Chapter 12. Shrine Maiden

  Hakurei Reimu lay on her bed at the shelter feeling terribly embarrassed at how she had been acting. When she had first seen the two girls enter the room where they had all been held captive, she had just begun to settle her panic from hearing the screams of death and pain coming from the front room.

  Then in walks two young girls no older than herself with a look of boredom and complete control on their faces. Setting off alarm bells in her head.

  Though the smaller one tried to act scared and explain what they had seen. Reimu could feel something was off about them. Then she stepped closer as the older woman used the phone.

  Now close enough to see the little girl’s eyes, Reimu froze.

  Her eyes, they were glowing slightly with a faint silver light. The other one also had a greenish blue glow that was fading by the second. What are these two, she thought. Fear gripping her heart.

  Then it clicked. These two creatures weren’t human; they were something else. Yokai, hunting the wicked to take their souls.

  Looking back on her thoughts and feelings during that time, Reimu buried her face in her pillow. How embarrassing! She couldn’t believe she had been having such chuni thoughts. Why couldn’t she grow up and leave all those childish fantasies behind.

  Reimu came from a long line of Temple Priests, and Shrine Maidens. She had been taught by her grandmother and was technically considered a Shrine Maiden herself. Even if her and her parents had moved away when her mother got a job in the city.

  Growing up learning about their family history and the history of their Shrine for the local mountain God that protected their town. She had felt so special learning that her family members sometimes had a gift for sensing Kami and spirits.

  She had soaked it up as a child, thinking she was going to be a demon slayer and hunt down evil yokai, sealing their powers in her evil eye.

  Then she had grown up and promptly burned all her old notebooks and drawings. How shameful. Just remembering walking around the park in her Shrine Maiden robes with a peach tree branch jumping off the slide and running around pretending to slay monsters. Ahh! Make it stop!

  She began rolling back and forth in bed, her pillow clutched to her chest. No, no, no! Forget, forget, forget.

  Ugh!

  Oh well at least she had grown out of it. And as for the family’s special ability, turns out that a few family members every generation or so, could feel something extra special when looking at the Mountain God’s Alter. A big rock carved by wind and rain in the shape that vaguely resembles a kneeling figure.

  Reimu had been convinced that she too could feel it very strongly when she was there. As well as having similar feelings at other temples and shrines she had visited. Later she had realized that it was all part of her chunibyo delusions.

  Until those two had come along.

  Once she had got close to them, she could feel it. Something about those two was different. She wanted to believe it was her inner child desperately wanting to feel that old rush of being special.

  She still felt mortified thinking about how she had acted when they had introduced themselves as roommates. They were acting pretty normal now if just a little bit strange, Kaizaki-san sure seemed like a tomboy with the way she talked.

  But Serebryakov sure seemed nice, she had even helped make her bed, even though they couldn’t talk much. She really hoped…

  She felt it again!

  Rolling over the pillow still clutched to her chest, she locked eyes with the oni.

  “Miss Hakurei, are you alright? You were rolling around on your bed when I came in. Does your stomach hurt? If so, you need to get it checked right away. I once had a subordinate who got food poisoning and had to be relieved of his duties.

  “I mean he had to go see a specialist, and couldn’t work after that. Sorry, I sometimes use the wrong words since I’m so used to speaking German with Visha.”

  Reimu doubted that, she had clearly just told her that her henchman got sick and was eliminated right! Oh Kamisama, is she a gangster? Reimu’s mind was spinning so fast she didn’t react until She felt the cold hand of death settle on her forehead.

  “You are a little warm but it doesn’t feel like a fever. Does your stomach hurt or is it something else, wait, it’s not that, is it?!”

  ~

  Tanya asked the poor girl who was red faced and clutching at the pillow over her stomach. Her own face was turning red from frustration and embarrassment. But what could she do? She was responsible for the health and safety of the members of her dorm.

  The Matron had made it very clear she would not tolerate anyone allowing anymore suffering to the girls here. So, Tanya was going to have to suck it up and do her duty.

  “It’s not what? What are you talking about?” Reimu asked puzzled

  “Your stomach pain, it’s not, you know, time for that monthly thing?”

  “What no! Why are you asking me that? Wait! Is your mean aunt visiting?

  “Is that why you’ve been scowling at the bag of sanitary products we all got? You know if they don’t have the kind you like, I’m sure the Matron can get what you need brought over. Would you like me to go ask her for you?”

