I think this time, it feels more fitting to put the quote the title came from, at the end.
Hitomi follows Rei Reiho up the mountain, as the shrine maiden and detective leads her up the mountain to make a pact with a goddess.
She is a little unsure about this. Her time in America has been good for her, to get space and think. She has missed magic, for all she went eighteen years of her life without having it, and didn't even have it for a year. It's not something that's easy to lose once you have it. She might owe her uncle Azuma an apology for her disbelief when she was younger.
Rei says that magic is something that grows with you, and some people have more aptitude for magic than others. Although Natural magic casters are not as abundant as they were in the past.
Rei says that it has a lot to do with Japan as a whole moving away from the world of magic and tradition and into the world of technology. And with that separation, less children with a demon parent.
Hitomi had expressed surprise at that, while Rei had laughed and wryly told her that there were good reasons contract negotiation was so important in Devil-Human partnerships.
"Though, make sure your devil partner does not view you as some kind of snack first before you go for it."
Hitomi will be sure to keep that in mind for negotiations in the future, if she does take the offer up on getting a COMP. She does want to know what is out there, now that she knows. She wants to be able to face it on a more even ground. It's why she's doing this ritual, and getting magic again. America had not been free of supernatural encounters, and the archeologists had a summoner among them to handle that.
When Hitomi gets to the top of the mountain, she is feeling more certain of her decision. Of who she wants to make a pact with. This time it's going to be a partnership. The flow of the dragon stream emboldens her, as she makes her choice, uncertainty turning to conviction.
Instead of any of the other goddesses that Rei Reiho suggested, Hitomi brings out an outfit in offering, and calls upon Her partner to form a pact.
"Nemissa!"
A star falls from the sky and into your hands. Then it seeps through your veins and swims inside your blood and becomes every part of you. And then you have to put it back into the sky. And it's the most painful thing you'll ever have to do and that you've ever done. But what's yours is yours. Whether it's up in the sky or here in your hands. And one day, it'll fall from the sky and hit you in the head real hard and that time, you won't have to put it back in the sky again.
C. JoyBell C.