Love Is War?
‘It's been a long time since I've felt like this.’
How long had it been since he'd last truly enjoyed a fight?
Sunya had always loved combat.
To others, fighting might appear as nothing more than an extension of violence — a barbaric act. But to Sunya, it was a form of communication.
To evade an opponent's strikes and land your own, you had to understand them more deeply. How they intended to move. What they were strong against, and what they were weak against. Their habits. What they were aiming for…
The one who understood their opponent better was the one who won.
How could that not be communication?
Of course, that was a separate matter from the sheer thrill of a life-or-death struggle. It made him feel alive. And the euphoria of surviving victorious at the end was beyond words.
The emptiness that came after was the problem.
In that sense, combat was like applause to Sunya. Just as you needed two hands to clap, a fight required an opponent. Only when the two collided did a proper sound ring out.
And so this sparring match was thoroughly enjoyable for him.
From Inanna, he could feel a fierce heat of life. Hot enough to burn like fire, yet it illuminated everything around her and shared a warm glow. The vitality that surged through him each time she swung her spear filled him with strength as well.
People sometimes described a martial artist of exceptional skill as "dancing." That was Inanna right now. Her dance was powerful and dynamic.
There was no deception in the spear techniques she unleashed. Every strike was lethal. It was as if her art itself revealed her nature — always honest, always bold. Some took that for stubbornness and savagery, but Sunya didn't think it was a bad thing.
How beautiful she looked, swinging her spear with that exhilarated smile. Anyone who saw that smile now would fall for her at first sight.
‘This is fun.’
Inanna was enjoying herself too. To think there was a man who could take everything she poured out without so much as flinching. She liked Sunya more and more. She should have asked him to spar ages ago. It was this exhilarating, and yet she'd wasted her strength tormenting other people for no good reason.
‘More. Match me a little longer.’
Inanna grew faster and stronger by the moment. Like a wild horse with its reins cut free, like a mountain fire spreading out of control, she grew more ferocious the longer they went.
And yet Sunya remained as he had been from the start. He did not break. He did not look as though he ever would. He endured. He received. No matter how hard she pressed him, she could not see the end of his reserves.
In the end, the spar only concluded when Inanna's strength gave out and she collapsed where she stood.
"Well done," Sunya said, looking down at her.
"…I'll give you that. It does feel good."
Sprawled flat on the ground, Inanna gasped for breath. Being a goddess, she did not sweat — but she was thoroughly spent all the same. Tonight, she thought, she might sleep more soundly than usual.
"You're not tired at all?"
"Hardly. I'm quite exhausted myself."
"Come to think of it, you never once hit me."
"…"
"Were you going easy on me?"
The closest thing to an attack in Sunya's movements had been grabbing her by the arm or leg and throwing her. Even then, he'd hurled her into empty air, so she'd taken no real damage.
"It wasn't so much going easy… I simply prefer not to strike or cut a woman if I can help it."
"Why?"
"The sensation isn't pleasant."
"…You really are a little strange."
"Haha…"
After ending a long, tiring day, Inanna returned to the palace and collapsed straight into bed. Just as she was about to drift comfortably into dreamland, a forgotten fact surfaced.
"…Wait, that wasn't it!"
She was supposed to have him for herself — not trade blows. She'd gotten so absorbed in the sparring that she'd completely forgotten. Still, it had been a day that added one more reason she wanted Sunya.
Lately, Inanna had been well-behaved.
Knowing the circumstances, Enki no longer found that fact frightening or unsettling. What troubled him was Sunya.
Where had he come from? What was his purpose? How strong was he? Enki knew nothing. And that ignorance tormented the god of wisdom.
After the first few attempts, he hadn't even dared look into the pond again, for fear of what he might find. The other gods, indolent as they were, neither knew what was happening nor cared to know — but Enki was different.
He needed to prepare.
Having reached that conclusion, Enki went to find Ninhursag.
"What business brings the god of philanderers here?" Ninhursag greeted him curtly. She sat in a rocking chair, rocking idly, and made no move to rise even as Enki entered her palace.
"…I have a favor to ask."
"What? Need my cunt again?"
