Chapter 9: Finding out the Past part 2

After entering the rift, I was transported to another area

This time the interior is somewhat different from the previous one.

The furniture and lighting aren't the same from the shrine

I ignored those for now and move on in searching the rooms

Just like the previous memory, the rooms are mostly deserted

Then I found the stairs that leads to the upper floor and climb it

I continued searching and eventually I heard some noises at the end of the hall

I open the door and peek on the inside of the room.

As expected, I am seeing the same scenario from before but this time the people are not renards but rather humans. There is a man, a woman and a boy. The man has the negative oppressive energy emitting through his body. He has wine bottle on one hand and some sort of whip the other hand. The woman and the boy are crouching on the corner, pleading for the man to stop hitting them with the whip. <A/N: The whip that Miko is referring is a belt, in which Miko doesn't know>

'Okay, second times a charm' I took a deep breath and exhaled

Then I open forcibly opened the door. The three people look at my unusual appearance

"Who are you supposed to be?!" the man looked at me with confused yet angry expression

" Who am I is nothing for you to be concern about. What is important is for you to seize your oppression this instant" I pointed Gohei at him while trying to be intimidating.

"AHAHAHAH, I don't know the f*ck are you saying, brat. It's best for to scram from our house and go home" The man laughed and snorted at my proclamation in intimidating him.

'Dammit, I knew it is not enough to intimidate this idiot'

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, not until I purify that negative oppressive energy yours" I once again declared at the man

"Tsk, you talk too much, brat. COME HERE!!" This man also charges like the previous man and raised the bottle above his head. The man swings down the bottle and I dodge it.

However, he then swings the whip, that he has on the other hand, at me. I rolled to the ground to dodge and before I can get up, he kicked me at my sides. I went flying across the room and landed in front of the two people on the corner.

"Are you okay, dear?" The woman asked in concern

"I'm fine, stay behind me. I'll protect you two"

I stand up again and faced the man. We looked at each other's eyes and glared intently.

"You are quite feisty for a small brat like you" The man sneered with distain

"And you are quite pathetic for a father figure like you" I returned the insult at the man

"Why you!!" The man lashes his whip and charge forward.

I focus my senses and dodge swings of the whip

*Clang clang*

"Arrgh, the hell?!" The man was stunned by the sound of the bells

Then I swing my Gohei at him

"Arrrrgh!! F*cking shet" The man grimace from the pain of purification

I swing the Gohei again but then the man dodges it and made a step back to gain some distance

The man became more alert and watched my movements carefully

This man is much smarter than the previous one.

We again stared each other and ready our next move

However, instead of charging again, the man chose to ran away.

"Hey!! Come back here you coward" I screamed at the man and start chasing him.

I look outside of the room and I see the man running through the halls

*Clang*

"Hnngh, shet" I clang the bells to immobilize him but instead he only staggered a bit and continued running. I clicked my tongue in frustration and chased after him through the halls.

Shortly after, he went inside a room to the left. I followed him in the room but...

*BANG*

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I tilted my head to the right and I barely dodge the something fast. It is a good thing that the projectile just grazed my cheek. I looked back and I saw a small hole in the wall.

Then I looked at the man, he seems to be holding a hand-held projectile weapon but I don't know what is it.

<A/N: Miko doesn't know what a pistol/gun is because it doesn't exist in the danmachi world, I think.>

"Hehehe, you were lucky, brat. You have dodged my bullet, but the next shot will not miss" The man chuckled as he holds his weapon.

"Now put down your fancy tools and kneel before me" The man ordered me to surrender

'Shet, what do I do? Should I follow his instruction or should I retaliate? If I fight back, surely, I will be shot by his weapon'

I slowly put down my Kagura Suzu and Gohei and slowly kneeled

"Hahaha, you're quite obedient for brat" I grit my teeth at his provocation

'I'll just going to pretend for now and strike him when he least expected'

The man approached me while pointing his weapon at me.

