When the last glow of dusk stained the sea gold‑crimson,
Rei Ao finally stopped savoring the lingering taste of delight.
He covered the sleeping Mai with a thin blanket, donned a bathrobe, and stepped onto the balcony.
The sea breeze whisked the dampness from his hair and carried a hint of coolness after their heat.
Mai's flavor was, as always, exquisite.
Yet another matter now required his attention.
Casting aside his after‑tastes, he looked toward the other side of the balcony.
"Miss Amagami Chiharu."
Speaking into apparently empty air, the corners of his mouth lifted in playful amusement.
"Our little show must have been entertaining—you watched with such devotion."
At one end of the balcony stood a figure:
a woman in traditional miko robes, long black hair cascading like a waterfall, a finely carved fox mask on her face.
A faint mist veiled her form—imperceptible to ordinary eyes.
Only Rei Ao could see her robe stirred by the sea breeze and the graceful curves faintly revealed beneath the mask.
Amagami Chiharu—
foster mother of the three Amagami sisters,
and the current guardian deity of the Amagami Shrine.
Years ago she died defending the shrine; her soul, unable to depart, became a ground‑bound spirit, doomed to wander nearby.
The moment Rei Ao lifted today's ward, she sensed her daughters' auras and the power surging on this beach—
and came, no doubt, to protect them.
The shadowed figure trembled; eyes behind the fox mask filled with wariness and disbelief.
"..."
Unable to speak, she could only convey emotion through ripples of spiritual power.
Yet Rei Ao seemed to understand and walked toward her, step by step.
"Don't hide."
His voice carried a strange penetrative force.
"I noticed you the moment you followed the sisters through the forest."
He stopped less than a meter away, close enough to feel her cool, unearthly aura.
"Why stay invisible—afraid you'll alarm your daughters?"
Amagami Chiharu instinctively retreated half a step, empty fox‑eyes staring at him.
As a deity she had long forsaken speech, existing only in spirit form to guard the shrine and the three sisters.
Rei Ao chuckled softly and raised his hand.
Before Chiharu could react he gently removed the fox mask.
The face beneath stole one's breath:
skin whiter than snow, brows fine as distant inked hills, amber eyes brimming with shock and helplessness, yet suffused with a god's loneliness and sorrow.
Time had left no trace upon her beauty; only solitude lingered at her brow.
"Such a lovely face—silent? What a pity."
His fingertips brushed her cool cheek, sensing her stiffness.
He tapped her brow; a gentle golden light seeped into her spirit body.
Amagami Chiharu's eyes flew wide. A strange power surged into her throat.
She opened her lips—and a voice clear as spring water spilled out.
"Y‑you… who are you?
How can you see me—let me…?"
"I'm Rei Ao."
Her astonishment deepened his smile.
The sea breeze lifted her long hair while she stared at the man whose bearing was anything but mortal.
For the first time she felt something like a fluttering heart.
…
Far down the beach the three Amagami sisters, drawn in by Yukino and the others, were laughing around a bonfire—
unaware that their "mother" had fallen into an irresistible temptation.
The wind carried away the last warmth of dusk.
Golden flames leapt, stretching everyone's shadows long and short across the sand.
Rei Ao's fingertip toyed with a strand of Chiharu's black hair, feeling the faint, cool tremor of her spirit body.
Though she had regained speech she still held herself apart, amber eyes alert beneath the mask like a mother fox guarding her cubs.
"Stay away from my daughters."
Her voice was clear, yet faintly trembling.
She had witnessed Rei Ao and Mai's window‑side entanglement—
and heard him say he'd taken a fancy to her daughters.
Instinctively she now saw him as a danger to them,
even if that dazzling scene of intertwined bodies had stirred unfamiliar ripples within her.
Rei Ao laughed low. His palm slid from her cheek to her chin with irresistible gentleness.
"What I fancy has never been only them—there's you, too."
Iridescent pupils shimmered in the firelight, mirroring her shocked expression.
"Amagami Chiharu, did you think I broke your speech‑sealing curse merely to watch you wear a mask?"
Her body stiffened. She tried to step back, but Rei Ao lightly pressed her shoulder—
heat from his palm seeping through miko robes into her spirit body, unsettling her calm.
"I'm no villain who snatches maidens," he said, withdrawing his hand, yet with utter certainty.
"Still, I'm quite curious: what does a shrine goddess taste like?"
Abruptly he pointed toward the three sisters roasting marshmallows at the bonfire.
"If you're so worried about your daughters, why not see them yourself?
You've guarded them for years yet can't speak a single word to them?"
"…"
Chiharu's eyes dimmed; beneath the mask her lips tightened.
Bound to the shrine, she was shackled by divine rules—
unable to take corporeal form or reveal her existence.
It was both her way of protecting her daughters and her eternal chain.
"Rules are dead; people live."
Reading her silence, Rei Ao tapped her brow again; the divine pathways he'd infused grew brighter.
"Now the restraints are gone."
He nodded toward the squid in Amagami Yae's hand, about to burn.
"Don't you want to tell her to sprinkle a bit of lemon juice when she flips it?"
A sharp light flared in Chiharu's eyes.
"Yae… still hasn't learned even simple cooking?"
~~~
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