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On the side of a beaten old walkway in the bamboo forest of Genskyou resided a small statue covered by shrine no more than three feet in height and a foot wide. The statue depicted a regular fox, the kind that could be found all over Gensokyou, in fact anywhere in the outside world. No torii and no miko of course, given the size. However, other statues and shrines could be found on the road from one of the human villages.

These small shrines where becoming quite common recently, as a symbol of the arrival of the new Inari-Myojin, or fox god. The seat had long remained empty with no kitsune being long lived enough to take it's place. Until the appointment of Izuna. A former shikigami kitsune now unbound from her master, she took the new name Inari-Myojin Izuna and became the god, or rather goddess, of illusion. With her position came the shrines, not for worship, but just for paying respects. This was a god who asked nothing of neither humans nor youkai.

The fact is that her true followers are the common foxes. With Izuna's appointment came a change in these regular animals. Now all the foxes, youkai or not and no matter how many tails, would be able to speak and transform into human forms. This, in turn, caused a bit of concern for some human villages who would worry about foxes playing tricks on them. As if by second nature, people would leave a simple offering at the small shrines they find, usually just fried tofu, to please the Inari-Myojin and keep the mischievous foxes away. A little extra faith never hurt any god anyways.

The Inari-Myojin herself would probably never be seen in any mortal world. So as her representative and head priestess she appointed the highest standing kitsune in the land to serve directly under her. That landed her with an interesting situation. The candidate she decided on was a nine tailed fox, a shikigami already serving a master. So could it work? And what would the high priestess of Inari-Myojin do? The goddess had no regular shrine for her to reside in, but rather several small shrines to look after.

What this high priestess would truly do was unique. She would be the voice of Izuna, her main eyes and ears. Through her, Izuna could easily step into the living world. Even still, there was nothing to be done about her having a master, but then there was nothing wrong with having an extra job.

Not to mention... high priestess Ran would receive several benefits from the Inari-Myojin. Such as new spellcards.

Despite not being in the physical world, Izuna could still see what Ran was doing. She could see everything she did. It was more of an invasion of privacy because of the rune inscribed at the back of Ran's left eye. Through that she could see what Ran sees and be called out to the real world. She could also speak directly into Ran's mind.

"Thank you for the offering. I've given you a new spellcard as your reward. Have you encountered the other shrine maidens yet? I don't think they'll accept a new set of shrines so easily."

The card she gave Ran was called Disturbance: Ryugami no Fuji's Wrath.

"I see. Well you had better inform them before you end up with an unwanted incident. I'd hate to see the shrines forced into becoming lesser shrines under the Moriya. You know that Kanako is the conqueror type."

Ran was then nudged from behind by a little fox, urging her to get moving.