I'm a ghost story witch in Tokyo

Chapter 26 26. Goddess Sacrifice

People come and go on the town road, which is completely different from the dead silence of last night.The "living people" they hadn't seen all over the town now all appeared in the form of harmless ghost stories, and they looked like normal people, able to touch and communicate.

Witches in kimonos walk or fly at low altitude on broomsticks. Their dress styles are far from those of today's Reiwa era, especially their hairstyles.

Some witches keep their princess cut hair, some have their long hair tied up and dress up solemnly, and some witches cut off their long hair and wear short Showa-style short hair, wearing shirts and short skirts.

They are very recognizable beauties who are pulled out casually, much better than the ancient costume ceilings and the first beauties touted by traffic.

The sky was too dark before, and Rui Ji couldn't see the background behind Asahina Town clearly.When the sun is high and the light is sufficient, you can clearly distinguish the surrounding environment through a distant view.

Surrounded by mountains, Asahina Town is located at the bottom of a low mountain valley, built along a river.

The special geographical environment has blocked the traffic in Asahina Town. Ordinary people can only enter and exit through narrow mountain roads, and cars and airships cannot enter.If you are a witch riding a broom, you must always pay attention to the road conditions, so as not to bump into the protruding edges and corners of the cliff.

Unlike Tokyo, there are holographic road signs and rolling electronic warning signs everywhere, reminding the flying witch to slow down, like a corner forgotten by the world.

Precisely, Asahina town fits the definition of forgotten.

No one knows what this place is, and no one has heard its name.

"Here, can you see where it is?"

Rui Ji tried to judge the geographical location through the commercial street signs in the town, but only sporadic clues could be collected.The townspeople of Asahina Town speak a Kansai accent with regional characteristics, and they are 100% sure that the town is located in a corner of Kansai that is almost isolated from the outside world.

"It's simple."

Yue points to a store that sells groceries.

"The wooden billboard outside says 'Specialties of Shiga Prefecture'. Shiga Prefecture is part of the Osaka metropolitan area, one of Japan's three major metropolitan areas. It is adjacent to Kyoto Prefecture and is the seat of the ancient Omi Kingdom. There are You don’t even know about this famous mountain range, do you? It’s written in history textbooks.”

Several familiar nouns in succession awakened part of the dormant memories in Rui Ji's mind.

"How could I not know? When it comes to the famous mountains in Shiga Prefecture in Kansai, the first thing that comes to mind is of course Mount Hiei (ruì)."

"Yes, Mt. Hiei. The Yanli Temple in Mt. Hiei was surrounded by the daimyo nobunaga Oda Nobunaga in September 1571. At that time, Oda Nobunaga was fighting with two other daimyo witches, Asakura Yoshikage and Asai Nagamasa. History Known as [Anegawa Battle], the Witch Allied Forces were defeated and fled to Hiei Mountain Enryaku Temple. Enryaku Temple provided assistance to Asai and Asakura Witch Allied Forces, but the enemy who harbored Nobunaga refused to hand it over, which annoyed her. In order to repay In revenge, Oda Nobunaga ordered his subordinates to set fire to the temple and slaughter the witches who practiced in the temple, which caused a huge sensation at the time."

Although standing in Asahina Town, you can't see the whole picture of Mount Hiei, and you can't capture those magnificent Buddhist temples and buildings with your limited vision.Mobilizing his rich imagination, Rui Ji could barely picture tens of thousands of witches wearing Azuchi-Momoyama era samurai armor fighting fiercely in this place.

The strange talk Sanriyue that appeared at home happened to be a product of that era, which provided the most intuitive material for her to construct the picture at that time.

Under such a historical background, this town hidden among deep mountains and dense forests happened to be the safest.The closer the villages and towns were to the capital at that time, the more dangerous they were, and wars would never be merciful because of who was innocent.

The traditional buildings in Asahina Town and the shrine on the mountain are well preserved. Obviously, in the turbulent era when heroes were born in large numbers, they escaped the magic and gunfire scattered among the witch daimyo, and came to the 20s safely.

It escaped the artillery fire of the Battle of Anegawa, and also escaped various disasters in modern Japan, but disappeared at the end of 1993, which is really a bit of a twist of fate.

Rui Ji didn't complain that Yue's words were suspected of deliberately showing off his knowledge. Considering the knowledge reserve of an ordinary high school witch, this guy really knows a lot, and he is hardworking and eager to learn.

This period of history occupies an important position in the history of Japanese witches, and is called "the turning point in the history of Japanese witches" by historians, and has a profound impact on later generations.It happened that Rui Ji was somewhat interested in this aspect, so he silently wrote down a few key points as a future knowledge reserve.

They went around the town again and found an unusual phenomenon—the whole town of Asahina was shrouded in an extremely excited and festive atmosphere.

There are no major national holidays to be celebrated in November, except local folk festivals.

There are a large number of banners with the words "Goddess Festival" hanging on the eaves and doorways of the shops. The witch Asakura who works in the hot spring hotel also mentioned "Goddess Sacrifice" and asked them not to hinder the progress of the Goddess Festival.

In places where the environment is closed and the civilization is not civilized enough, it is easy to have many strange beliefs.

Isolated villages and towns are breeding grounds for feudal superstitions. Mount Hiei happens to be a religious holy place in Japan, which is equivalent to the Jerusalem of Westerners. It is normal for people living nearby to believe in things other than technology.

This is another key clue.

Rui Ji used his notebook to write down key words such as "goddess sacrifice" and "sacrifice", and returned to the square in front of the town that he passed by last night.In the center of the square, a square altar base with a length of 10 meters and a width of [-] meters was built with wood. On the base is a miniature version of the Azuchi Momoyama period palace.

The palace is a Japanese-style vertical structure of Hirayama Castle, which is very similar to Himeji Castle, a landmark building in Hyogo Prefecture, except that the color of the outer wall is not holy white, it is covered with golden paint, and the tiles are all black.

Of course, the palaces dedicated to the festival are also built with wood, which is easy to assemble and disassemble at any time.The golden palace and the shrine on the mountain correspond far away, and the gold and red are dazzling under the dazzling sunlight.

The construction of the altar has not yet been completed, and there are still many witches in casual clothes with sweat towels on their shoulders. They use magic to manipulate wooden hammers to knock and beat, or let the carts full of wood move forward automatically to transport things to designated locations.

These witches all have a weak magical reaction, but they are so weak that they are almost negligible. They belong to the weaker category of weak witches.

During the appreciation process, a wheat-colored long-haired witch dressed as a witch stood in front of them with a displeased expression.

"This is not suitable for you, please don't hinder the construction of the altar."

With the Kansai accent that sounded like a quarrel and the unfriendly tone, Rui Ji almost thought he was being scolded.

Although it is not a curse, the meaning of the warning is very straightforward.

(End of this chapter)