By the time Shion awoke again, the sun had already begun its gentle descent towards the west.
Rubbing her eyes, she noticed that the small flame she remembered flickering before her had long since extinguished.
Her clothes, however, were now completely dry, and given that it was the height of summer, the weather was already quite warm, precluding any risk of hypothermia.
In fact, the thick blanket currently wrapped around her was making her uncomfortably hot, causing her to break out in a sweat.
“Are you awake?” Nanami inquired, sensing Shion stir beside her.
As Shion sat upright, she realized she had been leaning against Nanami the entire time, with Nanami steadfastly maintaining her posture.
Though it was a relatively effortless position, holding it for so long had clearly taken a toll on Nanami.
Thus, the moment Shion straightened up, Nanami couldn’t help but rub her lower back, a clear sign of discomfort.
“Hoshimori-san certainly slept soundly; you even started snoring,” Nanami remarked with a chuckle.
Shion stretched languidly. “Well, whose fault was it for capsizing the boat? I definitely needed a good nap after that.”
“Alright, alright, fine. I got some good rest too.”
“By that logic, we’ve practically ‘slept together,’ haven’t we?” Nanami quipped, gathering the blankets.
“Don’t say such embarrassing things!” Shion exclaimed, her face flushing crimson as she spoke to Nanami.
Nanami seemed rather pleased with teasing Shion, but with the sun dipping lower and the hour growing late, it was time to get Shion home.
After all, this beach was quite a distance from the town center.
“It looks like we’ll still have to take the boat back,” Nanami stated.
Shion shot her a glare. “Can I refuse?”
Nanami replied with a helpless shrug. “I don’t have any other means of transportation. My motorcycle and everything else are at home. If we walked back to school from here, we probably wouldn’t arrive until midnight.”
Shion’s face fell into a mournful frown. There was no other way; it seemed she truly had no choice but to board this ‘pirate ship’ once more.
Nanami pulled up the anchor of the Capybara, then skillfully leaped onto the boat, once again extending her hand to Shion on the shore.
As the sun dipped lower, its golden afterglow fell upon Nanami’s aquamarine hair, causing it to shimmer brilliantly.
Gazing at the smiling girl who offered her hand, Shion felt a slight sense of disorientation, almost a trance.
She took Nanami’s outstretched hand and jumped from the shore onto the boat.
Fortunately, this time, she didn’t lose her footing and tumble directly into Nanami’s arms.
Just as Nanami ignited the engine and the Capybara began to move, Shion suddenly felt a chill pierce her body, causing her to shiver violently.
‘This… is an evil spirit about to emerge?’
Shion pressed a hand to her forehead, a dizzying sensation washing over her as she sat on the boat.
It wasn’t seasickness, however, but the increasingly potent sensation of an evil spirit manifesting.
‘And it feels… incredibly close!’
A wave of panic washed over Shion; she had no Spirit Cleaver (TL Note: A spiritual weapon used to exorcise evil spirits) with her.
This was the first time she had ever directly sensed the proximity of an emerging evil spirit.
Her previous two exorcisms had both taken place on the back mountain, as she understood that, by design, evil spirits tended to congregate there due to its sparse population.
Her Spirit-Suppressing Constitution (TL Note: A rare spiritual body type that naturally attracts and suppresses evil spirits) easily drew these evil spirits together, allowing for a single, decisive elimination.
‘But why are there evil spirits at the beach now?’
‘Though it’s far from the town center, there are still quite a few people here. Is it truly possible for an evil spirit to manifest in such a place?’
Fear creeping in, Shion instinctively shuffled a step closer to Nanami, who was steering the boat.
“Hmm? What’s wrong, Hoshimori-san?” Nanami asked, feeling Shion press against her back.
Shion shook her head. “Nothing. I’m just afraid you’ll throw me off again.”
Nanami chuckled, retorting, “I won’t, don’t worry. I’ll just drive slower.”
“Besides, we’re already far from the pebble beach, and I know the rest of this route quite well. I definitely won’t capsize the boat again.”
“If I do, I’ll eat this boat right then and there!”
“Hmph, just talking big,” Shion mumbled, sticking out her tongue.
Nanami, focused on steering, likely didn’t see it.
‘But she probably heard it anyway.’
“What do you want to eat when we get back? Tomorrow’s a day off, so there’s no rush to head home tonight, right?” Nanami asked.
“Very urgent. I have a sister at home who would starve if I didn’t cook for her for even one night,” Shion retorted.
She had just pulled out her phone to check it; thankfully, despite being soaked, it still seemed functional.
Ayane’s message from school simply said that she had been secretly slacking off (TL Note: Literally ‘fishing in troubled waters,’ a Chinese idiom meaning to take advantage of a chaotic situation for personal gain or to shirk responsibilities) while everyone else was cleaning, so the teacher had asked her to stay behind to put away the cleaning tools, meaning she would be home later.
It was a relief that Ayane would be home later.
Shion could already envision the severe scolding she would receive from Ayane if she arrived home after her.
‘As for the evil spirits… oh god, this is trickier than I imagined, but I still need to get back to the shrine first.’
‘With no Spirit Cleaver in hand, how could I, utterly defenseless, possibly fight an evil spirit?’
The sky was growing darker, the sun slowly sinking below the horizon, and night was gradually beginning to enshroud the sea.
“Kazama-san, how much longer until we arrive?” Shion asked.
“About fifteen minutes, I’d say! We should be there pretty soon!” Nanami replied cheerfully.
The chill intensified.
Shion pulled the boat’s blanket tighter around herself, yet the cold seeping into her heart couldn’t be warmed by any physical fabric.
‘What’s happening? Why does it feel like the evil spirit is already so close?’
Shion sat bolt upright at the back of the boat, her gaze sweeping across the surroundings.
On the increasingly darkened surface of the sea, dark shadows began to drift, and Shion could now clearly see them in the distance.
“They’re really here, damn it,” Shion muttered, gritting her teeth.
“Could they have been drawn by my Spirit-Suppressing Constitution? This is going to be troublesome.”
Still, thankfully, Nanami was currently steering the boat along the coastline, so they shouldn’t encounter these evil spirits directly.
“Hanami?”
Nanami seemed utterly captivated by something on the sea’s surface.
Instead of watching the path ahead, her gaze was fixed on the boundless horizon, and the steering wheel in her hands subtly altered their course.
“What, what is it?!” Shion watched Nanami’s actions in shock.
The boat’s course had veered, and the direction it was heading was…
‘…towards those evil spirits!’
“Is that Hanami?” Nanami murmured, her eyes locked onto the direction of the evil spirits.
“No, no, no…” Shion panicked.
What was wrong with Nanami?
‘If she had her Spirit Cleaver, she wouldn’t be afraid, but the problem was she had absolutely nothing in her hands now. Without her Spirit Cleaver, she was so helpless that even a stray kitten could bully her!’
“Kazama-san, Kazama-san! Nanami!” Shion cried out loudly from behind her, but Nanami appeared utterly deaf to her pleas, steering the Capybara directly towards the evil spirits with unswerving focus.
“Are you kidding me?! We’re going to die!” Shion exclaimed, throwing her arms around Nanami and holding her tightly. “Wake up, Nanami!”