Part 15: Shrine Visit 5: Shuu

Shrine Visit 5: Shuu



I decided to stop by the shrine for a visit since I was here anyway, but… it’s really crowded!
Where do they all come from every year, anyway? The shrine is usually so empty!
I want to at least make an offering, but standing around waiting like this is breaking my heart…
It’s cold, and waiting by myself is so lonely! Maybe I should go home and come back some other day.
…Wait…
I thought I saw a familiar partridge walk by.
The music stops.

Dr. Iwamine? Is that you?



Don’t tell me he’s here to make an offering, too!?

Happy New Year, sir! I’m surprised to see you here!
I never would have expected to bump into you in a place like this. You’re kind of like a devil or something, so I always figured you’d get purified into nothingness if you went into a shrine!


Oh, okay! So I don’t have to worry about him getting hit by some stray exorcism and evaporating! Yay, I’m so relieved!

But why are you here, sir? Are you making a New Year’s offering?
No. I feel no need to plea with hypothetical gods for help. As I’m sure you know quite well.

OH? YES, I KNOW.

Umm… Why are you here, then?

There isn’t!!! Please stop hearing about corpses that don’t exist, sir!
But I was told there was a crowd here because they found a rotting corpse in the pond.
Shrines are already crowded on New Year’s! No one’s said anything about a corpse.
I see… That is truly unfortunate. It seems I have been misled by a falsified report.

The doctor, thoroughly disappointed, turned and began to walk away.

Oh! Are you going home already, sir!?
There’s no reason for me to stay, is there?
But you’re already here, and it’s New Year’s! Want to make an offering with me?
It’s cold and there’s a line and I was thinking of giving up and going home, but if I got to wait with you then I wouldn’t mind!

He gives me an amazed-looking sneer. Geez, don’t you have any hopes or dreams, you diabolical partridge? Any romance!?
Getting turned down like this every time I try to do something with him makes my hunter-gatherer blood boil! I’m starting to want to just look up a walkthrough for him on a wiki or something.

But this is a special day! And if I’m with you, then even if I catch cold you’ll be able to give me pertinent advice!
Please do not treat me as your personal medical advisor. I am not fond of selfish children.
Aaah, I’m sorry… I got carried away…
Now, if you would be willing to take the place of that rotting corpse for me, then I might be interested.
You want to make an offering with a rotten corpse!? What kind of pervert are you!?!?

That’s too much, sir!
…Hoho, don’t worry. I was only joking. Yes… joking.

Were you, sir? That felt an awful lot like you were asking just on the off-chance…

Perhaps we can come to an arrangement. I shall offer a very simple contract, with only one condition.

It sounds more like I could be in serious danger of losing everything, including but not limited to my life!? But if I don’t come down with a cold it should be fine. That should be okay… I guess…?

All right, sir! I promise!


Oh, how my heart leaps when I hear that laugh!
And so I spent New Year’s Day with a non-believing partridge.
I’ll be fine as long as I can endure until spring… I wouldn’t mind paying him back, but I’d rather not risk my life, so I’ll pray to make it through the winter without getting sick!

And so concludes Shuu’s shrine visit event.