Paper Cranes
Chapter 3
The shrine was small, with only a single lonely building to its name. There was a torii, of course, but aside from that the only indication that it was a shrine was the fox statue beside the building. An Inari shrine, then – unsurprising, as they were the most common sort in Japan. After seeing the behemoth of an Inari shrine in Kyoto as well as a number of larger ones in Tokyo itself, this one wasn't particularly impressive. It was quiet and pretty enough, he supposed, surrounded by trees as it was, but overall pretty boring.
But...wait. Was that...?
Intrigued, Hikaru traversed the shrine's modest clearing and went to inspect some sort of colourful vine growing up a post and then onto one of the trees. There were a number of small purple flowers, and they looked like the stylised image on his fuji tubes. They were growing pretty high up, so it took some stretching to get his face level with one to smell it.
It...was a faint scent. Much fainter than in the incense, and a lot fainter than what he remembered from Sai. It smelled the same, though.
Hikaru stepped back, looking at the wisteria vine with a little bemusement. Fancy that – the closest shrine to his grandpa's place, and presumably the closest to his as well, had a damn wisteria vine in it. That was...almost suspiciously coincidental. Or it would be if he thought the plant wisteria had anything to do with Sai himself. Or if he hadn't seen similar vines growing in several people's gardens. As it was, it was probably just a plain old coincidence. He might as well find the kannushi, though, if a place this small even had one. He glanced around.
Kannushi were pretty distinctive in their garb, and as such, it was not at all difficult to spot this one. He was younger looking than a lot of the guys tended to be. Hikaru had learned more or less by necessity that it tended to be a family thing, with sons of kannushi also training to be kannushi and so on. Maybe this guy was the same, or maybe he'd been at it a while. His age was a bit hard to guess, but he was probably in his mid-thirties. Maybe.
He was also giving Hikaru the weirdest look.
It was half confusion, half grimace. It shifted a few seconds in to a mild sneer of distaste, and an incongruent sort of concern. The guy was probably worried he was going to go around wrecking the place. Hikaru hadn't witnessed that standard of stink eye for a good while, but this was definitely a contender for the 'most hostile reaction a stranger had to Hikaru' award. He was almost outright staring, and looked nearly offended.
Hikaru felt an impulse that had lain dormant for ages. It was an ancient and noble impulse, calling him to action against injustice: it was the impulse to go forth and profoundly annoy someone. Namely, the guy who had taken such exception to his presence.
Unfortunately, he didn't have any good priest annoying gear on him. A bit of litter might have worked nicely, these guys tended to get tremendously pissy about that sort of thing. He had basically nothing with him, though. And also intentional littering was probably one of those things that professional Go players such as himself should avoid. Damn.
Well, maybe he could come back and be a bother some other day. It was only a twenty-something minute walk away, after all.
It was, in fact, two months before Hikaru returned to his local shrine.
July was a good month for festivals. So was August. There were all sorts of outdoors fair type things, trying to raise awareness for the game and get some new players interested. There were a couple of actual fully-fledged events, one of which Hikaru was asked to teach at. The rest he gate-crashed and taught at anyway. He liked teaching, even if his students didn't always approve of his methods or even ask to be taught in the first place.
A big gathering was made out of a match between Kuwabara and Kurata, who was an eighth dan now. Hikaru bullied and negotiated his way to a good seat in the room they were televising it in, with some Kansai branch rokudan providing commentary in front of the projected image of the goban. Hikaru sat down, fixing his eyes onto the game with enough intensity that anything that tried to obstruct the screen would probably catch on fire. Kuwabara was an opponent whose every kifu Hikaru had studied, because he seriously wanted the old guy's title. 'Honinbou' was a piece of Sai, and he was the only one who knew it and appreciated it for what it was…so he would claim the title from the old bastard if it was the last thing he ever did. He'd made no secret of his aspirations, and accordingly his companion to this event, Touya, only shook his head at him.
Hikaru would show him, though. He would show everyone, and the damned title would be his!
...at any rate, there was a lot on in July and even more in August, so it was understandable that Hikaru had been busy. Especially since he was now sure his ranking to third dan was incoming, and he needed to practice more than ever to be ready. And it wasn't like trolling some random judgemental priest was all that high on his priority list, anyway – he had a lot of shrines to visit in his increasingly scarce free time. He had completed the tourist list and was now working his way through the smaller shrines in proximity to his house and the Go institute, so really, going back to a shrine he'd already visited wasn't an efficient use of his time.
