Chapter 44: Triggered Inspiration
Hikigaya opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was the ceiling.
Tamamo-no-Mae was nowhere to be seen, probably ran off to play again.
The room was very dark—it must be nighttime.
If he were an ordinary person, this day of the school trip would clearly be considered a failure.
The first day's schedule for the school trip was jam-packed: first they went to Kiyomizu-dera, then Nanzen-ji, and afterwards Ginkaku-ji. The autumn leaves this time of year were beautiful, and Tobe and the fujoshi probably managed to create a good atmosphere walking along the riverbank.
But even so, it was all in vain. As was evident in Zuikōdō, the fujoshi was a person of strong will. She didn't even lose her composure when facing a youkai. Since she had already decided not to accept anyone's confession, then she really wouldn't.
"Hikigaya, you awake?"
The door was yanked open roughly, and someone barged in, turning on the lights.
It was Tobe.
Thanks to teacher Hiratsuka Shizuka earlier in the day, he had returned early to the lodging with his luggage. Since he was bored, he changed clothes, took a bath, did some shadowboxing, chatted with Tamamo-no-Mae about that youkai, and then went to sleep.
He ended up sleeping straight through to the evening.
He could hear sounds of chatter and loud voices coming from outside.
Seems like everyone was back.
He looked toward the direction of the noise—it was his male classmates chatting about all sorts of things and laughing happily.
Hikigaya pulled off his comforter and got up.
He had already bathed, and he wasn't so much of a neat freak that he needed another one after just sleeping. He simply pulled new clothes from his bag and put them on.
There was even a mirror in the room. He looked into it and thought, "Not bad, still kind of handsome."
Must be the dead fish-eyes.
It's just not fair. Clearly, he was such a badass, and yet he still couldn't get a proper girlfriend. This must be a curse.
Just as Hikigaya was thinking about whether to seriously reflect on his life and figure out what went wrong, the room got noisy again.
The boys had all returned, and they seemed very excited.
A while later, Hayama also entered. Apparently, he and Tobe were in the same room.
Compared to the other rooms, this one seemed more subdued.
It seemed that Hayama couldn't just laugh off what had happened earlier in the day—after all, it was a youkai.
Poor guy. Clearly, he's supposed to be a Normie, and suddenly he's thrown into a fantasy plot. No wonder he's down.
Maybe it was too quiet—Tobe pulled out a deck of cards.
But the three of them couldn't really get into the mood, and besides, each had their own worries weighing on them.
"Um…" Tobe suddenly spoke. "I think I'm probably going to fail."
"Going to give up?" Hikigaya glanced at him.
So, Tobe had sensed it too—the fujoshi's true attitude.
"It's frustrating, especially after what happened earlier today. I was really embarrassing."
Tobe knocked on his own head.
But honestly, Hikigaya hadn't noticed how the others were acting back then.
He had been too busy beating up that youkai.
A while later, there was another knock on the door.
"I'll get it." Tobe got up and ran to open it.
It was Miura, Yuigahama, and the fujoshi.
Looks like nobody was getting a good night's sleep tonight.
But… they were girls! Rooms were divided by gender—how did they get over here?
"How did you guys come over? Didn't the teacher stop you?" Hikigaya asked in surprise.
"Ah, we told Shizuka-sensei about what happened during the day. She said maybe it'd be better if we were all together, so she forced everyone to agree," Yuigahama replied.
What the hell? That woman… what was she thinking?
In a way, after the Yomi Disciples left, Hiratsuka Shizuka was the only one in the school who knew about his identity as a Yomi Warrior.
"It's best not to go telling others about this kind of thing," Hikigaya said after a moment, "It's not something good, and nobody would believe you anyway."
"Yeah. I told a few people I'm close to, and they all thought I was just telling ghost stories," Yuigahama said with a bitter smile.
As for Miura and the fujoshi, they hadn't spoken since entering. Especially Miura—Hikigaya could sense she kept glancing at him, but every time he looked at her, she would lower her head.
The fujoshi was much more natural. Though she too watched Hikigaya with curiosity, she would just grin dumbly when he looked back.
"Okay, let's not talk about such heavy stuff. It's all over now, right?" Hayama cleared his throat and picked up the cards.
"Yeah, yeah, let's play! How about that game we played back in Chiba Village?" Tobe said, looking expectantly at the fujoshi.
What the heck, weren't you all doom and gloom just now? Where'd that go?
But surprisingly, everyone agreed to the idea.
"Come on, everyone sit in a circle." Tobe was beaming with joy and quickly plopped down next to the fujoshi.
On his other side was Hayama.
Hikigaya noticed that Yuigahama had sat down on the other side of the fujoshi. Rather than compete with Miura for the seat next to the pretty boy, he sat beside Yuigahama, and Miura took the last open spot.
That meant he was now sitting between two girls—and both of them were girls he had hugged in Zuikōdō. Not a bad seat.
Once they were all seated, silence returned.
