I'll Have to Meet Them Once

"Ah, nothing beats home! How long has it been since I laid eyes on a view this magnificent?"

I kicked the door open and tumbled inside. Dust that had been ripening for more than a week rose to welcome me.

"They say a house goes to ruin when nobody lives in it. This place is a complete wreck."

There wasn't a corner the dust had spared, and because the air had never been let out, a damp, musty smell came along as a free bonus.

"Out."

Pele smacked me on the rear, then swept a look down the hall and over the house.

"Honestly. A god is supposed to live here, and this is the state of it?"

Her fingers snapped. Flame laced with divinity flared up, lighting every corner and darting this way and that as if it meant to burn the house to the ground.

"Inside."

At Pele's gesture the companions who had been waiting behind her pressed in one after another. I stayed jammed in a corner of the shoe cabinet, sucking on my fingers.

"......So we ended up back here. Haa."

Kana came in wearing a complicated expression and shut the door.

"Not happy to be home?"

"......For me, it feels like a business trip."

"It counts as a second hometown by now, doesn't it?"

"I have never once thought of it that way."

Kana's retort landed sharp. The sting of it pricked me like a bee.

"Boo-hoo. Kana, you've changed. Right up until we left for Japan you were polite. You used to hold it in."

"Any louder, and people will think I have no manners."

Kana let out a long sigh.

"Well. Since we're back anyway, I'll be imposing on you again."

"You're welcome anytime, Kana."

"Even if you don't mean a word of it, thank you."

She bowed her head to me. The suitcase rolling in her wake crossed the hall.

"Hm. Is this what she was like to begin with?"

Healed of the mental contamination she had suffered in Japan, she was no longer the person she had been. The woman who used to flail in anxiety, or rave in fanatical madness, was gone. In her place stood someone crisp and spirited, superior and thoroughly capable.

Even so, it was hard to call her the same woman I had first met. Eyes once steeped in arrogance and greed had turned into the eyes of someone who had already lived out a whole life.

She had been through more than one situation that left her no choice but to change. For a mere shrine maiden, common sense itself must have been turned on its head.

I rubbed my chin.

Tsushima Kana.

She was a character who never appeared in the original. Among the extra maidens who followed the Great Shrine Maiden, not one of them resembled her.

Why? Objectively, Tsushima Kana was outstanding. Housework, the duties of a shrine maiden, the art of handling people—if it was any of those, she excelled. As if to prove she had not become one of Amaterasu's maidens on a gamble, she was a first-rate talent.

So why had someone like her never appeared in the original? Great Shrine Maiden Onodera may have been empty in the head, but she knew how to use people. Kana was more than fit to be kept close and put to work.

And yet the original never so much as mentioned her. Too much of an extra to carry any real weight? Or else—

"She was never in the original to begin with."

Not that I didn't keep saying the original, the original. It was true that the comic Forever was this world's Origin, but nothing anywhere guaranteed the two worlds were the same. The story wasn't unfolding differently from the original. This was simply a different world that resembled it.

"If I had to compare them—an original work, and a fanwork?"

Just as a fanwork takes an original as its base and invents endless settings and characters, this world might well be the same: another world, branched off from the first creation. And therefore......

"That's as far as the thinking goes."

Even that much was more than I should have given it.

"Anyway. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wonder if Ookami made it to Wangrang in one piece."

Ookami had gathered his family and gone on to Korea a step ahead of us. The Shrine had asked Dan Miryu's leave and arranged a residence and everything else, but what was he doing now......

"Has he made contact with the werewolves in Korea?"

He owed me, besides. I'd have to call later and collect.

He was a man who could throw away even his family for that king's sake, and at present he was furious.

"Grrrrrr!!!"

Yamaga took the growl in silence.

The bar was nearly empty of people. In that place, used as a secret meeting point for werewolves, Ookami had Yamaga by the collar.

"Grrk. Gale Who Runs the Plains—is it true?"

"Yes. It is."

Not Korean. Not Japanese. The tongue peculiar to werewolves. Both their throats shaped themselves into a wolf's cry.

"You found the king and hid it for months on end, and you nearly did him harm besides?"

"That is the truth."

"Grrrrrrrr!!!"

Crash! Ookami slammed Yamaga down. Cheap wooden tables shattered, and Yamaga groaned in pain.

