On Saturday morning, a drizzle began to fall from the gray sky.
Hoshino Ringo was picked up by her manager and assistant early in the morning. After having breakfast, Hoshino Gen also left home.
However, his destination wasn't the bustling downtown areas that his peers liked to go to on weekends. Instead, it was a deep alley near the town area.
He lifted the wide roller shutter door that was covered with dust as he hadn't been here for a week, revealing the spotless glass display window inside. Beside the display window was a classical wooden door with a medieval European flavor. There was a small iron standing sign extending from the edge of the door frame, on which the words "Antique Shop" were written in beautiful script.
The house used by this shop was bought by Hoshino Gen through his father several years ago. But his father had never been here and didn't care what Hoshino Gen did with this house. He probably had long forgotten that he had such a property under his name. Even the business license of the shop was obtained by Hoshino Gen with the help of the butler from his grandfather's side.
So it wasn't an exaggeration to say that this "Antique Shop" was Hoshino Gen's secret base.
Usually, Hoshino Gen would also use this shop to buy and sell some ordinary antiques. Due to its remote location and the fact that Hoshino Gen only came here on his rest days, there were basically no customers.
Hoshino Gen took out the key and opened the shop door. Then he casually threw a talisman paper inside. Immediately, a gentle breeze blew through the room, quickly carrying the few dust particles away and disappearing out of the door beside Hoshino Gen.
He changed his shoes and walked in with ease. What greeted him was a classical atmosphere that matched the display window and the wooden door. Whether it was the mostly solid wood decoration or the unique layout, it seemed to create an atmosphere that transcended time.
Amid the white noise of the raindrops hitting the ground, Hoshino Gen walked through the spacious reception hall and entered the even larger exhibition hall inside.
Since the name of the shop was "Antique Shop", there were naturally antiques here. In the bright exhibition hall, dozens of exquisite plaster display stands were neatly arranged. Unfortunately, most of the display stands were empty. Only a dozen or so scattered ones had antiques with dull colors placed on them, and each of these antiques had more than one bright yellow talisman paper stuck on it.
The temperature in the exhibition hall was already inexplicably much lower than other places. Coupled with those talisman papers full of scarlet words and symbols, it made people feel uneasy just standing there.
This was only natural because each antique here represented a genuine fierce ghost.
When a person died, their soul separated from the body and turned into a spiritual body that was cut off from the real world. Generally speaking, apart from reincarnation, the spiritual body would only end up being dissipated.
However, there were also some spiritual bodies with extremely strong obsessions about the human world that refused to reincarnate and were unwilling to dissipate. Usually, these spiritual bodies with deep obsessions would find and choose a third option—to use objects with extremely heavy yin energy as carriers and parasitize on them to achieve the purpose of interfering with the real world with their spiritual bodies.
In simpler terms, they became what people commonly called "ghosts".
The deeper the obsession, the heavier the yin energy of the carrier needed to be. Among all things in the world, antiques naturally had the heaviest yin energy.
Hunting ghosts and exorcising spirits was undoubtedly an extremely dangerous job. Hoshino Gen knew his own limitations. He never regarded himself as a selfless good person. He wasn't even interested in eliminating demons and defending the way of righteousness. The biggest reason why he could still stick to this dangerous path after the old Taoist priest died was the lucrative gains that were worthy of the danger.
Perhaps because he had been poor and afraid when he was a child in his past life, Hoshino Gen was actually quite greedy for wealth. Although he didn't lack money after following the old Taoist priest, this "greed for wealth" gradually evolved into an obsession with "treasures" engraved in his soul.
Things like the once-in-a-hundred-year South Sea moving pearl, or the top-quality pink diamond unearthed once in a thousand years, just hearing their names made his mouth water.
Things that could be called treasures were rare, and antiques undoubtedly occupied half of the world of treasures. This meant that almost every fierce ghost represented a treasure, and the fiercer the ghost, the more precious the treasure usually was.
Now, just thinking about the scarlet demon sword in the hand of that fierce ghost swordsman in the forest dojo... Hoshino Gen's mouth watered again. But then thinking about how he had gone to challenge it several times and ended up in a precarious situation and had to flee in a sorry state each time, his mood immediately became as gloomy as the rainy weather outside.
