Tokyo: Proving one's position from behind the scenes

"Nagayama, if you had superpowers, what would you do?"

Two days have passed since the power was passed on to Hoshimiya Ei. During these two days, Nagayama Akira has been coming to Inari Shrine to help out. It is obvious that the spiritual atmosphere around the shrine has been disturbed more and more.

"Of course, I'd go to Kyoto and become the ruler of the world," Nagayama Akira joked, sipping his tea.

"I see." Hoshimiya Ei nodded, seemingly lost in thought.

"Is this kid serious?" Akira Nagayama thought to himself.

"Oh, right, the Metropolitan Police Department sent a letter." Hoshimiya Ei took out a letter and handed it to Nagayama Akira.

"A letter from the chief priest of Hoshimiya Inari Shrine."

The sender was—Chief Inspector Yamazaki of the Metropolitan Police Department.

The letter was very polite, and it stated that Chief Inspector Yamazaki was leading an invitation for the top officials of various shrines to gather at the Metropolitan Police Department.

The reason wasn't mentioned above, giving the impression that it was a take-it-or-leave-it situation.

That makes sense. Hoshimiya Inari Shrine is just a small, little-known Inari shrine. In Japan, Inari shrines are as numerous as stray dogs on the street. It is estimated that only the largest Fushimi Inari Taisha would warrant a visit from the Superintendent General of Police.

"How about you, Nagayama, act as the priest and represent me? I'll just follow along," Hoshimiya Ei said. "I still have your old priest's robes."

When there are many people visiting the shrine during festivals, Akira Nagayama would wear a priest's robe to help out, and he also did fortune telling—the kind that was very accurate.

"OK."

Japan is a society that values ​​seniority. If the highest-ranking person in a small local shrine is a female high school student, then she can only be considered a junior among juniors. But if it were a male high school student like Akira Nagayama, who is not bad-looking, then he would not be considered a junior.

"Is the Metropolitan Police Department summoning all the shrines because of evil spirits?" Hoshimiya Ei wondered to herself.

After meeting Inari, she was flustered, but when she thought of the shrine that was gradually dying, her parents and grandfather, and Nagayama Akira, and with the power brought by the "Grass and Trees Flourishing Technique", her mood gradually calmed down.

Over the past two days, she visited several famous shrines, but none of them possessed supernatural powers—at least none she encountered. The spiritual atmosphere there was even weaker than that of her small shrine. Later, she went to the vicinity of the "Ayase Financial Consultation Center" where the incident occurred, and the surrounding water-related spiritual atmosphere felt like a gentle sea breeze.

"Am I, a mere shrine maiden who has just received the blessing of Inari, supposed to fight a demon?"

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"Lord Kōji, Miss Shrine Maiden, this way please."

Akira Nagayama and Ei Hoshimiya arrived at the Metropolitan Police Department, where a number of elderly men dressed in clerical robes were already chatting curiously. Of course, there were also many young people like the two of them, but most of them were following behind Old Deng, clearly there to broaden their horizons.

Under the guidance of the police officers, Akira Nagayama and Akira Hoshimiya handed over their electronic devices and arrived at an extremely spacious conference room.

Looking around, there were at least a hundred clergy members, including priests and monks common in island nations, and even pastors with crosses around their necks.

and.

Out of the corner of his eye, Akira Nagayama also spotted several blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners, and the name tags of several staff members at the scene bore the words "Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office".

If island nations are America's dogs, then the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office is the collar on those dogs. Any island nation politician who tries to defy America's will will face the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office exposing their scandals, and then, without any apology, committing suicide.

Of course, the Seventh Fleet is pointing its gun at this dog.

He knew without even needing divination that the evil spirit had attracted the attention of the Americans, who had begun to get involved. The Qi Refining level [Zhenshui] spirit creature created after Yoshida Sho's death should have already been sent to the Yokosuka base.

When the time was up, the meeting room door was closed.

Director Yamazaki began with a brief self-introduction before getting straight to the point.

"Next, a video will be played in this conference room. This video is a state secret, and everyone who watches it must not disclose it. Otherwise, they will be charged with treason."

These words caused an uproar at the scene.

"Of course, you are all people of high standing. The Metropolitan Police Department will not force you to watch. Those who wish to leave may do so now. However, I urge you all to stay."

Even so, a small portion of the clergy still chose to leave, and many of those who remained were whispering among themselves, clearly very curious about the confidential video recording.

Seeing that no one had left, Director Yamazaki stood up and bowed ninety degrees to the clergy in the conference room.

"Thank you all for staying. I will now play this video. I need to remind you that this video has been repeatedly examined by the Metropolitan Police Department and is 100% authentic."

Amidst the whispers of the crowd, the Metropolitan Police Department played footage of the mutated Yoshida Sho carrying out a bloodbath at the headquarters of the Kikiri Group, as well as the transparent ghost attacking police officers.

"Based on the video footage and police investigation, we speculate that a male high school student named 'Yoshida Sho' was murdered by yakuza, then mutated into the half-human, half-fish monster shown in the video, and subsequently transformed into a ghost that could not be captured by cameras to carry out indiscriminate attacks."

Why is it said to be indiscriminate? Because the Metropolitan Police Department found Yoshida Sho's sister, Yoshida Nobuko, and asked her to appease the ghost, but Yoshida Nobuko was still attacked.

But that evil spirit was born in a place of evil and water, not from the soul of Yoshida Sho.

Someone in the meeting room raised their hand and asked, "Shouldn't we go to the shrine to exorcise the ghost?"

Director Yamazaki said helplessly, "We've already contacted several of the most famous shrines and temples in Japan in the past two days, and even our... ally, the United States, has brought in bishops under the Pope, but no one can deal with this ghost."

"The reason for holding this meeting today is to ask everyone if they have any good ideas."

The clergy in the conference room looked at each other in bewilderment.

Our ancestors never mentioned such a thing.

And if even the shrine can't do anything about it, what can they do?

In the back rows of the conference room, Hoshimiya Ei leaned next to Nagayama Akira and asked, "Nagayama, why don't you come to my shrine as a full-fledged priest from now on?"

Akira Nagayama glanced at her and said, "You usually give about the same amount as a convenience store, so give me more first."

Hoshimiya Akira gave a confident smile, stood up and said, "Director Yamazaki, our shrine has a way to dispel that ghost."