Early on a Saturday morning.
Inside a milk tea shop that already had quite a few people.
A somewhat gloomy girl was constantly revising the content in the chat window of the app she held.
"Kisaragi-san, regarding your help last time, I'd like to invite you out to eat as thanks..."
"If I say it like that, won't it sound too formal? I feel like he'll politely refuse."
"Then, Kisaragi, thank you so much for your help last time. Please allow me to repay you?"
"It was just a few beads. From his perspective, it was just a simple reminder. Since he doesn't know I can see those terrifying evil spirits, he'd probably just find this kind of talk confusing, right?"
Yotsuya Miko's gaze flickered with hesitation.
She looked at her wrist; the beads given by the Fortune Teller were tightly bound together by steel wire.
With this string of beads on her these past few days, some weaker evil spirits indeed stopped approaching her.
After thinking it over and over, Yotsuya Miko finally typed a brief sentence on Line.
Yotsuya Miko: Kisaragi Rin, are you free on Saturday?
The notification sound for a successful message send rang out, and Yotsuya Miko stared at the chat page, but she never saw her message turn to "Read."
Line, an application that automatically displays "Read" to the sender when the recipient views the message.
This design... it can only be said that Yukinoshita Yukino suffered greatly because Yuigahama Yui often sent her all sorts of "boring" messages, and after seeing them, Yukinoshita Yukino felt obligated to reply due to her good upbringing.
"Has he not woken up yet?"
Yotsuya Miko glanced out the window; the nine o'clock sun was warm yet slightly dazzling.
At that moment, Kisaragi Rin hadn't actually woken up; he was currently researching Prana Transfer with Esdeath.
"Miko, I'm back."
After waiting quietly for a while, Yurikawa Hana walked over, holding the milk tea she had bought after waiting in Line.
Handing the taro paste milk tea to Yotsuya Miko, Yurikawa Hana leaned closer and asked, "Did Kisaragi agree to come out and eat?"
"I don't know yet. Maybe he's busy with something else and hasn't seen the message." Yotsuya Miko took the milk tea and shook her head.
Yurikawa Hana: "Oh."
Since Kisaragi Rin hadn't received the message, Yotsuya Miko temporarily put aside her anxiety and decided to spend the day with Yurikawa Hana according to their original itinerary.
Peeling back her phone case, Yotsuya Miko took out a yellow strip of talisman paper.
On it were drawn incomprehensible Deer Antler and blessing elements, like scribbles.
The content on the talisman paper was: Great Antler.
This was obtained by her friend Yurikawa Hana from a lottery draw at a place called the Deer God Shrine.
According to the shrine staff, "Great Antler" meant Great Fortune and could bring good luck to people.
Because she could see evil spirits, Yotsuya Miko had visited many shrines and temples, but she never encountered anything useful.
However, when Yurikawa Hana gave her the "Great Antler," Yotsuya Miko met the Fortune Teller and Kisaragi Rin, and even obtained the beads that could restrain evil spirits. It truly counted as receiving strange good luck.
"Since it was useful, we should go and make an offering to the shrine."
"And while we're at it... see if there are any religious personnel there who know about evil spirits, like the Fortune Teller."
Opening her phone's navigation app, Yotsuya Miko began searching for which train route to take to the shrine.
"The very effective Deer God Shrine in Chiba... is at..."
"Eh?"
Yotsuya Miko looked at the navigation screen in surprise; the address listed was surprisingly not in the suburbs of Chiba, but rather right in a fairly bustling ancient street.
With expensive land prices and a prime location, a shrine built in such a place should absolutely be a landmark of Chiba, yet Yotsuya Miko had no impression of this Deer God Shrine whatsoever.
"Little Hana, let's go."
"Wait for me to buy one more cup~"
...After some time, Yotsuya Miko and Yurikawa Hana got off the train and arrived near the Deer God Shrine.
Because it was Saturday, the ancient street, which prohibited vehicle entry, already had quite a few people.
The aromas from stalls selling takoyaki, sanshoku dango, grilled silver cod, and other items drifted over, and Yurikawa Hana immediately took out her wallet and bought two servings of everything.
Yotsuya Miko watched Yurikawa Hana place her milk tea on her ample chest, grab a red bean daifuku with both hands and take a huge bite, then happily look down to drink her milk tea. Through all these movements, the milk tea never fell.
"Speaking of which, didn't Little Hana say last time that she was very interested in Kisaragi? Yurikawa Hana, with this appetite, would probably be happy if she were with a boy who also loved food, right?"
This thought suddenly popped into Yotsuya Miko's head.
Yurikawa Hana's Constitution attracts evil spirits, and as soon as an evil spirit touches Yurikawa Hana, it is killed directly by her powerful life force. Yurikawa Hana, whose stamina has been consumed, then feels hungry, which results in Yurikawa Hana constantly eating.
In the eyes of most people, this would still seem quite strange.
As for Kisaragi Rin, Yotsuya Miko remembered that his appetite was also formidable.
After all, when they first met, he was challenging a bowl of ramen.
"Miko, what are you thinking about?"
Yurikawa Hana inquired.
"...Nothing. Let's hurry to the shrine."
Yotsuya Miko shook off her thoughts and pulled Yurikawa Hana along to continue searching for the shrine.
Finally, they found a stone staircase leading up a mountain in the center of the ancient street.
That's right, the Deer God Shrine was built on a mountain.
And this mountain was about two or three hundred meters high.
Gazing at the stone steps above, Yotsuya Miko was filled with even more questions.
Given this layout, the ancient street below was clearly the shrine's territory, so why had she never noticed a shrine here before?
"Let's hurry up."
Yurikawa Hana didn't think too much about it and pulled Yotsuya Miko up the stone steps.
The first thing they saw was the shrine's Torii Gate; the name "Deer God Shrine" was written on it in a font that looked like a child's doodle.
After walking up the stone steps, they reached a platform halfway up the mountain.
Everything a normal shrine should have was present: the Temizuya, Sando, Shaden, Shimenawa, Tamagaki, Komainu, Kaguraden, Buden, and Homotsuden.
Except... "Where are the people here?"
Yotsuya Miko asked Yurikawa Hana.
Yurikawa Hana tilted her head in confusion. "I don't know. Last time I came in, I saw a very old Miko here."
"..."
Holding onto their confusion, Yotsuya Miko and Yurikawa Hana finally found a notice board.
It read: By order of the Deer God, this shrine is currently awaiting the inauguration of the new chief Priest.
Yotsuya Miko: "..."
Yurikawa Hana: "Should we still go inside?"
"Let's go in and look. Regardless, we should put the offering in the shrine's box."
Yotsuya Miko sighed. Her real purpose for coming this time was to solve the problem of her Mystic Eyes, but it turned out the shrine was currently changing ownership!
Just then, a group of girls wearing red and white Miko outfits walked up from the foot of the mountain.
Leading the group were two other girls.
One had purple hair draped over her shoulders, and her eyes and face looked gentle and virtuous.
The other had black twin tails and was frowning, waving her hands at the former while incessantly complaining about something, while the former smiled helplessly and tried to dissuade her.
Although they looked to be high school age, their Miko outfits were embroidered with superior silver Sacred Deer compared to those behind them.