Paul’s ability to read the ancient script used in the documents Inari had given him was somewhere between zero and nil. However, she’d rather usefully put coloured slips of paper between the flattened, peeled and bound reeds that the text was painted on. With the help of those bookmarks, Paul was able to take pictures using his cellphone, which he uploaded to his laptop.

It had only taken a few minutes of research to locate the webpage for the Main Inari Shrine in Kyoto, and rather helpfully it provided an email address for the Head Priest. Paul had created a new webmail address for the shrine in general before he’d even left Britain, as it had been easier to separate out business with the real estate agent that way. Now he used that address rather than his personal one to email the Head Priest, reasoning that it was somewhat less likely to be dismissed as spam. Leaning back in his chair he read the draft.

Greetings from your sister Inari Shrine at Kami town, Mikata District, Hyōgo Prefecture.

During recent renovation work, some ancient documents were discovered pertaining to the origins of this shrine, which we believe are of some significance in general. The resident Miko has managed to translate some of the text, images of which are attached to this email.

Perhaps if it is convenient, you might recommend an expert to assist in the transcription of the remaining documentation and verify their authenticity.

In addition, could we perhaps request your assistance in a spiritual matter? Since we are a seldom visited rural shrine, we have no priest at present and upon reading the texts our Miko was troubled by some implications. We would like to request your cooperation in resolving this disturbance, perhaps if some priest would care to spend a few hours visiting our humble shrine and conversing with the Miko?

We are most grateful for your consideration, and look forward to your cooperation.

Paul considered using the electronic counterpart to his personal seal. There was a point that it might get a more prompt reply given that it was rather obviously a transliteration of an English name, which might get their attention quickly. On the other hand, it might also mean that they’d send someone who was more inclined to be adversarial.

With a shrug, Paul affixed the electronic copy of the temple’s official seal, making it clear that the email was a temple matter, not personal, and hit send.

Paul really didn’t expect a reply anytime soon, but when he checked his inbox after lunch he found a reply, from the personal email address of the head priest it appeared.

To the most honorable keepers of the Kami Mikata Shrine,

Greetings from your brother in faith.

I have showed the images you sent to our experts in ancient documents, and they agree that it is indeed a significant find of great importance.

Accordingly if it is convenient, our senior expert wishes to examine the documents in person tomorrow. They will also be accompanied by myself, so I may address any of your Miko’s concerns.

Your brother in faith,

Isao Kōbe

Paul read the email with raised eyebrows, and then without looking up, called.

“Shoko-san!”

Within moments Shoko appeared.

“You called my master!”

“Um. Don’t say that again Shoko, please! Ok, we are going to need two more guest houses prepared, we’ve got visitors arriving tomorrow.”

Shoko eyed him thoughtful.

“Visitors Paul-sama? Are you sure?”

“I’ve talked it over with Inari, it’s a necessary step. It’s part of the plan… such as it is.”

“Ok, Paul-sama! I trust you.”

Paul nodded, and hesitated as an idea occurred to him. For a split second he considered it, then reached a decision.

“That’s good, because you’ll be a part of it Shoko-san.”

“Me?!”

“Yes. I want you to not hide your nature from these visitors.”

Shoko’s eyes went wide, her ears flattened as her tail bristled.

“Eep! You want me to what?!”

Paul sighed, and placed his hand on Shoko’s head, ruffling her hair as he patted her head.

“Trust me, and trust Inari. Be yourself. These visitors we want to see the truth. Perhaps not all of it, but enough to be convincing.”

“A..are you sure?”

Paul studied Shoko for moment, then pulled her into a hug: her trembling little body stilled, and melted against him as she snuggled into it.

“Shh, it’ll be ok. I will be with you the whole time. The visitors are an expert in ancient documents, and the Head Priest of the Fushimi shrine. Both of whom are hardly a threat, and we want to recruit them to our cause. Besides, I’ll have my staff, and the convertor will be running. It’s not a risk.”

