Tokyo Gods Only Want Beautiful Priestesses

Chapter 7 So arrogant?

"This lady?"

Seeing that Mrs. Nishikata was about to burst into tears, Jingu thoughtfully handed her a tissue.

"Waaah, if you want to eat, then eat. Don't tease me like this anymore." She kept crying while wiping her face. Even though she was already such a grown-up, the tears kept flowing.

What to eat? You? Influenced by Suga Ai, Jingu subconsciously had a dirty mind, his eyes lingering on the other person's curvaceous figure.

Married women have such charm!

Pshaw! What am I thinking?

“I think you’ve misunderstood, madam. I’m not a monster.” Jingu handed over a few more tissues.

“I am the new owner of this shrine, a genuine god, not a monster.”

Jingu casually handed her another card. Of course, he didn't have any identification. Suga said she would help him get these things, but he was just using a leaf to imitate Tamamo-no-Mae's identification from last night, which he conjured up on a whim.

But it's enough to fool these ordinary people.

Sure enough, although she still had some doubts about the authenticity of the item, Mrs. Nishikata was noticeably more at ease.

But ultimately, issuing certificates to monsters and gods would definitely seem absurd to ordinary people.

Those who would immediately believe that the person with these documents is absolutely clueless.

"Are you really a god?" Mrs. Nishikata was still very skeptical. The beautiful young man in front of her looked too much like a normal person, except that he was indeed like a god in terms of his good looks.

"Stop talking nonsense, what exactly is your problem? I promise to solve it, pay after I solve it, okay?"

The shrine didn't want to spend time proving its identity; showing it to an ordinary person was pointless, like performing a magic trick.

"Then...would you go, Your Majesty?"

Generally speaking, these kinds of things are done by the priests or shrine maidens of the shrine, with the gods doing it themselves? It's really a bit strange, but after all, there are many kinds of gods. Perhaps the handsome young man in front of me is just a weak earthbound god or something?

No wonder the shrine doesn't even have a shrine maiden; such a deity doesn't seem much different from a yokai.

Thinking that nothing could go wrong, Mrs. Nishikata led Jingu home, recounting the whole story from beginning to end.

"Oh, so it's just a normal situation where you get entangled."

Jingu was somewhat disappointed, thinking there would be some bizarre and convoluted developments. It seemed that the simpler the problem, the less rewarding it was.

If I could defeat a powerful monster or some evil organization that has been entrenched in Tokyo for years, I would surely become famous overnight.

But Mrs. Nishikata's experience was so ordinary that there was no room for manipulation or behind-the-scenes manipulation.

"But this is the second time. We already had a priest perform an exorcism after being possessed before, and it returned to normal, but..."

The shrine maiden knew exactly what was going on. It was simply that the monster that had been haunting her family wasn't some vicious demon. After all, it had only looked a little haggard after all these days.

Because of the so-called consensus, the last exorcism was probably just a formality, and it just came back after half a year.

"We've arrived, please come in."

Mrs. Nishikata's house was right next to the shrine; it was a fairly nice apartment. Pushing open the door, the interior was pitch black, deathly dark.

silence.

"Aiko? Aiko, are you up yet?" Mrs. Nishikata changed her shoes, intending to find a pair for Jingu as well, but Jingu went straight into the house.

The furnishings inside were rather ordinary, the only unusual thing being the black and white photograph on the table. It must be Mrs. Nishikata's husband, a widow and her daughter? No wonder she was crying so bitterly just now.

The whole room was filled with a faint foul smell and a stench. Following the stench, Jingu opened the bathroom door and saw a dark shadow crawling on the bathroom floor.

"Slurp, slurp~"

The strange thing stuck out its disgusting long tongue and licked back and forth on the bathroom floor, leaving greenish stains.

"Ah!" Mrs. Nishikata screamed the moment she saw the dark figure, hiding behind the shrine, hoping that the boy really had something to rely on.

Startled by the screams, the monster reacted quickly, letting out a hiss and writhing on the ground like a fish. Its bloated body managed to squeeze into the sewer opening, trying to escape through the pipes.

But countless tiny, transparent water ropes tightly bound it, contracting and pulling it out.

The shrine turned on the lights, revealing the monster's full form: it resembled a human but was unable to stand on one leg, its bloated body looking like a rotting fish.

"Don't panic, it's just a filthy creature, it shouldn't hurt anyone." Jingu reassured Mrs. Nishikata. Was this the evil spirit in the house?

That shouldn't be the case. This thing not only doesn't hurt people, but it also lacks any rationality. Like an animal, it only relies on instinct to lick human bathrooms.

So it didn't matter if it was killed. With a thought, Jingu enveloped the filth in a continuous stream of water, then completely shredded it in the water ball like a washing machine, even cleaning up the sewage for Mrs. Nishikata.

"Is that all?"

Seeing that Jingu had easily eliminated the monster without even lifting a finger, Mrs. Nishikata's confidence increased, and she was no longer as afraid as before.

"No, this thing shouldn't be a monster that's been haunting you; it's just an accident."

Jingu shook his head, pulled Mrs. Nishikata out of the bathroom and into the living room, where a petite figure suddenly appeared on the sofa.

