Kaori nods in appreciation as one of the shrine workers smiled at her. “Thank you. I feel like I can walk already.”
“Is that so?” The shrine maiden says happily, seeming proud of herself.
Kaori slowly moves up to stand, steadying herself lightly, smiling with relief as she put her weight on her ankle. “It’s amazing.”
The shrine maiden stands as well with a bright smile of her own. “That’s wonderful! Once you are ready you are to stay in the holy room for the night.”
“Oh. Okay...” Kaori replies, somewhat confused as to the difference in rooms.
“You will be safe there,” she adds, sensing Kaori’s hesitance and confusion before she could see it on Kaori’s face. “Only deities and Shrine Masters can enter that room,” The shrine maiden says kindly, kneeling down to clean up the area.
“I see. Where is it?”
The shrine maiden stands fully upright and steps to the room door and opens it, turning to Kaori with a bow. “Please follow me My Lady.”
Kaori follows after the shrine maiden down the hall silently, her gaze wandering from the outdoor hall to an entrance to a snow-covered garden being lit up by the moon above. Her eyes catch sight of two unfamiliar people both looking to be in their very early twenties; one a male dressed in a black and red jumpsuit similar to Vicious’s with a red ribbon tied around his arm, and the other a young woman wearing white and red robes with long hair flowing behind her as they both walked along deeper into the garden side by side. “Huh? Those robes looked like... The ones at Tinder?”
The shrine maiden glances back at Kaori curiously. “Something the matter my lady?”
“Are there people from Tinder here?”
“Hm? No, besides Sir Vicious, there hasn’t been for several hundred years. Why do you ask?” The shrine maiden asks curiously while they walked down the halls.
“No reason,” Kaori says distractedly, looking away from the garden reluctantly as she was led to a large room with a golden altar tucked away on one wall with candles and incense lit up near it, the floor made from straw mats, and the walls all a delicate thin rice paper. Only one large blanket and pillow rests on the floor as her bed.
“It would be best if you remain in this room as long as you are here. Demons have recently been able to break the barrier around our shine, and it would be a shame to lose you to them,” she bows deeply in respect. “Someone will arrive to wake you in the morning. Please sleep well, my lady,” she walks out quietly, sliding the door shut behind her.
“Guess I’m stuck in here...” Kaori looks around blankly, not understanding the importance of the room. “What good is having a room only two people could ever enter?” She mumbles to herself, then shrugs lightly, and walks over to the altar, looking at it closely. “Wonder what this is for?” she says to herself curiously, her attention quickly turning to the door as she heard Tai’s voice outside. She starts to go to the door, reaching out to open it, but stops as she noticed the anger in Tai’s voice.
“You don’t have that right,” Tai’s voice echoes hatefully. “And you know it.”
“I thought it wasn’t a secret,” Vicious responds with taunting sarcasm, boarding on mocking Tai.
“My punishment never was and never will be, but the latter is my decision to make,” Tai says in the same dangerous tone as before yet laced with impatience.
Kaori stands at the door silently as she listened carefully, cautions as to remain unmoving to refrain from making any additional noise. “What are they talking about?”
“When are you going to stop pretending to follow orders already? The world already knows what you are doing and if she doesn’t make it back to the Emperor they will hunt you down.”
“She can return any time she wants. I’m not holding her back.”
“And you really believe that? You’ll try to take her just like you did with Akiko.”
“She is no one’s to take. Not me, you, Soujirou, or even the Temple. It would do you well to remember that, or else she will run off again and there will be no one to blame but yourself. For the second time,” Tai replies darkly.
Kaori frowns in response as she heard one of them walk away. “What does he mean by that?” She places her hand on the door for a moment, taking in the silence. She finds the resolve in herself to open it, expecting to see Vicious to be the one still standing there, but is surprised to see Tai turning around to look at her. “What are you doing here?” she asks, trying to make it seem as if she had just woken up.
“Were you asleep?” he asks tonelessly.
Kaori nods, not wanting to admit she had heard him and Vicious talking before. “I just had another troubling dream, that’s all.”
“Hm...” His eyes slowly wander down to her leg. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you for asking.” She looks at him worriedly as he turned away from her yet still stood by the door. “Um... Did you want to come in or something?” she asks, unsure as to why he’d be there.
“Keiji asked me to stay close to you just in case, him and Breeze are near the exits of the shrine, and Shomei is in the prayer room.”
