The flight to Inari aboard Mephisto's unauthorized private jet was supposed to take three hours. For the Exwires, I imagined it felt like three years.
The cabin was dead silent, save for the low hum of the jet engines. I had claimed an entire row of plush leather seats near the front, casually lounging with my feet propped up. The ambient heat rolling off my body made the cabin feel like a mild sauna. It wasn't enough to burn anyone, but it was enough to make them sweat, serving as a constant, physical reminder of the predator in the room.
Across the aisle, huddled as far away from me as physically possible, were the remnants of the cram school.
Yukio hadn't blinked in twenty minutes. He was sitting completely rigid, hyper-fixated on my every movement. He was running on pure adrenaline and paranoia. Every time I shifted my weight, his hand twitched toward his holstered gun, even though we both knew it was completely useless.
Bon was a hollow shell. He was staring blankly out the window, completely gutted by Shima's betrayal and the harsh reality check I had handed him back in the courtyard. He refused to even look in my direction.
Konekomaru was having a quiet, sustained panic attack. After the head-pat I gave him, he knew I could cross the room and kill him before a synapse even fired in his brain. He flinched at every sudden noise the jet made.
Shiemi was the only one trying to stay focused. She sat with a map of the Shiga Prefecture spread across her lap. She was visibly trembling from the oppressive heat and my intimidating aura, but instead of cowering, she forced herself to look at me every so often. She was terrified of me, but her stubborn empathy for Izumo was forcing her to be brave.
Sitting near them, Shura was aggressively chewing on a toothpick, a half-empty bottle of sake resting on the table next to her. Mephisto had provided the jet so we could bypass the Vatican's bureaucratic delays and slip through the Illuminati's magical barriers undetected, but Shura was clearly dreading the report she was going to have to file about me.
Am I being too apathetic about all this? I thought lazily, staring at the ceiling of the jet. I looked over at the traumatized Exwires, then shrugged. Maybe, maybe not. I'm not a therapist. I'm a God of Flames. Why should I act like I'm not? It is what it is.
Closing my eyes, I decided to do something productive. I slipped into a deep, concentrated meditation, sending my conceptual senses stretching out toward Inari to see if I could catch any premonitions of what we were walking into.
As my concentration deepened, my divine energy flared. My hair seamlessly ignited, turning into a crown of roaring, conceptual blue-white fire that licked at the ceiling of the jet.
"Ahhhh!" Konekomaru shrieked, scrambling backward over his seat and crashing into the aisle.
The sound of a gun being drawn echoed sharply. Yukio was on his feet, his weapon aimed squarely at my head, his chest heaving with panic.
Inside my mind, images flashed rapidly. A vibrant festival. A horde of rotting, zombie-like creatures. And then, a face.
The ugliest person I had ever laid eyes on.
He was short and portly, with a wide face covered in patchy stubble. He had a short snub nose, large, wide blue eyes with unusually thick eyelashes, and a wide, unsettlingly creepy smile revealing massive, prominent teeth. Lastly, he wore tiny, round spectacles perched on his nose.
I snapped my eyes open, the flames replacing my hair instantly extinguishing back to normal.
"Ugggggh, what's that!" I groaned out loud, dragging a hand down my face in sheer disgust, completely ignoring the drawn gun and the terrified teenager on the floor.
"Are you trying to blow up the plane, you idiot?!" Yukio shouted, his finger shaking on the trigger.
I ignored him, glancing over at Shura. She looked completely alert, her hand resting on her sword hilt.
"You seem stressed," I offered her a flirtatious, easy smile. "Want me to ease your tension?"
"Don't start with me, dumbass," Shura snapped, her magenta eyes flashing with genuine anger at my indifference. "We're currently flying into an Illuminati stronghold, you've made yourself an even bigger enemy to the Vatican, and you're treating this like a vacation."
Ha ha, fair points. But…
"Come on, don't be like that," I said, waving off her anger. "You're not being very fair to me. You're looking at things from a fragile, human perspective. You're stressed because you think there are variables in Inari you can't control."
I leaned to the side, resting my elbow on an arm rest.
"But, I ain't worried," I said casually, "especially after looking into the future."
The entire cabin went dead silent. Yukio slowly lowered his gun, his eyes widening in horror.
"You can... see the future now?" Yukio whispered, the realization hitting him that the Vatican was dealing with an omniscient threat.
"Only brief premonitions when I meditate deeply," I clarified with a shrug. "But I saw enough. We rescue Eyebrows. It's gonna be rough for y'all, and we're going to have to fight some ugly zombie things, but we get her. Oh, and I know exactly where they're holding her. It's an underground lab beneath an apartment building called Dream Town Inari. It towers over the main shrine."
