#denmoku

Story

“Will you die with me and take me to Paradise?”

Meiji year 40. Summer. Living in Fushimi, Kyoto, Momokawa Inako never succeeded at anything she tried, no matter what it was, thus being reprimanded by her father every day. Her one and only salvation was praying to the gods and Buddha and having faith.

On a certain day, while bringing her hands together at Fushimi Inari as usual, she met Sakamoto Kihachi, a free and uncontrolled boy who spat out at her, “I don’ believe in what I can’t see”. He denied the gods and Buddha, boasting that their era would be the age of electricity.

In said occasion, a discussion about marriage was suddenly brought up to Inako. It was her father’s one-sided decision, yet Inako gave in to it, thinking that her own worth was only so much. Mustering out his true feelings about wanting to free her, Kihachi took her out of her locked house.

The only way to stop the marriage was to look for a strange book, the “Electricity Catalog”. It was a prophecy book about electricity that Kihachi had written in his childhood, which his older brother Seiroku had taken away, the latter’s whereabouts unknown. Both Kihachi and Inako depart in search for the “Electricity Catalog” and roam around the territory of Shiga and Kyoto.

The secret hidden within the vanished “Electricity Catalog” was――

Character Profiles

Sakamoto Kihachi

A boy who loves electric lights dearly, works at the Hourai Temple Shop in Shinkyougoku Street and also handles mechanical repairs. 15 years old.

In the past, he was charmed by the near-future machines from the 5th Annual National Exhibition held in Oosaka and took interest in electricity. Believing relentlessly that “the twentieth century is the century of electricity”, he wrote the Electricity Catalog, which imagines future electrical inventions. His house is within a temple, but upon becoming unable to believe in gods, he had a big argument with his father and left home. He hates dark places with a passion.

Momokawa Inako

She grew up as the second daughter of the Momokawa Sake Brewer, located in Fushimi, Kyoto. 15 years old.

She has a pure-hearted and lively personality, but makes too many clumsy mistakes, and is always scolded by her father, Jinuemon. She ends up being compared to her sister, who can do anything, and is pessimistic about her very existence. She believes unwaveringly in gods, and whenever she is troubled by something, she goes to pray for the great mircacle-working deity Akubi of Fushimi Inari. “Believing is worth it” is her most common phrase. The only thing that she does not lose to anyone at is catching rats with her bare hands.

Momokawa Noriko

Inako’s older sister. 20 years old.

As the opposite of Inako, she is a mature woman gifted with both intelligence and beauty, flawless at everything she does. Her childhood friend Kuga is her fiancé, but the two are in a state of arguing every time they see each other, and so their wedding is on hold. The white kimono she wears and her long, lustrous hair are things that Inako admires. She was born and raised by rice wine brewers, but cannot stand the smell of alcohol.

Kuga Sengo

The second son of a rice grain dealer from Ootsu, the Kugatsunekichi Shop. 24 years old.

He is serious and has a strong sense of justice, adored by Inako as if he were her older brother. His relationship with his fiancée Noriko is that of dogs and cats, and he always has his mouth shut by Noriko’s sharp tongue. Due to his body of over 180cm of stature and the reckless way with which he madly rushed ahead during the Russo-Japanese War, he was nicknamed “Okajouki”. He currently works on philanthropic activities, such as helping the Salvation Army.

Sakamoto Seiroku