Fujiwara Chika was a somewhat boisterous child.
Her curiosity and the corresponding drive to act on it were her most distinguishing features, just like her pink long hair.
Although born into a prominent family, she inexplicably had a rather free upbringing. Perhaps this was the main reason she became so lively and cheerful, to the point of being somewhat troublesome.
Perhaps it was precisely because of her personality, with its abundant curiosity and drive, that she chose to go without any hesitation after learning about the urban legend of the 'Nonexistent Shrine' that could grant wishes.
In conclusion, she did indeed reach that shrine.
Overall, it looked a bit run-down. Although it was not far from Akihabara, it was completely different from Yanagimori Shrine, with no popularity at all. Outside the torii gate, there were not the usual Komainu, but foxes.
Everything seemed to hint at strangeness.
But for Fujiwara Chika, who already harbored a certain degree of morbid curiosity, this just-right strangeness made her even more excited. And because she went exploring during the day, the forest around the shrine was quite open with good visibility, without any eerie feeling. So the young girl didn't pay any attention to that slight anomaly, but instead went to worship the shrine according to the normal two bows, two claps, one bow procedure.
After dropping a 500-yen coin into the offertory box, the young girl made a wish in her heart.
'I hope to see supernatural phenomena~'
If time could flow backward, Fujiwara Chika felt she would definitely run back to that time and give herself, who made that wish, a hard slap.
Until she left the shrine, nothing seemed to have changed.
But on the way down the mountain, she began to feel her vision blurring.
Initially, she just thought she had overused her eyes, or was perhaps a bit tired after fatigue, but not long after, her vision became clear again.
However, unlike before, there were some strange things in her field of vision.
Most of them looked like distorted humanoid creatures emitting black smoke, aimlessly wandering in the forest.
Some of them were staring at her with eerie gazes that made the young girl's heart pound, stealthily approaching.
When a distorted monster, over two meters tall and looking like a rotten, obese man, asked her in a gooey, somewhat deflated voice, "Can you see me?", Fujiwara Chika finally couldn't hold back and ran wildly.
The rotten obese man's speed was quite slow, and she successfully shook him off quickly.
After leaving the mountain where that shrine was located, the number of those wandering things seemed to have decreased significantly; only one or two could occasionally be seen on the streets.
Amidst her panic, Fujiwara Chika also felt a strange sense of joy, like a child who had received a new toy, or like a chuunibyou teenager who suddenly discovered he was a 'savior' or a 'hero'. While feeling a sense of destiny, she also had a peculiar sense of superiority.
But this good mood only lasted until evening.
Because not long after, the rotten obese man slowly appeared in front of her, which scared Fujiwara Chika so much that her face turned pale. She fled immediately without even bothering to eat dinner.
But no matter how she ran, the monster would still appear in front of her after a period of time, and as the occurrences increased, the monster's appearance speed also became faster and faster; even flying abroad was useless.
Finally, the girl could only return home dispiritedly and confessed the truth to her parents.
Then she was confined, and a dedicated Psychiatrist came to treat her every day.
The inescapable girl was caught by the monster, but the monster did not kill her directly. Instead, it extracted some white, airflow-like substance from her every day and ate it.
Within a few days, the helpless girl fell ill and became increasingly weak.
Only at this point did Mr. and Mrs. Fujiwara finally realize that their daughter might not have a psychological illness. They then used the Fujiwara family's connections to find exorcists for their daughter.
However, up until now, there seemed to have been no results, and they could only watch the once vibrant Fujiwara Chika gradually weaken.
The young girl had also felt hope when those so-called 'masters' came to her home, but none of them were able to successfully exorcise the demon—over ninety percent of these so-called 'masters' couldn't even sense where the spirit was, and the few genuine ones used all their methods but still had no way against that monster—until now, she was almost in despair.
Fujiwara Chika lay on the soft, large bed, yet felt no warmth at all. Her body trembled slightly, and her teeth chattered softly, as if she were not nestled in the highest-grade down duvet, but standing naked in a howling wind for several minutes.
The monster, which was originally only over two meters tall by the bed, had now expanded to occupy almost half the room after consuming her life during this period.
Perhaps her life was destined to wither away the day she encountered this monster while descending the mountain, the young girl thought to herself.
Although her parents, older sister, and younger sister were still trying to find true 'masters' these past few days, and acted very optimistically in front of the girl, the red marks around their eyes still showed that they had cried sadly in private for a long time.
Her classmates from Shuchiin Academy also came to visit her, even the icy Kaguya, who usually found her annoying, came. She sat by her bed for a long time, and finally, with a voice she tried hard to keep calm, told her to get well soon—because the Fujiwara family publicly stated that Chika was just ill.
Although most major families knew what was actually going on, as the Fujiwara family's widespread search for people was hard to conceal from them, Kaguya, who was not part of the Shinomiya Family's core, seemed unaware of the truth. She simply thought Fujiwara Chika had contracted some illness that even the Fujiwara family's influence found difficult to cure.
"What a short life…"
Fujiwara Chika whispered.
She had no feeling from her calves down to her feet. If this continued, she would probably be completely paralyzed in bed in another two or three days.
Thinking about it carefully, perhaps dying directly would be happier than remaining paralyzed like this forever.
"Will I become a ghost after I die…? If even my soul is eaten by this monster, I still find it somewhat unpleasant…"
No, at least while my hands can still move, and I still have a little strength left in my body, I must write down everything I want to say to my parents, my older sister Toyomi, my younger sister Moeha, and my best friend Kaguya…
So, the girl, who had already accepted reality, struggled to sit up from the bed.
Then, she saw that the tightly closed window of the room had been opened at some point.
A young man dressed in a shirt and trousers was sitting on the windowsill, with the twilight wind gently blowing into the room from outside, causing his hair and the corners of his clothes to sway in the orange-red glow.
He seemed not to have expected the girl to sit up at that moment and greeted her with a slightly awkward expression.
"Yo."