Let's Burn Them in Style
Tsukumi, the Shrine Priest, never let the smile leave his face. His interest was pointed squarely this way.
"Hmm...... So you take it for my own thought."
"And what do you suppose that thought of mine is, masked freak?"
"Not a masked freak. An ordinary phantom thief."
"My apologies. Then, Phantom Thief—what do you suppose I am thinking?"
"Hmm. Our dear Shrine Priest..."
I caught the mask and sent it spinning. The world whirled as if I had been strapped into a centrifuge. Dan Miryu shook his head, long past the point of talking sense into me, while Tsukumi watched with quiet, fathomless eyes.
Under that attention I set my mind to work, fitting what I knew of the original against the mess in front of me, and teased out how that slow-to-rise apostle meant to make contact with us.
Ding!
The mask whirled back into place, and the face upon it warped into an exclamation mark.
"Kill with a Borrowed Knife."
"Correct."
Tsukumi smiled as wide as cherry blossoms bursting into full bloom, and he worked the screen until his face filled it entirely.
"I, Tsukumi, wish to join hands with the Dan clan and sweep the Shrine clean of its unruly faction."
"Why?"
Dan Miryu took the question.
"If I begin there, the telling will run long, so I will keep it short."
"It's just a power struggle."
"Shorter still. The phantom thief has the right of it."
I winked at the Shrine Priest. He quietly looked away.
"The pig you saw earlier—no. The faction led by the Great Shrine Maiden is vermin of no benefit whatsoever to the Shrine. Leave them alone, and they are a bomb liable to go off in any direction."
"So they're threatening you."
"Yes. The bond between Shrine Priest and shrine maiden has collapsed."
"The bond between the two of you..."
Something seemed to come to Dan Miryu, and he pressed on.
"Are you not meant to cooperate?"
"It is more than that."
The Shrine Priest held his tongue a moment.
"Hmm... Are you aware that the Shrine serves three gods?"
"You enshrine the Three Noble Gods of Japanese myth, do you not? The Mihashira-no-Uzunomiko."
"Yes. Our Shrine serves the Three Noble Gods, and for their sake we keep both a sanctuary and the Divine Soil."
Along the top of the screen, emblems rose—the signs of the Three Noble Gods.
"The Shrine bears the charge of serving those three and guarding the Japanese mainland. Finding our devotion worthy, the three gods granted us their power. The ones who received it are the shrine maidens."
Beneath the emblems, maidens appeared in a modest seated row.
"But a god's power is a hard thing to bestow upon every person one by one. The one who governs and mediates it from between is the Shrine Priest. I, too, have passed the gods' grace down to the maidens."
Between emblems and maidens, a Shrine Priest in formal court sokutai took his place.
"Every Shrine Priest in our history has been apostle and proxy to the three gods. Under their gaze, he must always lead the age with fairness and an upright hand."
"Tsukumi can be trusted. Let him rot, and his head comes off."
"Precisely. Even beneath the gods' gaze, no small number of Shrine Priests have fallen to corruption. Every one of them received divine punishment."
"...Then what reason do you have to be threatened? If the gods are truly there, shouldn't the maidens be the ones punished?"
Dan Miryu had found the flaw.
"A good question. Divine punishment cannot fall on them, because I myself am counted among its targets."
Lightning struck the Shrine Priest beneath the emblems. It took him for a wire and leapt to the maidens, and the reverse held just as true: let the bolt fall on a maiden, and it ran all the way to the Shrine Priest.
"The gods may wield their power only by passing it through the Shrine Priest. Without him, they cannot interfere in the mortal world."
I supplied what was missing.
"If the Shrine Priest dies, the maidens lose their power and become ordinary people."
"That is why I still keep this seat. The maidens' faction has choked down a symbiotic tie with me, tears and all."
He let out a heavy sigh.
"I used that tie to rule the Shrine. I built a faction of my own and tried to quiet the fighting. Power is useless against me—the maidens lose without fail—so they set out to isolate me with politics and schemes, and in that they succeeded, to a point."
"Is that why the Shrine is in such chaos?"
"Yes. To cut me off, they spared no means and trampled the Shrine into a wasteland. While I was busy putting the pieces back together, my strength fell behind theirs."
"So you had to step down from real power."
"Yes. Alone, there is a limit to what I can do, and if the gods themselves intervened, the aftermath would be far too fierce."
Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo were all chief gods. Call the Shrine Priest their apostle all you liked; draw on power like that, and his body would not hold. It was not like Pele. It was not like the Saintess.
"Could you not take the power back?"
Dan Miryu asked.
"It is possible, but..."
Tsukumi let the words trail. Dan Miryu caught what followed.
"You've been blocked."
"Yes. By whatever means they used, reclaiming the power has been sealed. My last resort is gone."
A bitter smile crossed the Shrine Priest's face.
"I could not start a war, and so I ask for your help. Please—aid the Shrine."
