Chapter 430: Life Goes On, So Does the Chaos

"This is what the sky priestess sees when she's healing the weather... And don't smoke here. It's disrespectful."

"Oh, my bad."

Rinji stubbed out his cigarette in a small ashtray he carried and looked up at the mural on the ceiling.

In the painting, countless fish floated among layered clouds, with a massive whale poking its head out. Taking up nearly half the mural was a dragon made of white mist, its jaws wide open as if to devour everything.

"Showing me this mystical crap the moment I get here... I should've just gone to the meteorological agency."

"You're here to ask about the Sunshine Girl. People at the agency wouldn't tell you any of this."

An old man stood before Rinji—this was his home shrine.

Rinji had read in a magazine that the shrine had information on the Sunshine Girl, so he came to check it out.

"How long has humanity been tracking weather? Two hundred years, maybe? But that mural's already 800 years old."

"So you live in an 800-year-old house, huh? Pretty impressive."

Rinji raised his phone and snapped a photo of the ceiling mural.

"Eight hundred years... That'd be the Kamakura period in Japan, right?"

"This mural might be 800 years old, but the Sunshine Girl existed even earlier. Probably goes back to the previous era."

"The Heian period?"

Before Kamakura was the Heian period, when the Fujiwara clan controlled politics. Then in the late 12th century, Minamoto no Yoritomo was named shogun and established the Kamakura shogunate.

"Weather is just the gods' mood. There's no such thing as abnormal weather. It's just part of the cycle." The old man rasped. "Sunshine Girls were born in response to this—to soothe the weather and the gods. But for your generation, this probably sounds like nothing more than a myth."

"Not really. Our school has its own version of Princess Kaguya from The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter," Rinji said. "Too bad she's a 'damaged version' with a few screws loose—not quite like the legend."

He was, of course, referring to Kaguya.

"You're probably the youngest one to visit this place," the old man chuckled. "Someone else came yesterday asking about the Sunshine Girl."

"Huh?"

Rinji immediately tensed up.

His first thought was that someone had discovered Hina's powers and was investigating her.

"Who?"

"A young woman in her early twenties. Said she was doing research for an article."

"Do you know where she came from?"

"Some nearby studio that focuses on this kind of stuff. I forgot the name."

"...Alright. Thanks anyway."

Even though he hadn't learned much, Rinji thanked him and turned to leave.

But the old man called out.

"Kid, you came here looking for answers. Is it because you know a Sunshine Girl?"

Rinji stopped.

"What?"

"Just so you know, Sunshine girl-Weather maidens—sky priestesses—are the link between heaven and earth. They channel human prayers to the sky." The old man continued, "But their fates are always tragic. There are no exceptions."

"..."

"They always vanish from this world. In the end, they're sacrifices to the gods."

"Oh please. Real gods don't need sacrifices," Rinji suddenly laughed. "Things that defy logic love calling themselves gods, because no one knows what they really are—makes it easy to fake an identity."

He turned and walked toward the exit.

"As long as it's not human, I don't care if it's a god or not."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Because anything that's not human doesn't have human rights. If it has no rights, I can do whatever I want to it."

Rinji grinned.

---

"Rinji, where are you right now?"

"Harajuku... By the way, Fujiwara, are you calling me in such a hurry because something happened with the student council?"

Rinji was standing on the sidewalk, taking shelter from the rain, speaking with Fujiwara over the phone.

"Did Shinomiya have another episode?"

"Huh? Kaguya-san is totally normal today. No different than usual."

"Hearing that, I guess your brain hasn't changed either—no improvement at all," Rinji said. "So why are you calling me?"

"Rinji-kun..."

Chika suddenly lowered her voice, like she had uncovered some sort of secret.

"You suddenly not showing up to school—is it because you're investigating some kind of paranormal incident?"

"...How did you know that?"

"Heh heh, you think you can hide something like that from me, the Love Detective~?"

"Then, oh great Love Detective—who still hasn't caught Arsène Lupin—mind telling me how you figured that out?"

"This morning, you brought a copy of MU magazine to the student council room. That magazine focuses on legends and ghost stories. Plus, three pages looked like they'd been flipped through a lot—each one related to Tokyo's recent abnormal weather."

"...With how sharp you are, how do you still miss when Shinomiya's acting weird?"

"So you really are investigating this, and it's related to the urban legend of the sunshine girl that's been going around online, right?"

"...You got me."

"Ehehe, never thought someone like you would be into urban legends~"

"What are you trying to say?"

"Why didn't you invite me to something this fun!!?"

"..."

"I wanna investigate urban legends too! It sounds super fun!"

"Wait, don't get ahead of yourself. I'm only doing this because—"

"Harajuku, right? I'm heading there now," Fujiwara said immediately. "You're way too inefficient on your own. With the help of this Love Detective, we'll crack the case in no time!"

And with that, she hung up before Rinji could even refuse.

Standing on the sidewalk in the pouring rain, Rinji had a sinking feeling—

He was definitely in trouble.