Chapter Text
Kokomi steps into the room, a sense of dread pooling in her heart. She really hopes she’s wrong about why she’s here, but…
“You called for me, sir?” she asks.
“Ah, Sangonomiya,” the elderly priest greets, giving her a tired smile. “Thank you for coming in on your day off.”
“It’s not a problem,” Kokomi assures the priest, kneeling across from him at the low table. “You said it was important, so…”
“Yes,” he sighs. “It is. Truth be told… We’ve been struggling for some time. Donations… just aren’t what they were, once upon a time.”
Kokomi nods, grimacing. Her family still devoutly worships Orobashi, but the people of Watatsumi writ large have slipped into the habits that she’s heard exist across the country: outside of special occasions, they rarely visit the shrine. The Watatsumi Shrine in particular sees almost no traffic outside of hatsumode at New Year’s, save for Kokomi’s family and a few of the elderly folks.
And it shows. The Watatsumi Shrine, the center of local life for centuries, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. The building very obviously hasn’t had necessary maintenance in years, with a roof that tends to leak in quite a few places when it rains and cracked walls that don’t keep the wind out like one would hope a wall would.
Still, it’s always been Kokomi’s dream to be a shrine maiden. She had been raised on stories of better times, stories of before the Inazuma region merged with the rest of Japan when her ancestors had held a position of authority as the Divine Priestesses of Watatsumi, and the idea of serving the gods had been planted deep into her heart. For the last four months she’s been able to live that dream, and while it wasn’t everything she’d hoped for given the state of the shrine, she’s enjoyed it a lot. And yet…
“Are you letting me go, sir?” Kokomi asks, choosing to bite the bullet.
“…A little more than that, I’m afraid,” the priest admits. “Sangonomiya… As of next week, the Watatsumi Shrine will be closing for good.”
Kokomi’s heart stops.
Closing for good…?
She could have dealt with the shrine being unable to continue paying her to be a full-time shrine maiden. It would have hurt, but Kokomi is an adult, and she’d have been able to work through her feelings just fine and continue visiting the shrine as a lay believer.
But if the shrine is gone… Where does that leave the handful of remaining devout worshipers of Orobashi, like Kokomi?
“I’m sorry,” the priest apologizes wearily. “I tried everything I could think of, but none of it worked in the end… Well, almost none of it.”
He pushes an envelope towards Kokomi, and she accepts it hesitantly.
“I know how much you wanted to be a shrine maiden, Sangonomiya,” he says. “So I asked around with other shrines within Inazuma. Almost all of them are in much the same situation as we are, but there was one that was willing to accept you.”
Kokomi hesitates. It’s not the same as serving Orobashi — the Watatsumi Shrine was the last that venerated the dead god — but depending on which deity she’d be working for…
“Which shrine, sir?” she asks, making no move to open the envelope.
“The Narukami Shrine,” the priest replies, giving her an apologetic smile. “Guuji Yae is… an unusual woman, and it was my last resort, but she seemed very enthusiastic about the idea of welcoming you. Truthfully, I’ve heard that they don’t get many more visitors than we do, but… She assured me they’re in no danger of going under, and that they have space for you to live in the shrine should you choose to accept the offer. They don’t have any other shrine maidens, so I suppose it would just be you and her.”
“The Narukami Shrine?” Kokomi repeats. She can’t have heard that right, can she? The priest can’t expect her to…?
And. Come on. ‘Guuji’ Yae? The former Grand Narukami Shrine is, as far as Kokomi knows, just as much of a tiny, run-down mess as the Watatsumi Shrine these days. What kind of arrogance does it take to hold on to a title like that in this day and age? Kokomi hasn’t even met the woman and she already dislikes her.
“I know, I know,” the priest sighs. “But despite how it ended, our Watatsumi Omikami was a servant god of the Raiden Shogun, and I’ve heard that they have their own version of the tale of his death.” He winces. “One that is… rather less flattering to us, I am afraid.”
