Kyoto Shenyin Love Story

Chapter 345
Open your eyes, it's already dawn.

Seeing Hongzi beside the pillow, Soya thought he was still in a dream.

He just saw her shivering and curled up into a ball, and he quickly woke up.

"Baka..."

(ba ka)

Soya sat up, covered her with a thin quilt, and glanced at the alarm clock next to her, it was three or four minutes before six o'clock.

Turning off the alarm clock, he sat watching her for a while, wondering when she'd sneaked over.

Get up and go downstairs, wash up.

After preparing breakfast, and then returning to the upstairs room, Hongzi was lying on the tatami in the same posture as before.

After changing the clothes he was going to wear when going out, Soya walked to Hongzi and knelt down again, touching her cheek with the back of his hand.

She closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembled slightly, and her breathing was inaudible.

After a few glances, his hand dropped again, his fingertips hooked up the shoulder strap of the black camisole, and pulled it down a little.

"..."

Her breathing was short for a moment, and no matter how much she tried to control it, she couldn't maintain her calmness just now.

Fingertips brushed the smooth shoulders, "Is that okay?"

Hongzi opened his eyes and knocked off his hand.

"……satyr."

Lifting up the shoulder straps, she turned her back to him, and after two seconds she pulled up the quilt again, completely covering her head.

"Breakfast is ready." Sogu stood up, "If you want to continue sleeping, you should go back to your room, she will wake up at any time."

When he walked to the door, Hongzi pulled down the quilt, her face was flushed red.

"I want breakfast."

Back at the restaurant downstairs, Soya sat down to take a few bites, and she came over soon.

Breakfast was simpler than usual, a piece of fried salmon, a boiled egg, a plate of vegetable salad, and a few pieces of steamed pumpkin left over from last night.

"When did you come here?"

"...I don't know, I didn't check the time."

"It's suspicious. You didn't do anything to me."

"no!"

Duk duk, after tapping twice on the table, Soya peeled the boiled egg.

Starting from the broken part, the egg shell disintegrated piece by piece, and soon only the egg white with a nearly perfect shape remained.

Hongzi was watching from across the table, chewing on the vegetable salad, and he handed over the egg after peeling it.

"thanks……"

He hooked his fingers, and she gave him another egg.

"Don't come to me today." Sogu continued to peel the eggs, "Don't let her come either."

"Oh……"

"It's hot and I'm busy."

"I see." Hongzi nodded, biting off half an egg in one bite.

Breakfast continues.

Zongya was in a hurry, finished eating quickly, and then went out.

"See you tonight."

"Um……"

Hongzi came to the entrance and sent him out, "Be careful on the road."

Putting on his shoes, Soya turned around and smiled at her.

"I am leaving."

Arriving at the station, just a group of eastbound trams came into the station.

Soya got on the train and got off at Notogawa Station two stops later.

Although the distance was very close, it was the first time he had come here.He opened the map to check the location of the local Jiaoban, and he hurried over there.

More than ten minutes later, Soya successfully found Notogawa Koban, and then found that he was the first spiritual sense person to arrive.

But the police in Jiaofan arrived early.

In other words, the police who were on duty here last night hadn't changed their shift yet.

"Need help?" One of the policemen noticed him and came out yawning. "Is something missing? Or..."

"No, I was sent by the agency."

Soya took out the agency's black card to prove his identity to the other party.

"Oh, so it's from 'over there'... I thought they were all witches." The policeman looked at him, "Come in, you came early enough."

Soya followed him in, "It's the first time I've come to Notogawa, and I'm not familiar with it, so I came here early."

Another policeman inside asked, "Then you are here on duty today?"

"No, I'm on guard in the street."

"That's really hard work..."

I chatted with two listless policemen for a while in the episode, and as the sun rose, Soya's colleagues came over one after another, all of whom were shrine maidens.

Today, the psychic who is in charge of the post is a shrine maiden named Ayumi Moriyama. She is very young and looks like a high school student, no more than a second grader at most.

"Please advise..."

A dozen or so psychics got acquainted with each other, but as the only male, Soya received too much attention.

