Chapter 146: Standing Alone (7)

Red-painted torii.

Thick pillars, appearing almost black in the darkness, flanked either side. The stone floor between them gleamed, polished smooth. As clouds alternately obscured and revealed the moonlight, the pillars shifted from dark red to a black that seemed to hold a different shade of darkness within.

Trees that had grown to envelop the torii swayed eerily in the chill night wind, their rustling leaves and creaking branches sounding like invisible entities swarming towards him.

There was a sound.

With each gust of wind, leaves shook, and with each shake, he sensed something watching. The formless presence wrapped itself in tree-cast shadows like a cloak, piercing through him with unshining eyes.

He imagined a predator lurking in the darkness, eyeing its prey's throat from the light. He felt a gaze upon him, moving with silent steps and invisible feet, crawling on all fours from the shadows.

He felt it.

The terrible gaze that seemed to lick the nape of his neck, almost brush over light hairs with fingertips, and breath on the ends of his hair..

Ryosuke was rooted to the spot by that gaze, the gaze that made all of his hairs stand on end and raised goosebumps across his body.

It seemed to be waiting for him to cross the torii, to step over the boundary into another world. The chilling sensation paralyzed him.

He stood stock-still before the torii, cold sweat beading on his skin as he stared beyond it.

Like a frightened animal, like prey that was considering its instinct’s warning, sensing danger before the predator's strike–

He remained motionless, facing the night wind. His cold sweat was swept away by the breeze, and even as he began to shiver, he couldn't bring himself to move.

How long had he stood there? How many times had the moonlight peeked at him from behind the clouds?

Suddenly, a noise-filled voice reached his ears.

[ Hey. Why are you standing there? ]

Ryosuke turned his gaze to where the sound came from, and he saw a human figure.

It was a woman wearing a thin, almost see-through white yukata. She was looking at Ryosuke with an incredibly cold gaze, holding out a smartphone in one hand. On the smartphone, a person's face was visible in poor quality, but despite the noise and distance, the image was clearly visible to Ryosuke's eyes.

As if discovering light in darkness, the person's face on the smartphone was clearly visible to his eyes.

The next Chief Priest.

The bizarrely peculiar man who suddenly appeared one day and was infiltrating the political world.

A monstrous human who controls ghosts and bewitches people, an unknown being who wields those in power with absolute authority through pleasure.

He was looking at Ryosuke through the smartphone and speaking to him.

[ Hey. Come in here. The night wind is so cold, and there are so many insects out, why are you standing in front of the gate like this? Don't be shy, come in and let us have a chat. ]

The next Chief Priest said with a smile in his eyes.

His voice, filled with noise, cut through the darkness of the night and struck Ryosuke's ears, and though not loud, each word seemed to embed itself deeply in his mind. But even hearing these words, Ryosuke didn't move.

He stood still as if his feet were glued to the ground, just staring at the smartphone.

[ Hey. You seem to have come as a guest, yet why are you embarrassing me like this? Come in. Cross that torii and come here. ]

The next Chief Priest's continued urging.

And proportionally, his heart pounding as if about to burst.

His feet not moving as if something was holding them.

Ryosuke found it hard to come to his senses in this confusing situation.

It felt as if the darkness was stickily clinging to his body, reaching out with a chilling touch, and the gaze of the next Chief Priest visible through the smartphone seemed to form light and swirl before his eyes, bewitching him, and the voice in his ears telling him to come in made him feel like he was about to lose balance.

Ryosuke pondered.

He pondered.

And finally, as if bewitched, he tried to lift his legs that felt like they weighed a thousand pounds to take a step forward.

To----ryanse toryan-se.

But at that moment, there was a sound that snapped him back to his senses.

It was the pedestrian traffic signal sound coming from a traffic light near the shrine.

Normally, there should only be a mechanical sound without lyrics, but lyrics carried by a voice that seemed like a ghost wringing out its soul reached his ears. And when he suddenly came to his senses, the voice that had been tickling his ears had disappeared, replaced by a faint mechanical sound barely audible from far away.

Beep-bibeep-bibibeep-

Hearing that tiny sound, he unconsciously hummed.

"Where does this side path lead to..."

Was it to forget his fear?

Or was it a simple action to continue the lyrics that had been cut off in the middle?

"...It's the side path to the Tenjin deity..."

And was it after hearing these two hums?

The next Chief Priest displayed on the smartphone spoke to him with a smiling face.

[ I'll let you pass. You have business, so you can pass, can't you? But cross this torii with fear in your heart. ]

The next Chief Priest's face, distorting the lyrics of the first verse of "Toryanse" (Pass Through) in a strange way, wore a seemingly kind smile. But Ryosuke, whose senses had returned along with humming the song, couldn't erase the thought that that smile looked like the aggressive expression a predator shows before hunting.

