Chapter 120: The Duck River Market

Eight o'clock in the evening.

The Kamo River was at its most vibrant. With summer vacation underway and the Gion Festival procession approaching, couples in yukata could be seen walking hand in hand all along the riverbanks. The young men and women of the Kamo River have been a picturesque sight since the Heian period.

Having finished his ramen, Qiao Qiao did not rush to leave.

"Proprietor, have there been any strange occurrences around the Kamo River lately?" he asked.

Miyagi Daisuke had been entangled with an evil deity statue; while the immediate issue was resolved, the source of the statue still needed to be addressed.

"Strange things?" The proprietor stroked his chin. "Speaking of which, the wild yokai from Mount Hiei have all been driven out recently."

A tanuki spoke up. Mount Hiei was nearby, and due to its vast size, some wild yokai had chosen to live there in abandoned villages, occasionally disguising themselves as humans to descend the mountain and purchase daily necessities.

"That's probably because of the Gion Festival, isn't it? They need to clear out Mount Hiei for the event," a one-eyed nyudo explained, his face slightly flushed from drink.

"Now that you mention it, that time of year is indeed upon us," the snow woman said. She had already finished a can of beer, her tipsy demeanor adding a touch of allure.

"Do yokai participate in the Gion Festival as well?" Hayami Nanase, having overcome her fear of yokai, had become increasingly curious. In her eyes, these entities were much like her own fans—they had their own lives and troubles. To use a simple analogy, they were like foreigners.

"Of course," the snow woman replied. "The Gion Festival originated a thousand years ago during a plague, when people carried the deity statues from Yasaka Shrine through Kyoto to pray for the end of the epidemic."

"So that's the origin," Nanase murmured, nodding slightly. She suddenly realized how strange it was to have a yokai explaining the history of the Gion Festival to a shrine maiden like herself.

"For yokai, the Gion Festival is also a time to relax. Since so many humans go out dressed in bizarre costumes, it’s not particularly strange for a yokai to reveal their true form," another tanuki added.

"So, the situation at Mount Hiei is likely the work of the shrine," Nanase whispered to herself.

"Possibly." Qiao Qiao recorded this in his notebook. "What about besides that? For instance, have any strange people appeared at the Kamo River markets recently?"

"The markets..."

The Kamo River markets, located along the riverbanks, were small, stall-like affairs nestled among the snack shops. After dark, they sold various trinkets and were quite popular with those taking evening strolls. The proprietor of the Cat Ramen shop pondered for a moment.

"There are plenty of strange people, after all, this is Kyoto. But if you're talking about suspicious characters, there has been a rumor lately about a phantom vendor."

"A-a phantom?" Nanase’s body tensed immediately.

Just then, another customer arrived, and the proprietor busied himself. While chopping vegetables, he gave a brief explanation. The phantom vendor was a sort of urban legend that had recently emerged in the Kamo River markets. It was said that one could not find the shop by intentionally looking for it; it could only be encountered by those who were lost or troubled.

Amidst the bustling crowds, a customer would suddenly hear the sound of a bell and then see the shop. It sold a variety of items, but most notably, it always contained something that the customer had once loved but had since lost or forgotten. Most customers would end up buying that item back. However, if a customer failed to notice that specific item and bought something else, or bought nothing at all, they would be cursed.

"?"

Wait, if such rumors existed, wouldn't the proprietor do something about it?

"Rumors are just rumors, after all," the proprietor said, noticing Qiao Qiao’s confusion and smiling. "Neither the yokai nor the humans here have actually encountered such things, so I don't see the need to make a fuss."

Unlike a midnight diner, Cat Ramen focused on balance—the balance between humans and yokai. It favored neither side.

As the night deepened, the patrons of Cat Ramen began to leave. The two tanuki stepped out from behind the curtain and transformed into a young couple in yukata. The one-eyed nyudo reverted to a salaryman in a suit, his hair slightly obscuring one eye. The snow woman became a stylish, youthful girl. They returned to human society, with no one suspecting that they spent their nights at the Cat Ramen shop in their true yokai forms.

After all, this was Kyoto, a gathering place for the supernatural since the Heian period.

Nanase felt a wave of emotion. Forget about yokai; even humans often had to wear masks to survive in this society. Perhaps only after returning home from work could they reveal their true selves. The yokai had the Cat Ramen shop where they could speak their minds. But what about humans?

Nanase felt she understood something, yet perhaps she didn't. With the existence of virtual identities online, who could tell if the person behind an account was a human or a yokai? Even Nanase, upon learning that some of her Twitter followers might be yokai, found it impossible to tell the difference.

Lost in thought, Nanase was pulled into the Kamo River market. As the proprietor had described, it was crowded with people. It felt like a small festival, with an array of snack stands and shops.

"Wow, this is so cute! Suzuka wants it!" Suzuka quickly became immersed in the joy of browsing the market, unable to resist a cute cat pendant she saw at a stall. "Buy it for me, buy it for me, buy it for me!"

"?"

A top streamer earning hundreds of thousands of yen a day, and she wants me to buy it for her? Qiao Qiao was puzzled, but he obediently paid for it. It only cost a hundred yen anyway.

*Hm? Speaking of which, I should buy a gift for Shrine Maiden Asano as well. If she finds out I brought Suzuka and Nanase to the market without her, she’ll probably be furious.*

With that in mind, Qiao Qiao glanced around and bought a hand grenade-shaped pendant. *Yes, Asano should like this.*

"?" Nanase watched Qiao Qiao’s purchase, completely bewildered. Would anyone actually like something like that? Regardless, a grenade was...

As she pondered, Nanase heard a bell. It was clear and melodious. The noisy scene around her seemed to fade away. When she regained her senses, she found herself standing in front of a shop. It was an ordinary stall, hanging with various pendants of strange shapes that possessed a certain aesthetic.

On the table, Nanase saw many things that looked familiar.

There was an old phone containing the digital friends she had once been obsessed with—a phone her mother had cleared out when she entered middle school. There was a paper crane she had folded as a child for a boy she liked; on the other side of the crane, she had written her feelings, but the boy had moved away suddenly, and she had never delivered the message. There was a character she had spent a long time designing but abandoned after only a day of writing. There was a charm she had hung on her school bag that a classmate had lost.

They were all memories of the past.

"Would you like to buy something?" the shopkeeper, an unremarkable-looking man, asked as he looked at her.