The Trials and Tribulations of a would be Yuri Harem Goddess (Highschool DxD AU)

Winning Vote:
[X] [Path] No! You can't be the Shrine Maiden! Visiting a small shrine in the middle of the night can get you involved in more than you bargained for. (Comedy side story, eases character into the supernatural with an eventual introduction to the Shinto and Yokai factions.)

---

Despite the sun already having passed behind the cityscape to the west, you decide to go ahead and take a walk. You have a lot to think about, considering what you'd learned about this Tamaki guy. Besides, Kuoh isn't too bad of a city. You're plenty tough enough to keep yourself safe for an evening stroll.

While you spend a while mulling over Tamaki, the subject inevitably leads you back to one thought, "Ah, one of my club members has finally trusted me with their problems! I feel like a real Club President now!" You can't help saying out loud. It fills you with a subtle feeling of warmth. And hey, maybe now Airi will even consider you a real friend, and not just someone she has a club in common with!

Umm, actually you're feeling kind of hot. You're pretty sure warm feelings were supposed to stop before they became a burning in your extremities... There's a snap more felt than heard and your body suddenly lets off a flash of blinding light.

"What the fuck?" You curse and rub your eyes as blinding spots linger even behind your eyelids. Instinctively you move into a nearby alley to get out of the way of passing traffic, even though there isn't any a this time of night.

'Man, what the hell was that?' Feeling relatively recovered you look around still trying to blink the remaining spots from your eyes. However now you notice that at the far end of the alley is a Torii Gate where the pavement ends and a stone path continues on instead. "Was that always there?"

You scrunch up your nose with thought and try to remember if you'd seen it before... "Yes. Yes, it's always been here. I can definitely remember seeing it before. It just didn't seem... Important?" You try to work through your thoughts out loud. "Ah, whatever... Now I want to see what's down there!"

It wasn't like you had anything else you were doing, and a shrine in an out of the way location like this is practically manga material. Without even a moment's doubt you set off down the dirt path, appreciating the well tended sod and bushes surrounding it. The journey isn't long, the shrine in question is in a small grove, but if you look hard you can see the modern walls surrounding it through the tree cover. The main shrine building isn't large by any means, but it has at least the basic amenities you'd expect of a shrine.

The sound of a broom scratching against tile and the slightest swish of red fabric around a corner draws your attention. Right shrines meant shrine maidens, even if it was a bit late at night for one to usually be about. Shrine maidens... One of your personal hot buttons, the image of youth and innocence, the slightest edge of the taboo for wanting something so pure in such a dirty way.

You try your best to be stealthy as you move over try and get a look past the building blocking your view. Maybe she'll be innocent and obliviously sexy, or perhaps more mature but refined and elegant...

"You're definitely imagining something bad. Now what are you doing in my shrine?"

"Argh!" You jump at the sound of the raspy voice and twirl to face the speaker. "AAARGH!!!!"

The old miko stares at you unimpressed as you clutch to the shrine wall and mumble about broken dreams and the cruelty of reality. At least for a while. "You just going to stand there all day... well night now, I guess, but anyways you just gonna stand there or were you here for something?"

"Oh, umm... I just noticed the gate and thought I come pay my respects...?" You can't help trailing off in a questioning manner. Honestly you hadn't really thought much about why you'd want to come here. It just seemed more interesting than wandering around town.

The old lady harrumphs. "I don't get many visitors these days. That's the way I like it."

"Won't that interrupt people's worshiping the kami though?" You ask.

She guffaws, "We may be small, but we're a Shinmei shrine. I think lady Amaterasu has enough worshipers and well wishers without filling this shrine. Might as well just maintain it. Practice my fortune telling, teach my granddaughter."

You blink in surprise. There was a lot of surprising things in that first half, but of course you mind grasped the last, "granddaughter?"

Her eyes narrow in suspicion and you raise you hands defensively while looking sheepish. "Yes, my granddaughter, she usually comes over after school during the afternoon. Its not as much as I'd like, but she'll at least learn some of the arts this way."

"Arts?" You ask in confusion. "Like... Fortune telling?"

"Hah, so much more. Kids these days, so ignorant! Can't blame them though, damn Meiji." She scowls, "Damn western beliefs poisoning our culture. Suddenly you couldn't have a woman with wisdom and power, oh no, forget the generations of wise women, mediums and fortune tellers! Now what do they do? Pageantry! Not that it isn't important, mind, sacred is sacred. But powerful? Bah! Most of these girls couldn't exorcise a youkai if their life depended on it!"

"That sounds... fascinating." And to your surprise you mean it. While you had some idea that the idea for magical shrine maidens came from somewhere, you'd had no idea they did so much in actual history.

"Harrumph. Come back in the afternoon sometime, then I'll teach you a little and you can see how you take to it. You seem like the sort that could use a bit of meditation anyways," the old woman says. "What's your name anyways, girl?"

"Kyou Hyoudou, nice to meet you," you say.

"Heh, my name is Haruna Tatsukishi. Now run along, I want my nice quiet night back," the woman grumps.

"Eheheh... Right, I'll just be going then."

---

After a good night's sleep, you wake to greet the new day... And your parents complaining about their perverted, muscle-head of a daughter who'll never get married. >.<

Day 3 - Wednesday
Like most school days, most of your day is already taken up by school but you don't have another club meeting until Friday. Afternoon, evening and night are available. Choose three.

[ ] [Action] Training. You can always tighten up something. (3 hours)
- [ ] Specify what you want to train in. You must already have a dot in it.
[ ] [Action] Socialize.
- [ ] Aika
- [ ] Lin
- [ ] Airi
- [ ] Boxing Club Members
[ ] [Action] Head to the shrine for the afternoon to see Miko lessons first hand.
[ ] [Action] Go looking for some delinquents to beat senseless.
[ ] [Action] Look something up at the school library.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Look something up on the internet.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Wander around town. Why not, it's generally a safe place and none of the local thugs are much danger to you anyways.