Chapter 81: Living Sacrifice and the Shrine Medium
"Human!!!"
Within the range of the shrine, this 'Mountain God' clearly possessed unimaginable senses. The moment Miko Yotsuya's hand lightly touched the door, it suddenly turned its head, its bell-like eyes fixing intensely on her.
"?!"
Miko Yotsuya, who had been paying attention, was instantly frightened into biting her lip at the sight, but even as tears welled up, she pushed open the main hall door even faster.
Screech—
The decaying wooden door opened with a grating sound, letting the long-awaited sunlight into the dim interior of the main hall. This small space had no windows, and a bizarre, decaying smell immediately assaulted Miko Yotsuya's nostrils. Also, due to the narrow space, the internal furnishings consisted only of a table with an unknown object on it, along with ropes binding it and meaningless talismans.
So... all she had to do was take that thing down?
With this thought emerging in her mind, Miko Yotsuya quickly walked toward the unknown object. Emiya was still fighting hard outside; she couldn't afford to be a burden here.
Meanwhile, outside, the 'Mountain God' was just about to turn and attack Miko Yotsuya, who had entered the hall, when its entire body was suddenly struck down by Emiya. Its hideous head was severely damaged by the Axe-Sword again, instantly losing the possibility of getting back up.
However, while the 'Mountain God' was incapacitated, the two smaller divine attendants flew toward the main hall at an even faster speed.
"Trace On!"
Emiya, standing on the 'Mountain God's' fallen body, didn't hesitate to discard the Axe-Sword, project a longbow, and aim at the two divine attendants.
Bang!
A fox-like head burst into fallen leaves, but an expression of shock appeared on Emiya's face.
Because the one who delivered that fatal attack wasn't him, but one of the two divine attendants.
What was going on? Do these creatures also fight amongst themselves?
Jingle, jingle, jingle—
Before Emiya could think about it, the sound of bells suddenly echoed from the 'Mountain God' beneath his feet, and its bizarre form began to dissipate with the sound. This indicated that Miko Yotsuya inside the main hall had succeeded.
"Miko-san, what..."
Emiya immediately rushed into the narrow main hall. Before he could finish his sentence, Miko Yotsuya suddenly threw herself into his arms.
"..."
Caught off guard, Emiya instinctively smelled the clean scent of what was probably shampoo on her and subconsciously wanted to spread his hands and take half a step back. But he lowered his head and saw Miko Yotsuya's lips, which she had bitten until they were almost bleeding, and her eyes, which were no longer able to hold back tears.
She was looking at him pitifully.
After all, she was just an ordinary high school student until recently; it was normal for her to be scared by these things.
With this thought, Emiya, who was about to step away, couldn't help but soften, and he reached out a hand to gently pat Miko Yotsuya's head.
"It's okay, it's okay. That monster is dead now. You're safe.
I could easily kill several more Cursed Spirits of that level, so don't worry."
Great. Emiya was still thinking about how to defeat an opponent, rather than how to better comfort Miko Yotsuya.
Fortunately, the outcome was still a good one.
A few minutes later, Miko Yotsuya had successfully calmed down.
The only thing that slightly bothered Emiya was that her hand had grasped his at some point and was still refusing to let go.
"Right, how did you manage to destroy the ritual inside, Miko-san?"
In response to Emiya's question, Miko Yotsuya, for some reason, adopted the same calm expression she uses when facing ghosts, and pointed toward an object on the ground that was wrapped in white cloth.
"This is..."
Emiya gently crouched down and lifted the white cloth, revealing a pale human skull. Relying on a certain memory, Emiya quickly determined that this was not a replica, but a genuine human skull.
This skull had been placed in the main hall as the core of the ritual. This meant that the 'Mountain God' outside was likely the twisted state of the skull's owner after death.
"As expected, it was a living sacrifice..."
"A living... sacrifice?"
Hearing those words, even Miko Yotsuya couldn't help but speak out.
"That's right. The typical traditional sacrificial methods use various livestock, but some places believed that humans are more intelligent than common livestock, and thus the deity would be more pleased.
Under this premise, they developed the custom of using live humans as sacrifices, and the sacrifices were usually children or maidens considered relatively pure."
Unlike modern society, beauty in ordinary families in ancient times was not a blessing; it was likely to bring misfortune.
"If nothing else, that so-called Mountain God was likely the transformed body of this maiden after her death, and even the two fox divine attendants were transformations of people after their deaths."
They had to rely on human sacrifice to beg for a god's favor; it's unlikely the people back then had the ability to conjure creatures out of thin air.
Furthermore, the fact that one of the fox divine attendants surprisingly turned on and attacked its companion at the end... If it were a new life purely born from emotion like a Cursed Spirit, how could it perform such an act that clearly defies logic?
"..."
Miko Yotsuya found it completely unacceptable that the 'Mountain God,' which she had always thought of as a monster, was also just one of the victims.
And the people who truly created all this evil were long lost to history, their names forgotten in some corner of the past.
'The world truly is unfair.'
"Let's go, Miko-san. It's time to head back."
"I'll notify Jujutsu High to handle the aftermath and investigate. Maybe... they can find some records and their original identities."
.
.
.
Several hours later, in the evening, two uninvited guests arrived at the foot of the mountain.
One was an elderly woman dressed in a miko robe who looked serious and knowledgeable, and the other was a young man who looked somewhat unreliable just by his appearance.
"Are you ready? We have to resolve that big one in one go this time, Romm."
Why did they only arrive in the evening? Because after a very professional investigation by this shrine medium, she found that it was easier to enter the shrine's barrier in the evening.
For this exorcism operation, they had prepared everything they needed, even entertaining the thought of success or glorious death.
As the former 'Shitamachi Godmother,' how could she stand by and ignore the plight of an ordinary maiden?
It's better not to notify the other party; they will resolve the Mountain God on their own and restore her ordinary life!
With such solemn determination, the shrine medium dragged the young man up the path leading deep into the mountain forest. After bravely clearing out the Cursed Spirits that appeared along the way, they arrived at the entrance of the shrine.
And then—
The determined pair saw the torii gate split cleanly in half, and the ground of the entire shrine looking as if it had been completely torn up. The gash in the earth, which stretched from a hundred meters away right to their feet, looked exactly like the scratch mark left by some colossal beast.
"Wha... what is the meaning of this?"
"Isn't it obvious? We've clearly been beaten to the punch, Mitsue-san."
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