One Sunday afternoon, though, Hikaru paused in his narrative to Sai's shintai with a sudden thought. It was too late to commute to any of the further shrines, but…. "You know, it's early enough still that I could totally go to that shrine and freak out the kannushi a bit." He mused, half to the kamidana and half to himself. "You'd probably tell me off for it, wouldn't you?" he asked the absent ghost. "Or maybe you wouldn't." Sai had sometimes become very incensed when he felt that something untoward was going on; their occasional encounters with fraudsters had demonstrated that well enough. He wasn't certain if a priest giving him some major stink eye would have got Sai's hackles up, but eh.
Hikaru considered his plans for the afternoon. He had to study anyway, so... "Yeah, I think I'll go." He decided. "Talk later, Sai."
He threw away the ashes of the incense, snuffed out the candle flames, and concealed the kamidana on its wardrobe-shelf using a strategically placed coat. He checked his book bag briefly to make sure it had all the essentials, and set off for the shrine.
The kannushi wasn't there when Hikaru arrived, which was bizarrely disappointing. He'd been hoping to rile the guy up a bit by pretending to litter, eating noisily, and that sort of minor irritating thing. Shrugging, Hikaru figured he might as well get some work done so as to placate his mother, and went to sit down near the wisteria. There weren't many flowers, now – lots had withered and fallen off. He supposed its flowering season was ending, or something like that. Still, it was a nice little grassy corner to sit himself in, so sit himself there he did.
He was a short way into his English verb conjugations, detesting how little of a pattern they had, when he heard a clattering sound and looked up. It transpired that the kannushi was there after all, apparently inside the little shrine building. Hikaru noted the broom and dustpan which had been unceremoniously dropped onto the ground, and raised an eyebrow at the kannushi. Who was staring at him, looking so profoundly astonished that Hikaru couldn't help but snicker a bit. This did not go unnoticed, and the kannushi's shock swiftly transformed to a sort of wary ire. Hikaru watched him for a few seconds, observing as the man stiffly picked up his cleaning implements and disappeared from sight around the back of the building.
Amused, but also perplexed at the reaction, Hikaru returned to his verbs. In the space of a few minutes he was mentally cursing the English and their damned inconsistent language. It was just inconsiderate to have basically all the often-used verbs be irregular in some way, forcing innocent foreigners to have to memorise things rather than relying on easy patterns.
Damn you, English. Hikaru shook his fist at the vocabulary for dramatic effect. Why must you be the language of the internet?
When did 'to ring' conjugate in the past tense as 'rung' and when as 'ringed', or even 'rang'? What was the difference between 'sneaked' and 'snuck'? How on Earth did one lay down in the past tense in English? Was it 'lied down', which could be confused with some sort of untruthfulness? Was it 'laid down', which could also be used to describe the action of laying bricks? And why did everything to do with laying down have to specify the direction it laid in? It should just be 'laid', for a simpler verb of 'to lay'...except maybe not, because Hikaru remembered that 'to lay' was some sort of English sex euphemism. God, he hated English.
Hikaru grimly battled his way through the accursed language exercises, looking up from time to time as the kannushi went about his business, raking leaves and inspecting the shrine. He really seemed to dislike Hikaru, since whatever he did he seemed to have an eye on him, with that same half-offended expression on his face.
Seemed he didn't actually have to rile the guy up at all, as the man was managing it perfectly well on his own.
Hikaru finished six far-too-long grammatical exercises in his English workbook and then couldn't bear to do anymore. He spent the remaining twenty minutes of his study hour duelling with the concept of simultaneous equations, which he found significantly easier.
An hour after he had sat down, Hikaru packed his stuff and stood up, stretching. He noticed the kannushi staring watchfully from beside the shrine building, eyes narrowed. Hikaru grinned mockingly, and left through the torii, finding himself somewhat intrigued.
His first impression of that kannushi had been of some judgmental asshole who looked at the bleached hair and bright clothing and thought delinquent. He'd attributed the suspicious and watchful looks to worries that Hikaru would desecrate the shrine in some way, maybe by littering or – Inari forbid – spray painting.
That impression didn't quite hold up any more.
