I like crossing the most

Chapter 1001 The Last Routine 180
Who might find this outfit suitable? Maybe we could use it as an opportunity to do some business; we could make a fortune...

Aqua, upon seeing the outfit, exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, this is quite rare. In Kobayashi's hometown, this kind of outfit is very popular among some fans."

“As far as I’m concerned, a little bit of flamboyance doesn’t matter…” Megumin unfolded her shrine maiden outfit and said with some surprise, “This one is quite charming.”

"I miss the fake ears too. I remember helping out at the coffee shop with Chris and the others back then."

Aqua said this.

"Together!?" Youyou said excitedly, "If I wear it, I might be able to make friends with other people... Mr. Kobayashi, please give me this piece of clothing!"

"No problem at all!"

Xiaolin readily handed the clothes to Youyou and told her to change. After waiting for quite a while, the shy Youyou finally came over hesitantly, rubbing her fingers together a little embarrassedly.

"Um... um, how about it?"

It's a very standard shrine maiden outfit, except that both the cuffs and the belt are pink ribbons, and she wears a cat-ear headdress with a cat tail behind her—I really wanted to know where it was stuck, but I thought I would be scorned by others, so I had to give up.

It's really pretty, with a strong anime/manga vibe. It would definitely be a hit at a comic convention or a special cafe.

Aqua, seeing Yuuyu reappear before her, exclaimed happily, "That's great! Aren't you cute?!"

"I don't know if it's necessary to wear cat ears, but they suit you very well." Darkness agreed wholeheartedly, seemingly very interested in Youyou's novel outfit.

“That’s right.” Huihui agreed, nodding as she pointed to the cat-eared statue enshrined in the shrine, saying, “And those ears are exactly the same as the divine body.”

The divine body...

"Ah, you mean the cat-eared school swimsuit figure at the shrine?" After a moment's thought, following Megumin's pointing finger, Kobayashi finally remembered. This shrine didn't enshrine a well-known deity, but rather a cat-eared school swimsuit figure given to the Crimson Demon Clan by a reincarnated being. Yes, it was that absurd.

The other Crimson Demons who came to help nodded in agreement, saying, "Indeed. Looking at those ears evokes a sense of gratitude. But at the same time, there's a surge of emotion welling up inside me...!"

He seemed to really like Youyou's outfit, but clearly he didn't actually like Youyou; otherwise, he would have made his stance clear earlier. Seeing the Crimson Demon Clan's behavior, Kobayashi nodded to himself, thinking: "Hmm, do cat ears have a kind of sacred quality for the Crimson Demon Clan...?" He noted this observation down.

Darkness smiled and said, "Alright, Youyou's clothes are all tidied up, time to clean up!"

They came to help, but they found this outfit along the way. Now that Youyou is wearing it, they can no longer slack off.

And after cleaning.

As Kobayashi fanned away the dust in the air, he said to the people still cleaning outside, "All the books inside are finished!"

Since drying books in the shade doesn't allow for posing or showing off, the Crimson Demon Clan members were unwilling to do it, so the task fell to Kobayashi.

At that moment, Aqua also raised her hand and shouted, "The floor here is all cleaned too! Megumin and the others over there..."

The two of them looked to the other side at the same time.

"This book is confiscated!" Youyou snatched the unknown book from Huihui's hand, scolding her unhappily, "Huihui spent a lot of time reading this! Get back to work!"

"Give it back to me!" Huihui was very unhappy that her book had been taken away. She shouted loudly, "There are many great stories recorded in it! I must take it back and read it carefully!"

The two were arguing and fighting over a book, and it seemed to be almost over, otherwise Youyou wouldn't have had time to pay attention to Huihui.

"...Hmm, it seems to be over." Kobayashi nodded, then looked at Darkness on the other side. "The rest is up to Darkness..."

"I'm sorry, could you come over and help out if you have time? I can't seem to get the stains off the decorative rocks."

Darkness said this with a bit of a headache.

“Leave this trivial matter to me, the goddess of water!” Aqua approached her and cast a spell on the stains on the rock, “Water Creation!”

