Kaharu Kahari ran all he could towards the shrine, if he was too late he'd get in trouble. It was supposed to be close to the school, yet Kaharu felt as if he'd run forever in search of his own grave.

Running on the pavement, right next to woods beside him, gave him a feeling of freedom as he passed a surmountable amount of trees.

*Klack*

He stopped quickly and looked to his right, observing a set of stairs leading to seemingly nowhere and introducing those stairs was a large, red torii gate menacingly standing above him with the writing 'Shibunshima Shrine'.

His brief feeling was quickly overturned as a supreme authority came over him. Slightly frustrated, Kaharu spat at the ground and walked towards the gate that led to the sacred.

But before he passed the gate, he pettily took a right turn and justified it by saying to himself

"This way is probably faster."

As he walked through the thick forest, he got a strange feeling.

It was very different from the one he got before with Yusuke, this was more of a cozy feeling he got as he walked through the trees with leaves sometimes hitting him in the head.

The frustration aside, he felt somewhat calm as he walked. But that wasn't all there was to the feeling, Kaharu could sense something else that drew his attention.

Kaharu frantically looked around him, bushes rustling and all.

"Who's there!? Show yourself!"

Being, at this point, used to fights and offensives, Kaharu quickly tried to call out to an ambushing force lurking behind bright-green leaves.

All he got was silence, and his frustration grew.

The forest had gotten into dangerous territory, with the possibility of being burned down.

The feeling of not knowing, of being out of the loop deeply disturbed Kaharu.

- Damn bastards always have to pick a fight, but now they won't show their face. If I continue on, and they ambush me, I'll be in trouble.

But, it's strange.

This place is pretty spacious, yet when I look at the places where the bushes rustle, I don't see anything. But that's impossible, I 100% sense something there.

There's something there, I know it. -

After a couple of seconds of looking around quietly, Kaharu decided to move on even with the risks it entailed.

But Kaharu was surprised to find out that nothing happened as he walked through the forest.

The feeling remained, there was something there and the coziness never surrendered itself. There was more than just coziness though, there was a warm and kind feeling attached as well that felt very raw in its delivery.

As the last leaf hit itself against Kaharu, causing him to rip it from the tree, he looked back in confusion.

But he was whole, that was all that mattered for him and he continued towards the shrine.

Something Kaharu also didn't know was that the route he'd taken was actually longer than the stairs, not counting the time he spent staring at bushes. With that fact, Kaharu got rather surprised when he entered from the shrine's side and found an angry old man running towards him.

The middle-aged Shinto priest approached Kaharu Kaharu and started talking

"Hey, you're Kaharu right?"

Kaharu nodded and said

"Yeah?"

The priest then proceeded to yell

"WHY'RE YOU LATE!? This is serious work, you know!? Don't underestimate it!"

Kaharu felt his nerves get pushed, as he knew the, to him, honorable reason for him being late.

But he also knew that the priest wouldn't believe him if he said anything, not only didn't he have any proof, the priest was also probably judging him from the background details he had gotten and Kaharu's school uniform.

The priest continued with

"Do you want me to tell your parents!?"

Kaharu felt a shock of anger as he grabbed the priest's collar and pulled himself toward him. He didn't say a single thing, instead, he just stared at the priest for a couple of seconds.

He then let him go, after the priest struggled to get released, and said

"I don't."

The priest, having a mix of anger and fear instilled in him, brought out his paper fan and hit Kaharu on the head and said

"You're here to be reformed, Kaharu! Your parents said that you needed divine intervention, so you shall be here in the presence of gods for three hours every day! Now, go! Hurry."

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Kaharu presented a frown as he scratched his hairline, thinking about it. With a shrewd smile, he then said

"So, how much will I get paid for this?"

The old man couldn't believe what he just heard, the sound waves went in through one ear and out of the other. But they then traveled back into his ear again, as he realized that he actually heard what Kaharu said. That his ears hadn't gone fully dysfunctional yet.

He slowly pushed out

"p...aid…?"

Kaharu put on a brilliant smile, as he affirmed his statement with

"Yeah! I'm spending three hours here, so I oughta be paid for it, right? I wonder what the hourly wage is, maybe it'll be like a part-time job. Yeah, that's a good outlook."

The old priest, fuming from inside, took his fan and raised it again. Kaharu looked at it with a puzzled face as a "What…?" was forced out of him.

The pounding started as the priest said

"You really are an ungrateful, spoiled little brat! There is no pay in this! In fact, you are purchasing a service from me. I'm gonna teach you some manners, and you're going to pay me back with gratitude! Now go and change!"

Kaharu felt air drastically get sucked out of him as he stepped back a couple of paces, lazily standing in front of the old man.

As he looked up, he saw the face of a demon in front of him, taunting his face. With the feeling of energy circling around his lungs, he met the demon's eyes and said

"Change, what do you mean?"

The old man stuck out his head again in disbelief, and said

"Have you never been to a shrine before? You never see anyone with a school uniform working here, do you?"

Kaharu stubbornly grabbed his own uniform as he looked up with irritated eyes, he felt vulnerable.

Maybe he'd gone mad, the illusion of gods being present there and the sacred atmosphere mixed with his encounter with a demon had made him vulnerable.