“Of course they do,” Kokomi mutters bitterly.
Truthfully, it would be a lie to say she hates the Raiden Shogun. As a fan of military history and practice, she’s read all of the texts attributed to the god and finds them fascinating, and at any rate there has to be a point at which grudges die.
2000 years after the Raiden Shogun killed Orobashi is enough time that the dead god’s worshipers should have found their closure, Kokomi feels, and so her parents’ loathing of the god who was said to have ruled the Inazuma region for so long had never found purchase in her mind even before she’d drifted apart from them and their beliefs. By all accounts the Raiden Shogun had been a fair and just ruler who cared for her people, so hating her seemed silly. And yet even so…
That doesn’t mean Kokomi doesn’t have some resentment towards the Shogun.
Not for the killing of Orobashi.
But for the betrayal of the promise of the Eternal Inazuma.
If the gods are real, if the Raiden Shogun had truly ruled Inazuma…
Why had she abandoned it? Why had she allowed it to become a part of the country of Japan those three hundred and twenty-eight years ago? Inazuma had endured through every attempt at unification, had retained its own government and culture in the face of everything. Its shrines had been well-maintained with donations from devout believers and subsidies from the Inazuma government, subsidies that even encompassed the worship of gods that the Raiden Shogun had slain like Orobashi.
The Raiden Shogun had promised that Inazuma would endure forever. She had promised that she would grant it Eternity.
So where was she? Why had Eternity come to an end?
At least Orobashi had the excuse of being slain in battle to explain his broken promises. What excuse did the Raiden Shogun, supposedly the mightiest of all gods, have?
“Please do consider it,” the priest says, breaking Kokomi out of her brooding. “I would hate to see your dream end like this. That envelope contains a letter of introduction to Guuji Yae, and she assured me that you can take all of the time you need to come to a decision.”
“I will,” Kokomi promises, pasting a smile on her face. “Thank you, sir.”
They exchange a few more pleasantries and then Kokomi practically flees the shrine. She has a lot to think about, and she’s not sure she wants to.
Kokomi’s head is a mess. She has no idea what to do, no idea what she wants to do — and so, as she always does in situations like this, she pulls out her phone and makes a call.
“Kokomi!” Yoimiya’s loud, cheerful voice greets her immediately. “’Sup?”
“Can I come over?” Kokomi asks quietly, hoping that how close she is to tears isn’t audible. “I need your advice.”
“Sure!” Yoimiya agrees immediately, the obvious concern in her voice making it clear that she’s picked up on Kokomi’s distress. “The other three are here — is that okay? I can kick them out.”
“No, that’s… that’s perfect,” Kokomi says. “I’d like to hear their thoughts, too.”
Sara is perhaps a little too straightforward to give Kokomi the kind of delicate advice she’s hoping for right now, but Ayaka is exactly the kind of person who might have helpful ideas… and while Rikka’s own feelings about the Raiden Shogun are rather different than Kokomi’s, as the only other member of their group that had actually been born in Watatsumi and learned its legends as a child, she at least understands the history Kokomi was raised with.
Yoimiya is of course Yoimiya, and her sunny presence alone is always a balm to Kokomi’s heart. Ayaka is a very lucky girl, and Kokomi hates herself for sometimes envying that her friend had found the courage to confess her feelings first.
It doesn’t take her long to reach the Naganohara residence, where she’s quickly welcomed in by Yoimiya’s father and left to her own devices to head to her friend’s room.
The moment she steps through Yoimiya’s bedroom door, she’s pulled into a hug and practically dragged to the bed. She finds herself sandwiched between Yoimiya and Ayaka, both looking deeply worried. Sara is perched on a chair over at Yoimiya’s desk, her normally stern face showing signs of similar concern. Rikka, she notices, is on the floor leaning against the desk but shows signs of being ready to jump to her feet in her usual puppylike way if Kokomi indicates she needs another person in the hug.
