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“What’s wrong, you two? For your expressions to change that much,” King Rama gently asked, but we didn’t have the leeway to explain it to him right now.

The vajra – the very weapon sealing the evil god – was inside our neighborhood’s Jizou statue. I had been thinking of spending the next few years with Mika slowly searching every small stone statue with hands folded in prayer. This wasn’t what I expected.

“Uhm… ah… No, we’re fine.”

“Right, other than what We just told you, you could apparently remove the statue’s head, which served as a lid!” King Rama continued, likely due to my better-than-usual reaction. “This seemed to frighten Our great grandfather somewhat. Also, before you could remove the head, you had to offer an Anazuman prayer. Well, the religion in another world is likely different, so this seems like quite the stroke of genius of the Guide. It made it even more difficult to break the seal, in the unlikely chance someone would try.”

He wasn’t wrong, the religions on Earth and in Anazumu differed. And it was rather improbable for someone to pray to a Japanese Jizou statue in the manner of Christianity or other western religions. It was well thought out and should offer us some peace of mind.

Hang on…

“Hey, Mika. Do you remember that story from Sanada that Shuu told us a few weeks ago?”
“I do, we are probably thinking the same.”

When Rir, who grew up with Anazuman beliefs, offered such a prayer to the statue, something abnormal occurred. And later, according to Sanada, someone removed the statue’s head and placed it next to it. These two occurrences.

“Isn’t that bad.”
“It is… very.”

You couldn’t call this situation anything but catastrophic. It meant that there was a high chance the contents of the statue had already been taken. And just recently, at that.

“That reminds Us, the Guide apparently mentioned that his name was ‘Buke’… Alim, Mika? What’s wrong for you to look so downcast? Was there something about the information We gave you just now?”
“…Uhm… about that… well.”

I could only provide the king with an ambiguous answer. Though you could say that the matter involved his family.

“The way you look tells Us it is anything but normal.”
“I-I’m sorry. Would you mind if we left for today, Your Majesty?”
“…Understood. But if anything comes up, feel free to contact Us. We’ll show you the documents and historical texts We are currently researching.”
“Th-Thank you so much for the offer, Your Majesty!”

I impulsively gripped the king’s hand firmly. If your asked me, people who could infer such things were incredible.

“You may leave, then.”
“Alright! Thank you for your hospitality and ’til another time!”

Mika and I hurriedly broke into a run. While being back at our own residence wouldn’t mean that we could immediately do something, we were still able to put our thoughts in order.

“Could it be that you two… Anyway, We won’t be washing our hands today.”

I heard King Rama mumble something, which I assumed was a goodbye. I put it out of my mind, and we left the castle.

_____
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_

“Now, let’s discuss this,” I started.
“Shouldn’t we call Sakura and Kanata?”
“If we involve my brother, he’ll end up seriously pondering it. Let’s hold off asking for help until we gathered our thoughts.”

For now, with the flow of time in Anazumu not being tied to the one of Earth, we had lots of time.

“You mean summing up what we learned today?”
“We now know that our neighborhood’s Jizou statue was made in Anazumu and that the vajra with the sealed evil god was placed into it, but its head was recently removed, which does seem rather suspicious.”

Everything about this was suspicious. Moreover, we had heard that Rir had entered some trance state after performing a prayer and then tried to remove the statue’s head. The fact that the evil god was able to use telepathy or something like it, could mean that it already had regained a lot of power.

In any case.

“If whatever has been placed in the Jizou statue was removed…”

To begin with, it was probably better to assume it was still there until we had a chance to check.

“I wonder who took off the head.”
“If we knew that… Didn’t this super shady guy appear only recently?”
“Yes, that guy.”

It was likely the man wearing the black hood. With his knowledge about both Anazumu and us, he was rather suspect. If someone took what was in the statue, he’d be the prime suspect. His very existence was shady.

“Somehow, we learned a whole lot all at once.”
“It’s all conjectures for now, but my intuition tells me that it’s spot on.”

I felt the same. I did, but it seemed too much at once. Could this pile of bizarre events and coincidences really serve as proof?

“For now, we gathered our thoughts. When do we tell the others?”
“Tomorrow should work. I’m pretty sure Shuu and Rir are busy making out right now.”
“True, we should interrupt them. We know perfectly well how that feels.”

Now… what should we do from now on? Something as just the two of us?

“What should we do with the rest of today?”
“Huh? Continue where we left off, obviously.”
“Oh? You want to get back to it, after all that?”

Surprising. I didn’t expect her to propose such a-

“This is this and that is that. Doing things in moderation is key.”
“Isn’t it simply that you’re not satisfied yet, Mika?”
“…Yes.”
“Oh, well.”

Is this really alright…? Well, I guess, since it’s us.

TL notes:
I’ve complained on several occasions about the author proving unable to surprise their audience or spoiling possible reveals way too early. This is probably the first reveal that doesn’t come out of nowhere, and had foreshadowing for several volumes now without things being spoiled. I’ll be hopeful for now and interpret this as a sign of improvement in the writing.

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