On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Fifty-Five

After returning from the Boundary I opened my phone to discover a ton of missed calls and messages from Kana-chan. I wonder… does it have something to do with the oracle? If so, that was fast…

The first messages were cutesy, full of emoticons, asking if I was there and if I could call her ASAP. They got progressively shriller as I hadn’t answered, and towards the end I could detect rather a lot of annoyance in the words. She should have just assumed we were sleeping.

Shaeula was tapping away on her phone, no doubt responding, as she had also received a wall of texts and calls overnight. I think I’ll just let her do it.

Several seconds after Shaeula had responded I nearly dropped my phone as it started ringing. Sure enough, it was Kana-chan. Wow, she’s keen. Did she even sleep last night?

With a sigh I accepted the call. “Hey Kana-chan, what’s up?”

“About time you picked up. I’ve been trying to call you all night.” She was trying to keep her voice sweet, but wasn’t doing that good a job. If I didn’t know better I’d say she’s pretty mad…

“Is there any guy who wouldn’t want to take a call from a beauty like me late at night? Don’t go playing hard to get big bro.” she continued.

“Sorry about that. We didn’t have access to our phones last night, that’s all. We weren’t ignoring you Kana-chan, I promise.”

“I see.” She answered after a moment. “That or the two of you were too busy to pick up the phone, eh?”

Despite myself I blushed, bringing a snigger from Shaeula. “It was nothing like that, I assure you. Anyway, what can I do for you? It’s still pretty early.”

“Oh well, about what we were discussing yesterday, about coming to the shrine to meet my grandfather… things have got a bit more urgent, so I was really hoping you could come and see us today, big bro? He really wants to talk to you about something that happened last night…”

“I guess that’ll be about the oracle, right?” I replied, bringing a long silence from the other end. Eventually Kana-chan spoke, her tone strained.

“Uh, how do you know about that big bro? Did you not answer my calls because you were spying on me… that’s… kind of creepy you know, girls don’t go for that sort of thing, trust me.”

Man, she sounds pretty creeped out. I guess that is a logical inference, if totally something I wouldn’t do…

“Of course I wouldn’t do that.” I explained myself quickly, her disgust hurting me. “I’ve only just met you… although that doesn’t mean I’d stalk you if I knew you better… hell, what am I even saying…?” flustered, I ignored the little laugh from Kana-chan and a louder one from Shaeula, who was watching me with some amusement. “No, seriously, I know because I met your shrine’s kami last night. We came to an arrangement so he said he would send an oracle to your shrine to support us.”

“I think I find it easier to imagine you were stalking me.” Kana-chan said doubtfully. “You can’t just meet a god. Even in our shrines records, which go back over a thousand years, they only appear very briefly to pass on oracles or warnings. It isn’t like you can have a chat over tea and cake.”

“Well, I can certainly explain all this, but it’s pretty unbelievable.” I admitted. “Still, a smart girl like you who knows about powers that most would imagine to be mere stories should be able to understand.”

There was another long pause before she answered again. “Flattery won’t get you any points with me big bro. I think you should come to the shrine as soon as you can. My grandfather wants to speak with you. Bring some cake though. You owe me that for not answering my calls. Girls hate that you know.”

Demanding a bribe huh? Well I did get bored of waiting for her response and decide to go to the Boundary. Still, it all worked out…

“Sure, I’ll do that. So we come to the main shrine building, right…”

*********

“I’m feeling vaguely intimidated…” I admitted to Shaeula, who was standing beside me, back in her yukata. As my hand clenched nervously around the box handle of the very expensive cake I had got by taking a several-stop detour on the metro, I looked at the four shrine maidens who were bowing to us.

“Welcome, honoured guests.” They chorused, looking at us curiously.

“Damn, if I’d have known there were so many I’d have brought more cake…” I muttered.

“Hey, you have cake?” one of the shrine maidens perked up, her hair, braided into a pair of pigtails bouncing excitedly, making her look quite young. Maybe middle-school age? “Cool, can I have some?”

The Shrine Maiden next to her hissed at her to be dignified, but I guess she wasn’t the sort as she bounded up and looked at the box. “Wow, that’s a cake from that great patisserie by the station. That stuff’s super pricy but really good. I’ve got to have some.”

Hell, she’s even drooling. She reminds me of my sister a little… well, her energy, anyway… “I don’t mind, but how many people are here? I don’t think I’ve got enough.”

“Well, there’s us fourteen shrine maidens, the honoured priest and his family, the other priests… uh, about twenty. No way that cake will be large enough…” her face fell.

“Keomi-chan, calm down.” The other shrine maiden whispered again. “We need to escort him in, or the honoured priest will be angry.”

“Oh yeah…” the girl, Keomi-chan? said sadly. “But I really wanted to try some of the cake…”

This is starting to get embarrassing. I feel a little sorry for her… opening up my wallet I took out a couple of ten-thousand yen notes. Offering them to her I smiled as gently as I could. “If you know where the store is you could always go and buy some more for me. I’d appreciate it.”

