Preparations All Around

Preparations for the festival proceeded surprisingly smoothly.

Hestia and Palutena were in charge of advertisement, which was accomplished by simply mentioning the event during a few streams. To say that got people excited was quite the understatement. They estimated 10,000 people showing up at minimum. With the maximum in the millions.

They quickly realized they had bitten off more than they could chew. Thankfully they were contacted by the Mayor of Kyoto who seemed thrilled the group wanted to restart old traditions and gave them the government's full support. Kyoto used to always be the place people thought of when it came to religion and festivals in the past and he was more than happy to bring life back to his city.

Plus the city had a sharp decrease in revenue after tourism went on the decline so this was a good way to potentially get money moving again.

Coordinating with the Mayor they were able to get a few of the other still active shrines involved and with the help of some volunteers, get some of the abandoned shrines that were still in decent condition up and running again. [A/N: There are a lot of shrines in Japan. Like 3000 shines are dedicated to Inari alone. Might be interesting to have 3000 fast travel spots...Also might save that for another story...Who knows]

Palutena made sure to make it seem like they were only borrowing their shine for the event rather than making it seem like they stayed there themselves.

If Inari hadn't been insistent on holding a proper shrine festival at her own shrine and the other's need for faith energy, they might have held it someplace else just to be extra sure.

She even had the idea to keep their location a secret and make it a sort of game for their fans. They promised to show up at one of the shrines and would greet anyone that came by. To make it fair they would leave a few clues at some of the other shrines just in case someone was really determined to meet them in person.

To protect against anyone revealing their location online and ruining the whole thing after the event started they would be wearing masks for most of the event and would only reveal themselves a little before things were finishing up. For those that weren't as dedicated, they devised another way to at least make it worthwhile to come out.

As for their shrine, it was actually located above a fairly small town. Mostly untouched by a lot of the more modern comforts the world had to offer, giving it an old-school country vibe. The people living there enjoyed relatively simple lives with very little villain activity in return.

The only time of year things used to pick up was around the time of the festival. Hundreds of people would come to visit the small town and pray at the shrine and enjoy the sights. But this increase in traffic also meant villains were more likely to appear.

This initially left quite a few people hesitant about bringing back the event. The only heroes that operated in the town were those that had more or less gone into retirement and were looking for a more quiet life.

Oddly enough it was Aqua that managed to convince the locals to try to hold something again for the summer. Despite her selfish and materialistic nature, Aqua is surprisingly good with people.

That left actually getting things set up as the next obstacle to cross. After all, they were expecting a larger influx of people to attend compared to any previous years.

This job was left to Inari to handle. While normally she would prefer to shut herself in and play games all day, when it came to the shrine, she could get very motivated.

As a goddess of craftsmanship, she was very well versed in construction as well. With her leading the charge, getting things set up went a lot smoother.

Of course, there was the issue of manpower but that too was quickly fixed by none other than Bishamon. Due to the nature of her ability she had to employ quite a few sidekicks in her hero agency.

Most of them were more than happy to assist after she gave the order. She also got in contact with a few of her hero colleagues and many of them agreed to patrol around event grounds in their respective districts.

She also called in a few favors to have a few more heroes at their own shrine to assist should something go wrong. Rarely had she been so thankful that being a hero was such a competitive job. This meant quite a few volunteered to pick up the slack where others were missing in hopes of gaining even a bit more fame.

Others sought to use the event itself to gain fame and publicity by making appearances here and there. There was even a rumor that All Might himself would be making an appearance!

Overall it seemed like things were going rather well with many growing more and more excited by the day.

.

.

.

"Damn it...which one is it?"

Well, all except a certain ruby-eyed demon goddess…

"UGH! Another dead end!" Yami sighed out in frustration. [A/N: For those of you that forgot, Yami is Rachel's new name in this life.]

Yami practically wanted to bash her head in trying to figure out which shrine the so-called Megami group would be attending themselves. They had left quite a few clues hidden around, but that's not to say all of them pointed in the right direction.

She was sure the person who came up with this idea was some black-hearted sadist!

"Rika...no, Hikari, I'll find you, I swear…" She silently said as she gazed at the still shot of a little black-haired girl on her tablet.

Yami didn't know if it was fate or maybe Rob taking a bit of pity on her, but she had found her Rika in this world rather quickly. Well, if you count two years quickly, that is.

It was basically just like any other day when it happened. She was trying to meditate to have better control over her powers once they awakened and utterly failed at it for the most part. Her thoughts were constantly plagued with the various scenarios Rika might have been thrown into and other general worries.

