Chapter 31: Kumamioso Kami (2)

 An hour past midnight, Motohama Ken was making his way in the direction of the Kumamioso shrine, the moon high above his head, the stars twinkling in the sky, with no clouds anywhere in sight.

On any other night, He would have likely sat beside the Koi pond in the garden, stargazing on such a beautiful night. But he had a job to do.

This was his second Mission as an Agent of Shin-Corp, And he needed to discover what was going on with the Kami of Kumamioso.

As he made his way down the silent streets of Kumamioso, Ken could see glimpses of figures hiding on the roofs of the houses, the reflective spark in the eyes of small creatures watching him from afar.

It was the Witching Hour, the time in which the supernatural barrier between Otherworld and the Real World was the weakest. Most people, those who lack any supernatural senses, would not notice anything. But to a person like Ken, who's been introduced to the supernatural and has spent the last two months training in it, even if only a little. He knew the things watching him were spirits.

Ken tried to ignore them as he continued walking in the direction of the Shrine, It would take between five to ten minutes at the pace he was walking before he reached it. Enough time to clear his head and go over the plan.

That's right... The plan...

The plan that he definitely has. The plan that he was going to follow in order to figure out what was going on with the Kami.

"I don't know what I'm doing..." Ken whispered to himself as he stared at the hill where the Shrine sat on, at the many stairs that went up the hill towards the old walls that surrounded the Shinto building.

As he made his way closer, he racked his head thinking of a plan that would work.

Option 1; He could simply ask to speak with the Priests, but that wouldn't work, seeing as it's the middle of the night. So that option is out.

Option 2; He could try and ask one of the local Yokai if they knew anything, but the Yokai could be in on whatever is happening. If the reason the Kami isn't doing their job connected to the Yokai, they would know he's investigating it and stall everything. So that option is also out.

And so he's arrived at Option 3; Sneaking around the shrine in the middle of the night and hoping nobody catches him.

"You can do this-" Ken whispered to himself, "Think of this like completing a dare." He slapped a pair of Armor Talismans over his cheeks in an effort to curb his nerves and also look closer to an American Action Hero putting on face paint during a Vietnam War Movie.

"...Maybe I should Call Susanoo." Ken fished his phone out as he reached the stairs leading to the shrine, his eyes zeroing in on the NO SIGNAL in the corner of his phone, "Never mind."

There was no more stalling, He had to do this in order to keep his grandparents safe.

"Actually... Maybe if I get a vantage point I might get some signal..." New plan! Ken was going to climb up the wall around the shrine and hope he would get enough signal to call Susanoo-no-Mikoto so he could tell him he was an idiot.

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The Hill upon which the Kumamioso Shrine is built is surrounded by a small forest, giving the place an almost alien look when compared to the rest of the village.

 The shrine covers 11,700 square meters with its 90-meter wide and 130-meter-long walls of wood, creating a box on top of the hill, with the only entrance and exit being the large, 10-meter wide gate sitting in the center of the front wall, being lead up to by an old path of stone stairs.

Standing outside the gate, Motohama Ken decided to look behind him, watching the entirety of Kumamioso beneath him, the sleepy town shrouded in darkness, only barely being illuminated by the few street lights that still worked.

As he stared at the town below, watching the moon shine brightly in the sky, smelling the fresh dew accumulating on the nearby grass, feeling the invisible stares of countless curious Yokai hiding all around the forest and town, Motohama Ken took a deep breath before he turned away from the town and started walking around the wall of the Shrine.

Perhaps he could find a spot that would be easier to climb, or a hole in the wall he could slip into, anything would be better than opening the front gate. He didn't know what magical protection the Benri clan placed on the gate, but he was not about to find out.

As he reached halfway past the right wall of the shrine, Motohama noticed the smell of the ocean, of salt and sand, and noted the smell down in his mind.

Kumamioso was 50 kilometers away from the sea, the shrine should not smell like the ocean.

Roughly five meters before the end of the wall, Motohama noticed a suspicious hole in the ground, big enough to fit a fully grown man. Looking into the hole, Motohama noticed it actually continued going horizontally after it stopped going down.

This wasn't a hole, It was a tunnel.

Motohama slid into the hole, finding it only as deep as his chest, he crouched and started crawling into the tunnel, noticing it immediately climbing back up.

Standing up straight on the other side of the small tunnel, Motohama found himself standing in a small garden, the nearby flowers and bushes hiding the tunnel from view. Looking behind him, Motohama saw the wooden wall that should have been surrounding the shrine.

He made it inside.

Before he could climb out of the tunnel and take a look at his surroundings, a ruffling noise sounded out before a hand grabbed onto his collar and pulled him into one of the nearby bushes.

"I caught you!" The person who caught him said in a loud whisper as they threw Motohama onto the dirt before pressing onto his back.

