As everyone were enjoying sights of ōnosai, Hiroshi couldn't help but feel anxious on having to deal with Fuku's wrath, which some of them couldn't help but notice, most notable being the tamers and museum folk, meanwhile Mittens and fosters were too occupied taking in the sights.

  Before the trip got too long, they finally came to a stop by a foot of the staircase to the Miyajima's temple, with looming Torii gate at the top.

  As they started to carry and drag the bags up the stairs, Nata lightly complaining, to which Clara was more than happy to help, as Hiroshi quickly realized something as he gave light checks on the group.

  "Uhh, Clara, Julia. Quick side-note." Which took both by surprise, but were willing to hear him out. "Torii gate is meant to represent entering a holy place, so there might be some... trouble, seeing you are undead."

  "I did some research beforehand, it seems to mostly influence if one's spirit is deemed worthy by the priest or priestess of the shrine." Clara clarified, which eased Hiroshi as if she knew what she was doing and didn't see a problem, most likely he wouldn't need to worry about Julia didn't either.

  Shortly, they got up to the gate, and as rest of the group calmly walked by, Clara gave a light bow before the gate and entered, while Julia didn't care and walked onwards.

  With a thunderous boom, the whole group got surprised, as their attention moved to Julia, who was laying on the ground extra crispy.

  "Oh... we still need to greet when coming in as undead." Clara quickly noted, having forgotten that small detail, making Julia groan in annoyance and pain.

  "Well, at least you can heal from it in no time." Hiroshi eased her mind, as when she got back up, and with greeting given this time, she entered without problems.

  As they thought trouble was over, another thunderous boom was heard, and checking who it was this time, they saw Hiroshi having gotten the same treatment, making Nata and Olivia panic, rushing to his side.

  "I guess they haven't forgiven me still, either." He muttered, as to the fosters' relieve, he didn't have any major injuries, as Mittens couldn't help but snap couple pictures.

  When he got back onto his feet, the group could note a distant shout of "YASUDAAA!" before getting surprised for the third time, as a short fox-girl came running through, dressed in shrine outfit, and dropkicking Hiroshi, sending him tumbling down the stairs, making Nata run fast downstairs, as Olivia glided down in hopes to catch up to the two, as rest were left to wonder who was this fox-girl who dared to cause trouble, as by appearances she was too young to be Fuku.

  "Ah, so you must be Mai." Sophia calmly noted, as she turned to look at the group, with a firm stance. "The one and only, Mai Miyajima, the shrine apprentice."

  "I am really sorry." Cried out Mai, who only got hit again on her head by a closed hand-fan, as Fuku was tired of her excuses. "They heard that already ten times. Better learn from it than keep saying the same thing." She muttered in frustation, as her focused returned to the group.

  Having taken steps inside the temple and now sitting by tables, set up for their visit, and by the corner on couple tatami mats, as Olivia and Nata were taking care of his injuries. Fuku calmly took her pipe out, crushing some herbs into the pit and getting some help from Sophia to set it on, as her eight tails slowly wagged behind her. And by appearance, it was pretty easy to tell she and Mai were family with Aki, with similar black hair with blue shine.

  "But I do still personally apologize for the trouble. We may not be happy to take in Hiroshi, but that doesn't mean we want to trouble him and his friends." Fuku said, to ease their minds. "Now that hopefully can be put in our pasts, let me properly greet you to ōnosai's temple grounds. I am Head priestess Fuku Miyajima, but seeing all of you are Sophia's friends, feel free to just call me Fuku."

  "It is nice to finally to meet you." Edith spoke up. "And we are glad you were willing to let us stay. We promise to try to keep things calm. It is our vacation after all."

  Fuku couldn't help but laugh at her response. "Calm? You sure picked the worst people out on it. Hiroshi is a troublemaker himself, not to mention Sophia herself is a notorious one as well."

  ""Oh, do tell me." Kat spoke up, clearly happy to hear more from Sophia, as she herself got flustered from the notation "Woah, no need to dig into my teens."

  "Oh, I quiver..." Kat muttered, with a smug grin on her face, as Edith couldn't help but chuckle at their display. "Sure would love to know more about you as well, I must admit."

  "Found pretty good friends, lil Sophie." Fuku muttered in humor, only making her fluster more. "But to put simply, about hundred years ago, when I recently became new headpriest, our little vampire was causing havoc in the town after rebelling against her parents. And of course as the spiritualist in the area, I was asked to deal with this little pest."

  "It was just a phase." Sophia muttered under her breath, as Fuku kept on going "If you have seen emo, Sophie back then was perfect image for that. I did try speaking it over, but she could barely listen, so after some lecturing with combat over spells, our little bonfire here got snuffed enough to calm down, but did end up needing care taken of for couple weeks."

  As Edith was happy to hear such characteristic story, Kat was chuckling behind her wing, which Sophia gave a angry glare at. "So she forced me to do tasks around temple, like cleaning, making food and tending the graveyard."

