I have an infinite number of shikigami

"Mother, don't talk nonsense!" Kasahara Fumi turned back, her eyes listless: "You forced this wedding thing on me without even discussing it, I'm really angry now!"

"Are you really angry?" Mrs. Kasahara looked incredulous.

"...Yes, I'm angry!" Kasahara Fumi gritted her teeth.

Seeing her eldest daughter's serious demeanor, Mrs. Kasahara's delicate young face slightly frowned, then gently relaxed. Her lips curled into a smile, she loosened her orange long hair, gently massaging her daughter's shoulder: "Aren't you being a bit dishonest in front of your mother?"

"Mother..."

"My daughter has grown up, has someone she likes, that would make me very happy too."

"But I don't like him."

Kasahara Fumi bitterly bit her lip and leaned into her mother's soft embrace.

"Fumi," Mrs. Kasahara murmured, then reached her finger to her cheek, "You're sweating."

Slender fingers touched the tip of her nose, Kasahara Fumi swallowed dryly, licking her lips.

"Fumi's nose is so soft." Mrs. Kasahara squinted her eyes smiling, "Like a cat's nose."

A single rustic lamp by the bath, lit with a candle, maybe due to the candle's flame, Kasahara Fumi seemed more languid and alluring than usual. Her rosy cheeks reflected in her mother's eyes, like a mysterious little animal.

Feeling the warmth of her mother's fingertip touching her nose, Kasahara Fumi's body slightly shuddered.

It was a feeling mixed with shyness and pride, just like being gently caressed on the head or lifted up and kissed on the cheek by her mother during childhood, filled with endless joy amidst sweetness.

Mrs. Kasahara was like a fox spirit cloaked in human skin.

The fluctuations in her daughter's emotions, she could certainly capture them clearly.

"Will you attend the wedding tomorrow, Fumi?"

"...I really don't know if I should or shouldn't."

"Worried?"

"Feels too hasty, and I don't know how to explain it to Asuka..."

"Why not ask for your mother's opinion?" Mrs. Kasahara helped her daughter wash her back.

The daughter's back was smooth and soft, more tender and delicate than the finest mutton jade, a touch of true nobility.

"What does mother think?" Kasahara Fumi turned back to ask.

"Of course, attend it. Think about it, it's the Mountain God, and even a Great Tengu... once you become the Mountain God's Wife, the hidden power of our Kasahara family could almost cover the sky with one hand, then if someone offends me..."

"Mom!"

The eldest daughter was a bit angry.

"Alright, I was just joking." Mrs. Kasahara stuck out her tongue slightly, cutely playing innocent, "Actually, mother thinks it's an ideal place for you. You were only recently aware when I picked you up, and you've been raised under Shinto teachings, completely unexposed to the world you originally belonged to. What mother worries about most is, if I grow old and leave this world, and if your identity is exposed, no one can protect you, and you won't know how to return to your world..."

Kasahara Fumi turned around and tightly hugged her shoulders: "Don't talk about that!"

"Fool." Mrs. Kasahara gently patted her on the back of the head, her lips forming a faint smile like the smoke rising from a farmhouse in the evening, "Even if I don't say it, a mother's worries are drawing nearer, you know. I'm forty this year, counting all, I have five or six decades to live, which is long for a human, but for a monster, it's just a fleeting moment."

"I want to be with mother forever!" Kasahara Fumi burrowed harder into her embrace.

"Mother does too." Mrs. Kasahara, as if holding a little baby, gently cradled her eldest daughter on her lap, "Having Fumi and Asuka is mother's greatest pride, you know. You have no idea how pleased mother is with you both..."

Mother and daughter whispered secrets in the bath, the daughter bending like a boneless creature, while the mother leaned down to kiss her neck. The daughter, ticklish, giggled, wrapping her arms around her mother's neck in surrender. The mother also laughed, and the two remained with foreheads touching, intimately interacting.

At this moment, the mother and daughter looked as if they could easily be one happy divine being.

"Will Fumi listen to Mama?"

"Yes."

"Then get married."

"..."

"Of course, just go through the motions, just need a name. As to whether you truly devote yourself to him, it's up to you to decide. Anyway, that guy won't force you against your will, mother is quite accurate at judging people, I can assure you of that."

"...But what about Asuka?"

"Xiangxiang's identity is destined to be fateful yet unrelated to him. You don't need to feel guilty, and mother won't interfere, let her make her choice. She can't always live under me and your protection, such an experience could be seen as a necessary ordeal for her adulthood."

"That's too cruel." Kasahara Fumi felt a bit reluctant.

"No choice, to take over the chairmanship, she's far from enough." Mrs. Kasahara sighed, hugging her eldest daughter tightly, "Who wishes to see their daughter heartbroken, if only mother, like you, had a long life..."

Kasahara Fumi suddenly remembered what Natsuki Kuri had said earlier.

Becoming the Mountain God's Wife, she could follow him to Takamagahara and gain eternal life.

"Mother, why don't you marry in my place tomorrow?"

"?"

Mrs. Kasahara had a face full of question marks.

Although she had always teased Fujiwara Reya with such remarks, she could not possibly steal her daughter's man.

Kasahara Fumi whispered, repeating what Natsuki Kuri had said.

"...Seems feasible." Mrs. Kasahara blankly thought for a moment, seemingly realizing something, she broadened her smile, shook her head, and said: "But even if I went to Takamagahara, without you two, it would be as if I were dead, wouldn't you and Xiangxiang still be unprotected?"

"That's right." Kasahara Fumi quietly called herself a fool.

"Get up, if you soak any longer your skin will wrinkle."

Mrs. Kasahara gently patted her daughter's cheek, then stood up.

With the sound of water streaming, her smooth and sleek body left the bath, droplets rolling down her supple skin, leaving deep trails of moisture.

"Fumi, let me ask you a question."

"What?"

"How do you think mother's body is?"

"It's great."

Through the curtain, Kasahara Fumi looked over at her.

Though she's 40 years old, her face is still youthful and beautiful, and her figure remains very full. Truly as someone brought up in a prestigious family, well-maintained Mrs. Kasahara has legs well-shaped and coordinated in length, her figure is extremely graceful. When talking to her daughter from the side, the curves are as dignified and flowing as a sculpture, with a full bust and pert hips, giving an impression of overall roundness.

No one would think it's inappropriate to say she looks twenty-seven or eight.

"Still young is good." Mrs. Kasahara laughed triumphantly, dressing while thinking: Being the Mountain God's Wife indeed doesn't change the future alone, but if a family of three were... Xiangxiang, do you want to always be a carefree little girl? Hmm... let mommy think carefully about how to execute it.

Kasahara Fumi emerged from the bath, looking inexplicably at her mother who wore a mischievous smile.

Having lived together for over twenty years, she was certainly aware whenever her mother showed such a smile, she was plotting something... Someone is doomed, Kasahara Fumi couldn't help but silently mourn for that poor soul for a few seconds.