“Paul-sama, you say it’s not a risk, and I believe you, I really do. But… I..I’ve spent my entire life hiding, being safe! My mother, my real mother, died trying to keep me safe, she sent me here because it’s safe here! It’s… it’s a lot you are asking of me Paul-sama!”

Paul knelt down, enfolding Shoko, holding her slender form against him, with her head resting on his shoulder.

“I understand Shoko. I know it’s a lot to ask. But please, trust us. We need these people to believe. Inari can command them, I can reason with them... but only you can reach them emotionally, make them want to help, let them see why it’s necessary.”

Paul felt Shoko nodding against his chest. She lifted her head, leaning back a bit to look up at him.

“Hey, Paul-sama. I’m not the only one.”

Paul blinked, surprised.

“Oh?”

Shoko nodded energetically.

“MmHm! Princess Jiao!”

Paul considered that briefly.

“You’re right, but I think her brother might object.”

Shoko shook her head, her lips pressed together.

“Nuhuh! Jiao can make him agree. He won’t be able to say no to her.”

Paul peered down at the small kitsune doubtfully, as she stared up him with a determined expression.

“Well… hitting them with a double dose of cuteness would be better, but are you sure?”

“Yes! Trust me Paul-sama!”

Paul chuckled, and slowly let go of Shoko, who lingered in the hug for a moment longer, and then stepped back, swiping at her eyes, as Paul stood up.

“Shoko-san, have I mentioned just how much I appreciate you?”

“You have, but I can always listen to it again!”

Paul laughed and reached out to ruffle her hair fondly.

“Scamp! Ok. I do though. Now, run and find Jiao and ask her if she’ll help, and be gentle because as frightened as you were, she’ll be ten times more. And don’t forget the guest rooms please.”

Shoko nodded.

“Ok! I’m going now!”

As Shoko dashed off, leaving Paul once again wondering if there was such a thing as fennec fox spirits, he went to go tell Inari they’d be having visitors tomorrow.

The next day dawned bright and sunny, although with a stiff breeze. Inari, who apparently was human enough to be thrown into a frenzy of cleaning by the mention of visitors, had commanded Shoko to haul out the bedding and air it out. Shoko had recruited Jiao and she in turn had recruited a gaggle of the other oni girls, who’d jumped at a chance to be outside. The entire temple complex rang to the sound of girlish merriment and chatter, along with music supplied by Paul’s mp3 player and speakers.

Paul, despairing of getting any writing done that morning, retreated to the workshop and posted his faithful oni guards, Yuri and Yuko outside the door, with instructions that he was not to be disturbed. Paul had arranged to borrow a car from Boss Hirohido for the day, and would drive to meet the visitors at the train station that afternoon. In exchange he was building a smaller mana generator for the main lodge house of the Tenuki clan.

It would still need a crystal of course, which he didn’t have to spare. But Boss Hirohido had laughed and told him to get it done when he could. Paul got the feeling that Hirohido had only asked for the generator so Paul didn’t feel like he was in his debt.

Some time later Paul stood on the station platform waiting for the train. A silent Yuko stood next to him; the sisters had played a brief but intense game of roshambo to determine who was going to guard Paul, as the car wouldn’t accommodate both of them plus Paul and the two visitors. Yuri had lost.

One of Paul’s walkman sized personal mana generators plus a disguise spell whipped up by Inari made Yuko look human, although no amount of illusion could have kept her from standing out. At least she looked a more believable six foot something, rather than seven. She still looked like she could bench-press a truck however. Paul had a flash of inspiration and as part of the illusion, Yuko was now wearing a track suit with the emblem of a made-up gym, and a competitors badge for weight lifting.

Judging by the glances she’d been getting, the ruse worked. Although he was slightly concerned that there was one knot of youths whose interest seemed a bit more... persistent. Although so far they seemed to be content to stand and stare, while pretending not to, from a distance. Yuko kept blushing every time she looked in that direction, which wasn’t helping. At all!