Crunch. Ookami's foot ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ground into Yamaga's neck. Yamaga did not look away.

"Your guilt runs so deep I can barely get the words out. What kind of mind does it take to think something that insane? You made a mockery of the clan. You spat on the resolve of ancestors who spent their whole lives searching for the king."

"I know."

"You know? You're full of shit."

Cartilage creaked. Yamaga's neck was crushed down beneath the foot, and he did not resist. He only swallowed, with everything he had, the scream that rose on reflex.

"Gale, your sentence is death. Not just you—the other two as well. The crime is vile beyond measure. Meaning to toy with the king however you pleased—death hardly covers it."

"Whatever the punishment, I will accept it gladly if I return to the village. But not now."

Yamaga's eyes flew wide.

"The king gave us a command. I cannot die, even if I try, until that command is carried out."

"......Tsk!"

Ookami took his foot off Yamaga's neck.

"Get up. That's as far as the venting goes."

"Thank you, senior."

Yamaga rubbed his neck. Ookami dragged a chair over and dropped into it.

"Elder Deulkkot, the blue wildflower of the plain—he's in Korea?"

"Yes. He arrived a few days ago and is attending the king."

"Is that so...... A good thing he came."

Ookami let out a breath of relief.

"Have you gathered nearly all the werewolves in Korea?"

"Every one of them dropped what they were doing and gathered to the king."

"And the screening?"

"The elder is conducting it himself."

Ookami raked his thigh with a claw.

"Information leaks no matter what. You know that."

"We are prepared."

"And how long do you think that preparation holds?"

"......A month, at the least."

"A month? Don't make me laugh. It wouldn't be strange if this blew open tomorrow."

"........."

"Gale. Other hearts or not, they are elders. The strongest, cleverest heads among werewolves."

"We have the king. If he gives the order himself, information will be under perfect control. Elder or not, they won't be able to do a thing."

"I suppose so. But if that were true, you wouldn't have bothered with preparations at all, and you'd have had ease to spare when you met me."

"........."

"Ha."

Ookami let his back go slack.

"Still, by a miracle of miracles, our king is rich in the people bound ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to him. Take your comfort there."

"......Do you mean the king's close friend?"

"You don't need to know."

Ookami looked toward the corner.

"That's enough spectating. Please come out."

"......!"

Yamaga startled so hard he flinched. From the shadow in the corner stepped Deulkkot, blue wildflower of the plain.

"Great Tree's Fifth Branch. It has been a long time."

"It has been a long time, Elder."

Ookami rose and bowed to him.

"Yamaga. Out. See to your work."

"Yes!"

Yamaga fled as if his tail were on fire. Ookami's expression turned peculiar.

"How roughly have you been treating Gale? His reaction is worse than the last time I saw him."

"I only gave him a little special affection."

"So the excess had a reason......"

As one of the same school, Ookami understood Yamaga well enough. Deulkkot came closer.

"So. You were meant to remain in Japan. How is it you came to Korea?"

"I was fortunate."

Ookami explained the circumstances in detail. Hearing them, Deulkkot sighed.

"A god...... Ha! Fate, is it?"

"You aren't suspicious?"

"Our legend has already been born into the world. What reason would I have to doubt?"

"That is true, and yet......"

Ookami looked sour. The man they called the most incorrigible fossil of them all had a surprisingly wide current of thought.

"I am more curious about the man who told you of the king. Who is he?"

"......I cannot rightly say. It was not as if we tied a deep bond."

"An impression will do."

Ookami thought for a moment.

"I judged that he must not be made an enemy."

"To what degree."

"Not if there were a hundred of me. Not if there were a thousand. I could not imagine winning."

"He lived in a different world entirely. His companions as well. Whether his existence will be a misfortune or a blessing to us, I cannot yet say. What I can be sure of is that his companions share a deep bond with the king's close friend, and that they have little will to stand against us."

"......Yes. That is enough."

Deulkkot breathed out.

"A good thing is a good thing, I suppose. It means the king has a helper, for now."

He clapped Ookami on the shoulder.

"Go to the king. You too should look upon his face."

"......Thank you."

Ookami withdrew in silence. He did not ask about the scent of Deulkkot's own blood rising from the elder's body.

Alone in the empty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bar, Deulkkot muttered.

"One week. Within it, they come."

Before that.

He closed a hand around his wrist, and the light of resolve kindled in his eyes.