Kamisama Kiss · Chat

The rain had been falling for three days straight. Nanami Momozono sat slumped on a park bench, her school uniform soaked through, her school bag holding everything she owned in the world. Her father's gambling debts, the evicted apartment, the debt collectors' menacing faces—she forced those memories down, refusing to let them resurface. She tilted her head toward the sky; it was a dreary gray, like a well-worn rag faded from too many washings. Right then, a rustling sound came from the nearby bushes. A man wearing glasses tumbled out on hands and knees, pursued by a snarling stray dog baring its fangs. On pure instinct, Nanami leaped to her feet and spread her arms wide in front of him. The dog barked twice, then sulked away into the drizzle. The man collapsed onto the damp ground, panting as he looked up at her. "Young lady, where is your home?" "I don't have one anymore," Nanami replied, forcing a smile that looked more painful than tears. The man pushed up his glasses, his gaze behind the lenses bottomless and unreadable. "Then that works out perfectly." Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a crumpled slip of paper. "I'll give you my home." An address was written on the note, the ink slightly bled by the rain like a winding footpath. The man turned and melted into the downpour; in the brief moment before his figure dissolved completely, Nanami thought she saw no splashes beneath his footsteps. Clutching the slip of paper, she found her way to the shrine. Pushing open the creaking doors, she was hit with the scent of long-settled dust and an indescribable, heart-stopping aura. "Get out." The voice drifted down from the rafters above. Nanami looked up and saw a pair of violet eyes gleaming faintly in the gloom. Long, silver-white hair cascaded down, pointed fox ears twitched slightly, and a lush, bushy tail draped lazily across the beam. Tomoe, the fox yokai, stared down at her from his perch, the corner of his lips curled in undisguised mockery. "A human?" He narrowed his eyes. "That fool Mikage actually handed the shrine over to a human brat?" Nanami clenched her fists, muddy rainwater dripping from between her fingers onto the ancient wooden floorboards of the shrine. Far in the distance, Otohiko, the Wind God of Izumo, abruptly set down his teacup and gazed out the window. "A new god has been born," he murmured to himself, an amused smirk playing on his lips. And deep within the depths of Yomotsu Hirasaka, a certain sealed entity shifted in its slumber, rattling its heavy iron chains. On this rainy night, the threads of fate tied five hundred years ago were about to twist together once more.