The "Miko Matsuri" is a festival that has only emerged in the town in recent decades, but the history of Shikatori Shrine can be traced back hundreds of years.
Legend has it that in the Edo period, a hunter hunted a snow-white deer in the mountains. When he was about to kill the deer and prepare to cook it for dinner, the deer suddenly showed a human-like expression of fear and then vomited.
She said that she prayed to the hunter if he could let her go, and she would definitely repay the hunter with a heavy reward. The hunter was attracted by the clear and clear sound of the deer. Driven by curiosity, he loosened the rope that bound the deer. Unexpectedly, this
In front of him, the deer turned into a woman dressed in plain silk and with snow-white skin.
The hunter became so animalistic on the spot that he wanted to take off the clothes of the woman transformed from the white deer and rape her, but the woman calmly told the hunter that happiness was only temporary and that this kind of thing was just an illusion, but happiness and health could
Harmony and happiness are indeed eternal. If the hunter puts away his murderous and violent nature, the woman will not only be willing to serve the hunter for the rest of her life, but also be willing to keep his descendants safe for three lifetimes.
The hunter was influenced by the woman. As expected, he no longer treated the woman roughly or treated her like a maid, but treated her as a guest. The two spent a total of twenty years building a famous house in the mountains.
On the day of the completion of the shrine of "Shikatori", the woman transformed into a white deer disappeared in full view. She left a letter for the hunter. The content of the letter said: "I am originally a little girl in the mountains.
God, I accidentally lost my divine power and was hunted by you. Now I have regained my divine power because of you building a shrine. I'm sorry to keep hiding it from you, but I didn't lie to you. I will pray for you with my divine power. You will definitely live to be a hundred years old in this life.
In old age, your descendants will also enjoy ten years of health and tranquility."
Later, the hunter became the first priest of Shikatori Shrine. He really lived to be a hundred years old and died. Many people who heard the mysterious story of Shikatori Shrine came from far away to pray for peace and happiness. They were at the foot of the mountain.
It spread its branches and thrived, gradually developing into today's Shikatori town, and the hunter's descendants have always inherited the duties of the shrine's priest. Today, the shrine's priest happens to be the hunter's great-grandson, that is, the deer girl promises
of the third life.
As for the "Miko Matsuri", wealthy families have heard the story of Shikatori Shrine. In order to pray for blessings for their children, they will pay a high price to send girls to Shikatori Shrine for ten days of training as "apprentice shrine maidens". During this week
, the girls will follow the daily life and coursework of real shrine maidens. On the last day of the ten days, the "trainee shrine maidens" who have completed the course will be qualified to walk around the town holding a lantern for a week, and then return to the shrine to prepare for their future.
Praying for the health of life and family.
The "Miko Matsuri" is also the most profitable event at Shikatori Shrine. The last day of the "Miko Matsuri" should have been the liveliest day in the town, but today there was almost no one around to watch the trainee miko's night parade with lanterns, and every house turned off their lights.
He held a candle and locked the door, obviously frightened by the recent serial disappearance of girls.
However, for the sake of the shrine's profit and maintenance this year, the shrine's priest concealed the series of strange things that had happened in the town recently from the families who sent the girls to take miko courses. The police have not yet informed the citizens of surrounding cities.
Instead of making a large-scale broadcast, the incident was suppressed because of fear of unnecessary panic and fear of alerting the serial killer, which would put the missing girls in danger.
The families of these "trainee witches" are waiting at the foot of the mountain. They don't know the strange things that have happened in the town recently, so they are very confused. Tonight should be the busiest day in the town, why is the whole town in chaos?
It was dead quiet and no one could be seen...but they also thought that it was probably because of the heavy rain tonight. It was normal for the residents of the town not to want to go out in such bad weather.
Yuan Zhisheng noticed the security guards in civilian clothes patrolling in the corner of the town. He had a premonition that today's task would be more difficult than imagined. First of all, the weather today was indeed very bad. Such extreme weather provided convenience for prisoners to commit crimes.
At the right time of the year, and secondly, today is the "Miko Festival". Girls from outside are also within the scope of possible attacks by criminals, which increases the range of victims. Those patrolling police officers must not be high-risk mixed-race farmers.
