I'd Rather Not

A pleasant coolness clung to the tip of her nose—wind brushing the sky. Her head spun with the sky's own vast distance, and her chest burned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as Heaven's presence drove deep into her heart.

She was a god herself, and still her mind would not hold still. Even a goddess could not look upon Heaven and let him pass unregarded.

This feeling. It's like Mom.

Haumea, the earth-mother—the great divinity who had given the people and gods of Hawaii a ground to stand on. From her rose a presence akin to a Creator God.

No. Higher than that.

Pele's instinct revised the judgment. Heaven stood far above even her. In that instant, every measure of strength she had ever known was rewritten.

Sweat beaded in her palm. The lava spear melted the droplets and breathed up a thin thread of smoke.

"Fire of Hawaii. I ask that you withdraw."

Heaven took his hand from the spear. Freed in a single instant, it surged for his throat.

It stopped short.

The moment it touched his neck, it halted. White skin, nothing like a human's, was scorched.

"You'd better have a good answer."

The spear spat still more lava.

"If you can't make me understand who you think you are, talking about fate—and why you're throwing a shitfit over an innocent child—then you'd better be ready."

Heaven's gaze was calm. His throat was a heartbeat from being opened, and he did not seem to feel the threat at all.

"Fire of Hawaii. If you truly care for this child, you must not save her with your own hand."

"Why?"

"Because then this child will never be able to escape fate."

It was talk that grasped at clouds. A god saves someone, and they can't escape fate? The subject of the prophecy was not that child. Heaven himself had said as much.

And yet to speak of fate here didn't add up. Wasn't a prophecy fate?

"Prophecy and fate are not the same. More precisely, this child's fate and the prophecy you revealed are different things."

Heaven went on, as if he had seen straight through her thoughts.

"Her fate was never a kind one. She was to groan in pain and die by inches, finding only a little rest at the very end."

Pele's eyes narrowed. The thoughts she had just read flickered past like a panorama.

She ground her teeth.

"That fate was something you assigned!"

The spear crept forward. The heat of the Divine Spear surged toward Heaven, and a red shimmer played over the white skin.

"You are mistaken. I only followed fate. I felt nothing in particular."

Not a trace of feeling colored his voice. That mechanical indifference fanned her rage.

"You think fate is some excuse that covers everything?! Do I look like I'm not a god?!"

The spear's tip swelled. God, and the spear that bore a god's name, unified their wills.

He caught it.

The divine will blurred and drained away.

"What…"

Her divine ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠speech locked. Her divine power guttered out. The fine lines across Pele's body vanished.

"Forgive me. Any more strength and you would have been in danger, so I intervened a little."

Heaven flicked the spear aside as if it weighed nothing.

"Do not take it to heart. You are a divine avatar, and this is a place where my influence runs strong. Short of one's true body, anyone would have fared exactly as you have."

As if that were any comfort.

She had drawn out not only the power sleeping in the avatar, but power from her true body as well—and it had shattered as easily as twisting a child's wrist. Nothing like it had ever happened to her in all her life.

"Good. You seem to be in earnest. May I continue?"

"Fine. Go ahead."

Pele gathered her confusion. Her pride was wounded, that much was true, but she would not show weakness.

"Even I, who am Heaven, cannot lightly bestow another's fate. It would defy causality. It would be a challenge offered to a greater existence."

"A greater existence…?"

"Do not be curious. Nothing good comes of knowing."

His tone dropped. Pele turned the subject.

"I don't understand. You dug deep into that child's life. And that was because of fate?"

Hundreds of lives judged by Heaven and killed. Hundreds of years of suffering handed down. And none of it had been what he meant to do?

"I followed where fate led."

He affirmed it, unruffled. Pele barely held down the rage boiling up in her.

"So you just quietly follow a fate that isn't right?"

"A foolish question. Have you truly forgotten what fate means to the likes of us?"

Pele shut her mouth.

To gods, fate and prophecy were all but absolute. Not once in myth had they been broken, and the harder one tried to escape them, the more terrible the thing that remained.

