I Came Back from the Dead, Quit Being a Holy Hero, and Just Wanna Shake My Hips in a Harem - Chapter 38: Kokono and Kikino

Chapter 38: Kokono and Kikino

The next day.

Before the sun even rose, we started breaking down the campsite.

Kokono looked tense—probably because she knew we’d be meeting Amhaya today.

She stood there with her soft smile, but I told her to leave the cleanup to us.

“It’s fineee~. I’ll help with tidying up toooo.”

She said that—and promptly tripped, putting out her right hand and right foot at the same time.

Well, if it helped ease her nerves, then fine.

It took us a little longer, but we let Kokono join in, and then headed toward old Kamunkotan.

The great bamboo forest was starting to fill with mist.

I thought it would clear once the day brightened, but the deeper we went, the heavier it got.

It wasn’t like everything was swallowed in white, but you could barely see a few dozen meters ahead.

Luckily, no monsters showed up—maybe they avoided the inner forest altogether.

Using the roadside guardian statues as our markers, I asked Kokono.

“Is old Kamunkotan always this foggy?”

“Mm… they say it’s because it’s the dwelling place of restless souls, so the boundary’s all blurry~.”

Kokono herself didn’t seem to know much.

When I glanced at Lily, she said, “This must be a land where strange things naturally gather. Perhaps it’s also a comfortable place for spirits to dwell.”

She didn’t say “the dead,” but her wary expression gave it away. Filio looked on edge too.

The roadside guardian statues began lining up straight, as if welcoming us in.

The stone figures—what people called jizo—all wore gentle smiles.

Didn’t feel good.

Could this whole Divine Descent Rite be a trap?

But no—Amhaya had already warned of the Demon King’s schemes, which was why he wanted a shrine maiden to descend in the first place.

If anything, he wouldn’t make the conditions favorable for demons. And if someone wanted to assassinate the candidate, it’d have to be in one big ambush—quickly crushed afterward.

So I kept my worries off my face, acting easygoing in front of Kokono.

Eventually, we arrived at old Kamunkotan.

The mist was still thick, but the great bamboo forest had thinned out.

All around stood crumbling houses, long abandoned and unrepaired. Some had rotted so badly they’d turned into mossy green lumps.

“Looks like no one uses this place outside the ritual.”

I muttered while keeping my eyes sharp on the surroundings.

Since this was Amhaya’s territory, Hokkoro spirits were everywhere—sliding across broken roofs, dangling lazily from eaves.

…But strangely, they all looked kind of drained.

That was when Lily, gripping her holy staff tighter, spoke in a tense voice.

“Everyone, please look over there.”

Following Lily’s gaze, I turned toward a nearby jizo statue.

Floating above its head was a bluish-white skull.

Half-transparent, cloaked in a faint pale-blue flame, drifting gently in the air.

“Those are wraiths. Looks like there are dozens of them…”

Mixed in among the Hokkoro spirits were the dead.

They’d noticed us intruders, but they didn’t attack—just floated aimlessly, like they lacked any real awareness.

“…Doesn’t seem like they mean us any harm.”

“Most likely, they’re under Lord Amhaya’s command. Perhaps we’re being welcomed into old Kamunkotan.”

“Wraiths, huh? Welcoming us?”

I made a face like, yeah right, but Lily didn’t look surprised at all.

“Spirits and wraiths. Light and dark. Yin and yang. Their natures differ, but in the end they’re both just spirits. Wraiths are nothing more than the remnants of life given shape.”

“So basically… they’re not full-blown evil?”

“…At least, not right now.”

Lily still kept her guard up—and so did I.

Yeah… just because they’re wraiths doesn’t mean they’re automatically evil.

Filio carried demonic blood too, and she wasn’t judged by that alone.

(Though yeah, she is an undeniable pervert.)

When I glanced at Kokono, she shook her head quickly, trembling.

“I-I don’t know… Nobody told me about this~.”

But the look on her face said she had some idea.

Yin and yang… Kokono carried the yin side. Maybe that was connected.

With hands resting on our weapons, we moved forward—watched by both spirits and wraiths—guided deeper into old Kamunkotan by the line of jizo statues.

We came to the ruins of a large mansion.

Mostly rotted away, the floor had collapsed to bare earth.

Only a few pillars remained, just enough to hint that it had once been a grand estate.

But the air itself made it obvious—this was the place.

At the center of the ruins stood a shrine—unnaturally clean.

Around it, it was as if time itself had stopped. Not a speck of dust, not a trace of decay.

A spotless, eerie little shrine standing in the heart of ruin.

It felt certain this had once been the home of the shrine maiden clan, long ago.

As we stood there before the shrine, a solemn voice rang out.

