落とし穴１６７堀：夜を走る (Part2)
"If only we had a car, at least."
"Wait, hold on a second. Don't you and I both have cars at our respective homes?"
"Hm?"
I stopped my frantic, breathless running at those words.
"Ah, you're right. I remember seeing keys that looked like car keys on the tray by the entrance."
"Me too. Now that I think about it, when I checked my ID, I’m pretty sure there was a driver's license in there..."
"Wait, what? Why would a student have a license... oh, right. Everyone in this world is an adult."
"Exactly. Besides, since this is for our vacation, Luna probably arranged for us to have transportation, right? Look, here it is—a license."
Taiki-kun pulled his wallet out and showed it to me.
"Oh, you're right. I have one too... found it."
Because I assumed the wallet had been provided within the dream, I hadn't looked past the cards.
"Should we head back for a moment?"
"Yeah. Let's use the car at your place, Taiki-kun. My house has the Sudo group there, and if I pull out a car just to go to a convenience store, I’ll never hear the end of it."
"That’s true. This way."
And so, having successfully secured our means of transport, we began our journey toward the shrine.
"The heater isn't turning on."
"We'll have to bear with it until the engine warms up. Actually, we need to do a thorough check of our homes tomorrow. We’ve been neglecting that."
"Agreed. We prioritized gathering information on the computer. Let's do that. Oh—we're already at the shrine."
"The heater never did warm up. Still, should we leave the engine running?"
"Eh? Is that safe? What about theft?"
"That’s a concern, but there’s another car, and besides, in the tropes of these supernatural encounters, the car never starting when you need to flee is a classic cliché."
"Ah, so you mean we should keep it running from the start?"
"Exactly. Plus, even if it were stolen, modern cars have GPS; tracking it would be easy. And above all, this is a dream."
"True. Let's leave it running."
Chatting as we went, we pulled into the shrine’s parking lot, only to find, quite unexpectedly, that a fair number of other cars were already parked there.
"Right, it’s still January 2nd. The shrine is open for New Year's visits, and the shops are open too."
"That’s tough for the shrine, I suppose. But it’s a relief for us. At least this won't turn into a test of courage."
"True. That’s a load off my mind. While we're here, let's ask if anyone turned in Meue's wallet."
"Yes, let's."
Feeling reassured by the presence of other people, we got out of the car and headed toward the approach. Since the stalls were open, we bought some *amazake* to warm ourselves up.
"Nothing says New Year's shrine visit like this."
"It really warms you up. Oh, what about praying? We haven't paid our respects at this shrine yet, have we?"
"I suppose we should. We'll just tell the deity we're here looking for a friend's wallet and making sure no one else gets cursed."
"Haha, we definitely need to ask for permission."
With that, we headed toward the main hall, dropped a generous amount into the offering box, and offered our prayers.
*Please, let there be no trouble... no, trouble has already begun, so please, let us keep it to a minimum.*
*Also, we’re going to explore the shrine a bit, so please forgive us. We won’t do anything bad.*
"Alright, let's go."
"Right. First, Meue-san’s wallet and phone."
"Yeah. Why didn't she just say she dropped them at the shrine?"
"Maybe she just didn't realize that's where she lost them?"
"Ah. Right."
In the game, it’s reported that Meue’s wallet and phone were found at the shrine. Actually, the protagonist’s "meet-cute" with her happens when they happen to pick up the items just as a call comes in, leading them to return them directly to her.
"So, the reason she didn't report it to the police was to hide her own blunder?"
"She was probably too embarrassed, considering she’d been stealing from the offering box."
"Makes sense. Wait, the shrine office... hold on. The protagonist arrives in this town on January 4th, right?"
"Yes, that should be... wait, does that mean the wallet hasn't been found yet?"
"...Meue left her wallet and phone lost for two whole days in the original story? That’s terrifying."
"Well, she is young..."
"Sigh. Regardless, let's notify the shrine office. There's a chance we won't be able to find it ourselves, either."
"Agreed."
We contacted the office to report the lost wallet, but as expected, nothing had been turned in. We set out to find the missing items and ensure there were no other victims.
I just realized something.
This story... it isn't going to end easily.
The next developments are piling up in my head; this is going to be a long-term battle.
Does everyone want to see this story through to a proper conclusion? If so, I’m thinking it might be better to start a separate novel project for it. What do you think?