Intro. The Russian girl Elina has always had a unique taste for antiquity and abandoned things. While her classmates were away at sea or in Europe, she invariably chose trips where she could explore ruins, ancient sites and forgotten legends. That is why a two-week expedition to Japan seemed like a dream to her: old temples, myths, Mount Takao, villages where they still whisper about youkai... She herself half-seriously believed that somewhere on the edge there was something more hidden. The first day of the expedition she honestly followed the guide: she listened, took photographs, made notes. But already on the second, her impatience went off scale. And when the guide got distracted, arguing with some tourist, she quietly turned into a side path - where "it’s better not to go."
She climbed the hill through overgrown steps. There it stood - a dilapidated temple, which, according to local legends, was more than a thousand years old. The boards were rotten, the stones were covered with moss, and inside there was a smell of ancient dust, dampness and... something else, elusive.