"Haha, don't sweat the small stuff. Isn't there a saying in this country? They say people who obsess over trifles never grow tall~"
"There is no such saying!!"
The girl's fury seemed to reach a new boiling point.
"Alright, look, time is short, and I can only rely on you," Sū ěr said, his playful demeanor vanishing. His sudden gravity caused Higurashi Kagome to instinctively straighten up as well.
"Ah, um, uh… Huh?"
"There's a McDanald's chain store over in the shopping district. The manager's name is Kizaki Mayumi. Could you please hand this leave-of-absence note to her?" Sū ěr pointed to the piece of paper on the girl's left, which contained a pre-written excuse he'd prepared. "Just tell her it's an emergency and I couldn't deliver it in person, so I had to entrust it to you. If she wants to keep the job open for me, great; if not, that's fine too… She doesn't need to settle the pay for the hours I haven't worked yet. Anyway, I'm counting on you for this one trip."
"Who said I'd help you! And you just decided everything on your own!!" A small vein pulsed on Kagome's forehead. "Also, what is this?!"
"Oh, thanks a million~. As for that… well~ think of it as an advance for your trouble~." Taking the girl's response as a 'yes' by default, Sū ěr snapped his fingers one last time. He then leaned back and plummeted into the ancient well behind him, leaving only a final sentence hanging in the air.
"Sorry to put you out, little Kagome~. I'll bring you back a souvenir later~."
As his words faded, the gold in front of Kagome solidified. It took the shape of a young girl with a slightly lowered head, wearing a short skirt and a look of deep hesitation, her hands raised to her chest. Within her hollow palms, a sphere was embedded against her chest.
"Ah!! Hey!"
Kagome could only let out a frantic shout. She didn't even have time to condemn the fact that her likeness had been turned into a statue again—a blatant violation of her portrait rights. She simply ran as fast as she could toward her family's ancient well, the place where that powerless Yōkai had vanished.
However, when she peered anxiously down into the well, there was no one there.
The Yōkai was gone.
"...What is this even supposed to be?" Kagome stood up slowly from the edge of the well and looked listlessly at the two items still floating in the air. They were even rotating slowly on their own. She happened to see the golden statue coming face-to-face with her.
That expression of hesitation was so accurate it made Kagome's skin crawl... Accuracy-wise, that Yōkai's craftsmanship was truly life-like.
"Aaah... AAAAAHHHHH!!!" Like someone having a sudden mental breakdown, Kagome began stomping her feet and clutching her hair. "How am I supposed to explain this to Grandpa and Mom! This is so annoying! And this statue!"
It wasn't as big as the previous one, but it was still larger than her palm.
Staring intently at the miniature version of herself, Kagome's face suddenly flushed red—though it wasn't obvious under the cover of night. She had just remembered her grandfather's reaction when he saw the first statue.
["Kagome... have you heard of 'Yōkai Proposals'? Legend says that if a Yōkai takes a fancy to a family's daughter, he'll send a piece of gold in the dead of night. If the family accepts the gold, it means they agree to the match! Haha, Hahahaha!"]
Recalling the way her grandfather had laughed himself hoarse, treating the whole thing like a massive joke, Kagome felt her right fist tightening.
"Argh! This is the worst!"
Driven by a mix of shame and anger, she decided to push the annoying thoughts to the back of her mind. She stomped toward the two innocent items floating in the air, snatched them up, and shoved the leave-of-absence note into her pocket.
"Sleep! I'm going to sleep! I'll deal with this tomorrow!"
——————————————
Sū ěr had no idea an old man had played such a prank on his granddaughter. In fact, after falling backward into the well, he had put Kagome entirely out of his mind.
A middle school girl... Sū ěr was certain that, given her serious and brave personality, she would deliver the note for him. As for what kind of reaction that manager—the one who terrified Maou Sadao—would have, he couldn't predict.
Mhm... thinking about it from that angle, Sū ěr suddenly realized that when he eventually returned to this era, the souvenirs he'd have to bring back might be more than he'd imagined.
[Your mind is wandering.]
"Sorry, my bad."
After acknowledging his lapse, Sū ěr turned his attention to his surroundings. It wasn't much different from the river of light he had encountered when traveling to the modern era. The only major difference was that the bands of light were flowing in the opposite direction. Yet, even that difference was hard to track within the seemingly infinite, connected stream.
Sū ěr didn't feel any pressure or discomfort, which was exactly the anomaly—he hadn't forgotten the misery of his first trip months ago: the headache, nausea, and general malaise. That was a negative state he hadn't experienced in a very long time since becoming the One True God.
Right now, however, he felt as normal as if he were still back in the city.
"I remember you saying that, logically, going back to the past should be far harder than going to the future?" Sū ěr said thoughtfully.
"Logically, yes. But didn't you say something in the past was pulling you? Perhaps that's the reason?" Think was also somewhat puzzled.
The concept he had retrieved from the orb on the girl named Kagome acted like a rope, pulling Sū ěr forward through this river of light. Most bizarrely, Sū ěr could feel all sorts of familiar auras at the other end of this rope.
Then, the light dissipated.
It felt like being submerged in seawater, yet when he opened his mouth to breathe, it was air. What felt viscous wasn't a liquid, but the spiritual energy of the entire world... This was the world inside the 'box' as Sū ěr remembered it—a world where things could gain a spirit if you weren't careful.
To be honest, even now, he found it hard to believe that this world—which looked so fake no matter how you sliced it—was the past of that future world with a real universe, a real sun, and a real moon.
Clearing his head from the brief distraction, Sū ěr found himself more curious about the strange pair in front of him than the unanswered questions of time travel.
Was it... Eirin? And... Daigu?