“—You have done well to come, young maiden.”

The voice came from above, and in that instant the mist briefly cleared.

Something massive emerged, shrouded in rushing wind.

The fog spiraled back in, and at its center coiled a giant serpent.

Easily ten meters long.

Its scales gleamed like stone, and the claws on its forelimbs looked sharp enough to slice through steel. …Definitely not just some snake.

A dragon.

That was Amhaya’s true form—a dragon of the East.

He wore a huge mask, like the Hokkoro spirits.

A mask with a gentle, jizo-like smile, gazing down on us.

“Um, um! Y-You’re… L-Lord Amhaya, r-right~!?”

Kokono stammered nervously.

“Indeed. Kokono Jukai, shrine maiden candidate. You have done well to endure the trial and arrive here.”

“Y-Yes, sir…!”

Kokono bowed so deeply it almost looked exaggerated.

Then Amhaya turned his gaze toward us.

“Children of man. Strangers though you are, you protected the young maiden with honor. You have my thanks.”

The sheer weight of his presence made Lily and Filio bow low in reverence.

I kept my guard up but also dropped to one knee, looking up at him.

Strangers, huh…

Maybe he guessed from our clothes—or maybe he’d been watching us the whole time.

He definitely radiated that “godlike” aura… Was this really a true higher being?

If so, then why were wraiths here?

Trembling, Kokono asked the question.

“Um… why are there wraiths here~?”

“Hmm. Before answering that… Kokono, you know of your own nature, do you not?”

“My… nature~?”

Amhaya spoke slowly to the airheaded girl.

“Yin and yang as one. You are the twin opposite of your sister—your nature leans toward yin. For one such as you, filled with yin, to host a divinity overflowing with divine light… would be nothing but poison.”

I met Lily’s eyes, and we both gave the slightest nod.

Amhaya clearly knew all about Kokono’s nature.

Lily, who’d been worried this whole thing might be a trap, let her shoulders relax just a bit. Looked like she eased up her guard.

Kokono gazed up at Amhaya with a worried look.

“S-So… does that mean I can’t become a shrine maiden…?”

“…You’ve worked hard, day after day, training as one.”

“Y-Yes…”

“I have watched from afar as you strove for the sake of your people.”

“Yes……”

“Which is why I say—you have the vessel and the talent for it.”

“Fuehh~?”

Kokono’s face went blank in her usual dazed way, and Amhaya’s voice softened.

“Become a shrine maiden who communes with both spirits and wraiths. You cannot host a god, but you will be something new—one who bridges life and death, a special shrine maiden unlike any before.”

“T-Then… I can really become a shrine maiden?”

“For that very reason, I welcomed the wraiths here.”

Classic dragon move—lower her down, then lift her back up.

If he’d been watching Kokono all this time, maybe he wasn’t such a bad dragon after all.

And if Kokono became a shrine maiden who couldn’t host a god, honestly, that worked out nicely for me. Maybe I’d been on guard too much.

While I mulled over slipping back into “relaxed mode,” Kokono’s eyes darted nervously.

“U-Um… I really can become a shrine maiden… right…?”

“What’s this doubt, Kokono? Haven’t you worked all this time for that very goal?”

“Yes~…”

Kokono’s words trailed off. Maybe she hesitated now that the moment had come… or maybe our earlier talk had planted doubt in her.

As we watched in concern, Amhaya spoke as if he already knew.

“…You’ve always been compared to your genius sister. That is why you hesitate.”

“T-That’s not really the reason~…”

“But even so, your sister wishes the same for you.”

Kokono tilted her head, puzzled.

Then her eyes and mouth opened wide—so wide it was almost comical. She whispered, “Ah… n-no way…” while staring at the figure emerging from the mist.

“—Honestly, Kokono. Even after death, you still make me worry.”

A girl appeared with a troubled smile—looking just like Kokono, only younger.

“Big… sis…!? H-How…!?”

“‘How,’ nothing, honestly. You really are hopeless. I couldn’t rest even in death, so of course I turned into a ghost to come see you.”

Lily and Filio froze in bewilderment.

I couldn’t move either—like I’d been struck by paralysis.

But for me, the reason was different.

It wasn’t just that Kikino was dead.

It wasn’t just that she’d appeared here.

It was that she looked younger than Kokono.

That Kokono didn’t see anything strange about it.

That Kikino spoke so clearly and sharply.

All the little inconsistencies I’d noticed until now began sliding into place, and my heartbeat quickened.

“…Mm.” “Yeah…” “……”

The faint, detached Kikino I once knew overlapped with the softly smiling Kokono before me.

…Ah.

K-Kokono… so it really was you?

In my past life… the one who traveled with us—was it Kokono all along?