"Are you really counting correctly?" The police officer groped his chin in distress, "This is strange. The evidence given by the shrine indeed shows that there were only seventeen children sent, but this girl named Matsuko insists that she was there."
I saw eighteen girls at the Miko Festival, who is lying? If no one is lying...then who is this extra girl?"
An inexplicable and strange emotion spread among everyone. The priest and the old witch of the shrine didn't seem to be lying, and the girl Matsuko didn't seem to be lying. So where did this extra girl come from? Could it be a ghost?
What?
There were similar rumors in the distant Edo period. While the parade of witches brought peace and health to their families and town residents, they also carried some kind of magical power that would attract people wandering in the mountains.
These ghosts are formed by resentment, because they lived extremely unhappy lives and long for redemption after death, so the witches' festival is also a kind of soul-calling ritual.
But even if these legends are true, these girls are just trainee witches who have been practicing in the shrine for ten days. Do trainee witches have such powerful magic to attract the resentful spirits in the mountains? This resentful spirit and the recent girl
What is the connection between the frequent disappearances?
The police officer shook his head and denied the theory of ghosts and ghosts. He is a law enforcement officer of the Metropolitan Police Department. He pays attention to evidence and clues when handling cases. The ghost of a girl kidnapped in the mountains... is really unscientific!
"There are thirteen girls left here. Are the missing girls four or five?" the police officer in charge of the case asked another police officer responsible for investigating the parents, "What do the parents say?"
"A total of four pairs of parents claimed that their children were missing." The police officer responsible for investigating the parents said in a low voice, "They did not find their children in the 'Miko Matsuri' team. If there are still thirteen children,
Including the missing children of these four pairs of parents, the number of girls should be seventeen."
"How did your police handle the case?" A man who had lost his child stepped forward angrily, "What's the use of worrying about seventeen or eighteen people? Shouldn't the top priority now be to search for the children?"
"It's all your fault, it's all your fault! I told you not to send girls to this kind of mountain to participate in witch training. You insisted on sending her here. Are you satisfied now? The children are gone!" A woman sobbed,
While beating the shoulder of the man next to him, he said, "If my daughter can't be found...if my daughter can't be found, don't go home tonight!"
"Your shrine is also responsible!" A parent said to the shrine priest and his wife, "I paid you money, I paid you a lot of money! You have the responsibility and obligation to take good care of my children. Now
My child is lost, if I cannot find my child, I will never let you go!"
The priest of Shikatori Shrine and the elderly shrine maiden looked at each other, their expressions as ugly as if they had just eaten two dead flies.
As a couple who have been living at Shikatori Shrine, they certainly know what is happening in the town these days. They pray to the gods every day for the town to return to peace. A large part of the reason is that the residents of the town have been disturbed by the serial disappearance of girls.
It makes people panic. They return home after school all day long and close their doors. The travel agency in the town has also begun not to accept outsiders. It has been a long time since anyone came to Shikatori Shrine to pray. The popularity of the shrine has plummeted. If it can be maintained for a long time,
This situation has lasted for hundreds of years and Shikatori Shrine will probably collapse in the near future.
The "Miko Matsuri" is a good opportunity. It is the most profitable few days for the shrine in the whole year. The income from holding a "Miko Matsuri" can sustain the expenses of the shrine for several months. It is not that the Miyaji couple are not worried about these things.
What accident happened to the girls from the city at the shrine, but the shrine's predicament forced them to take a risk without telling the parents of these girls. Fortunately, the ten days of miko training passed safely, and only tonight's "miko"
The "Festival" was complete when it was over. Just when the palace minister and his wife were about to let go of their ten-day fear, an accident happened at the last moment.
"Then let's tentatively estimate that there are seventeen girls in total." Due to pressure from parents, the police had to compromise and give up the investigation on the number of girls. "There are four missing girls. With the shrine as the center, the search will be carried out around it.
lock up."
"Well..." Another girl suddenly interrupted, "Songzi probably didn't lie...it seems that the missing girls are really five girls."
