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Maeko

A young girl dressed in formal clothing knelt in front of the main altar of the shrine. Few were allowed into this area; many didn't even know it was there. Plenty of Japanese knew that Shrines actually had insides, of course, but to them, it wasn't as important as what they did outside. The inside was the sacred place, where people would commune with the gods of the land... Which may have explained what the girl was doing in there. One part of the shrine was dedicated to the deity that oversaw the land, and smaller areas were for protective deities whose blessings were often asked for in the area. Off to the side was the Shrine Maiden's personal shrine, brought with her from her previous residence. Moving carefully, Maeko stood up, then walked over to the small shrine and knelt down before it as well. "Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day." she told the deity that resided within it. "After this school year, I'll be taking care of you full-time." Her parents had been very insistent that she get a decent education, even if she wasn't going to be entering the workforce. Instead, she simply had to live at the Shrine and take care of it, and as part of the social programs, the Government had guaranteed her an income. It was a chance to finally strike out on her own, and do what she'd been raised all her life to do... but it wasn't like she had to do it alone, either, and Maeko smiled at the Shrine. The guardian deities were, in fact, the only thing that allowed her to feel peaceful. This place had been strange since the first night she'd arrived, when the world turned dark... she'd been terribly afraid, then, but the gods had talked to her, and explained that this strange hour would pass. In the meantime, though, she was to spend the Dark Hour within the Shrine, where they would watch over her. And so, just as it had been for the last few days, Maeko was waiting for the Dark Hour to pass by. In the meantime, to occupy her mind, she'd begun chatting with the family guardian. She could get a little testy if she didn't get enough attention, after all, and Maeko had no intention of annoying the spirit. Besides, she liked the guardian.

Maeko

Maeko's ears twitched slightly as one sound she hadn't expected reached her ears. A... person? It couldn't possibly be safe to wander around at a time like this... and, well, it was a Shrine's job to protect people from evil, wasn't it? The girl took six quick steps and slid the front door of the shrine open. "Get inside the Shrine, now!" she said curtly. "It's not safe to be wandering around right now!" Especially because the wall between the spirit world was particularly thin around places like Shrines. That was the whole point; outside could be dangerous, but inside, at least, tended to be protected by the spirit enshrined within the temple. Still, this girl... she looked like a student? Hmm, that could be useful... but it would be bothersome if other students were outside during this time, too. Well, she'd just have to do what she could. This was Japan; even late at night, it was usually incredibly safe, but this hour, this twisted hour... no wonder this place needed a Shrine Maiden.

Maeko

"It's a Shrine's duty to protect people when they need it." Maeko said... but her tone was starting to soften now that the girl was inside. "Don't worry, though, this will be over with soon. Once it's gone, go home... and from now on, be very careful to get home and into bed before midnight. If you're inside, you should be fine. It's not safe for a normal person to be out and about right now." she closed the door firmly, then pulled a rope across it and attached a series of long paper strips to the rope. Though, the other girl had probably already figured out the safety bit for herself. She'd come looking for someplace to be safe, after all, and had been utterly correct to choose the Shrine. Not too many people really believed in deities and demons nowadays, but... they were all quite real. "I'll see to it that you get home safely." She didn't say how. The other girl didn't need to know about that.

At the moment, Maeko was being perhaps a little more harsh than usual, but as far as she was concerned, it was much more important to instill the proper sense of terror into this younger girl. That was what so many stories and legends were about, after all. Teaching children to recognize the signs of danger, along with the ways of dealing with it. Fright was a very useful emotion when you wanted others to be safe. Still, that was probably enough of that. "Please, have a seat. I'll make some tea." And with that, Maeko headed towards the small kitchen in the back.

Maeko

The seconds slowly ticked by as the Dark Hour continued, and the kettle of water slowly heated. The lack of electricity wasn't really a problem; Shrines had been doing the whole tea thing since well before electricity had even appeared in Japan, and they had ways of dealing with it when it wasn't available. Besides, it was almost a tradition. Visit a shrine, go inside, get served tea. The fact that Maeko did this fairly often would probably be self-evident to anyone who actually watched her doing it. Like any job, those who did it a lot simply had the practice they needed to develop some smoothness to their movements. Whatever problems permeated this time didn't reach into bothering tea, apparently, and soon enough the finished tea was poured into a cup and set onto a tray along with a small sweet, just as traditional for tea ceremonies. Though this wasn't quite that formal. Still, something tasty would probably be sufficient to help settle the other girl down. Maeko did think for a moment before she spoke again, though... Um, how to put it without revealing too much... After all, she was already here, and probably needed knowledge to protect herself, but those people wouldn't be amused if she explained too much about the way the world actually worked. "Just try to be home by midnight. If you can't do that, stay inside or get inside, wherever you are, and just wait for this to pass." She could, of course, come running to the Shrine every night... but it was best to stay off the streets. Maeko didn't keep talking, though; after all, she'd just served the other girl some tea, and it would be a bit rude to expect her to answer while drinking.

Maeko

"Oh, don't worry. You'll know." It was pretty obvious when the Dark Hour ended. The whole world went back to normal, after all. Electronics returned and worked like they'd never stopped, the strange lights went away, the stars were back properly, things were a comfortable dark instead of an eerie green... yeah, you'd have to be pretty much completely unable to observe the world at all to be able to miss the shift back to normal. Which was a good thing on a night like tonight, when a normal person was out wandering around. The return of the normal hours ought to do a lot to make her feel more at ease, and if she had any sense, she'd be asleep every time the Dark Hour happened in the future. This wasn't a place for a Shrine Maiden like Maeko, much less a normal girl who didn't even have guardian spirits to protect her. Still, it would probably be for the best if they could figure out how to stop it completely... doubtless they were already trying. Best to keep her nose out of it. Tamamo didn't like the attention anyway. Maeko quietly raised her own teacup and took a sip from it, then turned and placed it before her family shrine as an offering to the Deity. "Ah, yes... do you go to... Yasogami High, was it?" She was pretty sure that was the name of the school, anyway.

Maeko

Class 2... a junior, then? Well, it was fairly obvious that the girl was an underclassman, though Maeko had been expecting a Freshman. Of course, this was Japan. There wasn't a whole lot of variety sometimes unless you were counting hair color. It was something she'd just stopped asking about. "I'm starting there tomorrow, so I suppose I'll be seeing you there...?" An invitation for the other girl to introduce herself, of course. Which was different than taking the first step and asking for their name, though the difference was fairly subtle. On the other hand, it was probably best to let the other girl introduce herself, rather than put her in the spotlight by asking directly. Aah, the wonderful world of simple social interactions! Japan was fun like that.

Meanwhile, out of sight of the girls, the tea in the cup quietly began to disappear...

Maeko

"Just call me Maeko-senpai. It's written with the character from Tamamo-no-Mae and the character for 'child of'." the Miko answered. Something of an unusual choice for a girl's name, using something from an old legend of Japan... but then, it wasn't really all that odd to have some sort of religious name in such a religious family. Perhaps her parents had just worked more on pacification of youkai or something? There were a surprisingly high number of such positions, when you thought about it, and who knew what sorts of things could happen? She certainly didn't. The similarities in their names were quite amusing, too, though it was really only the vocal pronunciation that was close. The characters and meanings were almost certainly very different.