He kicks away my tools and sneered at my defeat

'Why did I surrender? of course, I don't have a chance against a long-ranged weapon, dammit'

I prayed for a miracle to happen as he is inching towards me

Then suddenly

"ORA!!"

something swings above my head and I turned around and saw the boy swinging a club on his hand. <A/N: club = baseball bat>

The club hit the wrist of the man and loses his grip on his weapon.

"Arggk, why you!! You should have stayed with your mom, you little shet!"

"Leave the onee-san alone, you big meany!!"

While the two are arguing, I took this opportunity and reach for my Gohei. I grabbed the Gohei and swing it at the man.

"Ugaarrh!"

"Oraaaaaaa!!"

I frantically swing my Gohei at man and every swing made him slowly becoming weak

I used most of strength to swing rapidly and purify the negative energy

Then finally, the man is on his knee, trembling in pain

I delivered the final blow by slamming down the Gohei to his head

*BONK*

"UUgeeh" The man's head is firmly planted to the floor with a huge bump on the top of his head.

I tried to calm myself down as pant heavily. I never been worked hard this much.

This guy is way harder to deal with than the previous man.

"Phew"

I look around the room and found my Kagura suzu on the floor

I picked it up and look at the boy

The boy seems rather happy that he swings at his old man

The man then fades away and the negative oppressive energy vanished

"Woah, onee-san, that's so cool"

"What is?"

"The way you swing your stick at my evil dad is so cool"

"Eheheh... really? thank you" I laughed awkwardly while rubbing the back of my head.

The boy brightly smiled at me when I said my thanks

Then not long after, the woman peek at the door and check at the situation

"Ara, where did my husband go?" the woman asked as she looks for her husband

"Well Ma'am, your husband was been purified and disappeared from this memory"

"Eh? purified? disappeared? and also, what do you mean by memory?" The woman panicked as she was confused at my statement

"Come on mom, calm down will ya" the boy calms his mother down from her panic attack

"Well, you see, your husband is releasing a huge amount of negative oppressive energy, so I was tasked to purify the negativity and after he was purified, he disappears from this place. As for this situation, everything here is just a memory, more precisely your son's memory, which includes you, your husband and him" I explained clearly to the woman

"I see, if this is just my boy's memory. But how come you are here if this is his memory" The woman asked me after the understanding the previous statement.

"Ah you see, your son's soul is within me"

""EH?!"" The two people was shocked at my revelation

"Wait, my son's soul was inside you? But how?" The woman and the boy shake me by the shoulder and probed me for an explanation.

"Hey calm down please, I'll explain" I said and the two stopped shaking me

"You see, your son died and his soul is transmigrated to me"

"Eh? he died, since when?" "I died? since when?" The two said simultaneously

"Yes, he probably died in when he was older and his soul was transferred to my body. When his soul entered my body, his and my soul fused together. However, the memories of his soul were separated and I am here to take it back"

"I see" The mom nodded in understanding

"Then how about telling me about the situation that happened in this memory. Who was that man? How did he got drunk in the first place? Why did he tried to hurt you two?" I inquire for information about the memory of the soul.

"Ah, you see, that man was my husband, his name is Kiritsuki Suzuki. He used to work as police officer in the city, but one day he got fired from his job. He tried to drink his problems away but it made things worse. My husband became so drunk that he went crazy and attack us with his belt to vent his frustration"

I see, so that's why the two memories are so similar. Both men came across an unfortunate event that ruined their life. Then both of them drink alcohol to soothe their pain but it backfired at them. Then the two husbands got so drunk and they hurt their wives and child.

"Ah I almost forgot; my name is Yae Miko. may I ask your names?" I introduced myself and asked for their names

"My name is Iris Suzuki"

"Mine is Shirou Suzuki"

"Ah, nice to meet you, Iris-san and Shirou-kun" I bow my head at them and they did the same as well.

Then a distorted rift appeared, signifying that I am done with my task

"I guess this is my next stop, I will be off then"

"Hai, good luck Miko-chan"

I nodded and start walking forward to the rift

"Wait!"

I stopped my movements and look behind me

I saw the boy ran off from the room, but he then came back few minutes later

He came back holding some sort of books

"Here, take these" He then gave me the books. Each of them has colorful images and some texts on the front of the books.

