Volume 20 - CH 4

DECEMBER 25, 2022 ~ FROZZENDETH

The dry, cottony snow in Aomori is quite different from the sticky snow south of Akita.

When the northerly wind blows into land where this cottony snow has accumulated, the snow swirls and blows across the land like sand in a desert. Apparently, this phenomenon is known as a blizzard.

And, in the middle of this blizzard…

I land on the ground using the streamlined tip of the stopped linear trains nose cone like a slide.

Kou and Habi, who I was carrying now, had a pulse and were still breathing but had fainted.

I remember seeing this phenomenon twice before. Whenever the Scarlet Goddess leaves someones body, the previously possessed person goes into a coma for a short time. Just like Son, who is now just Kou, and Habi, who is now just an Oni… this is getting confusing.

I wonder if the Scarlet Goddess had used all of Habi and Son’s lasers, leaving them behind because she considers them unnecessary now.

Or… maybe… just maybe… it was too hard for the Scarlet Goddess to move three people at the same time. I guess it would use more energy to control all three than just one.

(Initially, I was just going to knock you both out… I did not think you would just do it to yourself though.)

(Again, the plan did not go the way I wanted it to, but I will take what I can. At least the fight up till now was not in complete vain. Both for Yen and Rurugami…)

I can’t keep fighting if I an discouraged, so I tried to make myself believe that as I looked around as if to switch my mindset… There was a snow melting system and the now melted water flowed like a stream around the train body and rails. However, further from that, on the left and right I was surrounded by snow that resembled a wall instead of a snow bank.

The snow measured at least 2 meters high, and the temperature felt like -5C. This place is like hell.

(… it is at least a little better than the worst months, January and February.)

However, a blizzard is still a blizzard. If we stayed here too long, not only Kou in her… mini mini skirt sailor suit and Habi in her mini-skirt kimono… but even I, wearing the boys uniform of Butei High, would freeze to death.

I shot a window pane with my Beretta, and broke it.

The shatterproof type double-paned window was broken in a non-eventful way, so I had to use my grip as a hammer to widen the bullet hole… eventually, the slide of the barrel was used to open it a bit more and create an entrance.

I then shoved Kou and Habi, who, by the way, was still wearing a skirt with a 1cm inseam and no underwear, into the train, being careful in more ways than one.

I continued, and got myself into the train, brushing the snow off of my body…

The test vehicle, illuminated by emergency lights, was obviously not occupied. There was no heating, and the temperature inside the train was not much different from the outside air. This was, as I expected, a unmanned experimental vehicle.

However, it seems that they sometimes test the vehicle with people on board, as evidenced by the seats in the car for test rides.

I let Kou and Habi sit and rest there for the time being.

(sometimes people will ride this… which means…)

Looking around the car, I found an insulated locked labelled “Emergency” which had… 500 bottles of water, preserved bread, a first aid kit, a flashlight… and some winter coats!

Heaven is finally on my side!

(No… if they had taken my side, I would never be in this situation to begin with.)

I sprayed some disinfectant on my head wound and was taking a sip of water from the bottle when…

“Nnn…”

“Ooooooh….”

I can hear the sounds of Habi and Kou waking up from their sleep from the seats I put them on.

“… Kou. Habi. Are you okay?”

As I walked up to them, I could hear one of them say “I was in Kiinokuni but now I am in a train…?” as they blinked their confused eyes in unison.

From my perspective however, I was watching the people I was fighting with earlier with my life on the line now just being a pair of cute girlie girls.

I explained what happened to the two of them, as it was time to sort everything out…

“…? I’m hungry.”

“Even though it was Son’s doing, Kou still hurt Toyama and to Yen…”

As Kou was weeping next to Habi, Habi herself did not seem to understand what I was saying.

“… the Scarlet Goddess was controlling Aria, Habi, and Son at the same time, which… may have been her intention all this time for a final confrontation with me. As Habi and Son had too different personalities from that of the Scarlet Goddess though, you could both only become incomplete Scarlet Goddess’s. You both, however, were used by her for her final goal, but in the end were inconvenient. That is why she left you two behind. It was Aria in the end who was picked to become the perfect incarnation.”

I also shared my personal views on the matter.

As Rurugami had said…

The Scarlet Goddess is a lot more careful than I ever could have thought.

She tested each of the three under the same conditions to evaluate Aria’s relative performance in comparison to the other two.

“… I am going. I am going after Aria.”

I said this as I put on a synthetic leather coat.

And then, with various emergency items that I took out from the locker, I put my hand on the window to get out.

“It is too much, even for you Toyama…! To go out in such a snowy mountain…! Besides, if Aria-san flew in the direction the train was heading, if we can get the train to move again, I’m sure we will be able to get closer to her!”

Kou, who decided to use -sama with Aria but not with me for some reason… is completely terrified of the blizzard and pulling on the hem of my coat. (TL Note: San is a polite way to refer to someone for equals/friends etc)

I am not afraid however.

“No. The direction she went doesn’t matter.”

I look outside the window at the blizzard outside.

I might be in Hysteria Mode, but even still I can only guess.

Aria flew in the direction of the train, but that doesn’t matter.

If she is planning on using instantaneous movement to get to her final destination, the direction of initial movement and distance can be easily ignored.

All movement, except for the instantaneous movement, is just movement to let her “see”.

With this line of thought, the true destination for Aria is impossible to correctly identify without thinking about her previous actions.

So, then, what could not be seen from the Fugaku, but could be seen from the southwest side of Hakkoda mountain?

… the latitude and longitude of each.