As the crowd of passengers alighting thinned out, Paul recognised the Head Priest immediately from the photo on the website. However, it took a moment for him to realise the young woman standing next to him was the temple’s senior expert in ancient texts. She seemed too young to be a senior anything, expect possibly a senior classman in high school.

Paul strode forward; he’d worn a set of plain dark grey robes he’d been assured was decent attire. He felt like an extra in a Samurai film, but at least he could wear trousers under them. Paul approached the man dressed in a sensible travelling suit, and inclined his head slightly.

“Ah.. Kobe-sensei?”

“Yes? Ah, are you from the shrine?”

“Indeed, I have the honour of being its current keeper. I am Paul Holmes.”

Kobe-sensei pushed his glasses up his nose. Without his robes, he could easily be mistaken for a high-school teacher, or perhaps a professor at a collage.

“Indeed? There must be something of a story behind that.”

Paul smiled..

“There is rather, but shall we save that to pass the time on the drive?”

Kobe-sensei nodded,

“An excellent idea. Please allow me to introduce my colleague, and my niece. Miss Kiko Kobe.”

Paul bowed.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance Miss Kobe. May I make known to you Miss Yuko Sato, who volunteered to help carry any baggage.”

The Kobe’s inclined their heads to Yuko, who blushed and bowed, returning the greeting speechlessly.

Paul suppressed a smile, he’d half expected Yuko to bolt for the car by now but evidently her fear of humans was wearing off. Albeit slowly, and with a long way to go still.

“Ah, shall we proceed? It’s rather a long drive ahead of us I’m afraid.”

Kobe-sensei grinned.

“By all means, let’s! I can feel the fresh country air cleaning out my lungs already!”

Paul laughed.

“I’m from London myself, originally. Been here a few weeks now. I think the last of the soup I used to call air has cleared out by now, maybe.”

Miss Kobe had watched wide eyed as Yuko had lifted her large rolling suitcase in order to carry it down the stairs from the station. Kobe-sensei leaned a bit towards Paul and remarked quietly.

“I see why you accepted her help.”

“You wait until you see the stairs up to the temple complex, then you’ll be truly enlightened... or pass out from lack of breath.”

“The shrine is at the top of a mountain?”

Paul shook his head.

“Thankfully, no. Only half way. I think the goddess decided she’d get more worshipers that way.”

Kobe-sensei eyed Paul thoughtfully.

“Forgive the question, but where do you stand on faith?”

Paul shrugged.

“Honestly, I’m not sure nowadays. I prefer certainty, but I find myself open to... possibilities, rather more nowadays.”

“A diplomatic answer.”

“An honest one, I can’t say one way or the other since I don’t know myself yet. Some things I am sure of though. There are Deities, and there are spirits, and there is on the balance of probabilities an afterlife of some sort. The specifics of which I am less than certain of.”

That earned him a sharp look from Kobe-sensei, but further discussion was curtailed by the practicalities of getting an unfamiliar car out of a tight parking spot and then navigating town traffic. After that, Paul kept the discussion rather short on specifics, although he did explain how he’d come to inherit the temple.

Miss Kobe had asked him about the documents, and Paul had done his best to explain, without really explaining, how they’d been found. Her eyes had positively shone at the mention of a storehouse full of old records… and belatedly Paul realised she was far more interested in what else might remain to be discovered.

Kobe-sensei shared a look with Paul.

“Kiko’s mother and father are academics, and although she indulges her Ojiisan by being a Miko, I know her spirit truly worships at the temple’s library.”

Miss Kiko Kobe blushed and ducked her head protesting faintly.

Paul laughed.

“I see, a dedicated follower of Hypatia then.”

Kiko’s head came up, and she smiled.

“You understand?”

“I’m an author, not a true academic, but I do enough research to have a great deal of respect for the unremarked upon, and often overlooked, secret masters and keepers of civilisation, namely Librarians.”

Kiko went bright scarlet, and ducked her head again. But not before Paul saw the smile on her face.