This is when Tobe and Hayama really shone—the pretty boy and the class clown combo did a great job lightening the mood.
Thanks to their efforts, everyone wasn't so quiet anymore.
After a few normal card rounds and a few rounds of truth-or-dare, the group started to loosen up. It started to feel a bit like normal again.
Suddenly, Hikigaya felt his arm being nudged by Miura.
At first, he thought it was just incidental contact from sitting so close, but after being nudged a few more times, he realized Miura was trying to get his attention.
What was she doing? It's not like they were filming a silent movie...
He turned his head and saw Miura staring at his pants.
"What?" Hikigaya asked, baffled.
"Your shirt from earlier today…" Miura mumbled, lowering her head even more, voice as quiet as a mosquito, "I can wash them for you."
After she cried and hugged him, she must be embarrassed and thought it could have snot or tears in it.
But there were only a few people in the room, all sitting close together. Even though her voice was small, everyone heard her.
They all stared at each other and then simultaneously looked at Hayama, who appeared flustered.
"Don't look at me!" He flinched and waved his hands.
No surprise—everyone knew Miura liked Hayama.
But now she suddenly wanted to wash another guy's shirt? What was going on?
"No need, I already gave them to the hotel staff," Hikigaya coughed and said awkwardly.
Because not only were they looking at Hayama, they were also looking at him...
Totally undeserved misfortune. What did this have to do with him?
"Oh." Miura seemed disappointed.
The good mood that had been building up suddenly dropped again.
"Let's just look at the cards—whose turn is it?" Hikigaya didn't want to dwell on the awkwardness and quickly changed the subject.
"Forget it, Hikigaya-kun, why don't you talk about what happened today?" Hayama spread out his cards and smiled. "Honestly, none of us are really in the mood to play."
"Yeah, that youkai stuff was unbelievable," Tobe sighed. "Am I still dreaming at home and haven't woken up yet?"
"Hikigaya-kun, do you think there are tops and bottoms among youkai too?" Only the fujoshi would ask something like that.
You freak, have humans stopped satisfying you!?
Yuigahama and Miura said nothing, but their expressions showed they were clearly still haunted by what happened.
"Alright, I'll explain." Hikigaya tossed his cards aside and started organizing his thoughts.
"You guys know about the eight million gods of Japan, right?"
Everyone nodded—their attentiveness was greater than in class.
"Well, in religious studies abroad, there's a theory that Japanese gods are actually examples of spirit worship."
"Spirits? Like the fairies in novels?" Yuigahama asked.
"Of course not, don't get carried away," Hikigaya immediately shot down her fantasy. "That kind of thing doesn't exist."
Everyone looked disappointed.
Clearly they were all fantasy fans and thought that encountering a youkai meant other fantasy creatures might exist too. So naïve.
"In short, those beings aren't gods but spirits. You can just think of them as strange creatures that ancient people didn't understand and began to worship. What you met today—ancient people would've considered that a god."
"Eh!?"
"No way, was that really Buddha!?" Tobe howled.
"Idiot. How could it be Buddha? That was a Fear Spirit," Hikigaya retorted.
What kind of bizarre thinking makes someone mistake that for Buddha?
There's no Buddha that pervy in the world...
"Fear Spirit? As in, a god worshipped by fearful people?" Hayama made a thoughtful pose—this guy could strike a pose anytime, so enviable!
"You've got it backward. That kind of god was worshipped because everyone was afraid of the dark," Hikigaya laughed. "In ancient times, these guys would scare travelers walking at night—people whose courage failed them. Fear is what they feed on. But they're not harmful themselves. They just scare people."
"That's it?" Hayama looked half amused, half exasperated. "So it really was a youkai, like in stories. I can't believe such things actually exist..."
"That's a good way to put it," Hikigaya agreed. Hayama really had a strong mind—this was worldview-shattering stuff. "At the end of the day, if you live honestly and uprightly, there's nothing to be afraid of. Youkai are no different from animals—just with different ways of surviving. Think about it: if they were really that powerful, why hide?"
Hikigaya thought he was really being a good guy—helping these people hold their worldview together.
But he wasn't lying—most youkai were like that.
The term "spirit worship" was how the Western magical society categorized the Japanese pantheon.
In plain terms—it was just too weak. Aside from the Japanese, no one saw them as true gods. Ancient Egyptian civilization had thousands of years to come up with 3,000 gods. How does a tiny island end up with eight million?
He looked around. Everyone looked more at ease now.
Good. No need for these people to get involved in things they shouldn't be touching. As classmates, Hikigaya felt he should help them.
Just then, he suddenly felt a sense of unease in his heart.
Instinctively, he looked southward in the room.
There was nothing there, of course. But Hikigaya immediately understood: something in the south had triggered his divine slayer's sensory ability. Those with magical energy often had this sixth sense, though its strength varied. For divine slayers, it surpassed that of any ordinary human.
Too bad he didn't have spiritual sight—otherwise, that flash of intuition might've told him what exactly had triggered the reaction.