Chapter 371: Kamiko’s first summoning
"Right sorry Kat" said Kamiko "I got a bit side tracked there. I didn't an to spend so much ti talking about ghosts… but I guess it is a little important to the story so it wasn't ti wasted really. Um do you want a drink?"
"I'm fine, I don't really get a parched throat anymore, or at least, I haven't gone long enough without water that it's beco a problem, and I can make ice if I really need. Also, I enjoyed the ghost talk it was informative."
Kamiko smiled and her eyes started to twirl. "That's great to hear. I guess I should start the summoning story then. So, I got called off to this temple you see. In the middle of a massive room filled with… Oh it must have been two hundred people or so? Maybe more, all praying to the circle that I was summoned in.
"The place itself was mostly wooden and stuff, pretty bare, but what was there was spectacular. The support beams, all four of them, were beautifully carved with all sorts of flowers lining it all the way to the top. Actually, wait, I think there was just polished wood until a bit past head height? To keep it away from hands maybe?
"Anyway, the walls on either side had big murals on it. One was of so dude fighting a dragon, I think? Sorry I didn't get to spend long looking at them, and unlike the pillars they didn't stand out that much to . I think the second one was a mountain landscape, though rather stylised if I rember that much.
"They also had this massive bell behind , supported by a couple of stacked wood blocks… I'm not sure why it was like that though, because it wasn't hung up by them, no that would make way too much sense. Instead, they had the bell balancing on them. No idea how they ever actually used the thing.
"Still, I'm getting side tracked again. So, this guy cos up to once I've been summoned, and he has this large black hat and these really colourful robes, and a massive beard. He just sort of looks impressive you know the type?
"So, he walks up to , claps his hands together and bows twice and says… complete nonsense. Now, at the ti, I was freaking out. I thought that my translation ability wasn't working and I was dying inside trying to figure out what I'd done wrong or why I couldn't understand anything he was saying.
"And he was just sort of… looking at after he'd finished like I was supposed to do sothing else. We both sort of just… stared at each other for a while until eventually I start looking around, and then he starts looking rather unimpressed and so more ti passes, and eventually, he turns around and looks at so other guy in the front row.
"Don't rember him, I think he was hidden from view by the big hat guy, and he says, "I think sothing has gone wrong with the ritual" now, of course, I was even more confused. Why did they think sothing had gone wrong, why did my translation work now? Did it need a bit of ti to get whatever language he was speaking in the database or sothing?
"Should I tell him I can understand him now? All sorts of questions are running through my head when the kneeling dude says, "As far as I know the words were correct sir" and the big hat guy says, "Well clearly sothing has gone wrong hasn't it?" so at this point, I'm freaking out, they're freaking out, everyone in the background… is actually pretty chill if I'm being honest, but I was thinking they were also freaking out.
"So I just sort of blurt out sothing like "What the heck are you talking about?" and they look at like I'd just… stabbed soone or sothing? Anyway, they complain a bit about how I didn't respond originally, and I explained that I didn't understand them which for so reason was very confusing.
"Anyway, so it turned out that, oh wait, did I ntion everyone in the crowd was a man? That will be a little more relevant in a second. So anyway, apparently they were happy with what I was wearing because it was close enough to be mistaken for a shrine maiden outfit of their religion, and won are responsible for cleansing places of ghosts.
"Now, at the ti, I had no idea what a shrine maiden was, what they wore, how they acted, or anything at all about ghosts so I sort of looked at them funny, and they asked what the problem was…
"Skipping over the back and forth a bit, it ca out that for so reason no won had been born at that temple in nearly a hundred years at that point, and their previous head shrine maiden, had died about a year before they contacted . Seed really weird, but they also ntioned they were in the middle of nowhere and grew most of their own food and stuff, so it wasn't like they had travellers or guests that would add won to the population.
"Well, I did later find out there was two girls there, but they arrived six months after the last one died and were like… fourteen or so? So they didn't know anything about performing exorcisms.
"Which, that's what I was called for. Apparently they were certain that at least one ghost, maybe more had settled into their temple after the shrine maiden died and that they'd summoned to take care of it.
"Now, you have to understand, at this point I was already confused, and at several points in ti I'd thought that D.E.M.O.N.S had given the wrong job, so instead of doing the sensible thing, of agreeing and trying my best or asking D.E.M.O.N.S if there was a problem or sothing, I started arguing about the fact that I couldn't do it…"
*Wait… sothing has just occurred to . Why do people default to calling it D.E.M.O.N.S in conversation? If what Kamiko has told is true… they don't get access to the system until they are older… so how did they get into the habit of referring to it that way? Surely before they get the system and translation up and running there isn't a difference between D.E.M.O.N.S and demons when you say it… right?*
Kamiko, happily retelling her story, didn't notice Kat's inner turmoil. "Which took a while, and the people still bowing down in the back were clearly getting uncomfortable. And that one guy I didn't see, he spoke up a few tis as well… still bowing and hidden behind big hat guy.
"Well, eventually, I did actually ask D.E.M.O.N.S to go back, but it told that I was capable of completing the mission, and wanted to know if I actually wanted to leave. Well, as you can imagine that threw for a massive loop. So I was then in a bit of a bind. I'd spent like… twenty minutes? Maybe more explaining all the reasons I COULDN'T do this job, only to get told by the highest authority that I really can do it.
"So I'm freaking out. Despite knowing I can do it, I still don't really know how, and it was going to be super awkward to just go and do it. I wanted so badly to just run away and hide, or head back ho…
"But I also knew I'd never live it down if I just left my first summoning without even trying. The triplets would hound for years and Aslena would do that weird disappointing stare thing she can do that makes you feel like sohow you can never recover from the humiliation even when it really wasn't that bad." Kamiko gave off a cute huff, and a slight pout as she thought of her sisters' reactions. "I haven't… exactly ntioned that part to them, so if you could avoid it as well that would be great…
"Anyway, the guys that were arguing with really quickly noticed that I wasn't arguing as strongly anymore, so the hat guy just stopped, looked a bit smug and asked if I was going to do it. So I said to him. "Ok, I will, but know this. I can't do anything about ghosts. I'll try, but I can't touch ghosts" annoyingly, he just scoffed at and said "well of course you can, you're just shy" and… well honestly, I don't see why that was his go to assumption, but I sighed and asked him what was going on, and hoo boy did he look smug when he started to explain all the strange things happening around the temple. A few others joined in throughout his story to add events, or sotis clarify things, but mostly it was hat guy and what he said was…
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