For the next two days, I’m pretty much like a temporary helper of the shrine. I helped them with the cooking, cleaning, snapping firewood in half. I’ve had a part in almost everything minus praying and receiving consultation and/or donations from worshippers.

I’ve also accompanied some of the priests to patrol the mountain and look for materialized spirits at night. According to Takenaka Mitsuo-san, a priest that I went to patrol with on the first night, the spirits that appeared had increased by a lot ever since the Dragon Pulse has begin to leak. It’s like every spirit who committed suicide at the forest when they were still alive have decided to come out and take a walk at the same time.

Similar to what Yui did, Takenaka-san chose to talk to the spirits and try to make them pass on peacefully instead of using force and exorcising them. After being encouraged by him, I took a shot and tried to let one pass on as well.

The spirit I took on was the spirit of a student. I could tell because he’s wearing a school uniform. He’s wearing a pair of thick glasses, and his hair’s a bit unkempt. Most notably, he has huge circles under his eyes. It’s like he hadn’t been sleeping right before he committed suicide.

And did I mention that he was standing right next to his body?

That’s right. Instead of walking the pathway like Yui and I did when we went up the mountain, Takenaka-san brought me to wander around the forest.

The body was lying next to a tree with a noose on the neck. The other end’s tied to the tree trunk.

The spirit was just staring at his body and not saying a single thing. Just, staring. He’s entirely devoid of expression, so I can’t tell what he was thinking at all.

‘Kagenashi-kun, he knows that he’s dead. Do you know what this means?’ Takenaka-san asks me in a small voice.

‘Yes. There’s a high chance that he’s emotionally unstable, so I have to be extra careful.’ I whisper back.

‘Good. Now go. And good luck.’

‘Yes. Thank you.’

I took a deep breath to brace myself. After making sure that I was ready, I stepped forward.

‘Um, hey there.’ I say in a what I hoped was a friendly tone.

He didn’t even look at me. He did reply me though.

‘...Hi.’

Oh, boy. Where should I go from here? Just when my brain was trying real hard to come up with the next step, the spirit did the job for me.

‘So, I’m already dead, huh?’

Here comes the crucial part. Tell him the truth, or lie. I chose the obvious answer.

‘That’s right.’

He lets out a long sigh. He finally decides to look at me, and he’s smiling sadly.

‘Thanks for telling me the truth. It’s been a long while since someone did that.’

I shrug. ‘You deserve to be told the truth.’

He laughed at that.

‘If my parents heard that, they would definitely disagree with you. They had been telling me nothing but lies.’

‘What happened?’

‘The two of them are gambling addicts, you see. Most of the money they earned from working are spent on pachinko and lottery tickets. And they always complained that they don’t have enough money for food. Guess who’s responsible for that department?’

He pointed his index fingers at himself.

‘Oh, they were all apologetic when the fridge was empty. They’ll say things like they would definitely win next time so that all of us could live a better life. But they never told me when they actually won something from the lottery. In fact, they just disappeared one day. They just left a note to tell me that they went somewhere to double or triple the money they won, and they promised that they will return one day. Do you know what they did when they eventually did come back?’

I shake my head. Judging on how his body ended up here, it’s definitely not something good.

Instead of telling me immediately, he lifted up his shirt and showed me his belly. At first, I didn’t know what I’m supposed to look at until I saw a scar on the left side of his belly where the kidney is.

‘They told me that they failed to get more money. Not only did they lost everything, they are in huge debt. They blamed me for it because they were thinking of my future when they used those money to invest in shares. Fool that I was, I went on board their plan to sell my kidney so that some of the debts can be covered. Naturally, my body can’t function properly with just one kidney, and everyday was hell for me. To make things worse, my parents pushed all the responsibility on dealing with the debts to me and disappeared again. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I came here to end myself.’

‘It’s probably pointless and too late to say this, but nevertheless you have my condolences.’ I said to him.

‘Thanks. You’re the only one who ever said nice things to me. Everyone else, my teachers, my neighbours, my classmates, they avoided my like a plague when they heard about my problem. Didn’t even bother to ask me how I was doing.’

Poor guy. If someone was there for him, maybe, just maybe, he won’t end up like this.

‘So, I guess I’m supposed to pass on now. Any idea how?’ the student asks me.

Before we head out, Takenaka-san gave me some pointers on how to assist the spirits to pass on. First, you talk with them to get as much information as possible about their lives when they were still alive. Next, we try to make them pass on by telling them to think about their happy moments, like Yui did the previous night. Exorcism is absolutely a last resort, and usually not encouraged.

‘Well, you’re supposed to think of a happy memory. You got anything like that?’

He frowned. ‘I don’t think I have any, to be honest. I had a lousy childhood, and I spent most of my teen years working. I didn’t had any friends too.’

I felt the last part on a personal level. I didn’t have any friends back at the real world too, although my parents aren’t as terrible as his. They’re disappointed in me, but they did took good care of me.

