You walked into the temple to see, instead of a golden fox statue, a large golden fat man smiling and doing something with his hands. It was likely the same, however. You felt a presence in front of the statue and could vaguely feel and see the lines that were connecting to Inari in the lower realm. You rubbed your chin, noting just how many there were as you approached Mishiko.
"Hmm." You intoned.
She was kneeling in front of the statue, awfully close to where Inari seemed to be trapped. She was preparing some form of ritual in a careful manner. You looked back over your shoulder to Asuka, then reached up to poke Aran. She yelled in a way only you and Asuka could hear, though you saw Mishiko flinch. As she looked around you could tell that she was actually quite nervous and apprehensive.
"Why are you poking me, sir!?" Aran asked.
"Was that Asuka's Familiar?" Mishiko asked.
You nodded. "Yeah. Though, she's too terrified to go near her. I don't get why..."
"Well... Spider's are rather malicious, dear." Mishiko smiled.
"Maneaters."
"Hah? You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" You retorted.
She chuckled. "Please, I have no idea what you're talking about." She rested a hand over her chest. Quite a bit of cleavage was showing within her robes. You stuck your tongue out, even though it did make the body you inhabited feel something.
"There's only women and me here, so who exactly are you trying to impress with those udders?" You questioned, approaching one of the strings. To you it appeared as a vague outline.
"What do you even need me for?"
"We can't 'see' things until they become obvious to us. Such as when we make a familiar or when the area is extremely dense with spirit energy. Even then, we... are more like a compass than anything else."
"So you know that there is something, but you don't know what it is?"
"Correct."
"What is it you're trying to do, exactly?" You asked.
"We are strengthening the binds around the spirit in order to weaken her influence over this temple. Once we do that we will then be able to weaken her further with more rituals over time. What I need you here for is mostly to do with your sight. You can see things more clearly, yes?"
"Mmm. Yeah. A bit." You shrugged.
"Good. We need to avoid the lines that are binding her, and we need to add more."
"Ahhh, okay." You figured that you could stall her by giving her wrong information. However, with Fin crying in your brain that you should free Inari, and with you faintly agreeing to some extent, you felt like you could throw everything out of whack by breaking some of them instead.
"Just sit tight and don't touch anything and tell us if we are about to touch something by accident." Mishiko advised.
"Got it." You looked around and noted that it was a bit late for that. Everyone was surrounded by red threads that attached to various points in the temple, stretching down to Inari's position. You were surrounded by a few. It was simple enough to step back, grab one and tug it subtly. You shivered as you heard a faint moan that sounded like the fox.
`W-what the hell are you doing, Djir!?`
`Relax... These are sturdier than I thought.` You blushed.
`I guess we also don't know where some of these lead...`
`Yeah. So be careful, please?`
`Hey! Don't get on my back when I'm running with your request!` You snapped back, discreetly holding the thread with both hands this time. You yanked hard.
`Oh, I'm pretty weak. I forgot.`
Fin sighed. `Let's just pour a bit of energy into it, then.`
`A bit?` You repeated sceptically. Regardless of your concerns you tugged at the string and with Fin's help on the spiritual side it snapped. Then, you felt a bit dizzy as more loosened and fell and some more still snapped.
"Urk..." You began to sweat a little.
`Maybe a bit much, don't you think!?` You shouted.
`We're trying to free her, anyway, so what does it matter?`
"Something just happened?" Mishiko uttered nervously, standing. She looked around frantically. The two girls began to back up.
"What just happened!?" She asked, looking at you.
"I- Uh... I dunno." You shrugged.
"Looks like all the lines are breaking."
"WHAT!? ALL!?" She held her head in her hands, then started to move. As she had to move faster she lifted her robes to move faster.
"Run!"
Before any of you could escape the doors shut and the room went completely black, despite it being day. Then the windows lit with blue energy, shining ghostly spotlights into the dark temple to illuminate further shades of grey. Lights began to ignite blue all through the temple to illuminate it completely. You took a step, almost tripping over a little orb that was trying to wipe the floor that you had just walked on.
"Running isn't an option for you this time, my dear. Not for any of you." Inari stated from the head of the room. She was brushing of strings and getting use to walking again, since she stumbled a few steps as she stood up.
"Thanks for the save, Daddy." She smiled brightly.
`No problem!` Fin shouted from within your head.
Meanwhile the girls were huddling together, back to back. Mishiko stared at Inari like she could see her and Asuka and Maoka were looking down as if they could see the tiny sprites cleaning the floors.
"Can you all see these things?" You asked.
"Of course they can. They're in the spirit realm."
"No..." Mishiko fell to her knees.
"Yes~" Inari clapped.
"What did she mean when she said 'thanks Daddy?'" Maoka asked, looking at you suspiciously.
"Well-" You began to try to explain yourself as Inari walked closer to everyone.
"It means exactly what I said. My Dad gave me a bit of a helping hand in escaping." Inari explained.
"Your... " Mishiko gasped and pointed to you.
"The Demon King! It was you all along!"
