You Trust Me, Don't You?

Time passed, and the Great Shrine Maidens arrived in Korea.

"It is an honor to meet the Guardian of Korea."

Three beautiful women bowed low. Yellow, black, and blue stood in a row.

"You have come a long and difficult way. I am Dan Miryu."

"Yes. I am Onodera Io, Great Shrine Maiden in service to the great Amaterasu."

"Tomomura Mitsukazu, in service to Tsukuyomi."

"Tsunemi Seshiru, in service to Susanoo."

The rotten core of the Shrine. Its foremost figures spoke in Japanese. There was no interpreter. It was exactly what I had expected, and so it stirred nothing in me.

"It is an honor to meet such distinguished persons of the Shrine."

Dan Miryu welcomed them warmly, in fluent Japanese. It was the smile of a strikingly handsome man, and there was not a grain of anger to be found in it.

Onodera Io covered her mouth and let the corners of her eyes curve.

"Hohoho. I never imagined the Guardian of Korea would come out to greet us himself. We were terribly rude, the last time."

"It's quite all right. We were laboring under a misunderstanding. Such things happen."

"Yes. A person of true intellect resolves matters through dialogue, wouldn't you say?"

Their eyes met. Their mouths were smiling. Their eyes were not.

"...I could never do that."

At my side, Hwang Seokgu pushed his lip out. His brow had been knotted the entire time.

"Oh my. There's someone I haven't met."

Onodera's gaze slid past me and Hwang Seokgu and came to rest on Captain Kid.

Captain Kid approached with a smile spread across his whole face.

"A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Onodera. I am Captain Kid."

"Captain Earth's right hand...!"

A strange light kindled in Onodera's eyes.

"What could bring someone so distinguished all the way to Korea..."

"Heavenly Punishment, an enemy of the world, has shown himself. How could I stand idle, as a hero? I happened to form a connection with Mr. Dan Miryu in Hawaii, and so I came to bring Heavenly Punishment down."

"Truly...? Then perhaps..."

Onodera swept the surroundings in a hurry.

"Regrettably, Captain Earth is in Europe. The aftermath of Ilshikgyo left him no time."

"Ah... I see."

A thin disappointment leaked through.

"It's quite all right. Someone no less than he has come."

"...Could it be a hero of Earth Company?"

Hope settled on her again. She looked ready to clutch at straws.

"Not Earth Company. I will say only that it is someone with a deep connection to Captain Earth."

"...I understand."

Onodera's eyes narrowed. Two strikeouts in a row, and she seemed to fold her expectations away. The way she looked at Captain Kid changed.

She had decided he was useless.

"You will be more than satisfied."

"Yes, well. I'm sure."

Would you listen to that tone. Rotten from the root. How had a person like that ever thought to make an enemy of the gods? It was a wonder she was still alive.

But normalcy had packed its bags for the moon long ago, from the moment I changed the future. In the original, too, she had survived with a persistence that turned the stomach.

When was it she died...? Part Two?

She would die in Part One now.

Grrk.

Startled by the beast-sound, I jabbed an elbow into the man beside me. Hwang Seokgu absently pressed down the fangs that had grown without his noticing.

"Damn it. Instincts this sharp ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are a problem of their own."

"Please bear it. There's no reason to dirty your hands."

"I know."

Hwang Seokgu looked past the Great Maidens to the shrine maidens unloading the supplies. Pretty women, flushed and sweating at the work—the sight was not, on its face, unpleasant.

"Tch. These vermin..."

Even that failed to sit right with him. He jabbed a finger toward a few maidens plastered in heavy makeup.

"Those are men. Children, at that."

"...Ha."

"Barring some special reason, I'm thinking what you're thinking. Aren't I?"

"Most likely..."

Devils, everyone said. Devils. At this rate we would owe the devils an apology. There was no low they would not stoop to.

"...You seem to have brought quite a number."

Dan Miryu asked it lightly, still wearing his smile.

Onodera put on a shy face, as if to ask why he would even bother with such a question.

"Hohoho. Our children are going to serve the gods, and we could hardly send them alone... Isn't it admirable?"

The shadow already lying across every face made it a waste of breath to say anything.

"And once Heavenly Punishment is dealt with, we really ought to see the sights in Korea, shouldn't we? This is my first time here."

A languid gaze traveled over Dan Miryu. The hand that eased closer and caught his collar was no amateur touch. It did not seem like a trick she had tried only once or twice.

"I do hope you'll look after me, when the time comes."

"...Yes."

Sightseeing, while everyone else was living day to day on the edge of not living at all? Was she serious?

