The necromancer who suddenly appeared from the tent, although his face was rotten, was vaguely estimated to be a man in his 30s.

The necromancer was clearly not sane.

"Ho-ho!"

He continued to let out a thick growl similar to that of a beast, his pale arms jerking up, and his black fingertips twisted into the dirt spread like iron pincers, enveloping the rancid fishy wind, grabbing at Onizuka Kirita's ankle!

The little witch only took a deft and calm step back, and dodged the attack.

Her expression hadn't changed in any way because of the sudden appearance of the terrifying necromancer, and she was clearly prepared. Even, because she had just scanned the contents of the note, she looked at the dead spirit crawling in the tent with a faint sympathy in her eyes.

Call!

Sandwiched between the index and middle fingers, the cinnabar symbol flashes with a strange sheen, turning into a flaming spark in an instant.

The whole piece of rune paper burned into a raging fire.

The golden spell symbols, with the drifting ashes, vibrated in all directions, and the blazing air waves raised the shrine maiden's white clothes and black hair.

Holy and majestic.

At the same time as the fire talisman ignited, the male necromancer was also engulfed by the flames.

The flames enveloped his whole body like lava flowing, and the fangs of the flames tore apart the green waterproof tent as well.

"Ah——!h

The wails of the dead echoed violently in all directions.

After a few seconds, everything died down.

The air was filled with the smell of burning, and the necromancer and the tent were reduced to ashes, and a few specks of clear, pure light slowly drifted away.

Only the onizuka remained silent.

"Rest in peace." She muttered, flicking her hand to extinguish the talisman fire in her fingertips.

The evil spirit retreats.

In fact, it was precisely when Onitsuka sensed the smell of the dead wandering nearby that he turned around and found this tent.

"The male necromancer just now should be the one who left these notes."

Judging from the content on the sticky note, this person should have been a mountaineer before he died.

While camping near Mt. Shimizu in the Higashiyama Mountains southeast of Kyoto, he stumbled into the area of the Tsuchigomon Mansion that was supposed to disappear.

"Here...... It seems that many people have died here, and there are many confused spirits trapped here like this mountaineer, wandering and wandering, unable to leave. ”

The little witch looked up, and from the naked eye, there was only crowded green vegetation and a thick miasma.

But she can feel more.

According to the message on the note, the climber finally followed the young woman he saw, under the double blow of a nervous breakdown and the deprivation of supplies. It could be another necromancer wandering here who took him, and as for the mountaineer himself, probably...... It was killed. ”

The climber also mentioned that he had heard the singing of children, songs related to the gods.

"The Childish Lady of the High Heavens、...... Great God, and the ...... that I didn't mention just now, are torn apart."

Onizuka flipped through the sticky notes again and found the line of notes that recorded the lyrics.

It seems that the gods mentioned in the lyrics have at least two pillars, and they are described as "divided" objects, and it is impossible to judge whether they are gods or not.

It's a pity that only the name of "childish women" has been clearly recorded.

"Takamagahara's childish female statue, in my impression, the mythology records that this god is the sister of Amaterasu, so he is also the sun god."

The little witch tightened the few sticky notes in her hand, and she wanted to use them as a "medium" to try to channel the mountaineer with the little spots of light left behind after the mountaineer's necro was retired.

There are a small number of "psychicists" in the strategy room, and this kind of personnel will generally cooperate with the autopsy to let the deceased "speak".

Hotaru Onizuka is highly inspired, and she will do the same.

Although not to the point of specialization, her psychic skills are barely enough.

Psychic is a very limited spell, after all, it can only be effective on the corpse or relics of the deceased, as well as the undead themselves, like a strange story born in public opinion and legends, this skill is impossible to perform.

And it's also time-sensitive.

However, on certain occasions, once this skill is effective, it can provide no small help to the soul slayers.

After all, it is possible to see intuitively through psychics, or indirectly feel certain experiences and observations of the deceased before his death.

"Om Hair Zha Zha Pop, Capture the Ghost ......"

The little witch chanted the mantra, closed her eyes, and once again flowed out of her palms with visible spiritual power, wrapping the notes.

After a few seconds, she reopened her eyes.

The faint spots of light floating around also slowly dissipated in the thick miasma.

Through channeling, Onizuka only saw a flashback of a sporadic and vague fragment, fleeting-

In the misty woods, a female figure in a shirt stood in the shade of a tree, standing upright, motionless, except for a black hair fluttering in the wind.

Other than that, nothing was felt.

There is also no talk about the fragments of the bronze mirror.

"It didn't work out well, the climber had been dead for too long. Moreover, he did not have much obsession before he died, and he did not even have the desire to survive. ”

According to the climber's equipment, there is also a vague feeling of psychic.