Due to her stress, she decided to take a break from meditating and see what her parents were doing at the moment. She found out that her mum was out shopping and left her pops to watch over her. Although he could hardly be said to be doing a good job at that since he didn't even notice when she walked in and sat beside him.

"Whatcha watchin, pops?" She asked while peeking over a little.

"GAH! Oh, Yami-chan you scared me. What is it? Are you finally going to give your old man a chance!? Has my time of fatherhood finally come!? I was worried ya know!? I mean you hated being touched by me so much you even evolved your biology so you no longer needed to use the bathroom so I couldn't change you! But everything is alright now. Come to Papa, Yami-chan!!" A shine appeared in his eyes and he held out his arms wide for a hug as he started jumping to his own conclusions. But quickly deflated and cried tears of blood when Yami instantly put some distance between them.

'There he goes again getting excited for nothing. I honestly feel bad for him though. I promise pops, once I get my powers I'll give you a hug. Or maybe just a handshake... Though it really doesn't help that the stuff you say sounds so suggestive...' Yami inwardly swore to herself as she took a peek at his discarded tablet screen, only to have her eyes widen in shock.

"Eh? Isn't that Hestia and Aqua!" She was so surprised she ended up saying her words out loud for her father to hear.

"Ohh, you watch the Megami streams too, Yami-chan? As expected of my daughter! You know what real entertainment is! Hehe, personally I think Tamamo-chan is the best but Palutena-sama is also pretty high up on the list. Your mother seems to be a fan of Fenrir-chan herself." He nodded his head in approval at his daughter not noticing her barely paying him any attention. No, maybe he did notice but had grown used to it by now…

'What are they doing in this world? Rob said he was sending us to my hero academia, right? Did he get things mixed up? Unlikely. I had already seen a video of All-Might running around saving people so I'm definitely in Mha. They could be other people he's reincarnated into this world, but their personalities seem to match too well. And if what pops said is right, there are a few other goddesses in this group as well. Could they be the real ones? I suppose if this world exists there's no reason theirs couldn't as well. But why are they here?' Yami got lost in her thoughts as she continued to carefully watch the stream for any clues, not even knowing what she was looking for.

'Maybe he dragged them here so we could learn from them? Pops mentioned Tamamo and the only one that comes to mind is the Caster class servant. I wonder if I could get her to teach me magic?' Perhaps she had inherited something from her father after all since she started jumping to her own conclusions with little information to go off of.

[Mama~! I wanna play~!]

Suddenly a cute little voice interrupted the stream and Yami felt her eyes widen again when she saw Hestia being tackled by a small black blur.

[Ooh, Hikari-chan you're up from your nap already?]

'Hestia has a child!! But that should be impossible if she were the real deal...right? But more importantly, isn't that a mini Noire from Hyperdimension!? Or is that her sister, Uni?' While Yami was trying to piece together the puzzle in front of her, she couldn't help but think the little girl on the screen was downright adorable while she constantly pestered her mother.

She idly wondered if her own child would have been as cute in her last life.

But she also felt something more from that little girl. A pull in her heart that she couldn't quite place. It felt so nostalgic. A mixture of sadness and warmth. Just before she let herself get lost in the feeling, Hestia seemed to remember she was still streaming.

[Come to think of it, the last time I brought you on stream was when you were too young to talk. Do you wanna say hi to the nice people at home, Hikari-chan?]

[Un! Ahem~ Fear not mortals! For I am the one who shall one day rule the entire world! The fallen angel of the fragile heavens. The dark lord Hikari-sama greets you! You have my permission to bow.]

[...]

"..."

[...You...could have just said hi]

[Teehee~]

"Rika…" While Hestia and Hikari continued to banter, Yami was already shedding tears with a fond smile. Although she had no solid proof, her heart knew she had finally found the one she was looking for.

---

[A/N: Ugh this schedule is kicking my butt right now. thankfully I'll be switching to a new one in a few weeks. at that time chapters should start coming out more regularly. so look forward to that.

Not much else to add this time, I guess.

If you'd like you can go check out my other stories on this site. Naruto: Black Lightning Princess and MHA: Rewind & Rewrite.

the MHA story will likely be put on hold until this one and BLP are a bit further along, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on what I have so far. Comments and Reviews are always welcome. I try my best to respond to all of them but notifications are kind of bugged sometimes so I may miss them sometimes.]