The self-cultivation of the passer-by hero

"Cough cough."

Thick smoke rose, and the originally flat grassland now turned into pits like a mine test area.

From the place where the smoke and dust were the thickest, Huiyin walked out in a miserable state.

"I lost."

There was no anger or unwillingness, nor did she yell like a middle school student, "You are stronger now". Huiyin just calmly admitted her failure.

However, it seems that there is still some feeling of loss.

"It's up to you to do whatever you want with it."

Because of the existence of spell card rules, there would be no real casualties, so Huiyin did not show much concern about his defeat.

"Hmph, it should have been like this a long time ago."

Probably because of being "cheated" before, she was still a little unhappy with Huiyin Lingmeng, but at this time she also knew that wasting time on expressing anger was meaningless.

"Since we lost, let's return the 'history' of Ren Zhongli as originally decided."

"Concerning this, I have a suggestion."

After organizing his words for a moment, Huiyin asked:

"Ms. Reimu and Lord Youkai Sage are here to investigate the changes in this full moon, right?"

"That's right."

"In that case, there is no need to enter the human world. I can tell you the information I know."

"Do you know anything? About this change?"

Reimu looked at Huiyin in surprise. Is this an unexpected surprise? Suddenly she felt that the fight just now seemed not in vain.

"Although it's just a guess, if it's related to this moon, maybe it's that one."

Huiyin stretched out her hand and pointed to the distance, which was the direction surrounded by the silent night.

"There is a bamboo forest directly opposite the Monster Mountain. The people living there may be related to this change."

"Bamboo Forest, is there such a place in Gensokyo?"

Reimu frowned and then looked at Takeya, only to see him shaking his head in confusion. She had no choice but to turn her doubtful eyes to Zi.

"Zi, do you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

Nodding, Zi lived up to expectations and provided answers to their questions.

"Takeya and Reimu are still too young, so they have never been there."

Looking in the direction Huiyin pointed, Zi said in a slightly reminiscence tone:

"When we first established Gensokyo, we just tried to enclose as much area as possible within the boundary. The advantage of doing this is that Gensokyo will become wider, but there are also disadvantages, that is, there will often be situations where even we can't Unknown person or thing.”

"Then, could it be that bamboo forest too?"

"exactly."

Confirming Wu Ye's guess, Zi smiled and said:

"That bamboo forest existed when Gensokyo was first established, and we used to make peace."

There was a sudden pause in her words, and Zi's smile changed slightly. However, because she was a monster that was good at hiding, everyone was just wondering why she stopped suddenly.

"purple?"

"Ah, sorry, sorry, where did you say that? Yes, that bamboo forest, it seems to be called the Lost Bamboo Forest, right?"

Cleverly concealing her gaffe with her usual non-serious tone, Zi continued:

"We have been there before, but there are only some bamboos there that are easy to get lost as the name suggests, and if there are others, they are just some unpopular little monsters. To be honest, there is nothing special."

Hearing this, Wu Ye was surprised.

"But Teacher Huiyin didn't say that."

"That's what I said."

Zi, who understood what Takeya meant, made a helpless expression.

"But we are not that boring. If we have to check every detail in Gensokyo, even if we add ten more shikigami, we will be busy."

"."

Wait, did you say something strange? Is Lan doing all the relationship work? !

What a cruel master this is, ah, what an unscrupulous master he is!

Ignoring Takeya's contemptuous gaze, Zi threw his own pot to the ground as a matter of course:

"So, some omissions are inevitable."

"Then what do you mean, where might the mutated prisoner really be?"

Not being shameless or too lazy to complain about Murasaki, Reimu ignored all the nonsense and went straight to the point.

"Then let's set off now."

After saying that, she looked at Zi.

"I know, I know, little Reimu is really good at handling her sister."

Shaking her head helplessly, Zi once again used her folding fan to create a gap.

"Anyway, this is the job we entrusted to Little Reimu, so it's just an advance payment."

"Hmph, you can't help much during the battle anyway. This kind of job is the best for you, isn't it?"

Although he had just accepted the opponent's love in the last battle, Reimu's unsophisticated character would not remember such a thing.

"Yes, that's what Lingmeng said."

Murasaki responded to Reimu in a childish tone, but Murasaki didn't feel the slightest bit unhappy about it.

Just after a battle, he immediately continued to rush to the next battlefield. Such a tight rhythm did not cause Wuya much discomfort. Rather, this was the feeling of solving the mutation.

I don’t know why, but in Gensokyo, witches set out to solve mutations, but they are always unable to identify the real owner in the first place. They often have to defeat the enemies on the road one by one like an RPG game, and finally they can see the boss. Um, no. , is a prisoner.

But in terms of difficulty, is it a bit too much to put Teacher Huiyin on the first side as a passerby? I always feel like I should let a weaker monster do it for me.

"Takeya-kun."

"Um?"

Just when Wu Ye was thinking wildly, Huiyin interrupted him.

After Reimu and Murasaki had passed through the gap, Takeya stepped into it and was stopped by Huiyin.

"What's wrong? Teacher Huiyin."

"No, it's nothing."

Huiyin, who was hesitant to speak, smiled apologetically at Wuya.

"I'm sorry for stopping you so suddenly."

"."

Huiyin, who was obviously hiding something in her heart and refused to say it, disappeared into the quiet night.

After frowning and worrying to himself for a while, Takeru shook his head and slowly walked into the gap. After all, his understanding of Huiyin was limited to Bai Ze's identity as a monster and his teacher's identity as a human.

Other than that, he knew nothing about Huiyin, so even if the other party put on an expression of "I have something to say and I don't know whether I should say it or not," he couldn't say anything to persuade her.

Putting the unsolvable doubts behind him, the empty land in front of Takeya who came through the gap had turned into a dense bamboo forest.

Bamboo trees several stories high separated the place from the light of the full moon, turning it into a dark world.

Even with the two stone lanterns on the roadside that seemed to be the entrance, the atmosphere here was still very strange.

No, it would be weirder if there was a stone lantern, right? Why put something like this at the entrance?

"It's so dark, I can't see anything."

Reimu, who had squinted his eyes for a while, sighed.

"Let's separate. I'll fly over to look for you from above. Zi, just go in through the entrance with Takeya."

"Hey, wait, why aren't we looking up there?"

"Because it's dark here and looks dangerous, doesn't it?"

"Then shouldn't you be allowed to go? Who is the miko?"

"That's embarrassing. You can't die anyway. If Zi is in danger, don't worry. Isn't it just right for you to go?"

"Damn it, Reimu, you guy"

Takeru endured the pounding tic-tac-toe on his head and was about to lecture this unreliable miko when a sound so healthy that it gave him a headache came from behind——

"Ah, Reimu, why are you here, and Takeya is also here?"