… my memory of the map and contour lines of Aomori Prefecture that I have seen before.

… the approximate altitude of Aria at the moment of her disappearance.

These conditions were confirmed and inserted into my mind as I built a 3D model in my brain.

“Her target is a Hotogi Shrine.”

The moment she saw it, Aria would have moved instantaneously.

She is going to a Hotogi Shrine in the mountains of Hirosaki City in the Aomori Prefecture of Japan. She is going there, to a fortress deep in the mountains. (TL Note: this is NOT the same shrine from vol 6/7, that was in Kyoto.)

“…”

No longer able to rely on my now fading Hysteria Mode, I pull out my cell phone.

The connection is… good, I have a bar.

I use the GPS to locate my current location and the distance from here to the Hotogi Shrine…

… if I don’t take into account the changes in elevation, it is about 50km.

I have to go.

No, I am going.

This time, I will save Aria, who is trapped by the Scarlet Goddess.

Our meeting this time will not be a coincidence, Shirayuki.

As Minuet has revealed to me the truth, now it is your turn.

You will know the answers to my questions.

“Kou. Come here. From here on out, I need you.”

And, when I turned around with an expression that revealed that wouldn’t allow her to say no…

“Ah… Ahhh….”

For some reason, Kou blushed a little and ran to the locker to get her winter coat.

“Kou is at your service. The Scarlet Goddess has been hurting Kou for a long time. No one could solve this problem… but Toyama did. If it is Toyama, maybe Toyama could even break the curse at its roots. Kou will help you with that.”

She came up to me with big eyes full of motivation, but… she is not even 140cm tall, so she is dragging the coat behind her. I know its wrong to talk about others, but she honestly looks like a child. Well, at least she is cute.

Also, it would seem, Habi did not want to be left alone in a place like this.

“Habi, together!”

And jumped into Kou’s coat, eating her precious food all the while.

“Hiyaua!?”

Kou screamed as she was getting tickled, and the two wriggled about in the coat.

Pon. Popon.

Two heads above the coat, four legs below it, with Kou’s right arm in the right sleeve and Habi’s left arm in the left sleeve.

They were wearing it in an irregular two-person style haori, side by side.

… well, that’s that then.

Habi is a child though, and not only in appearance but in brains too, and will need to be taken care of. If left alone, it would basically be neglect.

Sighing at Habi, who would literally just be slowing me down, I handed each of them a bottle of water, and both of them tried to put it in their respective pockets.

“Drink about 30% of the water now. If you carry a full bottle of water, it will freeze quickly since it wont be moving much. As long as the water is shaking around in the bottle, it won’t freeze.”

When I told the girls this, knowledge that I was taught in first year at Butei High, Kou just said “Oh, is that so?”, seeming to not know this basic knowledge.

“I see… you are from Hong Kong, that’s right. Do you dislike snowy mountains?”

“… yes. I have seen snow before in Nishizou, but I have never seen a blizzard this big before.”

Seeing as how Habi lived in Kiinokuni and Africa before, I guess that means neither of them have lived in a land where it snows.

They are both quite unsuited for Aomori, one of the snowiest places in the world with its frigid Siberian winds.

I need to make sure that I protect both of them.

“Don’t worry. When I was a child, I had spent some time in Aomori because of my brothers work. This is not the first time that I have been lost in snowy terrain.”

“As one would expect from Toyama, you have experienced every crisis at least once.

Kou raised both her clenched fists in front of her chest at looked up at me with a look of respect…

… are you praising me because of that?

We climbed out of the train and began to traverse the snow in a zigzag pattern.

The beech forest, covered with thick clouds, was dim, and snow is flowing across the land.

To Kou and Habi, who were still sharing a jacket,

“According to the map on my phone, we should aim for a river in the west. If we get around there, there should be a national highway, which will still be closed as its March. Once we get on there, we should follow it and head for a northern ridge, and once we get there… I have a plan.”

First, I told the other two my plan.

While I told them my strategy, the success of it is thin.

In order not to lower the motivation of them, though, I did not tell them about about that.

“Also, Kou, Habi. While we are outside in the blizzard, keep the tips of your fingers moving. Also, rub your nose from time to time.”

“Why?”

“I’m hungry.”

“If you don’t do that, you will get frostbite before you know it.”

And, while I was urging caution against the cold…

I extended the wire of my belt with the buckle facing backwards and let the two following me grab it.

Habi and Kou were wearing the same coat, so there is no need to worry about them getting separated, but in a snowstorm, you can’t even see the person in front of you even if you walk in a straight line.

Unlike the mountain I was telling Kou about that I got lost in the Alps last year…

This mountain is different from Mont Blanc, it has no geographical advantage at all. It is a Japanese mountain.

I had camped with my brother in Hokkada and Shirakami Sanchi when I was a child, so it is not that I don’t know the terrain at all. Even without a guide, I should be able to handle traversing it. I even had to go through mountain training in the winter of my first year of high school, that was at Mount Akagi.

… none of that matters now though.

I need to keep moving.

I don’t know if the Scarlet Goddess intends to start a conflict of some kind, but even more importantly…

I need to get my partner, Aria, back.

And so I continue to walk through the -5C snowfield.

We continue to walk through the blizzard, and I continue to check from time to time to make sure that Kou and Habi are still following behind.

Unlike Mont Blanc, which was almost an ice field, the snow underfoot was soft like cotton.

It is nice since I can’t slip, but my feet keep sinking to my knees without mercy. I had to create a snow path for the two shorter girls behind me as I walked in the lead.

… this is a mountain path where you can typically traverse it at 5km/h if you walk at a normal pace, but under these conditions, even 3km/h is tough.