"What?" The police officer in charge of the case frowned slightly. He looked at the girl who interrupted and asked urgently, "You said there were five missing girls? What's going on? Do you know anything?"
"I seem to have seen... when the parade started, an unknown person entered the procession." The girl's voice was small and she looked a little timid. "He was standing in front of me, wearing the same clothes as us.
…He even talked to me at first.”
"You don't know someone? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" The police officer was stunned. He quickly asked, "What kind of person is he? What did you talk to him? Describe his appearance and characteristics!"
"I don't remember...I don't remember." The girl's thinking seemed a little confused. "I just remembered that there seemed to be such a person...but I really don't remember!"
"You don't even remember?" the police officer said with confusion, "Didn't this just happen? How could you not remember it? You don't remember your appearance or voice? You don't remember the content of the chat either?"
"I don't remember." The girl shook her head honestly.
"What about gender?" This was an extremely important clue. The police officer asked without giving up. "Can we always determine gender? Is the person who sneaked in a man or a woman?"
"I don't remember...I really don't remember..." The girl shook her head in pain, and then suddenly became irritable.
The girl screamed like crazy, beat her head randomly, and tore her hair, as if she had just woken up from a nightmare and couldn't distinguish between dreams and reality, which shocked the people around her.
"Stop asking, she's just a child!" The girl's mother stood up and shouted angrily at the police. She held the girl in her arms and comforted her softly, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, we just experienced something like this.
, I got caught in the rain again, and I was scared. Don’t you want to be a witch anymore? We are no longer witches. We will take you home later. Mom and dad will take you home right now. We will never come to this shabby place again!
"
The police officer's expression was also very troubled. He finally found a new insider. He also hoped to dig out some more clues about this girl, but this girl forgot all the most obvious features of the guy who was suspected of being a suspect. It was really shocking.
It's unbelievable. Judging from the girl's mental state and the way her parents protect their children, it's hard for the police to get any useful information out of her.
The whole case was so confusing that the police officer in charge of the case was almost desperate. Just when he was about to organize a group of police officers to search for clues in the shrine, a figure in a black trench coat quickly walked to the center of the shrine's front yard.
"Did you see your children in the parade when we passed the torii gate at the foot of the mountain?" The young man in black trench coat asked straight to the point as soon as he arrived, the parents whose children were missing.
The parents were all at a loss. No one knew who this young man who suddenly appeared, wearing a black windbreaker and looking very stylish, was, and they didn't know whether they should answer each other's questions.
"Who are you? What are you doing at the shrine at this time?" The police officers gathered around and stared at the young man in the black trench coat. In such a sensitive period, the presence of such uninvited guests in the shrine cannot help but arouse suspicion.
The young man did not talk nonsense with the police officers. He opened his windbreaker to reveal the lining embroidered with a silver moon wheel. He took out a black ID card from the lining and showed it to the police officer in charge of the case.
"Execution Bureau?" The police officer looked at the ID shown to him by the young man and showed a surprised expression. "Are you the deputy director of the Enforcement Bureau?"
The Enforcement Bureau of the Sheqi Hachi Family often cooperates with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Although the police officers do not know what kind of organization the Enforcement Bureau is, the Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department has issued instructions that whenever there are enforcement officers from the Enforcement Bureau dispatched
In all cases, the attitude of law enforcement officers is the main priority, and all police officers need to cooperate unconditionally.
The Enforcement Bureau had also informed the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department of this case in advance. The police officer in charge of the case knew that someone from the Enforcement Bureau would be coming, but he did not know that the person coming was actually the deputy director of the Enforcement Bureau, and that the deputy director was actually
Such a young man.
It is a bit excessive to say that a man is a man, and a boy is more suitable to describe him. He looks like he has not even graduated from middle school... However, although this man is young, the fierce aura on his body makes the police officers in charge feel secretly frightened. The Enforcement Bureau
The certificate cannot be forged. This young man is indeed the deputy director of the Executive Bureau and cannot be forged.