He'd been studying, for god's sake. He'd just sat there and studied, maybe not peacefully, but quietly and without being a dick to his surroundings. And yet the kannushi spent the whole time overtly or covertly staring at him as he went about his business, expression ranging from suspicious to worried to outright scowling. He was either just a monumental dickhead, or had some other reason to hate Hikaru on sight.
Hikaru found himself very curious to know what exactly this priest's problem was. Hikaru was not good at restraining his curiosity.
The third time Hikaru returned to the little Inari shrine was only four days later, quite late in Thursday's afternoon.
This time the kannushi spotted him coming, looked almost panicked, and disappeared into the shrine building. It was thoroughly unusual.
Hikaru stared at the building as he navigated to his spot by the wisteria, setting out his history books to do the required reading. He didn't do a very good job of this reading, on account of being so damned curious about the priest – he couldn't stop glancing at the building for any hint of movement.
Much to his disappointment, the kannushi didn't emerge from the building for the entire hour. Hikaru packed his books away, shouldered his bag, and made his way out through the torii's red archway.
Though he hadn't seen very much of the guy this time, disappearing into the shrine like that was also pretty suspicious. It was almost like he was hiding from Hikaru.
It was weird, and Hikaru couldn't resist that sort of crap in the slightest.
The fourth time Hikaru went to the shrine was a week after the second, reasonably early on the Sunday. He decided to leave his 'Sai time' for the late afternoon or evening, and have a longer than usual shrine study session in the hopes of learning something about that weird priest.
The weird priest in question saw him coming through the torii, and vanished at once into the shrine proper.
It was sort of annoying this time, actually. Hikaru wouldn't be able to figure out what was up with the guy if he just hid in the shrine every time he was there.
Perplexed, intrigued, and irritated all at once, Hikaru elected to do some English exercises. It was fitting accompaniment for such emotions.
The thing with the kannushi abruptly became far weirder and more interesting when, half an hour after he'd disappeared, the priest emerged with his priest baton thing, the shaku, and started touring the shrine. Hikaru couldn't figure out what he was doing at first, until he saw the man stop at the fox statue and move on – he'd left something stuck to its bib. He watched with fascination, feeling almost as if he was observing the behaviour of a bizarre alien beast, as the priest determinedly made his way around and then disappeared into the honden again.
Hikaru tried to resist. He really did. But in the end, it only took about a minute after the kannushi had gone inside for him to walk over and inspect the fox.
On its chest was an ofuda. An ofuda. Hikaru stared at it incredulously, and then irreverently peeled it off, reading what looked like freshly-inked script with his eyebrows raising.
The ofuda, quite unremarkably, asked for protection from a kami, in this case Inari. This was normal, expected even, given that it was an Inari shrine. Much more bizarrely, it was specifically asking for protection against malevolent spirits and spiritual harm.
Hikaru stared at the paper in his hand, not entirely certain he was seeing correctly. He read it again and again and one last time for good measure, but nope, that definitely said what he thought he had. He left the fox and walked around the shrine, finding similar ofuda on the shrine building, assorted trees, a bench, a rock, and one on each of the torii's legs.
He was inspecting the torii's pair with consternation when he heard the kannushi emerge from the shrine. Hikaru looked over at him, beyond baffled, and noted that there was now an ofuda hanging around his neck, and the baton was still present.
The kannushi looked around swiftly, eyes landing first on where he'd been sitting and his books still were, and for a moment looked profoundly relieved. Then he looked the other way, and saw Hikaru. He froze and stared straight at him, looking very much like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.
And, okay, that was more than enough. Hikaru couldn't take this shit anymore, it had become far too weird. He approached the kannushi, intent on opening a dialogue with the perplexing priest.
The kannushi promptly started panicking, if his jerky movements and the expression on his face were any indication. He retreated a little, clutched at his baton, and stared wildly at the approach of Hikaru as if he were regarding the approach of a velociraptor rather than that of a fifteen-year-old boy.
When Hikaru was only a few metres away, and about to open his mouth to ask 'what the hell', the kannushi lost it and brandished the shaku at him, eyes wide. Hikaru stared at the baton with absolutely no idea of what was going through the man's head, until the priest shrieked "Begone, foul demon!" and with his other hand threw a handful of ofuda at him.
Most brushed lightly against Hikaru before flopping uselessly onto the ground. A single one clung lightly to his shirt, fluttering gently in the breeze.