"Soya Yoshiaki... What a nice name, just like your face. I seem to have seen you somewhere, no, I must have seen you, you are sent by the headquarter of Liuliguangyuan."

"Unfortunately……"

"Hey...then which shrine do you belong to? You can't be a monk, right?"

"Fuyun Shrine in Yasu Town."

"Fuyun Shrine? I think the name sounds familiar..."

Another young maiden next to her remembered, "Last month at Mount Ibuki, the lady from Fuyun Shrine killed that evil spirit, right? It's called Sugawara... Sugawara..."

"Kyoko Sugawara." Soya added, without mentioning that he was there at the time, and even killed that "violent spirit" with his own hands.

"Yes, it's Sugawara Kyoko! I remember that in April, the person who shot the peerless fierce spirit to death with an arrow seems to be her too..."

"Yes."

He smiled, "The lady of our shrine is amazing."

After chatting for a while, when everyone arrived, Ayumi Moriyama stumbled and explained some established matters to his colleagues, and then asked them to deploy in their respective areas of responsibility.

The area Soya was assigned to was in the Notogawa Central Park area, opposite Notogawa Junior High School, and on the other side of the middle school was the town branch of the local municipal office. There were not many residential buildings nearby, which was a good thing for him.

At least for now it seems so.

After walking two blocks to Central Park, Soya found a bench and sat down.

Some people were walking their dogs, some were running, and there was an elementary school student who came to the park early in the morning to catch beetles. He was wearing his own clothes and looked no different from ordinary citizens.

If it is a witch with a very distinctive appearance, it will be different, and it will attract some people's attention...

Soya thought, and soon received the first assignment today, from the organization.

"Mr. Soya, a spirit in the Notogawa Museum fled after destroying the facilities in the museum. According to the direction in which it fled, it is speculated that it may be fleeing towards your area. Please help intercept it."

"I see. Any more specific location information?"

"No."

Soya stood up, took a breath, "Got it."

Hang up the phone and walk out of the park. According to the map, the Notogawa Museum is at the other end of the main road between the park and the middle school.If the fleeing spirit body didn't change direction halfway, it was indeed the most likely to escape to his side.

When he came to the intersection, Soya scanned the passing pedestrians, looking for spirit bodies that might be entangled in them.

There is no other information, and it is not even possible to determine whether the spirit will escape to this side, and all he can do is limited to this.

Not long after I took my seat, another call came from Ayumi Moriyama, who lives in Notogawa Koban.

"Mr. Zongya, there is a spirit entity making trouble in Lingen Building. The situation is urgent. Please come over now."

Lingen Building is on the west side of the park, and Soya is on the north side. It takes about 10 minutes in the past. "I received an order from the agency to assist in intercepting another spirit body."

"But there seems to be a lot of chaos at Lingen Building..."

Ayumi Moriyama was also a little embarrassed, not knowing what to do.

The other party was a pure newcomer, and Soya soon realized that she should not be allowed to make up his mind, so he said that he would make the decision.

"Okay... then I will trouble you."

After hanging up the phone, Soya weighed things up a bit, and felt that solving the matter on the side of the building was a higher priority.

He rushed to the bottom of the Lingen Building, but before he entered, a figure suddenly fell from the sky and landed on the grass in front of the building.

After lying on the ground for a few seconds, the figure got up again, moving without hindrance.

"..."

Anyone who can jump down from a ten-storey building without any injuries, except for Superman, is dead.

And Soya's job is to make him die more thoroughly.

After confirming the target, he chased to the grass, and before the opponent could react, he used the plastic ruler he carried to separate his body and head.

"what!"

Sogu turned his head, and there was a ten-year-old boy standing outside the grass, imitating the movement he had just made with a ruler and beheading.

"Shuichiro..."

Another middle-aged woman hurried over and took the child away.

Before more people noticed him, Soya walked out of the grass and called Ayumi Moriyama to report the situation here.

The witch on the other side was very surprised, "It was solved so quickly?"

"Well, it's a coincidence..."

