It was afternoon in Tokyo. The weather was clear at the Kagami-oboro Inari Shrine on Mount Kagami-oboro.
In a small house behind the shrine, Miketsu, dressed in light miko robes, sat on a tatami mat. She was munching on potato chips while taking a call. Listening to the voice on the other end, her words came out muffled.
"Mmm... so it's completely settled? That was pretty fast. Well... good work. Leave the cleanup to the Onmyo Agency. Oh, right—remember to tell them to watch out for forest fires!"
After finishing the briefing with Miko, Miketsu gave a few more instructions and hung up. She swallowed the chips in her mouth, took a sip of the cola beside her, and gave a long, satisfied stretch. Just then, a slightly trembling female voice came from her laptop.
"Lady Uka... is it... is it okay now?"
Hearing this, Miketsu turned her gaze to the computer screen. Displayed there was a fox-eared beauty wearing a mini-skirt style miko outfit. She wore white thigh-highs, and bells were tied around her waist. She was striking a playful, cat-like pose, her fluffy tail swaying gently and her velvet fox ears twitching. The short skirt failed to hide much, and the loose collar could barely contain her ample figure. Her face was flushed with a light crimson, as Tsuruha gazed bashfully at her deity from the other side of the screen.
Seeing her like this, Miketsu nodded in approval and spoke seriously.
"Not bad. Keep it just like that. I just need to take a few screenshots."
As Miketsu spoke, she pulled the laptop closer. This was a hobby she had picked up earlier that morning; while playing a dress-up mobile game at school, she had sent some reference screenshots to Tsuruha. Tsuruha had prepared everything by the afternoon. This made Miketsu think with satisfaction that Tsuruha was indeed her most capable Divine Messenger.
"OK~ that's enough!" After finishing the screenshots, Miketsu gave an 'OK' sign and smiled at Tsuruha on the screen. Tsuruha let out a long sigh of relief. She walked back to her seat and sat down, looking directly at the satisfied Miketsu on the screen. After a moment of hesitation, she spoke.
"Um... Lady Uka, are you satisfied?"
"Mhm~ very satisfied. Good work, Tsuruha. You truly are my Divine Messenger—your looks are beyond reproach." Miketsu spoke while organizing and admiring the screenshots. At that moment, a communication icon flashed in the lower-right corner of her screen.
"As long as you are satisfied... right... please keep those photos for your eyes only. Do not let them leak out," Tsuruha requested in a small voice.
To the many Inari gods in the divine realm and the countless fox juniors at the Inari Honsha, the Tenko Tsuruha was always dignified, noble, majestic, and elegant. If these photos of her in such extremely embarrassing otaku-baiting clothes were to be widely circulated, she couldn't imagine the consequences. In a sense, it would be a major scandal that would rock the high society of the hidden world.
"Don't worry about that."
As Miketsu reassured her, she clicked the flashing icon. A chat box popped up. The avatar of the person she was messaging was a cute frog head, and the contact name was 'Froggy'. In the chat box, a large photo was displayed: a green-haired girl in a swimsuit, playing happily at the beach, radiating youthful energy. Below the photo was a line of text.
Looking at the photo, Miketsu smiled and continued her reply to Tsuruha.
"I definitely won't let these pictures get out to the public."
As she spoke, Miketsu picked the best screenshot from her folder, dragged it into the chat box, and hit send. Then, she typed a line below it.
'My family's fox.'
After sending a proud, smug emoji, Miketsu closed the chat box with a certain ancient god of earth and looked back at Tsuruha, who was letting out a genuine, long sigh of relief.
"Phew, then I can rest easy..."
Tsuruha felt relieved, then seemed to remember something. She looked at Miketsu and continued her inquiry.
"Ah, right, Lady Uka. This time, you had the headquarters mobilize weapons to assist Miko in her exorcism operation. Judging by your phone call just now, the operation should be over. What were the results? How did the weapons perform? Especially the drones?"
"Mhm, they were all pretty good. Miko said the drones performed excellently. Why are you asking?" Miketsu replied. Tsuruha answered immediately.
"It's nothing. I just wanted to ask about the drones' performance in actual combat. This was our first time performing a spirit tool modification on something like a drone. I was a bit worried... after all, this batch of drones wasn't part of the original military procurement plan. Modifying this category of weapon was a first for us."
Tsuruha answered seriously. Miketsu nodded as she listened.
Ever since humans launched the Apollo program to land on the moon, the Lunar Capital had implemented a hidden world policy. They hid their existence from the entire Earth. Aside from the upper echelons of Inari, few knew that such an advanced civilization existed in the secret realm on the far side of the moon. To cooperate with the Lunar Capital's isolationist plan, Inari could not directly use the sci-fi weapons of the Lunar Capital. Instead, they chose to procure military equipment from various countries and modify them. The technology required for these modifications was secretly supported by the Lunar Capital. This was the reason why, in the eyes of outsiders, Inari possessed so many unimaginably advanced technologies.
"Ah, so you wanted to see the combat data after the modification. Well, the drones were very effective," Miketsu told Tsuruha. Tsuruha listened and replied.
"I see... In that case, we can consider procuring more for modification in the future."
"Those things aren't cheap, are they?" Miketsu asked. Tsuruha answered instantly.
"Naturally, these weapons are not cheap. However, Lady Uka, our arms modification business is not a losing venture. After Inari procures various weapons and modifies them, we often turn around and sell the majority of them. Inari's spirit-tool-enhanced modern weapons are incredibly attractive to hidden world countermeasure agencies in governments all over the world."
"Especially the United States—a country only two hundred years old with very poor natural resistance to the supernatural. When we sell exorcism weapons to a wealthy customer like them, the price can often be tripled. In the end, we make a massive profit including the principal and interest..."
"Heh... Compared to Western European countries that are used to calling for priests, the people of the US seem more accustomed to using guns to solve paranormal events."
Tsuruha explained to her newly awakened deity. Miketsu's eyes lit up as she listened.
'Good grief, so Inari is actually involved in this kind of business. Truly my followers. Speaking of which, while Uka-no-Mitama-no-Kami started as a god of agriculture, she gradually gained the function of a commerce deity among the people after the Edo period. I wonder if that's because of you guys.'
Rate on N.U.