“And Vicious?” she asks softly as if she didn’t really intend on wanting to know.
His eyes narrow hatefully. “I didn’t care to look,” he mumbles quietly.
“Oh...”
“Would you rather him stay here?”
She watches Tai, trying to understand what he was thinking before she answered. “No...” she responds after a while. “I don’t mind that you’re here.”
His expression eases slightly, only turning around once he heard Kaori speak quietly.
“I...” She looks down in thought. “I want to see the garden. Do you think if anyone comes by you could tell them I’m sleeping and don’t want to be disturbed?”
“They wouldn’t take my word, even if it was truth.” He raises an eyebrow looking suspicious. “You don’t need to go to the garden anyway; there’s nothing there but an old marker.”
“It’s just, I thought I saw some people from Tinder walking through there earlier and I wanted to see...” Her voice trails off in defeat. “Never mind, you’re probably right.”
“C’mon,” he says suddenly.
“Uh-... Really?”
“If you can keep quiet, there won’t be a problem,” he says plainly. “If that’s too hard for you, then go back to sleep.”
She shakes her head lightly. “No. I can be quiet.” She fully steps away from the room and shuts the door securely behind them as quietly as she could.
He looks down the hall then silently starts walking, Kaori right behind him until they arrived at the entrance of the snow-covered garden. “Here right?” he asks, turning around to look at her before entering the garden.
She looks down the icy pathway for a long moment, suddenly feeling a sense of warmth overwhelm her. “Ah-...” She smiles sadly as she stared down the path, then hurries down it, feeling as if she knew something was there waiting for her.
“Hey, wait!” He hurries after her until they reached a large stone marker at the end, seeing Kaori standing near it, staring at it intently. “Don’t just run off like that. I don’t want someone to start complaining that you’re out here by yourself.” He goes silent as Kaori had fallen to her knees and closed her eyes, bringing her hands clasped together as if praying. He remains quiet, watching Kaori pray in the heavy silence between them for a moment before his expression became cynical of her actions. “Hey, you okay?” He reaches out to touch her in an attempt to get her attention but stops as Kaori had suddenly opened her eyes and looked up.
She looks around in confusion, standing from the snow and dusting herself off. “What just happened?” she asks herself softly.
“That’s what I’d like to know. What’s with you?”
She frowns as she looked at the marker. “Pray... It said to pray.”
“What did?”
She shakes her head. “It’s like a feeling, deep inside of me, guiding me to do it... No not guiding. More like pushing me with great importance. If that makes any sense.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
He looks at the stone marker blankly. “It does.”
“Keiji thinks that I could be having memories of other deities,” she says after a tense moment of silence.
“It’s been rumored to happen,” he replies in a plain tone.
“So I guess that really does make me one of them.” She looks down thoughtfully. “It’s a bit sad knowing that I have no real control over my destiny, and even more so, myself it seems.”
“I’ve seen my fair share of Deities come and go...” he says after a while. “Each of them blindly following the path made for them without question. That shows lack of control more than anything.” His eyes narrow in thought while he stared at the stone marker. “Far different from a woman befriending the world’s greatest enemy of the people and having the courage to marry a man she just met.”
“Isn’t the end always the same? To kill a man who decided the world doesn’t deserve happiness?” She shakes her head lightly and sighs. “I shouldn’t fight it anymore. Vicious is right, I have a responsibility to the people. Even if I don’t know anything about them... I really am just like Akiko,” she adds quietly. “I might as well fall into the hands of the Temple.”
“You’re nothing like her,” he responds strongly, his eyes holding a sense of pain behind them.
“You don’t have to make me feel better,” she whispers more to herself than to Tai.
“You may look somewhat like her, at times your personality may come across as similar, but there’s one thing about you that doesn’t come close to resembling her in any way.”
“Being with Yaban, I know that already.”
“Not that...”
“Then what else is there?” she asks in exasperation.
He turns and looks at her directly in the eyes, not caring he was making her feel nervous. “If I told you, you wouldn’t have grown as a person.”
She pouts slightly in protest and childish annoyance before turning away from him. “Mean.” She sighs to herself and nods understandably. “I should go before they find I’m missing anyway.” She starts to leave, stopping as Tai spoke distantly.
“Would you ever live life for the Temple?”
