While I wait to see if there's any requests for continuations of my other stories, I figured I'd share this other idea I got. This is another that takes more of an anime style to it... even to the point of being set in (fictional) Japan. Hopefully I'm starting to get a little better.

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It was late March, just barely Spring. The air was cool and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. A beautiful young woman stood at the foot of the local shrine's stairway, taking a deep breath of the crisp morning air. She was one of the shrine's maidens, evidenced by the traditional white haori and red hakama she wore.

She turned towards the entrance of the shrine, the sun brilliantly shining off her long black hair as it blew slightly in the Spring breeze. That hair was tied with red ribbons that matched her garb well, set in a manner that allowed her hair to fall into two sets of tails on either side, one falling over the front of her shoulders, and one behind.

After a brief moment of taking in the scene, she headed into the haiden¹. Inside, she was stopped by a brown-haired man dressed in a collar shirt and slacks, both black. He had a brown trench coat on over his attire. "Ah, Kagami, there you are," he said to her.

The young woman, Kagami, looked at the man inquisitively. "Mr. Hatori... is there something you needed?"

Jin Hatori was a good friend of the head priest of the shrine and as such, often paid visits. He knew all priests, priestesses, and maidens of the shrine quite well. "You'll be participating in today's Kagura dance, correct?" he asked.

The shrine maiden nodded. "Yes, this afternoon. I was going to go prepare."

The brown-haired man handed Kagami a small pouch that was tan in color, closed by a drawstring. "Here. I want you to take this... for good luck."

She took the bag, appearing puzzled. "For luck...? It's just an ordinary ritual. What's in here anyway?"

She began to open the pouch, lowering her head to look into it, but Jin's gaze stopped her and she looked back up. The two sets of brown eyes stared at each other for a brief moment. Kagami was perplexed by how serious the man looked right now.

"Never take anything for granted, Kagami," he simply said. Something about his words felt ominous to her. She couldn't shake this bad feeling now coming over her.

Jin left Kagami with that mysterious statement. She extracted the contents of the small pouch, pulling out a necklace. She thought it was odd and did not understand the purpose of Jin's gesture. Still, she figured she would at least try it on for now.

Kagami Maboroshino was about to find out just how good Jin's advice was.

~~~~~~

Kagami was making preparations for the ceremony that afternoon when she heard a scream. It sounded like one of the other shrine maidens. She quickly ran towards the direction of the yell to see what appeared to be a portal of some sort in the middle of the temple. It was spherical and had a black color to it with what looked like purplish energy coursing through. Something was crawling through the portal. It appeared to be some sort of demonic creature, brown in color, with many tentacle-like appendages. The other maiden, a young woman short brown hair, turned to Kagami, a look of horror upon her face. "What's happening?!" she cried.

"I can't say I know," Kagami admitted. "We haven't yet performed the cleansing ceremony, but I can't imagine that demons would really come here. Something's amiss." She felt every bit as panicked as her fellow shrine maiden acted now but she had to try and keep her cool. It wouldn't do them any good if they both were hysterical.

"Demons?!" questioned the distressed shrine maiden. "I thought that ritual was just tradition. There's not really such a thing as demons, is there?"

Before Kagami could even think about how she would answer that question, the monster reached out a tentacle and wrapped it around the frightened girl. She cried out again, struggling to free herself to no avail. Her legs flailed as she was lifted high into the air. Kagami's expression hardened as she watched. I've got to do something, she thought.

She grabbed a purification staff that was leaning up against the near wall and ran towards the demon. She then swung it as a weapon, smacking it on the head. This did not seem to have much effect on the monster, however. It just swatted her aside, knocking her to the ground on her rear.

It next reached out another tentacle before she could recover and wrapped it around her neck, lifting her up just as it did with the other shrine maiden.

She gasped for air as the tentacle began to squeeze.

She was just about to give up her futile struggle against the beast when the pendant around her neck began to glow. The red stone became very bright as it let off intense light. It felt hot against her chest, like a light bulb heating up.

The grip around her next quickly began to loosen as the creature dropped her to the wooden floor below. She hit it with a thud, immediately holding her throat and breathing heavily.

The monster also dropped Kagami's comrade, seemingly hurt from the light. It began to back away, disappearing into the portal that spawned it. The two shrine maidens watched curiously as the portal faded away behind the demon.

Kagami's concern immediately shifted to the well-being of her brown-haired friend. "Miko! Are you all right?" she called out.

Miko, whose name was ironically fitting for what she did², looked over at Kagami, obviously still shaken up by the recent events. "Y-yes..." she barely managed to sputter from her lips. "I think... but how did you get rid of that thing? It's like you have some crazy, supernatural powers!"

Kagami's facial expression showed a hint of worry before she tried to laugh off the comment. "No, nothing like that. To be honest, I don't even know what happened myself. I think it had to do with this necklace I received earlier today." She took off the necklace to show Miko. The stone was back to normal, no longer glowing, and barely retaining any of its former warmth. "I'm sure I didn't have much to do with it."

All Kagami knew for certain was that the strange necklace she received earlier that day had something to do with this. Why would Jin just have happened to give that to her the day it was needed? Did he know something? These were things she had to find out. She decided that she would attempt to do some research on the necklace for the time being and then question Jin when she next saw him.

~~~~~

It had been a week since the incident and Kagami still had not seen Jin again. There were so many things she wanted to ask him. It was frustrating her. She tried to do research on her own, but she didn’t know the first place to look. No books available to her contain any valid information on demons or mysterious pendants. Her search seemed futile.