Motohama knew he wasn't as strong as a Yokai, heck, Motohama knew he wasn't as strong as a lot of regular people. He was only thirteen!

But according to the voice of the person who caught him, the one who was holding him down couldn't have been much older. Perhaps they were even the same age.

Which made it all the more strange he couldn't push them off.

"You thought you could sneak into the shrine without anybody noticing, but I found your tunnel!" The person whisper-shouted again, likely not wanting to wake up the other people at the shrine, "I waited for three nights straight for you to show your ugly face around here! Now tell me what you did with Togashi-Sama!"

Listening to the person holding him down, Motohama Ken quickly connected the dots of the situation.

Something dug this tunnel and used it to enter the Shrine, Whatever did so managed to keep it hidden from everybody except for the person holding him down, and sometime after the tunnel was found something happened to this Togashi-Sama.

"Listen, I don't know what you think is going on, but let me explain." Ken said, not wanting them to awaken the rest of the clan.

"You better have a good explanation for why you dug into our Shrine!"

"I do." Motohama nodded, feeling the hold on his head loosen slightly, "I did not dig the tunnel."

"What?!" The push on the back of his head returned, his glasses almost falling off as his chin found itself kissing the dirt.

"My name is Motohama Ken, I am an Agent of Shin-Corp." Ken started to explain, "I am here to investigate the cause behind the local Kami's range growing smaller. I found this tunnel while scanning the wall surrounding the shrine for any visible clues as to what might be causing whatever is happening."

"So you aren't the one responsible for digging this tunnel?" The person who held Motohama down asked.

"I am not, I arrived in Kumamioso three days ago," Ken explained, feeling the person holding him down let go of his head once more.

"Dammit!" They whispered, "I thought I finally caught the culprit."

"I am assuming you might know what's going on?"

"...I can't speak about this here, I don't know if his magic can hear us." The person finally lets go of the rest of his body, "Meet me on the bridge next to Subaru's Sweets tomorrow at Twelve, I'll tell you what I know once you're there." And without waiting for Ken to respond, they shuffled away, "Don't be late!"

Hearing the person who held him down going away, Ken slowly crawled back into the tunnel and started making his way back to his grandparent's house.

He might not have gotten all the answers to this mystery, but he's got a lead.

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"They told you they want to meet up?" Susanoo asked over the phone, Motohama standing outside his grandparent's house, his back leaning onto the car his mom rented for the vacation.

"Yeah, at a bridge next to some candy store," Motohama told his mentor what happened, "I'm planning on going, they obviously have some hint as to what's going on. I just needed to update you so you'll know what's happening."

"Good." Susanoo nodded on the other side of the phone, "I'll be keeping an eye on you from over here." Motohama heard a crackle of thunder in the distance, "I'll step in if you're in too much danger, Good luck Ken-Chan!" Susanoo told him before cutting the call.

Pocketing his phone, Ken sneaked back into his room, changed his clothes, took a shower, and went to sleep.

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Making his way into Kumamioso in his civilian clothes during the day was much different than with his Shin-Corp outfit during the night.

He used an excuse of wanting to look around the small town at his own pace, letting his grandparents off his back. Mom even gave him 10,000 Yen to spend if he found something he wanted.

He managed to hide the Talisman pack by putting it in his pants pocket, and he placed the small box holding the brush that never ran out of ink in another pocket.

He might not have his sword, but with the Armor and Restorative Talismans, he should be mostly safe if the person who called him over tried anything funny.

After asking someone for directions to Subaru's Sweets, Motohama Ken found himself standing over a small concrete bridge, barely half a meter tall, that stood above a tiny stream of water that wasn't even deep enough to come up to his ankle.

As he stood there, watching his reflection in the shallow stream below, a person came over and stood beside him, looking down at the water and watching their own reflection.

It was a girl his age, with shoulder-length blue hair and matching eyes, she was holding a slushy cup with the logo of 'Subaru's Sweets'

The two of them met eyes in the reflection, The girl staring into the reflection of his glasses in the water, with Ken staring at the reflection of her unnaturally colored hair.

"You the one investigating the Shrine?" She suddenly opened her mouth and asked.

"Yeah, Motohama Ken." He nodded at her, recognizing her voice as the person who held him down last night.

She nodded her head at his introduction "There's a Cafe on the other side of the street, we'll talk there." The girl said before she grabbed Ken's shoulder and dragged him after her, still sipping from the slushy.

Her grip was unnaturally strong, Ken couldn't squirm out of it. But so far the girl didn't seem to mean any harm to him, and she had the information he needed.

So he followed after her, already thinking of which question he should ask her.

But one question was more important than any of them.

"What's your name?"

The girl paused for a split second before her eyes widened, the realization that she hadn't introduced herself hitting her.

She let go of his shoulder and turned to fully stare at him, loudly finishing her slushy before tossing it into a nearby bin.

"The name's Yura Tsubasa, Nice to meet you."