There were gloves in the coat pockets, but there was not enough protection for our feet.

All of us had tried to peel the synthetic leather off of the train seats and wrap them around our feet, but that did not matter as the snow was still getting into our shoes.

Although I could still see the map on my phone, I could no longer get cell phone reception.

I think we are still heading west, but there is nothing to help mark our path.

After even a short walk in such a situation, the forest looks the same for everyone in all directions…. behind us, up front, to our left, and our right.

There is nothing other than a sea of snowy trees…

(Shit. This might not be the right way…)

We had not left the liner even an hour ago, and I was starting to lose confidence that we were going in the right direction.

Perhaps we really are lost.

If so, than the more we travel the more energy we waste.

… should we head back to the train tracks? No, by now our tracks would be hidden in the snow.

“If only this blizzard would stop…”

I look around the forest, exhaling white breath and click my tongue.

And then…

“It will stop.”

From behind, I heard Habi’s voice.

“…? Do you understand what I am saying?”

“Yes. Habi understands. The snow will stop soon.”

Habi, huddled cheek to cheek with Kou and wearing her coat…

Yes, that is what I was saying.

“Also Toyama, the way you are walking, you are travelling south. It is better to walk toward that rock. You are travelling the wrong way compared to the wind.”

It would seem that Habi, who was pointing to the snowy field to the front right with her baggy gloved hand apparently…

As an oni from Africa, it seems that she understands nature, it is like the instinct of a child of the wind.

“Kou. Here looks like the top of Kilimanjaro, it looks similar!”

“They look alike! But even if you say that…”

Habi, with her smiling face, and Kou with her troubled expression were talking side by side, two person mode in their coat. I, though, was quite shallow in knowledge when it came to this conversation.

So, it would seem, even in the African wilderness, there were high mountains with deep snow…

From the rock we…

With Habi as our guide, we made good progress through the blizzard beech forest.

Habi actually seemed to have an acute sense of the wild, she was like a portable radar. As we walk as she told us, we were taking a course where the wind did not hit us directly.

That is actually amazing Habi. Can you cross a mountain on just a pure hunch?

“I’m hungry.”

“Here is a reward.”

I give my dry bread to Habi, it was frozen now and I couldn’t chew it anymore anyway.

”Thank you!” Habi said, mouth open and her fangs on full view as she happily began to chew on the dry, hard bread.

And so, as we continue on our way onward towards the west stream…

As the elevation decreased, the snow cover was also decreased.

(I was right to aim for the river.)

March is the season for melting snow. Even in Aomori, there is less snow now in the lowlands.

And, thankfully, just as Habi predicted, the snow has stopped.

It ended up being worth the march through the snow.

We already got the hard part out of the way.

However, in the sky seen between the clouds…

“… it is almost sunset now. We need to find a place to camp.”

The sun is setting now.

And, with that, the temperature is dropping by the minute.

“Are we going to camp outside, jiru.”

Kou asked, sniffling and with a weak look on her face…

“While I really want to hurry up and walk through the snow throughout the night, but that would be suicide. We should dig holes behind rocks while the sun is still up, avoid the cold night air, and wait for sunrise.”

As I was explaining it to them.

“Rest?”

Habi seemed to have figured out what me and Kou were talking about from our conversation…

“Okay, then. This way would be best.”

A tiny hand pointed further down the slope that we were descending.

“… it might be a people house?” (TL Note: Habi occasionally speaks in child speech, while it usually fits fine this is her talking here.)

Maybe there were some oddballs living in a place like this, kind of like Old Man Sanders in the Nevada desert…? I asked this to them,

“There is no one there, but it feels warm.”

Habi’s answer, however, just gave me more questions and no answers.

The current time is…

If we want to dig a snow shelter we need to start digging, or the sun will set before we get ourselves cover from the cold night.

Digging a snow shelter is, in essence, like making a snow cone but upside down. You have to dig until your entire body is completely covered, and that takes a lot of time with a shovel, never mind without one.

The sun is still out.

If we listen to Habi and believe her, though, we can still walk if we want to.

“How far is it till that “warm” place? If we walk as fast as we have been walking so far, will we reach it by sunset?”

“Mmm… Mmm…”

Habi wrinkled her brow, touched her horns, hummed, and hummed, and hummed, as if she was trying to make sense of my words, and then did a gesture as if she was sniffing the air around her.

And then, “Pa!”, with a smile,

“Ah! We can!”

… I’m not sure if it is a good idea, and I am concerned with putting my life in the hands of a child…

Given Habi’s track record on this mountain, I am willing to bet my life on it.

All right, let’s go. We won’t be digging tonight.

There has been, throughout history, many a military men who have died on nighttime marches through the snow.

But thankfully, it stopped snowing and the road that Habi was leading us on…

The path we were taking was slowly lowering in elevation, and as it does so, the snow depth decreased first to a meter, then 50cm, and so on, which can be seen with how deep the trees are buried.

And almost as soon as the sun was set.

“… soil.”

Bare earth was beginning the appear underfoot.

The slope around us had patches of snow and earth throughout it.

The soil was thankfully made up of dead leaves that had fall in the fall and turned to humus, making it far easier to walk on than teh snow.

“Ah, Toyama. This place already feels like a normal winter mountain.”

“How much farther…”

Kou and Habi, whose coats that were once snow-white is now returning to its original leather colour, and also have their cute smiles lined up.

Although their breath is still white, there is a fresh scent of wood and earth coming from the forest at night now.