She couldn’t spend all of her free time worrying about that, however. There were things that needed to be done. For one, she needed some food, so it was time to head to the store. She dressed casually for this, of course, wearing a crimson blouse, a black skirt that did not quite reach her knees, and knee-length black stockings. Her hair was down, reaching her lower back now. She certainly looked a bit different when not working at the shrine.

Kagami was fairly organized, always writing down what she planned to purchase before going to the store. She made sure to scan over the list frequently as she pushed her cart along inside the local supermarket. “Let’s see… I need some more rice…” she said to herself as she moved through the aisles. She looked over at the price tags, grabbing a bag that was on sale for 3000 yen, and placing it in her cart.

I also should pick up some bentou boxes for a quick meal. The fried squid at this store is pretty good, she remembered.

She traversed through the various aisles of the store, picking out what she needed.

Loaf of bread, eggs, milk, udon noodles, negi³, beef cubes, and some potatoes should do it. I still have plenty of drinks at home.

Once she had found everything she wanted, she got in line and waited for her purchases to be rung up by the cashier. “That’ll be five thousand, three hundred twenty-six yen,” he said to her after totaling the order. Kagami nodded and handed the cashier a five thousand and one thousand yen bill. He made change and returned to her. She then bagged her groceries and headed home.

On the way back, Miko snuck up behind her, wrapping her arms around Kagami’s chest and startling her. “Gah! Don’t do that! I almost dropped my food. I have eggs in here, you know!” Kagami complained. She felt a strange mixture of shock and anger swirling around through her.

“No, I don’t. I must have missed the day when I became a mind reader. But hey, I’m just saying hello,” Miko said in a teasing manner.

“You have an odd way of doing it,” Kagami told her in an annoyed tone.

“What’s wrong with giving you a big hug of appreciation?” Miko questioned. “You saved my skin the other day.”

Kagami was bothered that Miko brought this up again. She didn't want to be made out to be someone special over that incident. “I told you I didn’t do anything. What can a normal person do against a demon anyway?”

Miko sighed and waved a hand around in the air. “I know… you said it was that weird pendant you were given, right? Well, just you being there was enough, I guess. That’s still something to be thankful for.”

Kagami shook her head, her voice sounding a bit bitter. “Somehow I think you’re just making an excuse to grope me…”

Miko giggled. “Oh, did my hands go there? I guess it’s kind of hard to avoid with big ones like that. What are you? C? D?”

Kagami began to sound very annoyed, but looked rather flustered. That wasn't something she wanted to hear... especially not from another girl. “That’s none of your business!” she scolded.

“Ooh… touch-y.”

Kagami looked down at the ground, her tone becoming softer and harder to hear. “Besides…I think you’re really over exaggerating them.”

Miko held out her hands, palms up. “So sue me. You’ve gotta admit that you don’t see puppies that size in Japan that often. Usually just from foreigners. You’re a lucky girl, Kagami.”

“I don’t really think that much about it. But I’m sure it’s not hard to stand out next to someone small-chested like you,” she responded. She knew that was kind of cold but Miko deserved it. She considered this payback.

Miko puffed her cheeks. “So you DO think I’m flat!”

Kagami merely shrugged as she continued walking home. “You’re the one who started this conversation. Don’t blame me for how it ended up.”

Miko followed her friend, seeming to have already gotten over the issue of her chest. “Need help carrying any of that?”

Kagami shook her head. “I think I can manage. It’s only two bags.”

“Yeah, well one’s better than two, right? C’mon. Gimme one,” Miko demanded.

“It’s alright. Really,” Kagami insisted.

Miko was persistent, though. “Don’t be like that. Hand it over.”

Kagami knew she couldn't get her friend to change her mind. She would have to give in. “Fine.” She handed Miko the lighter of the two bags. Miko, lifted it up and down a few times, noticing the lack of weight. She then frowned a bit.

“There’s barely anything in this bag! Let me carry the other one,” She motioned with her hand to receive the other bag, waving it over.

Kagami looked a bit concerned. “This one’s kind of heavy. I’m probably best off carrying it myself.”

Miko put a hand on her hip, obviously dissatisfied with this response. “What? You think I’m weak or something?”

“No, it’s just-“ but before Kagami could finish responding, Miko grabbed the heavier bag. Her arm immediately dropped to the ground upon freeing it from Kagami’s hands, however.

Miko's eyes widened a bit and she complained, “Yikes! What’s in this thing???”

“Ten kilograms of rice and two liters of milk,” the black-haired shrine maiden replied.

“Haven’t you ever heard of equal weight distribution?” Miko questioned.

Kagami's patience with her friend was thinning. “Do you expect me to put heavy items like that in the same back as my eggs or bread? Besides, you’re the one who forcefully took it. Don’t complain to me. I was fine carrying it myself.” With that, she took both bags back and headed home.

“Oh, come on… Kagami! Don’t be like that…” Miko halfheartedly called after Kagami, but did not pursue.

Kagami let out a sigh of relief once she put her bags down inside her home. “That Miko can be so airheaded at times…”

Kagami found herself bursting into laughter as she thought back on how Miko persistently tried to carry the heavy bag and her failure to do so.

After taking a quick breather, Kagami worked on putting her groceries away. She had to begin preparing dinner soon. She decided she was going to make something quick and simple. She wanted to get it out of the way as soon as she could so she could go back to trying to figure out the mystery of her pendant.

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Footnotes:
¹A haiden is like an oratory for Shinto temples
²"Miko" is the Japanese term for a shrine maiden.
³"Negi" is the Japanese equivalent of a scallion