Her eyes lit up as she snatched the notes from my hand, braids dancing. “Sure, I’ll do that. Wow, you’re really generous. I’ll be back soon.” As she hurried away I smiled, although the other three shrine maidens were looking rather put out.

“Are you sure it is safe for her to be out alone? Remember Ichika and her troubles-troubles?” Shaeula interjected, and I had to agree. Taking out a thousand yen I held it out. “I don’t suppose one of you can go with her, to make sure she’s safe? This is for the train fares.” Two girls would likely be safer than one, and people probably wouldn’t pick on those dressed as shrine maidens…

“I’ll go.” One piped up and took the money, racing after Keomi-chan. I turned back to the remaining two girls, whose faces were red with embarrassment, and managed to regain my poise. “Sorry for the commotion. I am here to see Kana-chan’s grandfather, the priest of this shrine.”

“We will escort you both.” One of the girls said. Looking at them a bit closer they seemed to resemble each other, so perhaps they were sisters? And pretty attractive ones at that. Are they high schoolers as well? Kana-chan was right when she said about cute shrine maidens. Not that I’m interested of course.

“Please do.” With that, Shaeula and I followed them into the main building. It looked as though they had been doing repairs recently, as the building smelled of fresh paint and there were signs of activity everywhere. It still looks pretty shabby though. The girls took us to a curtained-off area, and within there were a half dozen men, most of whom were in priestly garb, as well as another ten shrine maidens, including a very tired looking Kana-chan. Okay, she does look very pretty in that outfit. She wasn’t wrong about that either.

Sitting at the head of the group, beside an old-looking serpentine statue, was a stern-faced older man in priest attire. When he saw us he moved to speak, only to suddenly frown, expression grave. I’m guessing this is Kana-chan’s grandfather? He does look rather… imposing…

“Where are the other shrine maidens?” he asked, and behind me the two sisters flinched. This one is pretty much my fault so I’ll throw them a lifeline.

“Sorry about that.” I said apologetically. “I hope I didn’t overstep my bounds but I sent them on a quick errand. They’ll be back shortly.”

“Hmm, well, I suppose it can be allowed, circumstances being what they are.” The priest replied, though his attitude was frosty. “In any case, I expect you know why you are here, do you not?”

Wow, this isn’t going quite as smoothly as I would have liked. Still, the potential rewards are huge, and the White Snake has given me his support so I can win them over. I can do this!

“I do indeed. However there seems rather a lot of people here. Who are they, if I may ask? I have information of a very sensitive nature to share, and at this stage the fewer who know of it, the better.”

“They are all priests of local shrines who we have a good relationship with. They are as trustworthy as us and all have histories that go back many centuries or more. Should my granddaughter be speaking the truth this matter concerns them as well.” Behind him Kana-chan was looking at me compassionately, shrugging her shoulders in shared sympathy, which caused her to… bounce… rather distractingly. I then held in a wince as Shaeula stamped on my foot.

“Pay attention, Akio.” She whispered. “If we can gain support from all these here, and they too have enshrined kami, then if we make allegiance with them too our position will be secure-secure!”

“All right them, I’ll cut to the chase.” I conceded. “Your granddaughter has a talent to see ’abnormalities’, I believe she called it. She ran into us by chance, and this led to us discovering both sides have access to what she called ‘spiritual’ abilities, although again I would use a different term. This alone was enough to make us valuable, as currently a big stir is happening within the community of shrines and temples in Japan, which are more intertwined with far longer and richer histories than I was aware of. Am I right up to now?”

“Substantially.” Kana-chan’s grandfather conceded. “Our kami sent a rare oracle to us last night which advised us to ‘call them’ which could only mean to speak to you, as that was the matter we were discussing at the time. And when you finally answered this morning… my granddaughter says you already knew about the oracle.”

“All right then, time to lay my cards on the table.” I said. No risk, no reward. “The reason that I knew about it was because Shaeula and I had met with the White Snake this shrine venerates and concluded an alliance with him, providing him with the aether he required to send the oracle.”

“Preposterous!” a thin priest countered, spittle flying from his mouth as he exclaimed in rage. “I can believe you may have great spiritual powers, ours is not the only shrine to have such storied figures in our history, yet to meet a god… your words are clearly false!”

I was about to respond when Shaeula stepped forwards, eyes blazing. “How dare you malign my master? Foolish little humans who have barely scratched the surface of mystery, you would speak of falsehoods-falsehoods?” wind energy supported by aether flared around her, dyeing the air around her a rich jade, whipping the clothes of the priests and maidens around us into movement, as if a strong wind was blowing within.

Wow, I know we didn’t spend as long training last night as normal, what with the discussions with the White Snake and other matters, but even so to be able to affect the world around her on the Material to such a degree… maybe she’s had the breakthrough she was searching for…?

Your Class, Fae-Bonded, has increased from level 8 to level 9.

Silver words blinked across my vision as Shaeula raged. Most of the shrine maidens had scuttled to the far corners of the room, quailing beneath her fury, and even the priests looked shaken, all except Kana-chan’s Grandfather, who was watching with a calm gaze.

“You… you are not human, are you?” he asked, filling the room with a sudden silence, only the sound of the wind blowing breaking the tension...