"I'm not the one looking for you, it's the Exorcist Master looking for you, you know~" Fujiwara Chika put her hands behind her back, leaned her body forward slightly, curved her mouth into a cat mouth, and smiled with a completely innocent face, while her other hand pointed crisply at Asakura, shifting the responsibility exceptionally skillfully.
"Eh? Is it Asakura-kun?" Miko originally clenched her fists, her expression tense, but she was visibly stunned upon hearing these words.
She looked up at Asakura, and the expression that was originally filled with unease and wariness softened immediately, even her shoulders relaxing quite a bit, "No matter what Asakura-kun wants to do, leave it all to me."
The young girl's tone was gentle, without the slightest hesitation.
"Eh? I feel like Miko's attitude toward the Exorcist Master and her attitude toward me are a bit different?" Fujiwara Chika tilted her head, sizing up the two of them, resting her index finger against her lips, complaining discontentedly like a willful little brat.
"This is a gap in popularity." Asakura put his hands in his pockets, slightly raising his chin to look at her contemptuously.
"Ah! Saying that is way too over the line!" Fujiwara Chika puffed out her cheeks and took a step forward, "Chika here is actually very popular in Shuchiin, you know! The choice of the masses! Even those kids who don't quite fit in will say—'Shinomiya Kaguya is our master!'"
"Putting aside whether that sentence counts as sarcasm or not... except for the character count, that name they mentioned has absolutely nothing to do with you, right?" Asakura criticized.
"Kaguya-chan is my friend, so rounding it up, Kaguya being amazing means I am also very amazing!"
"Is that how rounding up is calculated?"
"Ah-mo~ the Exorcist Master shouldn't care about such details! Have some big-picture awareness! Miko-chan has already been waiting for a very long time, you know!" As she spoke, she pushed the topic straight back, and casually patted Miko's shoulder.
Miko stiffened, "Suddenly you're calling me directly by my first name?!"
"Mimi can also complain directly to the Exorcist Master if there's anything you want to say, you know~"
"Compared to Asakura-kun, I want to complain about Miss Fujiwara more." Miko pursed her lips, her gaze looking straight through her flat lenses, "That nickname is rather... that, can you stop calling me that?"
One could tell the black-haired, straight-haired girl was restraining herself as much as possible from letting her displeasure show on her face, but a few clues could still be heard in her tone.
"Nani?! It's clearly very cute!" Fujiwara Chika held her head in her hands, completely in disbelief.
"Stop playing the fool." Asakura pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Although I did indeed mention Miss Yotsuya, it was just a casual remark. Isn't the primary issue still on your end?" As he spoke, he glanced at the luxury limousine parked outside the door.
Who would have thought her execution power would be so strong that she would directly kidnap someone over.
Thereupon, Miko looked back at Fujiwara Chika, to the point that even the flat lenses of the Mystic Eye Killers could barely hold back the displeasure and discomfort overflowing from her beautiful golden eyes.
"Alright, it's actually what Chika said before; I wanted to ask Miko-chan if she has ever paid attention to the topic of the Obon Festival."
Presubmably sensing that she had gone a bit too far with her antics, Fujiwara Chika sat down properly and asked like a model student.
"The Obon Festival?"
Miko appeared somewhat incapable of understanding.
"That's right, the Obon Festival!"
Fujiwara Chika suddenly put her hands behind her back, her heels lifting slightly as if she were preparing to present a short thesis in class, "That is actually fundamentally not a fireworks display, you know? Even though everyone's minds will automatically play scenes of 'Summer Festival + Yukata + Candy Apples'."
Asakura looked up at her: "It's rare for you to actually be in serious mode."
"Hmph, hmph." Chika cleared her throat and continued, "The core of the Obon Festival is 'return'. Legend has it that departed relatives will return from the other shore during these few days to visit their families, which is why everyone cleans the house, sets out offerings, and lights lanterns to guide the way. It's not for the excitement; it's for welcoming them."
Miko instinctively shrank her neck, "Welcoming... the deceased?"
"Yes, indeed. Has Miko-chan never done it? It's the little horses made out of eggplants and cucumbers; it's said the deceased ride them to travel back and forth between reality and the underworld." Chika nodded.
"Eggplants and cucumbers are a bit subtly hilarious as vehicles..." Asakura pondered for a brief moment, then raised his hand to ask, "What if the deceased didn't know how to ride a horse when they were alive?"
