I have an unlimited number of shikigami

Fujiwara-kun's upside-down cherry tree.

With a muffled "whoosh," the entire cherry tree was uprooted.

Tossing the tree aside and ignoring the gruesome state of the corpse in the pit, Fujiwara Izaya walked effortlessly out of the yard. The middle-aged man who had been waiting in the distance immediately came to greet him, looking at him with a very tense expression.

"Master, is it all done?"

"Mr. Shimada, rest assured, Ms. Kishida's vengeful spirit has been purified, and the house can be moved back in after a little cleaning. Also, her body is buried under the cherry tree; please inform the Metropolitan Police Department and her family, Mr. Shimada."

Upon hearing that the body had been found, Mr. Shimada immediately felt relieved and took out a wad of cash from his briefcase, handing it to Fujiwara Izaya.

"Thank you for your trouble, Venerable Master. This is the payment; please accept it."

No more, no less, exactly 30 yen.

By the way, the average price for exorcism services in the Tokyo area is around 50 yen.

The practice of seniority-based hierarchy is very prevalent in Japanese society, and this is also true within Shintoism.

The more senior the priest, the more expensive the fee, sometimes reaching tens of millions of yen; conversely, the younger the priest, the lower the price. For E-rank priests, who have the lowest risk and no danger to their lives, the fee can be as low as tens of thousands of yen.

As for why it can be rolled up so low...

First: Entrusting someone with a project is very important.

For each completed commission, you will receive corresponding points in the Onmyoji Guild. Different points correspond to different titles, which can be simply put as the level of an official priest or civil servant.

Second: Society is too harmonious, there aren't enough ghosts and monsters to go around.

If you think the price of 5 yen is too low and don't want to take it, plenty of competitors are willing to snatch it up for 4 yen.

If you're ambitious enough when you're young, you can get promoted faster. Once you have the qualifications, the price per exorcism will go up, not to mention that high-ranking clergy members also have a lot of welfare subsidies and lifestyle privileges.

Fujiwara Izaya reached out and took the money, while handing Mr. Shimada a business card.

"If you encounter something like this again, just come to the shrine and find me."

"Asakusa Shrine..." Mr. Shimada looked at the words on the business card and asked in surprise, "Isn't Asakusa only Senso-ji Temple? When did a shrine appear here?"

"The old store has reopened."

Fujiwara Izaya smiled faintly, opened his umbrella, and left.

Behind him, Mr. Shimada clasped his hands together and bowed reverently to his back.

A white light, invisible to ordinary people, surged from his body, drifted across the dark rain curtain, and finally merged into Fujiwara Izaya's body.

Chapter 2. The Decline of Asakusa Shrine

In mid-April, the nighttime temperature was still a bit chilly.

Upon entering Ikebukuro Station, Fujiwara Rinya bought a hot coffee on the platform and waited for the train heading towards Asakusa.

Just as I finished my coffee, the tram pulled into the station.

The carriage wasn't crowded; it was full of weary office workers with drooping heads and exhausted faces.

Fujiwara Izaya sat down in the back of the carriage, rested his cheek on his hand, and looked out the window, his body swaying slightly as the train moved forward.

Time flies...

He murmured in a voice only he could hear.

Just like the beginning of all stories.

Seventeen years ago, Fujiwara Izaya was reborn in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture, in a remote, almost isolated, hermit town.

Having grown up under the red flag, Fujiwara Izaya knew he had entered an incredible parallel world just a few days after arriving in this world.

His father was a mountain god.

My mother is a shrine maiden with demon blood.

My childhood playmates included an adorable giant Totoro and two black cats that could only transform into high school girls.

The nanny who took care of him as he grew up was a legendary urban legend, the kind of woman who crawled out of the TV and could grab his chest.

After growing up in the ghost town until he was sixteen, his father moved the whole family to Takamagahara, leaving him alone in this world.

What is Takamagahara?

It's roughly equivalent to the heavenly court in Japanese mythology; being able to fly up to the heavenly realm means being ranked among the immortals.

Logically speaking, as a second-generation god, Fujiwara Izaya should have gone to live in Takamagahara.

The reason they remain in the human world is because Takamagahara has a very peculiar rule—only gods enshrined in shrines in the human world, and whose shrines pass inspection, can obtain Takamagahara's divine status.

Gods without a registered shrine in Takamagahara are called "Noragami," meaning gods who have no fixed abode and wander from place to place; hence, they are also called wandering gods.

The explanation given by the old woman Amaterasu for this regulation is that there are too many so-called gods in Japan, and the huge fiscal deficit in Takamagahara is caused by the need to pay their salaries. There are no extra resources to build new houses, so newcomers are required to bring their own property, otherwise they will not be allowed to register their household.

Fujiwara Izaya was dumbfounded.

Absolutely did not expect ah.

Having traveled through more than a decade and about to become a second-generation god, he still couldn't escape the fate of needing to buy a house to obtain residency.

After his father took the family and his Nagano Mountain Shrine to Takamagahara, Fujiwara Izaya inherited the title of Nagano Mountain God, but since he did not have his own shrine, he could only stay in the human world and continue to struggle.

