Yuriko had woken up unusually early that morning and was stretching as she came back from washing her face.
The halls by the sleeping quarters were still silent and empty, the only sounds being the creaking of wood beneath her footsteps.
"It really is early," she thought as she held up her hair to tie it with a string. "Maybe I can get in twenty extra minutes of sleep if I hurry."
As she took a turn, her hand slipped and she dropped the string on the floor. She grunted in dissatisfaction as she bent over to pick it up.
That was when she felt a chill run up her spine.
She rose quickly and looked around to see if anyone was there. No one was, so she shrugged it off as a reaction to the morning cold and went back to tying her hair.
This time she stood still, not wanting to overexert herself again. That was when two ladies came walking around the corner ahead of her.
She held her hair with one hand and waved to them, saying, "Good morning."
They didn't reply and just walked past her without so much as a glance.
"Damn, no need to be so snobby this early in the morning," she thought as she watched them take the next corner and disappear.
Looking at them, she couldn't help but think back to the chill that she had felt before. It had felt like a faint flicker of Source energy.
She knew that for sure, but the problem was that the heightened senses one attains after Ascension to detect Source energy had a tendency to give off false stimuli if an ascended person was left secluded in an area with extremely little output for a long period of time.
It was kind of like a person seeing a silhouette in the corner after being left in a dark room for too long.
Knowing this, she couldn't tell whether what she had felt was because of that or whether it was genuine.
But she resigned herself to the thought that even if it was genuine, it was too minuscule to pose any real danger, so she shelved it in the back of her mind.
Just then she heard the faint sound of bells chiming from behind her, so she turned to see what it was.
When she did, she saw Taki coming around the corner and immediately calmed down.
"Good morning, Yuriko," she said softly with a smile as she approached.
"Good morning," Yuriko replied.
"You're up early today. What's the occasion?" Taki asked.
"Is it so hard to believe that I can wake up early?" Yuriko snorted.
"It is," Taki replied with a chuckle.
"If you think that, then you'll be shocked when you meet my brother," Yuriko said. "He sleeps so late that I'm the one who wakes him up."
"You have a brother?" Taki asked. "Does he live in town?"
"Yeah, he does," Yuriko replied. "I think he's gotten into construction or something."
"Really?" she asked. "How old is he then?"
"We're the same age," Yuriko replied.
"But you and Takae are already the same age, so does that make you all triplets?" she asked.
"It does," Yuriko replied, "but I'm the oldest of the three, so I'm the one in charge."
"I can't imagine you being in charge of anything," Taki said.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing!" she said, backtracking. "Anyway, where are you going now?"
"I was going to go back to sleep," Yuriko thought, "but that will blow my reputation with her even more."
"I'm going to get breakfast instead," she said, turning around. "You want to come too?"
"Sure."
The rest of the morning passed fairly ordinarily, and they went through the motions just like they always did. Yuriko convinced herself that by now she could go through everything half asleep with how predictable it had all become.
Later that afternoon, as they were doing the laundry, Yuriko noticed that Leina seemed much more chirpy than usual.
She stared at her face, brimming with a smile from ear to ear, and asked, "What's got you so happy today?"
"Oh, me?" she said abruptly, as if being pulled out of a trance.
By then, Takae and Taki had already turned their attention to her too, so she was forced to answer.
"Does this have to do with the letter I saw you with before?" Takae asked.
"It does," she replied.
"You got a letter?!" Yuriko asked excitedly. "Who was it from?"
She hesitated before saying, "It's from my fiancé."
"You're engaged?!" they yelled almost in unison.
"Who is it? Tell us," Yuriko pestered, but she was still hesitant.
"He's a guard in the Doshin," she replied.
"Tell us more about him," Taki said.
"We grew up together," she replied. "Before I came to the shrine, he proposed, but my father said he wouldn't accept him unless he got a respectable job and sent me here."
"He reached out to me a year and a half ago and said that he got into the Doshin and that he was pestering my father to keep his promise."
"And did he?" Yuriko asked.
"He did, and in four months I'm leaving to go and marry him."
"I'm so happy for you," Taki said.
"Four months couldn't come sooner," Takae said.
"Thanks," she replied. "I really do hope they end quickly."
"So eager to leave us behind, huh?" Yuriko joked.
"It's not that," she replied. "I'm just saying it because it's going to be a rough stretch."
"Why do you say that?" Takae asked.
Her smile faded, and she remained silent for a second.
"Are you okay?" Takae asked, alarmed by the sudden change.
"I'm fine," she replied. "I guess I was debating whether I should tell you about it or not."
"About what?" Yuriko asked.
"Do you know what it means to break the ribbon?" she asked.
"Yeah, it's when a maiden is cast out from the shrine for doing something that breaks the rules," Takae replied. "But what does that have to do with anything?"
"Breaking the ribbon is the thing every single girl in here is afraid of because being cast out from the shrine is basically social suicide," she said.
"Some girls are so afraid of it that it is rumoured they agree to some strange demands from the upper echelon and disappear, only to come back later completely different."
"Like traumatised?" Taki asked.
"No, it's like they're completely different people," Leina replied. "But their reputations are saved and they can stay, so no one questions it."
"And even if they do, they don't answer."
"Take those two, for example," she said, pointing to two other maidens doing their laundry in seclusion. "They were accused of running away and were almost kicked out, but rumour has it that they accepted the demands, and now they're completely different."
"They used to be so chatty, but nowadays they don't even greet people anymore and just keep to themselves."
Yuriko recognised them. They were the same girls she had bumped into that morning.
"What does that have to do with you?" Takae asked, drawing Yuriko's attention back to Leina.
"Well, as you would expect, girls often accuse each other of breaking the rules on a regular basis," she replied. "And those who are in the most danger of being accused are those who get into a lot of fights and those who are about to leave."
"Like you, right?" Taki said, looking worried. "Does that mean you're in trouble?"
"No," she replied. "As long as I stay invisible and avoid any serious fights, I should be fine. But just the stress of it is making me worried."
"Don't worry. No one's getting to you on our watch," Takae said.
"Yeah, you're safe with us," Yuriko added.
"Thanks," she replied with a faint smile. "I feel safe already."
They kept chatting, but every now and then Yuriko couldn't help but glance back at the two girls.
The sheets, billowing in the wind, would often obscure her view.