Hikaru looked down at it, and then up again at the trembling priest. Because what. "What the hell." Hikaru said, feeling like he'd said it far too late, and that it wasn't nearly enough for the kind of bullshit he had found himself in. The kannushi continued to stare at him, looking actually sort of terrified, as whatever he had expected to happen did not happen. Tentatively, Hikaru peeled the ofuda from his shirt and brought it up to read, only managing to confirm that it seemed the same as the others before the priest absolutely freaked.
Abandoning any pretence of knowing what was going on in his life, Hikaru watched a grown man flee from him in terror.
Hikaru watched the door of the shrine building for a while, even went back to do his studying so he wouldn't be spending the time uselessly. He only studied sporadically, but he still stayed there for a good two hours, maybe more. The shrine's honden wasn't something the public were allowed inside, only the kannushi and miko could go in, so it wasn't as though he could legally follow the guy. A couple of times Hikaru caught the door opening slightly and the priest peering out, to see if he was still there. It was absolutely stupid, and confusing, and so very very ridiculous.
He was stubborn, but there was only so long he could wait. After about three hours, Hikaru packed his things and left the shrine, feeling quite thoroughly flummoxed.
When he got home, Hikaru greeted his mother and went immediately to his room, feeling all sorts of confused and thoughtful. Because it was kind of comforting, and also because he wanted someone to discuss this idiocy with, Hikaru commenced his Sunday Sai-time by opening the wardrobe, unveiling the kamidana, and lighting the candles and incense. Once the wonderful, familiar, heartbreaking scent of wisteria was wafting pleasantly throughout the room, he placed the fan and got down to business.
"Okay, Sai." He said. "The weirdest thing just happened." The impulse was there to immediately begin narrating the entire encounter, as well as the one on Thursday as Sai hadn't heard that yet. But there were too many thoughts running through his head, so Hikaru sat silently for a few minutes to let it all process before speaking again. "So, that priest," he mumbled, pensively. "He's…probably not being a judgemental dick. If it was that, he wouldn't have tried to throw a load of ofuda at me. He actually seemed scared, Sai. I mean, what the hell?"
Hikaru brought up his hands and rubbed at his temples. It was weird, there was no mistaking it. The kannushi had started off just being really suspicious and displeased at his presence. By the third encounter, he'd seemed more worried, and had gone to hide for at least an hour. By the fourth, he was actually frightened, and had thrown ofuda at Hikaru. Hell, he'd stuck them all around the shrine, and even worn one around his neck. He had done this with hand-made ofuda asking not for the standard general protection, but for protection against malevolent spirits.
It was outrageously weird, and yes, suspicious.
Many people had, in the past, looked at Hikaru and immediately dismissed him as showy, a delinquent, beneath their notice, or even a troublemaker at first glance. This was not that. This was something else. Hikaru liked to think that nothing about him screamed 'demon!' or maybe 'evil spirit here!', and certainly none of the other priests or miko had behaved in even slightly the same way.
That made this kannushi suspicious…and not, actually, in a bad way.
It was…sort of hopeful.
"He thinks I'm an evil spirit. Or a demon. Or maybe possessed by an evil spirit or demon." Hikaru said slowly, ponderously. He quashed down the parts of him which were getting far too excited far too quickly, and exhaled. "I'm pretty sure I don't look like a demon or an evil spirit, and it's not like I was behaving so bad that he, I dunno, concluded that I'm pure evil. I was just studying." To be fair, no one had guessed that Hikaru had been possessed even when he had been, they'd just thought he was weird. But still. He took a deep breath, and uttered the natural conclusion: "so…maybe, I'm on to something here." He said, the words all rushing out of him.
It was hard to hold back that surge of hope and excitement and exultation. He had to have visited over a hundred shrines, and the kannushi hadn't known anything and hadn't shown any sign of getting weird vibes from him at all. But this guy? This guy had been suspicious of him on sight.
What if this guy knew something about spirits? Something worthwhile?
Okay, so he thought Hikaru was a demon. So what? If he could detect some sort of paranormal residue hanging around him that was more than enough of a place to start! It was certainly way more than he'd got from anything else he'd done so far.
Hikaru was officially excited. Excited, and full of so much energy that he squirmed in place. "Okay, Sai, I'm really trying not to get my hopes up here." He told the fan. "But you have to admit, this sounds…well, hopeful."