He glanced back, and the spirit body that had lost its head had already dissipated in sevens and eighties.

"I see. Thank you for your hard work, Soya-san."

Just about to hang up the phone, Ayumi Moriyama suddenly said "please wait a moment".

Soya listened with bated breath, a vague voice came from the other side, and soon Ayumi Moriyama repeated it more clearly.

"Soya-san, please go to the Moriya car dealership next to Notogawa Junior High School. The staff of the maintenance shop called the police and said that there was a 'ghost' wrench wrench everywhere and destroyed several cars."

He took a deep breath, "I'll go now."

Crossing the park, rushed to Moriya's car dealership, and smashed the head of the wraith for the manager of the auto repair shop who wanted to cry without tears. Soya had no time to drink, and received a notice from the agency.

"Two spirits broke into the municipal branch office..."

After running around and running four or five times, Soya rented a sports bike at a passing bike shop, and there was still not much time to stop after that.

"North of the park..."

"The izakaya on the east side of the middle school..."

"please help……"

A busy day passed quickly.

In the evening, dragging his exhausted body back to Notogawa Koban, seeing Ayumi Moriyama greeted at the door, Soya suddenly understood how he felt when his colleagues came back one after another when he was on duty two days ago.

"Thanks for your hard work……"

The only thing to be happy about is that you can leave directly after handing over the work, without having to wait for others.

Declining the invitation of another miko who was on the train with her, Soya got off the train first after two stops.

Walking out of the station, the sky will be dark and the smell of fireworks will be in the air.

"Has it already started here?"

It's the smell of burning hemp sticks.

When he was still on the Notogawa side, he had already seen the "Yingsoul Fire" who got up early on the roadside or by the river.

It is the Obon Festival, and today is the first day of "Welcome to the Bonsai".

The twilight is getting darker, and when passing by other people's yards, the white smoke that rises from the burning hemp branches becomes invisible.Smelling the increasingly obvious smell of fireworks, Soya didn't stop, and went straight back to Kirino's old house.

"Soya is back."

Kirino and his wife are here, because it is the day of welcoming the basin, and the izakaya will also rest for a night.

In the courtyard, a pottery pot for welcoming the soul fire has been set up, with hemp branches piled up, and a newspaper used to ignite the fire is placed under it.

"Soya doesn't look very good." Keiko Kirino greeted Soya, "Is the work at the shrine very hard?"

He forced a smile, "It's not easy."

"Songya go over there to rest first." She pointed to the edge where several girls were sitting, and then asked her husband to light the fire.

Soya sat over, watched Hiroyuki Kirino strike a match, and suddenly understood: "Are you waiting for me?"

Chao Wuling looked at him, Kirino Akane and Hong Zi both nodded.

He opened his mouth, but finally said nothing.

The newspaper is flammable, and when a match is brought to it, the flame rises instantly, engulfing the hemp branches piled up above, and igniting it, the flames are dancing.

"It's only in rural areas like ours that we light up the spirit fire now." Keiko Kirino folded his arms and watched the fire that gradually dimmed after the newspaper was burned. It's an Obon lantern."

"I still prefer this traditional way." Akane Kirino murmured.

Kirino Keiko looked back at her daughter and smiled again.

"Only if the ancestors like it."

According to legend, the Obon Festival is a ceremony for the souls of the ancestors to return to the world, and the fire to welcome the souls is lit to keep the ancestors from getting lost.

The hemp branch burned for a while, and the open flame became smaller and smaller, and gradually disappeared.A long thin wisp of white smoke floated into the night sky, becoming part of the smell of fireworks that permeated the air.

"All right."

Keiko Kirino turned and went back to the house, and worshiped in front of the Buddhist altar set up in the living room, "The ancestors have returned, and it's time for us to have dinner."

Looking at the pot with only a few embers left, Hiroyuki Kirino picked up the shoes his wife had taken off and walked towards the entrance.

Soya stood up, Akane Kirino was still sitting beside her, looking up at the starry sky connected by white smoke.

"Has the ancestor returned..."

She looked at him again.