‘Wait a second, I do have a single good memory.’ he told me after thinking for a while.

‘Which is?’

‘Last summer, I went to the summer’s comic convention. It was extremely crowded and really hot, but I had lots of fun there.’

All of a sudden, he had a much peaceful look. On a closer look, he was also disappearing.

‘I would do anything to go there again, even though it’s impossible now.’

‘Let’s make a deal, then. When you got reincarnated, we’ll meet up there and hang out together.’

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

‘What? Is that even possible? Even if you remember this promise, I probably won’t. Plus, I’ll look completely different.’

‘Just trust me on this one. Fate has a weird way of doing things sometimes.’

‘Alright. I believe you. But don’t blame me if you got called out for hanging out with a teenager when you’re an old geezer.’

I laughed at that.

‘Who cares about what others think?’

‘True that. Well, I guess this is goodbye. It was fun talking to you, even though it was only for a short while.’

‘Yeah. See you.’

The spirit disappeared completely after three seconds. I let out a sigh that had the mixture of both relief and sorrow.

‘Good job.’ Takenaka-san came over and said to me.

‘Thank you.’

I looked at the body of the student.

‘Should we bury him?’

Takenaka-san shook his head.

‘No. We’ve always left it to the police to handle this, since some of the bodies here might not be here due to suicide. We would be messing with a crime scene if that was the case. It’s also a bad idea to just bury them while their belongings are still with them.’

It’s sad, but I guess he’s right. Well, at least his spirit is in a more peaceful place now. With any luck, he’s already on his way to get reincarnated.

After that, we patrolled some more and made five more spirits to pass on. Takenaka-san-san and I took turns to deal with them. None of them were aggressive, so we didn’t have to use force.

Compared to fighting Destroyers and cultists, this job is much easier. I swore I could do this all night, until I saw the sun starting to rise.

‘Well, I guess that’s our cue to head back.’ Takenaka-san said to me.

On our way back, we met up with two other priests, Mita Hisoka-san and Bando Yoshito-san who also paired up and patrolling the forest just like Takenaka-san and I did.

‘How was your side?’ Takenaka-san asked those two.

‘We found eight.’ Mita-san reported.

‘Including our six, there’s a total of fourteen spirits tonight. And that’s minus the ones we didn’t manage to find.’

Bando-san, whom Takenaka-san introduced as someone who rarely speaks, nodded in conformation.

‘Is this number much higher than usual?’ I asked.

‘Indeed it is. Usually, we found four spirits at most in a single month. Now the record was easily broken in a single night.’

‘Um, isn’t it really bad?’

‘I agree. Unfortunately, we can’t rush this. We have to wait until Kiryuu’s done with her fasting before we have any hope of sealing the Dragon Pulse and stop this outburst.’

I’m also bothered by the fact that there are this many people who came here just to end their lives. No matter what world it is, I guess there’s always people who succumbed to the pressure and take the easy way out.

Bando-san noticed my gloomy expression and patted my back.

‘I know you might be depressed to see so many dead people. But that’s how life goes, yeah? Just make sure you don’t end up like them. If you’re depressed, don’t keep it to yourself and go talk to someone.’

I brightened up my expression so that they can stop worrying.

‘I understand.’ I said.

‘Good. Now let’s go back.’

‘Yes.’

The first thing I did when I went back was to check on Yui. I walked to the door and knocked gently.

‘Yes?’ I heard Yui’s voice from inside.

‘Everything okay in there, Yui?’ I asked while sitting down in front of the door.

‘Yes, Akira-kun. I’m doing fine.’ Yui assured me. ‘I’m a bit hungry, but other than that everything else is fine.’

‘That’s good to hear.’

‘How about you, Akira-kun? Are you faring well so far?’

‘Yeah. I was just done accompanying some of the priests to get down the mountain and help the spirits of those who committed suicide inside the forest to pass on.’

‘Oh, no wonder you’re up so early.’

‘Look who’s talking. Did you stay up for the entire night?’

‘Not at all. I just happened to wake up right before you knocked the door. More importantly, how was your first time in patrolling?’

I told her what happened just now.

‘I see. Thank you for your hard work.’ she said to me when I was done. ‘Was it difficult?’

‘Compared to what we do on an almost daily basis, not really. Rather than difficult, it’s more to depressing.’

‘I know how you feel. A lot of priests are diagnosed with depression after having to deal with so many spirits who died in all kinds of manners. Which is why it’s compulsory for us to go to therapy at least twice a year.’

‘Wow, that’s just sad. Did you went to those too?’

‘Well, not really. As you know, I was afraid of ghosts-’

‘”Was”? Don’t you mean “am still”?’

‘No, was is correct.’

‘Uh-huh.’

She went silent for a while. Even though I can’t see her, I can still imagine that she was pouting.

‘Look Akira-kun, I’ve already graduated from being scared of ghosts, okay?’

‘If you say so. And to celebrate on your graduation, let’s go to a haunted house after we’re done here.’