“What’s wrong, Kokomi?” Yoimiya asks gently. “Did something happen?”
“…The Watatsumi Shrine is closing down,” Kokomi admits, closing her eyes. A few tears slip out silently, her grief finally able to make itself known now that she’s in the presence of her best friends.
“Shit,” Rikka breathes.
“Oh, Kokomi,” Ayaka whispers, her embrace tightening. “I’m sorry. I know how much you wanted to be a shrine maiden there.”
“…I had heard rumors,” Yoimiya admits. “They were really vague, though, and it sounded like the priest might have found a source of donations to stay open… I guess that fell through. I’m really sorry.”
“Do you intend to go to university now after all?” Sara asks.
“Sara!” Yoimiya scolds. “Give her some time!”
“I’m sorry,” Sara says, shrinking back in her seat. “I thought that changing the subject to take someone’s mind off of what is distressing them was supposed to be helpful. Was I wrong?”
“No, Sara,” Ayaka sighs. “But you can’t lead with it.”
“No, it’s okay,” Kokomi cuts in. “That’s… what I’m here to talk to you all about. The priest was able to find a position for me at another shrine, and… I don’t know if I should accept it, or if I should do like Sara says.”
“What shrine is it?” Yoimiya asks.
“…The Narukami Shrine,” Kokomi admits. “I’d be serving the Raiden Shogun.”
“Take it,” Sara says immediately, and Kokomi can’t hold back a soft snort of laughter at the intensity in her friend’s voice.
Sara is obsessed with stories of the Raiden Shogun. She’s not a believer, not really, but she sees the deity as the perfect example of what she wants to be. It figures that she’d suddenly find Kokomi’s dream of being a shrine maiden less silly when it’d be for the Narukami Ogosho.
“Don’t,” Rikka grumbles, her own bias clear in her narrowed eyes.
While Kokomi knows Rikka’s not a believer in Orobashi, she is proud of Watatsumi’s history. Like many of the people of Watatsumi, Rikka finds the degree to which Inazuma’s development is attributed to the Raiden Shogun insulting to their own past.
“Is this about Orobashi?” Yoimiya asks hesitantly. “Because she killed him? Because otherwise… I’d have thought you’d jump at the chance.”
“No,” Kokomi denies. “It’s… it’s actually because she left. Because she abandoned her promise to Inazuma.”
“Kokomi… you do realize that the Raiden Shogun ruling Inazuma is just a story, right?” Rikka asks. “I mean, the textbooks—”
“I know!” Kokomi half-yells.
Kokomi knows that historians have agreed that the ‘Raiden Shogun’ had actually been a succession of unusually successful female shoguns and their renown as ‘god of lightning’ was a result of the bizarrely advanced cannon technology that Inazuma had possessed for centuries before anywhere else in the world. The end of ‘Eternity’ was simply the last Raiden Shogun dying childless, leaving her people to fumble for a new path forward. She knows that it’s a ‘truth’ that the people of Watatsumi cling to, a way of pushing back against the popularity the Shogun still enjoys in popular culture.
But that’s not the myth. That’s not the tale of the Raiden Shogun, the divine being who had united Inazuma and ruled it for thousands of years. That’s not the story that Kokomi holds in her heart.
“Sorry!” Rikka yelps. “Sorry, I… sorry.”
“…It’s okay,” Kokomi reassures her. “I know you don’t believe.”
None of them do, and Kokomi honestly can’t blame them. It’s not like there’s any real divine presence in the world. Even so, though, her faith is important to her.
“…and, I mean, would you really be okay?” Rikka whispers. “People already look at you so strangely when you act like the Shogun really ruled us, and like you approve of that… If you actually started serving at her shrine…”
“You don’t have to dance around it, Rikka,” Kokomi mutters bitterly. “I know what my parents would say. Let them. It’s not like we talk much anyway. They’ve got nothing to do with my decision. They never have.”
