Succession (2)
The sound of a waterfall drifted from somewhere far off. Mist hung dull and heavy in the air, narrowing her vision, yet strangely she felt neither stifled nor afraid. If anything, her heart was settling. A peace she had never known anywhere in the world was taking root in her chest.
She had been in a room just moments ago. Choco blinked and looked around.
Beyond the settled mist lay forests and mountains. A great tree clung precariously to the rim of a sheer cliff, and a waterfall spilled around it in a long white fall — a landscape that might have stepped straight out of an Oriental painting.
A Peach Blossom Spring. No other name would do.
"Wait. A Peach Blossom Spring?"
Choco muttered it as if something had just clicked, then lifted her head at a presence moving toward her. Someone was coming through the mist.
The figure did not look particularly large. Human-sized at most — unlikely to be a monster. And if this place truly was a Peach Blossom Spring, there was no reason a monster would be here in the first place.
An immortal, maybe. The thought had barely formed before Choco knew, all at once, who was walking toward her.
The one who parted the mist was a tall woman. Her golden hair fell like a waterfall, long enough to sweep the ground, and her glittering eyes were as beautiful as if they held stars inside them.
It was the kind of face that would send any man to his knees on sight, ready to kiss her feet. But that was not all.
A pair of ears twitched near the crown of her head. Behind her, nine lush tails swayed.
As far as Choco knew, only one being in existence could match that description.
"Gumiho..."
The Fox God, Gumiho, spoke with a benevolent smile.
At that kind voice and manner, Choco took a step forward before she even realized it — then snapped back to her senses and retreated two steps.
I almost ran over and threw myself into her arms...
The benevolence radiating from Gumiho was excessive. It was a strange, dominating magic — enough to make even a complete stranger want to run over and cling to her like a spoiled child. The frightening part was that even after recognizing it, the feeling was not unpleasant.
If she let her guard down for even a moment, she might find herself asleep in Gumiho's arms before she knew it. Choco honed every sense to a razor's edge and stayed wary — then, belatedly, she tilted her head at something Gumiho had said.
"Banya?"
"...I misspoke, against my own intent. Forget I said it."
"Well, I don't really care, but... wait, that's not the point!"
Why was she just accepting that?! Choco shook her head hard, then fixed Gumiho with a sharp glare.
"You! What have you been doing to me this whole time?!"
"I have done nothing."
"Don't give me that! If you haven't done anything, then what's this feeling I keep getting?!"
"Feeling?"
"That...!"
Choco started to blurt it out, then clamped her mouth shut.
How was she supposed to say it to her face? That a fluffy, cloud-soft warmth kept welling up from her, that she wanted to cling and be spoiled, that she wanted to say yes to anything this woman asked?
There were embarrassing things, and then there was this. Choco felt her face burn at the words she had almost spoken, whipped her head away, and shouted.
"Anyway! Explain why I'm here!"
"Did that child tell you nothing?"
"That child... you mean Tara?"
"Yes. I told her to explain everything properly before sending you here..."
Whatever was she going to do with that child. Gumiho rested a hand against her cheek and sighed.
She looked so much like a mother fretting over a troublesome daughter that Choco almost moved to comfort her — then punched herself in the face.
"Does that not hurt? Striking your own face."
"Instead of commenting, how about you stop interfering with my mind..."
"I truly am doing nothing to you... but that accusation is rather arrogant, child."
"What?"
"If I had truly placed a mental interference upon you, do you think you would still be standing there resisting it?"
She did not even have time to ask what that meant. Choco squeezed her eyes shut as her vision swam and her mind went hazy.
A blackout, just for an instant. It did not last long — short enough that she could still string together the thought that she had lost consciousness.
"What on earth...?"
"Have you come to?"
Choco started to speak as her awareness returned — then went rigid at a voice coming from extremely close range.
The face she had been watching from a distance was now so close their noses nearly touched. To put it more bluntly: she was in Gumiho's arms.
Choco's thoughts froze. In her place, Gumiho chuckled softly.
"Ah. Now I understand the feeling you described. Banya, too, loved being held in my arms, just as you do."
A gentle hand stroked her hair. A benevolent gaze looked down at her. The tension drained from Choco's body, and the stiffness melted from her face, replaced by a dopey, blissful smile.
She could not help it. Gumiho's touch was nothing short of paradise — a mere caress, and her heart was already full. Saturated in a happiness that turned her whole body to jelly, she could do nothing but lie there in those arms, thinking of nothing at all.
"Mama..."
And so she stayed, nestled there, for a long while.
"...Damn it!"
Only after the mental interference had been completely lifted did Choco come back to her senses. She pounded the ground over and over, her face burning red.
Watching her, Gumiho spoke.
"Do you understand now? Had I truly wished it, you would have been as helpless as you were a moment ago."
"Kh...!"
Unlike before, Gumiho's voice was flat, without rise or fall. Choco let out a strangled sound. She had only escaped that interference because Gumiho had released her. If she had not, Choco would have stayed like that for the rest of her life.
There was humiliation, and then there was this. A grown adult, nestled in a woman's arms, calling for her mama!
