[UPDATE IN PROGRESS] Onmyou-Pocketville: Fallen Dusk

Chapter 22: Crystallised

Amaterasu, as she was in her gijinka form holding the lepidolite in her paw, gazed at each of the golden lilies that surround Tachibana Shrine, along with Himiko, Malorie, and Tia. The Royal Guards were spread out at different points across the floral field, keeping a lookout in case anyone decides to intrude. Sensei Steel Wool returned to the manor, possibly talking with Sanae and the other Tachibana nobles over what to do with Malorie and Tia, the Otherworlders.

The lilies seemed as if they each held a spirit, and were not only flowers that bloomed after every Shinnui Ceremony, but made up an enormous memorial for each sacrifice of an Onmyoujin through that ritual. The taller flowers with large petals and sparkling porcelain white tips were said to be for Keepers, and they were so few and far between. Their coins were especially made of an alloy between gold and platinum.

"Where's mine?" asked Tia in the distance.

"I don't know...there's too many!" Malorie said, many tail-lengths away.

Grandma Lilie loves lilies...it even says so in her name.

Malorie wandered around and found a lily that was smaller than the ones surrounding it, and it was starting to open up. It also happened to have much paler and lighter petals, but that could be because it was starting to bloom. This must be Ayaka's. Poor little kit...

"Is that Indigo Lake?" Amaterasu pointed a deep midnight-coloured paw at the body of water, which was the colour that it was named for.

"I...think so," Malorie replied. "It's pretty small for a lake but I guess that's what they wanted to name it due to its significance here."

"I think I need to look for something now that you've said it..."

Amaterasu sprinted off into the field, kicking up golden petals that gleamed and shone in the sunlight in her run. Some of the petals caught in her pleated hakama and fluffy tail.

Tia looked at Malorie, who was kneeling over to take closer glances at the flowers. Because of this, she seemed smaller, as if she were sinking into the patch.

"My intuition is telling me that your flower is right here."

"Is it?" Tia scampered on her little paws and sniffed around as if she wanted to check and think whom the other flowers might've belonged to.

"Tia, it's right here."

"Okay, okay, I'm coming." Tia stepped closer until her nose met the big Keeper's lily. From what she expected to smell the metallic scent of the gold-and-platinum coin, instead it was something akin to honey.

"I think it is...those petals...that...shiny coin..."

"Wait a minute..." Malorie looked very closely at the coin, noticing some of the raised writing that was on it. "That looks like your name in...Onmyougo."

"Does it?" Tia then read the kana. "Kagamiya Tia. It has my old surname."

"I knew my intuition was correct!"

"Where's Ayaka's flower?"

"It's somewhere over there." said Malorie as she pointed with her right paw over a short distance away from both her and her companion. "It's a recent bloomer."

Tia continued scampering and sniffing around like a dog on the hunt, but instead of soft and juicy prey she was hunting for a Star Blossom. Although Sanae said that searching for it in the Kinyuri Field would be harder when the sun is up, that didn't stop Tia's determination. She kept on smelling each lily and under each lily. But after smelling nothing but the fragrance of the Kinyuri, the little inugami stopped with a dismayed expression upon her leafy eyes. Who knew where the Star Blossom may be, when there is nothing to be seen but a seemingly endless field of gold.