As they walked through the city, Acadry would greet so ard n and won they passed by, probably mbers of the Fifty Bells Union. When they were in the inner parts of the city, people had already heard stories about Mira so they started talking to her as well, asking if she was that girl who helped capturing one of Chira Clauzen’s mbers.
But there was sothing that caught Mira’s attention even more, adults happily walking with spirits, hand in hand. When she asked Acadry what that was about, she replied that it was a very common sight there. So spirits and humans felt an attraction to each other, so they got together. Acadry enthusiastically declared that even if they were of different species, their love still got across.
As they conversed they kept walking until reaching the deepest part of the city. Given the ancient Kyoto appearance of the city, the place they arrived to looked exactly like the Heian Palace.
There was a roofed mud wall surrounding the palace, but the front side was open wide. The two guards posted there greeted Acadry when they arrived, and past them there were multiple buildings visible.
Acadry began talking with the guards, while Mira peeked behind them from every possible angle, her inner Japanese spirit aroused.
「Mira, let’s go to the main palace first.」
「A-alright. I’ll follow you.」
When Acadry was done talking and she gained permission to pass, she spoke to Mira while repressing a giggle seeing how excited she was acting. Mira replied by nodding with an awkward smile.
The different buildings inside the large rectangular roofed mud wall were surrounded by mud walls of their own. Mira followed behind Acadry as she took a turn. The number of people and spirits Mira saw around decreased after they crossed the gate, and the Greater Inner Palace was shrouded by a solitary air of solemnity.
Acadry took another turn to the right and they arrived at a second gate, the footsteps of the two being the only noise breaking the stillness.
Past the gate stood the main palace in all its glory. They took their shoes off at the entrance and walked down a wooden hallway until they were in front of the audience hall. There, Acadry’s duty was complete after she opened a sliding door and took so steps back before sitting on the floor.
「Go on, Mira. The Commander is waiting for you.」
「Thank you for guiding .」
When Mira walked past the door, she encountered a large corridor. To the end of it, there was a large room with a wooden floor and white walls. There was an elongated low table in the center of the room, a cushion to sit on prepared in front of it. On the other side, there was soone already sitting, with two assistants sitting in front facing each other.
「Please sit down.」
One of the assistants told her with a smile. Mira did as told, sitting cross legged on top of the cushion
Mira sat down, with that person being in front of her. The person had purple clothes and a form of white conical hat covering the entire head. That hat covered the upper body of the person, so it was impossible to see their face. But Mira had a strong hunch that that person was the leader of the Fifty Bells Union.
(I guessed as much, but it really seems to be a forr player.)
Judging from the scenery that resembled the Heian architecture she had a feeling that would be the case, and after closer inspection she was certain now.
「First of all, welco to the headquarters of the Fifty Bells Union. I’m Uzu, the current commander of the union. And you’re Mira, correct? Thank you for your efforts in capturing that mber of Chira.」
It was still impossible to see her face through the white cloth, but her voice sounded fenine. At the sa ti, Uzu saw through Mira, realizing she too was a forr player.
「It was nothing much. All I really did was butt in when I saw a conflict between you two.」
「You’re quite humble, I see」 Uzu said with a slight laugh.
「By the way, your letter of introduction ntioned you’re looking for soone who might be one of our mbers. Can you tell more about that?」
「Yes, it was sothing that happened around three weeks ago. I t a shikigami protecting a spirit.」
That had been her original goal for visiting the Fifty Bells union, following the leads left by looking into the na of that shikigami in hopes it would shed light on the whereabouts of a wiseman. After a short preface, Mira narrated what happened in her way back from the Ancient Temple Nevrapolis in her way to the Requiem City of Caranach.
「Caranach, huh. Tell one thing before I tell you what I know, why are you looking for that person?」
When Mira was done talking, Uzu asked her that. Even if Mira had gained their favor once, if she planned on harming Uzu’s comrade she would not tell her anything. But Mira wanted nothing of that sort.
