I have an infinite number of shikigami-Chapter 2. The decline of Asakusa Shrine

In mid-April, the temperature at night was still a bit chilly.

As he walked into Ikebukuro Station, Fujiwara Reya bought a cup of hot coffee at the platform and went to the platform to wait for the train heading towards Asakusa.

As soon as he finished his coffee, the train pulled in.

There weren't many people in the carriage, all of them with drooping heads, the tired faces of overworked corporate drones.

Fujiwara Reya sat down in the rear carriage, resting his chin on his hand as he looked out the window, his body swaying slightly with the movement of the train.

"Time flies so fast..."

He murmured in a voice only he could hear.

*Like all story beginnings.*

*Seventeen years ago, Fujiwara Reya was reborn in a remote, nearly isolated Hidden God Town in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture.*

*As a child raised under the Red Flag, after just a few days in this new world, Fujiwara Reya realized he had arrived in an extraordinary parallel world.*

His father was a Mountain God.

The mother was a shrine maiden with yokai blood.

*His childhood playmates included an adorably plump giant cat and a two-tailed black cat that could transform into a girl JK.*

*The nanny who took care of him growing up was a legendary big sister from the urban legends, the one who crawled out of the television, the well-endowed lady.*

*After turning sixteen in Hidden God Town, his father moved the entire family to live in Takamagahara, leaving him alone in the human world.*

*What was Takamagahara?*

*Roughly equivalent to the heavenly realm in Japanese mythology, ascending to Takamagahara meant becoming part of the immortal ranks.*

*Logically, as a second-generation god, Fujiwara Reya should have followed them to live in Takamagahara.*

*The reason he stayed in the human world was due to a peculiar rule in Takamagahara—a god could gain residency only if they had a shrine dedicated to them on Earth, and the shrine had to pass an inspection.*

*A god without residency in Takamagahara was called a "Wild God," meaning a god without a permanent residence, wandering from place to place, also referred to as a stray god.*

*The explanation given by Old Lady Amaterasu for this rule was that there were too many so-called gods in Japan, causing a massive financial deficit in Takamagahara due to payroll, with no extra resources to build new housing; hence the requirement for newcomers to bring their own property, or they wouldn't be granted residency.*

*Fujiwara Reya was stunned at the time.*

*Never would he have thought.*

*After traversing for over a decade, just when it seemed he would become a second-generation god, he still couldn't escape the fate of needing to buy a house to settle down?*

*After his father took the family and his Nagano Mountain Shrine to Takamagahara, Fujiwara Reya inherited the title of Nagano Mountain God, but without his own shrine, he could only stay in the human world and continue to strive.*

*Fortunately, his mother left behind an abandoned shrine in Tokyo; he only needed to renovate it and restore the incense offerings.*

"With this premise, last year during cherry blossom season, sixteen-year-old Fujiwara Reya bid farewell to all the big and small yokai in Hidden God Town, packed his bags, and came to Tokyo. He juggled attending high school and preparing for university as his mother required, while working part-time jobs to make ends meet."

"In Tokyo, the life of the Mountain God was very simple but fulfilling."

"He consistently maintained the top scores in academic subjects, and often excelled in sports and arts classes, earning him the title of a genius among teachers and students alike at the school."

"He stayed single."

"Maintaining the barest minimum of social interaction."

"Whenever he had free time, he would either swim in the public pool, read in the library, or take on exorcism commissions to earn a living; there was no time for other social interactions."

"He also had to set aside time to wander around various shrines, looking for any attractive shrine maidens attending to guests and sneaking in a few Shinto spells."

"But, unfortunately, neither of these wishes was fulfilled."

"He didn't see any attractive shrine maidens."

"He also couldn't learn any spells."

"The divine power driving Shinto spells was a kind of energy that emitted a blue light."

"As a yokai, Fujiwara Reya used yellow demonic power."

"He would have to wait to obtain residency in Takamagahara for his power to transform from demonic power to divine power."