I heard her making a soft squeaking sound. Her whole face was probably pale as a sheet after I said that.

‘...Maybe I ‘m still a little bit afraid of them.’ she confessed.

‘That’s better. We’re still going to the haunted house though.’

‘Why?’ her voice became an octave higher.

‘To train you, of course. Now, you were saying?’

Yui tried to regain her composure by coughing softly.

‘As I was saying, I was afraid of ghosts, so I never did any exorcism nor did any work that was spirit-related. My parents were kind enough to let me do things on my pace, which made me anxious to rid myself of my fear as soon as possible. But I couldn’t do it no matter how hard I tried. Until I met you.’

‘You’re doing great.’ I assured her. ‘I mean it. Don’t ever believe anyone who tells you otherwise.’

‘I know. But really, I couldn’t have done it without you at my side. So thank you. From the bottom of my heart. I love you. I’m glad that I met you.’

Wow. A confession. At a time like this. I was really glad that she couldn’t see my face, since it was burning.

‘Yui, I love you too. And thank you for the confession. But it’s a really bad timing to be saying that. Now it sounds like a death flag.’

‘Don’t worry Akira-kun. I’m sure everything will be fine.’

I was about to point out that she did it again, but she might raise a third death flag, so I just kept quiet. Instead, I got up slowly.

‘Well, I don’t want to disturb your fasting any further, so I’ll be leaving.’

‘Okay. Do come and visit me again.’

‘Don’t worry. I most definitely will.’

After I’m done making sure that Yui is doing fine, I went to the dining hall to join the others for breakfast.

‘How was Yui-kun, Kagenashi-kun?’ Zaimoto-san asked me when I sat down opposite them.

‘She said she’s doing fine so far.’ I replied.

‘Well, let’s just hope that it will continue until she’s fit for the ritual.’

While we were still talking, we were served breakfast by Hiraoka-san and another helper, a Hamada Midori-san. They went inside the kitchen to get their share of the food only after all of us had food.

For that morning’s breakfast, we had boiled carrots and burdock roots, pickled radish, miso soup, and rice with a plum on it.

All the food are being planted and harvested by themselves on a small farm located on a place further down the road from the shrine, even the soybeans that are used to make the miso. Since this shrine is all the way on the top, it’s pretty difficult for suppliers to get up here and bring food. Therefore, one of Zaimoto-san’s predecessor suggested to build a farm so that they could farm their own food. Except winter. The people of the shrine have to rely on suppliers anyway during that season alone since plants will have difficulty growing.

After breakfast, the priests went to the praying room for their daily prayer. Before they go, I had a request for them.

‘Is it possible to send letters here? I want to post one to my friends so that they don’t have to worry about us.’

‘No worries. You can just write one, and I’ll make sure it’s delivered by using shikigami.’ Zaimoto-san assured me.

Hiraoka-san got me a pen and a piece of paper, and I started writing the letter. I didn’t make the letter too long, just writing that Yui and I will remain here for three days due to a ritual she has to perform. When I was done, Zaimoto-san took my letter and folded it into a paper crane faster than my eyes could follow.

‘To whom should I address this letter to?’

‘Morifuji Sakuya, please.’

Zaimoto-san mumbled something that I can’t hear. After he was done, the crane floated and flew away.

‘That should do it. And worry not. The paper is made of a special material and will not be wet even if covered in water.’

‘Thank you, Zaimoto-san.’

‘Think nothing of it. Is there any other services that you require from me?’

‘No, sir. That’s all.’

‘In that case, please excuse us.’

While the priests were praying, the helpers and I were busy washing the dishes and taking care of other chores like lighting up the incense, chopping firewood, watering the plants at the farm, and sweeping the ground to clear away the fallen leaves.

Speaking of fallen leaves, their color are much prettier due to the change in seasons. However, fallen leaves are still fallen leaves. We had to sweep them up and dispose of them no matter their color and prettiness. Too bad they don’t plant sweet potatoes here. I wanted to gather those leaves into a huge pile and burn them to roast potatoes.

By the time we were done with most of the chores, the priests were already done with their prayer. Some hikers had come over to pray at the shrine, and they were welcomed with open arms. I do my best to hide myself inside my room while they were visitors since they might be wondering what’s a student from the Academy is doing here.

‘If you’re that worried, you could wear a priest’s uniform.’ Hamada-san suggested.

‘But, I’m not a priest.’ I objected. ‘Plus, what if someone wants me to give them a blessing or something? I can’t do any of those things.’

‘Just tell them that you’re just a temporary helper here, which is true, and need the help of real priests. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.’

After getting permission from Zaimoto-san, Hamada-san went to the storage to get me a priest’s uniform. I fits me nicely.

‘Good. Now go out there and help.’ she said as soon as I got out.

‘Got it.’

A similar routine lasted for another day. I was even starting to enjoy it. Even so, I felt my true calling is to the Academy and I can’t wait to return.

Little did I know...