  “What are you talking about, what mean aunt, and I wasn’t scowling, I just…”

  “Knock-knock, Tanya I brought your clothes. I bumped into miss Yamamoto on my way up she’s going to see what’s for dinner and save us seats, I think. Oh, what’s going on here?”

  “Nothing!”

  Turning to back to look at Reimu who was still sitting on the bed, miss Kaizaki looked her dead in the eye and repeated in Japanese.

  “Nothing happened at all and we weren’t talking about anything! Right?”

  Reimu just nodded in response.

  “Come on Visha, drop that off, we’ll sort it later. Let’s go get some food.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “And you, miss Yamamoto is saving us seats for dinner you should come along if you’re feeling better.”

  ~

  With that the two strange girls left the room, leaving Reimu alone.

  Why is she so stuck on my stomach hurting. With that thought Reimu started laughing. To think, the girl she thought was some sort of scary devil, was just a silly girl who was just as embarrassed of talking about her period as the rest of us.

  Continuing to laugh, she made her way downstairs to join them. Maybe she would talk to the Matron about getting a heating pad and some warming tea for her new roommate.

  Humming an old prayer chant, Hakurei Reimu walked towards the noisy dining area. Completely having forgotten the strange feeling she had gotten when Kaizaki Tanya had been in the room.

  ~

  Dinner was by no means a quiet affair. Tanya was no stranger to a noisy dining hall. It’s just that normally she would have no problem raising her voice to be heard over the din. Now however, the girls were being just quiet enough with their talking to keep up with polite curtesy.

  But they were also just loud enough and there were enough of them as to make easy conversation with Visha difficult. Not to mention how much attention the two drew to themselves every time they spoke in German.

  No matter, Tanya was finding herself preoccupied anyway. The food wasn’t anything fancy or special, just rice, soup, and fried vegetables with some sort of fish. But it tasted like home. It had so many of the sauces and flavors she had missed.

  Visha beside her was staying true to her word and while trying everything, had been sneakily slipping certain food items into Tanya’s bowl whenever she didn’t like the taste. Tanya didn’t complain.

  She even got to have a short conversation with miss Yamamoto Momo. The young girl apparently had been lured online into leaving her small rural village to strike it big in the big city. It had turned out to be an internet scam targeting young girls.

  She seemed surprisingly stable despite the situation she had just been rescued from. Tanya looked around the room as she sipped some herbal tea that miss Hakurei had brought over to her. She noticed that most of the girls here looked to be handling their situation well, or at least doing a good job at pretending to.

  She guessed it made sense in a way. The ones who couldn’t handle it were probably all admitted to the hospital and were being treated by professionals at the moment. Here though, here were the survivors. Or the ones like little Hina Kyan who had literally just arrived and hadn’t been abused yet.

  She noticed none of them really wanted to talk about it. She didn’t blame them and didn’t really want to talk about the things she’d been through.

  Tanya put those dark thoughts away as she sipped more of her tea. She could taste the ginger and cinnamon in it, but there were a few other flavors she couldn’t pinpoint. It was sure heating up her stomach though. She felt a nice warmth spread from her core to her extremities as the herbs began to take effect.

  After everyone had eaten, the Matron stood up and announced the bath schedule. There was only enough space for twenty people at a time to use the showers, so the dorms were combined into groups by number and given a time slot.

  Luckily, her group was included in the first timeslot. Tanya was looking forward to getting clean with fresh hot water for once. Too bad this facility didn’t have a soaking pool, but they were informed of a nearby public bath that had that feature. Plans for the future.

  Tanya was looking forward to getting some form of ID and financial stability so she could go take advantage of these modern conveniences.

  Practically skipping up to her room to grab her towel, Tanya nearly forgot about the clothes she would have to change into.

  Her uniform felt dirty. She had been wearing it for days even before she died. And no matter whatever sort of mystical heavenly transportation shenanigans had cleaned it between worlds, she still felt gross at the idea of having to put it back on after finally really bathing.

  Biting the bullet, she grabbed a pair of the new underwear they had been issued, and the slightly large pajamas and made her way over to the door where Visha and the others waited for her.

  The showers weren’t anything special. Just your typical dormitory showers with a number of low faucets for sitting on a stool while you scrubbed. Followed by some higher up on the wall in a few open-ended stalls. The main feature was in the center of the room where a multi-station column shower was set up.

  With no hesitation, Tanya moved over to the cubby area and began removing her clothes folding them and placing them in a cubby. She hesitated when removing her Type 97, but decided it would be safe enough and tucked it under her clothes. Slipping her sandals on and grabbing her wash rag and towel. Tanya turned to check on Visha’s status and saw her ready to go as well.

