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And then - there was no then

The Eight-foot Mirror now lies quietly in the main hall of Gekkotsu Shrine, which is enough to explain the result at that time.

The demon god dropped the Eight-foot Mirror and fled.

Kagura closed her eyes, and the air around her began to flow, and dust began to float. The air condensed in front of her, like a water mirror.

If you look closely, you will find that the water mirror is somewhat similar to the Eight-foot Mirror. Even if the artifact is temporarily separated from her, Kagura can still communicate.

The Eight-foot Mirror was never an offensive weapon, and its aggressiveness was only the instinct of suppressing and sealing evil things with its own divine power. Just like an atomic bomb, if you barely use it as a heavy stone to hit someone, the weight of several tons can also kill people.

The real function of the Eight-foot Mirror is to be a medium for performing magic, whether it is exorcism, sealing or praying for blessings. This is why it has been kept in the hands of the master of Ise Shrine for generations.

The flowing air caressed Kagura's ears. She opened her eyes and turned the throttle of the locomotive.

The motorcycle sped through the streets of Tokyo again, and the wind used the sound of nature to tell her the trace of the devil until the motorcycle reached a street corner.

The wind suddenly stopped.

At an inconspicuous street corner, the devil disappeared here last night, completely removing his trace and breath. Even the divination technique inherited from the Eight-foot Mirror was ineffective.

That's right, if the Eight-foot Mirror was useful, it would not have escaped the hands of the son of God from Tsukimine Shrine yesterday.

At this moment, Kagura suddenly heard a drum sound. Turning around, she saw someone beating drums and dancing a lion dance in front of a farmhouse nearby.

It was not the New Year nor a festival, so it was a bit strange to see a lion dance at this time. However, it had nothing to do with Kagura. The lion dance was also a ritual to drive away evil spirits, similar to the ritual she performed as a shrine maiden.

She wandered around for a long time and was sure there were no clues. She had no choice but to get back on the motorcycle, look in the direction of the drum-beating lion dance, then turn the motorcycle around and leave.

However, when the Kagura left, the lion dance stopped abruptly. The lion dancer and the little boy beating the drum stopped all their movements like puppets without a conductor.

The eyes of the man and the lion were fixed on the direction where Kagura left, without any emotion, just staring. After a long time, they both revealed strange smiles.

"Dad, Shinta, what are you doing when it's time to eat?"

Shinta and his father woke up as if from a dream, and both of them forgot what they had just remembered in an instant.

Looking at the lion head in his hand, Xintai's father was a little confused. Did he just dance the lion? When?

Shinta was also confused as to when he was carrying the drum.

Chapter 264: Shionji Has a Son

Youzhi Primary School

There was a stranger in the class, but he was not a transfer student.

"Is there this person in our class?" Lingye gently nudged Chise who was sitting next to her.

"Hmm~ I don't remember."

There was indeed a seat in the class that had been vacant for a long time, for the entire semester.

"I remember now, wasn't there a rumor about a transfer student last school year? Lingye, don't you remember?"

Now that you put it that way, it does seem to be true, but no new students came after that, so gradually everyone forgot about it and just thought it was a misunderstanding.

But in fact, he did transfer to this class, but he didn't come to school for just one semester.

Is it really possible for someone to skip school for a semester?

Yes, it is possible if you take sick leave. But if you take sick leave for too long, you will have to repeat the grade, and the empty seat will remain in the fifth grade.

Shionji Yuuko, this is the name of the person who is only known by name but not by name. Today I finally saw her in person. She is a very cute girl with long hair down to her knees, like a doll.

Although he is not a new transfer student, he is more rare than a transfer student because no one has ever seen him before.

"By the way, is this surname Shion or Shionji?" Tomoyo was a little confused. She really wasn't sure.

Shion·Tera Yuko

Ziyuan Temple·Youzi

The former "Shion" is a relatively common surname, which is the name of a flower, but the name Tera Ariko is too weird.

"The last name is Shionji, not Shion." The person who spoke was the person who appeared next to him at some point.

"Hello, Ariko-san."

It should be embarrassing to casually mention someone's name and be caught by the person concerned. However, Chishi was not embarrassed at all and greeted them gracefully.

Such communication skills make Youzi envious.

Youzi is very shy and not good at socializing with others. But perhaps because Chise is so natural and enthusiastic, Youzi does not feel any burden when talking to her.

And calling someone by their first name right away must be something that only someone very close to them would do, and Chise said it without making people feel disgusted. It was natural.

In Youzi's opinion, this is an amazing talent, it's simply a superpower!

"Is the last name Shionji a weird one?"

This sentence can also be used as a provocation of dissatisfaction depending on the context. However, Youzi is naive and doesn't quite understand. From childhood to adulthood, she rarely interacts with others.

"No, because my last name is Daidoji."

It is not a coincidence that both surnames contain the word "temple". Shionji Temple and Daidoji Temple have nothing to do with each other.

But when Chiyo said that, it felt like it was fate. It felt like a coincidence.

