Reisen Riou didn't get an answer from Anko Kanno about her unrest. He let it slide, chalking it up to "those days" for women.
Time flew.
"Time zooms by—another harvest season," Reisen Riou mused, plucking lotus seeds from a pod by the wooden bridge. He munched happily, watching junior mikos feed fish.
Ritou Shrine was thriving. Villagers came for divinations and prayers, and funeral services had started.
The shrine's fields stayed active—homegrown crops tasted better than bought ones.
The harvest was too much for their small crew, so they shared surplus with nearby villagers.
Occasionally, they'd treat the shrine's critters—fish, Slimes, and such.
This month's routine tasks were done. Left were either conning gullible villagers with the junior mikos or playing god, blessing devotees—dull work that didn't need him. His theory and training had hit a wall, so Reisen Riou slacked off.
He trained sporadically but made time to unwind.
Now was chill time.
A breeze stirred the lotuses, carrying their scent.
Reisen Riou closed his eyes, savoring it.
Suddenly, he sensed a restless aura in his range.
Opening his eyes, he saw Anko Kanno. Since their spar, she'd been volatile every ten to fifteen days, her martial progress slowing—not stalled, but below expectations.
"Your!" she snapped, flinging an invitation at him.
Anko stormed off, fuming with some unknown grievance.
Reisen Riou opened the invitation.
It was from the Grand Narukami Shrine, inviting him, the shrine's guardian, to the decennial Narukami Grand Festival, with a brief history of the event.
The festival marked the Electro Archon's birthday, a day of universal celebration. Unlike other nations, Inazuma's annual festival became decennial to cut Shogunate costs and minimize military gaps.
Reisen Riou recalled its origin. Like Liyue's Lantern Rite or Mondstadt's Windblume Festival, it was once yearly. But a Dark Sea Demon God attacked during one, causing heavy losses despite preparations. Since then, it was held every ten years.
Only youkai and civilians could join; Shogunate troops were barred. The Grand Narukami Shrine and Kanjou Commission co-hosted it.
Festivities spanned Ritou and Narukami Island. The Electro Archon herself would mingle with the people.
Post-festival, Kitsune Saiguu and the Archon would perform the Sacred Sakura Grand Purification, cleansing Inazuma's accumulated impurities.
The Grand Festival was public; the Purification, vital yet secretive, was known only to Tri-Commission elites and the Grand Narukami Shrine's operatives.
Reisen Riou and Anko Kanno, each with a few junior mikos, disembarked. Unlike Ritou's quiet, Ritou bustled with pre-festival energy.
Though the Narukami Grand Festival hadn't started, festival-exclusive stalls and treats were already out. The docks thrived with vendors.
They hadn't walked far when a group of mikos approached.
Anko's face darkened visibly, her body tensing as if to flee.
The opposing mikos' eyes gleamed.
"Anko, don't run!"
"You're meeting that guy, no excuses."
"It's just marriage—what's to fear?"
Anko's expression soured. She vanished in a flash of light, but the other mikos weren't pushovers. A senior miko, wielding a gohei, waved it twice, leading her junior mikos in pursuit.
"Well, every family's got its drama," Reisen Riou muttered, piecing together Anko's year-long mood swings.
She was being pressured to marry. No wonder she was on edge—marriage nagging did that.
If he recalled right, Anko was twenty-seven. In a world where commoners wed and bore kids at sixteen, she was an "old maid."
Even mikos typically married around twenty. Unlike some Earth cultures where mikos quit post-marriage, Inazuma's mikos could continue serving.
"Who were those mikos?" Reisen Riou asked.
His junior mikos, Narukami natives, were here for the festival and family visits.
"Likely Kanno Clan mikos," one said.
"That senior miko—I recognize her. One of Kujou Encampment's guardian mikos, skilled in spells," another added.
The rest chattered, identifying most of the others as classmates, seniors, juniors, or instructors.
Junior mikos varied: some swept floors, others guided visitors, or taught reserve mikos and young youkai. Shrine-mates often knew each other.
Reisen Riou gave the mikos leave to rest and visit family. They were young—seventeen or eighteen at most, some fourteen or fifteen.
After the mikos paired off and left, Reisen Riou strolled Ritou.
Autumn's red maples drifted down, painting a poetic scene.
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