Prologue
It was the start of a new year.
I—Aoi Mashiro—was visiting Kitano Tenmangu Shrine with my friend, Kaori Miyashita. I wished I could say we were there for the first shrine visit of the year, but we weren’t. It was already January 5th, and we had already done our first visits separately. So today was a more casual New Year’s visit.
“It’s so crowded since everyone’s still on winter break,” I remarked, craning my neck to look around while we lined up to pray.
“Uh-huh,” said Kaori. “It’s mostly middle schoolers. They’ve got entrance exams coming up, after all.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I bet they’re taking this prayer really seriously.”
Tenmangu shrines were dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, the god of learning, and this was their head shrine in Japan. It was known fo