Author's Notes:
Basically my take on the "Mahou Shojou" Genre with an IE twist. Any OOC ness is unintentional.
Please note, most of the plot includes various Japanese Shinto legends and Shinto traditions, which are probably unknown to most readers. But I've changed the legends in a few ways for the purposes of the plot, so you don't need to know the legends it stems from. But other such words will be explained in the end of each chapter.
I own nothing but the plot, by the way.
Keepers of The Hearts
Chapter 1: The Dare
Another day in the peaceful, quiet and almost blandly normal Inazuma Town.
Frankly speaking, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happens here. With crime rates near zero, (unless you count those pesky trucks "unintentionally" running into people) it was hard to find anything exciting that wasn't soccer-related.
And today was a bland and normal day like any other. The sky was a clear blue, the clouds floating lazily like vast blobs of cotton, and the small hill in the middle of an equally small forest just beyond the tower was as abandoned as always.
"AAAAAAAARGH!" A high-pitched voice came from the forest, sending many of the local birds scrambling away in alarm.
It seems the day had been deemed uninteresting a bit too soon...
"Get it off, get it off, get it off!" A teenage girl with wavy auburn hair was screaming while doing something like and on-the-spot jig, complete with jazz hands. It seemed that she had something in the back of her t-shirt
"Calm down Natsumi-san!" Haruna exclaimed, trying her hardest along with Aki and Fuyuka to help their fellow manager out of the predicament.
"Gross-gross-gross-gross!" Natsumi continued with her jig, but soon enough, Aki was able to stuff her hand into her t-shirt and fish out...
A leaf...
"Is it out? Is it poisonous?" Natsumi asked frantically, her face fully blue.
"There's no need to worry, it's only a leaf. And no, it's not poison ivy." Fuyuka said soothingly, and Natsumi calmed herself with a sigh.
With that out of the way, they were able to silently continue on the dirt path snaking between the forest, ascending slightly in elevation steadily.
"Hey! Wait for me!" A male voice panted from behind them. A brunette teen in large square-shaped glasses was painstakingly following them while carrying four backpacks. Fuyuka moved forward to help Megane, although with a sweatdrop since they were taking turns to carry their things and Megane was the only one showing this much difficulty in carrying them.
The girls sighed in union, "How did we get into this again?" Natsumi asked wearily.
"I'm sorry everyone..." Haruna sighed. She felt guilty because she was responsible for their current situation due to a mere technicality.
"It's not your fault Haruna." Aki said soothingly, putting a hand on her junior's shoulder.
"Yes," Fuyuka said while taking two of the backpacks with relative ease, "It's no ones fault, except Fudou and Kogure."
Natsumi looked even more displeased at the mention of their names. It was their fault that she had to miss the spa day she was planning for a whole month and go on this stupid hiking trip to a abandoned and or haunted Shinto Temple.
It was about three days ago, during Haruna's 16th birthday. Naturally, the whole team and managers were invited to the thing.
The party went on normally enough, with everyone enjoying themselves in the small but comfortable confines of Haruna's parents' house.
But nothing can go on normally when there's sugary snacks and teenagers involved...
Soon enough, Rika, whether in an attempt to get closer to Ichinose or play unwanted matchmaker for an unsuspecting pair with a more or less platonic relationship god only knows, suggested a game of Spin the Bottle.
So, the the guests (some apprehensive or downright terrified) sat in a circle in the Living room with an empty glass soda bottle in the middle.
"Who'll go first?" Haruna asked cheerfully.
"Oh oh, I will!" Kogure said deviousy, trying to hide the obviously malicious grin.
"Okay!" Haruna said, "Natsumi-san, you go first!" she exclaimed, totally ignoring Kogure which prompted him to anime fall.
"O-okay..." Natsumi said, not so sure.
She crouched towards the bottle and spun it carefully.
It spun in the middle, losing speed steadily... The team watched with anticipation and...
It spun to a stop on... Fubuki.
Fubuki's eyes widened a little, but he recovered and looked at Natsumi.
"Be my guest." He said with a laid back kind of smile and took a sip from the soda can he was holding.
"Um..." Natsumi thought for a moment...
"Is it true that you used to hit on every girl in Hokkaido?" she asked.
Fubuki nearly spat out his soda, but instead choked on it. He coughed for a bit, Someoka thumping him on the back with an amused grin.
"Th-that's, well, technically..." He stuttered.