“Kokomi…” Ayaka begins, but cuts herself off when Kokomi gives her a tired smile. “…Whatever you pick, I’ll support you!”
“Thanks,” Kokomi murmurs, hoping that how much she really means that comes across in her expression. The people in this room are her real family, as far as she’s concerned.
“You know, maybe if you went, you could get an answer,” Yoimiya says with a wink, nudging Kokomi’s shoulder.
“Get an answer?” Kokomi asks.
Yoimiya’s words are a welcome distraction from her darker thoughts, and she feels another little rush of gratitude for her friend’s ability to tell when she’s on the verge of falling into a spiral.
“Find out why the Shogun abandoned Inazuma,” Yoimiya explains. “I bet that the people at the shrine would know, right? Give it a trial run, see what they say. Stick it out for six months or something, study for entrance exams on the side. That way you’ve got all your options open!”
“An excellent suggestion,” Sara chips in. “I would be happy to give you copies of my notes.”
“You can borrow mine, too,” Rikka agrees. “If you really have to do this.”
Kokomi tries to find an objection, but none come to mind. It’s a very reasonable idea, and the one with the least odds of her missing out on finding a path forward in life one way or another.
As always, asking Yoimiya had proven to be the right decision.
“Thank you,” Kokomi whispers, leaning her head against Yoimiya’s neck. “I’ll do that.”
She feels Ayaka gently stroking her hair as she drifts off to sleep, emotionally exhausted.
This is a terrible idea, Kokomi thinks. Absolutely awful. She must have been drunk when she agreed to it, never mind that she’s still five months from drinking age.
Yoimiya is certainly bubbly enough to qualify as an alcoholic drink.
There’s no other explanation for why she would be staring up at the torii that marks the start of the path to the Narukami Shrine, one hand clutching a bag containing her personal effects and the other gripping the letter of introduction the priest had written for her. She’s committed herself to a six-month trial at the Narukami Shrine. Six months where she’ll force herself to try to like it here, where she’ll do as the priest had asked and try to keep her dream of being a shrine maiden alive. No matter how much she finds herself hating it, she’ll stay for the full period… and then she’ll leave, if it hasn’t given her the fulfillment she craves.
In a show of defiance, she’s wearing her shrine maiden uniform from the Watatsumi Shrine, which is blue rather than the more typical red that she knows the Narukami Shrine uses. She’s sure that she’ll be asked to change, and she will, but… Kokomi feels like being a little difficult right now.
It’s completely unfair that a shrine to a god who abandoned her people survives while a shrine to a god who was torn from them dies, and Kokomi wants to signal where her loyalty remains. She may be a shrine maiden for the Raiden Shogun from today on, but she’s still of the people of Orobashi. Kokomi will never forget her roots.
Her steps as she walks the surprisingly long and winding path through an absolute forest of sakura trees are practically a military march, the rigidity of the motion keeping her grounded and preventing her from sinking too deep into her own head. If Kokomi lets herself think too much she tends to lose track of the world around her, and that probably wouldn’t result in the best first impression when she does reach the shrine itself.
Kokomi has to admit that the Narukami Shrine’s grounds are beautiful. The sakura grow more tightly together than she’s ever seen before, yet somehow all seem to have all of the space that they need and outline the path perfectly. They’re all in full bloom, too, even though it’s out of season: Kokomi wonders how the shrine manages that, and whether it’s tied to the stories she’s heard of the Sacred Sakura that serves as the focus of the Narukami Shrine.
The sakura do eventually open up into a surprisingly well-maintained yard, which Kokomi notes is entirely ringed by sakura. Just how many are there here? The eternally-blooming sakura combine with the incredibly realistic fox statues that stand in the place where Kokomi would normally expect to see komainu, almost as if it’s an Inari shrine rather than a shrine to the Raiden Shogun, to give the place an otherworldly air.
