Within the chillingly dark alley, golden flames roared. The ghost, hidden within the boundary and invisible to ordinary people, let out a pained shriek as its bloated, fleshy form was rapidly incinerated by the divine fire.
Miketsu stood with her back to the dying golden flames, smiling at Miko who was kneeling at the alley’s entrance. Miko stared at the scene in a daze, her mouth agape, not knowing how to react.
'It’s... it’s burning? That giant thing just burned up like that? Burned until nothing remained in an instant... What did she just do? Can she see those filthy things too?'
'She just said... if it’s a bug, just step on it... Was she talking about that disgusting giant thing? Or the cockroach she just crushed? Was that foul thing burned to death because of her?'
Confusion and shock intertwined in Miko’s heart, leaving her momentarily speechless. Meanwhile, Miketsu slowly walked toward her from the alley. Behind her, the golden flames had completely vanished; the malevolent spirit had been wiped away without leaving so much as a speck of ash.
"Here, Senior Yotsuya. This is your money, right?" Keeping her smile, Miketsu handed the ten-thousand-yen bill to Miko. Snapping out of her stupor, Miko immediately stood up, took the bill, and hurriedly thanked her.
"Th-thank you... Excuse me, are you..." Miko wanted to ask if she could see the ghost from before, but the words caught in her throat.
She thought back carefully. Although the girl before her seemed extraordinary, she hadn't shown any signs of actively interacting with the ghosts, acting as if she couldn't see them just like any other normal person. Even when that massive entity attacked, she hadn't flinched or even blinked.
If the girl really could see them, her composure was far too extreme—even more so than Miko’s own. Although the giant ghost was incinerated as she approached, the girl hadn't shown any sign of casting a spell. Furthermore, she hadn't mentioned ghosts or monsters at all, only saying she was "stepping on a bug."
In Miko’s eyes, while the ghost had been burned away, it might not necessarily have been the girl’s doing. The girl was simply too calm... so calm that it was as if she had completely ignored the ultimate terror right in front of her. This was a state of being Miko couldn't even imagine.
'Even if there really are mediums or Onmyoji in this world, they should at least draw a talisman or chant an incantation to exorcise a spirit! Besides, she’s a girl younger than me. To destroy such a powerful ghost in the blink of an eye without doing anything... it just seems... impossible...'
'Those hideous monsters aren't just bugs you find everywhere!'
Miko grumbled inwardly. The girl’s excessive nonchalance made her afraid to consider that the ghost had been eliminated because of her. Subconsciously, she preferred to believe it was a coincidence—a coincidence she simply couldn't explain.
In short, as an ordinary high school girl, Miko couldn't fathom viewing a terrifying ghost as an ant to be crushed underfoot. She certainly couldn't associate such an unimaginable state with the younger girl standing before her.
"Senior Yotsuya, what did you want to ask me?" Miketsu asked, maintaining her smile. After the words remained stuck in Miko's throat for a while, she finally spoke.
"May I... may I ask what your name is, Junior?"
'I still didn't dare ask directly!' Miko screamed in her head, while catching a glimpse of a few ghosts wandering nearby out of the corner of her eye.
If she asked, "Can you see those filthy things too?" and the nearby ghosts heard her, wouldn't that be admitting she could see them?
Saying it out loud would not only put her in danger but might also bring trouble to the other girl...
Miketsu blinked in slight surprise, then responded with a smile.
"My name is Fushimi Inaba... Senior Yotsuya, you really are a cautious person..."
"Eh... cautious?" Hearing the girl’s words, Miko scratched her head and looked up at the sky.
"It’s not exactly caution... it’s just that sometimes..." Miko looked back, but as she went to continue, she froze. The girl who had been right in front of her was gone.
"She’s... she’s gone..." Stunned, Miko looked around frantically, but there was no sign of the girl.
"Did she just... leave?" A chill ran down her spine. Miko looked at the ten-thousand-yen bill she had just received. Its presence proved that everything that happened wasn't a hallucination.
Suddenly, Miko felt something strange about the texture of the bill. Frowning slightly, she rubbed it with her thumb and slid a small card out from behind the note.
"Is this... a business card? Was it handed over with the money?" Miko took the card and examined it closely. It was printed with many cute fox patterns. The information on it didn't describe a person, but a location.
"Kagami-oboro... Inari Shrine?"
Miko murmured the name to herself.
Having parted ways with the girl who could see, Miko Yotsuya, Miketsu continued her journey home alone, her mind still on the previous events.
She could see through Miko’s thoughts clearly. She quite admired the girl for possessing a level of composure that far exceeded ordinary people.
'Truly a cautious girl. If not for that composure and caution, she would have already perished in the demon realm under the weight of such high spiritual vision.'
'But because she is too cautious, even when the hope of salvation is right before her eyes, she doesn't dare to reach out and touch it.'
Miketsu sighed inwardly. Since they had crossed paths, she decided to help. She had left Miko with an item sufficient for self-protection in a crisis and something that could tug at the strings of fate.
Under the pull of destiny, they were bound to meet again.
"So, just when will you come looking for me?" Miketsu murmured, looking at the sun dipping toward the west.
After traveling for a while, Miketsu took a bus to a relatively remote area. After walking a bit further, she reached a low hill within the city. The undeveloped hillside was covered in a lush, green forest. At the foot of the hill stood an ancient torii gate, flanked by stone fox statues. A stone monument nearby was engraved with characters.
