W-Wah, Netaro-san! Don’t smash through the window, that’s dangerous!
Netaro-kun?! Toi-kun?!
W-What?!
Amidst all the chaos, I present to you: the Birdlime Trap that Even a Baby Can Handle!!
Take this! Birdlime attack!!
Waaaghh?! Wha— It’s tangling around my legs?!
Suspect apprehended!!
…Hm?
Whaaa?! Who the heck are you?! You’re not the main guy, you’re just a background character!
Shit, Uno got caught! Let’s book it for now!
Alright!
Hwah?! They got away!
Chief! Are you okay?!
Chief! What were you thinking…?!
Sorry, guys… I’m just glad everyone’s alright…
I’m sorry for putting you in danger like this…!
*sigh* Goodness gracious. You’re always going against my expectations, Netaro.
It doesn’t look like this fiú is able to move at the moment, so… Tsubaki, it’s alright. You can come out now.
Kuguri-san… Um, what happened…?
Are you injured, ma’am?! Urgh… Shit, I can’t move…
Uh, no, I’m okay. But what happened to you, Uno-san? Why are you speaking to me so formally…?
Ah, I’m so relieved you’re alright! It would be terrible if something happened to you, Miko-sama…!
You’ll be fine as long as you follow Nii-san, Miko-sama. Please, do not be led astray by the impurities of this earthly plane!
Uh, what are you talking about? Who’s Miko-sama…?
Do you know, Great Detective?
But of course! My temporary assistant, Toy, will explain.
Yes. It appears that Miko-sama is a figure that comes from the groom’s hometown.
The others are gone… So what are we doing, Netaro-san?
Didn’t that human seem suspicious to you, Toy?
Who, the groom?
Rather than his Beatrice, he seems to be worried about something else… It seems as if he’d taste like lies if you licked his sweat…
What…?! His sweat?!
Not that I’d do that. But yes, I had Nari look into him earlier. He should be contacting me soon!
*phone ringing*
Woh, nice timing! Beep!
Did you find something, Nari?
Yes. I researched Miyamori-shi’s hometown, and I have come to know that there is nothing to know.
Nothing?
Miyamori-shi’s hometown is a village named Amenaki Village. It is a small settlement in the mountains, but there is a strange lack of information regarding it on the internet.
Oh-hohhh?
So the natural conclusion is that someone must have either scrubbed the information or that there’s something about the village that cannot be made public.
I will send the location of the village to your smartphone. If you require additional investigation, please contact me.
‘Kay! Thanks, Nari!
So there’s something going on with this Amenaki Village place!
! Wait, is that why I’m here?
If we use the combined power of you and that other one, we should be able to figure out what’s going on here, correct?
……
(If I don’t do anything, Yukikaze-san and the others will be in danger…)
Okay, I understand. I’ll ask Aa-chama for help!
Through my divination, I was able to find out that Amenaki Village has a rainmaking custom.
Rainmaking…?
Across all periods and nations, humans have historically participated in rituals with no scientific basis in order to bring about rainfall after periods of drought.
Rituals such as burning mountains, performing dances, hanging up prayer dolls…
There are also rituals that involve human sacrifice. In Amenaki Village, they call their sacrifice the Miko.
?!
When we looked back into it from that angle, we found that all of the people who married into the village were never found again.
What…?!
Meaning that Tsubaki-sensei was about to be sacrificed as their Miko! The Great Detective cracks the case once again!!
M-Miko? Sacrifice…? I-I was…?
…Tsubaki-sensei…
…Yes, that’s right. She is our Miko-sama. What’s wrong with that?
Uno-san…?
Please don’t worry, Miko-sama. They’re wrong, you’re not a sacrifice.
You will spend the rest of your life in the Chamber of Prayer to purify our village of defilements and bring rain down from the heavens… It is a very vital role!
What if the Miko refuses to pray or runs away?
Miko-sama is a pure being. If they step outside of the Chamber of Prayer, they would be corrupted, so they have to spend their whole life there.
So that means…this person would be imprisoned in the Chamber of Prayer forever, against their will…?
Hmph, you outsiders know nothing. Miko-sama is like a god. They are a sacred being who brings the miracle of rain to our village!
Hmm. They just seem like an average human to me.
(…Miko-sama isn’t a god.)
(Aa-chama told me so. They’re not a “real” god like Oshisha-sama is. They said it’s just a foolish false custom born from human presumptions.)
(But… It’d be hard to explain that and have them understand, since Miko-sama is a source of comfort for them…)
Come now, Miko-sama! Let us remove ourselves from this earthly plane and return to the village!
N-No…! I…didn’t know about any of this…
……
Kuguri, did you know about this?
What would you like to hear me say, Yukikaze?
It won’t change what I’m doing. Whether her marriage will bring about happiness or some other thing entirely, my only role is to grant her wish to run away and be destroyed.
After all, she still has the ability to choose her own path right now.
……
Only seeing what you want to see, only believing in what you want to believe. There are countless humans who are like that… Are you one of them as well?
Yeah… I do think I only see what I want to see. How about you, Kuguri?
I just see what I see.
…I see now. So that’s your thought process, Kuguri.
Tsubaki-sensei… Did you want to run away from the wedding?
I-I… I did, but…
I’ve been living my whole life trying to make everything perfect… And I thought the wedding had to be perfect too, especially since everyone had such high expectations. But it felt so suffocating…
……
That’s when I went to see the fortune teller, but he told me that ruin would befall me, even if I got married, so I was just lost…
(That’s Aa-chama’s fortune…)
But then I met Kuguri-san, and we got to talking. And I started thinking that it was okay to run away from being perfect and go towards my own destruction.
It was okay to let myself throw everything away and live in peace… To find the courage to let myself be ruined, and…
…I just don’t know what to do anymore…
…! Stay away from the window!
What?
Got you.