As Seele stood in the courtyard, lost in thought, Kanou suddenly appeared beside her and called out softly.
Kanou was practically a different person from before. The old Kanou had always worn an innate pride on her face, but now she was like a housecat that wanted to get close to its owner yet hesitated.
"Ah... oh, Kanou! What do you need?"
Kanou's sudden voice startled Seele out of her daze, and she instinctively covered her cheek.
But after realizing it was Kanou, she awkwardly lowered her hand. Then, after thinking about it, she hurriedly asked, "When did you get here?"
"I just got back. I saw you standing here as though you were thinking about something."
Kanou answered while looking at Seele cautiously.
"Just got back..."
Hearing that, Seele finally breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Kanou had not seen what happened earlier. Otherwise... it would have been far too embarrassing.
"Do you need something?"
Now at ease, Seele looked curiously at Kanou before her. Kanou was completely different from how she had been at first; calling her a different person would not have been an exaggeration.
The other personality's training really was useful...
But when Seele thought of the way her other self interacted with Kanou, her cheeks reddened slightly again. That kind of method... was simply too...
Had she really done that herself?
The other personality was also her... but she...
"I sensed Aragami's presence. It is somewhere near this city."
The snow-white cat ears atop Kanou's head twitched as she spoke to Seele with a trace of hesitation.
"Aragami?"
Seele looked at her in confusion. As for the gods of this country, Seele only knew of the more famous ones.
"Aragami is the fire god, worshipped by Shugendo and Nichiren Buddhism. It is easily angered and