The Bakemono Project - Ashiarai Yashiki
[lb2]
"A haunted house...?""Yes, exactly."
"But mom..."
"A shrine priestess does more than just pray, dear."
"But what if it's filled with demons...", she whispered, frowning worriedly.
The Priestess laughed haughtily, holding a hand before her mouth as mirth reflected in her eyes. Patting the pouting child in front of her, she chuckled as she squatted to look her daughter straight in the eyes.
"Misaki... If there was any danger of finding demons in there, uncle Yatsu would already have slain them."
"Are you sure?"
"You could ask your uncle."
Uncle Yatsu was not at the shrine currently, doing whatever errand he usually came up with, and her mother would not come with her since she had other duties to attend to. Even then, at her current age, Misaki was far too innocent to question her own mother, and as a young shinobi she guessed she didn't have much right to complain or be scared. She had to grow stronger, develop her skills as diviner of the clan. She just couldn't help herself being a kid, her life already in turmoil by the obnoxious mark in her neck - her mother had been furious when she heard the story, eyes shooting fire to such a point Misaki thought the whole temple would catch fire -, and she had yet to hit puberty. The future truly seemed terrifying all of a sudden.
"Come on now. Make me proud.", her mother said with a comforting smile and a kiss on the front before whispering a 'love you' in her ear. With a feint wag of her tail and a smile, she sighed as if to pick up all of her courage and nodded quietly. She would investigate the haunted house and do whatever she could to ward it against future intrusions. Running off to her own little room, the young kitsune prepared her tools by prescribing a dozen or so ofuda seals. She knew the clan's mantras by heart, knowing that a couple of them would be good to exorcise possible evil spirits, doubting only if her own spiritual power would suffice to push it through. Sticking a couple of incense sticks in her pack, and finishing with a prayer to her favourite Kami, Inari Okami, she assured herself she was ready.
Waving goodbye to the present priests as she ran out the shrine, Misaki reviewed all of the information she'd need. The address, the lack of faith its inhabitants had, the rumours shared around the house, and the fact she'd have to do the ritual around midnight. As she dashed through the streets, neatly hopping over the simplest of obstacles despite her shinto priestess attire, she realised she had no idea what spirit could be tormenting the building. So many different kinds of spirits existed that it was hard to pinpoint right away which one it could be, and though the exclusion of any demonic spirits certainly shortened the list, it was still too long to the inexperienced kitsune to sum them all up.
By the time the last of the sunrays disappeared disappeared behind the horizon, Misaki had arrived at the building in question. Abandoned by its owners and without any other houses nearby, it quietly awaited its new visitor. Misaki found that the house had a sad expression about it, as if it was crying about being haunted in the first place. Blinking against the obvious mind trick, she entered the building. Misaki knelt, taking off her back and picking up a couple of candles to illuminate the house. As she wandered through the house to place the candles, she observed the state of the rooms. They were in complete disarray. The furniture in various rooms had been destroyed as if something big had smashed it. Tables, chairs, beds, it was clear mostly the smaller pieces of the rooms had been suffering the wrath of the spirit, leaving the windows and fireplace rather well preserved in comparison. Once she had finished placing the candles, she lit on a bundle of incense sticks and allowed its smoke to snake its way into the whole house. Lastly, she took out her prescribed ofuda seals. After a brief pause of mental preparation, the kitsune started to recite an exorcising mantra of the Nine Saints. Keeping up the mantra, she wandered through the house to place her ofuda seals in every room, feeling her chakra seep into them to form the beginning of a barrier. As she was about to finish and place the last of her seals, her ears picked up a loud crash in an nearby room.Quickly finishing her ritual, she ran to the place of origin, and halted in her tracks as she saw a giant, ugly foot await her arrival.
"WASH ME!", it bellowed despite not having a mouth. A couple of seconds passed as Misaki blinked in disbelieve. The spirit was a giant foot? Her mind raced to remember its name, but as she stood there, the foot changed its facing, stomping as it did so, its toes now facing the young kitsune. Once more, it bellowed its request to her upon which she nodded and ran to the bathroom to get the necessary tools to clean him. Upon her return to the giant foot, she remembered its name.
"Ashiarai Yashiki"
She allowed herself a soft sigh of relief. This wasn't a demon. The giant foot was a spirit that would only execute its wrath if people didn't do what it asked. By simply washing the foot as requested, which was admittedly quite a chore, it would leave in peace. If the people within the room didn't comply, it would stomp on the room or the house in question until nothing remained, often causing death and misfortune among its inhabitants. However, unlike the common people who couldn't grasp the reasons for such a strange spirit to visit them, the Aikayume were well aware that its visit was related to an act of guilt. The name of the spirit was a wordplay on the symbolic meaning of 'washing one's feet', which meant someone was clearing itself of misdeeds - much in line with the proverbial 'washing ones hand in innocence'.
Knowing what she was dealing with now, Misaki quietly scrubbed the giant foot encrusted in blood and dirt before channelling wind chakra carefully to 'clip' its nails, if she could call it as such. Considering the size of the foot compared to her own petite form, it easily took her a full hour before she was done. Satisfied with the service, the foot grunted in approval and slowly vanished from sight peacefully. She sighed deeply, looking at how dirty her own shinto priest clothes had become and frowned in displeasure. "Of all the spirits in existence, why did it have to be this one?", she thought with a huff as she picked up her candles and incense and left to return home.
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