Now under the silvery moonlight, we walked on the exposed soil and our walking speed increased…

At last, we heard the sound of running water. It was the stream we were aiming for.

“Habi. I was right to bet on you.”

I pet Habi on the head. Unluckily though, the horns hurt my hand whenever they touched.

Although our path had bamboo, it was no so dense that we could not walk on it, and we continue to wade through it along the river leaving the mountain…

The river was horribly swollen with melting snow.

I checked my cellphone… nice, I got two bars now!

The GPS had a wide radius of error, but a small portion of our predicted area was touching the river. We know where we are now.

“… Tsugaru National Park, Special Protection Area… Prefectural Road 28…”

Okay, according to the map…

Just a few more steps and there is a bridge we can use to cross the valley.

Beyond that, there is a road. Unfortunately, the mountain road is closed in the winter, though, so hitchhiking is not possible.

From here, though, we plan to head uphill toward the ridge over there.

Thankfully we are following an actual paved road instead of a mountain road.

Our ultimate goal for now…

It is not clearly decided, but the ridge ahead of this swamp for now.

If I remember correctly, I can probably see the Hotogi Shrine from there.

Like Aria did, we don’t have to walk all the way to Hotogi Shrine.

We can just walk to where we can see it.

As long as we can get that far…

(Kou can use Imaginary Leap once we get there.)

That technique, which can only be used once a day, has already been used by Aria and Habi… but not by Kou.

With that fact in mind, I hurried to the ridge, illuminating my path with a flashlight I had borrowed from the train.

As I continued walking along, I found something man-made that I had not seen for a long time… it was a rusty iron pole, about waist-high, with a sign that read “Public Health Security Forest Established in 1975 by Aomori Forest Bureau”, or something like that.

And in front of it,

“Toyama! This is a marker indicating the entrance to the forest, isn’t it? This means that from here on, this is a road that people go on! You saved my life!”

“Ah! Habi, Kou, Toyama, the heavens are with us!”

Kou looked relieved, and Habi was doing her own thing and looking up at me with a smile.

Both of them were in a mood that convinced me that this forced march was relatively easy for them. Children are so energetic.

When they smile, I am reminded that both of them are cute girls with their own personalities, so I decided to tease them a bit,

“Welp, the road is closed now. Time to leave.”

And, with a low tension smile, I looked at the two girls with a thumbs up.

Dodododo… crossing a bridge with thick iron railings over a creek with the loud sound of running water…

After crossing it, we came out on a prefectural road full of fallen leaves.

But…

Even if we walk up there, the dense beech forest prevents you from getting a clear view.

We walked for 30 minutes, then for an hour, heading in the direction of what Habi called “warm”… we kept travelling until we reached the norther ridge where we could see in the direction of the Hotogi shrine.

But all we could see is the night road and the beech forest.

(But it must be somewhere on this ridge…!)

I saw it several time when I was little. On the mountainside, there is typically somewhere where the view is open because the trees have disappeared due to construction, logging, or forest pests. From there, surely we can see the stars.

After two hours of walking in search of this clearing, when the snow started to block our way again…

We found a building on the side of the road with some kind of steamy vapour rising from it…

It is a two-story log house, and even though it is nighttime, there are no lights on. The building was clearly uninhabited.

And so, excuse me absent owner, and let me climb the wall like a gecko…

After climbing the rooftop, I look over the rest of the beech forest.

Even with the height, I couldn’t see the Hotogi shrine, but I did see some good news.

“…!”

Under the moonlight, I could see the shadow of a man-made object jutting out on a ridge about 3km away.

It was a steel tower.

I don’t know if it is for power transmission, weather observation, a radio tower… I don’t know what it’s for, but I can see a tower floating over the forest.

In order to construct a steel tower, the surrounding trees have to be cut down. Thus, the mountain ridge should be bare there.

In other words, the view should be open.

Also, if we climb up a bit of that tower, it will help us see Hotogi Shrine even more.

Kou climbed up to the roof of the log cabin with Habi in tow.

“Kou.”

“Yes?”

“Can you use Imaginary Leap.”

I wanted to make sure that she can still use Imaginary Leap.

“Oh, ah. I can’t carry the three of you, you would be over the weight limit.”

“I am the only one you need to send. The Scarlet Goddess is all of you and one of you… if any of you approach her she will now, it will be as if she is approaching herself. If that happens, it is possible she will take over you two again and fight me.”

The Scarlet Goddess has stopped controlling all three of them at once, for now.

Assuming that it takes a lot of concentration, even for someone like the Scarlet Goddess, to controll all 3 of the girls at once, and she has temporarily stopped doing it… I think… that means that the Scarlet Goddess is doing something else right now that requires a lot of concentration. Perhaps, she is going to do the final steps to truly turn Aria into a Scarlet Goddess.

That must be why she went to the Hotogi Shrine.

This is hypothetical of course. Surely, perhaps, maybe.

My logic and reasoning is full of holes.

But I know someone who knows all the answers.

If I can get to Hotogi Shrine, I might be able to meet Shirayuki.

That is the only person I can turn to, and that is all because of Minuet, a genius in deductive reasoning.

(What the hell could possibly be in the Hotogi Shrine…? Shirayuki. What on Earth have you and the other Hotogi been hiding?)

I will hear those answers to my questions. That is not debatable.

I was the one who had to make up my mind on this.

“Kou. I need you to move me from that steel tower towards where I instruct you to.”

I pointed towards the general other side of the forest with my hand… and of course, my classic misfortune skill was activated right there.

… suddenly, the moon was hidden by the clouds and it got even darker.

And not just temporarily. No, it looked like it would be clouded over for a while.