As the water flowed onto the rocks, the stains were not washed away. Youyou said with some surprise, "Oh dear, the stains haven't been washed off."

"As a goddess, I can't purify anything? I don't accept that!" Aqua took it for granted that this wasn't her problem. Pointing at the rock, she said, "I say, isn't this stain already a wound?"

"...What?" Kobayashi looked at her strangely, wondering what was wrong with her this time.

Aqua, however, said quite naturally, "If it's a wound, my healing magic can heal it, right? No, it definitely can!!"

"Fine, whatever you want." Kobayashi no longer wanted to ask why the healing magic worked on the stone; as long as the silly goddess was happy, that was all that mattered.

"Alright, I'm going!" Aqua spread her hands and shouted at the rock, "Supreme Divine Healing Spell!!"

"—Waaaaaah!! Wait! Please, wait a minute!"

Suddenly, someone stumbled over, calling out to Aqua and telling her not to do anything rash. Seeing who it was, Kobayashi exclaimed in surprise, "Chris, why are you here?"

Completely baffled as to why she was there, Chris, seeing the completely healed rock, wore a disappointed and regretful expression, sighing deeply and saying, "Ah, I really didn't make it in time..."

"Wait, wait." Kobayashi looked at her strangely and asked, "Why did you suddenly come here, Chris? Is there something you need?"

He felt something was amiss.

"Huh?!" Chris was also surprised by the question. Her eyes darted around as she said, "Ah, well... I was asked to do something during the mission... Danger! Everyone, get down!"

Suddenly, a red rope snapped and flew off Kobayashi and the others' scalps, startling them.

Darkness was somewhat panicked and asked his companions, "Are you alright? The rope tied to the rock just suddenly flew off!"

Moreover, as if triggered by this, the ground began to shake.

Huihui said with some concern, "This rumbling sound... Ah, look! The soil around the rocks has been turned upside down!"

I have no idea what happened.

Chris, clearly in the know, shrugged helplessly and said, "This rock seals away monsters that once roamed the area, and they'll revive once magic is injected... that's the legend. Lately, there's been talk that the seal might be starting to weaken..."

Hearing Chris say this, the other Crimson Demons were somewhat unhappy.

"Hey, if there were such a legend, we would have started investigating it long ago."

"Just say it."

"The Crimson Demon Clan will not let such an opportunity slip by!"

Indeed, how could the Crimson Demon Clan possibly let go of such a great opportunity to showcase their skills? But now that the rocks have been transformed, their convincing appearance leaves them with no room for rebuttal.

Kobayashi also sensed something was wrong. Could this be the strange thing Claire mentioned? He really hoped they weren't messing things up. They had just dealt with the Jizo statue, and now this strange shrine monster had appeared. Couldn't they at least give them a break? And that flag—they really shouldn't have set it up so carelessly!
Suddenly, the rock began to grow larger and larger, and as the magic power was continuously absorbed, it transformed into a stone statue that was fifteen meters tall!
"Sucking up the surrounding soil, it's a golem!? No, that size... is it a rock golem!!"

Darkness stood somewhat nervously in front of the crowd.

"Hooohoooohoo——————"

The suddenly appearing rock golem roared and swung its huge hand toward the shrine, startling Youyou so much that she turned pale.

"Ah! Stop!! Don't destroy the shrine!"

Unfortunately, the rock golem ignored Youyou's attempts to stop it and destroyed the shrine with a single slap, leaving everyone dumbfounded by the collapsed buildings.

Huihui said somewhat unwillingly, "Damn it... such ruthless destruction... this kind of thing...!!"

Her cheeks flushed, her eyes gleamed, and her shoulders trembled. She was on the verge of exploding.

"—That's so cool!!" xN
All the Crimson Demons watched with glee as the rock golem appeared and wreaked havoc. Seeing this group of excited, delusional Crimson Demons, Kobayashi couldn't help but sigh, "Ah, I knew it..."

