Rikya looked at Ichi intently. Ichi felt like he had to be the one to lead the conversation.

"Hi, I'm Ichi, from school, and this is our first time meeting but-"

"Yes!" Rikya's face lit up. Nodding, she urged Ichi to continue.

Ichi looked around the shrine, and the little girl in front of him. Behind him there was pitch black. Myon had to be somewhere there, Ichi thought.

"-and I'm here to see the witch."

"To~?" Rikya kept nodding. She drew out of her voice on purpose.

"Learn to crush." Ichi said.

Rikya walked over, wielding a wand that looked like it was made out of plastic. Her came up to right over Ichi waist. She reached with the wand and knocked Ichi on the forehead.

"I've been waiting to talk to you for so long, both of us, and that's all you've got to say?" Rikya laughed.

"You're very cute." Ichi waved his hand at Rikya, trying to smile. Ichi ignored the 'both of us'. Sounded like trouble.

Rikya pulled Ichi by the hand. Ichi went with the girl in the witch costume as she headed straight for the shrine with the huge rope encircling it.

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"We're not going in there, are we?" Ichi asked.

"We have to go there. How would you meet my friend otherwise? Unless, you want to break the seal?"

"No way, whatever spirit is in there looks really bad if it needs a rope this big to seal it."

Rikya turned back at him with a sour face.

"She's on your side. The least you could do is break the seal." Rikya tapped Ichi on his forehead a few more times.

Are all kids like this? Ichi felt annoyed. Myon should have said something more besides "Ichi wants to come over and play!" Then, Myon told Ichi nothing. The fragile trust through skinship and daily beatings Myon had been building the past couple days was waning.

Rikya lead him under the rope, big smile on her face, as she slid open the shrine door and urged Ichi inside. Ichi looked into the pitch black room and grimaced. Trudging in, Ichi felt Rikya run behind him to his front. The door slid shut behind him, and brazier across the room lit up with warm red and orange glows. Shadows danced around, and as Rikya sat in front of Ichi, Ichi in Rikya's shadow tons of huge bushy tails with jagged lines of hairs around their edges.

Rikya opened a minifridge in the back, pulling out a tray she prepared in advance. She walked over, serving Ichi some cold herbal tea in a sphere glass and put some packaged snacks down around him. Then she carried the rest over to where she sat.

"Okay!" Rikya called out, to someone besides Ichi.

Bushy tails spread out from Rikya, too many to count. At the tip of the tails there was a spot of white, the rest of the undulating tails were golden. One fox ear popped out of Rikya's head, and the eye below that ear turned golden.

"This is called half possession. You've done it before, right, Miko?"

Ichi felt the cat well up within him. This was the first time in a few days Ichi felt her speak to him, ever since Miko possessed him to hide from Renya.

"Let me talk to the fox." Miko said.