Tsukumi dropped into a dogeza. At the desperate sincerity of that bow, Dan Miryu pressed his mouth shut.
"I'm sorry. An alliance will be difficult."
Pity tugged at him, but this side was already sick to death over the Heavenly Punishment. There was no strength to spare for anyone else.
"I know how hard the Heavenly Punishment has made things for you. That is why I mean to send the Great Shrine Maiden to them."
"What do you—"
"It is the stratagem the phantom thief named. Kill with a borrowed knife."
Dan Miryu's eyes narrowed.
"You mean we cooperate with the Great Shrine Maiden, wring her for all she's worth, and leave her to die by the Heavenly Punishment's hand?"
"Just so."
"The risk is far too great. The maiden is no fool. Would she even come as far as Korea?"
"She will have no choice."
Tsukumi said it flatly.
"If the Heavenly Punishment opens the Heavenly Road, it is they who stand to lose."
"......And what is the Heavenly Road, that it should matter so?"
Tsukumi's voice went solemn.
The emblems faded without a sound. Sun, sea, and moon took human shape, and then they slaughtered the maidens.
"When that day comes, the Shrine will be purified."
"This will not be easy..."
Dan Miryu brooded.
"So the maiden comes, whether she likes it or not."
"Yes. Stop her, and she will go all the same. Better, then, that I keep the reins and send her myself. There is a pretext for it as well."
There was more.
"The maidens have found a way to undo the gods' shackles. We must hurry before they manage it."
"...Very well."
Dan Miryu decided it as a man with no other choice. Better to set the knife in front of you than leave it at your back.
"I will ally with the Shrine."
"Thank you."
The Shrine Priest bowed his head.
"I'll vouch for it!"
At his side, Pele shot a hand into the air.
"When did you arrive?"
Dan Miryu blinked.
Pele crawled up onto my knee.
"Just now."
"Stealthy of you."
"I'm a god."
At the sight of her, Tsukumi's mouth fell open.
"A—a god? N-no, not a true body, a divine avatar? B-but, but how...?"
Perhaps the culture shock had hit him square. He looked thoroughly lost.
"Child of the three gods. Nothing to panic over. A god doesn't have to stay out of the mortal world."
"Th-that can't be possible."
"It is. Hawaii is my body."
"Ah..."
Tsukumi seemed to turn something over, and then the realization struck him pale.
"It can't be... Pele, goddess of Hawaii, goddess of fire!"
"Oh, aren't you smart."
"An honor. I have never before looked upon a high god."
"Mm-hm."
Pele swelled with pride.
"See? This is how great I am."
Even a god is only cute when she happens to be a little girl.
"Well, the alliance is settled, so let's keep going. This method of undoing the gods' shackles—do you know what it is?"
"Hey!"
"Please stop thrashing."
The Shrine Priest smoothed his expression in a hurry, then said something that landed like a blow.
"The maidens mean to turn Korea into a warding talisman."
"What?"
Pele's face had gone vicious.
"The maidens have lost their minds? They planned filth like that?"
Her anger must have crossed the space between them. Tsukumi's body gave a small tremor.
"It is true. To escape divine punishment, they need only shift it somewhere else."
"Ha! You think that works?"
"The Shrine is not ignorant of Korea's immortal."
At that, the air went heavy.
"You knew?"
"A party bound directly to the Heavenly Road. The child Heaven bore. A passage concerning that one was kept in my Shrine."
"One scheme after another."
Pele flicked a glance at me.
"Then those maidens..."
"Yes. Kill the immortal. Throw Korea's celestial order into disarray. And through the gap where that order clouds, handle Korea however they please."
"Are your gods idiots? Why are they just sitting there? Push hard enough, and it shouldn't be impossible to step in."
"It is impossible. They fear the aftermath of meddling too far, yes. But our gods are also preparing for a distant day."
"And what's that?"
"I cannot say."
"Are you kidding me?!"
I caught Pele as she started to fume.
"Calm down. We can handle this ourselves."
"The gods have not wholly withheld their help. A revelation is the reason I was able to meet all of you."
"Honestly. Gods who can't even manage their own children, and we're still supposed to call them gods..."
Pele grumbled on.
"How are the maidens moving?"
"They are testing the waters."
"Whether to come to Korea or not?"
"They will be waiting for the moment that favors them."
"Then we settle it fast."
"Yes. The moment this talk ends, I begin."
Good. They'll come crawling, foul as they are.
"Send the vermin along nicely."
"Yes. I will send them well."
And then—
"I will come as well."
"You'll come?"
"What reason would I have to stay away? Only, I will finish setting my own house in order before I depart."
A fierce smile cut across Tsukumi's face.
"I am the gods' apostle, and their proxy. I will arrive by a method you cannot imagine. I will not be late."
"Good. Let's see it."
The vermin were gathering.
The vermin called Heavenly Punishment.
And the heretics who had cast their gods aside.
As it happened, both lots looked like madmen.
"Let's burn them in style."
"As you wish."