Chapter 135: Qiao Qiao’s Training Plan

Following Jo Qiao’s pointing finger, all they could see was a stretch of pitch-black mountain forest.

“Teacher, stop making us guess.”

Asano Ariko shook Jo Qiao by the arm.

“The arrangement of this village is strange, don’t you think?”

“At the very center of the village, instead of a public facility, there’s a private residence. And the building is in extremely poor condition. However you look at it, there’s something wrong.”

“What do you mean, Teacher?”

Asano Ariko began to form a hypothesis.

“Yes. That building itself is a source of resentment. Placing the other sources of resentment inside the buildings was actually meant to conceal that fact.”

Jo Qiao nodded.

“There was probably some distortion of information as well. Combined with the blind spots in the shrine maidens’ thinking, it caused them to overlook this building.”

“Seriously?”

Arai Takashi furrowed his brow slightly.

According to Jo Qiao, noticing this source of resentment required not only knowledge of supernatural phenomena, but also a certain understanding of the village’s layout. That went far beyond the scope of an exorcism examination.

“Ah…”

So this was what it meant to go beyond the syllabus?

Arai Takashi found himself speechless once more.

Aside from knowledge of exorcism, was this exorcism tournament really going to test them on things outside that field?

No, no. Perhaps this fellow was simply making things up.

Arai Takashi looked up at the commentary booth. They were announcing the final source of resentment that had yet to be found.

“Ta-da! Who would have thought the answer would be the building located at the exact center of the village? This is a large-scale source of resentment. Thanks to its special arrangement, it was very easy to overlook subconsciously.”

“Indeed, Nishimoto. We didn’t notice it at first either.”

“?”

So it was true?

Arai Takashi glanced at Jo Qiao.

Jo Qiao was taking a ticket from his wallet and looking over at him.

“The odds were two-point-nine, weren’t they?” he said to Arai Takashi.

…

The Gion Festival continued, but Jo Qiao did not go out again.

While the shrine maidens of Shimogamo Shrine busied themselves with the festivities, Jo Qiao spent his days at home carefully studying videos and materials from previous exorcism tournaments. At night, he took the subway to Mount Hiei to watch the exorcism matches.

Perhaps because the events were being recorded, there were not many spectators at Mount Hiei. The larger shrines attracted decent crowds, but the smaller shrines were usually supported only by their own people, making the scene seem rather desolate.

Of course, there were also bookmakers like Arai Takashi.

From Arai Takashi, Jo Qiao learned a great deal of relevant “inside information.”

Saturday, July twentieth. Cloudy.

It was the second day after the release of *Weathering with You*. Thanks to the enormous success of its predecessor, the animated film was also performing very well at the box office.

Jo Qiao, however, had not yet found the time to see it.

At five in the morning, his alarm clock woke him.

Starting today, the shrine maidens would officially begin their training.

At first, Jo Qiao had planned to conduct the training in the shrine’s backyard. But after considering the constant flow of visitors, he decided that firearms practice might inconvenience passersby, so he moved the training elsewhere.

Matsugasaki Nishiyama lay to the north of Kyoto. It was best known for the bonfires burned there during the Gozan Okuribi festival every summer, when the five mountains sent off the spirits of the dead. The character burned on Matsugasaki Nishiyama was “myo,” while the one on Higashiyama was “ho.”

Less than three kilometers from Shimogamo Shrine, the area possessed beautiful natural surroundings and scenery, making it the ideal place for a training camp.

“J-Jo Qiao, wait up.”

Hashimoto Kotone gasped for breath as she struggled along at the back of the group.

She was not wearing shrine maiden robes, but her school gym uniform. Running through the streets of Kyoto at six in the morning, she occasionally attracted the attention of passersby, though most assumed she was taking part in an extracurricular activity from a nearby school.

The other four shrine maidens were also wearing their respective gym uniforms, running in a line behind Jo Qiao.

After breakfast, they had set out on foot for Matsugasaki Nishiyama.

“What are you talking about? When a vengeful spirit appears, do you think it will wait for you?”

Jo Qiao maintained his running pace and shouted at her.

“If you still have the strength to talk, then you can still keep running. Hashimoto, move! Don’t stop!”

Hearing Jo Qiao’s words and watching the other shrine maidens gradually pull farther away, Hashimoto Kotone’s vision swam, but she had no choice except to keep up.

At an open clearing on Matsugasaki Nishiyama, the shrine maidens were all breathing heavily. Hashimoto Kotone, unable to care less about the weeds beneath her, simply collapsed onto the ground.

“Our training schedule for the coming period is as follows.”

Jo Qiao had somehow acquired a blackboard, and every inch of it was covered with a densely packed timetable.

“For the first week, you’ll get up at five every morning and run here, assembling before six-thirty. In the morning, you’ll undergo physical conditioning and close-quarters combat training. In the afternoon, you’ll train with firearms. In the evening, you’ll go to Mount Hiei together to watch the exorcism tournament. After returning, you’ll spend half an hour writing a summary of your training.”

“Starting in the second week, in addition to the regular training from the first week, each of you will receive specialized training for the position you’re responsible for.”

“During the third and fourth weeks, you’ll live here at Matsugasaki Nishiyama and undergo wilderness survival training and the final residential camp.”

“What? L-Live here?”

Kitagawa Ryoko looked around at their surroundings.

There was greenery everywhere—but only greenery.

This was deep in the mountains, a place where there was barely even a mobile-phone signal.

There were no convenience stores, let alone facilities such as toilets.

How could anyone who had spent more than a decade immersed in modern civilization possibly live here?

“And firearms are one thing, but why do we have to train in hand-to-hand combat too?” Hayami Nanase asked.

“Do you think the only things you’ll face in the future are vengeful spirits without physical bodies? If a vengeful spirit possesses an armor in Eigamura, or takes over an ordinary human being, then you’ll need close-quarters combat skills to restrain it.”

Jo Qiao spoke without hesitation.

“Not to mention that there are also yokai, whose physical strength is several times greater than that of ordinary people. If you don’t train properly and learn the relevant techniques, you won’t even be able to protect yourselves when confronted by one.”

“Jo Qiao, even so, yokai are still rather…”

Sasaki Haruka offered a wry smile.

“There’s an old proverb from China.”

Jo Qiao ignored Sasaki Haruka’s complaint.

“A sound soul resides in a sound mind and a sound body.”

“Training like this isn’t solely for exorcism. It’s also so that all of you can maintain a firm will at all times.”

“The age of the frail, physically weak genius exorcist with overwhelming spiritual power is over.”

“But if we stay here for the training camp, what about the shrine…”

Shimogamo Shrine had only five shrine maidens. If all of them stayed at Matsugasaki Nishiyama, there would be no one left to receive visitors at the shrine. No matter how one looked at it, that seemed disastrous.

Maki Araki did not want to return from the training camp only to discover that the shrine had gone bankrupt.

“It’s fine. I anticipated this situation, so I found some temporary workers,” Jo Qiao replied.

At Shimogamo Shrine—

“Why does Suzuka have to do this sort of thing in Kyoto?”

Watching Asano Ariko in the distance as she carried out protective charms, Suzuka, dressed in red-and-white shrine maiden robes, suddenly sneezed.