Fortunately, his mother had left behind a long-abandoned shrine in Tokyo, and he only needed to renovate the shrine and revive its incense offerings.

With that in mind, last year when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, sixteen-year-old Fujiwara Izaya bid farewell to all the monsters, big and small, in the spirit town, packed his bags and came to Tokyo. He attended high school and took the college entrance exam as his mother asked, while also doing various part-time jobs to make a living.

The mountain god in Tokyo lives a very simple but fulfilling life.

He consistently ranked first in academic subjects and often shone in sports and arts classes, making him a prodigy praised by teachers and classmates throughout the school.

I've always been single.

They maintained a minimal level of social interaction.

Whenever he has free time, he either swims in the community swimming pool, reads in the library, or takes on exorcism jobs to earn a living. He has no time for socializing.

They also need to take time to wander around various shrines to see if there are any sexy shrine maidens offering services, and incidentally learn a few Shinto incantations.

Unfortunately, neither of these wishes came true.

I didn't see the sexy shrine maiden.

I can't learn magic spells either.

The divine power that drives Shinto incantations is an energy that emits a blue light.

As a yokai, Fujiwara Izaya uses yellow yokai power.

Only after obtaining the divine register of Takamagahara can his power be transformed from demonic power into divine power.

Yellow and blue are incompatible, like water and fire.

It's like two strong, naked men meeting; they'll definitely fight to the death before they stop.

Even Fujiwara Izaya, who inherited the legacy of the mountain god, would be blown apart by the energy conflict within his body when he forcibly used the most basic Shinto incantations, bleeding from all seven orifices and half-dead.

After knocking himself unconscious several times, he had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​practicing sorcery. He used his powerful physical skills to disguise himself as a melee priest and take on various exorcism requests without revealing his identity.

Anyway, some people in Shinto and Buddhist sects who can't cultivate incantations will choose to cultivate body techniques as a second choice, so Fujiwara Izanagi doesn't need to worry about exposing his identity.

system?

As a transmigrator, Fujiwara Izaya naturally has a system.

Named: Onmyoji Training System

Although there is a system, he can't use any of the talismans and spells that can be redeemed with points; they are utterly useless.

But Fujiwara Izaya still really liked the system.

the reason is simple.

Most of the female shikigami in the system are very beautiful, with great faces and figures, and some are even beast-eared girls that appeal to his fetish.

Since activating the system a year ago, Fujiwara Izaya has drawn cards about 20 times, and the best and most beautiful initial SR-level shikigami he drew was Yuki Onna.

Adhering to the principle of training cards with the lower body, he only kept the Snow Woman, and used the rest of the useless and ugly cards as experience to feed the Snow Woman.

※※※※※

I got back to Asakusabashi Station around 10 p.m.

Fujiwara Izaya left the station with an umbrella and walked along the street for a few minutes, passing by the Kaminarimon Gate of Senso-ji Temple.

This area is the birthplace of Edo, the predecessor of Tokyo, and Senso-ji Temple is the oldest temple in Tokyo. There is a 300-meter-long approach leading from Kaminarimon Gate to the main hall, with a large number of brightly lit shops on both sides, which are bustling with people even at night.

The tallest five-tiered pagoda in the temple is decorated with lanterns all over its body, and when viewed through the hazy rain, the light is dreamlike and ethereal.

That bald monk is really rich!

Fujiwara Izaya looked at him enviously many times.

He couldn't touch the life of the wealthy monk for the time being, so he turned a corner in front of the Thunder Gate and walked up a side slope.

The slope was lined with lush trees on both sides, and there was no artificial lighting. Even the moonlight was blocked by the shade of the trees, making the environment gloomy.

At the top of the slope is a dilapidated torii gate with a few lights inside, and a run-down shrine is hidden within.

Asakusa Shrine, the most dilapidated shrine in Tokyo.

Founded in the Edo period, it has been passed down for hundreds of years, until it ended with the generation of Fujiwara Izaya's mother.

I walked through the torii gate toward the shrine's main hall, and almost slipped on the moss along the way.

Small lanterns lit up the red and white entrance to the worship hall, their faint light illuminating the building's outline and revealing the marks of time—half of the wall was covered in ivy, the red-painted pillars had faded in large areas, one of the pillars was beginning to rot, and the eaves were leaning severely.

Apart from the still intact worship hall, the rest of the area is filled with ruins overgrown with weeds.

"If you didn't know better, you'd think it was a remnant of the bombing of Tokyo..."

Fujiwara Izaya muttered something to himself, walked into the worship hall, and turned on the lamps.

The electric lights were dim, and raindrops dripped down from above, leaving the floor uneven and pitted.

As far as the eye could see, most of the sacrificial utensils were dilapidated and worn out. The only thing that looked decent was the statue of the Nagano mountain god, which was carved by Fujiwara Izaya himself.

Thirty years ago, this place was already a ruin.

Fujiwara Izaya's parents didn't tell him exactly what happened back then, and he himself didn't care about those old stories.