  "Well, there had to point to learn." Edith said in hopes to ease her mind on the story, which barely helped, as with story over and Fuku was clearing old herbs and getting some new, Mittens has taken notepad out to write up anything interesting, and spoke up "But what about Hiroshi? He doesn't seem to be a troublemaker, but actually other way around."

  While none of the others wanted to admit it, but the curiosity was there, as Fuku took couple more puffs to contemplate the question. "Well, he isn't the stereotypical kind. But no matter how many times he may deny it, all of it was his fault."

  "Oh, no you won't spin that weave again." Hiroshi muttered in groan as he stood up, as Olivia and Nata were keeping close to make sure he didn't fall, as he clearly wasn't done recovering unlike Julia. "I treated Aki with all my kindness, it was factors out of our control that got us into it."

  "But they weren't out of control. You were the one to cause these events to come-" "BULLSHIT!" Hiroshi shouted, taking everyone by surprise, as his anger was clearly at it's boiling point so fast, "You do this every time. Everyone knows I tried protecting her. It was you, you excommunicated her, mistreated and left her to the streets!"

  "That is part of kitsune's spiritualist code!" Fuku started to get annoyed at his disrespect, as she gave a glare towards him. "I couldn't do more, but get it already through you thick skull that it was your fault for getting her into that situation in the first place, that made her kill herself!"

  The fact froze the entire room, as Hiroshi kept a stance of deviance against her, as his grip tightened into fists, hard enough to make his knuckles white, and clearly about to burst from anger, but also some emotions hidden under it. Before he could go on a outburst, he decided to ditch it. Even if in pain and agony from the unrecovered wounds, he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him, leaving Nata and Olivia behind as they were confused on revelation and how Hiroshi was acting.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  "Every time." Fuku muttered, as she took other inhale from her pipe. "Troublemaker, not wanting to admit it or not."

  "It was her... it was Isamu..." Hiroshi muttered, as he was walking fast through the temple grounds, walking past the gardens as his mind was swirling with thoughts and statements he would want to say or even admit, but everything was just lumping into a mess.

  before long, he got jolted by a pain on his knee, making him fall onto the sandy ground, making him groan in despair. He knew what he was coming back into, but it was still too much for him.

  As he got a moment to catch his breath, getting on his hands before slowly getting up back on his feet, his gaze went to the graveyard, the stone pillars marking each one, and he knew he needed to visit one at least.

  Limbing his way through the grounds, taking careful steps on the stone tiles laid to make paths, eventually he arrived at her grave... Aki Miyajima.

  He could note there being couple bunches of flowers by the grave, some even having weathered from the time of having been there.

  With agony, he slowly kneeled before it, as he put his hands together in a prayer.

  "I am sorry... It wasn't my fault... I know you wouldn't blame me even if it was... Aki..." he couldn't help but tear up. "Aki... please... please tell me it wasn't my fault." His prayer slowly crumbled into begging for forgiveness. "I know I did wrong unto you... so please tell me you have forgiven me."

  As group slowly calmed down from the quick hassle that came up. Mittens wasn't missing a beat on a interesting story. "Could you clarify on that?"

  "Well, it's little long, but if it is what you want, I am more than willing to explain." she made clear, as she checked on the rest.

  While Ingol, Klas and Clara weren't much involved, it would be good to know just in case, while tamer-girls and Julia were questioning it, while Nata and Olivia were clearly wanting to know.

  "How about we start when you 'excommunicated' her." Julia asked, to which Fuku thought, and as she could note the glare on the two, she gave a light nod. "Sure, after the leading events."

  Bloodied and crying, Aki carried Hiroshi's corpse to town's medic, who took the sight in shock.

  After couple hours of checkups and as police came to question what went down, he had survived the stabbing, and soon after, Aki left with the officers for proper questioning, and after exhausting day, she returned home.

  I was shocked to see her tearfully come and hug me, when I expected her to had gone out of town with Hiroshi for vacation, but the dirty clothes her spirit, it was clear what had happened.

  She was meant to be coming headpriestess, one taking after this temple when my time came, but it part of spiritual code, that was made to make sure our spiritual powers kept strong, she couldn't become a headpriest.

  But I took her in still, she is my daughter, and I couldn't deny I still loved her.

  However, things turned couple days later, when some mobsters appeared, seeming to seek audience with Aki and Hiroshi. To keep her safe, I just told them that she was out in store for time being, as I told them that Hiroshi was at the medic's place.

  I knew these people weren't the kind to play peacefully, so I had to excommunicate Aki, not only to distance myself from her, but also so she can leave the shrine and town, as otherwise she wouldn't have been allowed under the code.

  Next day, I was surprised to hear Hiroshi had disappeared, and of course the mobsters came asking about Aki again, but I was able to convince them that my temple isn't a place where they would find her... so coming stuff is just what I heard from Haruka.