As it got darker, the tower was hidden behind the darkness.

It was almost as if we were in a skit, as the second Kou looked towards the forest everything around us disappeared.

“So we walked to the ridge, I can understand that Toyama. But this steel tower… I cannot see it…?”

Kou raised her eyebrows and then squinted as she tried her best to look through the darkness.

But now the tower was hidden in darkness.

I was curious about something, so I turned to Kou and Habi, who were both trying their best to look for the tower,

“By the way, I am curious about something. If you can’t see your destination, can you still teleport? What if I tell you the approximate distance and direction…”

I asked them both.

There is no way they would be able to see Hotogi Shrine, which is about 40km away, in the dark when they could not even see the tower 3km away.

“Yes. The coordinates for the exit point can only be set with a visible location.”

… In that case, I have no option but to wait for the clouds to clear.

Although the weather in the mountain can change drastically in a short period of time, at worst we may have to wait until tomorrow morning.

If I were to try to go to the tower by myself, I would just get lost on the mountain path again, and eve if I do go up the tower, I would not be able to see the shrine if it is this dark.

(Aria…)

I look at my watch, which reads 10pm, and feel a suffocating impatience.

I am in a hurry. My mind is in a hurry. But…

If one looses their cool, they lose half of their ability. I think that’s how the saying went?

I remember Reki’s old adage and decided to just wait for the weather to improve.

I thought that I might as well visit this log cabin while I waited, which would also help relieve me from the fatigue of hiking in the mountains.

This time, looking to enter it from the entrance,

“Thank you for your continued patronage for 46 years. We will be closing down in March, 2009. – Hoshizaki Onsen.”

That was written on a sign on an automatic door.

… Apparently, this was a hot spring hotel that went out of business just last year.

When we were “granted” access to enter through the back door using the lock pick set in the Butei Handbook, there was no sign of the building being ransacked by animals or vandals.

Inside that room, which was apparently the changing room of the hot spring, there was an aromatic candle left in a cupboard, so I lit it with a metal match that I had left in the bottom of my Beretta holster.

That is how I learned about all the steam was coming out of the back of the log cabin…

The inn may have been closed for a year, but the hot spring water was still flowing in.

The electricity and heat were not working, but thanks to the hot steam the locker room was a little warmer. Thank God.

So, this must be the “warm” place that Habi was talking about. I see.

“We will wait here till the moon is visible again.”

I gave rough, general instructions to Kou and Habi, who it would seem had finally split from their two-person coat, and I…

I sat down and sat down by the shelves.

Earlier, the inclement weather with the moon hidden seemed like a waste of time…

My body is even more tired than I thought it would be.

There were some aftereffects from fighting in hysteria mode, but more serious is the damage from my body being deprived of body heat in the snowy mountains.

I mean, the second I stopped moving, my body started shaking. Even now my body is just recovering from being on the verge of freezing to death.

… I want to get back to Aria as soon as possible, but if I don’t take a break here and warm up… on the way to her I will just get sick or die.

We should rest for now. I mean, what is the hurry?

“…!”

And on the shelf I was leaning on…

In the changing room basket placed on the shelf, there were still brand new towels and pocket tissues still wrapped in plastic.

Both have the name of the spa here written on the plastic wrap.

(“Hoshizaki Onsen”, huh…)

Many of the place names in this area are associated with stars.

Hotogi is another. (TL Note: 星伽, which translates to Hotogi in English, means stars. Shirayuki’s name when translated in English would be White Snow Stars technically.)

The fact that we have entered a land with such importance on “stars” means that we must be that much closer to the “Scarlet Goddess Institute”, Hotogi Shrine, according to Minuet…

It would seem that, even after all that happened, I was still following Minuet’s advice, huh?

“How Water! Hot Water! Waaaaaa! Toyama! I praise you!”

Dotadotadota.

A naked little girl ran in front of me.

“Ha, Habi-san! Please wait~!”

This naked little girl was followed by a young girl in a cutoff sailor suit.

… Dodododo… bachin…

Baki… dodododo…

(… this, sound…)

From the mountains in the far distance comes a sound resembling the shaking of the earth.

That… was the sound of an avalanche.

The sound of wires snapping heard along with the avalanche must have been the sound of trees and their branches being snapped and ripped apart.

I can remember that sound clearly. Even when I was little, I could hear it sometimes in the early spring, and would frequently have to calm the scared and crying Shirayuki and other Hotogi girls.

(If we had camped out in the mountains like originally planned, we would have been caught up in that and died for sure.)

I was right to bet on Habi’s abilities and come down the mountain.

Thank you, Habi-sama.

“Waaaaaow!”

Dotadotadota.

What…

… Habi… sama?

Earlier, I was able to escape reality by listening to the sound of the avalanche. But…

“Hey! Habi! Why are you-“

… I am now a turtle!

As if to answer my earlier question, Habi opened the door to the bathhouse and rushed in.

And then, with vigorous energy, zabu! Habi dove into the open air bath, which apparently was just a natural hot spring that had been dug out.

Kou and I quickly blushed with a skill to rival Aria’s, but…

“Good, good! Habi was cold! But the water is hot!”

… I felt more envy than embarrassment at the sight of Habi zipping around the hot water on the other side of the steam.

The water looks really, really nice.

My whole body was chilled to the core, and it is demanding that I go into the water with all my might.

A dip in the hot water would revive my chilled body from the cold in one shot.

“… um, Toyama. Kou also…”

Looking at Habi, who seems to be feeling nice and revived from the bottom of her heart, it seems that even Kou couldn’t stand it anymore.

