(Iori’s POV)

I ate my breakfast with my mom. After I was done, I said:

(Iori): “Mom, I’m going to the temple.”

(Kizuna): “Come back before the night, ok?”

Quest

Type:Basic Quest

Mommy’s Request

Reward:200Time Limit:Sunset[/td1]

You mother wants you home before it gets dark. Be nice to your mother!

(Iori): “Yes mom.”

I go out and begin walking in the street. From the distance, I can see the wall that splits the inner village from the outer village. That’s right, village. This place, the Yuuki village, is a unique village near the city of Wakkanai, the city that ins most to the north of the Hokkaido island.

Here, the laws of Japan are thin, and we follow the laws of the village decided by the five main clans of the village. It has been like this since a long, long time ago since the village was founded. Because of our unique hierarchical system, we divided the village in two parts.

The village, that’s in the foot of a mountain, is divided in the inner village, the place where the descendants of the original families that were here since the founding of the family and the five clans and the outer village where the outsiders live.

The inner village is relatively big, with a wall of six meters surrounding it. With the mountain in its back and the outer village in front of it, the inner village is relatively empty, but enough to make this place populated.

Anyway, you can’t get in the inner village normally, you need permission of its residents. Also, your degree of freedom will be decided by the influence of the person that gives you permission. This limits the place that you can go to, things that you can do and even people that you can talk to.

The outer village is just an average town, with touristic points, etc. Oh, and most of the business outside in the outer village, around 95%, has connections and answers to the five clans and the inner village.

Anyway, this village has more than a thousand years’ story, and it was built around the temple that my family manages. Literally speaking, I’m the direct descendant of the founder of this village. That means that I have a lot of influence, and since I did a lot of odd jobs and helped the residents of the village a lot, I have as much influence as the five clans.

They don’t like me because of that, but whatever, I don’t give a shit about it. Anyway, the original temple exists in the old part of the inner village, that’s close to the foot of the mountain. Well, the stairs to the temple are in the base of the mountain. Just a quick note, the old part of the village has a lot of old Japanese houses, and most of them are empty, making a small ghost place.

I finally get to the stairs. In front of the stairs, there is a Torii, the red gate of the temple. In the top of the gate, just below the curved piece of wood, between it and the other horizontal piece of the wood, there is a piece of wood connecting them. And in that piece of wood, there is a metal board with the symbol of the temple, the kanji for wolf(Õkami=狼).

I don’t know why the symbol of the temple and its holy animal is the wolf, since the temple is dedicated to an unnamed god of war, but whatever. I didn’t read the documents of the temple anyway, so I don’t know the details.

Going up the ass long stairs, I get to the temple. The temple is a small plateau in the mountain, with a corridor of stone lanterns leading to the temple that’s made in the Taisha-Zukuri style, the oldest type of style for a Shinto shrine.

Also, we don’t have the normal komainu that are common in the other shrines. Here, we have status of two sitting wolves, one with the mouth open and one with the mouth closed in the entrance of the temple, just in front of the torii in the front of the second torii in the top of the stairs.

This temple, or shrine, isn’t like the other shrines. Probably, the reason is that the temple is dedicated to a war god, and you don’t pray for happiness or healthy birth to a war god. Anyway, from what we have most of the building of a temple.

We have the pathway leading to the main shrine, the Haiden, the oratory building and just behind it, on a high platform that’s around three meters, we have the Honden, the main hall enshrining the god of this temple.

We also have the Shamusho, the shrine’s administrative office that I remodeled in a small place for me to stay during the day, with some manga, and even a kettle for tea or some noodles. Anyway, back to the main business.

We also have the Kagura-Den, the part of the temple dedicated to the traditional kagura dance… well, I heard that since this is a battle oriented temple, fights were held there. And that’s it, we lack some of the other buildings and we don’t have a fountain for purification. I should build one in these days, now that I think about it.

Anyway, I take care of the place since I was small, a place that I inherited from my grandfather. I normally hang out around here, cleaning and fixing the place. Because of that, the place seems almost brand new. Well, not only me, but also all the generations of my mother’s family for a thousand years.

Me included. My grandfather taught me a lot, including kenjutsu and carpentry so that I could take care of the temple and protect it. Sincerely, I can build a simple place by myself and if I go all out, I can make a pretty shrine.

Anyway, I will try some things around here with this status table. After all, it says that I have mana here… so, I should be able to use magic, right?