"What… should I do?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. The glowing interface before me pulsed like a heartbeat, waiting for my command, but my hands remained frozen at my sides. The weight of the decision pressed against my chest, each option radiating an unspoken consequence. I wasn't ready for this. I had no experience, no knowledge of purification rituals, and yet, somehow, the shrine had chosen me.
Yuzu tilted her head, her golden eyes flickering with uncertainty. She shrugged lightly, the motion causing her black cloak to shift around her small frame. "Yuzu notto sure," she admitted. "Yuzu bery used to talking with Miko-sama, shrine priestess in home. She bery talk about how exorcising bery dangerous, and Yuzu bery need to go to her if Yuzu bery see pain yuzu stuff."
I frowned, her words lingering in my mind. Miko…? There was something oddly familiar about that name. Almost without thinking, I murmured, "The pink-haired girl with the sakura hairpin?"
Yuzu's ears perked up, her tails swaying slightly behind her. "Nnai," she blinked, curiosity flickering across her face. "Mashiro bery know about her?"
A lump formed in my throat. For a brief moment, my mind raced through scattered fragments of memory—not of this world, but of another. Luminous Dream. The game I had spent countless hours playing. The game where Mashiro was nothing more than an idol, a character on a screen, where Miko was the third member to join the band. She had always carried an air of mystery, a quiet grace that set her apart from the others. Her presence had been a calming one, her melodies soft yet filled with meaning.
But this wasn't a game. This was reality, or at least, something close to it. I forced myself to remain composed, averting my gaze as I muttered, "Something like that."
My words felt hollow even to my own ears. The implications were staggering. Natsumi, Yuzu, Yuki, and now Miko. One by one, the band members of Luminous Dream were appearing in this world, as if drawn together by an unseen force. At this rate… would I meet all thirty five of them?
A cold shiver ran down my spine. It was too much to be mere coincidence. The more I traveled, the more I encountered people I shouldn't know, people who shouldn't even exist outside the game. Was this world merely a reflection of Luminous Dream, or was there something deeper at play? Some grand design pulling the strings behind the scenes?
I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms as I struggled to steady my thoughts. Focus. No matter how many questions I had, this wasn't the time to dwell on them. Right now, the shrine was in danger. It was crying out for help, and I was the only one who could answer.
I turned back to Yuzu, who was still watching me with her usual curiosity, her golden eyes reflecting the soft glow of the interface. She tilted her head slightly, her black ears twitching as if sensing my hesitation.
"If exorcism is dangerous," I said slowly, glancing at the options before me, "then we should probably avoid the first option, right?"
Yuzu's tails swished behind her, the motion almost hypnotic. "Bery maybe," she admitted. "Miko-sama bery always careful. She say exorcising bery big pain, so she always bery use help from spirits."
Her words made me pause. Help from spirits…? I returned my gaze to the floating menu, scanning over the choices once more. The third option caught my eye:
▶ Invoke Spiritual Guardian (???)
If Miko relied on spirits for purification, then maybe this was the safest path. I didn't know exactly what would happen, but at the very least, I wouldn't be recklessly throwing myself into an unknown danger without backup. Still, the question remained. Spiritual Guardian? I didn't have one. At least, I didn't think I did. It wasn't like I was some seasoned exorcist or shrine maiden. I had barely been in this world long enough to understand its rules. If I attempted to summon a guardian and failed, what then? Would I just be wasting time?
I chewed on my lip, my eyes drifting down to the next option.
▶ Gradual Cleansing (Low Risk - Slow Efficiency)
It was the safest choice. It carried the lowest risk, which meant it should be the obvious answer. A slow but steady approach, minimizing any immediate dangers. That was the logical thing to do, wasn't it? The shrine had warned us that the corruption was nearly complete and would reach its tipping point in two weeks. If I started gradual cleansing now, I could at least delay it, maybe even push back against the corruption entirely. I just had to be patient, careful.
It made sense. It should work.
Taking a deep breath, I reached forward, hovering my hand over the gradual cleansing option. The floating interface shimmered beneath my fingertips as I prepared to select it. But just before I could touch the screen, a sudden blur of movement caught my attention.
With an urgent yip, Ai leaped up and clamped her tiny teeth around my hand, not hard enough to hurt, but firm enough to stop me in my tracks. My breath caught as she tugged my hand sideways, away from the gradual cleansing option, guiding it instead toward Invoke Spiritual Guardian.
"Ouch!" I yelped, wincing at the sharp bite. Ai's small frame belied her surprising strength. Her jaws clamped onto my hand with enough force to make me flinch. Before I could even think to pull away, she twisted her head, slamming my hand down against the glowing interface.
A sharp ping echoed through the shrine.
