Please to Kitsune-sama!

Chapter 170 : Kitsune-sama Heads to Toshima (6)

Kisaragi Shrine.

The great stone torii gate left no doubt that this was indeed a shrine.

But being a shrine did not necessarily make it a “sacred” place. This “Kisaragi Shrine,” far from granting blessings, reeked of a curse. Still, at first glance, it looked like a quiet little shrine tucked away in peace.

Passing beneath the mossy torii, Inari found what looked like an administration office and a small main hall. The path was paved with stone, though moss crept across it.

There wasn’t much else—stone lanterns, a water basin, an omikuji rack. The guardian dog statues were gone, leaving only their pedestals.

“If anyone were alive here…”

Inari laid a hand on the office door, but it was locked. If someone had locked it from within, all the better… but the frosted glass gave no view inside. She could force it open, but just as she released her hand, countless palms slammed against the other side of the door with slap slap slap noises. Then they vanished.

That alone was proof enough—no living humans were inside.

A click echoed as if the lock had been released, but no sane person would step inside after what she had just witnessed. Nor would Inari.

Turning away with a sigh, she heard a voice chase after her.

“Not goiiing in?”

“Regrettable, but I’ve no business there. Or do you wish to be purified here and now?”

“Kya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Heavy footsteps thudded deeper into the office, but Inari ignored them. What mattered was not that—what mattered was the shrine itself.

This was no doubt a place steeped in anomaly, devoid of living humans. And yet… there was one thing she could not overlook.

Deep within the main hall lay something that in a true shrine would be called the goshintai, the sacred object. From a round mirror there radiated a palpable killing intent. Not only that—it exuded the densest, darkest curse-like aura Inari had yet encountered in this Kisaragi Town. Power seeped into it from all around.

Which could only mean one thing.

“I see… so this is the root of the anomaly.”

Destroying the mirror should suffice. Inari raised her bow—but without warning, a woman over two meters tall materialized behind her, swinging down a crushing arm. Inari leapt away, bowstring already drawn.

The arrow pierced the giant woman, blasting her apart. No magic stone dropped. Instead, black ichor welled up from the ground, forming into countless monsters—Human-Faced Dogs, Red Cloaks, Slit-Mouthed Women, Crazed Monkeys. Some she had seen, others she hadn’t. But they all differed subtly from the “urban legends” she had fought before.

“Curses, grudges, malice… people have long feared such things as gods. But now I see it. This is an amalgam of shrine-born legends—no, the curse itself. Binding the urban legend monsters together, killing humans, feasting on magic, gathering sorrow… all to anchor itself into the living world.”

She turned back toward the mirror. Within it, a pair of red eyes gleamed.

A formless thing, its shape unsettled. Something only ever spoken of, sung of, passed down. A thing whose true form was unknown, perhaps unknowable. The primordial curse, before even form was granted.

“A Tatari-gami…! Never did I imagine I’d face its manifestation in a place like this!”

“Tatari… gami. Yes. That is what I am. The spoken of, the sung of. The one who curses mankind, who kills without end…”

“I will not allow it.”

Light arrows exploded through the horde, and Atsuage leapt before Inari, raising its hand. From the void, two dice appeared, spinning wildly.

[Emergency, emergency. Building Block Golem—commencing sortie preparations. Linking with Master.]

The broadcast echoed as the dice glowed and froze in place. Their final faces:

[Two… three! Six! Sixfold power! Sixfold power!]

Atsuage’s body surged, swelling to a giant three meters tall—just as when it had once fought Inari.

[Sixfold Building Block Golem—sortie complete. Beginning operations.]

Moments ago, it had been no more than a half-meter plaything, fragile before the monsters. Now, at thrice their size, it loomed taller than even the largest of the curse-born beasts.

“Beam.”

A blast scorched through the monsters, fists and kicks sent them flying. Yet the Tatari-gami kept summoning more and more from the ground, a tide that could easily overwhelm by sheer numbers.

Even so, there was not the slightest trace of panic on Inari’s face.

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Translator’s Notes:

御神体 (Goshintai)

Literal meaning: “Sacred body” or “object of worship.”

In a Shinto shrine, the goshintai is the physical object where the kami (deity/spirit) is believed to reside. It can take many forms: a mirror, jewel, sword, rock, tree, or even a mountain itself.

祟り神 (Tatari-gami)

Literal meaning: “Cursing god” or “god of retribution.”

These are kami that bring disasters, illness, and death when angered or when proper rituals are not performed. Tatari-gami are often thought of as vengeful spirits of people who died unjustly or gods that were neglected/disrespected. They are feared, but also appeased through rituals, because ignoring them only makes their curse worse.

In folklore, some disasters (plagues, famines, fires) were attributed to the wrath of tatari-gami. A famous example: the Gozu Tennō (Ox-Headed Heavenly King), originally a foreign deity, was feared as a plague-bringer in Japan and worshipped to prevent epidemics.