"...The Exorcist Master really knows how to ask questions. Good question, don't ask it next time." The girl muttered, "All in all, this can be considered a gentle way of handling death, turning remembrance into a ritual, and turning sorrow into a process of 'sending you back properly'."
She paused here for a moment, her eyes suddenly lighting up, "But—if we think about this concept a little bit toward the direction of the supernatural, it becomes very interesting, you know?"
Asakura sighed: "I feel like something has begun."
He knew very well that Fujiwara Chika was a restless soul who couldn't stay quiet; back then she had even actively run off to explore urban legends and ended up bumping into a real one. If she hadn't crossed paths with Asakura, she probably would have been done for.
"Think about it," Chika wagged a finger in the air, "when the whole of society is silently agreeing that 'the deceased will return during these few days,' it's equivalent to a symbolic door being opened. A psychological door, a ritualistic door—maybe even the real 'door' will become thinner."
Miko's face began to turn pale, "Does becoming thinner mean... becoming thinner in that sense?"
"Mhm—for example, the boundary between spirits and the living world loosens." Chika's tone was lighthearted in a way that was rather ill-timed, "Most of the returning souls might just circle around their families, see if everyone is doing well, and then leave. Very peaceful."
She suddenly held up two fingers, "But the problem is—"
"But the problem is?" Miko repeated in a small voice.
"What if things that 'don't belong to the family' also take this opportunity to sneak in?"
The air went silent for a second.
"Like nameless souls, lingering obsessions, or certain existences that weren't originally invited." The girl pressed her hands together, "Everyone is lighting lanterns and saying 'please come back,' so things will follow the lamplight over. As for 'who' it is, that's not certain."
Miko hugged herself tightly, "Please don't say such terrifying things in such a casual tone."
"So the Obon Festival is actually very interesting." Chika clapped her hands, concluding, "It is both a symbol of reunion and a node where boundaries loosen. Lantern light can both guide the return journey and potentially illuminate the road for things that shouldn't come. Doesn't it sound like it has a lot of dramatic tension?"
Asakura looked at her, asking after a long silence: "Who are you?"
"It's Chika, you know~"
"Liar. The Fujiwara I know wouldn't be this smart."
"Too much?! My grades are actually pretty decent, you know!"
"And even if we take ten thousand steps back, even if that Fujiwara possessed a brain of this level—"
"Hey, now Chika here is actually curious to what exact extent I was a dummy in the Exorcist Master's eyes before!"
"This kind of supernatural knowledge..." Asakura ignored the young girl's self-abandoning, despairing acting, and instead stared at her, asking, "You shouldn't normally possess it either, right?"
"I just did a theoretical analysis plus a tiny bit of a hint, that's all," Chika said very happily. "But if something really happens... doesn't that just prove traditional folklore genuinely possesses power? How romantic."
Miko held her head: "It's not romantic at all, okay..."
"What do you mean by a hint?" Asakura keenly noticed the critical point in the young girl's words.
Fujiwara Chika did not answer, but merely smiled with squinted eyes, reaching out her hand to make a 'fox' gesture.
"You actually still dare to contact that thing..." Asakura rubbed the space between his eyebrows. "So you kidnapped Miko over here just for a 'theoretical verification'?"
Fujiwara Chika blinked her eyes, "Ehe."
Miko: "Don't 'ehe' me————!" Although she wasn't clear on what was going on, it felt incredibly dangerous!
However, Asakura fell somewhat silent instead.
To be fair, what Fujiwara Chika said actually made some sense. After the descent of the 'supernatural', traditional activities with superstitious overtones like this could themselves potentially become highly symbolic rituals, and there was no telling if they might achieve some extraordinary effects.
Furthermore, the fact that the fox aberration went out of its way to warn Fujiwara Chika about this matter meant that it was probably not fabricated out of thin air.
Asakura tried to summon it, but as expected, he still received a response from the fox aberration's end saying, 'Paralyzed, do not disturb.'
Didn't you just directly face a multi-dimensional, high-dimensional evil god? Is it really necessary to remain completely paralyzed until now?
Useless fox, Asakura complained in his heart with disdain.
Ignoring the aggrieved wailing coming from the fox aberration's side, Asakura stroked his chin.
"Miss Yotsuya, during the Obon Festival in the past, did you ever see any strange sights?" he asked.