"Yes or no?" Natsumi asked bossily.
"More or less..." Fubuki said, avoiding eye contact. Most of the boys laughed.
"I hope you're still not a womanizer." Haruna said teasingly, to another roll of collective laughter.
So it went on, either with embarrassing truths or wacky dares. (With the fluffiest being Rika's dare to Tuko. She had to kiss Tsunami in front of the whole team. Typical Rika...)
So far, the birthday girl was having extraordinarily good luck. Right until it was Kogure's turn...
"I guess it's your turn..." Kogure said with a grin that anyone would associate with imminent humiliation.
"I-I'm ready for anything!" she exclaimed confidently, more to herself than Kogure.
Kogure's grin widened. "Let's see..." he said teasingly.
Haruna (and Kidou) held her breath.
"I've heard an interesting rumor that you have a crush... Tell us who it is!" He said, pointing at an appalled Haruna victoriously.
"N-no way!" Haruna said loudly as Kidou nearly shouted "What!?"
"Think about it... If you refuse, you have to do a dare instead!" Kogure said deviously.
"I'd rather take the dare!" She exclaimed heatedly.
"But before that," Kidou cut in, "I'd like to clarify that I will not allow anything remotely close to kissing and seven minutes in heaven!"
"Why!? Firstly, she 16 now, and secondly, that's not fair!" Kogure said, equally appalled.
But he faltered under the goggled clad teen's glare. The whole team was left without a doubt that if it wasn't for the goggle, Kogure might have gotten incinerated by the glare alone.
"O-okay! Okay! Nothing close to those!" he said in an alarmed voice.
Kidou straightened up at that, and was calm once again.
"Fine... Er..." Kogure thought carefully.
"Spit it out already!" Fudou snapped impatiently after a minute of silence.
"... I've got nothing." Kogure said, and everyone present anime fell.
"Well, fine!" Fudou said with a smirk, "I dare our 'beloved' managers to go that old Shinto Temple and bring back a spell tag from it!"
"Hey! It's not your turn! And you can only challenge one person!" Aki said indignantly.
"Okay, so I dare you!" Kogure said, Fudou's smirk was mirrored on his face.
"That could be dangerous!" Kazemaru said, trying to talk sense into them.
"Why would it be? We're not telling them to go in the middle of the night!" Kogure reasoned stubbornly.
Before this could turn into a fully fledged argument, Haruna yelled loudly, "We accept!"
"We do!?" Natsumi and Fuyuka exclaimed from either side of her.
"Yes!" she said confidently. "We can't let them think that we're weak just because we support them from the sidelines!"
"Are you sure?" Kidou asked her worriedly.
"Don't worry Kidou!" Endou said with his huge grin, "The girls can handle it! They've faced worse before!"
The female managers beamed at Endou for his faith in their capabilities.
"What do you mean by "girls"?" Fudou asked, "I said managers. That includes Megane."
"What!?" Megane exclaimed from beside Max.
"That's right." Fudou said.
"Make sure to protect him girls! Ushishishishi!" Kogure said snidely.
Everyone nearly burst out laughing, but they decided that it would be unwise to dishearten Megane any farther.
And that's how they got into this mess...
"Come on! We're nearly there!" Haruna shouted from the bend of the track.
"We're coming!" Natsumi called exasperatedly from afar.
"It's nice to see that she hasn't lost her enthusiasm." Aki said with a smile. "Come on, cheer up!" she added when she heard what she guessed was the tenth sigh from Natsumi.
"I don't blame her for being unhappy." Megane said grumpily. "I can't believe I got dragged into this!"
"You didn't complain when we dragged you halfway around the world to Soccer Island even though you practically did nothing." Natsumi said testily.
"Easy now, Natsumi-san." Fuyuka said soothingly as a blue depressed aura appeared around Megane. "We're nearly there, it'll only take a few more minutes."
"Look!" Haruna said, excitedly pointing at the very old looking wooden temple.
"Finally..." Natsumi said with relief, the place was less of a jungle than the track leading to it. "I hope there are less mosquitoes and other insects here..."
The temple looked worse for wear, though there were no holes in the roof, nor were there on the floor but the cob webbing and damaged doors and rotten wooden pillars made it clear that it had about the amount of structural integrity that their clubhouse had after being demolished by Midorikawa aka Reize and co.
They entered through the door with many ripped areas of the washi paper.