She turns and looks at Tai with a soft smile. “What good is telling you something you already know?” She says in a slight teasing tone.
He leads the way with Kaori back toward her room, both of them walking in silence until they reached her door. “We should leave in the morning. It’s a pretty hard walk up the mountain.”
“I will do my best.”
“Just don’t make trouble this time alright?”
“I won’t I promise,” she opens the door to her room and steps in, her back turned toward Tai. “Will you stay here all night?”
“It’s what I was ordered to do. Unless you want someone else here.”
“Should I?” she asks softly, smiling as she received only silence in response. “Good night.” She slides the door closed behind her quietly, leaving Tai to stand at the door in silence.
He looks at the paper door, his expression just as hard driven as always. He turns his back to the door after what seemed to be a long moment of thought, standing silently in front of it while looking out at the moon lit sky in the clear, quiet night.
❀
Akiko looks down at the lake distantly, Vicious at her side looking at the tree that grew from the center island. “Somedays I wish I could just... Run away. Run away from everything. But then I think of all the people that could hurt. All the hearts that would break and the hard work that would be wasted... That’s when I realize how selfish I really am.”
“It’s not selfish, it’s human,” he says simply as he stretched lightly and leaned back on his hands, now looking up at the glowing trees. “If we weren’t selfish once in a while we wouldn’t know the value of the happiness of others.”
She looks over at Vicious with a curious expression, her head tilted with intrigue.
He looks back at her, suddenly becoming nervous at her gaze. “Uh-... Sorry to be so serious just now.”
She smiles pleasantly at his response. “Don’t be. It’s good to know that, in some small way, I’m normal.”
He sits back up and scratches the back of his head nervously. “You’re better than normal, you know,” he mumbles quietly.
❀
Kaori groans lightly, hearing Breeze just outside her door, complaining loudly. She opens her eyes slowly, fully waking up to the sound of Tai’s response.
“Will you shut up already,” he says irritably.
“Not everyone can stay awake like you!” Breeze whines in exhaustion.
“And you call yourself the strongest of our people,” Tai snaps back sharply.
“I’m tired!!” Breeze whines once more.
Kaori sits up and smiles a little to herself as she heard the sound of Breeze and Tai struggling, as if they were fighting. “They are truly like a family.” She stretches lightly before standing up and making her way to the door, sliding it open to see Breeze holding Tai by the collar, about to punch him as he resisted, and Keiji smiling uncomfortably at the both of them before noticing her.
“Ah, Miss Kaori good morning,” Keiji says, happy for a distraction away from Tai and Breeze’s bickering.
“Good morning everyone,” Kaori scans the area not seeing Vicious or Shomei. “Where are the others?”
Keiji walks between Breeze and Tai, easily guiding them apart from one another as he spoke to Kaori. “Speaking with the shrine master I believe. He also asked us to send you to him once you woke, but feel free to say you never heard of such order if you wish to leave promptly.”
Kaori smiles softly, shaking her head just enough to have her hair brush across her face gently. “I would, but there’s something I’d like to tell the Shrine Master before I leave.”
Breeze grins mischievously. “Let’s go then!” She pulls Kaori excitedly down the hall, leaving Tai and Keiji behind.
Keiji smiles as he watched them hurry away before looking back at Tai. “Eventful night?”
“Hardly,” Tai replies dryly.
They walk side by side slowly down the hall, both speaking calmly. “Anything of importance?”
“She considered staying with the Temple because she feels like she’s a burden and destined to be like the others.”
“I trust you did not entertain her thoughts.”
“I only told her the truth. She resembles Akiko slightly, but there’s one thing about her that ensures they are two separate people.”
“Oh? What might that be?” he asks, his interest piqued, stopping a few steps ahead and turning to look at Tai curiously as he noticed Tai’s reluctance to speak while he stared down and remained still.
“Her eyes,” Tai says in a tone that sounded regretful and somehow solemn. “When Akiko would look at me I would feel was nothing from her. When Kaori looks at me... I see the reason I left the Yaban in the first place. She holds the hope we’ve lost long ago.”
His eyes move away from Tai, his expression hinting at a sense of anxiousness. “I suppose we must do all we can to care for her.” He turns away completely and continues down the halls.
He shakes his head, regaining his composure, and following after Keiji until they reached the prayer room where Breeze and the others stood talking with Master Izol.