Her eyes were glued to the hot springs, where the steam was even in this cold rising from the hot water.

The night sky…

It was still dark and cloudy.

“… you can go in. The moon isn’t going to rise anytime soon anyway. You girls warm yourselves up in the back of the pool, I will sit in the front.”

This hot springs was as big as as swimming pool, but it doesn’t seem to have a separate bath for men and women…

Despite that though the steam is rising high and the pool is long. If I have all the girls at one end and myself at the other, the steam will prevent us from seeing each other.

First I close my eyes and turn toward the wall, letting the naked Kou go ahead into the bath, then I grab a towel and head to the hot spring myself.

On the other side of the pool I could hear “Please! Put on your headband!”, “Waaaaah, I got water in my ears!” The sound of the girls fooling around was not good for my since it stirred up dangerous images in my mind, so I tore off a piece of the pocket tissue and stuffed it in my ear to make an improvised earplug.

Normally, even at gunpoint I would not enter a spring bath with two naked women, but… this had to be done to restore my body from the cold.

I have my earplugs.

Visibility is almost nonexistent due to the darkness and steam.

Safety check complete. All right, I should be safe.

And from the moment I put my toes in the hot water…

(… yes, I can feel my body coming back to life…!)

It feels good.

It feels so good that it almost brought a tear to my eyes.

The tips of my limbs and the tense muscles in my body, which has become blue like a corpse, came back to life in an instant.

The water is hot, but it is the right temperature for a cold body. The constant flow of hot water will also ensure that the water does not get cold.

Also, I found this out after I went in…

But this hot spring is shallow, and the process to enjoy it is to sit in the water and soak by leaning against the rocks.

This also allows your back and feet to sit or lean on the slightly bumpy floor and wall, giving a massage sensation.

You might call me old fashioned, but honestly, I like it this way. It feels wonderful.

(If this was a game, I would have had a full recovery effect by now…)

And, as I soak in the hot water up to my shoulders, I stretch out my arms and legs and huff, breathing in the hot steam.

The view I have is the black of the sky, the grey of the rocks surrounding the hot springs, and the dark green of the trees surrounding the hot springs. The white light of the moon has not arrived yet.

I look up towards the thick clouds…

As I heal my body with hot water, I wait for the clear sky to return.

Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. And when my body got hot enough to start sweating…

… thin areas began to appear in the clouds.

When the clearing hit the moon, it got a little bit brighter.

The clear areas increased, sometimes to the point where there were actual breaks in the clouds.

Okay, the weather is getting better now. Definitely.

And finally…

(… moonlight!)

I can see it.

White moonlight. A black sky. A skin coloured… Kou…?

“…!”

Ah, ah, right in front of me…!

Ko, ko, Kou-chan! Kou-chan?!

I guess it is only natural as we are in a bath, but you are standing there… completely naked!

“…!”

She has the same look on her face the day that we first met eyes…

The silvery moonlight makes everything seem even more detailed than it really is.

Her narrow, white, unblemished shoulders.

Her breasts were modest and small, still developing in size. The curves of her waist is not fully developed yet, but visible and continues to her hips. Below that is a gentle curve that leads to her butt, which is so small it could be held in both hands, and yet despite being small is tempting to caress and seductive. (TL Note: this is pretty accurate to original, no I am not horny writing.)

The drops of hot water dripping down her exposed legs look heart shaped for some reason.

“………………………………………………………………….!”

Kou, her eyes round and wide open like a small animal, is blushing not only on her face but her entire body, and her cherry-red lips with white teeth peeking out are puffing.

I couldn’t hear her with my earplugs, but when I lip-read her, it would seem that she misunderstood what happened. She thought that because I was so quiet that I had left the bath already, when in actuality I was slowly making my way over to her while we still had some darkness to tell her that we need to leave the bath… and so we came across each other with a clear view.

With a good use of her hands and tail she hid her important girl parts but…

I thought it would be a waste of my precious initiative to let her escape before explaining everything, so I took out my earplugs to talk to her.

But Kou seemed far less panicked than I had expected,

“Ex-, excuse me, I’m sorry,I’m sorry Toyama.”

Pekopeko, she apologized, but her motions made her look cute and,

“–Hyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

She slipped off the rugged footing…

…basha!

She fell forward.

She had removed her hands and tail guarding her dignity and put her hands on my shoulders.

“…!”

“…!”

I should have avoided it, but that would have meant that Kou would have landed face first into a rock…

And so… I caught the naked Kou. Naked. Kou.

The result…

Now… I am not only soaking in warm water… but I am soaking in warm water with a naked girl in my arms… in a position where she is sitting on me… (TL Note: GOD I WISH THAT WAS ME.)

And even though she is 2,000 years old, or something like that, she is still physically similar to a grade 5 elementary girl.

A strand of black hair soaked in the hot water stuck to her small cheek, making her look even younger than the young Kou she was before.

“Toyama… Kou is calm. Kou will not let the Scarlet Goddess see an opening in her heart.”

Kou is still being Kou, but is being held to my chest.

Her arms were slightly bent and held close to her chest, and she was trembling slightly.

Kou is afraid that if she makes this strange and ruins her calm mood, the Scarlet Goddess might take her over, so she seems to be trying to suppress the excitement at being naked and held by me, a man.

The cute embarrassment and her heartrending expression…

But… blood flow wise… this is not good…! It is gathering at my core!

Endure. Endure it Kinji. For now, we need to let this wave pass us by. If it had been Shirayuki or Riko in this situation, I would have already failed, but Kou, who looks so young, should register as a child in my brain. I do not have an interest in such a young girl! I have no taste for younger girls. I have no taste for younger girls. I have no taste for younger girls…!

