Chapter 10: Temple
Chito and Yuuri reach the brightest building in the city, which turns out to be dark on the inside. The girls discover that it might be a temple worshipping a certain god, indicated by the long rows of curious stone statues surrounding the walkway. They find a stone plaque containing writings about the temple itself. The temple was built about four hundred years ago as a reproduction of the world beyond death, the "Western Paradise", which is being illuminated by the three gods' existence. Suddenly, Chito's lantern goes off as she keeps reading, and Yuuri, who walked away to explore on her own, is left fumbling around in the darkness calling out for her. But she doesn't respond, which starts to worry Yuuri. She wonders if the afterlife is what seems to be a cold, empty, pitch black place. Thankfully, she bumps into Chito, who simply wanted to entertain herself with Yuuri's reaction. The temple lights up before them, revealing more of the scenery: a life-sized glass lake decorated with metal plants and fake Koi fish, overlooked by the giant statue of the god. Yuuri expresses her disappointment over the fact that the fish aren't real and mocks the god for being "just a stone statue". Chito tells Yuuri not to say such things, otherwise she will receive divine punishment, but Yuuri counters it by mentioning that they already knocked down one of the stone statues earlier, presumably of either a god or a spirit, prompting Chito to sheepishly say that it was "just a stone statue". The girls sit down and eat their rations while looking at the imitation of the afterlife, and Yuuri says she doesn't understand the purpose of making something as "majorly disappointing" as a temple even though, to her, religion is merely a fairy tale in the end and no one really knows what life is like after death. Chito, remembering Yuuri's words about the darkness of the afterlife, speculates that the people of the past built a place like this because they wanted to feel at ease. Hearing this, Yuuri mentions how relaxed she felt when she found Chito in the darkness, and a revelation came to her... that Chito might be a god! Chito considers the possibility, stating that one must offer food to the gods, but Yuuri refuses to share with her, and proclaims that, rather, Yuuri is a god.