A deep fear that was rooted within him.

He continued to hold his uniform as he made his stand against the demon

"Never! I'm not letting you guys have my uniform, never in a thousand years! I don't care if you rat on me, I won't take it off. You understand?"

The old man stared at the young man holding the uniform as if it was his life at risk for a couple of moments. He got a feeling like he understood Kaharu, on a certain level as he stared at him.

He brought up his fan, and waved it as he said

"Whatever, I'll let you go for now. Just start working, and you better do it fully."

To Kaharu, it looked like the demon had spared him as he fluttered the fan softly in the air, like he was acting like a human with his technical use of a hand. Like he'd gone easy on Kaharu.

He wanted to do something, but due to numerous factors, he imitated the boys' from earlier in spirit and walked away with his tail wailing behind him.

As an observer of the situation, a blonde, blue-eyed girl quietly observed the situation.

A feeling of relief was had by her, as she felt a large tornado just missed her and went elsewhere.

But the shock she experienced when she first saw him hadn't subsided just yet.

To think that the Kaharu Kahari she'd been seeing so much recently was suddenly appearing at the shrine she helped out at was quite an idea itself.

As she was reminded of the previous scene with the kids, she thought that a chance perhaps was there after all.

- He's working here! At this shrine of all places! And he has the same attitude here as well. Maybe, I'll be able to approach him somehow. That been said, how the follow-up to that would look like I have no idea. What would I even say after I approach him? -

Tsukino's mind was racing as she thought about it, she had no idea.

There wasn't an opening for her to attack from, he hadn't shown any positive interest in anything at all. Except for that kid Yusuke.

She thought about some more before she got yelled at for dozing off

"Hey, Tsukino! Don't doze off, you numskull! Get back to work!"

Her superior's voice ringed in her head as she was awoken to the real world again, she quickly responded

"Yes, sorry m' am!"

- Well, I'll make it a goal for now I guess. There is just something interesting there I want to uncover. -

Kaharu, without minding his surroundings, just kept on walking in a very open-legged and hunched-down way, like he usually did. With no specific respect to the place he was at, that wasn't a necessity to him.

He looked up as he saw three statues lined up in front of the main temple.

Two of them depicted a fox, and an older gentleman. But the last one was torn down to its bottom, with only the feet being visible.

Its original form was impossible to deduce, but the feet seemed to indicate that it was something that looked like a person.

As Kaharu passed them he thought

- No wonder the shrine is so obscure. Even the gods here are lame. They're like extra characters, the way there are three of them here at one shrine. One's even broken. -

With those malicious thoughts, contributing with negativity to the shrine's atmosphere, Kaharu walked on.

…

At the most remote place, that's where I was.

With a broom in my hand, I was sweeping the grounds with all the strength I had.

I was a couple of dozen meters from the main temple, near a remote woods that bordered my current placement.

A smile showed itself again, as I continued to sweep the ground and soaked in the atmosphere present. A mental symphony was played as I almost danced around the area I was at, moving my broomstick with the major-keys in the symphony.

But my mood was suddenly turned around as my mind started to wander.

- Damn geezer, I thought I'd be able to make some money while I was here. Isn't this like that--- you know, child labor? Isn't this illegal? I'll curse myself for even enjoying this one second. But, I shall use my full power nonetheless. -

I continued with my peaceful, quiet cleaning.

Even though I would never admit it, it was a nice change of pace from what I usually experienced, especially considering how the past couple of days had interacted with me.

Like a spiteful internet troll, they had spammed me with malicious messages constantly and harassed me.

I was no better in the end, as my messages matched their tone or even included more vulgarity. I blamed not only the trolls, but the messaging app itself.

My attention suddenly shifted as I felt it again, the same feeling I had in the forest first.

But, it was different this time. It didn't have the coziness of the previous forest, nor the warmth. I felt out of place, like I wasn't supposed to be there. I sensed that something was there as well, but its existence also felt strange.

It was cold, like winter had suddenly sprung up from nowhere. There were coziness and warmth there as well, but it was all so remote.

So far away. So cold.

I got angry at the thought of the forest telling me where to go.

I ignored it as I continued to sweep the ground, but it felt as if the feeling came closer.

The coziness and warmth neared me, but the remoteness of it all was only accented as it neared.

I put up my finger with a harsh vigor and yelled at the tree in front of me

"Listen, forest! You're not getting rid of me that way. I'll stay here if I want to, you don't decide that for me."

Weird looks were given by the workers, as the yelling was clearly audible from that place. Especially Tsukino, who saw the action he was doing.

The puzzling look on her face lasted for a minute, but she managed to snap out of it just before a senior started yelling at her. She wanted to do her best at the shrine after all.

As the end of my shift approached, and the amazingly clean ground before me was still being swept, I turned around to the forest and said

"I could stay here for all eternity if I wanted, but my shift is soon over. Don't think you've won with your 'I'm so cold' shtick, I'll be back tomorrow."

Had I lost my mind? Talking to a forest as if it was trying to press me for money.

I didn't think so, there was something very 'alive' with that forest.

I sensed something there. I 100% sensed something there.

There was something there, I could swear.