Me and Kou were stuck in a bad spot because neither of us want to touch each other in a potentially dangerous place.

And… then…

“Mumumu? mu-? Ah!”

Get out, get out! The first naked girl, or rather now the second, Habi is here!

Raising her legs as high as she could to splash the water, Habi appeared!

She struck a double-guts pose with a big smile! (TL Note: double guts pose is basically two hands up with fists clenched. Here is an example http://bitly.ws/y3Ko)

Unlike the tiny but girlish Kou, Habi had a boyish vivacity that was very appealing…

Her body though, which is clearly visible in the moonlight, is very clearly female.

I could begin to see her chest, which was just starting to emerge and develop.

“Ahhhhhh! Toyama, Kou, let’s make a baby!”

Habi, who was as loud as a firecracker, seemed to have misinterpreted the sight of the naked Kou being held by the naked me.

When Kou heard that, she covered her bright red face with both hands and looked around at me and Habi from between her fingers.

“N-, n-, noooooooooooooooooo!”

What Habi just said was rude towards Kou, so I turned towards her to scold her, with my now bright red face.

But Habi,

“Show my how to make a baby! I want to see, I want to see!”

She climbed out of the bathtub quickly with a splash, and got down on all fours at the nearby edge to get a serious look at us.

“Wh, wh wh wh why do you want to see what!? That is a bad hobby!”

“Yen and Tsubkai won’t tell me. The Red Oni say “don’t tell Habi where babies come from!”. No one will tell me. Toyama, show me!”

“Babies… come from the delivery room in a maternity hospital!”

I mean… why am I right now giving sex education to a girl in a place like this?

This should be treated as an influence of Hysteria Mode.

Since I was asked, I will teach you as it was your request. I’m cheating right now, aren’t I?

“A branch family in San’in? I don’t understand! Show me!” (TL Note: Habi confuses the words/does not understand them.)

“To-, Toyama. U-, um. I will be in trouble if I don’t have a child, so please take care of me and take the lead yourself. I will do my best to keep my heart and mind clear until the end…!”

I was wondering why Kou was being so weird and so accepting of this situation!

“This isn’t something you can do with a clear mind, I am sure of that! At least, I can only imagine that is true…”

And here, too, I responded with the “straight man” response. This conversation is getting dangerous… (TL Note: “straight man” original is tsukkomi, basically the common sense person in a comedy duo.)

“Hurry up and show me! After you show me, next is Habi! Give me a baby too!”

–Gyaa!

Even though they are far older than should be humanely possible… if I were to get them pregnant, these two girls who look like they do, I would be jailed and then beheaded with the triple punishment from the Butei Police sentencing!

“I wanna see I wanna see I wanna see! I wan’t to see everything under the heavens!”

At last Habi went into spoiled child mode and laid down next to the hot spring and started throwing a tantrum.

In spite of her appearance, she is a super-powered demon. If she is allowed to run amok, the hot springs would be destroyed, granted they are already out of business.

In fact, the rocks are being chipped with her bare hands…

In a panic, I grabbed Kou and I crawled out of the hot water, Kou in a state of dismay. Both of us grabbed Habi by her wrists and carried her away like we had just caught a wild boar.

And it was at this stage that I found out.

I am in Hysteria Mode, after all. Now that I am out of the hot water, I can clearly see that my blood flow has adjusted, and my central nervous system has become as clear as a pure crystal.

It would be really troublesome if Habi or Kou demanded something of me right now, so I…

“… let’s go. Before the moon hides itself again.”

I ordered Kou and Habi to do so in order to divert the conversation, or rather, to bring them back to the main point.

For me, a hot spring is…

It was not only a source for recovering physical strength, but also a point of total recovery to enter hysteria mode.

However, if this were a game, it would likely be reviewed and classified by CERO as not being for all ages because of this hot spring scene.

We put our coats back on and left the Onsen, walking through the forest with the flashlight in my hand..

We emerged in a circular, treeless area with a thing layer of snow.

The silver moonlight glints off the ground, making it look as if it were inhabited by fairies.

But from the centre of this area, stood a rugged, galvanized steel tower extending into the darkness.

Apparently, it was a telephone tower that is not powered in the winter.

There were no stairs to go up or down the tower, but there was a ladder that leads up to near the top of the tower.

(That is mount Iwaki, which means that… is the Tsugaru Plain…)

Relying on my childhood memories, I search for the direction of the Hotogi shrine based on the shape of the mountain.

I found it.

It is at such a low elevation and so obscure that it does not even have a name on Google Maps, but I can tell because it has so many features.

… Hotogi Mountain Shrine.

According to what I heard a long time ago, the dent in the mountainside seems to be an ancient crater.

Apparently volcanoes don’t always erupt from the top, but can erupt halfway up.

I could also see a crescent-shaped lake that was created by hollowing out the foot of the mountain.

The Hotogi Shrine was originally built on the grounds of the eruption, and is located in front of the lake.

“Kou. Um, look at the front of the mountain with a dent on the surface. At the foot of the mountain is a lake that looks like a banana. Can you send me there?”

I asked Kou that as… she climbed the steel tower using her limbs and tail while sharing the coat with Habi…

…Kokuri.

Kou nodded.

Okay, I am ready now. I am about 7 hours behind Aria, but I will be going to the Hotogi Shrine too.

“There is a shrine in that part of the forest hidden by trees?”

“Yep.”

