Chapter Ninety-Four: The Limited-Time Return of Shrine Maiden Ito Shin-e

As An He and Amamiya Sagiri were locked in an affectionate gaze, a flash went off and a crisp click rang out.

Turning toward the sound, they saw Amamiya Saori, somehow already holding a camera and aiming it at them.

When the two looked over, Saori lifted her head, blinked, and said excitedly, "Do it again. I missed the shot just now."

At that, An He could not help smiling as he looked at Sagiri Amamiya. Her face went even redder, and she hurriedly tried to refuse, but before she could speak, An He leaned in once more.

"Mmm..."

Her lips were sealed. Sagiri pushed at him a few times, but when she saw it was useless, she simply stopped resisting, closed her eyes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and began to kiss him back.

The camera kept clicking.

This time, they stayed like that for a full few minutes before finally parting.

Sagiri's face was burning red, her eyes misty with moisture, and she panted in small, rapid breaths. Her red lips, lit by the sunlight, shimmered with a faint, crystalline sheen.

Click!

Another shutter sounded.

Seeing the look Sagiri had just worn in the photograph, Saori could not help covering her mouth and giggling.

This was the first time she had ever seen her sister make such a lewd expression.

"Come to think of it, Big Sis looked like she was really enjoying that just now..."

For some reason, Saori found herself thinking of last night and that bold act of her own.

She knew no one else was around, but to lie naked against a man and even take the initiative to kiss him...

In an instant, crimson flood her delicate face.

Looking again at the pair kissing in the photo, Saori unconsciously pressed her legs together, rubbing them lightly as she licked her dry pink lips.

Desire was growing. Amamiya Saori had already fallen into your grasp; next, all that remains is to wait until late tonight, when the world is deep and silent, and peel her open little by little to savor her...

The narration that suddenly sounded in his mind made An He glance at Saori.

Coincidentally, she was looking at him as well. Their eyes met for a moment, and they exchanged a tacit smile without saying a word.

After a short rest, the three set off again.

They advanced slowly along the snow-covered road. With every step, the snow gave a soft rustling sound beneath their feet. Even lifting a leg required effort, because the soles of their shoes sank easily into the soft snow.

They had gone on like this for more than an hour when, at last, a staircase buried in white snow, showing only the faintest outline, appeared before them.

"Are we... there yet?" Saori bent forward with her hands on her knees and panted as she asked.

For a young lady like her, who had almost never done any hard labor and had never even taken part in a sports day, climbing a mountain was no different from undergoing a heavenly trial.

An He naturally thought of this as well. He took a bottle of water from his backpack and handed it over.

"Have some. Let's push through a little longer. Once we reach the shrine, we can rest."

Though reluctant, Saori still nodded and accepted the bottle.

An He then handed one to Sagiri as well.

She was panting too, only not nearly as badly as Saori.

After a brief rest, the three began ascending the stone steps. It took them several minutes to finish less than a hundred meters of stairs.

At the top, the first thing they saw was a torii gate built of red wood. Beyond it lay a broad corridor, and on both sides, every few meters, stood a withered tree hung with wooden plaques tied by red cords.

Farther ahead was the shrine's main hall. Before the hall, a girl dressed in a white down jacket with the hood up was holding a broom and clearing away the snow.

She seemed to notice their arrival as well. After a slight pause, she hurried over at a trot.

When she reached them, she stopped, bowed to everyone first, and then asked, "May I ask if you have come to pray?"

An He nodded.

Seeing that, the girl breathed a sigh of relief and bowed again. Her tone was full of apology. "I am terribly sorry. There has been so much snow these past few days that the chief priest assumed no one would come, so the stone steps were not cleared."

"It's fine."

An He waved it off, then drew the Amamiya sisters closer and continued, "Could you find us a place to rest first?"

"Of course."

As she spoke, the girl stepped aside and made an inviting gesture.

"Please follow me to the purification pavilion first."

"All right."