The rock golem that destroyed the shrine was clearly not satisfied with just that much damage. The huge stone statue with gleaming eyes and an extremely oppressive aura walked towards where Kobayashi and the others were, causing a strong tremor as it stepped on the ground.

Aqua, somewhat uneasy, hid behind Kobayashi and said urgently, "Hey, that guy's coming this way!?"

After observing it carefully, Xiaolin said with some surprise, "Its movements seem a bit unnatural. Could it be that the seal was just broken and it's not in its normal state yet?"

"Look!" Darkness, his face flushed, excitedly opened his arms and shouted, "Those thick arms, if the body were slowly grasped... Ahh!"

That's enough, this perverted female knight. But before Kobayashi could even make a move, someone stepped forward... No, thinking about it carefully, this is, after all, the base of the combat group—the home of the Crimson Demon Clan, so there's no need for him to take action.

Yu-Yu stood at the forefront, raising her short magic wand high and shouting, "I can't let you destroy the shrine anymore! Golem, your opponent is me!!"

"Hooohoo...!?"

For some reason, when the rock golem saw Youyou blocking its way, it didn't react violently as expected. Instead, it stared at her with a puzzled look, its blank expression unexpectedly cute and endearing.

"...Hmm?" Kobayashi was also a little puzzled and surprised, saying, "The movement suddenly stopped??"

Just then, the rock golem unexpectedly spoke.

"...That...no, not now. They will definitely come to pick you up...let's wait until then."

"He spoke!?"

Huihui liked it even more.

Unfortunately, the rock golem ignored her attempts to destroy the shrine and simply trudged away, huffing and puffing. The Crimson Demons didn't stop it; instead, they watched it leave with eyes shining, just like Megumin. Seriously, why do all the Crimson Demons love such huge creatures?

Kobayashi and the others then gave chase until it disappeared into the Crimson Demon Village.

Darkness watched the rock golem's retreating figure and said with some surprise, "It's really unexpected that it's leaving, but... what exactly is that golem...?"

Huihui then looked at Youyou and asked with a similarly puzzled expression, "It said it would definitely come to pick you up, what's going on?"

However, Youyou was also completely confused. In fact, not only her, but everyone else was also completely clueless about what was going on, and they were at a loss for what to do.

"Ugh. So I've gotten myself into trouble again." Seeing this, Kobayashi couldn't help but sigh deeply.

At this moment, a member of the Crimson Demon Clan said with a serious expression, "I'm telling you, you're in trouble!"

"I'm sorry for the trouble," Darkness said, bowing her head apologetically. "But we didn't mean any harm—"

"The shrine? We can fix that later." The Crimson Demon waved his hand dismissively, seemingly unconcerned about the damage to the shrine, and then added, "The more important thing is the rock golem, the rock golem!!"

Looking at the plain where the rock golem had disappeared, he was filled with regret and complaint, and said, "We just missed it, that won't do!"

"...What?"
Kobayashi and the others stared in utter astonishment at the Crimson Demons complaining to them. Megumin, a seasoned Crimson Demon, nodded in deep agreement, saying, "Indeed. There's no reason not to take advantage of something so cool. If we could capture it alive and master its skills, it would become a great tourist attraction."

"No, no, no, after all that talk, you were just watching, weren't you?" Kobayashi was a little annoyed. He felt that he shouldn't have to bear the burden of the Crimson Demon Clan's complaints, since they were clearly just as dumbfounded.

The Crimson Demon, who was being complained about, looked visibly embarrassed and said, "No, I couldn't help it... After all, those kinds of things are hard to come by."

“Yes, that’s understandable.” Huihui unexpectedly defended the Crimson Demons, saying, “That terrifying feeling that made the surrounding air vibrate touched the heartstrings of the Crimson Demons.”

"...That's why I said all Crimson Demons are like this!"

Kobayashi said this through gritted teeth.

However, the Crimson Demon Clan members didn't care about these trivial matters. Instead, they said with a smile, "Never mind, it will come back again later. We can capture it then."

Strange, have I been asked to do something again?
(End of this chapter)