Yukinoshita Yukino and Hirasawa Ui continued slowly upward, while Kato Megumi watched them quietly from the side, her eyes filled with faint curiosity.
"I wonder what he's going to do..."
The Okuri-Inu walked out from behind the tall grass on the right. Its expression looked somewhat sorrowful as it murmured,
"I was supposed to be a divine spirit protecting travelers home. How did I end up becoming a ghost that scares people instead?"
Kato Megumi said calmly,
"After protecting people for so many years, scaring them once in a while shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"Are you the devil?"
The Okuri-Inu couldn't help but say.
...
Two-person team going up the mountain.
Hirasawa Ui had become even more cautious. Her deer-like eyes constantly scanned the surroundings, bright yet fearful. Whenever there was the slightest movement, she would immediately shrink closer to Yukinoshita Yukino.
Yukinoshita Yukino carried a cold, distant aura. If she were the one playing the role of a wandering mountain spirit, it might have been more fitting. Her naturally chilly temperament and expressionless face alone were enough to make the faint of heart scream in terror.
Watching Ui stick close to her, Yukinoshita's gaze flickered slightly.
She tightened her grip on her phone and quietly sighed inwardly.
Truth was… she was scared too.
Although there was no evidence that ghosts existed in this world, human emotions were difficult to understand and control. Even Yukinoshita Yukino was no exception.
Both of them turned their phone brightness to maximum and carefully moved forward, scanning their surroundings. Surprisingly, they still hadn't seen Sato's figure at all, even as they were about to reach the shrine at the top.
The mountain path was overgrown with tall grass, which only began to thin out near the stone plaza at the summit. It felt almost as if something was protecting this place, leaving only thick moss but no weeds.
Yukinoshita Yukino and Hirasawa Ui stepped out of the grass and looked at the stone plaza right before them, then glanced back at the grass behind them.
The moon hung high in the sky, and frost-like light covered the ground.
Without the obstruction of tall grass, everything around them was clearly visible. But instead, their hearts sank even further.
"Sen… senpai, where is senpai?"
Ui's voice trembled, almost incoherent.
Yukinoshita Yukino pressed her lips tightly together, forcing down the unease in her heart before looking upward.
"Maybe he's waiting for us up there."
But… was that really possible?
Standing here, they could clearly see that the stone plaza above had no tall grass. With no cover, it would be extremely difficult to hide and scare people.
It was not a good place for a prank.
"AAAHH!!!"
Suddenly, a scream came from below the mountain, startling both of them.
After regaining their composure, Yukinoshita Yukino comforted Ui,
"It's fine. It should just be the second group going up."
Judging from the direction of the sound, she determined it was likely Kato Megumi. As expected, she really did have a talent for scaring people.
"Let's go up."
She then looked toward the stone plaza above and said firmly.
"Mm!"
The two continued upward together. Before they even reached the plaza, they smelled a strange odor.
"Yukinoshita-senpai, what is this smell?"
"This is..."
Yukinoshita Yukino frowned in thought. After a moment, her face suddenly turned pale. She quickly stepped forward toward the plaza.
Although Ui didn't know what had happened, she hurried after her.
Stepping onto the final stair, the entire stone plaza came into full view.
Their eyes swept across the wide space, quickly locking onto a figure lying face-down not far ahead.
This is…
Their hearts sank at once. They rushed over in panic.
Soon, they saw that the face-down figure was Sato, completely motionless on the ground...
Crash.
Under the bright light of their phone screens, their pupils suddenly contracted as they stared at the deep crimson stain spreading across the fallen leaves beside him. The metallic scent of blood slowly drifted through the air.
"Th… this…"
The two girls turned pale and collapsed onto the ground, trembling uncontrollably.
A moonlit night, an abandoned shrine, a corpse...
A moonlit murder case!
The shrine instantly became deathly silent, filled with an eerie, cold, and terrifying atmosphere.
"Senpai!!"
Hirasawa Ui suddenly snapped back to her senses and rushed toward Sato's "corpse," tears welling up as she cried out desperately.
Even Yukinoshita Yukino, who had been frozen in shock, snapped out of it. Her pale face tightened as she walked over, biting her lip.
"Senpai, wake up! Senpai!"
Ui shook Sato's "corpse," tears streaming down her face.
Yukinoshita Yukino, still shaken, took out her phone with trembling hands, preparing to call for help...
"Cough, cough, stop shaking! If you keep shaking, I'll really die!"
Suddenly, Sato came back to life.
The "corpse" who had been quietly playing dead realized something was wrong when he noticed Yukinoshita Yukino's actions and quickly coughed, sitting up.
Both girls froze.
"You're… still alive? Where are you injured?!"
Ui immediately burst into tears of relief, grabbing his shoulders and frantically checking him from head to toe.
But soon, she noticed something was off.
She slowly looked up, expression blank.
"Senpai… where is your wound?"
"Well… there isn't one, because I wasn't injured at all!"
Sato laughed awkwardly.
He suddenly had a bad feeling. Was this "corpse game" he learned from Shin-chan a bit too much? It definitely scared them, but maybe a little too much.
The two girls fell into a long silence.
After a while, they slowly looked up at him, their expressions unnervingly calm and cold.
"As expected, Nohara-kun really does have a very bad taste in humor." — by Yukinoshita Yukino.
"Senpai, please go die." — by Hirasawa Ui.
Sato: "..."