"Youzi hasn't come to school for such a long time, is she sick?"

"Well, it's a disease called neet."

"Is it serious?"

"It's very serious! So I can't leave the house!"

If the principal hadn't required her to report to school and attend classes for a few days at least every semester, she wouldn't have come to school, and she would never have come to school in her life. Leaving home was unbearable in itself, let alone coming to such a noisy environment.

The school lunch was also unacceptable. There was no such thing as noodles without eggs, barbecued pork, or scallion noodles.

neet

In Tomoyo's opinion, diseases that are represented by English letters must be difficult to treat. Although Yuko looks healthy, she may be suffering from the disease silently.

So pitiful.

But Ling also felt a little strange, because the word neet seemed familiar to her, and she couldn't grasp the inspiration for a moment.

Then she remembered that this was too old-fashioned a word for her to react to for a moment, but it was also too trendy for this era.

NEET, NEET tribe, what kind of disease is this? Isn't it just a group of people who stay at home and rely on their parents? There was a time when this word was very negative, as if it was always entangled in news about suicide and arson. But gradually it became the norm.

Just like the 2D otakus who were initially despised.

"Is it okay for Youzi to study if he doesn't come to class?"

"No problem. I take all my exams at home. Monthly exams, research exams, and final exams."

Being allowed to take exams at home, Shionji is indeed a powerful family.

"Also, although my real name is Shionji Yuko, I prefer the name Alice."

"Nick name?"

"It's a little different. Alice is me and I am Alice."

"Ah, I get it!" Tomoyo clapped her hands, "Yuko, the character 'you' can also be read as ari, and 'zi' is su, so it's Alice (arisu), right?"

"Wow, that's amazing." Youzi opened her eyes wide, "You're the first one who noticed it immediately."

What a wonderful classmate, Tomoyo and Ling also thought so. But Alice didn't come to school for a few days after that.

An earthquake hit Tokyo in the afternoon. It wasn't a particularly severe earthquake, just a slight tremor that could be felt, and even the school didn't organize disaster evacuation.

The light hanging from the ceiling of the classroom flickered, that was all.

But there were some aftershocks in the following days.

When the earthquake was the strongest, the Beethoven hanging on the wall of the music classroom fell down, and the glass of the picture frame shattered all over the floor. However, these earthquakes did not cause much damage. I don't know if it was a sign of the beginning of a geological activity period or a coincidence. After all, it is normal for an island country to have earthquakes.

"The epicenter of the earthquake was Mount Fuji?"

The TAC team's base also felt the tremors in the past few days, and the reports they received were more detailed.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located underground in Mount Fuji. Since the impact had reached Tokyo, the base headquarters built underground in the Five Lakes at the foot of Mount Fuji naturally felt it more strongly.

Captain Long's favorite coffee cup was broken.

"Does the Earthquake Bureau have any conclusions from its investigation?"

"not yet."

It is natural for Captain Long to be concerned, even though the earthquakes in recent days have not been strong. But everyone knows that Mount Fuji is a volcano!

Earthquakes are the movement of plates and evidence of active magma. If the magma is too active and causes the eruption of Mount Fuji, it would be a disaster with incalculable consequences!

The Earthquake Bureau has carried out special monitoring of geological activities under Mount Fuji, but found that there is no correlation between earthquakes and observation results.

But if it wasn't geological activity, could it be a super beast? But the TAC team's radar also didn't detect any signs of super beast activity on Mount Fuji.

It's even more worrying when there's no reason.

"Noriko, contact the Earthquake Bureau and ask them to conduct another thorough survey."

"clear."

Apart from this, there is no better way. Everyone has their own expertise. It is better to leave the determination of the causes of earthquakes and future situations to professionals.

Near Mount Fuji, the TAC team is not the only one concerned about whether there will be problems with the volcano.

The Sengen Taisha Shrine, which is built on the Mount Fuji mountain range, is the first to be hit by disasters.

"Master Fuji, are we really not going to announce the closure of the shrine? What should we do if believers encounter danger when they come to worship?"

"Danger? We are all adults. Do we need others to remind us of our own safety and take responsibility for it?" Fujinomiya asked. "The government has not issued an evacuation notice, nor has it closed Mount Fuji. Even if something happened, what does it have to do with us?"

This is a fallacy.

Shimazu bit her lip with some reluctance. She knew very well that the reason why the chief priest was unwilling to close the temple was because of the recent Shibazakura Festival. Every April to May, the Shibazakura flowers on Mount Fuji are in full bloom, and the mountains and plains are full of bright colors.

The Shibazakura Festival is the busiest time of the year at Mount Fuji, with not only pilgrims but also tourists from all over the country and even the world.

The Fujinomiya priest would never be willing to close the shrine at this time and let the incense money that should have flowed into his pocket slip away in vain. As for the safety of pilgrims and tourists, he doesn't care about it at all.

Even though he already knew what kind of person the palace chief was, Shimazu still found it hard to accept it.

Aren't shrine maidens supposed to pray for the people? Aren't shrines supposed to protect the peace of the area?