  Turns out she found out about the yakuza before they came, so she was quick to help Hiroshi flee, but turns out they were more troublesome than any of us could expect, so after weeks of trying her best, she decided to risk it and send him overseas, meanwhile sadly, I got news too late.

  After a month after the incident happened, I got a hand-written letter, and I could tell it was Aki's handwriting.

  It read, "I am sorry. I heard news about Hiroshi's situation, and while I would like to take his steps, it is too late for me. I do not blame any of you, nor could I. Goddess of fate has struck upon us, and my time has come. May Hiroshi never know of my feelings, that I harbor unto him since the very first day we met, for I think it would break who he is as a friend, a man, and my dearest love. And to assure not only will he not find out, nor give up on being the man I love the most, I have decided to take the hard path. May fate had chosen better path, I could have avoided this outcome. Please stay healthy, and raise Mai to replace the hollowness within your heart upon reading this, your caring daughter, Aki."

  And for the coming week, I couldn't help but cry. And how you couldn't. Reading your own daughter be so confident, knowing what she is casting away. For a single man... it's sickening.

  Taking couple more puffs from the pipe, Fuku calmed herself down, while Mai was sulking on the sideline, having to hear the story again, as it was very much fresh in her memory, having to had watch from the sideline.

  Mittens happily finished up writing the story, while the mood in the room had turned sulking.

  "If only we knew how bad this actually was." Edith muttered, as Fuku gave a light huff. "It's fine. I am over it mostly, but it is clear Hiroshi hasn't processed her death yet."

  "And what makes you say that." Kat questioned to which she was fast on answer. "He ran to her grave... he always does that when I get at him... for those couple weeks he was back at least."

  As if on schedule, Hiroshi opened the door back up, as he came to rest and recover, as Nata and Olivia quickly returned him to care. "But, I am happy to see he is doing well. With you around, I think he could get over these troubles."

  "We will see what we can do." Sophia calmly said, as with the major talk over. "So, moving from the troubles of past, let's get you accommodated to your rooms."

  After half an hour of checking on rooms, and thinking on possible lay out, three rooms were made. one with all boys, other with tamers and Mittens, and lastly fosters, Julia and Clara.

  Bags set and some stuff emptied, Klas and Clara could take note on tour around the place, they saw an garden with plenty of herbs and plants being grown.

  Taking closer looks in interest, Hiroshi took notice of the curious duo looking at the plants, and seeing others were doing fine, decided to approach. "So, checking out the garden?"

  "Yeah, they look pretty." Klas noted, as they saw small sprouts coming out, with green spiky leaves and bunch of small red berries growing from middle branch. "I am checking database, and seems I am missing on this."

  "Well, those are Ginseng. You could consider they are similar to potatoes or ginger in the west." Hiroshi muttered, only to get bumped as Mai came rushing in happily ready to explain. "More specifically, magico Ginseng. thousands of years ago, they harbored strong spiritual energy that could heal any found if you ate it's roots. but today, we use leaves and berries in tea, or Fuku more likes to smoke them, and roots are for cooking, with hopes to grant any of our guests lucky for coming season."

  "That's nice to know." Clara noted, as she took a picture and started to take notes to the database. "Sounds fascinating. I hope Fuku wouldn't mind me trying at some point."

  "I doubt she would. We are slowly starting to stockpile, so it is good time to ask. Winter is when she gets cranky over the supply being limited." Mai said clearly, as she wandered off on her duties.

  Meanwhile the garden was kept in order, Julia with duo fosters were taking look at the shrine. While Nata and Olivia were happily exploring, Julia was giving death-glare at the Torii gate by the front.

  "Just bow and enter." Fuku lightly noted, as she appeared to her surprise, even if she didn't show it. "I rather not."

  "Oh, unfavored by gods?" She considered, but Julia calmly shook her head. "Not exactly. I rather not kneel to some petty rulings, just because what I am." She said, feeling confident on herself as Fuku gave a light laugh. "Ah, I see. We all have to bow our heads someday. You just might have to do it twice before you learn."

  "Says you." Muttered Julia as Fuku kept her walk past, as in the meantime, Hiroshi was going to prepare some food, while quad of leading tamers were doing some plans on what is to come later, while Ingolf and Mittens were left to wander around the place, while she happily got him spill the beans about the trade situation in slightly more detail than Edith admitted back in the day.

  "And why exactly do you want to know this?" Ingolf inquired, to which she happily stuck her tongue out, before explaining. "If I want to make articles about Hero of Elmspring, I have to get into nitty gritties. and so far, there is drama, action, and a love story. these are stories that sell." She said happily, as she pocketed her notepad. "Journalism is just novel writing, but for common people about current events."

  "Then better keep you head above water. Would hate you to confuse these real stories for fiction." Ingolf noted, to which Mittens just happily smiled and wandered off.

  As first day of the journey, about settling in came to a close... things would only get more troublesome from here.

  "Jeez, sure could use something else than soy beans" Hiroshi muttered, as he was looking through the cabinets, getting ready to cook up a meal.

  well... maybe tomorrow.