>>5875219You’ve lived as long as you can remember in a lone shrine in the heart of the city, and you are the shrine’s sole Miko. Ownership was passed down to you from your mother, after she…
Your face returns to that usual negative-neutrality. Forlornness? Indifference? Anger? Who can say?
You grew up alone, reading old books and manuscripts to do your best without training. Luckily, you don’t often get asked to perform. The generation you live in is a passive one, they don’t have time for any rituals, they’ll just put some yen in the offering box and consider themselves saved. Even if it was born from necessity, you’ve gained a respect for the animist teachings of Shintoism. As such, you believe all things living or inanimate are inhabited by Kami. This belief gives you a closeness with those who also believe that a seemingly insignificant thing can carry a powerful spiritual energy…
Sometimes, you swear you can sense that energy firsthand.
The year is 1999, it’s late August, you’ve been preparing to go back to school. Or, rather, preparing to prepare. You don’t even know if you want to go back. You’re enough of a troublemaker as it is, some days you find it silly how a shrine maiden can start so many brawls. You’ve never seen eye to eye with anyone your age. Of course, as your peers get older, they form friendships, those friend networks at a high school as rough as yours tend to manifest into gangs. Gangs running on the streets near your shrine.
You never take the vandalisms lightly.
Your view of your reflection is interrupted by the clacking of tough boots against the concrete flooring. You take note of your appearance, short hair, orange jacket, black leggings, sneakers, before turning your head from your position on the simple bed frame just in time to see a man in a blue button-up stand up straight outside your cell. You notice the police patch on his right shoulder. He gives you this look, a kind half-smile, as if he has no idea why you ended up in here.
“Your name, miss…?” He asks.
Your name is Mozume Tsukuda.
The question is, are you going to tell him that?
>Cooperate. You’ll make it out of here quicker if you just tell them what you know and let them sort it out with those punks’ families…>You know better than to trust that damn grin. Stay silent. You talk, and it’ll just lead to a false conviction… 