Frustratingly, he probably wouldn't have a chance to follow up until next Thursday. The beginnings of each week were always way too crammed with games and practice, and on Monday afternoons there were the Serizawa study sessions. Not to mention the Touya study sessions on Tuesdays, or the routine official matches that were scheduled for most lower-dans on Wednesdays. He knew that this would absolutely eat at him for the whole time, he knew it.
Hikaru sat and stewed in excited frustration for a good five minutes instead of talking or doing anything productive. Finally, though, he huffed. "Okay, that's enough of that. Here, Sai, I played an interesting match of NetGo against Yashiro on Tuesday…"
He set out the stones, and replayed the match.
On Monday, the excitement and the hope were still dominant in the maelstrom of mad emotion that Hikaru was experiencing. He positively bounced with energy that alternated between cheerful and nervous, and it had an excellent effect on his games. Hikaru played quickly and impulsively, confusing the hell out of Waya with his weird plays and annoying Touya by fidgeting too much during their game, but ultimately putting forth a great few games.
On Tuesday, impatience truly began to set in, and Hikaru poured all of his irritation and fretting into demolishing his opponents as though they had personally affronted him. They sort of had, being so inconsiderate as to want games with him when he wanted to be investigating a potential lead. He was more ruthless with his students than usual, and got into a bitching contest with Akari when she blamed his poor mood on his 'period', which she knew full well wasn't something he was physically capable of.
On Wednesday, Hikaru was nervous. He was distracted and fidgety and couldn't stop worrying. The kannushi had been seriously freaked out. What if he brought other priests? What if he brought friends and family? What if he brought exorcists? It wasn't like they'd be able to exorcise Hikaru anyway, but the fear was there. Worse, what if the kannushi was so freaked out by him that he skipped town, or transferred to some other shrine? What if he got a restraining order?
A consequence of channelling all of the pain, loss, anguish and grief of Sai's absence into getting Sai back meant that when he felt that this goal was threatened, it messed him up. In the end Hikaru allowed himself to sink slightly into depression and apathy just to make his head shut up a bit. His play vacillated between terrible and awful, and it was truly unfortunate that he had an official match that day because he lost to basically everyone. He lost to Waya, he lost to Isumi, and he sure as hell lost to Touya, who seemed perfectly outraged at his inability to focus and give him a good game. And, for that matter, he lost to the sandan he had his match against, too. When he finally got home in the evening he locked himself in his room and sequestered himself in front of the Sai-shrine, desperately needing the bittersweet familiarity of the closest thing he had to Sai's presence.
He sat for over an hour before the kamidana, lighting new sticks of incense as they burned out rather than leaving it at just the one. He sat there breathing in the scent and did his best to relax, and not panic, and not come up with absurd worries, and he was actually almost starting to succeed when Akari came over.
When he heard her voice downstairs, greeting his mother, Hikaru did not feel very charitable towards it at all. He stared vengefully at the wardrobe-shrine, feeling profoundly slighted by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.
When she knocked, he refused to answer until she started getting belligerent and noisy, whereupon he snuffed out all of the burning things, leaving a stick of incense half-expended, and concealed his wardrobe-shrine in the traditional manner. Then he unlocked and opened the door, just as Akari was giving it a good shove, meaning that she fell into the bedroom with basically no grace at all.
"Finally," She snapped, once she had herself upright. "I was starting to think you were just going to ignore me until I gave up!"
Hikaru stared at her. "I let you in, didn't I?" He responded, hand reaching into his pocket. It found nothing. He did a double-take, checking the other pocket as well, but nope. He'd left the fan on the kamidana. Damn. His fingers were pretty much twitching for it.
"After leaving me waiting there for ages, perhaps." Akari sniffed. Then she paused, looking suddenly curious. "Hikaru, your room is basically full of smoke. I should probably close the door so you don't set off the fire alarm." Without waiting for a response, she did precisely that, sniffing the air as she did so.
"It's just incense." He muttered, not feeling very sociable at all. He was worried, damn it, and because she'd caught him in the middle of some unscheduled Sai-time he was feeling far more emotional than he tended to prefer when other people were around. And he didn't even have the fan to mess with.
"I know you've been mad on the stuff since you came back from Kyoto, but I've never caught you burning it before." Akari said, glancing around. "Where's the burner? I don't think I've seen it before."
"I put it away," He explained, but suddenly she wasn't listening. She was looking at the thin line of smoke wafting out from the wardrobe door. Before he could do anything, the door in question had been wrenched open.
