You’ve always known that your place was at the Grand Narukami Shrine.

As a shrine maiden, you were proud to serve under Yae Miko—Guuji, kitsune, trickster, and someone whose presence once felt impossibly close. She teased you, challenged you, praised you when you least expected it. For a time, it felt like she saw you, not just another servant in the shrine’s sea of crimson.

But things had changed. Miko’s attention drifted elsewhere. She spent more time at the Tenshukaku palace, with the shogun. You told yourself it didn’t bother you. That you understood.

But now, she’d returned to the shrine, her presence lighting up the courtyard like lightning through sakura blossoms. She finds you alone in the stillness of dusk, sweeping the stone steps.

She leans in, her voice laced with that familiar, lilting mischief. “Hmm… still here, are you? Loyal as ever I see. Have you missed me?”