Soya shook his head.

"Sure enough... it's just a legend after all."

Back in the living room, Akane Kirino pointed to the Buddhist altar filled with vegetables, fruits and flowers, "I helped prepare this in the morning."

"yes."

"Mom said that the time to set up the potting shed should not be later than noon."

She bowed to the spiritual seat in the middle of the Buddhist altar, tapped the copper again, and then pointed to the eggplant and cucumber next to it, "I also strung together the elf horse and elf cow, not bad."

Soya looked around, then nodded.

"It's quite similar."

Four thin wooden branches are inserted under each of the two melons and fruits. Because they are shaped like cows and horses, they become the sustenance to carry the souls of the ancestors.

The elf horse is a cucumber, in order to hope that the souls of the ancestors can speed up their horses, return early, and reunite with their relatives;

Eggplant is an elf cow with slow steps, and it also entrusts the hope that it can walk slower when it is separated from its ancestors.And the ox can also carry more sacrifices, so that the ancestors can go back to the other side to enjoy.

The incense offering in the incense burner was about to burn out, Kirino Qian picked up a few incense sticks, and was about to light them on the candles, when she thought about it, she turned around and said, "Do you want some incense?"

The three nodded one after another, and each got a stick of incense.

After offering incense, Soya also bowed.

"If Soya has any wish, maybe my family's ancestors will help to realize it." Akane Kirino said.

He smiled a little, and after a while, he made obeisance to the spiritual tablet of the ancestor of the Kirino family a few times, and rang the copper bell.

Ding--

"Hey, what wish did Soya make?"

"I hope that after tomorrow's duty is over, the next round of shifts will arrange for me to go to the intersection of the county road at night to stand guard."

"Ah, it's so realistic."

"By tomorrow night, we will know whether this wish has come true."

When they came to the restaurant, Kirino and his wife prepared dinner.

Zong Gu sat down beside Zhao Wuling, glanced around, and found that Tsukuyomi was still upstairs, so he went upstairs again and asked him to come down.

Keiko Kirino looked at her husband, "Do you want some wine?"

Hiroyuki Kirino nodded.

Taking the juice from Akane Kirino, Soya poured it into cups and distributed it to Tsukiyomi, Koko and Asagiri.

"I'm gonna start now."

"I'm gonna start now……"

After dinner, Soya stayed in the kitchen to help clean up.

"It's fine if I come. Soya must have worked hard today. When he got home, he looked numb."

"It's okay, it's just a little thing."

Keiko Kirino was cleaning the dishes, and after a while she tilted her head slightly, "I went back to the northeast a few days ago, did Soya visit his parents?"

He wiped the table, nodded, and followed suit.

"Been there."

"It's been ten years."

"Yes."

She didn't ask any more questions, just sighed.

"Sendai...it's so far away."

Soya was silent, then nodded again.

After clearing the dining table, he was going to help wash the dishes, but Keiko Kirino refused.

"No, I'll just come. Soya, let's take a bath."

"Ok."

Leaving the kitchen and passing the living room, Soya saw Hiroyuki Kirino sitting alone on the edge with his back to the inside, while Akane Kirino was staring at the spiritual tablet on the Buddhist altar in a daze.

She didn't notice him, and he didn't bother, he turned and went upstairs.

Chaowuling and Yuedu came up after eating, while Hongzi was sitting in his room.

"Why stay upstairs alone."

She looked at him for a moment, then shook her head again.

Soya looked for clothes, "Do you still want to stay with your family?"

Hongzi turned to look at him, and didn't deny it, "In the past, I was with my family on the day of welcoming the basin... This is the first time welcoming the basin at someone else's house, and I'm a little uncomfortable."

"It's the same with me." Sogu closed the closet, "Especially because you waited for me to come back before lighting the welcome soul fire."

"Because Akane's mother said that Soya is also their family."

Clutching his clothes, he stood in front of the closet for a while.

"……I went to take a shower."

Hongzi looked at him, then looked away, pretending not to notice anything strange about him.

"Don't fall asleep."

(End of this chapter)