Of course, the fact that the foxes appear to be made of pink quartz and have purple gemstones set into their eyes makes them rather more ostentatious than anything Kokomi would expect from an Inari shrine.
Kokomi has never heard of an association between the Raiden Shogun and foxes, but given the evidence in front of her there must be some. She wonders if it’s something that ‘Guuji Yae’ will teach her about, and despite herself feels some excitement at the thought. Stories of the gods are her favorite thing to read after military history and treatises. The fact that the god in question is the Raiden Shogun doesn’t change that.
Maybe the Guuji can even tell her why the Raiden Shogun abandoned Inazuma, like Yoimiya had suggested.
“Oh my,” a teasing voice whispers into her ear as a pair of arms wrap around Kokomi’s waist. “What a cute little shrine maiden. You should be careful not to get too lost in thought when you’re wandering through the woods, my dear, or you might just get eaten up by a fox.”
The noise Kokomi lets out is halfway between a squeak and a scream as she tears herself out of the grip of the woman behind her, cheeks flushing a bright red.
When she looks behind her she finds her attacker to be a much taller woman whose hair is a darker pink than Kokomi’s own, and she’s doubled over in laughter. She’s dressed much like a shrine maiden (albeit certainly not a traditional one) so Kokomi can guess who she might be, but in order to be sure…
“W-who are you?” Kokomi demands, heart racing.
That had been… She doesn’t want to admit to what feeling that breath against her ear has done to her, let alone how the obvious innuendo she had been subjected to is refusing to leave her mind now that she can see how beautiful the other woman is.
The woman straightens up, laughter under control, and gives Kokomi a teasing smile that makes her traitorous stomach do flips. The woman’s beauty and height combine to make Kokomi very aware of how small and gay she is.
“I am the wise and beautiful Yae Miko, Guuji of the Grand Narukami Shrine,” the woman announces, throwing her arms out dramatically. For just a moment, Kokomi thinks her nails are long and pointed, almost clawlike — but it must have just been a trick of the light, because she blinks and they seem to have become as carefully-trimmed as Kokomi’s own. “You must be Sangonomiya Kokomi. I see you’ve come with your own uniform — how thoughtful of you! It’ll save us on needing to have one tailored for you.”
“…Isn’t it the wrong color?” Kokomi asks.
Kokomi wants to die. That is not how she had wanted to respond — she wants to chew this woman out for how she’d greeted her, wants to regain her balance, but that seems to be thoroughly beyond her grasp at this point.
She wishes Guuji Yae were a little less pretty. That would help her hold on to her anger instead of freak out about how close a beautiful girl’s lips had been to her face.
Unfortunately for Kokomi, Guuji Yae is very beautiful and doesn’t appear to be planning to stop being very beautiful any time soon.
If she stays here and this first meeting is an indicator of the Guuji’s usual behavior, Kokomi is going to die of a heart attack before the year is out.
…It’ll be a good death, though.
“Oh, the Shogun won’t care,” Guuji Yae laughs, flapping her hand dismissively. “Blue suits you and she’s not the picky sort, except when it comes to food.”
“I… see,” Kokomi manages.
She’s really not sure what to say to that. It seems to her that the Guuji isn’t terribly reverent towards the god she supposedly serves, and she finds herself wondering yet again what she’s gotten herself into.
It figures that the god who abandoned her people would be a picky eater, though. Even though she’s sure it’s just a strange joke on the Guuji’s part, Kokomi is more than willing to accept that into her understanding of the Raiden Shogun.
Something of her thoughts must show on her face, because the Guuji laughs again.
“The Shogun won’t mind you hating her, either,” Guuji Yae promises. “Might find it refreshing, really. She’s an oddball like that. Feel free to continue praying to Orobashi, set up a little shrine in your room or something.”
“I don’t hate the Raiden Shogun,” Kokomi protests automatically, putting off thinking about the oddity of the rest of the Guuji’s statement for later.