"I'm sorry... it hasn't even been a full year since I became able to see strange things. Last year, I was just an ordinary person..."
Miko lowered her head and apologized, appearing exceptionally guilty about her inability to help out.
"Don't mind! Miko-chan is just like Chika here, unable to help, that's all!" Fujiwara Chika gave Miko a thumbs-up with full energy.
"Guh... to think I'm on the exact same tier as Miss Fujiwara..."
"Why are you showing such a tragic look! Is being on the same tier as me really such a terrible thing?!"
"N-No, it's not like that... Miss Fujiwara... is also very amazing."
"Miko-chan, you have the exact agonizing look of someone speaking against their own conscience?! Hey, weren't you able to keep a completely straight face even when those ghost monsters suddenly jumped into your face before? Is praising Chika here genuinely a task more difficult than that for Miko-chan?!"
Miko seemed as if she wanted to say something more, but Asakura gently patted the girl's head: "It's already enough... you don't need to force yourself to be brave anymore... constantly suppressing the terror and sorrow in your heart, pretending as if nothing happened... it has been very painful, hasn't it?"
"Mr. Asakura..." The young girl gazed intently at Asakura, her amber eyes shimmering with a light of deep emotion: "I don't... have to keep holding on anymore...?"
"Yeah." Asakura nodded his head gently.
"Though it really is incredibly touching! But if things go down like this, Chika here becomes a total big villain, hey! Consider my feelings a little bit too!"
"Pink-hair, shut up."
"Awoo..."
☆
After having the stretched luxury limousine send Miko back—believing that the young girl would likely be troubled by the gossip of the surrounding neighbors for a considerable period of time—Asakura and Chika continued to stay and chat inside the Rabbit House.
Only, at this moment, Fujiwara Chika's cheeks were puffed out even rounder than Rabbit Dango.
This made her art style look subtly a bit like a chibi version.
"Well then, let's continue talking about the topic of the Obon Festival." Asakura poked her cheek with amusement, but was dodged by the huffy girl.
"Ahhh~" She picked up a Rabbit Dango and took a forceful, venting bite out of it, as if she were biting Asakura's face: "Chika here is truly sorry for being just a villainess character~ Why doesn't the Exorcist Master go look for the female protagonist to continue your deep heart-to-heart life consultations? Like the cute Miko-chan, like that cute waitress who just walked past, or like those cute members from your previous club—damn it! Why are there nothing but cute girls all around Asakura!"
"Chika is quite cute too, you know," Asakura said with a smile.
"Trying to butter Chika up by this point is already too late!"
"That's true, so I'll just have to go find someone else to spend the Obon Festival with... What do you think about that friend of yours surnamed Shinomiya? Although straight black hair doesn't exactly hit my sweet spot, it's actually pretty nice when paired with that kind of ice-cold expression..." Asakura said with a completely straight face.
"You actually want to steal away my absolute best friend too?!" With that, the originally posturing Fujiwara Chika couldn't keep her composure anymore. With a face completely written over with a 'there's a cuckold going on, a cuckold going on' expression, she hammered Asakura twice with her small fists.
-1-1
Excellent, that saves the money meant for buying a Mew World.
"Now, back to the main topic. I wonder if I might have the honor of inviting Miss Fujiwara to go stroll around the festival together during the Obon Festival?" Asakura extended an invitation to the young girl.
"Then that depends on Asakura-kun's sincerity." By this time, Fujiwara Chika's annoyance had mostly dissipated—or rather, she hadn't really been angry at all, just having a little moodiness. A naturally optimistic girl's emotions come fast and go just as fast.
She pinched and rubbed her fingers toward Asakura, putting on an appearance of demanding benefits.
Asakura thought about it, pulled something out from his pocket, and stuffed it into her hand.
"What is this?"
"A supermarket discount coupon."
"Even though I said it depends on sincerity... isn't this a bit too much 'sincerity'?"
"It can only be used when purchasing hair restoration tonic."
"You actually even restrict the merchandise to be purchased?! Chika has absolutely no use for this kind of thing, you know!"
"You can give it to your father to use; it looks like it can save around 5 to 10 yen."
"Don't just automatically assume other people's fathers are definitely bald, okay! And the discount is so tiny! This coupon has absolutely zero meaning whatsoever!"
"Sin☆cerity!"
"I can't see it at all!"