“I’d offer to let you get lost in the records to your heart’s content, but I suspect your family would probably like you back sometime this year at least.”

“Yes… regretfully.”

Paul chuckled, then looked thoughtful.

“Now that I think of it… perhaps I could find some volunteers to scan and digitise the records. I can’t help thinking a digital back-up might be a good idea. Regretfully, the temple buildings are not in the best of repair, and while I’m trying to remedy that, progress is slow. I’d rather something dire didn’t happen to them, but if it did then making sure the information at least wasn’t lost would mitigate that.”

Miss Kobe nodded.

“That sounds like an excellent idea. I can arrange a student team to undertake that project.”

Paul blinked, realising a bit too late what that would mean.

“Ah…no. That would pose certain logistical problems, not to mention financial ones. Namely, I’m not sure the temple could afford to feed them! Certainly we don’t have the space to house a team. No, the records seem safe enough where there are for now, at least for a few weeks. They have lasted a few thousand years there after all.”

Mis Kobe’s eyes widened.

“Excuse me, did you say… thousands?!”

“Er… yes. That’s how old the shrine is. There are records going back nearly that far. It does say it’s the birth place of Inari herself after all. There are mentions of her life even before she was a fifth rank Deity.”

Kobe-sensei was staring at him.

“Remarkable! The earliest mention of Inari known currently, is a notation in the imperial records of her being promoted to 5^th rank Goddess, the most junior level. But nothing prior to that.”

“Logical. Earlier records would in be her home shrine after all, since prior to ascension she’d be a local kami. She wouldn’t be noticed by the Imperial Court until she achieved the rank of Deity, albeit the lowest one, but still.”

“Of course! We thought we had all the records pertaining to Inari. No wonder we never found them before. There are over thirty thousand Inari shrines, and nowhere does any record mention a home shrine.”

Paul nodded.

“Needle, meet haystack. I guess it was one of those things that no-one at the time mentioned because everyone knew, and later on no-one thought these dusty old records were of any importance and thus not worth bothering the main temple about. I’m glad I asked now.”

“As are we! It opens up a whole chapter of our history we had no idea about! Knowing, rather than suspecting, that Inari Ōkami started out as a simple local deity of the rice harvest, it adds a depth of reality to her. One can identify with her as a simple country girl growing up and moving to the big city.”

Paul barked a short laugh.

“I’m sure she’d probably be amused by that description. Although the illustration shows her as a nine-tailed fox spirit before she was a Goddess, so I’m not sure if ‘simple country girl’ is apt.”

Paul suddenly felt the weight of the Kobes gaze on him, as Kobe-sensi spoke.

“She was actually shown as a Yokai kitsune?”

“Ah… yes, didn’t I mention that?”

Miss Kobe held out her hand to her uncle, who wordlessly took out a five yen coin and gave it to her. Paul took his eyes off the road just long enough to glance at them. Kobe-sensei smiled.

“You just settled a long standing debate in theological circles. One that I had a small bet on with my niece, as to whether or not we’d find an answer here.”

“Ah… I see. Sorry to have cost you Kobe-sensei.”

“Oh that’s hardly a problem, it’s worth it to have an answer! Although perhaps one that some of my brother priests might be a little upset about.”

Paul smiled to himself.

“Ah, yes. I’d heard that the common belief that Inari is a fox is one discouraged by the priesthood. Well, I think I can safely promise you’ll have answers to a lot of things before this visit is over, maybe not all ones you’d want though. However, I’m also sure you’ll find yourself with many more questions as a result.”

Once they arrived at the mountain, Kobe-sensei stared up at the long climb of stairs, and sighed.

“Alas. I see the truth of what you said earlier. It seems that eternal enlightenment might be a possibility.”

Paul chuckled.

“There will refreshments at the top. Yuko, could you run ahead and warn them we’ve arrived please?”

“Ok!”

Yuko picked up the large rolling case, and sprinted up the stairs, two at a time. The three humans at the bottom watched her go with something akin to awe.

