We're Going
The lodging we had been shown was smaller and cozier than I had pictured. Not truly small, though. With so many people to house, it had no choice but to be large.
A living room sat at the center, with a kitchen, bathrooms, and private rooms arranged around it, and when the paper doors slid open, a neatly kept garden and a pond waited right at one's feet.
Splash!
A carp leapt from the pond. A golden carp. Its scales glittered as if they had drunk the sun.
"That carp is a spirit beast, isn't it? And they're just keeping it as an ornament."
Pele looked around the garden, openly amazed.
"That pine is steeped full of the energy of night, and that stone holds the sea wind."
"The garden is a treasure house."
"Not only the garden."
Pele pointed at the tatami spread across the living room.
"The tatami was woven strand by strand, with a craftsman's devotion, from rice straw and rushes that carry divine energy."
Her finger traveled on and came to rest on a hanging scroll.
"In the scroll there is writing set down, in the deepest of minds, by a sage who reached the very limit of what a human can be."
Next came the bonsai and the flowers.
"Bonsai and blossoms tended for centuries at the least."
Last of all, she pointed at the house itself.
"And a house that holds every one of these treasures in harmony."
"Looking around the house is going to turn into a treasure hunt."
"No need to hunt. Wherever you go, it will be treasure."
Pele tapped the floor of the corridor.
"Even this alone is divine wood. Really."
"They've given us an exceptionally fine place to stay."
"Fine doesn't begin to cover it. Live here, and you won't die unless your allotted span simply runs out. A patient with terminal cancer would be cured in a day, I bet."
Pele jerked her chin toward one side of the garden.
"Look. The air is thick with spiritual energy and divine energy, so our cat is dying of happiness."
"Prrrr—prrrr—prrrr!"
San-gun, returned to his tiger form, was rubbing his whole body against the garden earth. His eyes were half-lidded, his whiskers trembling; he looked drunk on some drug.
"From San-gun's point of view, it must feel like catnip pumped straight into the vein."
"Steroids, more like. Step outside after this and he'll be a good deal stronger."
"It has no effect on you, Pele?"
"Not none. A little, but my recovery has picked up speed. To a god like me, though, this is nothing more than a resort with good water and a nice view."
She tossed the words out boldly—words that would have stung whoever had prepared the place—but Pele was the chief goddess of Hawaii. All of Hawaii was as good as her house, and her private room was a volcano. Set beside Pele's room back in Korea, this could hardly have seemed remarkable. Even for me, the effect stopped at a lift in mood.
Still, that was the wrong thing to compare it to. Take beings of godly rank out of the reckoning, and this room was a Sanctuary whose worth no price could express.
Hong Yumin had gone straight to her own room the moment we arrived and had not come out. Kana's presence, meanwhile, had grown greatly here. Sipsado went so far as to glance about and twitch her brows—actual shows of feeling.
And Ookami, dragged along like luggage—
"Haa... haa..."
—lay sick, a wet towel on his forehead.
"...Damn it. I come to the wrong place and suffer every misery there is!"
"Sleep one night and you'll be entirely well."
"I am not a man with time to spare! Let me out, now!"
"In that state?"
Ookami tried to rise and collapsed, chewing his lip.
"The lodging's divine energy has invaded your body. It's God-Sickness. If you can't settle it here, you'll shit blood the moment you're outside."
"What would you know! While I'm lying here like this...!"
"Worried about your family?"
"...!"
Ookami's pupils shook.
"If you're worried, tell the Shrine and have them send someone. If that still won't do, go yourself and bring them."
"How am I supposed to trust you?"
"Because I hold your purpose in my hand."
I laid Ookami back down and changed the towel.
He made no effort to hide his killing intent.
"Please follow what I say. You will not lose by it. Not in the least."
"Kh...!"
Ookami squeezed his eyes shut, as if the humiliation burned.
"Look at you. You're a complete bastard, aren't you?"
"I'm a phantom thief. Negotiation is the basics."
"In what way...?"
Pele looked utterly incredulous.
I shrugged.
"This gentleman is the sort who will never bend unless he's handled this way."
"He's being yanked around like that by a card he can't even see?"
"Which means my card is that strong."
Ookami ground his teeth. Wolf fangs rasping like that sounded like a chainsaw kicking on.
"...Hm."
Pele studied him. Under a gaze brimming with divine energy, Ookami's fur shrank in on itself.
"I went back and forth on it, but this child isn't human, is he?"
"......!!!"
Ookami tried to bolt upright.
"Whoa, whoa. Calm yourself."
I put him down at once and laid him flat again. He really was a handful.
"A species I've never seen. What are you?"
"A werewolf. Also called a lycanthrope."
Perhaps because I had laid his identity bare without ceremony, Ookami's face went blank.
"...No one has ever seen through me. How in the world?"
"Because Pele is a god, and I'm a phantom thief."
"Ha..."
Ookami beat the pillow against the back of his head.
"Fascinating. A species this hard to tell from humans. Are werewolves always like this?"
"His blood is thin. A mixed-blood in whom the human blood runs thick."
"Hmm..."
A species she was seeing for the first time seemed to interest Pele a great deal.
