A few days later, Obon Festival, night.
"Exorcist Master——!! Sorry to keep you waiting, sorry to keep you waiting~!"
Fujiwara Chika's voice drifted out from the crowd first, followed by her actual person.
The young girl wore a light-colored yukata that perfectly complemented her long pink hair, the patterns on her wide sleeves fluttering back and forth under the lights, her wooden geta sandals clattering "da-da-da" against the stone pavement.
"It has indeed been quite a while." Asakura put away the phone he was using to pass the time: "Let's go."
"Eh-eh-eh? Just like that?" Fujiwara Chika was flabbergasted: "What about the classic staple line, 'I just arrived too'? What about your impressions? Your compliments?"
"You want compliments when you're late?" Asakura flatly refused: "In your dreams."
"But it was Asakura-kun who invited me out to stroll around the Obon Festival!" the girl said indignantly: "And besides, I wasn't late! In fact, Chika arrived early! It's just that choosing and changing into clothes at a nearby yukata rental shop took a little time!"
"Couldn't you just change at home and have someone drive you over? Don't tell me the Fujiwara family doesn't even own a single kimono?"
"If I did that, wouldn't my date with the Exorcist Master be exposed!"
"Speaking of which, though it's a bit late to ask," Asakura asked curiously: "Will your family actually allow you to slip out this late? I remember they are supposed to be quite strict with their management, right?"
"That's why I said I was staying over at Kaguya-chan's place!" Fujiwara Chika said, proudly puffing out her chest: "I already aligned our cover stories with Kaguya, and I really am going over to her place later, so it's not a problem at all!"
Asakura glanced at the rising and falling contours of her chest, feeling that a yukata was indeed not quite suited for someone with "big thunder" proportions to wear.
Someone like Yukino would probably look quite nice in one.
While his mind was still occupied with these chaotic thoughts, Fujiwara Chika had already forcefully grabbed Asakura's hand and pulled him forward.
Beneath the torii gate in front of the shrine hung rows of red and white paper lanterns, extending all the way down the sacred approach path like a glowing corridor.
The stalls were packed tightly together, their signs displaying words like 'Takoyaki', 'Yakisoba', 'Grilled Corn', 'Candy Apples', and 'Cotton Candy'—in short, they were all exceptionally common and almost inexplicably half-hearted stalls. Beyond that, there were also a few rather peculiar stalls selling things like 'Pickled Cucumbers' and 'Mixed Miso Fukujinzuke', which piqued Asakura's curiosity.
The smell of cooking oil, sweetness, and charcoal fire blended together, and a touch of the muggy humidity unique to summer nights clung to the wind.
The laughter of children, the shouting vendors, and the classic Showa-era festival music blaring from the loudspeakers mixed together, inexplicably reminding Asakura of the time his brewing of Dittany Essence failed and bubbles kept popping inside that cauldron.
Further away, the steady rhythm of taiko drums beat out—dong, dong, dong—acting as if a background BGM had been set up for the entire street.
Occasionally, the sound of a shrine maiden's bells and the brief cheers of the crowd broke through. As a side note, while the appearance of this shrine's miko couldn't be called ugly, she possessed a highly... well, an NPC extra's background face? Asakura merely cast a brief glance before paying no more attention to her.
It wasn't that he liked to judge people by their looks, but in a world where beautiful girls were everywhere regardless of whether they were main characters or supporting roles, the appearance of this miko practically fated her to be nothing more than a backdrop. She was likely not a crucial figure belonging to some franchise like Yukino was.
"In other words, even if something goes wrong during the Obon Festival, it has nothing to do with the shrine? ...No, considering that plain-looking cultists have existed before, it can't be entirely ruled out," Asakura pondered in his heart.
Of course, it would be for the best if nothing happened at all and this remained a completely normal holiday festival.
Chika raised her hand, pointing forward like a television host: "Alright! Obon Festival Investigation Operation, begin! Step one—eat first!"
"So your idea of an investigation turns out to be investigating the flavors?" Asakura complained, pulling a deadpan face as he snapped back to reality.
"An investigation requires energy too!" she stated righteously. "Besides, eating food allows us to better blend in with the masses, preventing us from looking like suspicious individuals."
"The only reason you look suspicious is because you're way too excited."
"Being excited is only normal! Look, everyone is super excited!"
She casually pointed to a middle-aged man nearby. The older man was staring intently at a piece of grilled squid as he flipped it over, his expression so incredibly serious it looked as though he wasn't holding a spatula, but a pair of wire cutters for defusing a bomb, and the item on the iron plate in front of him wasn't squid, but a explosive device about to detonate.
Asakura: "..."
No matter how you looked at it, that didn't look like excitement at all; it completely radiated nothing but the tragic, hard-knock aura of a corporate slave laboring away on consecutive overtime shifts even during a public holiday.
Chika had already rushed to the front of a nearby Okonomiyaki stall, slapping her coins down: "Boss! Two portions! One with extra sauce! One with extra seaweed! And also—"
She turned her head back to look at Asakura: "Exorcist Master, do you want to add bonito flakes? Bonito flakes are super powerful, you know."