The moment my fingertips brushed against the Invoke Spiritual Guardian option, the entire interface pulsed, sending out a ripple of golden light. The air grew thick with an unseen pressure, like a storm about to break. The surrounding shrine walls groaned, the ancient wood creaking as if something deep within the structure had just awakened.
Yuzu's ears shot up, her fur standing on end. "Bery, Bery bad feeling!" she stammered, her tails fluffing out like startled pom-poms.
Ai let go of my hand, quickly retreating behind me, her small body trembling. I clenched my fingers, still feeling the lingering sting of her bite, but there was no time to dwell on it.
Because the shrine was changing.
The floating symbols from the interface shattered into motes of gold, scattering like fireflies. The altar at the center of the shrine flared with an eerie light, its stone surface splitting open as a deep, resonant hum filled the air. Then, from within the fractured altar, something began to emerge. Something old, powerful, and undeniably aware of our presence.
A lifeless young girl emerged from the altar, her small frame suspended in midair as if weightless. She wore a simple yellow cardigan, her blonde hair gently swaying despite the lack of wind. At first glance, she appeared to be no older than an elementary schooler, fragile, delicate. Yet, something was terribly wrong.
There was no warmth in her expression. No rise and fall of her chest. No flicker of recognition in her vacant, glassy eyes. She wasn't standing, wasn't breathing, just floating above the cracked stone altar, an unmoving doll trapped in time. Then, without warning, her form began to waver.
Like mist caught in the morning light, her body flickered, shifting from solid to translucent. The edges of her figure blurred, unraveling like threads of golden silk until she was no longer a girl at all, but a pulsing orb of radiant energy. A gentle hum resonated through the shrine as the orb trembled in place, hovering above the altar for the briefest of moments before darting forward.
Straight toward Ai.
Ai's body jerked the instant the light connected. Her fur bristled, her tiny frame tensing as if gripped by an unseen force. Her eyes, once suddenly flared into a rich, luminous gold, burning with an intensity far beyond anything I'd ever seen from her before. The golden aura coiled around her like a second skin, wrapping her in a delicate, shimmering glow.
For a heartbeat, everything was still.
Then, Ai opened her mouth, and a voice, not her own, spoke.
"…Mashiro."
"Ai…" I said softly, then raised my voice in disbelief. "Do not eat people!"
The golden glow surrounding Ai pulsed faintly, almost as if startled by my outburst. She remained rigid, her tiny nine-tailed body still, golden eyes unblinking as she stared straight ahead.
"Bery shocking," Yuzu muttered, inching slightly behind me. Her black ears flicked in alarm, her tails fluffing up defensively. "Ai bery eat people now?"
"I-I don't know!" I stammered, my gaze darting between the small fox and the altar where the girl had been. "I don't think she ate her, but," I jabbed a finger toward Ai, "she totally just absorbed that girl like a power-up in a video game!"
Ai, or whatever had taken hold of her, finally reacted. Her many tails flicked in perfect unison, the motion eerily controlled. Tilting her head slightly, she studied me. Too smooth, too precise, not at all like the playful little fox I knew. Then, she blinked, and the golden aura surrounding her dimmed just a little.
"…Consumption was not the intention," the voice spoke again, layered and echoing, carrying a maturity far beyond Ai's usual childish yips. "Merging was necessary."
I swallowed hard. "Merging…?"
Ai, or the entity within her, closed her eyes for a brief moment. The golden light wavered, flickering like candlelight caught in a breeze. Her fur shimmered as if dusted with stardust, her tiny form outlined by a faint, ethereal glow. When she opened her eyes again, the tension in her small body eased ever so slightly.
"My name… is Lumi."
The moment she uttered that name, a gust of warm air swept through the shrine. The wooden beams groaned softly, and for the first time since we had entered, the oppressive weight in the air lifted ever so slightly. The suffocating, inescapable sense of corruption that had clung to the atmosphere felt weaker, even if only by a fraction.
Yuzu's ears twitched, her tails curling around her like a shield. "Bery ghost fox…?"
I exhaled, running a hand through my hair as I tried to process everything. "Okay, okay, wait. Let's just… take a second here." I focused on the small nine-tailed fox before me. Ai still looked like Ai, same soft fur, same little frame, but those glowing eyes held something much older within them. "Ai is still Ai, right? You are just… sharing a body now?"
Lumi or Ai, I still was not sure which name I should use, nodded once. "Correct. My spirit has fused with hers. A vessel was necessary for manifestation."
I shot a glance at Yuzu, who looked equally baffled.
"…This is way weirder than a normal exorcism, right?"
"Bery, bery much," Yuzu confirmed, ears drooping slightly.