"Are you sure you want to do this?" a man asked me and I nodded my head. "To turn your back on your responsibilities here..."

"Someone will cover for me while I'm gone," I said. "You and I both know my powers won't stay slumbering forever."

"Will a human body be able to hold your powers at all?" I thought about it for a moment.

"Not at first, but eventually the body will regulate itself." I turned to my friend and smiled sadly at him. "I have to do this. You've been away from your shrine for four years already. I'd hoped you'd understand my request."


I woke up at stared at the shrine's ceiling blinking away the sleep. What was that dream? Beside me, Nanami stretched her arms into the air.

"Today, we're leaving the shrine," she sighed and I just watched her.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" I asked her sitting up in my futton.

"We already talked about this, didn't we?" she asked getting up to change.

"But still..."


"You have the mark of the great Omikami!"


"Nanami-sama! Sora-sama!" the spirits cried as they ran through the shrine to stop us from leaving.

"Are you really leaving?"

"Please do think it over!"

"Thank you for letting us stay," Nanami said as we bowed to the two.

"Oh no!"

"You've already packed!" Yesterday, Nanami somehow ended up becoming a kamisama and I learned I had the mark a kamisama, but we're only high school students. We decided to leave the shrine to try and find a new place to stay. Besides, we shouldn't stay where all the members of the household didn't want us, and Tomoe definitely didn't want us there.

"We are the spirits of this shrine!"

"We cannot afford to lose our Tochigami-sama. We must have Tomoe-dono become a Shinshi again," they cried.

"Uh, about Tomoe..." Nanami started saying. "Where is Tomoe now? We'd like to say goodbye to him too."

"Then I shall go look for Tomoe-dono!" Kotetsu said running away from us.

"Wait!" I called after him. "We wanted to apologize to him. We can't make him come to us."

"So, we'll go see him," Nanami decided.

"We do not mind, but Tomoe-dono is probably no longer in this world," they told us. "You need to go to the other side."

"The other side?" We asked as they started to lead us to where we needed to go. "Behind the grass and inside the well; the darkness of all kinds is the entrance to it. The world of the Mononoke, which lies between the world of the living and the dead. Humans who look into the darkness will be transported there. To another world right next to ours."

"So this is it?" Nanami asked as we entered what looked like a traditional Japanese village. Is this really where Tomoe is?


"Tomoe-dono! Is Tomoe-dono here?!" The spirits called out as they led us through what could only be a brothel type of place.

"Keep your voices down, you two," I heard Tomoe order. "What do you want?"

"Tomoe-dono!" They gasped in shock.

"How deplorable! You're a Shinshi and you're in a house of ill repute, in broad daylight!" Kotetsu cried.

"If Mikage-sama finds out, he will grieve so!" Onikiri cried.

"Well, Mikage's not around anymore," Tomoe reminded them. "I can drink sake. I can kill. I can do what I want."

"Tomoe-dono, please change right away!" Kotetsu told him before turning to the two women in the room. "And you two leave now."

"How dare you?!" They cried out startled before stomping on him. "You're just an Onibiwarashi! You two leave instead!"

"Exactly," Tomoe agreed with them.

"Please return to the shrine, Tomoe-dono! And become Nanami-sama's Shinshi!" Kotetsu begged him.

"Do you want to see the shrine ruined?" Onikiri asked him.

"I don't care." I felt Nanami stiffen next to me and I held her hand. "It's none of my business. I'm glad I quit being a Shinshi. It was a pain. Now I'm going to spend lazy days doing whatever I want."

"Tomoe-dono... Nanami-sama and Sora-sama... wanted to see Tomoe-dono... so they came with us." Tomoe's eyes slammed open as he stared up at us in shock. "Nanami-sama, a word please."

"I... I have nothing to say," Nanami said darkly.

"Why'd you bring them here?!" Tomoe shouted at the spirits.

"Nanami-sama and Sora-sama insisted on it," Onikiri told him rubbing the back of his (her?) head.

"How could you bring a human here?! Take her back right away," Tomoe ordered them.

"Nanami-sama and Sora-sama aren't ordinary humans," they reminded him. "They're the Tochigami-sama."

"That's even worse!"

"If you'll excuse us," I said interrupting them. "We have a bus to catch."

"Nanami-sama! Sora-sama!"


That stupid fox! How could he say that about his home?