Onizuka estimated that the other party should be someone from twenty or thirty years ago.

As a rule of thumb, the psychic object has been dead for too long, but if you have a strong obsession before you die, you can still see a lot of content.

However, climbers clearly do not fall into this category.

The moment he was taken away by a young woman who might have been a necromancy, he was already bent on dying.

"As Agawa said, there are many secrets in the Tsuchigomon Mansion. Now it seems that this place must have swallowed up many people like the mountaineers after disappearing from the mountains of Higashiyama...... To understand the secrets of this place and find the missing clues to the fragments of the bronze mirror, I will need to dig deeper. ”

Onizuka Kirita put away the sticky notes, remained vigilant, and headed back in the direction of the abandoned village a little farther away.

……

Village.

The miasma here is thicker than in the mountains and forests, and it is pervasive. To the naked eye, the ruined village shrouded in miasma looks like it is immersed in a swamp full of pain and wailing.

The surrounding trees were twisted and eerie, their branches and leaves intertwined, like palms curled up in the air, and intertwined black shadows on the ground.

At the entrance to the village, there is a ruined wooden bridge, with a few broken planks barely lying on the skeleton of the bridge. The river under the bridge is muddy, still slightly reddish, and the surface of the water ripples from time to time, stirring up a small sound of water, as if something ominous is wandering in it.

"It's a lot bigger than I expected."

Onizuka stood at the end of the wooden bridge and observed the environment, using spiritual power to perceive the surroundings.

"You can feel the wandering of the necromancer up close, it's not like it's too difficult to deal with, but you don't know what's going on at the depths, so you have to be careful."

"According to the information provided by Agawa, the center of the village should be the Tsuchigomon Mansion in the true sense of the word. If you can't find any other clues, you may have to try to explore there, as there is a greater chance of a bronze mirror fragment there. ”

After analyzing the surrounding situation in his mind, Onizuka gathered his spiritual power and crossed the wooden bridge in front of him with great dexterity.

The white-footed bag, which had been stained with mud, touched the old wooden planks without even making much noise.

The toes fell again, and the little witch steadied her body lightly.

Just as she was about to enter the village to explore, her attention was suddenly drawn to something nearby.

Raise your hand to stroke your sideburns and look sideways.

There is an inconspicuous stone monument over there, on which you can faintly glimpse the words "Tsuchigomon".

But the stele is not the point.

"This ......"

What attracted the little witch was a crumpled ball of paper on the side of the stone monument.

She bent down to pick up the paper ball and unfold it.

Here's a yellowed missing person notice:

[Photos]

[Name: Yuri Sakai]

[Age: 22]

[Disappeared on the evening of February 14, wearing an off-white shirt at the time of his disappearance......]

At the end of the missing person notice, there is still the date of issuance of the notice "16 February 1997".

Occupying the upper part of the paper are photographs of the missing.

A girl with long straight hair, smiling slightly, with a single dimple on her left cheek.

"Yuri Sakai, who has been missing for nearly 30 years. She looked a little like the woman I saw as a psychic climber. ”

Onizuka turns over the missing person notice.

There is also handwriting on the back, which is not printed, but handwritten.

The handwriting looks vigorous and powerful, but it is sloppy, and it looks like it may have been left by a man:

[Shimizu Mountain, definitely Shimizu Mountain.] Yuri must have gone there, and she wasn't in the right state the last time she came back from there. ]

[They didn't believe me, neither the police nor Yuri's parents believed me.] They suspect me, so why do they suspect me? On Valentine's Day night, I literally sent Yuri back to her apartment! ]

[I obviously love Yuri so much, how could I hurt her?] ]

[Unreliable, none of them can be trusted, no one can be trusted.] ]

[I'm going to find her.] ]

After staring at the handwriting on the back of the missing person notice for a while, the little witch squeezed the paper tighter slightly, and spiritual power flowed out of her palm again.

This time psychic, she saw it, and it was clear that -

The surrounding environment seems to be the entrance to the village of Tsuchigomon.

It's the same as it is now.

A short-haired man in a jacket stands here slightly confused.

"Yuri...... Yuri, she's definitely here. Wait for me, I'll save you, I'll take you home. ”

The man said this, stumbling into the village, until the lonely figure was engulfed in a thick miasma.

This is the end of the psychic picture.

"Very strong obsession. Not...... His name is Toshima Tide. ”

The little witch looked up, and could still feel a white afterimage in a jacket in her field of vision, walking briskly towards the east of the village.

The traces left by Toshima Tide Fight are revealed through the medium of this missing person notice.

