"Although [Scale] and [Candle] might both be useful… just in case…"
He mumbled indistinctly, casually pulled out a piece of paper, and countless black patterns began to snake and spread from where he held the paper. In an instant, the paper was covered with [Snake Flash Marks].
Asakura handed the paper to the Fox Spirit: "Use this as a price to take me to that distorted spatial node."
The Fox Spirit nodded lightly, then its face opened horizontally, and several pitch-black hands reached out from within, grabbing the magic-infused paper and sending it back into its opened face.
Then the Fox Spirit's body suddenly inflated like a balloon being blown up, stopping with a 'bang' after a moment. Afterward, it opened its face again and exhaled a puff of black smoke from its belly.
"Are you okay?"
Asakura looked at the Fox Spirit somewhat speechlessly, not knowing whether it benefited or lost by accepting that [Snake Flash Mark] paper.
"Caw."
The Fox Spirit lay down on the ground, signaling Asakura to ride on its back.
Seeing that it seemed fine, Asakura rode onto its back. The Fox Spirit stood up, and with a leap into the air, it disappeared with Asakura.
Fujiwara Chika gently gasped for breath.
How long had she been trapped in this strange Japanese style pavilion space? A few hours? A few days? Or even several years?
The concept of time seemed blurred in this space; every instant was stretched out, becoming endless.
The prolonged time eroded one's will.
Although for some unknown reason, one wouldn't feel hunger or thirst even after staying in this space-time for years, physical fatigue and mental exhaustion couldn't be completely avoided.
Factors that crushed the body and mind were accumulating bit by bit. Even Fujiwara Chika could feel that she was like a dam storing water; the moment her body or mind could no longer bear the accumulated fatigue, her body and mind would collapse in an instant.
The girl clenched her fists tightly, her fingertips digging into her palms. The faint stinging sensation allowed her to maintain her remaining sanity.
"I must find Kaguya…"
The girl spoke to herself, as if to cheer herself on and give herself a goal to keep going.
Door after door of paper screens opened and closed like creations of a nightmare. The spaces nested within each other, layer upon layer, making it impossible to discern the correct path. Even if marks were made on the doors, everything would disappear when they opened again.
Even Fujiwara Chika, who was quite skilled at Rubik's Cubes, couldn't completely remember the rotation and changes of the space at this moment, let alone how to deal with all of it.
It was precisely because it transcended common sense that it was called 'supernatural,' wasn't it?
For a high school girl, all of this was clearly a bit too much to handle.
"It's just like a dream… in a negative sense."
The girl murmured softly, trying to make her voice sound less like a puppy's whimper.
If it weren't for the even more bizarre encounter she had with that exorcist gentleman before, and thus had some psychological preparation for such supernatural phenomena, the girl would probably have long since succumbed to endless despair, giving up thought like some ultimate creature floating in space.
Suddenly, the girl seemed to step on something, and she stumbled, falling to the ground.
She numbly rubbed her aching knee and looked at what had made her slip, finding it was a discarded drink bottle from her wandering in this space.
Just like the last straw that broke the camel's back, the moment she realized she was ultimately just going in circles, Fujiwara Chika lost the strength to stand up again.
She hugged her knees, curled herself into a small ball in the corner of the room, and began to sob softly.
"Mom… Dad… Moeha…"
Just then, something unusual happened.
Initially, it was a faint, almost imperceptible tremor.
Then the tremor gradually became clear, even making the girl think, 'Is it an earthquake?'
The next moment, accompanied by the crisp sound of breaking wood, a huge creature crashed through the ceiling and landed with a thud on the tatami mat!
"Cough, cough..."
While startled, Fujiwara Chika also coughed incessantly from the stirred-up dust, but even so, the girl watched the figure shrouded in dust without blinking.
It was a giant Fox Spirit that the girl found incredibly familiar.
"What, it's you, then."
A figure leaped down from the giant monster and said in a voice Fujiwara Chika would never forget: "How did you get caught up in another supernatural incident? You're really unlucky."
"Exorcist Mister!"
Fujiwara Chika couldn't help but exclaim, looking at Asakura's familiar appearance.
"Yo~"
Asakura waved at her.
As if seeing a loved one, an indescribable feeling of grievance crept into the girl's heart.
She embraced Asakura the moment he hadn't even found his footing, as if to release all the fear and sorrow she had accumulated in her heart during this time, and burst into tears.
Crimson spread from the corners of her eyes to her earlobes, and her porcelain-white cheeks were crisscrossed with fine silver tear tracks, like shattered moonlight fallen into cherry blossom frosting.
Her pink bow hair clip was askew from her violent movements, a dangling strand of hair stubbornly supporting it, preventing it from falling off.
Her wet eyelashes clumped into inky black masses, and the wellspring of tears underneath constantly overflowed her reddened tear troughs, solidifying into translucent droplets on her chin, dampening the front of the young man's shirt.
Ripples of coral color appeared on her nose, and her lips were bitten into crescent-shaped white marks by her pearly teeth, only to be quickly moistened to a glistening shine by fresh tears.
Asakura, who had been tragically hit by a charging person, could only gently pat the girl's back, knowing that nothing he said at this moment would be useful, and he could only let the girl calm down on her own.
After a long time, the girl's wailing turned into intermittent sobs; it seemed she had finally calmed down.
"Are you alright now?"
Only then did Asakura ask softly.
"Mm."
The girl nodded, sobbing, but for some reason, whether out of shyness or something else, she didn't leave Asakura's embrace.
"Don't be afraid, a problem of this magnitude..."
Asakura chuckled reassuringly, "can be solved in an instant..."
He extended his right hand, and a candle-like flame danced at his fingertips.