It was the haiden, or the oratory, which looked as though it had become a paradise of dust bunnies and spiders.
"Wow..." Fuyuka and Megane whispered. Haruna, Aki and Natsumi looked at them questioningly.
"I don't believe how old the architecture is..." Megane said, intrigued.
"Yes, it seems that the building must be older than people think." Fuyuka said quietly, "It must have averted the eyes of historians... Or they must have given up on trying to find anything because it has been abandoned for so long now. Anything valuable wouldn't last this long in the open."
"Hmm..." Megane nodded pensively, suddenly going farther into the dark interior.
The girls followed suit, not remotely afraid since it was the middle of the day. They found the heiden, or the hall of offerings adjoined to the haiden. It was a lot less dark due to being an open hall.
They slowly continued on, and a presence was seemingly calling them towards the main hall or Honden. It seemed to be less worn down than most of the other parts of the building...
They stopped right outside it, barred by the tamagaki.
"We really shouldn't go in there..." Natsumi said, really aware that it would be offensive and disrespectful for the public to enter the Honden for no reason. Even Shinto priests rarely enter the area, and that too for rituals.
The others also agreed, and thought that it was high time to conclude their adventure.
So they were about to back-track towards the hall of offerings when,
"What's that?" Haruna said suddenly, pointing to a stone alter that was barely in sight from behind the Honden, right in front of a huge tree bound by a Shimenawa. They approached it carefully.
The alter was itself bound by a Shimenawa as well, and it was rather an unorthodox one, due to the fact that most Shinto alters were usually designed after Buddhist alters and are wooden.
"Hm..." Migane examined the stone with keen interest.
"I haven't seen anything like that before!" Haruna said with lively interest.
"Nor have I..." Natsumi said.
"Hm... I wonder..." Aki said pensively.
"What?" Fuyuka asked her.
"The thing reminds me of the Ama-no-Iwato for some reason..." She replied, still with the pensive air.
"The cave where Amaterasu hid from Susanoo?" Fuyuka asked with surprise.
"Mmhmm..." Aki said.
"But that's absurd, in my opinion." Natsumi said skeptically. "The legend says that it was a cave, and this thing is as much of a cave as the old clubhouse was!"
"But what if it really is the Ama no Iwato?" Haruna said with a shine in her eyes.
"I'm telling you, that's not-" Natsumi started, but was cut off by a loud and haughty cough by Megane.
"After thorough analysis" He started with an air similar to a scientist, "I conclude that, this is a replica of the Ama wa Iwato, if not the original thing."
"What!?" Natsumi exclaimed wide-eyed.
"Look." He told them, and then pointed at the stone structure.
The girls took a closer look, and saw some characters inscribed on the largest slab.
"I can't read some of these... What language are they from?" Haruna asked.
"Japanese, of course!" Megane said.
"But I can't read some of it! The only part I understand is the Amaterasu-oumikami part! The rest is just odd characters or utter gibberish!" Haruna replied in a surprised voice.
"It's really old writing..." Fuyuka said softly, "Japanese was read and spelled differently in Kana even a century ago... And some were removed since they weren't widely used or just thought unnecessary by the government."
"That means... This thing is more than a century old!?" Haruna exclaimed excitedly.
"Most likely." Megane said, his glasses flashing.
"That would make the scoop of the century! I can't wait to report this in the school newspaper!" Haruna said with shining eyes.
"Let's not get over our heads now." Aki said, sweatdropping at her friend's enthusiasm.
But it still didn't dishearten the peppy teen at all, and her attention was caught by something in stead, "Hey! What's this?" she exclaimed, pointing at a particular little very old looking paper tag just behind the shimenawa. It had a very intricate pattern on it, presumably a flamboyant calligraphy of some Kanji.
"Haruna, I don't think we should touch tha-" Aki started in an alarmed voice, but the deed was already done, and the tag and shimenawa both slipped off.
The ground suddenly started shaking, and black smoky substance started to creep out from the stone alter.
The girls (and Megane) shrieked as they were flung a few feet away by the malefic miasma...
"RUN!" Megane shouted, and was (predictably) to start doing so. The managers fled the scene, and ran into the Temple again. They weren't being chased by the black substance like normal horror movie laws stated, but they still ran full pelt through the haiden, with Megane in front of the party.
Megane saw the exit of the complex and shouted, "We're almost- AAAAAARGH!"
END
Hehehe... A cliffhanger to start it off...
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