"You're burning incense in your wardrobe?" She asked incredulously, rifling about in search of the burner. "No wonder your clothes all smell of it!"
"Get out of my stuff, you witch!" Hikaru demanded, not pleased in the least because she was about to-
Akari found the kamidana. Akari stared. Hikaru resigned himself to his fate.
There were several moments of silence. Quite a lot of them, actually. It would be more accurate to say that there was a good minute of silence involved, which was an unusually large space of time when both Hikaru and Akari were occupying the same space.
Finally, the many moments of silence ended. "Hikaru," Akari said, disbelief colouring her tone. "Have you discovered religion?"
…Somehow, Hikaru had never expected that she would make such an assumption. "What?" He asked, flatly.
"Oh my god, you have." Akari said, rapidly skydiving to her false conclusion. "It explains everything. All of those shrines – no, Hikaru, you will not convince me that over a hundred shrines is because you like bothering kannushi – and the incense, and why you've been acting so weird since you came back from Kyoto-"
"I have not," Hikaru protested, stung. He hadn't, had he? If he had been acting discernibly different, Akari would certainly be the first to notice, but…
"You have found religion." Akari said, rapturously. "You are absolutely the last person I would ever expect to have found religion. This is crazy!" She looked thrilled.
"Oh my god I don't know you." Hikaru insisted, hoping desperately that she wouldn't be spreading this shit around, because he knew very well that he would not be able to convince her she was wrong at this stage of her certainty. "I don't know you, what are you even doing in my room, get out of here." He made a token, unsuccessful attempt to shove her out of his room.
She batted him away and inspected the kamidana more closely. "You're getting all into Shinto stuff, then? If there's a kamidana?" She asked, as though actually expecting an answer. "You have a household shrine already, Hikaru, you could have used that, you know. This must have been horribly expensive. And then you wouldn't have to use a fan for your shintai." She made to reach out and touch it. Hikaru objected immensely to this idea.
He plucked the fan away before she could reach it, folding it defensively against his wrist. "Don't disrespect my worship," he snarked at her, figuring that as long as this was what she'd decided on he might as well roll with it.
"A fan, Hikaru?" She asked, sceptically.
"The fan is an artefact of great personal significance." He told her imperiously.
Akari peered at it as best she could when he was hiding it from view. "It's that fan you always carry around with you, isn't it?" She said, phrasing it like a question when in reality it was more like a statement. "You never would explain what that fan was about." She looked at him as if she expected him to spill all of his secrets on the spot.
"It's mine. My own. My precious." Hikaru informed her at a deadpan. They'd gone to see The Lord of the Rings movie as soon as it had been subbed for a Japanese audience, and the second one had been released and subbed the year before, so she recognised the reference immediately.
"You are a pain." Akari declared. "A huge pain. I'm convinced that putting up with you for all these years is a symptom of insanity, and a sign that I should probably seek counselling."
"I couldn't agree more." Hikaru supported, solemnly.
She rolled her eyes. "I know full well what you're like." His life-long best friend claimed. "You bought your own stuff and worship in secret because you're a cagey little moron who cares far too much about what other people think and know about you." In this, she was actually probably right, though naturally he would never admit anything of the sort. "But I, for one, am very supportive of your faith, Hikaru." Akari announced, continuing self-importantly. "So I will not tell anyone." She smiled. "Probably."
He smiled back at her, just as insincerely. Now that she'd found out, Hikaru found that he actually didn't care so much. He'd hid the kamidana mostly because he'd thought that it would be interpreted as mourning, which would raise far too many questions. He'd somehow never realised that, given his shrine visiting and so on, religion might be the conclusion people would come to.
Most Japanese followed Shinto practices as a matter of course – it wasn't so much a religion as just something people did. There were naturally people who followed the traditions much more closely and seriously, primary among them the actual priests, and they could be considered religious…but him, as one of those people? The people who actually worshipped, rather than just burning some incense on holidays or leaving offerings at public shrines? What a weird thought.
Hikaru didn't especially mind the idea of that getting out. In fact, it would probably be very funny. He was certain that Waya would dismiss it all as bullshit no matter what anyone else said, and insist that the shrine was just Hikaru taking his stupidity to all new heights. He suspected most of the people who knew him even slightly wouldn't have any idea of what to believe. Touya might even get affronted by the whole thing – Hikaru knew his family were very traditional, and might even be among the number of those who were on the religious side of the Shinto spectrum.
