act44side

Ha? You still asleep? Didn't that new project hit a fresh high today? How could it crash?

It's about Sarasa!

Sarasa? Didn't she leave Mitsukue soon after Tetsuya?

She sent me a letter with her family crest on it. It's the Nishigori's!

The Nishigori clan... from the Northern Court's Four Great Clans?!

She said she had fun in Mitsukue, but the noise we made might have been a bit too loud, so she went back to Kusarikawa to hide from her family for a bit. Said she'd come back to look for us once it's safer!

How's that for big news?

That's... that's pretty big.

She mentioned you too, and said she knows you're starting a talent agency—and she'd join, if it takes off.

My agency? To be an idol? The princess of the Nishigori clan?!

Momoka, ssh!

If there's nothing else...

There's no rush.

Your work is consistent. More so than Mifune.

The Kinsekikai are under you now, but the Kinseki Group remains a hot potato with few willing to take over. Have you any interest in picking up his scraps and giving the Kinsekikai another chance?

No, sir.

Indeed, picking up his legacy is rather easy in theory, but who knows how many hardships stand in the way.

Do you intend to remain like this for the rest of your days? A gang leader for a group that has lost their home turf?

I'm just creating a home for people who fell off society's ladder and doing a bit of clean up work.

Besides, there is no way I can possibly drag this on forever, if Mitsukue no longer needs the Kinsekikai.

I've had enough of both the Kinsekikai and the Kinseki Group.

I came here today to not only fulfill Mifune-san's promise to you, but to also inform you...

I have tried my best to deal with the Kinsekikai's aftermath, and now I bid my farewell.

You've made up your mind, so I won't insist on changing it.

Good.

Excuse me.

Alas. A beautiful face, but a heart icier than the fields of Ursus.

I was trying to be kind, but she just wouldn't appreciate it. How rare.

Forget it. Let's take a look at the goods.

The paunchy diet member stands up in the luxurious reception room and walks toward a small door at the back.

Shockingly, the room past the door holds no confidential documents or precious metals.

Bereft of even entertainment facilities, it merely looks like a simple, sloppy room of a local.

Other than the old pachinko machine in the center of the room.

Having escaped destruction in Kajimachi, it is now connected to a dedicated circuit, emitting light and distorted music.

The diet member, who appeared quite dignified earlier, is jumping at the chance to have a try at the machine.

He lifts a huge basket of pachinko balls from the ground. Right before he inserts them into the machine, a voice sounds from behind it.

Got your wish?

Yes, yes. Kami-sama, thank you for your blessings! I am finally content!

Thank you for showing up at my humble home after so long!

You stayed with me for so many years, but suddenly vanished the other day, and I was so worried! I thought you had abandoned me! Ah, happy returns!

The kami swiftly pounces onto the top of the machine.

All that trouble just for this machine?

Sure enough! I mean, I wouldn't have achieved all this without this machine. All thanks to your blessings!

I don't remember ever blessing you with anything.

Even if you didn't help me in recent years, your aid from twenty years ago was enough for the rest of my life!

That again?

Indeed! The incident that turned me from a useless dreg into an impressive member of society!

I told you before, that had nothing to do with me either.

Hah, I don't believe you. Think about it, what sort of loser was I back then? A jobless hikkikomori unwilling to study or work... to borrow a trendy word of today—ah yes, a NEET.

Every day I begged my mother for coin to get a few pachinko rounds in. If I won, I'd consider myself lucky that day, or unlucky otherwise.

But that day, that day my destiny changed—I saw you on the streets.

I got nothing but wins that day. The pachinko balls flowed freely like water, and I even ran out of trays to carry them all!

And then?

Then?

Then I won a fortune 'big' enough to start a business on Nita Street. They were just pachinko balls after all. There was no way I could win more than the house.

But you showed up, and it proved to me... I was no longer a loser.

From that day on I believed strongly, I was blessed with fortune by you... looked after by a kami.

Had I not gotten blessed by you, how could I have won so much at pachinko, and used the earnings to speculate and profit till today?

I blessed you?

Of course!

The past few days, you were gone, yes? I went through so many hurdles!

I asked that Kinbee to bring me back my pachinko machine. A simple job, no?

But I couldn't give the order directly, so I said, take over Kajimachi, come up with a redevelopment plan, and bring back this pachinko machine on the way back, because I have ties to it.

And then everything went to shit. The Kajimachi gangs, the Lungmen cop, and even Kinbee's own artist... what a mess it was. The machine was almost lost to the chaos too.

<i>Fuzakeru na,</i> if something happened to this machine you blessed, then what point is there turning that piece of rotten land by the river into Mitsukue's commercial center?

It's not just me, but the whole of Mitsukue too... all of Southern Court is under your watch, which is why we're developing so fast and how our property prices are soaring, right?

The Northern Court bumpkins are scrunching up their faces in anger, but they can't do anything about the fact you don't want to go over there.

With you watching over us, we will surely improve, for...

A drop of sweat slides down his face. Not from nervousness, but his passion has gotten him heated up.

For... eternity!

And the kami looks down at him from the top of the machine...

Down at this secretly purchased thirty-floor high luxury apartment, with VIP-exclusive elevators...

Down at the almost hundred-meter high building, down at the clamor and chaos of Mitsukue...

And then It speaks a line It was tired of repeating, yet rarely taken seriously.

What does any of that have to do with me?

The kami jumps out of the tiny room, but the diet member who finally succumbed to his want for a pachinko game does not notice Its exit.

He will never see the kami ever again after this day.

*sigh*

*sigh*

How long have they been talking?

Three hours at least, and there's no signs it's ending. Can I go to the bathroom real quick—

Don't even think about running away. You do know that you caused a huge commotion in Mitsukue, attracting two of the eight major family heads, and even nearly caused a dispute between the north and south, do you?

Forget about my old man, at least that old deer from the Kanou can't do anything to you. You're a priest, after all.

Even if you're not one of the Eight Great Clans, your bloodline's pretty—

Enough! You may no longer want to live, but you shouldn't drag your friends down with you!

You even sent them letters, saying you were planning to hide in Kusarikawa? They would've been in danger right now if you weren't here, *ahem*, performing dogeza.

Didn't you promise Momoka and the rest you'd risk your life to keep theirs safe? I'm sure you're a good man, so since you're so eager to help, I'm just going to the bathroom—

Enough praises. The Kanou and Nishigori heads will be out here soon, and it'll all be fine if you stay, but if you run... heh.

*sobs*...

*sigh*

Are you hungry? I have some chikuwa here, you can have them if you want.

Arigatou...

Um, kannushi-sama, I heard the shrine clergy mention you have a daughter?

Yes, I do. She's a little younger than you.

Are you as harsh with her as you were to me?

The priest is momentarily stunned, then looks at Sarasa as if she is a creature he cannot communicate with.

Me? Harsh with Lisa? What are you thinking?

I mean, didn't she run away like I did? I'm still in Higashi, but she ran all the way to Siracusa!

About that...

Ingrid can explain the whole thing to you if you meet her—