Dawn came to the rooftop. The concrete floor of Sunveil Mikagé Heights floated hazily in the pale blue light before sunrise. Six outdoor units roared with their usual deafening sound, tearing through the cold autumn early morning air. In the corner of the stone steps before the shrine, 穂乃果 with her silver hair unbound was curled up wrapped in a blanket, floating gently in midair. Visually speaking, it looked exactly like "some mysterious floating blanket." Last night, 穂乃果's outline had grown thin from exhaustion of divine energy, and she had fallen asleep with the blanket 榊原一真 brought draped over her head. No one would ever guess that 880 years worth of divinity was packed inside that blanket. On the stone steps beside her, 榊原一真 was dozing with his back against the wall, arms crossed. His head dropped with a jerk every three seconds, and each time he'd twitch awake. His eyes were half-closed. He'd spent the night in his convenience store work shirt, and was now near his limit. Then. *Click*—the rooftop's iron door opened quietly. The one who entered was a small elderly woman. In her hands was a bundle of small white and yellow chrysanthemums. Her grayish-white hair was neatly tied back, and she wore a navy apron. Her appearance blended naturally into the morning air with a calm serenity. Deep wrinkles were etched into her face, but her eyes were still sharp and lively. 蓬田ハナエ, manager of the pet cemetery "Hoshi Tsuyu-en"—seventy-four years old. A descendant of the clan known as guardians of the earth's veins, she could sense the flow of spiritual meridians through bodily intuition. She was one of the last consciously aware guardians in Mikagé Heights. For decades, the habit of offering flowers to the memorial stone every morning at six had continued. The moment ハナエ stepped onto the rooftop—she saw the floating bundle of blanket and the young man swaying with jerks on the stone steps. "Oh my," she tilted her head. With seventy-four years of composure, she accepted the situation in a single second. A voice flew from inside the blanket. "Do not disturb my slumber! I am in the midst of morning divine energy replenishment!!" 榊原一真 on the stone steps jolted awake. "—Ah, good morning!!" His sleepy voice echoed across the rooftop. The three people's misalignment exploded into the early autumn morning. ハナエ smiled gently and began walking toward the memorial stone. "Good morning. Pardon the intrusion during your divine energy replenishment." The blanket trembled with a jerk. The edge of the blanket lifted, and golden eyes peeked out. Silver hair was slightly disheveled. A girl who appeared to be about twelve years old, with a mystical and ephemeral face, looked up at the elderly woman. Her current divine energy was thirty units. Semi-transparency was progressing, and her outline had grown so thin it completely transmitted the morning backlighting. "...Can you see me?" ハナエ answered simply while carefully placing flowers one by one at the memorial stone. "Somewhat, I suppose. I've been able to sense the presence on this rooftop since seven generations back." 穂乃果 froze. Still wrapped in the blanket over her head, she floated up and stood in a commanding pose. Silver hair spilled out from under the blanket and swayed in the wind. It was quite a sight—850 years of divinity trying to exert dignity in blanket form. "A guardian of the earth's veins...! So you are one!!" "Perhaps, somewhat." "This is not a matter to be settled with 'somewhat'!!" "But your intimidation factor drops by thirty percent when you're standing in a commanding pose wrapped in a blanket." "Silence!! I am currently exerting my dignity!!" "Take off the blanket first." "The blanket is necessary for my current physical condition!!" ハナエ laughed with a "fufu." After finishing placing the flowers, she clasped her hands before the memorial stone. Her back was peaceful, accepting this entire situation. "I have been managing the pet cemetery here, Hoshi Tsuyu-en, for thirty-four years. I am 蓬田ハナエ." 一真 bowed and said "I'm 榊原一真." 穂乃果 lowered the blanket slightly and gazed intently at ハナエ with her golden eyes. Those eyes held a mixture of caution and curiosity. "...I am 穂乃果." Her voice was slightly quieter than usual. ハナエ turned and nodded peacefully. In the morning light, you could see 穂乃果's semi-transparent outline melting into the air. 一真 glanced at her profile—a delicate outline of gold and silver that completely transmitted the dawn backlighting. Her small body with the blanket slipped down seemed so thin it might disappear at any moment. Something quietly tightened deep in 一真's chest. (Not scary—but the fear of disappearing...) Before he could confirm the true nature of that emotion, ハナエ spoke. "Actually, there's something I've been a bit concerned about." ＊ ハナエ continued speaking while watering the memorial stone. "Recently, the spiritual vein from the southeast has been growing weaker. The Mikagé branch vein—the spiritual energy meridian flowing directly beneath this rooftop—its flow seems to have been weakening somehow." "The vein... you mean the spiritual meridian?" "Yes. Since it's a sensation passed down through seven generations, I can't explain it well. But somehow, it's weakening." "How many times are you going to say 'somehow'?" "But it really is just a feeling." 一真 put his hand in his pocket. What he pulled out was a printout of a smartphone screenshot on memo paper and a light purple flyer—from "Tsukisoku no Ma." He had recorded the name that appeared in the comments of yesterday's broadcast. "Southeast would be toward Mikagé Ginza Street, right? There's a spiritual salon called 'Tsukisoku no Ma' there—" The moment 一真 unfolded the memo, ハナエ's hand stopped. Still holding the watering can, ハナエ looked at the southeastern sky. Toward Mikagé Ginza Street—beyond the row of shopping street roofs. "Tsukisoku no Ma." When she repeated those words, something glistened in ハナエ's eyes. Her peaceful eyes became sharp for just a moment. "I thought it might be there. Somehow." "Somehow!! Again!!" "Ah, Sakakibara-san. In a guardian's senses, 'somehow' is actually quite close to certainty." "You should have said that from the start!!" 