"I am so thankful for your kind support. I don't know what I would do without you." Hikaru deadpanned, and they exchanged some very false pleasantries and kind words before he finally managed to evict her from his room on grounds that she was interrupting his worship.
Once he'd re-locked the room, he set to re-lighting the incense and candles as well, listening to Akari cheerfully explain to his mother that he was being a brat today so she was leaving him be. He rolled his eyes, and flipped his middle finger at her through the floor, before sitting down with the shrine and ignoring everything.
Annoyingly, he actually felt far better now. Even when Akari was being a supreme pain in the backside, she somehow managed to cheer him up. That was the hazard of growing up with someone, he supposed. Especially someone who grew up to be as sly and tricky as Akari had.
"Did you hear all that, Sai?" Hikaru asked, settling to breathe in the incense. "She thinks I'm religious now." He paused, a thought occurring to him. "Then again, maybe I am." He mused. "After all, here I am talking to a kamidana with no idea whether or not you, Sai, are actually listening. And I suppose you could be a minor kami. Like an ancestor spirit. Or the kami of Go."
Hikaru grinned, suddenly. He knew precisely what he'd be saying if this thing thing ever got out and people started asking.
The next day, Hikaru had returned to a slightly effervescent blend of excitement and nervous anticipation. He gathered enough mental focus to absolutely dominate a match with Waya, leaving the boy looking somewhat shell-shocked as he watched his terrible loss unfold. It was very satisfying.
Afterwards, Hikaru made his way with all due haste back to his residential area and then power-walked all the way to the local shrine.
Once the torii was in sight, he slowed and snuck his way forwards. In the shadow of a nearby tree, Hikaru observed the kannushi. He was raking leaves from the shrine's grass, looking about him periodically. He looked nervous and slightly unkempt, with such dark circles beneath his eyes that Hikaru could see them from over ten metres away. He observed this with incredulity, and maybe a little guilt. Had he freaked the guy out that badly?
Cautiously, Hikaru made his way into plain view and entered through the torii. As the priest was maintaining a keen eye for his surroundings, he noticed at once, standing up straight with fright. He actually shrieked a little, and scrambled backwards as Hikaru approached, rummaging in his clothing.
Holy shit, he really had spooked this poor bastard. "Hey," Hikaru attempted, approaching more quickly. He didn't want the guy to just run and hide again. "I don't know exactly what you're thinking, but you're probably wrong."
The following moment saw a crucifix being brandished in front of him. Hikaru stared at it, no longer even all that shocked, and looked at the trembling priest. "Stay back, foul spirit!" The kannushi cried, pale and wide-eyed.
"Okay, this is just dumb." Hikaru said. "I am not a spirit. I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed."
"I will not listen to your lies!" The man declared, and ran for it.
Hikaru stared dumbly for just a second too long. By the time he started pursuing, the guy was already well on his way to the shrine, and slammed the door in his face just as he caught up. "Dammit." Hikaru muttered, and then raised his voice. "Man, you're being a total wuss!" He called. "Even if I was a spirit, this would be a totally crap way of dealing with it! You're just hiding!"
There was a pause. Hikaru heard rustling behind the door.
"I never knew Shinto priests were so cowardly!" He said loudly.
The rustling came again, more rapidly. "If I knew an onmyouji powerful enough, demon, I would have had you exorcised already!" The kannushi shouted angrily, voice muffled through the door.
Hikaru stopped at that response, perplexed. "What, do you think I'm a major evil spirit, or something?" He asked, half worried and half amused. "Some sort of unholy demonic terror?"
There was no response for around ten seconds. Then: "The ofuda did nothing! Ofuda, with Inari-sama's holy protection upon them! Even the crucifix was worthless!"
"And that means I'm some sort of arch-demon, then?" He questioned.
"Yes!" The priest said, emphatically.
"One too powerful for any of the exorcists or monks you know?"
"Yes!" He repeated. Then: "I will not bring good men here for you to slaughter!"
Hikaru exhaled, slowly, and shook his head. He could hardly believe that this shit was happening. "If I'm such a powerful demon, then why am I just standing here instead of breaking through the door?" He asked, quite reasonably.
Another pause. When the kannushi replied, he wasn't shouting anymore, but spoke firmly enough that he was clearly audible. "This is the heart of the shrine," he said. "One of Inari-sama's many hearts. Even evil such as you cannot penetrate into such a holy place."
