Chapter 79

The Red House (Part 4) (い の) is the seventy-ninth chapter of Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun by AidaIro.

Summary
In search of information related to the Seven Mysteries, Teru and Akane are inside of the Nagisa Shrine. They're speaking to Nagisa Kunishige, the chief priest, who is asking Teru what business he was with him.

Akane asks who this person is. Teru explains to Akane that shrines and exorcists have partnered up for ages, wherein exorcists help priests whose clients have supernatural issues that can't be solved by the priests themselves. He says that they're sort of like the middleman for exorcists.

After Teru angers Kunishige with a barbed comment about their business relationship, Kunishige threatens Teru by reminding him that he's the one that puts the food on his family's table. He asks if Teru would rather they sever all ties, and force the Minamoto family to attract business on their own by putting billboards outside their house.

Teru counters him back by saying his family wouldn't be the ones at a loss for work, and that the priests would be the ones in a worse position. The priests can't settle the supernatural disputes on their own, and their customers would lose faith in them without the exorcists. The town would then be overrun with supernaturals, leading to people dying, all caused by the priests and exorcists trying to destroy each other.

After Teru taunts him about actually letting that happen, Kunishige changes the topic and asks why he came in the midst of the Severance. Akane is a bit surprised that Kunishige knows of the Severance.

As Teru is about to explain why they came, his phone begins to ring. Teru asks Akane to get it for him, as he's busy talking to Kunishige right now, and Akane sees that it's a call from Kou. Teru talks in the background about how they came to find a clue to travel to the boundaries, and that the Nagisa Shrine was once the Misaki Shrine. Before he can continue, Akane answers the phone, and a loud screech emanates from it.

The phone emanates a staticky noise before a loud voice is heard, one that seems to belong to a child. It calls Akane "Akane-kun", and asks to grant his wish. Teru takes the phone and hangs up before it can continue.

Teru asks who that was, and Akane swears it was from Kou. Visibly terrified, Kunishige yells that Akane has been cursed, and asks why he got a phone call from that child. Teru immediately questions Kunishige back, asking him if he knows anything related to that mysterious phone call just now.

A flashback begins, as Kunishige begins to explain himself. Decades ago, when he was only a senior priest, a woman and her child visited the shrine. The child had been missing for 6 months before miraculously coming back. They call it being "spirited away."

His mother says that she was happy at first, but noticed there was something wrong with him. She claims that whatever had come back was not her son, despite them looking the same, and that whatever was originally inside of him had been replaced entirely. She then begs for the chief priest to change her son back, but upon investigating him they were unable to find any abnormalities. He looked normal, and there was no sign of him being possessed an evil spirit. Kunishige notes that he thought something was instead wrong with the mother, rather than the child.

As the other priests attempt to soothe the mother, Kunishige approaches the child, who is drawing in the dirt with a stick. Kunishige makes friendly conversation with him, introducing himself and asking what he's drawing. Instead of responding to his question, the child points at him, and mysteriously states that Kunishige-kun's wish will be granted tomorrow. The next day, the chief priest dies; and the image of his dead body looks vaguely similar to what the child was drawing before.

Kunishige explains that the chief priest had previously insulted his family and made off with the shrine's money, leading to him wishing he would just disappear. He says that while the death was claimed to be an accident, he couldn't confidently state that the child's words were mere coincidence.

Additionally, years later, the same child died in his house in what was called a family suicide, and any individuals that approached that house thereafter died mysterious deaths. Kunishige says that the harm was supposed to stop after the Minamoto clan had forbidden any interference with the house, and chastises Teru for getting involved with it and letting his brother enter inside. He questions whether Teru is prepared to handle the blame for any damage this misstep might've caused, and Teru ruefully apologizes, saying he will take full responsibly.

Furious, Kunishige then proclaims that he'll be making a report to Teru's father about all of this, stating that children need to be scolded by their fathers once in a while. He then locks them inside of a room, forbidding them from leaving.

Akane tests the doors, but they won't budge. He asks Teru what they should do, saying they can't go and help Kou like this. In contrast to Akane's panic, Teru is instead spread out on the floor, complaining about nothing ever going right for him.

Teru suddenly questions if Akane knows about the Misaki Shrine, and goes on to explain it's history. Although it was located in No. 2's boundary, it used to exist in the real world, too, before being absorbed into the modern day Nagisa Shrine. Due to this, the past property of the Misaki Shrine is now kept within the Nagisa Shrine. He also states that Kunishige is a descendant of the Misaki household.

Because of the connection between these two shrines, Teru thought there might be some sort of artifact located within the Nagisa Shrine that would allow them to cross over to the boundaries. Teru thought he could use his position as the eldest son of an exorcist family to gain access to these artifacts, but his plan had ultimately failed.

He continues to whine, saying that he feels like he's no good at anything. He laments how the other day, that despite saving his town and community from supernatural menaces, and losing his glory days of youth to fighting them, his brother had asked him over breakfast what he'd do if he'd suddenly turned into a supernatural. Which he states as being "the worst."

Teru then curses Kunishige for not working with him, despite Teru trying his best to be polite and courteous, and Akane comments on how unbecoming all this whining is of him. Teru switches the topic to how he saw Akane doing inappropriate things with Aoi in the boundary, causing Akane to spit his drink out. Enraged, he begins shaking him as Teru laughs, Akane yelling about how Teru planned the awful timing of his entrance at the end of Chapter 69 all along.

Continuing in his self pity, Teru goes on to state how he's actually not very nice, and certainly no model student. He says that while Nene wishes to see No. 7, and Kou also seems to have some sort of objective, he simply just wishes to bring Aoi back.

Taken aback, Akane questions if Teru actually really does like Aoi. Evading the question, Teru states that Aoi is necessary to fulfilling his dream. Akane imagines this dream as Aoi being Teru's housewife, but Teru doesn't elaborate further.

Fed up with him now, Akane kicks Teru and tells him to shape up. If he doesn't, then Akane will just go and save her himself, telling her that Teru was useless all the while. Teru says that would be a bother, but Akane's words seem to spark some motivation inside of him.

Jumping to his feet, Teru whips out his katana and slashes the doors locking them inside to pieces. He then goes to Kunishige, who is currently making a phone call, and causes an explosion inside of the shrine. Afterwards, the other priests, including Kunishige, appear visibly shaken, saying that their heirloom has been stolen.

Outside of the shrine, Teru is victoriously holding up a small chest in his hand, exclaiming that they're going to the boundary. Akane is more ruffled in contrast, muttering an apology to the people of the shrine.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Nagisa Kunishige
 * Minamoto Teru
 * Aoi Akane
 * Minamoto Kou (mentioned)
 * Yugi's Mother (flashback)
 * Yugi Tsukasa (flashback)
 * Hanako (flashback)
 * Yako (mentioned)
 * Akane Aoi (flashback)
 * Yashiro Nene (flashback)