Fushimi Inari Shrine was a Shinto shrine in Southern Kyoto, and it was known for its thousands of vermilion torii gates. To think I would be walking through said gates with kitsune messengers watching and guiding me.

I could feel that I was a foreign goddess even more clearly here. Each torii, made out of devotion for Inari Ōkami-sama, made me feel like I was losing some strength that I didn’t know I had. Still, the air wasn’t hostile.

The Japanese believed in so many kami-sama after all; one or two more wouldn’t make much of a difference in the eyes of such a powerful one. No, what I felt was a hesitant welcome.

“I thought more people would be around,” I murmured. I hadn’t seen anyone other than kitsune servants starting from when I entered the sacred grounds, welcomed by the two guiding me at that moment.

“That will be because you have been invited into a separate realm than the one that humans visit,” one of my guides, a male, replied.

“Oh.”

How had I not noticed the change?

“That will be because you were overwhelmed by Inari Ōkami-sama’s presence,” the other guide said to the thoughts she could read on my face.

After that, the hike was silent except for the murmurs I could hear from time to time from the other kitsune, some in their fox form and some human, watching over my ascent. I did my best to appear calm as each torii gate made me feel weaker, but after a while, it took all my strength to stay dignified and not ask how long we had left.

I had heard it took 2-3 hours to go up the mountain and back, and it felt like I had been hiking for much longer than that.

Just as that thought passed my mind, I heard a chuckle.

“That will be enough, let her see where she is.”

“As you wish, Inari Ōkami-sama,” my guides replied, and I suddenly found myself in a rice field under a clear, sunny sky.

…I had been hiking though? Up a mountain?

I looked around in confusion and my eyes settled on a farmer working the field all on their own. They changed shape from a young woman to an old man and back, never settling on one form.

They straightened and looked at me with a warm, if a bit mischievous, smile.

“Welcome, my child.”

“Oh,” I said as I blinked, trying to focus on their ever-changing appearance. “Oh! Thank you for the warm welcome!”

I bowed as low as I could in the rice field without letting my clothes get wet. Well, most of it, anyway.

My shoes and socks were all muddy and squelchy now. Ew, even the thought of that word was disgusting.

Another chuckle came from the kami-sama. “You are very amusing, child. I expected someone more standoffish when I noticed your presence. Please stand up and come closer. Let me see you.”

I straightened with a blush on my cheeks from the heat and the embarrassment and walked closer to Inari Ōkami-sama.

The moment I reached them, I found myself in yet another place—this time, a tatami-laid room that opened to a small garden.

A shishi-odoshi’s bamboo rocker arm hit its rock in said garden as Inari-sama drank some amazake, sitting comfortably cross-legged.

“Won’t you drink some amazake with me?” they asked as they waved one hand, and a bowl appeared in front of me as well.

Sitting on my heels out of nerves, I took a hold of the bowl and stared at it dumbfounded.

They chuckled once again. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t have any alcohol in it.”

“Oh, no, I wasn’t worrying!” I exclaimed and hurriedly drank some after saying “Itadakimasu!”

It tasted like sweet yogurt and, being cold, was refreshing after the hike. I almost sighed in contentment, it was so good.

“I am glad to see you liked it. I made it myself.”

And with that, I almost sputtered out the amazake in my mouth.

“So,” Inari Ōkami-sama continued, gracefully ignoring my almost accident. “What brings you to my humble abode?”

***

Thunk, the shishi-odoshi said out in the garden as Inari Ōkami-sama hummed thoughtfully. “So that’s why you’re here.”

“Yes, Inari Ōkami-sama,” I murmured with my head bowed. “Please help me break the promise rings.”

“Why do you have to break them?”

“Excuse me?” I asked with a confused look at them before I went back to bowing. “As I said before, I don’t want to be Kon’s master. I want to be equals.”

“Then be equals.”

“But how—”

Inari Ōkami-sama chuckled. “Child, you just need to promise something to your friend. No need to break such a precious bond.”

My head snapped up, and I looked at them with my mouth shaping an ‘oh’. “Would—would that work?”

Inari Ōkami-sama smiled playfully, and I could see why foxes, known for their mischievous nature, would serve them.

“Why don’t you give it a try?”

***

I left the presence of Inari Ōkami-sama and went aboard the train back to Tokyo in a daze. I didn’t need to break our promise.

I held my hand with the mark tightly and smiled at my reflection in the window.

I didn’t have to let go of this.