  Tanya had long since gotten used to bathing with other naked females and didn’t even take notice of the majority of the naked bodies around her as she selected an open spot to sit down. Hanging her towel up she quickly rinsed off and began to scrub herself down.

  After finishing her front, she turned and scooting over to Visha and began helping her scrub her back and hair, before receiving the same treatment in return. Rinsing off the two made their way to the central column to finally get to enjoy just sitting under the hot water as they began applying conditioners to their hair.

  It was only at this moment that Tanya began noticing the sideways looks the two were getting. Well, she supposed it was to be expected. Visha was a white Russian girl with blonde hair, and Tanya herself looked very European with her own pale skin and light blue-gray eyes. People were bound to stare at anything that stood out.

  Thankfully everyone stayed polite and no one came over to talk or touch them. Tanya could just image how many aunties would be chatting them up out of curiosity if this was a regular public bathhouse.

  Finished all too quickly the two made their way over to their towels and met up with their roommates back in the changing area. The lanky girl Hakurei looked a little paler than when they came in. She hoped the girl would feel better over the next few days. From what Tanya had forced herself to read in the car. The first few days tended to be the worst then, apparently it would ease up after that.

  Tanya made a mental note to get the girl some warming tea… Wait.

  That, that, bumbling gangly idiot. Tanya screamed indignantly in her mind. How dare she try to project her problems onto me.

  Tanya rapidly finished getting dressed and stormed off leaving the others behind. Visha rushed to keep up, but was still in the process of getting dressed and so was delayed.

  Speaking in English she looked at her two roommates and asked

  “What was that about?”

  “She not feeling good?”

  Reimu answered back but Visha just looked confused. The two looked at her before talking to each other in rapid fire Japanese.

  “How do you say 月経 in English?”

  “I don’t know let’s ask Hina chan, she speaks English really well. Hina, Hina chan!”

  Hina came over, slipping her head into her oversized sweater and pulling it on.

  “Hey Hina, do you know how to say period in English?”

  “Like the thing at the end of a sentence?”

  “No like that monthly thing that comes for girls.”

  “Oh, yeah, but why do you want to know how to say that.”

  “I need to tell miss Serebryakov what’s going on with miss Kaizaki I think she’s on her period.”

  “Oh, maybe that’s why she was so grumpy earlier. Ok I’ll tell her.”

  In English

  “Tanya is mad because she’s on her period.”

  Visha still looked confused.

  “Um, you know her monthly girl sickness.”

  Reimu maimed stomach pain by clutching her stomach and then patted herself below the belt. Holding her hand up she just said one more word.

  “Red.”

  Finally, Visha got it, and began nodding her head in understanding. Pointing at herself she then pointed upstairs and spoke.

  “I’ll go take care of her.”

  Leaving the rest of the girls to begin blow drying their hair and clean their teeth at the sinks. Once Visha had left the room, conversation exploded. Other girls just coming from the showers came over questions bursting from their lips.

  “You girls are their roommates, right?

  “What’s up with them? Did you see those scars?”

  “OMG! How did they get so many?”

  “It looked so scary.”

  “Forget the scars did you see their muscles? Both of them, had like, a six pack, and their arms where all lean and packed with muscles. Do you think they practice martial arts?”

  “Maybe. They certainly looked ready to fight when they first showed up. Remember?”

  “Yeah, who uses a shovel like that, she was holding it like a baseball bat.”

  “Do you think the two of them are delinquents? Maybe that’s how they got mixed up in all this.”

  “You might be right; the little one certainly talks like a boy.”

  “Shut up! We’ve all been through some shit, alright. I don’t know how they got those scars, but I bet it hurt a lot getting them. Give those two some sympathy and respect. They didn’t run off and ditch us when they had the chance, they came back for us and called the cops. So, let’s not go spreading rumors when we don’t actually know anything. OK!”

  The group broke up after that with the girls breaking of in twos and threes to finish getting dressed and dry their hair.

  Kyan, Reimu and Momo stuck together and continued talking about other topics.

  “So, what’s it like being a Shrine Maiden?” Momo asked.

  “I’m not really a Shrine Maiden anymore, but mostly it was just temple maintenance and practicing dances. Only during a few special holidays did we get all dressed up and preform ceremonies.”

  “So have you ever had to banish an evil spirit?”

  “No! ahem, no our temple really didn’t do stuff like that. We had good luck talismans and other stuff like that. But running around with a peach sword banishing devils and spirits. We never did anything like that.”

  Reimu squeaked out in a rush her face flushed red but not from the shower.