"Why would you think I am exempt? I too am a slave of fate. Nothing more than a part belonging to this world."

Pele's lips jutted.

"Tch. Wow. You're ridiculously useless."

"…That is the second time I have heard it."

"What?"

"Never mind."

Heaven folded his arms.

"If I may offer one further excuse. This child's fate was absolute."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

He cast his gaze far off.

"It was a fate that had to come to pass on that day, at that hour. No. It would be truer to call it a setting."

"What kind of arrangement is that?"

"I do not know either. Only that the setting is not yet finished. It is still in progress."

Heaven turned his head slightly aside. He could feel the child refusing his guidance. He was holding his power back as far as he could… but it was only a matter of time.

"You could have kept the Heavenly Road from opening."

Pele read his mood. Heaven confirmed it.

"Opening the Heavenly Road was fate too?"

"It was."

"Did it have to happen now?"

"No. It belonged to a far later day."

He looked at her.

"Nor was this child's end meant for now."

"Ha… You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠talk like she has to die here."

Sparks leapt in Pele's eyes. Heaven did not deny it.

"If she dies, that would not be so bad. A misaligned puzzle would fall into place."

"You bastard!"

Pele slammed into him and drove him back.

"I've been listening to you prattle this whole time! You haven't convinced me of a single thing! Quit playing the fatalist and give me a real argument!"

"Then I shall explain from here."

Heaven inclined his head.

"A prophecy, as you know, runs along the same thread as fate. It is a revelation sent down so that fate may be widely known."

"Then what's different?"

"He is in your prophecy."

"…Don't tell me."

"Beginning to see it, are you?"

Pele's eyes wavered.

"What matters is him. The one the prophecy concerns."

She swallowed.

"…That kid is special, I'll give you that."

"Special? Amusing."

Heaven snorted. It was the first feeling he had shown.

"He is more special than anyone in this universe. Special enough to treat the likes of us as actors in a play."

"…Is it because of Chaos?"

"Mm…"

He looked troubled.

"I cannot say how you know of that, but no. Had it been Chaos from the start, the end would have been foul. A state worse than death."

"…Right. Because that kid is human."

"Human to excess. He must remain human forever."

Pele sighed.

"…So the prophecy doesn't matter at all, does it? If he solves it, everything's over, right?"

"It matters."

Heaven drew two lines.

"By nature he is an outsider, a being unbound by this world's fate. However greatly he may change the fates of many, fate itself goes on functioning."

The two lines merged into one.

"But the moment he accepted the prophecy, and the prophecy seeped into fate, he became an actor of fate."

Pele flicked the joined line.

"…Even if he became an actor, he's still just a short-term hire."

"A hire who can smash the theater whenever the mood takes him."

The line crackled and collapsed. It split into branch after branch, and countless paths were born.

Hundreds of hopes lay there.

Pele guessed at what he wanted.

"You want fate to collapse."

"I do not wish this world destroyed."

"But you're going to keep going anyway?"

Flame climbed the spear again.

"You're already planning for the chance he fails."

"…If he fails this time, then it cannot be helped."

A pulse of power burst from Heaven's body and drove Pele back.

"If it cannot succeed in one attempt, there will not be a second. Forever is not so easily handled."

"Do I call this principled, or do I call it a preachy old man…"

Pele's divine power stretched awake. Unlike before, it was orderly, and it did not run wild.

"I believe that kid's going to pull it off. But I won't stand here and watch you gamble with a life."

"We need only wait as we are. Must it come to this?"

"If he fails, you won't show a scrap of mercy, will you? You'll tune the world back to its original fate, straight by the rules."

She would sooner be in the ground than watch that come to pass.

"I'd rather not."

"Not me."

Their powers crashed together in the space between them. The world screamed.

"I would prefer you measured your strength. I have no wish to see this land blown away."

"We'll see."

A smile touched the corner of Pele's mouth, and she lunged at Heaven.

"Hold still and take it, and I'll go easy."

"Hmm."

————!!!

God and god collided.

A small myth. One that history would never record.