An He nodded, then led the Amamiya sisters after her toward the side of the shrine.

Purification meant using the small ladle provided there to draw clean water from the basin and simply wash one's hands and rinse one's mouth.

Following the girl for a while, the three arrived in an open courtyard with no walls. In the center stood four stone pillars slanting inward, and beneath them was a wooden water basin containing ladles and clean water.

First, one holds the ladle in the right hand to draw water and wash the left hand, then switches to the left hand to wash the right. After that, the ladle is held in the right hand again, and a little water is poured into the left palm to rinse the mouth. The left hand is then washed again. Finally, the ladle is stood upright so the remaining water runs down the handle, which is also washed in the process, and at last the ladle is returned to its place.

The whole procedure was extremely fussy. At the very least, Saori only managed it correctly after the girl explained it three times.

Once all three had finished cleansing themselves, the girl offered a warm smile and asked, "Would you like to rest first, or go to the worship hall first?"

Hearing that they could rest, Saori's eyes lit up at once. Almost without thinking, she said, "Of course, let's rest firs..."

"Let's go to the worship hall first."

An He suddenly cut in, forcibly interrupting Saori.

In Japan, when people visit a shrine, they generally first purify their hands and mouths at the water pavilion before going to the worship hall, with its roof corners raised on both sides, and offering their prayers by dropping a coin into the offering box.

That was why An He interrupted her.

But Saori clearly did not know this, and she only thought he was deliberately teasing her. As a result, she kept her lips pursed and looked sulky all the way there.

When everything was finally done, the girl led An He and the other two to an open parlor.

This was the shrine office, ordinarily used as a workspace for shrine staff, though occasionally travelers would also rest here.

After settling them in, the girl took her leave. She still had to clear the snow in front of the main hall.

No sooner had the girl left than another figure entered from outside.

It was a middle-aged man in his thirties, wearing a black kimono. His hairline was a little high. When he saw An He and the others, he clearly startled, then exclaimed in surprise, "You're travelers?"

"Yes."

An He nodded.

At that, the middle-aged man gave an embarrassed laugh and scratched his head.

"Oh, what a terrible oversight on my part. I thought no one would be coming to pray these days, so I didn't have anyone clear the snow from the stone steps."

As he spoke, he sat down casually across from An He and introduced himself.

"My name is Shinichi Miyamoto. I am the chief priest of this shrine. May I ask whether you came to pray for blessings, for love, or simply to sightsee?"

"Is there a difference?"

Sagiri, who had barely spoken since the climb began, suddenly spoke up. It had been her idea to come to the shrine in the first place, so she was clearly very invested in it.

Miyamoto Shinichi nodded and explained, "If you're only here to sightsee, then you'll miss a great many activities. As you know, there is probably no one else here today besides you, and the shrine cannot possibly hold activities without any visitors."

After hearing him out, Sagiri nodded, then looked to An He and asked, "What should we do?"

"What else can we do?" An He blinked, then spread his hands with a light laugh. "Since we've gone to the trouble of coming all this way, naturally we should do everything."

With that, he looked back at Shinichi Miyamoto and said, "Please give us the full shrine experience."

"Certainly."

Miyamoto Shinichi agreed readily.

He would not refuse to carry out the other rituals simply because there were only three guests. In fact, in his eyes, he was never serving the visitors at all, but the deity enshrined here.

Of course, just because he saw it that way did not mean everyone else did.

In another quiet wooden building, when she heard that she would still have to work overtime today for three tourists, Nobue Ito, dressed in the red-and-white robes of a shrine maiden and wearing a flower wreath, felt utterly devastated inside.

And before anyone accuses me of being lazy, let me explain in advance: for certain unavoidable reasons, I have been revising the outline over the past few days, so updates have been sparse. The outline and detailed plan are now both finished, and starting today the updates will become stable again. The schedule will be roughly one chapter in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one at night, with each chapter around four to five thousand words.

End of chapter.