Alice announces the competition results and Yoshisuke acknowledges the group as first-class despite their appearances. He still sees Alice as the best because she tied despite spending the first half of the competition drinking tea in the souvenir store, but he appreciates Fujimaru better because they work as soon as told. He also tells the story that Hell Hall got brimming with evil spirits like that because a miner took away an ancient shrine that used to be there. Fujimaru didn't find any traces of a missing shrine there, however.
The once-prosperous Kumano Inn faced an infestation of ghosts and youkai, and the solution Yoshisuke sought was advertising that he would pay per spirit banished. Now that the three new guests have been welcomed, they're free to exorcize spirits to their stamina's content in any room of the inn. There are currently 9 parties of guests + 2 employees, and it's up to them to decide if the other parties are rivals or allies. All Yoshisuke asks for is no murder. His recruitment comes with the disclaimer that he won't guarantee anyone's survival against the hauntings, so that's fine, but if a human being kills another, Yoshisuke will call the police. The inn doesn't have cell phone signal, something another guest, "the detective from Tokyo", complained to Yoshisuke about.
Wanwan-sama is the local god of Mt. Kumano, but not the same god from the stolen Hell Hall shrine. Hell Hall's god is ancient, while Wanwan-sama is a very recent god. Yoshisuke hands Fujimaru the key to the Sky Suite on the 8th floor of the newer building, the VIP room of the inn. It has two living rooms, three bedrooms, and one small viewing platform. They need to get to the older building to go to the hot springs. They close at 1 AM and open again at 5 AM. Before leaving, Yoshisuke warns the group to watch out because the hallway to their room is super haunted.
The story is now locked until you complete the "Clear 1 Free Quest" mission. This mission also awards you with the Misaki High uniform.
The three Sky Suite guests + Alice arrive at their luxury room. Alice's robin begins chatting for a bit but Alice quickly slaps him dead. It's established to the Chaldean duo that Robin dies and revives all the time. Everyone agrees to ignore Robin and begin reviewing what they know about the situation so far.
Fujimaru and Mash decide to trust the two girls and give the full offscreen explanation of what is a Singularity and Chaldea's general mission. Aoko respects Fujimaru a lot because she's also someone trying to protect mankind's future behind the scenes and she doesn't feel like she's doing as good of a job. Alice is salty because Aoko already knew something she didn't (what is a Singularity). Aoko reveals that she also came to investigate the Singularity due to an anonymous tip telling her that leaving this place unattended would have nasty consequences. And Fujimaru now taught her that the solution to Singularities is finding the cause. She's not completely lost anymore. Alice will help now because Aoko has become an active investigator.
But before they go looking for the Holy Grail, Alice wants to see what a summon looks like. Mash initiates the Round Shield, connects it to the leyline, finds a Tier 2 Saint Graph related to the region, and outputs it. And the Servant that comes out is...
A Soujuurou younger than the one Fujimaru met. A Servant from 1991 summoned to 2001. Soujuurou came aware that the world is in danger and saving it is his next part-time job, but not much more in terms of information. Mash's readings suggest that his summon is exclusive to the proximities of Kumano Hot Springs. Aoko says he'll be useless as a detective but can handle himself in a brawl. She very intensely forbids Soujuurou from investigating, not that he cares about her opinion until she threatens him with the bullets. The compromise they arrive at is that Soujuurou has to stay in the room the whole day today "to avoid confusion", but he can investigate from tomorrow on. Aoko won't investigate with us today because she has something else to do, which she promises to have settled by night. Alice is not interested and returns to her room.
Reaching this point gets you Soujuurou's permanent summon. He doesn't have a temporary summon. You just have him now.
Also, the story is now locked until you complete the "Acquire 200 Exorcism Points" mission. That also rewards with your first Punishment Collar to Ascend Soujuurou.
Exploring the inn, they find Bazett in the hallway. We ask her questions and she answers that even though she can exorcize spirits, she's not an exorcist by trade, doesn't need the money, and didn't even know about the wish-granting spring rumors. She tries to explain that she was simply dispatched to Japan to investigate someone "deemed essential for the progress of mankind" and came to the hot springs to refresh her body on the way to the mission. However, she's a bad liar, so it's painfully clear she's after one of the wishing springs and the job that sent her to Japan is investigating someone designated for sealing.
Bazett explains she heard from Yoshisuke that each wishing spring takes effect on one of the persons who bathed in it at random. And one way to mitigate the randomness of it is eliminating competitors for the wish you want. Bazett can see that aspect of the five wishing springs becoming a motive for murder.
Mash and Fujimaru make their first visit to the older building. When they are about to enter the bathing area, they see a young-looking elder coming out of it. Mash asks the old man if he's Muramasa and he's flattered by it. He's just an elderly art dealer called "Mr. Shirou". A living human from this era.