"Please cooperate with me and answer the question that this person just asked." The police officer said to the parents solemnly, "Whether your children can be found will depend largely on this person."
The parents looked at each other in confusion. No one knew the identity of this young man in a black trench coat, but seeing the respectful attitude of the police officers towards him, everyone realized that this man had an extraordinary background.
"We didn't see clearly." The parents said to Yuan Zhisheng, "We can't get too close to the parade during the 'Miko Matsuri'. It rained heavily today, and the children all wore uniforms and painted uniforms.
"I returned to the shrine and after the children had washed up, I realized that the child was missing."
Yuan Zhisheng pondered silently for a moment. He looked at the first girl who spoke, Songzi: "When your team passed through the torii gate, did you count how many people were left in front of you?"
"I remember...I remember it seemed like I was the thirteenth." Songzi said uncertainly.
"So, these girls disappeared before returning to the shrine." Yuan Zhisheng said, "They were taken away during the parade."
"During the parade?" the police officer was confused, "How is this possible? If several girls disappeared during the parade, wouldn't it be easy to be discovered?"
Yuan Zhisheng knew that this was possible. Because of the serial disappearance of girls, no one in the town watched the "Miko Festival" parade tonight, so the only ones who could become witnesses were the girls in the parade. As long as they used some kind of
It is not impossible to hide the method from these girls and steal the girls silently during the parade.
"Then do you still remember where you were last when you counted only thirteen people in the team?" Yuan Zhisheng asked Songzi.
"I don't remember... I don't remember." Songzi's memory seemed to be confused. "I only remember that there were eighteen people at the intersection on the west side of the town."
Yuan Zhisheng was stunned. The intersection on the west side of the town was the road he entered the town from. He had passed that fork in the road countless times in his past life... because the town was on the right side of the intersection, and he was on the left side of the intersection.
The home where I stayed since childhood.
No matter how much I asked the girl named Songzi, I couldn't get anything out. The key clue was still in the second girl who spoke. She had seen the suspect with her own eyes and had communicated with him. She was the only witness. Yuan Zhisheng came
Next to the second girl, he slowly squatted down and asked softly: "Can you think of anything else? When did that person you didn't know appear and when did he leave?"
The girl hadn't recovered from the emotional loss just now. She heard Yuan Zhisheng's voice and turned to look at Yuan Zhisheng... and then an incredible scene occurred.
"It's you...it's you!" The girl pointed at Yuan Zhisheng's face, her expression as frightened as if she had seen a ghost, "I remembered!"
Everyone was frightened by the girl's reaction. Yuan Zhisheng was also a little frightened, but he quickly calmed down, held the girl's shoulders and asked: "What do you mean, who is me? The person who sneaked into the team looks very similar to me.
What?"
As if feeling the temperature of Yuan Zhisheng's palm, the girl's mood gradually calmed down. She looked at Yuan Zhisheng's face carefully, and then said in surprise: "Yes, you are very similar... but he seems to be more similar than you."
There were boys, and their voices were deeper... I can't remember the others."
"Hey, don't touch our child. Didn't you see that she was frightened by you just now?" The girl's mother angrily slapped Yuan Zhisheng's hand away.
The police officers were still confused. No one knew what the girl's words meant. Only Yuan Zhisheng's expression became solemn little by little... A certain suspicion gradually arose in his heart.
"Do you have an idea?" The police officer stepped forward to ask Yuan Zhisheng, but was pushed away by the latter.
Yuan Zhisheng almost ran down the mountain. He shuttled through the familiar streets of the town, with strong winds and heavy rain whistling past his ears... The criminal was a mixed race, but which mixed race would come to such a small town in the mountains?
?
An ominous premonition in Yuan Zhisheng's heart became more and more real, but he kept saying "impossible, impossible, impossible" in his mouth.
Running all the way to the intersection on the west side of the town, Yuan Zhisheng saw a lantern on the side of the road.