"Powerful in what way? Because before being shaved down, it's the hardest fish in the entire world?" Asakura responded casually.
"No, because it makes Okonomiyaki taste a lot more like Takoyaki!" the young girl said, smiling triumphantly.
"What kind of bizarre logic is that?" Asakura criticized.
"Because to save time and effort, a lot of Okonomiyaki stalls will deliberately buy Takoyaki batter mix and dilute it with water to make their Okonomiyaki!" Fujiwara Chika exposed.
The middle-aged man making the Okonomiyaki turned his face away guiltily.
Asakura: "..."
So you really are running your stall exactly like that!
Fujiwara Chika seemed completely oblivious, continuing to shout to the owner: "And two bottles of Ramune! The old-school kind!"
"Old-school?"
"I just have to hear that 'pop' sound! It's an Obon atmosphere buff!"
When the Okonomiyaki came off the grill, she couldn't wait to pick up a piece and shove it into her mouth. The next second, her expression contorted and her eyes instantly fogged up: "Hot, hot, hot————!"
She breathed in sharply while jumping up and down, tears even welling up in the corners of her eyes, as she desperately fanned her extended little tongue, her sleeves swinging around like miniature fans.
"Today's victor," Asakura said in a 'the absolute referee's fair and beautiful' tone: "is the Okonomiyaki!"
"This was just a despicable sneak attack!" Chika put the Okonomiyaki back into the box with tears in her eyes, carefully blew on it for thirty seconds, and took another bite. "...Mmm, delicious. Victory."
"What kind of mental victory method is this..."
"Want a 'say ahh~' bite?"
"...No need."
"Wahhh-hoo-hoo~" Fujiwara Chika revealed a somewhat mischievous, fox-like smile, but she didn't say much else. She simply freed up a hand and shoved a Ramune into Asakura's hand: "Come on, pop it!"
"Is it my illusion? I always feel like your words carry a strange meaning..." Asakura muttered.
"Asakura-kun is overthinking it. Hurry up and pop it~"
Asakura: "..."
Pop————!
The sound of pressing the marble into the soda remained crisp despite the surrounding noise, and Chika revealed a satisfied smile.
"Right, right, right! This is it! The soul of the Obon Festival!"
Is this fellow a bit too hyper in public?
"So the soul of the Obon Festival was actually in the soda?" Asakura sighed.
"It might be in the cotton candy too." She blinked, "Let's go! Next stall!"
Asakura originally thought the second stall she mentioned referred to cotton candy, but following the young girl's steps, he discovered that her next target was scoop-the-goldfish, which had absolutely nothing to do with what she had just said.
A multitude of goldfish fry swam back and forth inside the water basin. The lights reflected on the water surface like shards, mirroring the shop owner's dishonest, profiteering smile—well, Asakura felt like everyone looked like a profiteer right now.
Chika squatted down, carefully rolling up the sleeves of her yukata, her face bearing a rare focus.
"This activity is a great test of patience."
"As for patience..."
"What is the meaning of that skeptical look!" The girl stubbornly talked back, "Chika here is actually super patient! It's just that I'm usually too lazy to use it."
As she spoke, she had already placed the paper scoop into the water, moving it slowly——
"Oh, oh, oh!" She lowered her voice, "It's coming! It's coming!"
Snap.
The paper scoop broke.
"Gone, gone..."
"Did Kita arrive? When did she come?"
"What are you talking about, Asakura-kun?"
"Nothing, just treat it as a bad pun."
"It's fine! Just try one more time! How can life admit defeat so easily!"
Thereupon, the girl handed over more money to the stall owner to buy a new paper scoop, but the moment it was placed into the water, it disintegrated.
She fell silent for three seconds: "...This is life."
Asakura: "Your life is way too short."
And after that, Fujiwara Chika fought repeated battles despite repeated defeats, and suffered repeated defeats despite repeated battles, becoming a grandmaster of returning empty-handed...
Actually, one could tell that the young girl's goldfish-scooping technique wasn't bad; it was just that the owner of this stall was truly a dishonest merchant, and the quality of his paper scoops was far worse than other places.
Asakura raised his eyebrows.
This time, the young girl gave her paper scoop a gentle flick, and a tiny goldfish was scooped up by her. No matter how the little fish struggled, the paper scoop this time was like an unbreakable iron wall, without the slightest wobble.
Fujiwara Chika instantly snapped her head up, her expression looking as if she had won a grand lottery: "I succeeded! Exorcist Master! Great victory for Chika-chan!!!"
She held the transparent bag containing the goldfish up in front of Asakura. The goldfish swished its tail inside, and water droplets swayed back and forth with her hand.
"Quick, look, look! It's super cute, right!"
But compared to the goldfish, the young girl with a completely flushed face looked even cuter.
So Asakura nodded honestly: "It is indeed cute."
