Today's challenge is to describe who "gets" the main character best.
Again, I have chosen Sen as my main character, the head Shinto shrine maiden leading her four sisters in a defense of their shrine against an overwhelming force of Inugami.
Her second-in-command, so to speak, is Chiyo. With her five tails, she is only half the age of Sen, but speaks and acts as if she is more of the matron of the group than Sen herself. She is also jealously protective of Sen, the other miko, and the shrine itself.
And she can be quite deadly about it as well:
As Kiku and Kuwa left the oratory, Sen turned to Chiyo. “Dear Chiyo, it is you who must defend Inari’s Mirror. They may try to come over the back walls. If they enter the honden then it is you who must stop them. If what they say is true, we are the last keepers of a Kitsune shrine; if all the other shrine objects are truly destroyed, then all of Inari Ōkami’s essence is enshrined in her mirror. Who knows what that may mean, but that the Inugami must not even see it, let alone touch it?”
Chiyo nodded, her jaw tight and her eyes grim. “They will not get the mirror, sister. Not tonight. Never.” She reached into the left sleeve of her haori and pulled out a folded fan. With a flick of her wrist, it sprang open with a metallic whisper to reveal itself as a deadly weapon, its edge honed to razor sharpness. “I have not used my tessen in years past counting, but should the dogs attempt to enter the honden…” Chiyo spun the fan in her furred fingers, its deadly edge splitting the air with a fearsome hiss and blurring from the speed of its movement as she expertly guided it through a complex exercise. In her left hand, her prayer beads glowed with a dull azure light. Then, with a sudden movement, she flicked the fan closed with a sharp click and the prayer beads once again became simple tiny ceramic and wooden balls strung on a hempen cord. Chiyo slid her tessen back up her sleeve.
With dignity, the sisters bowed to each other and Chiyo left Sen standing alone in the oratory.
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