For a goddess known as the Mother of All Living, Ninhursag's language was remarkably crude. She didn't stop at words, either — she spread her legs right there and put her sex on display. But coming from a woman of such overall innocent beauty, the gesture felt more alien than erotic. Not that she meant it seriously. It was Ninhursag's particular brand of mockery.
The god of wisdom did not fluster. Though he did swallow hard at the sight of the soft pink folds between her thighs, which looked rather inviting.
"I'd be grateful if you offered."
"Dream on. I've got no cunt to spare for a piece of trash who beds his own daughter's daughter's daughter's daughter."
"Say what you like, but you've borne me more children than anyone. Twelve of them, no less."
"So now you're saying we might as well make it thirteen?"
"I didn't go that far. Though I'd be grateful if you did."
"You son of a bitch!!"
Enraged, Ninhursag hurled a clay tablet that had been sitting beside her. Fortunately it sailed past Enki — and instead exploded through the wall behind him, bringing it down in rubble.
"Ahem. Enough joking."
"Joking with your life on the line? How impressive of you."
"Stop being angry and let me get to the point, will you?"
"That was my cunt."
"Would you drop the cunt talk already? I came here for a serious consultation."
Ninhursag frowned.
"Get to it. I know better than anyone how long that tongue of yours runs."
So Enki cut straight to the heart of the matter, no preamble.
"I need you to unseal Marduk."
Crack.
The armrest of Ninhursag's chair snapped clean off.
As always, Inanna went looking for Sunya the next day.
At present she was lying on her stomach, chin propped in her hands, watching him sit in meditation.
‘How do I get Sunya to marry me?’
By now Inanna's mind had settled firmly on marriage. Once she decided on something, she pushed it through to the end — that was both her greatest strength and her greatest flaw.
She was wracking her brains, fretting and fretting again, when—
Snap.
The sound of a branch breaking.
"Who's there!"
Inanna barked the demand on pure reflex. From not far off came the sound of someone collapsing into the undergrowth.
"How dare they!"
She had warned them so thoroughly not to climb the mountain. Unless this was an emergency, she would make them pay.
Inanna strode toward the source of the noise — and found a small child trembling behind a tree.
"A child I've never seen. Doesn't seem to be from the village at the foot of the mountain," Sunya said. He was already standing behind her.
"I—I-I-I, I…"
Confronted for the first time by a god's overwhelming presence, the boy was half out of his mind. It wouldn't have been strange if he'd frothed at the mouth and collapsed on the spot.
"There, there. Calm yourself first."
At a single word from Sunya, the boy's head cleared. His heart settled somewhat as well.
"What brings you here? Lady Inanna has instructed the people of the surrounding villages not to climb Mount Ebih, as I understand it."
Ordinarily a man was the one who inspired fear and a woman the one who put people at ease — but this time it was the reverse. The white-haired man with the narrowed eyes seemed far kinder, while the red-haired woman glaring daggers was far more terrifying.
"I—I was just curious. Why we weren't supposed to climb the mountain…"
"Is that your last will and testament, kid?"
Inanna scowled. That alone was enough to set the boy trembling again with a nameless dread.
"For the crime of taking a god's word lightly — death—"
"Lady Inanna, might you show him mercy just this once?"
Sunya laid a hand on her shoulder.
"What?"
"I believe this child was wrong to defy your command out of curiosity. But given how young he still is, I would ask that you lessen the severity of the punishment."
Inanna raised her voice a beat late.
"Are you joking? This brat broke my word. I could cut his head off right now and he'd have nothing to say for himself!"
"You're entirely right."
Sunya conceded the point. Even in twenty-first-century America, shooting someone dead on private property without a word was legal. And in this age, a god's word was — without exaggeration — law and truth itself. On that count, Inanna was not wrong.
That he still pleaded for the strange boy's clemency was purely out of compassion.
"…If you'll spare this child, I'll do anything within my power."
"Anything, you said?"
In that instant, Enede's final piece of advice surfaced in Inanna's mind.
The third and last method. Find his weakness and blackmail him.
And the opportunity had arrived right on cue. Miss this, and there would be no second chance. The instincts of a huntress — of a predator — told her so.
The time it took to blink three times passed. At last, having ordered her thoughts, Inanna opened her mouth.
"Then couple with me."