Chapter Sixty-Five: Another World
“Let’s tidy up the situation a bit.”
Alice observed the reactions of Kanade and Chika.
She realized that there might be events happening that she was unaware of.
She maneuvered to distract the seemingly uninformed Ryo.
And found a secluded corner in a restaurant to sit down.
As for Chika.
She was supposed to be an ordinary person in her records, and usually showed no extraordinary qualities.
However, like Kanade, she seemed to have some impression of the name “Hinata Mana.”
Just in case, she decided to keep her around.
“Are you saying that there originally existed a girl named ‘Hinata Mana,’ who was Tsukimi’s childhood friend, or my classmate and good friend?”
“Tsukimi contacted her just over ten minutes ago, but now her existence and memories have been erased?”
Alice summarized what Kanade and Chika said and tentatively asked.
Kanade nodded in response.
At the same time, Chika seemed to be very frightened by this.
As she realized that Alice and Kanade were not joking, and that the junior named Hinata Mana’s existence had truly been erased,
Chika finally couldn’t contain her emotions and raised her small hand, trembling as she spoke.
“This kind of thing… has happened to me before…”
“Mm?”
Chika’s statement caused Kanade to look at her in surprise.
“The former president of the Super Research Club, Kuzuki Tokika, she also disappeared from everyone’s memories like this.”
“…Is she the senior that Amamiya mentioned to me before?” Kanade recalled what Chika had once told him.
The former president of the Super Research Club who saved her.
Although he learned at the time that she had disappeared without a trace after graduation, he never expected it would be to the point of having her existence erased.
Hearing this, Alice felt somewhat troubled.
She could tell from the expressions of the two in front of her that they were not lying.
But nothing substantiated their claims…
“It’s the Shinkai phenomenon.”
Suddenly, DD-chan appeared out of thin air and stood on the table.
“Eh—!!?” Chika immediately shrank back in fear at the sight.
“W-what—”
“Uh, Amamiya-senpai, please calm down, it’s just a spirit… harmless, probably.”
Kanade wanted to say something nice about DD-chan but found herself lacking confidence.
“A-a spirit!?” Chika’s eyes were welling with tears behind her glasses.
Although she was the president of the Super Research Club, she was not adept at dealing with supernatural phenomena.
This was the first time in her life she witnessed a supernatural occurrence with her own eyes.
A doll that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“DD-chan, do you know what’s going on?”
Alice had a lot to say about DD-chan suddenly appearing in front of ordinary people, but the urgent task was to clarify the so-called “Shinkai phenomenon.”
Because this might relate to the life of an ordinary person.
DD-chan hesitated over whether to tell Alice about her mother.
Should she make up an excuse or come clean?
Should she trust her? Even though she was a SEMA person?
Even if she has shown goodwill toward herself and Kanade, she is still fundamentally a spirit.
So-called spirits are antagonists.
They are beings that will eventually be exterminated.
“DD-chan, please.” This time it was Kanade who spoke.
“This concerns my most important friend. If you know what’s happening—”
“Then here’s my hypothesis.” Alice interrupted Kanade and gave DD-chan an out.
“You can agree or disagree with my hypothesis.”
“First, point one, what Tsukimi and Amamiya said is true; a person named Hinata Mana really existed.”
“……”
“Point two, the entity that triggered this incident has a certain connection to you and the doppelgänger.”
“…..”
Alice looked seriously at DD-chan, who remained silent.
No, she was tacitly accepting Alice’s hypothesis.
“Shirakawa Shrine…”
Alice reached the first conclusion.
“DD-chan, you just referred to this phenomenon as ‘Shinkai,’ and in the literature about you from the Super Research Club, there’s also mention of Shinkai.”
“These two are the same; your Shinkai may cause effects like existence being erased?”
“…..”
“You and the doppelgänger are of the same origin; it mentioned its mother several times before dying, and it’s possible that your mother is the same entity…”
“……”
“The only thing I have seen with supernatural power at Shirakawa Shrine is the talisman from Nagi-kun…”
“Talisman!?” Chika, who was nearby, caught onto that keyword and interjected.
At the same time, she took out the talisman from her pocket.
“This is the talisman that senpai once gifted me; she also disappeared after giving me this talisman…”
“So the existence behind all this is the deity of Shirakawa Shrine? It is the mother of you and the doppelgänger?”
Alice reached the final conclusion.
“In any case, I don’t care what your mother’s intentions are; I just need you to answer one question, DD-chan…”
“Is the person who experienced Shinkai still alive?”
“…..If we can make it before she and her mother are married…”
Finally, DD-chan spoke again.
Hearing this, Kanade became extremely anxious. Although he was very tired after today’s stage performance, just thinking about Mana being in danger compelled him to muster his strength.
“What should we do? How can we save Mana?”
“The person who has been affected by Shinkai is no longer in this world. To save her, we must go to that world…”
“It was caused by something from Shirakawa Shrine, right? Then let’s go to Shirakawa Shrine—”
Kanade started to stand up, but was pulled back by Alice.
“Tsukimi, calm down.” Alice said, “I’ve observed Shirakawa Shrine for an entire summer and found no signs of anything like an ‘entrance.'”
“To enter another world, a token is needed…”
“A token means a talisman?” Alice keenly caught on to what DD-chan was implying.
“Then, does this mean Amamiya-senpai’s talisman—”
“No, that’s a fake…” DD-chan admitted.
DD-chan knew that the talisman in Chika’s hand was a suspected counterfeit made by carbon-based life forms.
It contained no “token” from her mother—a bell.
There was no way to open the door to another world…
Should she tell the suspected carbon-based life form about this? No, she had said before that she absolutely must not expose her existence, or else—
DD-chan shivered.
But aside from the bell she had, what else was there… Wait, could it be—
“I… know a place that might have a token to enter that world….”
“Where?”
Faced with Kanade’s question, DD-chan slowly lifted her head to look at Alice.
“Right inside the SEMA branch in Kawano City…”
The “wish machine” hidden within the pure white room.
…..
…..
Mana slowly regained consciousness from the darkness.
“Where am I?”
She opened her eyes but found that she did not seem to be in a hospital but outside.
She was lying on stone-paved ground, surrounded by a lush green forest.
She should have been attacked by Yano Ryoko’s manager.
Why was she here? How long had she been unconscious?
Mana looked up at the sky.
It was dusk.
It felt as if not much time had passed since she was attacked.
As she tried to lift her body,
A talisman fell from her pocket onto the ground.
And it let out a crisp sound of bells.
Mana remembered this was the night she encountered Ryoko at the gym.
Feeling utterly helpless, she had gone to pray for divine help at Shirakawa Shrine… and found it…?
No, wait.
Mana shook her head; that vague memory slowly revived.
At that time, she had climbed Shirakawa Mountain but had not reached Shirakawa Shrine…
The place she ended up was—
Mana suddenly lifted her head and looked around.
This was a dilapidated shrine.
Broken stone bricks, decaying eaves, overgrown weeds, with no signs of living beings.
“Welcome, my shrine maiden.”
In the twilight.
A giant shadow emerged behind the decrepit temple.
The pseudo-god Shirakawa would not allow its shrine maiden to die outside of its domain.
