June Bridal [Exorcism]
"Purify and cleanse. By the grace of the gods, protect and bless."
Huh, am I at a shrine?
I can hear someone chanting.
As I managed to open my heavy eyelids, I saw her, Yuri-san, and Rei-san peering down at my face.
"Emu-kun! Are you okay? Do you recognize me?"
She was still in her royal blue wedding dress from the reception, calling out to me with a desperate look on her face.
"Yeah, you're a beautiful bride."
My head felt fuzzy, and I said it while looking right at her.
"Rei-san, Emu-kun is still possessed by the fox spirit. Isn't there some kind of powerful prayer we can use?"
My eyes finally began to focus on the surroundings.
It looked like a small waiting room, and I was lying on a bed against the wall, with several branches of |sakaki| placed on my body.
"I think Emu-san's comment just now was because he saw the bride in front of him."
Yuri-san, standing next to me, poked her side with a smirk.
"I can no longer feel the power of the fox spirit that I felt in this building until just a moment ago. I think he'll be fine."
Rei-san, holding an |onusa| (exorcism wand) in one hand, declared firmly.
I have no memory of anything after seeing the guests off at the reception venue.
"Is that so? Oh, thank goodness. I thought Emu-kun might be possessed by the fox spirit forever and never come back."
Her relieved face looked as if she had wiped away the bridal makeup that had been around her eyes.
Once my consciousness finally returned to normal, Rei-san explained what had happened.
It seems Rei-san had spent the week walking around this building, which was the rehearsal venue, and the nearby shrine to check on the state of the gods. (What exactly was she checking?) According to her explanation, while there were no strange gods, the balance of the gods in the area had been disrupted by a large-scale redevelopment project nearby.
Perhaps it was because they tore down a perfectly usable large athletic field to build a massive new one for the global sports event.
When it was discovered that a couple was going to hold their wedding ceremony at a large shrine with guardian monkeys and host their reception here (the gods see everything), the fox spirit decided to meddle, and that was how it all started.
Since it kept meddling over and over (this was the third rehearsal), perhaps the fox spirit acting as a messenger got carried away.
Rei-san was worried that she would be the next target of the fox spirit, and when she told her, she consulted her uncle and came up with the idea of using the cursed earrings. Those earrings were made as vessels to hold 'intent,' and Rei-san had taken them to a historic shrine to have them blessed to calm the gods, preparing them so she could wear them at the reception.
As expected, the fox spirit possessed her, but thanks to the earrings she was wearing, she returned to normal. Just when we thought 'all's well that ends well,' the fox spirit possessed me at the end of the reception, which was an unexpected turn of events.
The hotel staff who noticed me collapse tried to call 119, but she managed to stop them, had me carried to this room, and Rei-san performed an exorcism, which finally removed the possession.
"So, am I really okay now?"
As someone who was possessed, I'm worried about the future.
"It's a messenger of the gods. Unlike an evil spirit, it won't curse you."
It's convincing when Rei-san, who is training to be a Shinto priestess, says it.
Once I felt relieved, my body started to feel better. Maybe my body felt lighter because the god's attachment was gone.
As I was clearing away the sakaki that had been placed on my body, a dressing staff member knocked and opened the door to check on me.
I replied that I was fine, and she and I went to the changing room. After changing into our own clothes and heading down to the first floor, Yuri-san and Rei-san were outside the entrance, looking up at the sky as if stretching.
When she and I went outside, the mouse-colored rainy season clouds that had covered the sky had disappeared, and white cumulonimbus clouds and the dazzling sun were raising the temperature in the late afternoon.
"Now that I think about it, I've only had breakfast today. Even though there was such a feast right in front of me."
It was the same for me. When you're sitting at the elevated head table and being watched by everyone in the venue, it's hard to eat the delicious food served.
"Since Yuri-chan and Rei-san took care of us today, I'll treat you all. My uncle even gave me money for emergencies."
My uncle does thoughtful things once in a while.
"I'm hungry too, so I agree, but where should we go?"
I've never been to any restaurants around Akasaka, so I don't know.
"I want to be careful with money, so let's go to '"Rengokutei'. We can put it on my uncle's tab there, so we can pay him back when we're successful."
Setting aside what kind of success that would be, no one objected to being able to eat and drink for free, and the four of us began walking toward Akasaka-mitsuke Station along Aoyama Street, with the evening sun at our backs.
Was it just my imagination that I saw the shape of a tail in her shadow on the sidewalk?
(The End)