But what stung even worse was that it had felt incredibly good...
Choco swallowed back the tears of sheer embarrassment that threatened to spill, and spoke.
"So why did you bring me here?!"
"I did not bring you. You came here yourself — using the divine relic I gave to Tara as a medium."
"Divine relic? That fan?"
"A divine relic has no fixed form. It is something forged from my divine power."
So that child uses it as a folding fan, does she. Gumiho murmured that to herself, then continued.
"I assume you have heard that you are to inherit the role of my vessel of Divine Descent from Tara?"
"I heard, yeah, but why do I have to be your Divine Descent vessel? I don't even want that."
"Whether you want it or not is irrelevant. It depends solely upon my will. Yours has no bearing."
Truly arrogant words. So this was what it meant to be a god. The oppressive presence was enough to wipe the earlier memory from her mind. Choco groaned.
"...So how does this succession even work?"
"It is already done. It is not something that occurs through any process. It is decided by my will alone."
"Already done? Then why am I even here?"
"...Hm."
Gumiho seemed to ponder Choco's words for a moment, then gave her hand a flick. From that empty palm, a folding fan snapped open with a rustle and hid her lips.
But that was all. She did not answer. As the silence stretched, Choco tilted her head and started to ask again. Or rather, she was about to.
Gumiho snapped the open fan shut against her palm and tossed it to Choco. She caught it on reflex, but could not make sense of it, so she looked at Gumiho — who finally spoke.
"Give that to Tara. Tell her I am sorry for taking her place without a word."
"That's easy enough, but... why don't you give it to her yourself?"
"Tara and I are no longer connected. It cannot be helped. You will have to deliver it yourself."
With that, Gumiho turned. She would vanish back into the mist the same way she had come.
Choco stared blankly after her, then suddenly remembered and shouted.
"Hey, I asked why you brought me here!"
"Close your eyes, and you shall return whence you came. Take care—"
"You—!"
Gumiho's voice echoed as if from a cave. Choco tried to say something — and accidentally blinked.
"Are you awake?"
"Huh?"
"'Huh?' What do you mean, 'huh?'"
At Tara's curt tone, Choco looked around. This was not the Peach Blossom Spring. It was the soldiers' barracks where she had been with Tara.
No lingering mist. No waterfall. No sheer cliffs. A limp exhaustion settled through her whole body, as if she had woken from a midsummer night's dream.
Choco murmured like someone whose soul had left her body.
"A dream...?"
"What kind of nonsense is that? From the looks of it, you met Lady Gumiho. I can't sense her anymore, so."
"Gumiho...?"
"...Snap out of it already. It wasn't a dream."
"Nngh."
A light chop of Tara's hand brought a sting of pain, and Choco finally came to. The exhaustion remained, though. She sat there dazed for a moment, then mumbled.
"What has come to pass?"
"What do you mean, what happened. The succession rite finished successfully, and the divine relic and the vessel's seat have both passed to you, Successor."
"There's nothing here... ah."
"What are you looking for?"
At that, Choco started patting herself down as if she had just remembered something. Tara tilted her head — then her eyes twitched as a folding fan actually emerged from Choco's chest.
"What is that?"
"Gumiho bestowed this upon me."
"Heeh... You took the divine relic and the vessel's seat, and now you're getting gifts too? Just hogging all the love, aren't you..."
"Nay — she did give it to me, but she bade me deliver it unto thee."
"...What? For me?"
"So she said."
At the jealousy creeping into Tara's voice, Choco nodded quickly and held the fan out.
"She asked that I tell thee she is sorry."
"Lady Gumiho..."
Tara accepted it carefully and opened the fan.
The landscape of the Peach Blossom Spring that Choco had seen was painted upon it. Tara's eyes grew still as she recognized it — Dowonhyang, the paradise she would one day reach.
"Hmph..."
"Does it not please thee?"
"Are you stupid? Lady Gumiho gave this to me. Of course I like it."
Tara snapped the open fan shut against her palm and spoke curtly. It was not hard to catch the faint thread of joy in her voice.
She likes it...
"Anyway, congratulations. From now on, you're the one closest to Lady Gumiho, Successor."
"It was not something I particularly desired... more importantly, I cannot tell what hath changed...?"
Huh? Choco looked herself over, tilting her head — then her face went slack with shock as she cried out to Tara.
"Tara! A mirror! Show me a mirror!"
"You can do that yourself now, you know..."
She grumbled, but perhaps because of the gift, she granted the request immediately. A mirror far taller than Choco materialized in midair.
"Hahk..."
Choco reacted as if she had seen something shocking, but what the mirror showed was not particularly shocking at all.
The first thing that caught the eye was a pair of fluttering sleeves. They were so wide they would brush the ground if her arms hung down, white with red stripes stitched along them, and tied with red ribbons a little below the shoulders.
The top was at least similar to the white robes she had been wearing, but a large ribbon now wrapped her waist, and below it was a short skirt that left her knees exposed.
"What is this, some kind of cosplay...?!"
The words came out on their own. Fortunately, her looks were enough to pull the outfit off — though that was hardly a comforting thought.