"......She's serious."

"Amaterasu have mercy."

Hwang Seokgu delivered the last blow.

Even his anger seemed to have run away from home. He had come back to his usual cold expression.

"Will that lot be any help? We'll be lucky if they do nothing worse than hang off our ankles."

"...Their skill is certain."

The seat of Great Shrine Maiden could never be won by politics alone. Without the proper convergence of aptitude, record, and divine regalia, it could not be held. ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠That a hopeless creature like her occupied the office meant she possessed the qualifications for it. The same was true of the other two.

"Japan's gods... the more I think I understand them, the less I do."

Hwang Seokgu turned, having seen all he needed to see.

"I'll go on ahead. See that it's passed along."

"Yes. I'll call you when we hold the strategy meeting."

Hwang Seokgu returned to the car.

"...What?!"

A sharp, tearing scream shook the air.

"The operation is tomorrow?! Isn't that far too soon?!"

"It was already conveyed to the Shrine Priest... You weren't told?"

"No, that is..."

At the sight of them covering their mouths with their sleeves, utterly at a loss, the old weight on my chest dropped clean away.

The faces of the two Great Shrine Maidens twisted wretchedly.

"We will send the deployment chart and the report promptly. Please study them well."

"...Mr. Dan Miryu?"

The Great Maiden's eyes slowly filled. In a voice that seemed to plead, she asked for their understanding.

"...I understand that the situation is urgent, but might you grant us one more day? There has never been a case of every Great Shrine Maiden coming to a foreign country. We would be grateful for time to recover from the journey, and time to adjust."

"Hmm..."

‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Dan Miryu scratched his cheek, looking troubled.

"...No more than a day. Bear in mind that Heavenly Punishment is holding hostages."

"I will."

The Great Maiden bowed to Dan Miryu, then turned her back where he could not see.

Killing intent, spilling off her in streams.

A hollow laugh broke out of me. The Shrine Priest had laid this board, but the pieces seemed to have fallen into place a little too neatly.

"I will show you to your lodgings."

"Thank you."

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

The moment Onodera stepped into the lodgings prepared for them, she yanked the pin from her hair and hurled it down.

It struck with a sharp crack. The jade hairpin burst apart across the fine marble.

"Those damned wretches. I swear!"

How many humiliations was that, in the space of a few days?

Wherever she went, she had lived loudly enough to shake the rafters. Not even the Prime Minister of Japan had ever treated her like this.

"The Shrine Priest didn't stop at honing a blade. He prepared a bomber."

Tomomura's expression would not smooth out either.

"To be toyed with in someone's hand... I can't even remember the last time I suffered something like this."

Tsunemi's body faded, then returned to what it had been.

"Hah. Hah. So this is how they mean to play it?"

Being dragged to ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Korea was already enough to make her blood boil. They had cut the three of them neatly out and drawn up an operation however they pleased. And the day they meant to carry it out was tomorrow.

She had begged their indulgence and pushed it to the day after, but the act itself was a deep disgrace.

We are not the lesser party.

We have always been the greater.

A god alone was enough to make us so.

"...Lady Tsunemi. Is the serum sufficient?"

"Of course."

"Lady Tomomura. And the troops?"

"I brought only the elite."

"Good."

Onodera stilled her heaving shoulders and spoke with a chill.

"It's a little radical, but that shouldn't matter, should it?"

She drew a red crystal from her bosom and swallowed it in a single gulp.

A sense of omnipotence swept her body. Red energy ran the circuit of her veins together with the detestable divine power.

"Khhhh—!"

"Lady Onodera! What are you doing?!"

Tsunemi started. Taking that now—what was she thinking?

"I-I'm fine!"

Onodera clung to her thinning reason by calling up the humiliation she had suffered today.

This power was a double-edged sword. But precisely because it cut both ways, what it paid back was immense.

She dragged in breath after breath, regulating the red energy and the divine power so they would not reject each other. In time, Onodera returned to her usual self.

"So this is hardly the first time you've done it."

Tomomura swallowed hard.

"Yes. I've been doing it whenever I have a spare moment."

"Are you in your right mind?"

Tomomura set a hand at her waist. There was nothing at her waist, and yet the stance was exactly that of a woman who had taken hold of a sword.

"I thought it was only that your temper was foul... It wasn't."

"...No. My temper is foul. That much is true."

Onodera went to Tomomura without a sound.

Tomomura was startled. She had allowed the distance. She could not react.

Slender fingers stroked her throat.

"Don't worry. Everything will work out."