"He came to his lover." Thinking so, Onizuka felt sorry for the couple.

Since it can be channeled, it means that the couple Toshima and Sakai have not left this place.

"With this missing person poster, the handwriting with strong emotion, following the exploration path of Toshima Taito, I should be able to feel more psychic. This Toshima seems to have experienced a lot in the village of Tsuchigomon. ”

Onizuka temporarily changed the way of thinking.

It was decided not to go to the Tsuchigomon Mansion first, but to follow the traces left by the psychic Toshima.

I'm sorry to say that.

However, Toshima Taito explored the village of Tsuchiomon before his death, and can use his traces to guide himself.

With the traces he left behind and his experience, it should be possible to collect information about the Tuyumen village more quickly, and to a certain extent, it can also foresee and avoid possible dangers along the way in advance.

The little witch folded the missing person notice in half and officially entered the Tuyumen village.

……

A subtle tugging sensation came.

Kamiyagawa grabbed the ema tied to his left hand, and the red string fluttered out.

Like the little shrine maiden, he also tied the ema on his side.

I carefully distinguished the content of the message transmitted on the red string.

[Miasma, mountain forest.] Ruined villages, wandering necromancers......]

"What's the situation on the Onizuka's side? Like, it's not quite the same as mine. ”

Standing at the exit of the cave, Kamiya looked into the distance.

When he came out of the cave, he was on higher ground.

As far as the eye could see, the heavens and the earth were so dim that it was almost impossible to distinguish the dividing point. However, you can vaguely see the black mountains in the distance, and you don't know where they lead.

"It's still like a deep mountain."

In the mountains where Kamiya is located, there is almost no vegetation to be seen, only dark black rocks of different shapes, which are very irregularly lined up.

As for the outline of the village, it is completely unfounded.

The red rope on the wrist continues to pull rhythmically and gently.

"Hotaru says that she can deal with the wandering necromancers, and that she is going to the village of Tuyumen to find the whereabouts of the Bronze Mirror Fragment and other clues to this place."

Although the little witch said so, and through the connection of the red rope, Kamiya clearly felt the existence of the onitsuka as long as he sensed it calmly.

But Kamiyagawa still wants to meet her as soon as possible.

It is imperative to find the fragments of the bronze mirror as soon as possible.

Qiang.

The boy cut out of the sheath, and the golden blade was clear and shining, like a star.

"The aura in the environment is chaotic and complex, and somewhere here, there should be something untouchable."

Gazing at the famous sword of the demon slayer, Kamiyagawa began to explore the surroundings.

I walked along the steep face of the cliff and walked towards the lower part of the ground for a while. At present, the cave from the "spawn point" is not too far away in a straight line, but the surrounding environment has become a little more open.

Immediately, Kamiya River faintly heard the sound of flowing water.

Walking in the direction from which the voice came, he began to see the distant sky, viscous with red, painful resentment.

After walking for a while, a waterfall appeared in front of me.

The cliff was as steep as if it had been cut by a knife and axe.

The mighty water rushed from the height and slammed into the deep pool below, and the splash was torn apart, with a thunderous sound.

"Here ......"

Standing on the Kamiya River not far from the waterhole, you can feel the fine droplets of water filling the air, and there is a strong smell of blood along with it.

Subsequently—

Rumble!

There was a loud bang at the waterfall, several times louder than the original sound of rushing water.

The amount of water falling from the heights suddenly increased, and it rushed down with the smell of a dam bursting.

The color of the flowing water, which was originally normal, was also dyed with crimson blood at this moment.

The smell of blood in the air was even stronger, suffocating enough.

The waterfalls and deep pools that have turned red are gushing out of white flesh.

Not only that, but there are messy, densely intertwined, wet long black hair, soaked in water.

Pieces of white-clothed hakama poured out from the bottom of the deep pool, floating up and down in the torrent on the water surface, up and down.

Kamiyagawa stared at the costumes that were soaked in blood and clearly belonged to shrine maidens.

Although those white clothes also have the symbol of Harumi Kikyo, they are obviously different from the shrine maiden costumes of Onizuka and their giant shrines.

"The symbol of the Sunny Kikyo. Are these...... The shrine maiden of the Tsuchigomon family? How can there be so many? ”

Kamiyagawa tightened his grip on the boy Che Antsuna.

He heard the women's wails and weepings, layered on top of each other, by an unknown number of people, so bitter and painful that they even covered the sound of the waterfall.

Seeing those broken pieces of white raw meat, he began to arch the white clothes and hakama.

The waterfall cried out, and the cry was terrible. Pieces of white flesh and long black hair stirred in the scarlet blood.

They got up from the deep pool of blood. (End of chapter)