"Hey. Hey, girl..." I turned to see a hand reaching for Nanami who had dropped to the ground and was holding her knees to her chest. "Come in..." The hand grasped her wrist and I quickly went back to pull her back. I heard something whack on flesh before falling on my butt and looking up to see Tomoe holding a fan to his chin.

"You two are just food for the guys here," he told us. "Go back where humans belong. Get up." He reached a hand out to us. "I'll take you h-" I slapped him and he stared at me in shock.

"You idiot!" I shouted at him. "You're the one who should be going back to your home! Can you really abandon it so easily?! After all the memories you've made in that place?! It's your home!"

"Wha...?" he asked confused. "What the...? You can't even protect yourself. So don't you lecture me!"

"You're the one who's been acting superior since we met you!"

"If I leave you two here, a Mononoke will eat you! So lecture me while you still can!"

"Why will they eat us?!" Nanami asked him.

"Two girls with Tochigami powers residing within them. You're like a sitting duck, in a pot... with some leeks!" He told us. "But it's none of my business!"

"Nothing will happen to us if you leave us alone!" Nanami shouted before turning her back on him. "May we go now?"

"Take them away!" Tomoe ordered Onikiri and Kotatsu. "I won't help even if they come crying to me."

"Let's leave," Nanami ordered.

"We have to catch the bus!"


"Nanami-sama! Sora-sama! Please wait!" I couldn't believe they followed us from the shrine down to the bus stop. "You must not leave!"

"Looks like we missed the bus," Nanami sighed as the spirits sobbed next to us.

"You must somehow have Tomoe-dono become your Shinshi," They told Nanami.

"It's a three-hour wait until the next bus," I sighed falling to my butt again with a sigh.

"If Tomoe-dono agrees to a Shinshi contract Tomoe-dono will be completely loyal to Nanami-sama." What kind of life is that? I wondered.

"Really?" Nanami asked them.

"Yes. That is one of the Tochigami's abilities." Okay, that could be tempting.

"So, how do I make him my Shinshi?" Nanami asked.

It is easy," Onikiri told her. "Nanami-sama only needs to kiss Tomoe-dono. Then Tomoe-dono will become Nanami-sama's faithful servant! You can make him do anything!" While they were telling Nanami all this, Nanami grabbed my hand and drug me behind a tree to hide from them. Nanami's other hand on her chest and she had a panicked look on her face. I wanted to laugh at her, but I couldn't do it with the spirits still looking for us.

"Hello, miss. Excuse me." Nanami and I turned to see an old woman laying on her side. "But will you lend me a hand? I sprained my ankle on a step..." Nanami didn't think twice about it before picking her up and taking her home with me carrying her stuff.


"Thank you for helping me miss," the woman said once we'd gotten to her home. "Thank you for bringing me home."

"Well... I don't have anything else to do."

"You two must have had a hard time carrying me and my things on your back," she said worriedly.

"No, no, I work out!" I gave Nanami a look. What a liar! "I should go now."

"Ah, come, come. Wait," she told us as we rose to our feet. "It's already dark outside. I can't have two young girls walking a dark countryside road alone. Stay the night, if you don't mind this shabby house."

"All right?" Nanami said questioningly. She showed us to a room and we took off our jackets. This wasn't normal and something about this felt off.

"Miss." I turned to look at her kneeling at the door. "If you like, please change into these clothes." She supplied two white kimonos for us to sleep in.

"Wow. Thank you."

"You're so beautiful." The woman put her hand on Nanami's face and moved her bangs which made me tense up. Why did I do that? She's been nothing but nice to us. "Where did you get that mark on your forehead?" I stared up at her in slight shock. She could see the mark Mikage gave her? "Well I shouldn't disturb you anymore. Have a good night's sleep, miss."


I couldn't sleep that night. Something about that woman kept bugging me, but what was it? That was, of course, I heard someone walking down the halls. I tensed up, ready to run with Nanami when our door opened. I did my best to slowly grab Nanami's hand.

"Nanami-sma... Sora-sama... Onikiri is here." I sighed loudly at Onikiri.

"Onikiri! Why're you here?" Nanami shouted at him.

"I followed Nanami-sama and Sora-sama's scent and found you. I did not think you would have wandered into a place like this..."

"A place like this?" I asked worriedly. I knew something was off.

"Hey... are you alright?" Nanami asked.

"Yes. I'm short of breath because I ran over two mountains..." Onikiri told us. "Nanami-sama... Sora-sama... we must leave right away!"

"Huh?" Nanami asked confused.

"You two must not stay here. An Onibaba lives here!"