Opponents, not only are they unable to provide help to Yuan Zhisheng, they may even make prisoners more vigilant, increasing the risk of Yuan Zhisheng being exposed.
Minamoto moved slowly on the roof towards Shikatori Shrine, trying not to make any noise while hiding his figure. Fortunately, the heavy rain provided the criminal with a favorable environment for committing the crime and could also provide some cover for his actions.
, if the girls are cicadas, then it is not certain who the mantis and the oriole are.
Yuan Zhisheng accelerated the flow of dragon blood in his body, and his five senses instantly increased to dozens of times that of normal people. Perhaps high-risk hybrids can also improve their vision, hearing and sensitivity when their bloodline is out of control, but Yuan Zhisheng
He is a super hybrid who has inherited the "Imperial Blood". His normal performance is several times better than that of ordinary hybrids, even far beyond that. As long as Yuan Zhisheng remains vigilant at all times to prevent sneak attacks, there are few people in this world who can compete with him.
The enemy he faced head-on.
Minamoto has arrived at the edge of the town, at the foot of the Shikatori Shrine. At this time, the girls have already carried lanterns and stepped onto the bluestone stairs going up the mountain. It has to be said that the fee for training shrine maidens at Shikatori Shrine is expensive, but the effect is also very significant.
, these girls from big cities are walking in the heavy rain with lanterns in hand. No one is playing or crying. In just ten days, they have transformed from the pampered greenhouse flowers into decent trainee witches.
.
The parents also braved the rain to follow the girls up the mountain, not only because they were worried that the mountain road would be difficult to walk in the heavy rain and what accidents might happen to the girls, but also to see the results of the training the girls had spent ten days here...
Practice is almost closed, which also means that these parents have not seen their daughters for ten days. The "Miko Matsuri" is equivalent to a display of the results of these ten days of practice, showing parents how to spend their money.
Is it worth it? What did their daughter learn at Shikatori Shrine in these ten days and how much has changed.
Tonight's victim will definitely be among these girls. This is Yuan Zhi's firm thought. He has seen the list of missing girls. Every girl is someone he knows. One of the biggest common characteristics of these girls is
That is, they are all young, the eldest among them is only eighteen years old, and they are all beautiful. Some girls have an ethereal beauty like mountain elves, and some girls, Xiaojiabiyu, are like exquisite porcelain dolls.
Every girl's beauty is different, and this hybrid kidnapped these girls with their own characteristics as if to satisfy his morbid collecting habit.
Yuan Zhisheng just looked at the "trainee witches" who were carrying lanterns up the mountain from a distance. There were many beautiful girls among them, and the ages of these girls also fit the criminal characteristics of the prisoners. The most important thing is that Yuan Zhisheng
Put yourself into the perspective of the prisoner. There are only a few types of girls in the town. The prisoner has almost collected them. These girls from outside the big city will leave the town tomorrow. Today is the best time to take action. How could the other party miss it?
?
The girls had already climbed to the Shikatori Shrine halfway up the mountain. Minamoto Chiaki did not follow them, but stayed on a roof at the foot of the mountain. The roof he was on had the best view, and he could clearly see the scenery from the foot of the mountain.
There is a whole mountain road between the vermilion torii gate and the shrine halfway up the mountain. There is only one passage from the town to the shrine. After the criminal kidnapped the girl, he would definitely go down the mountain through this road, and the additional police officers dispatched by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department
Living in a shrine, if a prisoner commits a crime in the shrine and is discovered by the police and escapes down the mountain, Minamoto's position will be perfect for guarding him.
The shrine is a bit far away from Minamoto no Tatsuki, and the heavy rain hindered Minamoto Tatsuki's hearing. The whole town was enveloped in the sound of rain hitting tiles. Minamoto Tatsuki waited patiently, staring at the shrine and the torii gate at the foot of the mountain.
On the connecting road, the palm of the hand is close to the handle of the long knife at the waist, like a panther dormant in the darkness, ready to pounce on its prey at any time.
As time passed by, Yuan Zhisheng lowered his head and looked at his watch, and then frowned slightly... Something incredible happened. Since time goes backwards, the watch was developed by people from the scientific research team, so it would not happen easily.
There was a malfunction. Before Yuan Zhisheng could think about whether he had fallen into the opponent's realm of speech spirits, a scream suddenly came from the mountainside shrine.