Kaori nods understandably while speaking directly to Master Izol. “Thank you for giving us shelter for the night. I’m grateful to be treated with such kindness.”
Izol bows slightly in respect. “My lady, won’t you reconsider traveling to the temple? Grand Master Valo would be more than happy to welcome you with open arms.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t feel my place in this world is at the Temple,” Kaori responds calmly, Master Izol looking somewhat surprised in response. “I made a promise to these people, and I intend to fulfill it.”
“And what promise might that be?” Izol asks quietly, his gaze briefly shifting toward Keiji, carrying a hint of resentment.
“I will be a new breath of hope for this world. I will be the beacon of change and create a unity this world has been lacking,” Kaori says with kindness and appreciation in her voice.
“If ever you change your mind, the Temple and Shrines will all welcome you happily to sanctuary,” Izol says calmly, leaving the option open for Kaori to reconsider.
“Before I leave, I do have a request.” Her voice holds a firm sense of determination as she speaks. “It might be hard but... Please, if ever Yaban were to enter your shrine in need of help, do not deny them,” Kaori adds.
Izol shakes his head a little. “My lady—”
“I do not ask this as normal person, but more as I am giving an order as Empress and as the celestial being you claim me to be,” Kaori says, her confidence wavering at the notion having claimed to be a god.
Izol looks down a little before nodding to Kaori’s request. “Then in that case we have no choice but to oblige,” he smiles faintly. “Please be safe on your journey.”
“‘kay! Thanks see you later!!” Interjects Breeze from behind Kaori, turning away out toward the exit.
Kaori bows lightly to Master Izol before leaving after the others.
Tai stays behind a bit, glaring at Izol. “The Deities no longer belong you,” he says bitterly.
“She will come to her senses soon enough. Us loyal followers will remain just as patient as ever,” Izol contests emptily.
Tai rolls his eyes carelessly and goes toward the exit where the others were waiting.
“You sure told him!” Breeze says playfully as she nudged Kaori.
Kaori nods attempting to reassure herself as she did so. “I just hope I can follow through with it.”
Shomei steps forward and smiles lightly at Kaori. “Even if you don’t see it now, change has already started with your presence.”
Kaori smiles at Shomei’s words, finding herself feeling motivation from her. “We should hurry then, right? Before it becomes dark?” Kaori asks eagerly.
“Correct,” Keiji says with a nod. “We head up the mountain now, the summit isn’t too far off from here.”
“Let’s go then!” Breeze says happily, edging Tai to lead the way down the single pathway with Kaori and Vicious right behind them.
Keiji looks at Shomei lightly with a knowing smile. “We appreciate your support.”
“I can’t say I agree with your methods here, but Taiichiro was correct. Kaori isn’t to be controlled and I truly believe that if something were to change, she might stand a chance,” Shomei says with hope.
“Strange to hear from a Temple Follower,” Keiji replies holding back a chuckle of disbelief.
Shomei laughs subtly to herself. “Former follower. I no longer follow as I should after Akiko’s passing.”
“Interesting. As long as you continue to keep Vicious in line, we won’t judge your decisions,” says Keiji.
“Thank you. It’s refreshing to not be chastised for such a choice.”
Kaori and Breeze speak quietly to one another about the history of the mountain, Kaori listening intently while they walked up for what seemed to be hours until the path around them narrowed, and Keiji walked to the front briskly.
“Around here should be the entrance, shouldn’t it?” Keiji looks over at Tai questioningly as he finished his sentence.
Tai sighs hopelessly and treads forward, leading the others, stopping as he reached a mound of snow and gestures toward it. “There.”
“There’s nothing there,” Vicious says skeptically.
Breeze hurries forward triumphantly. “Leave it to me.” She stops as her eyes lit up with a sudden idea and turns to Kaori. “Unless you want to do the honors, dear.”
Kaori shakes her head. “By all means,” she replies with an uneasy smile and a nervous wave of her hands.
Tai glares at Breeze irritably. “Hurry it up,” he says moving away from the mound.
Breeze rolls her eyes at Tai’s harsh tone and tosses a red sphere at the mound, the sphere letting off a small explosion that, in turn, revealed the entrance to an ice cave. “Well look at that,” she says smugly toward Vicious.
Kaori turns behind her as if she heard something, then quickly looks back as Breeze called her name.
“C’mon!” Breeze calls out happily.