She doesn’t hate the Raiden Shogun. Resentment and hatred aren’t the same thing.
If Kokomi tells herself that enough times, maybe it will become true.
“Yes, yes, whatever you say. On that note, I should introduce you to Ei,” the Guuji snickers, casually wrapping an arm around Kokomi’s shoulders and dragging her along as she strolls toward the shrine building.
“Ei?” Kokomi parrots. “Who is Ei? I thought there weren’t any other shrine maidens here?”
“That’s right,” Guuji Yae agrees cheerfully. “Just me! You can think of Ei like a mascot, if you’d like.” She leads Kokomi straight to, of all places, the honden.
“S-Should you really be bringing me into—?” Kokomi begins, but cuts herself off when the Guuji throws open the doors and reveals the interior of what should be the most sacred place in the shrine.
“Ei! The new girl’s here!” Guuji Yae announces. “This is Sangonomiya Kokomi.”
Kokomi can’t say anything, because she’s too busy being frozen at the sight that has been revealed to her.
The most sacred building in the shrine looks like an otaku’s bedroom.
Kokomi wants to scream.
Shelves line the walls, figurines of scantily-clad female characters sharing space with messily stacked manga and doujinshi. Clothes are strewn across the floor. A large TV sits against one wall, a video game of some kind clearly in progress.
And laying on the floor on her stomach in what has to be an uncomfortable position, eyes fixed on the screen as she plays, is the biggest waste of a beautiful girl that Kokomi has ever seen in her life.
The girl (Ei, Kokomi assumes), has long purple hair pulled back into a messy braid and appears to be wearing nothing but headphones, socks, and a long T-shirt that leaves her surprisingly muscular legs uncovered (and very distracting). She’s got a sleepy look on her face, but nonetheless appears determined to accomplish… something, presumably in the game she’s playing. A plate of tri-color dango sits on the floor next to her, enough empty sticks present that Kokomi can’t help but wonder just how much dango this girl eats, especially given she currently appears to be attempting to eat some without using her hands. It looks ridiculous, almost like she’s got a pacifier made of dango.
“Oh?” Ei says, turning her head to look over at the door, the stick of dango that had been in her mouth falling to the floor as she speaks. On the screen, her character is hit by an attack and loses all of its HP in an instant. Ei’s attention snaps back to the screen. “Oh fucking damn it! Not again! Miko, why do you interrupt me every time?”
Guuji Yae snickers, leading Kokomi to suspect that it might not exactly be an accident.
Ei throws her controller at the TV and turns back to Kokomi and Guuji Yae again.
“Oh, she’s cute,” Ei says, all frustration vanishing from her face as she looks at Kokomi. “Good work, Miko.”
“I thought you’d say that,” Guuji Yae preens, as if Kokomi’s apparent cuteness is somehow her work. “I picked well, didn’t I?”
Kokomi grits her teeth, trying to hold back her anger… but she fails.
“What are you doing?” she screams. “This is the honden! The shrine shouldn’t have electricity anywhere, you shouldn’t be doing this in a shrine at all, but in the honden?!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Ei dismisses, grinning at her. “It’s a shrine to a god of lightning, don’t you think not having electricity would be more blasphemous? And anyway, I’ve gotta have it or I can’t play games, you know. That would piss the Shogun off.”
Kokomi hears Guuji Yae laughing her ass off behind her and clenches her fists. Exactly how lightly do these people take their god? Why are they even here if they’re not real believers? How did Guuji Yae get her position? Who is Ei and why is she allowed to live in the shrine, let alone in the honden, in the space that’s supposed to be reserved for the Raiden Shogun alone?
“Why do you care, anyway?” Ei asks, tilting her head inquisitively. “You don’t even believe in gods. What does it matter to you if we don’t follow some silly old traditions?”
As Kokomi stares into Ei’s stupid, beautiful eyes, unable to find words to reply, she knows deep in her heart…
She is so going to hate it here.