Then there were noisy discussions, the cries of the girls and the roars of the parents mixed together, breaking the silence of the whole town. All the lights in the shrine were lit up, and the lights on the mountainside were brightly lit. For a time, the people in the town
They were also shocked by the sudden movement, but they still did not dare to turn on the light. They only dared to open the curtains in the corner of the bedroom to see what was going on outside.
Yuan Zhisheng screamed in his heart that something was wrong. He quickly jumped off the roof and ran towards the shrine. At this time, Yuan Zhisheng didn't care whether he would be exposed. Looking at the movement at the shrine, the criminal might have already taken action.
Well, if Yuan Zhisheng could arrive in time, he might be able to save a few girls from being persecuted.
Passing through the vermilion torii gate, Minamoto Chisei stepped on the bluestone steps that were wetted by the heavy rain, and ran all the way towards the mountainside. The scenery around him was retreating rapidly... Minamoto Chisheng, who was in a hurry to rush to the shrine, did not notice.
Strange cracks appeared in the rapidly retreating scenery around him. It seemed that the space of this world had cracked for some reason. On the other side of the cracks, you could vaguely see snow-white mountains, huge deep wells and monsters with broken limbs.
.
Gen Zhisheng came to the front yard of the shrine and saw the crowd gathered in the center of the front yard. The girls were trembling in the arms of their parents. The parents tried their best to comfort their children, but the expressions on their faces were very unnatural.
Several parents were still standing there crying and pulling on the clothes of the shrine staff. The police officers separated them. The police officer in charge and the palace minister of Shikatori Shrine stood beside each other, seeming to be asking about something. The palace minister's expression
It was also ugly. His face was full of disbelief, as if something terrible had just happened here.
Yuan Zhisheng moved closer and listened to the questioning between the police officers and the shrine minister.
"How many girls are participating in the 'Miko Festival' this time? Please confirm." the police officer asked the palace minister cautiously.
"Seventeen people..." Gongji stuttered, "I'm sure I remembered correctly... Ten days ago, a total of seventeen children were sent to the shrine to study. We collected seventeen fees and prepared
Seventeen sets of beds were purchased...other people in these shrines can testify."
The police officer looked at an older miko standing aside. This miko was the wife of the palace minister. During this time, she had been responsible for preparing the girls' daily necessities and taking care of their daily life. She should be very familiar with these girls.
.
The older miko nodded dully. Before the girls set off, the palace minister did not lie. The daily necessities prepared in the shrine were all seventeen. Before the girls marched, she also personally counted the number of people. There were seventeen people in total. Absolutely not.
An error occurred.
"No!" A girl suddenly interrupted, "There are eighteen people in total... I was the one standing at the very back. When I walked across the covered bridge, I counted the people one by one. Seventeen people passed in front of me!
"
The girl was pulled back by her parents as soon as she finished speaking. The parents covered her mouth and held her tightly in their arms, as if they were afraid that the girl's words would cause trouble.
The police officer looked at the palace minister and the elder witch again. The elder witch said with fear: "I'm not lying. There are really seventeen people. You can go and see the backyard of the shrine. There are only seventeen beds there...
...There are also account books. During this period, the shrine has been preparing for this 'Miko Festival', and only these seventeen amounts of money have been recorded in the account this month!"
"The people at the shrine probably didn't lie." A police officer came forward, "I counted, there are a total of seventeen families here. After the 'Miko Festival', these girls should go home. Even if there are
Parents don’t come to watch their children’s ‘Miko Matsuri’, but it’s impossible for them not to take their children home.”
The police officer in charge of the inquiry nodded. It seemed that it was not a problem at the shrine. Then his eyes fell on the girl who said there were eighteen people. He walked up to the girl and asked in an extremely serious tone: "
Did you really see eighteen people? Could it be that you counted it wrong?"
"It's impossible to count incorrectly," the girl said with certainty, "because walking at the end of the line, every time I passed a corner or intersection, I would silently count which number I was on, and every time I was counted, it was ten.
eight."
"Songzi, stop talking." The girl's father pulled her behind him, and the man said to the police officer, "Maybe the child really counted wrong. She has always been poor in math, and it rained so heavily today. She made a mistake.
The number of people is normal.”
"But I really counted it many times." The girl named Songzi said stubbornly.