Chapter 7: [Vol. 1] [Chapter 7: Shrine Secret] {7}

Ken is now tracing the corridor of this house again, and he arrived at the common room which leads to the backyard. Ken went to the balcony in this room, then crossed his arms on the railing of the balcony here. It appears as if the lights of the garden, street, and lamps from the classic Japanese house behind this main house are beautifully lit. There is also a lamp that illuminates the front of the shrine here. Ken cupped his cheeks, his facial expression turning serious, He then said

"What exactly is stored inside the shrine?"

Ken decided not to think too much about it.

The next day, the time is now at. 8:00 am. Ken's father and mother, and the rest of his extended family looked neat in their suits, with shirts, and the women and girls also wore suits but with skirts. Ken and Shitara are seen wearing white shirts with suit vests. They all walked after Makoto who appeared to be wearing a monk's kimono and holding a monk's staff. They walked to the stairs with Shinto gates here, to the shrine on the hill. After arriving in front of the shrine, they all then lined up facing the front of the shrine.

This shrine appears to have a high balcony that surrounds the front, with stairs at the front of the entrance. Makoto then walked very close to the entrance wooden double door of the shrine and started muttering something. Now and then Makoto stomps his monk's staff, which makes a rattling sound from its hoop earrings. After a series of ceremonies paying homage to their ancestors, this ceremony was also completed. One by one people started to leave this place. Ken looks at this shrine from upper to bottom curiously.

In the evening, the time is now 9:50 pm. Ken appears to be in his room, he is sitting on a single-seater sofa here, reading a book, and his cheeks are supported by his hand. The expression on his face shows that he is bored. Ken then closed his book and said

“Damn, that shrine really intrigues me”

Ken was silent for a moment thinking, he then said

"Today is my last night here, there's no harm in trying"

Ken appears to be up to something. Ken stood up from his seat, opened his bag of things, and took a flashlight, he then walked out of his room.

Ken sneaked his way through the backyard, towards the stairs that went up the hill that had several Shinto gates lined up at a distance from each other, above along these stairs. Ken looked around him warily, so that no one would see him. It appears that the servants from the main house are walking around this area, as also some guards. Ken can deftly hide in the darkness here and can reach the stairs. Ken climbs the stairs carefully because it's quite dark here. After being high enough, Ken then turned on his flashlight and walked up the stairs until he reached the top.

In front of him now was the field where he had the honor ceremony earlier. In the end, there is the old shrine of the Takeru family. Light appears in front of the shrine, and classical Japanese garden lights line up to the front door of the shrine. With the help of his flashlight, Ken walked toward the shrine.

Arriving at the door of the shrine, it appears that this door is locked with a large padlock. Ken then took out the wire from his pocket and tried to force the lock open. After some time trying, it appears that Ken still can't open the lock. Until accidentally, Ken cut his finger deep enough, to drip blood. Ken looked a little in pain, he then said

"Damn, I wasn't careful enough..."

Finally, Ken decided to end it, he then said

"Hah, as I thought, it's not that easy to open it"

Ken then started to inspect the area around this shrine and lit it. Ken shone around him and tried to find a way to get up to the top of this shrine.

Carefully, Ken climbed the tree beside this shrine. The sloping ground of this hill makes it quite easy for Ken to get past the height of the shrine. Carefully, Ken arrived on the roof of this shrine. Ken found that there was some kind of small double door on the roof of this shrine. Ken then said

"That's it, maybe I can give it a try"

Ken then realized that this door was also locked from the outside with a small padlock. Ken tried to open this door, but of course, he couldn't. Ken again try forced open it with wire, in the not-so-good lighting until it finally hurt his hand again. Ken said

“Ouch, dammit...”

Blood appeared to drip quite a lot from his finger. Ken checked the lock again while flashing it, and realized something. Ken said

"This padlock looks older than the padlock below"

Ken had an idea, he then came back down from the roof and picked up a boulder. Ken then returned to the top, carrying the stone earlier. Ken arrived again in front of the door on the roof earlier, which was locked. Ken then said

"I'm sorry grandpa…"

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Ken hit this old padlock several times with a rock until it finally opened. Seeing this, Ken looked happy.

Ken opened the double doors in front of him, inside this shrine it was pitch black. Ken aimed his flashlight inside this shrine and saw several statues of Shinto gods here. Ken said

“That must be the Shinto gods statue that father said”

Ken finds that there is a wooden ladder, which leads to the wooden truss of the ceiling of this shrine. Carefully, Ken entered the shrine through this door, then down the ladders. Ken arrived at the roof truss of this shrine which looks solid. Ken illuminates his surroundings with a flashlight, there is a wooden path here that leads to another ladder in the shrine wall. Ken carefully headed for this ladder, then climb it down.

Arriving at the bottom, Ken illuminates his surroundings and looked at the back, It appears that the entrance double door to the shrine that he was trying to open earlier, now Ken is behind it. Ken then shone around and found statues of adult human-sized Shinto gods which is on an altar, around him. At the end of this shrine, for a moment, there were 2 points of light that shone like eyes, Then it disappeared, and Ken doesn't appear to see it. Ken walked forward, towards the end of the shrine, he appeared to be starting to get little goosebumps seeing the dark state of this shrine. Ken said

"Now that unusual thing, I will find out"

Ken looked around, and finally, his flashlight shone on an unusual object within the shrine. Ken looks shocked, seeing the thing in front of him, Ken said

“I found it, that unusual thing is… huh?”

Ken's expression turned astonished.

It appears that in front of Ken, on a table, there is a container with a pillow on it, on top of which is a glove puppet made of soft cloth with a chibi wolf shape whose expression is frowning. It appears that the body part of this chibi glove puppet of the wolf has white, gray, and black fur. The shape is not like a wolf's in general, because the wolf's body has a shape like armor skin that protects its body, whereas the shoulders of the front legs on this glove puppet have armor that extends upwards like horns, which blends with the armor on the foreleg. Seeing this glove puppet, Ken's fear has disappeared, so his expression now changes to wonder. Ken said

"Stuffed doll? No, this is a glove puppet”

Ken walked closer to this glove puppet. Out of curiosity, Ken took it, using his right hand with his finger and palm still wounded. Accidentally, blood from Ken's finger stained this wolf glove puppet. Ken immediately noticed, he then said

"Ouch, I forgot that my hand was wounded"

Ken said while holding back the pain from the wound on his hand and trying to clean the blood stains on this glove puppet, but it appeared to leave marks. Ken covered his right hand with a handkerchief, to hold back the blood. Ken looked at this glove puppet curiously, trying to find out if there was anything unusual about this glove puppet. Ken said

“Despite the unusual model, this is indeed just a wolf glove puppet. But, why is it in a place like this?”

Ken's expression turned confused. Ken tried to wear the glove puppet on his left hand and moved his hand. After a while, Ken put the glove puppet back on its place.

Ken checked his surroundings with the help of his flashlight but didn't find anything else that could be said to be unusual here. Ken then came back in front of the table where the glove puppet was, looked at it with his chin supported by his hand, and said

“Hmm… that unusual thing… could it be this glove puppet?”

Ken appeared to have a hard time believing it

“Why is this thing even here? In the place where it was put, it appears that this glove puppet was not accidentally placed here. Relics? Why do you have to keep everything a secret?”

Ken looks confused, then said

"The important thing is that the mystery of what is in here has been solved, it's just a matter of why this glove puppet is here. For now, I'd better get out of here"

Ken went back up the ladders and climbed back up to the door on the roof of this shrine. Arriving on the roof, Ken closed the door again with a broken padlock, then descended using a tree. Ken walked back to the main house, at a faster pace.

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