And after that, Asakura took action and scooped up half of the goldfish at the stall, giving one to every single child passing by. Only after looking at the shop owner's pitiful expression of being on the verge of a myocardial infarction did he finally let him off contentedly.
"Fragile, fleeting, beautiful! This is the soul of the Obon Festival!"
"You just said earlier that the soul of the Obon Festival was in the Okonomiyaki and the cotton candy."
"Three souls and seven spirits, plus the socks! So there are ten in total!" The girl said stubbornly.
"That's even more than Horcruxes..." Asakura complained.
They played around at the stall for a little while.
Well, in fact, they played for a considerably long time.
Only after that did the two of them finally remember what they had actually come here to do this time.
Thereupon, they re-equipped themselves and set out once more, advancing toward the direction of the shrine.
The shrine at the end of the sacred approach path was even brighter, with a shrine maiden standing off to the side guiding the line—she wasn't the same one who had been waving the kagura bells just now; it seemed this shrine was quite a lucrative moneymaker—and the surging crowd of people moved slowly forward.
The air was mixed with the scent of burning incense, completely different from the sweet smell of oil smoke at those previous stalls. The atmosphere surrounding the main hall of the shrine was also considerably more heavy and restrained, as if it had lowered the temperature of the entire festival's liveliness.
Chika stood in the queue looking left and right, her mouth never stopping: "Wow, this bell is so pretty! Wow, the ema over there is written so seriously! Wow, that kid's yukata is in the same color scheme as mine! Wow——"
Even Asakura, who considered his own patience to be fairly decent, ultimately couldn't resist giving her a flick to the head: "Can you please say 'wow' a little less."
"No! 'Wowing' is a human instinct!" Fujiwara Chika covered her head, acknowledging her fault but refusing to correct it.
When it was their turn, Chika pressed her hands together, closed her eyes, and muttered under her breath: "Lord Deity, please grant me a Super Great Luck fortune, and it would be best if it could also come attached with a 'free board game coupon'."
Asakura: "Deities are not responsible for distributing coupons."
"How truly willful, Lord Deity."
"The one who is actually willful is you, isn't it..."
"Of course it's..." Fujiwara Chika grumbled as she drew a fortune stick and unrolled it——
"Great Luck!!!"
She spun around on the spot: "Did you see that, Exorcist Master! What did I tell you! Fortune!!!"
Asakura swept a glance over the fortune text: "What's written on top tells you to 'be less impulsive, and be prudent in your words and actions'."
Chika thought about it, and very smoothly tucked the fortune away: "When I go back, I'll regift it to Kaguya; I feel like she'll be able to use it."
"..."
No, regifting this kind of thing is completely useless, right?
Fujiwara Chika pulled Asakura along as she walked back, announcing as she marched: "Alright! The investigation enters phase two! Riverfront lantern floating!"
The riverfront was even more lively than before—or rather, this place was the actual main venue of the Obon Festival—as lanterns were placed into the water one by one, looking like a slowly moving ribbon of light as they drifted out.
The crowd gathered along the bank, a sea of raised smartphones. Children were held in adults' arms to watch. Occasionally, someone would softly say 'have a safe journey' and someone would softly sob, but the majority of people just watched in silence.
The liveliness at this moment carried a touch of restrained gentleness.
Chika suddenly fell quiet for two seconds, staring at the river surface: "Actually... it's quite beautiful."
"Yeah." Asakura nodded his head, but subsequently his eyebrows furrowed slightly.
...It feels like there's something...
"The Obon Festival, huh." She carried the plastic bag containing the goldfish, looking serene and gentle like a beautiful young girl, "Everyone is earnestly saying 'welcome back' and 'goodbye'. Even though it's all happening on the exact same night."
The moment she finished speaking, she instantly reverted to her noisy self: "But as expected, absolutely nothing happened after all. It seems the Exorcist Master was just overthinking things!"
"The one who said there was an issue with the Obon Festival and that it needed an investigation was you in the first place, wasn't it?" Asakura, whose train of thought had been interrupted, cast a sideways glance at her.
"The moment my mind put down its worries, my stomach became hungry!" The young girl spoke up continuously, acting exactly as if she hadn't heard Asakura's protest.
"Where on earth did all those things we just ate disappear to..."
"Human beings are just this kind of high-fuel-consumption organism; it's practically a tragedy~"
"I think you and Yanami would definitely have a common language."
"What should we eat next~" The girl waved her hands happily, flicking her tongue: "giiiiii crab~ giiiiiii little bunny~"
"Why on earth is there a rabbit option in this place..." Asakura criticized.
Though over in the eastern continent there were indeed exceptionally delicious ways to eat it, like cold-tossed rabbit heads, as far as Asakura was concerned, Japan over here didn't seem to use rabbits as an ingredient much.
The crowd suddenly surged forward, and Chika was pushed into a stumble, the goldfish bag in her hand nearly flying out.
Asakura reached out, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her back. The girl tumbled straight into his embrace along with the momentum.
"Stand firmly." His tone didn't change.
"Oh..."