Was I Called by a God? Or Something Else? — The Aftermath of That Day's Coin: Conclusion —

About ten days had passed since then.

I casually took out the vermilion coin I had stored in my desk drawer and gasped.

The coins, which should have been two, had increased to three.

No matter how many times I counted, there were three.

All of them were the same vivid vermilion color.

The old man had only told me about two cases of mysterious disappearances.

A child who vanished during the Edo period.

And a woman who was returning to her parents' home before the war.

There were only two people.

If they were related to the disappearances, why were there three coins?

The more I thought about it, the more restless I became, and I decided to head to Raiden Shrine once more.

Even though it was before noon, the air felt heavy, and a lukewarm breeze clung to my skin.

As I pedaled and looked up at the sky, white cumulonimbus clouds were slowly rising in the distance.

After about twenty minutes, the torii gate came into view.

Beyond the gate, only that large tree stump remained in silence.

There was no one in the shrine grounds.

I took the three coins out of my pocket.

The old man had said:

—If you are going to return them, there is a way to do it.

I don't know what it means.

Still, it is better than keeping them as they are.

I reached out my hand to line up the coins on the tree stump.

That was when it happened.

“...The festival is coming soon, isn't it.”

A voice of an old man came suddenly from behind me.

I turned around in surprise.

The old man was standing there, though I had no idea when he had appeared.

With a calm expression, he was staring at the coins on the stump.

“The festival... you say?”

The old man nodded quietly.

“In the old days, they used to hold a festival at this shrine, too.”

“They don't anymore, do they?”

“No. No one does it anymore.”

Having said only that, the old man looked up at the sky for a moment.

“Be careful on that day, at least.”

I tried to ask him for the reason.

But the old man said nothing more.

In the end, I took the three coins home with me.

That weekend, I made my way to the municipal library.

I began to check the local history shelves one book at a time.

It took me half a day to finally find a mention of the Raiden Shrine in the corner of an old village chronicle.

It only noted that a festival had been held there every year until before the war.

However, there was no mention anywhere of why the festival had ceased.

A few days later, on my way home from shopping at the local supermarket.

I was waiting for the light at an intersection in the evening.

The pedestrian signal turned green.

Or so it seemed.

I went to take a step forward without a shred of doubt.

That was the moment.

The sandal on my right foot caught on a slight bump in the road surface.

“Ah.”

My body tilted forward.

The next instant, a large truck roared past right in front of me.

The wind pressure hit my face.

I stood frozen in place.

“That’s dangerous!”

A woman behind me shouted loudly.

“The light is red!”

Another man said with a grimace,

“You need to watch the signal properly.”

I could not answer anything.

I was not looking at my smartphone, either.

To me, it had truly looked like a green light.

I look down at my feet.

My sandals were still on, as if nothing had happened.

If I had taken that one step.

Thinking that, a chill ran down my spine.

That night, I had a strange dream.

I was walking through a fog.

A small child was walking a little way ahead of me.

Behind them was a woman in a kimono.

Both of them had calm expressions.

I feel like we talked about something.

No, perhaps we didn't talk at all.

By the time I woke up, I could barely remember the contents of the dream.

However.

Only the feeling that we had exchanged farewells remained.

Who did I say goodbye to?

Did I say it, or did they?

I couldn't even remember that.

The next morning, I opened the drawer.

The three vermilion coins were gone; not a single one remained.

I hurriedly got dressed.

If I could meet that old man, I might understand something.

It was just as I opened the front door.

The sky flashed pure white.

A peal of thunder roared, echoing deep in my gut.

Without a moment's pause, rain began to fall like a waterfall.

The road was instantly obscured by a white mist, and even the house across the street faded from view.

Lightning struck again and again.

In the end, I could not go to Raiden Shrine that day.

The traffic light that looked green that day.

The tiny step that stopped me.

And the farewell greeting we exchanged in my dream.

Was that all just a coincidence?

I tried visiting Raiden Shrine several times after that.

But I never met that old man again.

Every time I hear summer thunder, I remember the vermilion coin from that day.

#note #LifeReignited #SmallExploration #ShrineVisiting #LocalHistory #MysteriousStory #GhostStory #Folklore #Stroll #60s

【Another Challenge Started in My 60s】
As part of reigniting my life, I am also working on writing novels.
I am currently publishing a supernatural mystery novel on TALES.
It is a slightly different world from note, but this is also an important creative activity for me.
If you are interested, please take a look.
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