"Aiko? When did you get up?" Mrs. Nishikata looked at the little girl on the sofa with a puzzled expression. She sat on the sofa with a blank look on her face, her hair hanging down and covering her face.

The lights in the room suddenly went out. In that instant of darkness, Mrs. Nishikata and Jingu clearly saw a figure appear behind the little girl, seemingly about to attack her.

"My beloved daughter!" Overwhelmed with love for her daughter, Mrs. Nishikata rushed towards the sofa, disregarding the eerie atmosphere, while Jingu watched all this indifferently.

The lights came on again, but they were dim. The Nishikata mother and daughter slumped against the sofa and fainted.

"Come out now, since you've already knocked them both unconscious." Jingu sat down.

"You guys are really unprofessional this time. Didn't you even know to ask someone to leave?"

The black shadows emerge from the black and white photograph, forming the outline of a person, which looks somewhat like the man in the photo.

"Hello, unknown Onmyoji. I am Nishikata Kōta, the master of this house," the humanoid figure said.

“No, you are not.” Jingu shook his head.

"You've got some skill in lying. You're covered in filth, and you're trying to pretend to be a bound spirit?"

"They've seen through me again. I didn't expect someone who looks so young to be just as cunning as those old foxes."

A dark figure lurked in the shadows, while Jingu stood under the lamplight, with the unconscious Nishikata mother and daughter in the middle.

"Now let's talk about this gentleman."

Chapter 8 Replacing Life

"Oh dear, I even carefully prepared a persona of a devoted man who is attached to his family and unwilling to leave."

The figure in black reluctantly handed over his identification to prove his stance to the shrine.

"Boring. So what if it is? Do you want to keep bothering this mother and daughter forever?"

Jingu looked at it and realized that the shadowy figure was a "Shadow Demon," a kind of demon that liked to take over the lives of others, also known as a "doppelganger." It was full of malice towards humans, but it could prove that it would not harm human lives.

Is it because those who are replaced are all already dead?

"Isn't this a good thing, sir?" the Shadow Ghost said eloquently.

"If a wife loses her husband and a daughter loses her father, wouldn't it be a good thing if the spirits of the dead could come and stay by their side?"

"His wife will no longer be in tears, and his children will no longer lack their father's company."

"And you won't lack satisfaction either. Pretending to be dead is a clever trick, and you'll be happy too, right?"

The shrine interrupted the shadow demon, which had avoided killing by disguising itself as dead, and parasitized the family, feeding on the mother and daughter to grow.

"My lord, you think too badly of me. Although deception and acting are in the nature of a monster like me, this is a mutually beneficial and symbiotic relationship. Monsters and humans get what they need, which is a good thing."

"The way you talk is disgusting." Jingu frowned in disgust. No matter how nicely it spoke, its motivation was definitely to satisfy its own instinct to deceive.

"Isn't it true that a gentleman judges by actions, not intentions?"

This shadow ghost seems to have read quite a few books, frankly admitting that its starting point was not good.

"So what do you think, sir?" The shadow ghost emerged from the darkness, like a shadow standing up.

"If you're willing, you can cooperate with me in a performance later, and they'll be completely convinced of my identity. Then I won't need to pretend anymore."

"Of course, it's okay if you don't want to, I can leave now."

Yes, according to the consensus between Su and the others regarding transvestites, the Shrine has no reason to remove it.

It did not harm anyone's life, and its actions could even be considered exemplary among demons. If things had gone according to its plan, humans would not have lived in fear, and it would have been able to obtain food for its own survival.

This can be considered the optimal solution that can be achieved under this bizarre balance between humans and transvestites.

As for whether it's true or not, and whether the deceased Mr. Nishikata cared about being replaced, what does it matter?

The living will find solace, and that is enough.

Jingu glanced at the unconscious mother and daughter. The child instinctively leaned against her mother's chest, while Mrs. Nishikata, even in her unconscious state, still had a furrowed brow.

She must have suffered a lot after her husband's death, and the deception of the Shadow Ghost might have made her life much easier.

But what does this have to do with the shrine?

Amidst the shadow demon's astonished expression, the shrine maiden indifferently withdrew her hand.

"Why? What you're doing..."

"You disgust me so much. I've been holding back my disgust and talking to you for so long just to see what you're up to, but I never expected it to be this disgusting."

The shrine doesn't care whether what it does is right or wrong, or whether it conforms to the so-called consensus.

The so-called rules.

If Jingu were just an Onmyoji, he would think this was reasonable; if Jingu were still an ordinary person from before his time travel, he would think this was an acceptable situation.

But the current shrine is ruled by a god, the "Dragon Lord," who only adheres to his own preferences and principles. As for consensus?

Nothing to do with him.

Perhaps the shadow ghost's humble restraint in order to survive is pitiful, and perhaps the Nishikata mother and daughter will face many difficulties in the future.

But none of that matters. For the Shrine, there is only like or dislike, not right or wrong.

He disliked this deception and found the whole thing disgusting. The thought of a girl calling a fake monster "Dad" made him want to vomit.

Therefore, even if it is supposedly the best option for everyone, Jingu will not do it.