Kagami-oboro Inari Shrine.
Passing through the torii, she ascended the sando. Before long, she reached the top. Beyond the torii at the end of the path stood an elegant, quiet haiden of modest size.
"Phew... this sando is much easier to climb than Mount Inari... well, the one from a thousand years ago, anyway..." Miketsu muttered to herself as she looked at the serene scene. She knew that the modern Fushimi Inari Taisha had moved its main structures to the foot of the mountain, so people no longer had to climb halfway up to worship like they used to.
With a sigh, Miketsu walked past the haiden and honden, heading straight for the small living quarters behind the shrine. After tossing her bag aside, she collapsed onto the tatami mats and let out a long breath.
This was where Miketsu lived now. Just like a thousand years ago, she still lived in a shrine, though the difference was that back then she was the deity, and now she was the kannushi.
The Fushimi family, to which this body—Fushimi Inaba—belonged, was a distant branch of the Kyoto Inari Hata Clan. They had moved here during the Edo period and built this branch Inari shrine on Kagami-oboro Mountain in the suburbs. The family line had continued ever since, inheriting the priestly duties of this small branch shrine generation after generation.
Fushimi Inaba’s father was a ship captain, and her mother was a navigator. They spent most of the year drifting overseas, returning only two or three times a year. Loving the sea as they did, they had no interest in inheriting the shrine and had voluntarily waived their rights.
Consequently, after Fushimi Inaba’s grandfather passed away a few years ago, this small branch shrine was inherited by Fushimi Inaba, who was still a student.
Of course... under normal circumstances, such an arrangement would never work.
In Japan, you can't just inherit a shrine because you want to. An heir must attend a specialized religious high school and obtain the necessary professional qualifications. Furthermore, the kannushi is almost always male; women rarely have inheritance rights. When there is no heir, the Association of Shinto Shrines can even appoint a guji from outside to take over the shrine. In modern Japan, most shrines fall under this organization.
However, in this world, the ubiquitous Inari shrines were an exception.
Due to certain historical reasons and a sort of irresistible, transcendent influence, the Inari shrines in this version of Japan held a uniquely supreme status. The tens of thousands of Inari shrines across the country were entirely independent of the Association of Shinto Shrines, falling directly under the jurisdiction and control of the Inari Honsha in Kyoto.
The Inari Honsha in Fushimi held numerous powers, including the appointment of branch guji. The internal affairs of the Inari shrine alliance were off-limits not only to the Association of Shinto Shrines but even to the Japanese government. Even during the Meiji Era when "State Shinto" was prevalent and all shrines theoretically belonged to the state, the Inari Honsha led its thousands of branches in remaining independent. Even when those in power tried every method possible, it was to no avail, and eventually, their interference only brought about unexplainable calamities.
Inari shrines had their own standards for heirs, and the Inari Honsha had enough influence that no one could object once the head shrine spoke up for Fushimi Inaba’s inheritance.
"Uwaaa~ Even after coming back, it’s still so early. If this were a normal high school, I wouldn't be back until late at night..."
Lying on the tatami, Miketsu stretched and let out a wide yawn. Without clubs or cram school, Japanese high school life was indeed quite relaxed.
Yes, although Miketsu’s current physical age was fourteen—the age of a middle schooler—her early childhood was marked by precocity due to memories leaking through the seal. She had started elementary school very young and had already entered her first year of high school at fourteen. Because her memories had fully awakened just before she started high school, she had habitually spoken with a thick Kyoto dialect, leading her classmates to believe she had transferred from the Kansai region.
In reality, Fushimi Inaba had always lived in Tokyo, but since Miketsu couldn't think of a good explanation, she never bothered to correct her classmates.
After finishing her stretch and resting, Miketsu went to her room and changed out of her uniform into simple red and white miko robes before stepping out into the courtyard.
Just then, a voice called out from a distance.
"Little Inaba! I passed!"
Accompanied by a rustling in the woods, Miketsu turned her gaze. From the shadows of the trees, a massive gray-white figure bolted out at high speed. It was a giant gray fox with three tails.
The three-tailed fox, as tall as a person, dashed out of the forest and began circling Miketsu excitedly. He looked absolutely thrilled as he pranced about.
"I passed! I made it! Hah! Little Inaba, I finally passed!"
Miketsu, dressed in her miko robes, watched the jubilant gray fox and spoke with a gentle smile.
"You passed? Lord Tadae? Just what did you pass?"
This three-tailed fox named Tadae was none other than the Inari god of this branch shrine, having been enshrined here for quite a long time.
Hearing Miketsu’s question, Tadae paused for a moment, then turned to her, his excitement undiminished.
"What did I pass? Do you even have to ask, Little Inaba? It was my Middle-rank Inari God Qualification Exam, of course! I’ve been taking it for two hundred years! Two whole centuries! And I finally passed!"
As he spoke, the three-tailed fox hopped into the air with joy.
"The results are out! Now I’m just waiting for the Inari Honsha to send the appointment letter. As a middle-rank Inari god, I can be assigned to a jurisdiction with more abundant faith and take on a more key position! Quick, quick! Congratulate me, Little Inaba!"
Lord Tadae continued to pace excitedly around Miketsu. Seeing this, Miketsu couldn't help but reply.
"Ah... then my sincere congratulations to you. Two hundred years of hard work has finally paid off..."
As Miketsu spoke, a meaningful smile played on her lips.
Rate on N.U.
