仮面の裏へ - (Kamen no Ura e - To The Hidden Side of The Mask)

Festival

As they got closer to the festival venue, they saw more and more people on the road, coming from different places in the mountains.

None of them wore western clothing, and all of them were somewhat monstrous.

When they reached the festival proper, it was like something out of a fairytale.

The usual festival booths Chie would expect lined the streets, but so did booths selling paper shikigami, and deep-fried cucumbers, and other things that felt a bit otherworldly.

Everywhere Chie looked there was something amazing to see. A rokurokubi selling takoyaki, a kappa running a goldfish scooping booth – a kitsune in fox-form wearing a happi followed by their three kits passed by, drawing Chie's attention.

"Do most kitsune stay in their fox forms usually?" Asked Chie, turning to Seiji – but he was nowhere to be seen.

She called his name a few times before deciding to leave the crowd and wait at a bench. Once the crowd thinned out, she looked for somewhere to sit when she bumped into someone, knocking her off-balance.

A yokai with a red, long beak that wore the clothing of a mountain hermit scowled at her.

Its wings and garb were unmistakable – this was almost definitely a tengu.

"Stupid fox! Watch where you're going!"

Chie jumped to her feet and bowed in apology. "S-sorry! I w-was just looking for –"

Chie stopped when the yokai took her chin between two taloned fingers. "Wait just a moment... You're no fox... you're a human."

Chie's heart began to race, and she had to remind herself that these were all yokai allied in the belief that harming humans was a sin. "Y-yes."

The tengu released her chin and stood tall, giving her a smug grin. "Well, if that isn't just a wonderful circumstance!" He shared glances with a few other tengu dressed somewhat more casually, and with darker beaks. "I recently became in need of a new shrine maiden."

Chie waved her hands. "I-I'm sorry, I'm already employed, and –"

"Don't take my offer lightly, human." The tengu's expression soured. "Any maiden that works at my shrine has a chance at becoming my bride." He took her face in his hand again, turning it. "...hmm. And you'd start out third in line. Consider yourself fortunate."

"Knock it off, Kamori." A black-beaked tengu smacked the hand of the one holding Chie's face away from her. "Not every human's psycho enough to throw themselves at you."

The red-beaked tengu's face contorted into rage. "All humans should worship us for what we do for them! Any human with enough awareness to be here should prostrate themselves before us for those humans' who are unknowingly saved by our hand daily!"

"She's probably married, you moron. What kind of human wanders around a place like this alone?"

"Moron?!" The red-beaked tengu stretched his wings to their full span, looming over 6 feet in width. "Perhaps I need to remind you of your place?"

Suddenly, the looming tengu flinched as a ball of paper ricocheted off of his forehead.

"Hey."

Seiji walked up to Chie's side, voice cool with malice. "What's going on here?"

"Demon! You think you can throw trash at me? Kamori of the 48 generals?!"

"You think you can get away with threatening a human?" Seiji spat back. "Whaddyou think your boss'll think if he hears about this, huh?