“I can’t see the shrine itself, but I can see the forest around it, so I can send you still send you. At this distance though, the total weight can be carried is just barely enough for one person. You, Toyama.”

I was planning to go alone originally regardless but… it would still have been convenient if we could have sent someone with me.

Kou told me to take off any extra weight just in case, so I took off my coat and put on my boys uniform for Butei High. It was the same getup I had worn the first day I met Aria.

I am still just an ordinary high school boy found anywhere in Japan.

… Kinji Toyama. Who exactly are you?

… I am just a high school student.

This line, that I have exchanged with numerous enemies…

It repeats endlessly in my brain as if to encourage me in preparation.

(I am just a high school student taking on a God, huh?)

A self-mocking and resigned sigh escapes me

… a perfect Scarlet Goddess…

This time, this is an enemy that I have 0% chance of defeating myself.

Unfortunately, this has been an issue I have been aware of all along, especially in Hysteria Mode…

Every time I have gone up against an adversary, whether the change of success was 1%, 0.1%, or 0.001%, I had some change to win. I knew that in Hysteria Mode. So I get on that minuscule chance.

But this time… it is 0%. Absolute 0%.

I am no Sherlock, but still, even I know.

I cannot beat the Scarlet Goddess.

I know that, and yet, I will try.

AHHHH!!!

How in the world did I get into this mess???

Hey, Aria.

“… Toyama.”

Habi climbed out of Kou’s coat and put on the coat she received from me, against my expectations.

“You will be heading right into danger. Are you prepared to die?”

She told me this as if she could see right through me.

“You will die. Think about it and you will come to the same conclusion.”

Habi looks up at with her horns and a serious expression on her face.

Well this is interesting.

I could not help but listen to the sincerity in her voice.

“… go.”

Normally, Habi appears to be just a man of strength, but in times like this… her words and encouragement has an ineffable power.

I heard that Nobunaga Oda was one of those kinds of people. I can feel a bit of strength of his soul now in Habi.

I have been cheered on by Nobunaga, or would this be Habi? So…

“Thank you, Habi.”

I thanked Habi, the ruler of Kiinokuni, for her hospitality and words.

Then, once again, I turned to Habi and Kou…

From the pocket of my uniform, I offered several $100 bills from my uniform.

But sadly this place wasn’t quite optimal. It was a plastic bill, so it wasn’t torn, but it was very wet from our trek through the snow.

I just had it folded in two and clipped, it was not in any kind of wallet or envelope. This money,

“Kou, Habi. From the Onsen, follow the prefectural road down into the Shirakami Mountains. If you walk for about half a day, you will come to a station called Mutsu-Iwasaki. From there, you can take the train to Akita. In Akita, you can exchange the American dollars for Yen at the hotel, and then take the bullet train or go wherever you want.”

In actuality though, I was trying to give away of that wad of cash got as ammunition money aboard the submarine from when I got lost.

I really wanted to use this money for my tuition, but I may never come back from this alive. You can’t take money to the grave.

Let’s be generous and use it to be cool while I’m still alive after all.

Kou who received the money looked up at me with grateful eyes.

“Toyama… I don’t mean to thank you for the travel expenses, but here. I thought I’d give it to you when the time came.”

From a hidden pocket in the collar of her sailor blouse, she produced a folding knife.

The firm, steel-weighted grip is covered with a shiny white conch shell.

That is a fancy knife. I mean, it is the same material as the cameo on Aria’s grip.

Piii, I took out the blade and could instinctively tell from the shine that…

“Is this knife… Excalibur… the sword that caught Son’s laser in Hong Kong?”

“Yes. It was melted and spread out like an umbrella, but Jinyang recovered it. It was made of a very good steel, so a first-class knife maker from Maniago was invited by her to remake it back into a sword. It is much smaller now though…”

Did they seriously invite a knife craftsman from Maniago, Italy, a famous place for knives on par with Solingen Germany or Seki Japan to make a knive? Rampan is ridiculous rich as usual.

Anyway, the Scramasax, which I guess is now a memento of me and Son, in other words, Kou…

It became a knife from Maniago and has been returned to my hands.

“I’ll take it. I lost my butterfly knife just now, and if I went back to school later, I would be kicked out by the teachers for violating school rules.”

With a flick of my wrist, I fold it shut with one hand and tuck it into my pants pocket. It is a slightly awkward folding knife technique that was popular in my freshman year at Butei High, but it does look good when used with this Maniago knife.

It looks a bit gangsterish, but it would suit me, who is both self-proclaimed and called a “dark” person.

I love it. I fell in love with the knife at first sight, and this time will make sure to take care of it so it does not break like my belated knife.

“Thank you Kou. Thank you for coming with me this far. Let’s eat porridge together at the porridge shop under the highway in Hong Kong together someday.”

“…yes…” (TL Note: actual is “ai” which is an agreement, however, this can be used to signify affection. Might be unintentional, might be intentional, I don’t know.)

Kou, who seemed to realize that this was the time to say our goodbyes when I told her about our meeting in Hong Kong…

She hugged me with tears in her eyes, shook her long black hair and nodded her head.

“Tumbling cloud! Come, come, come-!”

As if saying goodbye could make her even sadder, she looked up to the heavens and began chanting an incantation to focus her consciousness.

–Raira-raira–raira–

Golden light particles began to fly around me, one, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two…

Habi, who began to suspend in the air, caught onto a steel bar to avoid being brought into the light particles.

After that very last scene, my vision was filled with light.

… raira-, raira-…

I felt Kou’s hand leave my waist, and then…

(Goodbye, Kou, Habi.)

… I disappeared from the top of the tower.