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“Our apologies for making you come here again… Don’t you seem to be in a poor mood each time we meet?”

After he had contacted Mika and me, we’d undone the transformation into our high schooler selves, and reluctantly made our way to King Rama.

That said, it was necessary to be diplomatic and listen to him, seeing he was our fan. We couldn’t just ignore him. Still, it was undeniable that he had interrupted our precious (or maybe not that precious) alone time.

“That’s not it… you just always seem to have poor timing, Your Majesty…”
“I-Is that so? We apologize.”

Even so, why does he keep calling us here to discuss his country’s history?

“To begin with…” I started.

Hang on. It might be simple to tell him to stop bothering us, but right now, we need the information. It’s only thanks to what he told us that we learned the vajra is on Earth.

“No, it’s nothing.”
“Hm?”

Still, it made me wonder why he kept telling us about this. First it was about the defeat of their evil god and then to recreate the vajra, so…? It felt like I was missing something. Maybe he was trying to look cool by showing off his knowledge, as men often did. Yes, that was probably it. Getting our attention by acting as if he knew something. Though in his case it was less feigning information, and more telling us about the investigation.

“So, what did you learn this time, Your Majesty?”
“We previously told you that the vajra was moved to another world, resulting in the evil god’s destruction, no?”
“Yes, you did.”
“We discovered more information by comparing Our great grandfather’s writings with other literature.”

Is this related to the vajra? It would be great if we could use it to search for it.

“Why, it was about the vessel the weapon was placed in!”
“Is that all?”
“Hm, is something wrong?”

The vessel the weapon was placed into… Aren’t ceremonial weapons like that usually just wrapped in cloth? Even if they learned about that…

“I mean… you’re talking about the vessel it was put into. Isn’t that normal stuff, like the sheath of the Hero’s Sword?”
“You’re not wrong, but this container was everything but normal… There were detailed descriptions of it, which We were about to tell you.”

What, they actually know the details? He said it’s everything but normal, so it’s probably something rather unusual. I better listen closely.

“So, what kind of vessel was it, then?”
“From what it says, it was a stone statue, crafted by that very Guide.”
“A stone statue, you say?”

Meaning, if we search the interior of every stone statue on earth, we’ll eventually find it? That sounds tough, but it’s better than having no clue at all, I guess. Well, let’s ask for more details.

“What kind of statue was it?”
“Do you know about the prayer pose used to address the gods?”
“I do.”

There was this foreign religion… Christianity, I think. The way you folded your hands in prayer for that was close to what they did on Anazumu. There were some small, strange differences, though, so you could tell at a glance that it wasn’t the same.

“From what it says, the statue is in this prayer pose.”
“Huh…”
“But it was apparently strangely small for a stone statue. Only the height of a four- or five-year-old child.”
“Hrm.”

Won’t that narrow down the search quite a bit? A smallish stone statue with its hands folded in prayer.

“Were there any other details?”
“There were. It said that as a finishing touch, it was made to wear a red apron and not a single hair was chiseled into its head.”
“Let me get that straight, it’s completely bald and wearing a red apron?”
“Indeed. We can’t quite imagine it, since there were no drawings.”

A stone statue… child sized… bald… wearing a red apron… Hang on, couldn’t that be…
I should ask Mika.

“Hey, Mika, doesn’t that sound like a Jizou statue?”
“You might be onto something there.”
“Right… but still.”

A few things didn’t fit. Jizou statues usually had their hands in a Japanese style prayer and were in a Buddha pose holding a pewter staff. Were there any such statues with their hands folded in the western style?

“Have we ever seen a Jizou statue in that prayer pose?”
“I’m not sure… hang on?”

Mika suddenly clutched her head.

“What’s wrong?”
“The Jizou statue in our neighborhood is famous, among other things, because it looks different from normal statues, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
“I’m pretty sure one of those differences is the way its hands are folded…”

Hang on, did we just realize something huge?

“Is something wrong, you two? That reminds Us, that very Guide was said to have returned to his world by bestowing some kind of enchantment to the statue.”

That sounds like the world transfer function of our Jizou statue. Hang on… just one moment… this is starting to sound really fishy.

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