“She is rather aggressively healthy, isn’t she?! Not very talkative though.”

Paul nodded.

“Her big sister does most of the talking for them… and I don’t just mean Yuri is the older of them.”

“Oh! Their parents must be proud of them.”

“Yuko and Yuri are orphans, taken in and raised by a local clan. We don’t really know what happened, Yuri is the more talkative only by comparison.”

“Ah… I see. Well, shall we ascend?”

Paul nodded.

“Indeed. I should probably caution you now, this is an isolated rural shrine, the people here very much adhere to the old ways… and I mean, really old ways.”

Kobe-sensei nodded.

“We expected as much. We hoped to find at least documentary evidence of Koshintō the original pre-Buddhist form of Shinto. Are you saying that it is still actively practised here?”

Paul nodded slowly.

“It is known. I’m not sure if actively practised is quite the right phrase though. But I can certainly introduce you to someone who knows about it in detail.”

Miss Kobe spoke up.

“Incredible, to think it still exists!”

Paul nodded soberly.

“Although, another few years and it wouldn’t have. The shine would have been abandoned and in ruins, and the person I’m thinking of would be gone. I hope to change that future however.”

“Oh! Yes indeed. Ojiisan, we must make sure this place becomes a state supported shrine! It’s far too important to lose!”

“I agree with you, Kiko-chan. But it’s not entirely up to me. I can only submit it for approval to the Minister.”

Kiko huffed, and nodded.

“I know Ojiisan, but the Minister listens to you, if you explain...”

“Kiko, the Minister will do his duty. I can only put forward the case. But you know very few shrines are approved.”

“More like none this year or last…”

Paul interrupted as they climbed.

“Forgive my intruding in what is clearly a family discussion, but there is actually a third option. Although, perhaps we might save that discussion for after we’ve arrived at the top and have caught our breath?”

Kobe-sensei nodded.

“Indeed. Yes, please.”

Paul wordlessly offered an arm to the Head Priest, who evidently wasn’t as used to the exercise, despite being a few years younger than Paul.

Kiko held her silence, although by the time they reached the top even she was rather pink faced and breathless.

“I am not surprised this shrine doesn’t get many visitors.”

Her uncle nodded his agreement wordlessly, as he concentrated on catching his breath. Paul shrugged.

“I was thinking that modifying the stairs to include benches to rest upon might not be such a bad idea. Maybe even a platform off to one side at the half way mark, where refreshments might be sold. Should we start getting more visitors.”

Kobe-sensei straightened up, and still slightly breathlessly remarked.

“Should state support be approved, I think I shall insist that some funds are put aside for that purpose, as a matter of medical necessity!”

Paul chuckled.

“Well, that would make the insurance people happy I’m sure. Worshipers dying of heart attacks half way up wouldn’t be good for business either.”

Kobe-sensei laughed, nodding.

“Speaking of refreshments...”

“Ah, yes of course! This way. My right-hand kitsune and her young friend should have some laid on.”

“Right-hand kitsune?”

Paul smiled.

“Shoko-san is my helpful little fox spirit, so to speak. She lives nearby and truthfully, if it wasn’t for her assistance I doubt I’d have gotten as far. I’m afraid I indulge her perhaps a bit much, but there’s no harm to it.”

The Kobe’s were giving him curious looks, but said nothing as Paul led them to a small open air pavilion that was serving duty as a tea room today. Shoko and Jiao were standing by the entrance, and had managed to find a pair of honest-to-goodness maid uniforms from somewhere. As one they bowed and said.

“Welcome home, Master.”

Paul blinked, he hadn’t expected that. Kobe-sensei looked amused, but Kiko was utterly charmed.

“Oh! How cute! Was this your idea girls?”

Shoko nodded, her tail fluffing in pleasure as her ears pricked up behind the frilly headband she was wearing. Even the shy and still somewhat fearful Jiao visibly relaxed, perking up at the praise.

“Yes! We thought we’d surprise Paul-sama! Please, honored guests, be seated and we will serve refreshments.”