As they were figuring out how to comfort Sakura Miori, a lively greeting voice came from the side:

"Good afternoon, everyone!"

All of them instinctively turned their heads.

Unbeknownst to them, a girl with shoulder-length hair had already positioned herself at the coffee table.

Her large black eyes sparkled at that moment, her cheeks were rosy and fair, and her eyebrows fine and long.

Her lips were upturned in a spirited smile, radiating an aura of vitality.

It was none other than Senior Sister Shen Gu Mirai, whom they had just been discussing!

"Shen, Senior Sister Shen Gu?!" Takiyama Nanako and the rest stood up in a fluster, a touch of guilt flashing in their eyes.

After all, they had just been talking about the senior, and even though they hadn't said anything bad, feeling guilty was natural.

"Oh, there's no need to be so formal with me," Shen Gu Mirai chuckled and then waved over to someone else: "Mr. Temple, over here. They are here."

Mr. Temple...?

All eyes followed in the direction Shen Gu Mirai was gesturing.

They saw a young man with a plain one-shoulder backpack leisurely walking over.

Seeing him, all four individuals, who had just been calmed by Shen Gu Mirai, felt their emotions stirring once again.

"Brother Temple, good afternoon!"

"...Good afternoon." Beichuan Si gave them a brief greeting

As he said this, he also looked at Otomoto Ai: "Otomoto, the thing you spoke about on the phone and on LINE... let's talk about it in detail."

Sure enough, it was Beichuan Si; he hadn't even sat down yet, and he was already discussing the matter.

"Mr. Temple—" Shen Gu Mirai naturally pulled Beichuan Si over: "Let's sit down first, and then we can talk about these things, okay?"

Seeing Shen Gu Mirai's naturally affectionate gesture, the girls nearby subtly stuck out their tongues.

If it were Beichuan Huili being so forward, Beichuan Si would definitely have raised his hand without hesitation.

But Shen Gu Mirai...?

They didn't see any additional expression from Beichuan Si; he just let Shen Gu Mirai pull him to sit down.

"What would you like to drink?" Beichuan Si asked without emotion, turning his face slightly.

"Uh... strawberry ice cream, please!"

Shen Gu Mirai put her index finger on her lips, pondered a moment, and spoke.

"Eating cold treats all the time will upset your stomach."

Beichuan Si responded in a calm tone.

"Hmm... but I really want it." Shen Gu Mirai hesitated before replying.

Seeing her like this, Beichuan Si reached out to ring the bell, not forgetting to add, "You can't do this next time."

"Mr. Temple is the best."

Shen Gu Mirai giggled.

This scene, where they naturally flaunted their affection, left Otomoto Ai and the others exchanging glances.

They wanted to say something.

But... to actually voice it out, they dared not.

"Uh..." Otomoto Ai shook her head, throwing those messy thoughts out, and then began: "On LINE and over the phone, I already told Brother Temple that Inuzuka's sister wants to discuss her situation with us in person, as it seems impossible to clarify it just over the phone..."

"It's probably a bit complex if it can't be clarified over the phone, but no matter. We were planning to go to Yamanashi Prefecture anyway."

Beichuan Si knocked on the tabletop, not dwelling much on this issue:

"Aside from that, how is the investigation going on the matter I asked you to look into, Otomoto?"

On the phone, he had tasked Otomoto not only with getting in touch with Inuzuka's sister but also with finding clues about the calamity box.

"Well... just as you said, Brother Temple, I asked others about the calamity box... but they don't really know the specifics and only heard about the legend of a cursed object known as the 'calamity box' that is spreading."

Otomoto Ai paused, then continued:

"In fact, not many people believe in this legend. Everyone just spreads it around like a game, propagating rumors for fun."

"So that's how it is."

Beichuan Si pondered.

It's no wonder, after all, the consequences of using the Disaster Box were severe. It made for decent conversation material in normal times, but when it came to actually using it... there probably weren't that many foolhardy people.

Everyone was just a high school student, and high school students rarely had irreconcilable conflicts.

At least, no one wanted to experiment with their lives in a life-for-life deal.

Seeing that Otomoto Ai had finished saying everything she had in mind, Beichuan Si turned to look at Shinkai Mirai next to him:

"Mirai, can you please reiterate what you just told me."

"Ah... okay."

Shinkai Mirai first wiped her mouth, swallowed the ice cream, and then took out her light pink notebook from the other side of her small purse.

It still contained the investigations of the Sanmu Puppet Factory and Mirror Apartment, indicating it must be Shinkai Mirai's own investigative notebook.

"Actually, I also found quite a lot of interesting stuff on some school forums in Yamanashi Prefecture yesterday."

Shinkai Mirai began this way, then word for word, recounted her findings.

Essentially, she was telling Otomoto Ai and the others that there was a region in Yamanashi Prefecture called the 'Unknown Mountain Area', and on that mountain, there seemed to be a desolate cabin where the Disaster Box was hidden.

Besides this, she also briefly explained the specific folklore surrounding the Disaster Box.

"A small black box composed of human malevolence... that is the Disaster Box."

Otomoto Ai murmured this sentence, the conclusion of Shinkai Mirai's explanation.

"But the truth is... I found more than just that."

Shinkai Mirai smiled and shook her finger: "After investigating the rumors online, I specifically went into my parents' study and looked through the local folklore of Yamanashi Prefecture."

"Parents' study...?"

The four girls all showed an expression of confusion.

"Mirai's parents work in the field of folklore research, and her house has a lot of material related to folklore. I guess they have records of folklore from various prefectures across Japan."

Beichuan Si explained.

"Yeah. So Ai's request this time happened to match my specialty."

Shinkai Mirai nodded vigorously.

In the field of folklore, she was not going to lose to anyone.

After all, Shinkai Mirai had grown up immersed in various kinds of weird and wonderful folklore in her parents' study.

"However, let's put these sundries aside for now," Shinkai Mirai gestured dismissively, continuing in a straightforward manner, "I found some records in my parents' collection that caught my attention."

She took out a black gel pen, pointed at a spot in the notebook, and read out loud word by word:

"There is a legend in modern Yamanashi Prefecture."

"There is a deity of blessings who brought happiness to the people. It accepted their offerings and brought them luck; all who were blessed by it attained happiness..."

The text was simple and straightforward, it seemed that Shinkai Mirai had already categorized and summarized it.

"A deity of blessings?"

Sakura Miori paused, uncertain: "But wasn't Otomoto's friend killed by the Disaster Box?... What does that have to do with this?"

Hearing Sakura Miori's question, Shinkai Mirai closed the notebook cheerfully and replied forthrightly: "Actually, this legend and the legend of the Disaster Box have no connection at all, at least as far as we can tell... They are unrelated stories."

But—

Shinkai Mirai raised her finger:

"Although they are unrelated legends, blessings and disasters are inherently opposites. There might be some connection between them. Writing down this legend was also just to add another direction to consider. Even if the investigation turns out to be unrelated to this legend... it doesn't matter, spending a little more time on research is never a mistake."

Shinkai Mirai's words were indeed sensible.

Nowadays, they were still unclear about what the Disaster Box actually was, so having another direction to think about wasn't a problem.

On the contrary...

It was Shinkai Mirai's ability to discern these details from a mountain of folklore material that was truly...

"Impressive."

The girls, watching Shinkai Mirai talk and laugh with Beichuan Si, seemed to understand why Brother Temple had chosen her as his girlfriend.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.