sense that elementary school students knew, and his sister was a middle school student who made a fuss.

However, her sister Misako ignored her sister at all and looked around by herself.

It is uncertain whether there is a valley or a cliff below the rocks because of the dark environment, but if you look into the distance, you can see the black shadows of the mountains in the distance.

At this time, there were children standing on the edge of the railing one after another to shout their wishes.

I hope that I will be stronger and can do well in the football matches in the future; Hope to get a brand new game console Yunyun.

The content of the shouting was all echoed back.

"Toshieko, did you hear that? Someone is repeating everyone's voice. ”

The reaction of her older sister Misako became even stranger.

"Isn't that an echo? Sister, don't scare me! ”

"No, it's not, it's not an echo. If you want to hear an echo, it should come from all directions. Misako shook her head vigorously.

At this time, someone shouted in front again.

"I hope to have a relationship with Miri-chan! Misato-chan, I like you! ”

Whew-

In the darkness, the wind sounded, accompanied by layers of echoes.

"Like you!" "Like you!" "Like you!"

Toshieko listened carefully.

Because of her sister's reminder, she paid special attention to the direction from which the sound came from, and the repetition really did not come back from all directions of the valley.

Instead, it came up from the valley beneath the rocks!

Before she could react, the sister next to her directly ignored the queue order and rushed straight towards the railing in front.

Toshieko reached out to grab her sister.

But instead of grasping steadily, he was led to a stumble.

Her eyes swirled because she was unsteady on her feet, but she caught a glimpse of the outer edge of the mountainside field, and under the shadow of a forest, there seemed to be a figure standing upright.

Looking at the body type, it should be an adult.

But it doesn't seem to be the guide of the ceremony, because all the adults who came up with the children were carrying lamps in their hands.

But the figure didn't, just stood stiff in a shadow.

Toshieko seemed to see a strange mask on the figure's face.

But when she wanted to confirm again, it was just a matter of opening her eyes, and she couldn't see the figure again.

The successive strange events made Toshieko feel a creepy fear.

And her sister Misako had already ignored the others at this time, rushed to the front of the line, grabbed the edge of the railing, and shouted down: "Hey, come out!" Who is it!? ”

Misako shouted loudly.

But after a few seconds, there was still no response from her.

Instead, there was a strong and foul wind that swept up from below the valley and blew the eyes of all the people.

The sound of the wind was mixed with a whisper similar to a human voice.

Such a change stunned everyone present, except for Shinagawa Misako.

She grabbed the railing and shouted, while waving to the crowd behind her: "I know!" I knew it wasn't an echo! Feed! Feed! Come and see, those things, climb up! ”