"What's this?" I asked the boy on what he gave me

"Those are light novels and each have beautiful stories. One of those books has a character that looks like you" the boy explained

"I see, thank you for the gift" I then insert the books under my arms.

"Goodbye then" I said my farewell at them

The two also said farewell and I stepped in the rift.

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After exiting the rift, I returned to the empty flat world.

I looked at my surrounding and saw two floating glowing orbs hovering from the ground. One of the orbs is purple with sparks coming out of it, while the other one is red and somewhat fiery.

"Ara, what do we have here?"

I approached the two orbs and tried reaching out to one.

As I did, some memories flowed in my mind.

"These must be the souls of Miko and Shirou"

I remembered what Takemikazuchi-sama said to me on what to do with these souls.

I could either absorb all of the memories or I could store them inside objects.

My first thought is absorbing all of the memories and be done with it.

However, I dismissed because I might get a headache from absorbing both of their memories in my head.

So, the other choice is to bond it with something.

I could try using the books Shrou gave me, but I rather not use it for that.

So, my choice is using the Kagura Suzu and Gohei as vessels for the souls.

I shoved the two objects to the orbs and try focusing on fusing the souls with the tools.

The Kagura Suzu for the purple soul and the Gohei for the red soul.

The souls then get suck in their respective vessels and it begins to glow

The room lit up and everything was engulfed by the light

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I slowly opened my eyes and I looking at the blue sky

"Miko-san, are you okay?" I look at the direction of the voice

I saw Yamato-san and the others looking at me

I am currently laying down the ground, so I lift myself up and sit down

"What happened?"

"You successfully vanquished the negative oppressive energy from the memories of those two souls and you seem to successfully bound them to a vessel" Takemikazuchi-sama pointed at a certain direction.

I look down and was shocked on what I saw.

The Kagura Suzu and the Gohei that I am holding had changed their appearance. The Kagura suzu's bells that was gold before, now are all purple and the handle also becomes purple with gold highlights. The Gohei on the other hand, its stick is colored in red and becomes longer. The tip of the stick has small figure that looks like gold shrine gate and a purple flower on the center. The two zigzag papers also changed, gradient of red and pink appear on the tip of each end.

<image>

"Ara, it seems that you bonded the souls to the sacred tools" Tsukuyomi-sama looked at the bells and wands changed appearance

"Is it bad, Tsukuyomi-sama?"

"Fufufu, no dear, it's fine. More importantly, what are those books you have there?" She pointed at the books that got from Shirou that I am currently tucking in my arms.

"Ah, the boy in one of the memories of the soul gave these to me as farewell gift"

"I see, now tell me all what you saw and learned inside the memories of the two souls" She inquire me and I nodded

I started narrating the event that had unfolded in the memories. I told them that both fathers got severely sadden from their failures and both drown themselves with alcohol to forget their mistakes. However, they became too drunk that they started mistreated their family and hurt them.

Tsukuyomi-sama and the others listened to my narration and nodded in understanding

"I see, is that all?"

"Well, I also learned about the names of the people in the memories, as well as my true name"

"Ara? then what is your true name then"

"Yae Miko"

"I see, now that everything is over, let's end this ceremony here"

"Yes, understood Tsukuyomi-sama"

I stood up and walked towards Yamato-san and others

I chat with them and talked about the things I saw in memories

While I we were busying ourselves in our conversations, one of the orphan from the shrine came running towards us

"Kami-sama!! We have visitors!"

"Ara, who are they might be?"

"They said they are group of families of the Royal Court"

"!!"

We all rush towards the entrance of the shrine and saw a huge group of people standing at the entrance gate.

They were the members of Sanjouno family together with the other families of the Royal Court.

Then I saw a familiar figure in the midst of the group. A figure that is similar to the one I saw in the memories of Miko. An old male renard with scruffy beard and messy hair. He wields a sword at his hip and he has a serious look at his face.

Ah, how could I forget who is this person. The one and only person the hurt me and my mother.

"Father..."