While expressionlessly replaying his battles with that fierce ghost swordsman in his mind for the Nth time, he checked these antiques in the exhibition hall.
After confirming that everything was normal, Hoshino Gen turned around and left, closing the door of the exhibition hall tightly again.
He ground a cup of coffee behind the antique-style bar and then sat by the bay window on the other side of the reception hall. He gently leaned his head against the cold glass and quietly listened to the rain outside, and a unique tranquility spread in the classical interior.
That sword, he wanted it so badly, so badly, so badly...
The thought kept fermenting in his mind, as if there was a crazy voice shouting hysterically. The corner of Hoshino Gen's forehead twitched slightly. He took a big sip of the bitter coffee and swallowed it, barely suppressing the restless agitation in his heart.
Splash, splash—
The dense raindrops hit the roof of the stadium. Hoshino Ringo, sitting in the backstage dressing room with her knees hugged, was holding her mobile phone and browsing the web page of "Recommended Fun Online Games".
"Ringo-chan~!"
An extremely sweet shout entered Hoshino Ringo's ears, and then a fragrant and soft body pressed against her slender back.
"What should I do, Ringo-chan! We're going on stage soon, and I'm so nervous!"
Hoshino Ringo didn't turn her head because she could tell who the person on her back was just by the voice. It was Hayakawa Yukina, a second-generation trainee who joined TKY02 two months ago and was also the only second-generation trainee among the selected members for this Shibuya concert.
She swiped the screen of her phone and comforted perfunctorily, "Don't be nervous. Just do it like in the usual practice."
"Although that's what you say," Hayakawa Yukina's sweet voice carried a sense of helplessness. "But after all, a performance is a performance. Didn't all more than eight thousand tickets sell out at once? If we're watched by so many audiences on stage... Woo~ Just thinking about it is so scary!"
"Don't worry. Not many people will be staring at you. After all, everyone is coming for Ringo-chan and Kaoru-chan," said another voice suddenly from the side, which made Hayakawa Yukina and Hoshino Ringo look over together. They found that the person who spoke was the team leader, Saki Hayami, who had somehow stood beside them.
Saki Hayami grinned at Hayakawa Yukina and said, "Just kidding. Don't mind it."
Then she widened her gaze to include Hoshino Ringo as well, and the smile on her lips grew wider. "We're going on stage soon. Are you ready, young ladies?"
...
The soothing music gradually faded away, and the main melody in the ears was replaced by the sound of rain and the noise on the street. Shimizu Yu was carrying shopping bags and, together with her good friend Suzuki Sawami, held an umbrella and left the clothing store behind them.
"How was it? I told you this store was amazing!"
Suzuki Sawami swung the shopping bag in her hand, which was the same as Shimizu Yu's, with excitement on her face. "For the same brand specialty store, it's 10% cheaper than other places here!"
"Although it's still quite expensive—"
"Ah! Why do we have to wear school uniforms at school! I finally bought some nice clothes~"
"By the way, Yu-chan, I heard from someone in another class yesterday that there's an exam on Monday. Do you think we should have a study session when we go back? We can just take the opportunity to show off our new clothes~"
"Yu-chan..."
As she was talking, Suzuki Sawami's voice gradually became quieter. She looked at Shimizu Yu's face and frowned slightly. "Yu-chan?"
"Yu-chan!"
"Ah... ah?" Shimizu Yu woke up as if from a dream and turned to look at her friend, blinking blankly. "What's wrong?"
Suzuki Sawami slapped her forehead, looking quite speechless. "I should be the one asking 'what's wrong'! What's going on with you today? You've been in a daze since we left home. Didn't you sleep well last night?"
Her friend's words made Shimizu Yu's expression freeze. She really didn't sleep well last night. Or more precisely, she hardly slept at all.
But there was nothing she could do about it! After all, the impact of having her world view completely shattered wasn't so easy to digest. She had witnessed that scene in the abandoned dojo yesterday, which was almost like fantasy brought into reality!