Entering
the bathing area, we find the spirit exorcist Sugitani Rei'inbou looking for booze in the vending machines. She introduces herself and reveals she's here for the easy money and is enjoying the inn along the way. Yoshisuke's food sucks but maintaining the hot springs is the one thing he does extremely well. Fujimaru asks questions about the Kumano Hot Springs. Sugitani confirms that the wishing springs will start sprouting tomorrow, but the first one is the Rejuvenation Spring and she doesn't care about that one. Either way, Sugitani is skeptical of the wishing springs because their rumors are too recent. Specifically, they only started when Yoshisuke took over as the inn's new owner. It was clear who invented the tale.
Sugitani goes into more detail about Yoshisuke's character. He made a lot of money through the wishing spring rumor because a room at his inn was a million yen per night. But he's visibly not the kind of rich guy who uses his load to make himself look better, which means he's the kind of rich guy who dumps his funds into a dream. Kumanoin Yoshisuke has an unknown goal. The previous owner of the Kumano Inn was a man with no family. He retired to enjoy life in Atami, but before that, he adopted Kumanoin Yoshisuke, a TV personality who retired at the peak of his popularity, to let Yoshisuke legally inherit the inn. Yoshisuke's reasons for quitting TV are still shrouded in mystery. The tabloids tried to interview him, but the truth remains hidden.
The next room to investigate is the archive. It's supposed to be an exhibition on local history and art, but Mt. Kumano's only cultural product is the dolls they've been producing since the late 1920s, so the archive is
a bit overdone on the doll motif. Mash points to her favorite doll in the collection, but the doll reveals herself to be alive. She's an informal employee named Kashin, nicknamed Kashinko. She was stopping her pulse to pull the moving doll prank on Mash. Fujimaru knows how to stop their pulse by applying pressure to their armpit but saw no signs of Kashinko doing anything like that. She takes care of the archive, but the real reason Yoshisuke invited her to live at the inn is to be his strong failsafe against rampaging spirits. Yoshisuke's business model of pay-per-purged-haunting attracts a lot of shams, so when one of them fails to exorcise a spirit, Kashinko goes there and finishes the job. She theoretically could be cleaning up the inn's hauntings, but she only does whatever she feels like. Yoshisuke's problems are his own.
Kashinko's advice is not to visit her archive at night. One medium did that once and had to pay the price.
Fujimaru runs away from the archive and Mash is quick to follow.
There's a strange room deep into the inn. Yoshisuke stops Fujimaru from touching the door. Not because it's dangerous, but because it's a waste of time. The door never opens. Yoshisuke himself never saw what's behind the door, but he believes it's related to the mountain's deity. The Kudan is a relatively famous and revered youkai. A spiritual ox who can see the future. But Mt. Kumano's Kudan was different. Unlike the Kudan from traditional legends, this one instead gave humans the ability to see the future. It's a metaphorical wish-granter since it enables people to reach the future they desire. That Kudan was worshipped since ancient times and currently goes by the name Wanwan-sama. The door that never opens and searching for a way to open it incurs the god's wrath.
Fujimaru asks Yoshisuke about his TV career, but he says it's all in the past. The previous owner got interested in Yoshisuke because the Kumanoin name was a match with Kumano Inn, and ultimately liked him enough to let Yoshisuke have the inn after his retirement. Mash also mentions her conversation with Kashinko and Yoshisuke gets suspicious of how Kashinko has been chatting with guests a lot more than she used to.
Before leaving, Yoshisuke warns the two that the inn has 5 hauntings that are leagues above the rest, and none of the mediums who tried to tackle them so far survived. Those dreadful five are:
1) Wanwan-sama's Way Home. The unopenable door in the room where this conversation is taking place.
2) The Long Hallway to the Older Building. A walk that never ends.
3) The Devil's Classroom. A dark crafting room you can enter through the archive.
4) The Writer's Noose. A suite anyone can enter, but not leave.
5) The Inverted Mirror, where a copy of yourself kills you.
At 10 PM, after dinner, the whole group gathers at the Sky Suite to hear Fujimaru's investigation report. Aoko solved her problem, so Soujuurou is allowed to join us tomorrow. The Sky Suite has 3 bedrooms for Fujimaru, Mash, and Soujuurou, so Aoko will sleep in Alice's suite, at Alice's own insistence. Aoko makes fun of Alice's atrocious social skills, causing Alice to leave to their room ahead. Aoko runs after, but not without leaving a final message on the go.
None of the three in the Sky Suite can derive any meaning from Aoko's parting words, so they change the subject. Soujuurou asks for permission to use one of the beds, which causes Mash to question his need to sleep. Going in spirit form is the better alternative for Servants. But Soujuurou has been trying all day and can't do it. Before going to sleep, Soujuurou reports that he reserved the open-air bath, so the party can use it tomorrow after dinner. End of the first day.
Morning of the second day. Mash distressedly wakes Fujimaru up. It's a murder. Aozaki Aoko's body has been discovered in the bathing area.
Originally Posted by Comun
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