He stared. That was why the guy had run and hid in the shrine? "Oh, that is so stupid." He insulted. "I'm not repelled by the shrine, or some dumb crap like that! I just haven't tried to get in because it's illegal!"
The pause this time was quite long. It stretched for about twenty seconds, and Hikaru was starting to get impatient when the voice came again, venturing "illegal?"
"Yes." Hikaru said, now very exasperated. "It's not a public building and trespassing is illegal. I know what I look like, but I'm not a delinquent." Much. Anymore. He added internally.
There was another long silence. "That is exactly something a demon would say." The kannushi said, but he sounded less certain.
"What do you want me to do to prove I'm not some evil spirit?" Hikaru demanded. "I have a mum. I have a dad, even if I hardly ever see him. I have friends and I even have a job. I live in a house and sleep in a bed just like any other fifteen-year-old guy. I am very definitely human."
"The tricks of demons are legendary." Said the kannushi, pensively. Hikaru was preparing to shout at him again when he said "I will unlock the door, and you will open it. If you can enter the shrine, then either you are not a demon, or you are powerful enough that the shrine cannot stop you and you are only playing with me. If you are repelled, I will know you for what you are."
"Thank you," Hikaru said, feeling rather incensed by the whole ordeal. "And, you know, you won't have me arrested for trespassing when I get in?"
There was a click as a lock turned. "I will not, if indeed you are not a demon." The kannushi sounded almost amused now. "But to be clear: I am not inviting you in."
"What, you think I'm a vampire now?" Hikaru asked, mockingly, and reached out to open the door.
"I am not about to discount any possibilities." The priest's voice was more distant. As Hikaru opened the door and looked inside, he saw why: the man had retreated to the heart of the shrine, and was watching him warily.
Rolling his eyes, Hikaru stepped easily over the threshold. As the priest's eyes widened, he took three more steps for good measure. "There." He said. "Satisfied now?"
He was stared at for a while longer. "I prefer to believe that you are human," said the kannushi. "Because the alternative is that you are a demon powerful enough to violate Inari's sacred space, and frankly I do not even want to consider that."
"Good." Hikaru nodded, tension starting to ease off. "Now, can we leave and talk outside? I don't want to attract divine retribution or something for trespassing."
"Wise." Came the reply, now hesitantly amused. "You leave, first."
He rolled his eyes, but complied, turning to exit the holy structure. Once he was out on the grass, he turned and watched expectantly, and surely enough, the kannushi emerged. He did not look especially comfortable while he did it, but he did proceed out of the building with far more dignity than he had entered. Apparently there were rituals to be observed when opening and closing the door under ordinary circumstances, because the priest bowed to the door before finally walking out to join him.
"Working under the assumption that you are a human," The kannushi said. "I realise that my actions have been bizarre, irrational, and unnecessarily extreme. For that, I apologise. However, if you had been a demon, I would have been perfectly justified in my responses." Sorry but not sorry, he seemed to say.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Hikaru said, shuffling in place. Finally he could get to the point.
"Perhaps we should start again." He suggested. "I am Utagawashi Kichirou, kannushi for this shrine to Inari-sama."
"Shindou Hikaru." He introduced himself, taking a deep breath. "Now that that's over with…why in hell did you think I was a demon?!"
Chapter notes: Cheers to everyone who has shown up and provided attention since last update. Chapter 20 isn't out yet, but I've made some solid progress on it. All other 19 chapters remain available on my other writing locations.
Some relatively significant edits were made for this version versus tumblr version, mainly correcting things in canon I'd overlooked, like Hikaru's grandma not being dead, and Hikaru and Touya attending Serizawa study sessions on Mondays. Also people of Hikaru's grade apparently have their matches on Wednesdays according to canon, so I moved it there, and changed the game to a loss. There were also the standard small stylistic edits.
Character/language notes: The OC introduced here is Utagawashi Kichirou , 疑吉郎 , Suspicion, fortunate, son. 'Utagawashi' is a potential reading of that first kanji, but in all likelihood you would probably need が (ga), わ (wa), し(shi), and い (i) for it to be actually read 'Utagawashi'. Abbreviated to that one kanji for the purposes of it looking like a name.
Utagawashi seems to be well-received by my past readers, so hopefully he'll go over well enough here too.