That was why instead of taking a step forward, Ryosuke extended that foot backward.

He stepped back.

Seeing this, the next Chief Priest smiled brightly.

[ Oh my. Look, the host has come out to the gate like this to welcome an honored guest, how can you embarrass me like this? Come in. As in the song you sang, I have given you permission to pass, so don't hesitate and come in quickly. ]

Ryosuke couldn't stand this voice that seemed to be seducing him.

"Ah, no. Um... I received your message well. But I just remembered an urgent matter, so I'd like to talk on an auspicious day later..."

He knew this behavior wouldn't be seen favorably.

He could clearly understand that in his head.

But his eyes that were hurting as if being pricked by needles.

His heart that was pounding as if about to burst.

The sweat that was making his back damp and soaking his hands and feet.

His whole body was screaming that he absolutely must not go in there.

Even if it raised suspicion, even if he was branded a traitor.

It was screaming that he absolutely must not enter there.

[ An auspicious day, you say? ]

"Yes, yes. I'd like to see you on an auspicious day."

[ An auspicious day, an auspicious day. Hahahahaha. Hahahahahahaha! ]

Hearing the words "auspicious day," the next Chief Priest laughed loudly.

He laughed so loudly that even though the speaker was distorted and the sound was breaking, he kept laughing and laughing.

[ Yes, an auspicious day. Very good, good. If that's what you want, I have no problem with it. ]

The next Chief Priest muttered with a voice still filled with laughter.

But soon his voice changed to one filled with coldness.

[ But you know. Do you perhaps like classics? ]

"C-classics?"

[ Yes. For example... The Four Books and Five Classics, or the Tao Te Ching, things like that. ]

"Ahem. As I'm neither a warrior nor a scholar, I don't have much interest in such things..."

Even as Ryosuke was saying this, he was very subtly pulling his body back.

He was unconsciously saying with his body that he didn't enjoy conversing with him.

But even though the next Chief Priest noticed this, he smiled brightly as if pleased.

[ Then you probably don't know about the story of Zhili Su either. ]

"Could I hear your wise opinion?"

An alarm bell rang in Ryosuke's mind.

That something was going wrong.

His instincts were screaming that something big was about to happen.

But even in the midst of this, Ryosuke was sincerely responding to the next Chief Priest's stories based on his experience as a politician, and at a glance, he could disguise himself as appearing calm.

[No. You don't need to know. Zhili Su was a person whose uselessness became another kind of usefulness, but aren't you someone more special than anyone else, let alone useless? So you don't need to know Zhili Su's story. Yes, especially if you turn your steps back now....]

"That..."

Ryosuke knew that what the next Chief Priest was saying now contained a very significant meaning.

He didn't know what it meant.

He didn't know what intention it had.

But he could be sure of one thing.

A choice had been given.

Just like the day he first met the next Chief Priest.

Ryosuke pondered for what felt like an eternity in a split second.

And he came to a conclusion.

"Then, as you said. I'll see you on an auspicious day."

The conclusion he reached was to leave this place.

He chose to leave this place as his body, his senses were telling him to.

He chose to escape from being prey and return to being human, to return to his residence, the most comfortable and safe place in the world.

He politely said his goodbyes to the two and went down the stairs.

And when he was out of their sight, he started running frantically.

Ignoring his shortness of breath and nearly rolling down the stairs, he moved forward thinking only of getting away from the shrine, and finally got into his car.

Only after burying his head in the steering wheel for a long time to catch his breath, and thawing his body that had turned ice-cold with the heater, could he grasp the steering wheel with trembling hands and start driving.

Ryosuke turned his smartphone face down as if he couldn't stand to look at it and pressed the pedal.

And how far had he gone like that?

He finally got caught at a traffic light.

And while waiting briefly at that light.

He heard mechanical sounds from both sides.

Beep—bibi-bibibeep--

It was the pedestrian traffic signal sound that had brought him to his senses earlier.

It was a walking signal sound made up of only mechanical sounds, but for some reason, clear lyrics seemed to come to mind.

The lyrics of a song he had heard countless times since childhood and sung until it was engraved in his head.

Going is fine but coming back is scary.

Even though it's scary.

Pass through.

Pass through.

Ryosuke was about to hum those lyrics absentmindedly without realizing it.

But just as he was about to sing, the signal changed again and the traffic signal sound was cut off abruptly.

Ryosuke let out a small sigh on the empty road and pressed the pedal.

To return.

To return home from the shrine.