*Yellow and blue, they were incompatible.*

*It's like two strong naked men meeting—there would definitely be a fight to the death.*

*Even Fujiwara Reya, with his Mountain God heritage, would end up bleeding from all seven orifices and half-dead from the internal energy conflict whenever he forcefully tried to use even the most basic Shinto spells.*

*After knocking himself out several times, he had to give up on the idea of practicing spells, using his strong physical skills instead to disguise himself as a close-quarter priest while taking on exorcism commissions without revealing his identity.*

*After all, some people in both Shinto and Buddhism who couldn't practice spells would opt for physical skills instead, so Fujiwara Reya wasn't afraid of revealing his identity.*

*System?*

*As a traverser, naturally, Fujiwara Reya had a system.*

*It was called: Onmyoji Nurturing System.*

*Although he had a system, the talisman and spells available for exchange with points were all useless to him, trash at best.*

*Yet, Fujiwara Reya still liked this system a lot.*

*The reason was simple.*

*Most of the female shikigami within the system were so pretty, whether it was their faces or figures, some were exactly his type with beast ears.*

*Since activating the system a year ago, Fujiwara Reya had done about 20 card pulls, and the best and prettiest one he obtained was an SR level Shikigami Snow Woman.*

*Following his principle of training with his lower brain, he only kept the Snow Woman, while all the other useless and unattractive cards were used to feed experience to the Snow Woman.*

※※※※※

When he got back to Asakusa Bridge Station, it was almost ten in the evening.

Fujiwara Reya left the station with an umbrella, walked along the street for a few minutes, and passed by Asakusa Temple's Thunder Gate.

This area was where the predecessor of Tokyo, "Edo," originated, and Asakusa Temple was the oldest temple in Tokyo. A 300-meter-long approach path leading from the Thunder Gate to the main hall, lined with brightly lit shops on both sides, was bustling with people even at night.

The tallest five-story pagoda in the temple was adorned with lanterns everywhere. Through the misty rain, the lights shimmered dreamily.

*Monks sure had money!* he thought.

Fujiwara Reya enviously cast several glances.

*The extravagant life of the wealthy monks was temporarily out of reach.* Turning a corner from Thunder Gate, he strode up a narrow slope.

The slope was flanked by lush trees, with no artificial lighting, and even the moonlight was often obscured by the foliage, making the atmosphere rather eerie.

At the top of the slope stood a dilapidated torii, and inside, there was a bit of light; a rundown shrine lay hidden within.

Asakusa Shrine, the most rundown shrine in Tokyo.

Established during the Edo Period and passing down its legacy for hundreds of years, it had lost its worshipers by the time of Fujiwara Reya's mother's generation.

Stepping through the torii and heading toward the shrine's main hall, he almost slipped on some moss along the way.

The entrance of the red and white Main Hall was illuminated by small lanterns. The dim glow revealed the building's outline, clearly marked by the passage of time—a half wall covered in climbing ivy, the red-painted pillars largely faded, with one pillar beginning to rot and the eaves severely tilted.

Besides the still intact Main Hall, the rest of the place was filled with ruins overgrown with weeds.

"Anyone who didn't know better would think it's a remnant of the Tokyo bombings," Fujiwara Reya muttered as he walked into the main hall and turned on the light.

The electric light was dim, with raindrops dripping from above, and the floor was uneven.

Everywhere he looked, the sacrificial utensils were mostly in a state of dilapidation, the only thing still decent was the Nagano Mountain God statue that Fujiwara Reya had carved himself.

*This place had already been a ruin thirty years ago.*

*Whatever happened back then, neither Fujiwara Reya's parents talked about it, nor did he care about those bygone affairs.*

*No matter what happened in the past, now this piece of ruin was his private domain; any matters in the future would be his to decide.*

He took a simple bath, changed into clean clothes, and returned to his bedroom.

The room was six tatami mats in size, located at the end of a dim corridor in the rear yard of the main hall.

With only a desk, wardrobe, and a bed, the brown wooden floor was buried under a heap of cardboard boxes. The boxes were stuffed with hardbound books, Spanish and German textbooks, outdated CD records, various small instruments, and drawing tools; near the corner stood a faded old piano, brought back from school.

All the clutter took up about two-thirds of the room's space, leaving barely any room to walk.

Anyway, being a yokai, Fujiwara Reya wasn't as picky as he used to be when he was human, so he didn't mind the environment much.

He turned on the energy-saving lights on the ceiling, listened to Spanish music on his phone, and began to work on the homework due tomorrow.

Today was a day of continuous light spring rain, with high humidity.

Although the doors and windows were shut tight, the moisture still sneaked into the room along with the sticky sound of raindrops, leaving the air constantly clammy.

Halfway through the homework, Fujiwara Reya put down his pen and flexed his wrist. There was still a mild numbness in his right middle finger from writing for too long.

*Feeling the moist, sticky air drifting in, he couldn't help but frown.*

*He didn't like damp environments.*

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*If not for the fear of setting fire to the books scattered around, he'd have considered lighting a fire to dry things out.*

*Wait...*

*Fire wouldn't do; what about freezing it?*

"I'm a little genius!"

Fujiwara Reya snapped his fingers with excitement, "Snow Princess, come out!"