"Then the card you're holding must be a pureblood werewolf. This one is looking for a pureblood."
"As expected of Pele. Exactly right."
"Obvious, isn't it."
Pele thrust her chest out as far as it would go.
"Are you mocking me? What nonsense are the two of you up to?"
Ookami growled.
"Yes. I am a werewolf of high pride. As you say, I am searching for a pureblood werewolf."
He admitted the truth without resistance.
"But if you think that means you can handle me, you are mistaken. We take orders from no one. We follow only the one we acknowledge as master. And so...!"
Crrk. Crrk.
Ookami's eyes turned murderous.
"Now that you know the truth, I cannot let you live...!"
"The pureblood you're looking for. That's the king of the werewolves, isn't it?"
"What......?"
Ookami went rigid.
"Did you think I would push you this hard just because I happen to know a pureblood or two? One or two more purebloods wouldn't change your people's situation at all."
I raised a single finger.
"But if what you're seeking is the king—the werewolves' long-cherished wish—that's a different story. A king that even your grandfather's grandfather never found. The reason you've been digging holes in Japan."
My finger gave his forehead a light push. The strength seemed to leave him, and Ookami sank back down.
"There's a reason you've worn the yoke of villain and hidden it even from your family, isn't there?"
"Grrrk!"
Struck dead center, Ookami had no choice but to swallow the bitterness.
"Searching for a king... So there must be some hidden legend."
The king of the werewolves. A great warrior who would lead their revival and find a light for them in the thin blood of the present age. Scattered to every corner of the world, they had spent their whole lives searching for that king, waiting for a day of restoration that would come when it came.
"Heh..."
Pele's eyes lit at the interesting fact.
"Looking for a king is all well and good, but how do you mean to find him? Do you just know?"
"Instinct tells them the moment they see him, but they absolutely have to see him with their own eyes. Video, photographs—those have no effect."
"What a headache. Earth's population is seven billion. How do you find one person in that?"
Pele clicked her tongue.
"From the look of it, there isn't even a decent clue. You're clinging to some known legend and grinding away on a planetary scale."
"......Enough."
Under that heavy assault of facts, Ookami's eyes flew wide.
"Do not dismiss our long labor. Do you know? The hearts of kin growing fewer by the year? The sense of going extinct as time passes? The wretchedness of being buried in human society whether we like it or not, losing what we are—do you know that, I ask you?"
"And so what?"
Pele bore down on him.
"Hanging on some blameless glory of the past and chasing a legend that isn't even certain—that's fine? Burning endless time, believing a story with nothing in it, doing useless things—how does any of that help?"
"...You wouldn't understand!"
Fwoom!
A fighting spirit laced with divine energy burst outward. The room trembled, faintly.
Pele raised a hand, and the spirit went still.
"The child's throwing a tantrum. Hey. There have to be some among your kin who have their doubts, right? Let's stop this. Let's gather and find a new way. Let's not scatter. But looking at the state of you, I bet you told yourselves you've already come this far, so endure a little longer, the time will come—and comforted yourselves with that. Or else the heads upstairs had their heads stopped up."
Pele saw through their circumstances as easily as if she were looking into her own palm.
"Well, whatever. Thanks to the kid, the suffering's about to end."
Pele patted my shoulder.
"A splendid bit of eloquence."
"Eloquence, my foot. I was frustrated, so I spat out whatever came to mind."
Pele looked straight into Ookami's eyes.
Before a god's gaze, Ookami lowered his tail. The bristling fur drew back in. The wolf's muzzle became a human face, and the apricot-colored upper body the fur had hidden lay bare.
Returned to human form, Ookami muttered in a voice from which the heat had gone.
"...Do you truly know our king?"
"I do. I'll stake my honor on it."
"Then..."
Thud!
Ookami dropped to both knees.
"I beg you! Take me to the king! I'll do anything! Anything!"
Desperation hidden beneath the rage. Perhaps Ookami felt it all the way down to the bone. I couldn't say.
"Anything won't be necessary. Just grant me a few requests. Then—"
"I will guide you to the king."
"Got i— no. I understand."
"Good. Rest well today. We'll speak to your family."
Rattle.
I brought Pele outside with me.
"But why are you trying to pull the werewolves in?"
"Because I need a force."
Another One. To stand against the organization that bastard had built to use as his hands and feet, the Dan Clan alone would not be enough.
"Their influence has to be stripped completely out of East Asia."
China looked nearly swallowed already, and in Japan they were probably still asleep beneath the surface. They would be reluctant to touch Korea because of me, but so long as the Stone of Resurrection remained, a collision was inevitable. Against that day, I needed an organization capable of winning even when I was not there. And while I was at it, I could steady Korea, where public order was anything but stable.
Werewolves were a warrior people to the bone; they would fill out the hero strength we lacked. The king was Korean to begin with. What choice did they have? If the king decided to plant himself there, they would have to follow.
"Who is this king, that you're so sure?"
"Someone you know as well, Pele."
"I know them?"
Pele set her chin on her hand, thought, and then clapped.
"Ah...! That kid! It's really that kid?"
"Yes."
I grinned.