I paused, leaning back and giving Shura a slow, wicked grin. "I also saw a glimpse of our future together, by the way. It looked pretty promising."
Shura just rolled her eyes, taking a massive swig of her sake. "If that future involves anything other than you turning the Illuminati to ash, I'm opening the emergency exit and jumping out of this plane."
I just chuckled, highly amused by her misery.
Beside us, Shiemi let out a massive, shuddering breath of relief, her hands clutching her chest. But the relief was entirely eclipsed by the chilling reality settling over the others. Yukio swallowed hard, staring at the floor. I wasn't just a powerhouse anymore; I was a clairvoyant God. There was nothing the Illuminati—or the Vatican—could hide from me.
By the time we landed and bypassed the outer magical barriers, it was late at night.
We slipped into Inari Taisha Shrine, expecting a fortified, heavily guarded military base. Instead, what we found was "Fox Alley," an entertainment district that looked like a giant, vibrant theme park. Bright paper lanterns illuminated the cobblestone streets. Food stalls were bustling, and colorful banners hung between the buildings.
But as soon as my boots touched the pavement, my conceptual senses immediately flagged the air.
"Gross," I muttered, wrinkling my nose.
"What is it?" Shura asked, keeping her eyes alert and her voice low.
"The peaceful atmosphere. It's literally manufactured," I informed them, eyeing a group of hopelessly happy tourists eating dango near a stall. "There's an unnatural energy twisting around this entire area. The food served here is laced with some kind of euphoria-inducing drugs. It makes visitors feel a false sense of belonging and serenity so they don't notice the demonic activity."
Great, I groaned internally. I'm gonna have to expend a lot of power to cleanse this entire area when we're done here.
"Don't eat or drink anything, and keep your guard up," Shura ordered the Exwires, her expression grim. "We need to find that building Rin saw. Spread out briefly, stay in sight, and look for clues."
Ten minutes later, we regrouped at a lookout point in Inari Taisha, keeping our distance from a massive, towering apartment complex that loomed over the shrine. The glowing neon sign near the entrance read: Dream Town Inari.
"Yea, the lab is under there," I said, pointing a thumb at the building.
"Squeak."
Takara stepped out from the shadows, holding his pink bunny puppet in one hand. In his other hand, he held a small, white fabric fox doll.
"What is that?" Bon asked, finally speaking, his voice hoarse and exhausted.
"A protective charm," Takara's puppet rasped. "Izumo Kamiki originally gave it to her younger sister, Tsukumo. I retrieved it from Kamiki's dorm room before we left. It is a perfect vessel to let us know how she's faring."
Takara held the white fox doll up in the air and began chanting.
"To Ukano Mitamanokami… I fearfully, dreadfully decree… Present to us one who is connected to Izumo Kamiki and this land."
A sudden burst of spiritual energy flared around it. The doll's tiny fabric eyes glowed, and a gruff, haughty voice echoed from the toy.
"Who dares summon me?!" the voice barked, sounding incredibly irritated. "I am Miketsu, servant of Ukano Mitamanokami! You humans have some nerve!"
"So you're Izumo Kamiki's familiar," Takara's puppet voiced. "Tell us how she's doing."
"You dare claim that I'm the familiar of an inexperienced brat like her?! Please cease your joking!" he barked. "That girl is always treating Uke and me like common slaves rather than sacred familiars! I've had it with her disrespect! And just what is your connection to her any—"
"Hey," I said, stepping closer to the doll.
Mike, speaking through the doll, froze mid-rant. The tiny fabric head turned towards me. The haughty, arrogant fox spirit suddenly went completely silent as his spiritual senses collided with the overwhelming, divine Sovereign heat radiating off my body.
The white fox doll began to violently tremble in Takara's grip.
Slowly, awkwardly, the doll bent at the waist, bowing deeply in the air while still being held by the First Class Exorcist.
"A-A-A Sovereign!" Mike stammered, his gruff voice pitching up into an absolute, terrified squeak. "I-I beg your forgiveness, O Great One! I did not sense your divine presence! Please do not burn me!"
Yukio and Shura stared in utter disbelief as the proud, ancient familiar groveled mid-air like a frightened puppy. Even Bon blinked, his grief momentarily interrupted by the sheer absurdity of the sight.
"Save the apologies, fox," I commanded, crossing my arms and looking down at the trembling toy. "Tell me everything and anything you know about Kamiki's family history, her sister, and how exactly she got involved with the Illuminati. Don't leave a single detail out."
"Y-Yes! At once, My Lord!" Mike squeaked, desperate to appease me. "It began many years ago, with Izumo's mother, Tamamo..."