穂乃果 leaned out from the blanket. Her golden eyes looked straight at ハナエ. "...Do you sense the presence of the Tōga-shū?" Her voice was low. ハナエ nodded slightly. "The Tōga-shū—a secret organization founded in the mid-Edo period, people who use spiritual energy for business, right?" "You know of them?" "They've been a nuisance since seven generations back. Around the mid-Edo period, all the rice paddies in Mikagé Heights had a complete crop failure for one year—in that year, there's a record that the vein suddenly weakened. It's been passed down through generations that the Tōga-shū drained the energy from the spiritual vein." The moment that story ended, 穂乃果 murmured quietly. "Kyūkōkan." 一真 looked at 穂乃果. "What is that?" "A tube that is screwed into spiritual veins. A metal tube made of special alloy, a little over a foot in length—when you pierce it into the junction point of a spiritual meridian, you can extract energy. It's a ritual tool the Tōga-shū have used for generations." There was no usual lightness in 穂乃果's voice. While explaining, she was looking somewhere else. Beyond the stone steps, toward the southeastern sky. 一真 noticed that all three of their gazes naturally turned in the same direction. Mikagé Ginza Street. Tsukisoku no Ma. 杏梨's smile. Tension dissolved into the rooftop's air. In that silence—*grrrrrrr*—a sound echoed grandly. Everyone looked at 穂乃果. Her stomach had rumbled at the perfect moment. "..." "..." "This! This is the sacred voice of the belly! It promotes divine energy recovery!!" "The stomach is not sacred!!" "Everything about my body is sacred!!!" ハナエ rummaged through her bag and pulled out a dorayaki. Without any explanation, she simply held it out quietly. The moment 穂乃果 saw it, she snatched it away at lightning speed. It didn't even take 0.1 seconds. "I shall accept this divine mercy." "You said mercy while snatching it!!" ハナエ laughed, "How cute." 穂乃果 glared at 一真 while chewing. "一真, you said earlier that woman was beautiful, did you not?" "I didn't say that." "Your eyes said so." "Eyes can't talk." "A man's eyes are honest!!" She began tugging at 一真's sleeve while chewing. Despite her divine energy being only thirty units, her body was incredibly light, yet the pulling force was definitely there. The sensation of cold fingers transmitted across 一真's entire arm. The weight of 穂乃果 pressed against his arm reminded him of that night's shoulder warmth—that coldness and ephemeral quality felt strangely simultaneous. 一真 couldn't pull away. "You're too close, too close, too close." "I am pressing in!!" ハナエ continued watering while saying "How cute" for the second time. ＊ A little later, ハナエ said "Wait a moment" and went into the management shed of Hoshi Tsuyu-en—a small corrugated iron roof shed just a few meters from the shrine. When she returned, she held a bundle of old papers in her hands. When unfolded, it was a handwritten map. On faded paper, the topography of Mikagé Heights was carefully drawn. A single line running north-south through the center was labeled "Mikagé Branch Vein," with "Mikagé Hill" at the north end, "Shrine (Junction Point)" to the south, and an × mark further southeast. "It's a map passed down through seven generations. It records the junction points of spiritual veins and dangerous places." 一真 placed the screenshot memo beside the map. The position of the × mark and the address of Tsukisoku no Ma—matched perfectly. The Mikagé branch vein line. The position of Tsukisoku no Ma. The position of 穂乃果's shrine. The three formed a triangle on the stone steps. "The junction point is directly beneath this shrine. Where the Mikagé branch vein is thinnest and most concentrated. If a tube is pierced here—" ハナエ began to say. 穂乃果 quietly continued. "My very existence would be drained away." There was no anger or screaming in her voice. Only quietness. The hand holding the dorayaki lowered onto the map. Her golden eyes stared intently at the Mikagé branch vein line. A god who had been there for over 800 years calmly spoke her own way of disappearing. The rooftop's air changed. Only the sound of the outdoor units continued. 一真 looked at 穂乃果's profile. Her semi-transparent outline transmitted the morning light, trembling faintly. Complex ripples moved in her golden eyes—not anger, not resignation, but something deeper, rising closer to the surface. "...I am not afraid." She began to say, then 穂乃果 looked away. 一真's chest quietly tightened. "I'll stop it." 穂乃果 stiffened slightly. Slowly, she turned to look at 一真. "...Despite being my parishioner." Her voice was small. But it carried certain weight. Relief—whether that was the right word or not, 穂乃果's voice had become slightly softer, and only 一真 heard it. 一真 didn't let go. ハナエ carefully folded the map. "I need to do my guardian's work too." She said with a smile. But her eyes were no longer just peaceful. The three of them turned in the same direction. Southeast. Mikagé Ginza Street. Tsukisoku no Ma. ＊ From midday through evening, the three sat on the stone steps and roughly sketched out a strategy. Though it was less a concrete plan and more an organization of "what we know" and "what we don't know." ハナエ brought several old records, 一真 took notes on his smartphone, and 穂乃果 occasionally added supplements like "the tube won't function unless it pierces more than three feet deep into the spiritual vein" and "only about five units of energy can be extracted per attempt." "You're quite knowledgeable." "One must know well the enemy one wishes to keep hidden from." She said naturally while chewing on a fried chicken stick. When 一真 asked