「I just want to ask them so things. I’m searching for another person as well, and I believe they might be related in so way. All I have to go off is the shikigami’s na, so everything is still a bit uncertain for . But since that’s more than nothing, I’m just following the bits of information I can get.」
「I see, searching for one person in a quest for another. That’s quite a ssy situation.」
「The person I’m looking for is also rather ssy.」
Mira spoke sincerely without hiding anything, so one of the assistants turned to look at Uzu with a curious look. Uzu kept looking at Mira, as if peeping inside of her, before she relaxed her shoulders and nodded to the assistant.
「Alright, wait a mont.」
Saying that, she accepted the docunts one of the assistants offered her.
「If I rember correctly, there were multiple mbers near Caranach during that ti fra. You ntioned the shikigami was nad, so that ans it was an onmyoji master. That narrows it down to one of these two.」
Uzu flipped through the docunts relating to their mbers, checking who was there during that ti and finding the information about those two onmyoji masters that were present in that area.
「Oh, there are two, huh. Then is one of them the kind of person that would give a shikigami such a ridiculous na like Nyanmaru?」
If they found no one, then the conversation would have been over then and there. But there were two candidates so Mira’s chances went up. So to narrow it down, Mira finally ntioned the shikigami’s na that had brought her all the way there.
At the sa ti, the two assistants trembled, turning a hesitant look towards Uzu.
「Nyanmaru… ridiculous?」
Uzu took the questioning role again, her voice clearly deeper than earlier. Hearing her, the assistants shook even more.
「Yeah, that’s such a simple and bizarre na without any originality. It only serves to represent one characteristic of the shikigami.」
「Well, there is soone like that. But still, is it really ridiculous? It sounds like a good na to …」
As Uzu leafed through the docunts she found one onmyoji master that used a shikigami nad Nyanmaru. When Mira heard that, her spirit lifted a bit.
「Ohh, there is?! Where are they now? Can I et them?」
「I think they’re out sowhere in Grimdrart. But seriously, is it a ridiculous na? You don’t think it’s cute…?」
Mira kept asking more things in hopes she would be able to et that person, but Uzu seed more focused on asking about Nyanmaru’s na, while her voice had lost its original dignified tone and sounded more girly. The commander of the Fifty Bells Union slamd her palms on the floor as she leaned forward to glare at Mira through the white cloth.
(She seems awfully hellbent on that…)
Her extrely bothered language and her annoyed behavior. Sohow they felt nostalgic to Mira, like they reminded her of soone. Looking at her for a bit longer, her figure overlapped with that of soone else.
「Just in case, I know soone who also used the nas Kakichi, Nyorozou, Piisuke and Gautarou, what do you think about those?」
「They are easy to rember and very cute, they’re lovely nas! Hanamaru too!」
As Mira ntioned the shikigamis she rembered, Uzu raised her thumb adding one more. Her voice was spirited, showing she honestly ant what she was saying.
Looking straight at her, Mira thought about an unlikely but very convenient possibility.
「The cat café siege.」
Mira muttered that like so sort of incantation. Those words were enough to bring up mories of a questionable ti together with so people.
The effect of them was almost imdiate. Uzu stood up like she had been hit by lightning, coughing once before silently sitting down again.
「You two, can you leave us alone for a bit?」
She said with a monotone voice. Her two assistants stood up, bowed, and left the room without making a sound.
「Mira…? Or should I say… grandpa?」
In reaction, Uzu asked the girl in front of her, thinking back on the only person who knew of those words.
(I expected this much eventually, but this is much faster than I thought it would take.)
「It’s been a while, Kagura.」
While her sensitivity to shikigami nas had been a clue, the displeased way in which she struck the floor with her palms had been the definite give-away. That was one of Kagura’s habits Mira was familiar with.
The two old friends finally reunited in the deepest part of the Fifty Bells Union’s headquarters, inside the main palace built after the shape of the Daidairi in the Heian Palace.
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