Chapter 19: Blighted Seeds
- Location
- My Bed
Grand Shrine Record Department
YUUSHA-SAMA: CENSORED
Absolution from ■■■.
Or... my ■■■■■■■■■■? Is that it?
I never... meant...
I...
I will burn the very ■■■■■■■ in her name.
Kumiko Karasuma's Record
2nd of October, 2015
2nd of October, 2015
----=----
Things never returned to normal.
Her absence could be felt on the shrine. And everywhere else on Suwa. She'd been so blinding that nothing else could fill the hole she'd left behind.
That's why Utano spent most of her days out on her fields, even more so than before. There was work to be done. Who would do it, if not her?
A few days after the funeral, new volunteers showed up to help out on the fields. They were survivors from Hokkaido. About forty able-bodied adults. They told Utano they were here to repay the Heroes for what they had done for them and their families.
Utano was grateful, but didn't have much to say to the adults. She wasn't the one they owed a debt to.
She got back to work.
Mito visited a lot. Her best friend brought fresh water and snacks. Utano thanked her with a big smile, and they sat together under the shade when Utano took a break.
"It's… impressive." Mito commented once, looking out across the bountiful fields bursting full of green and healthy crops. "All your hard work is paying off, Utanon."
"Thanks!" She smiled. "It's almost time to harvest the chunk of the buckwheat fields that I planted late in the season. I'll bring the crates we used last time from the shrine, take them to the refugee camp, and distribute them to everyone. I'm sure they've already run out of the produce we gave them before."
Mito looked at her with a strange look in her eyes. Utano wasn't sure what it was. "That sounds good. You can count on me." She nodded, turning back to the fields. "...Do you think we could get one of the others to help us?"
Utano exhaled. "Maybe." She mumbled. The tree trunk felt coarse on her back as she leaned against it. "I'll try asking around."
"Right…"
They probably wouldn't help. Karasuma was holed up inside her room, just like Koori. And Yoshika wasn't interested in farm-related things. Utano wouldn't hold it against them if they didn't help her. She was a Hero, after all. She could take the crates filled with buckwheat and ferry them across Suwa herself. It would take longer than just using Karasuma's car, but everything would work out either way.
Mito's help was more than enough. Utano could shoulder the rest.
----=----
Three days later, it was time. With the help of the new Hokkaidan volunteers, they'd harvested the buckwheat fields in record time. They'd filled four big crates with produce.
Utano hauled one of them up, careful not to break the wooden frame with her strength. After getting a comfortable and secure grip, she started running in the direction of the city, and after a few seconds of building up speed, leaped away.
It took her an hour to go back and forth from the refugee camp and her fields. In the meanwhile, Mito arranged everything on the ground, on a small stand in front of the City Hall. By the time she delivered the third crate, a line had formed in front of the stand.
Mito was in charge of giving people their share of food, while Utano helped around with various things.
"Come get your freshly harvested buckwheat! One kilo for every family!" Utano shouted. She was walking around the vast refugee camp, making people aware of their venture. "You can make delicious soba with it!"
Her shouting worked surprisingly well. Not long after she returned to the stand, the line of people waiting for the buckwheat tripled in size. She took a seat next to Mito and helped her weigh the portions of wheat on a small mechanical scale. They didn't have any bags to give to people, so they mostly used whatever they had on hand.
They went through three crates of buckwheat before the line of people stopped growing. Hours later, as she handed the buckwheat to the very last person, Utano was happy to see they still had half a crate left.
She held up a hand to Mito. "Good work, Mii-chan!"
Mito tiredly gave her a high-five, smiling a bit. "Yeah." She said. "We did a good thing today, I think."
"Definitely!" Utano agreed. "Just imagine all the Shinshu soba everyone will make with our buckwheat!"
A low rumble echoed throughout the stand. Utano looked down and patted her stomach as Mito giggled at her expense.
"Speaking of…" Her light laughter was music to Utano's ears. The frown was nowhere to be seen. "It's late. We should grab something to eat before heading back."
"Soba!"
Mito sighed. "Sure. Soba it is."
"Yay!"
----=----
The soba shop was pretty empty, compared to other days. The sign outside proudly displayed 'Hero Shop', all because of Utano's endorsement and frequent patronage. She had mixed feelings about that.
On one hand, it was pretty cool to have the best soba shop in all of Suwa named after them. On the other, she didn't want it to become a regular thing. If someone offered to name a building or a street after her, then she'd probably refuse.
It wasn't the same. This soba shop was special.
Mito and Utano sat in a booth and ordered the usual. Nobody bothered them or anything. People didn't really recognize her at first glance without her Hero outfit. She was just a normal girl getting her daily intake of Shinshu soba with her friend.
Utano devoured three bowls before she was satisfied. Mito ate with more restraint, picking at the noodles with her mind elsewhere.
"Hey, Utanon." Mito turned to her. "I need to tell you something."
Her face was serious. The slight frown on her temples was back.
She nodded once. "I'm listening."
The Miko leaned closer, hesitating several times, before finally speaking up. "I'm… scared."
Utano frowned. "Why? What's wrong?"
"I…" She struggled to find the words. "I haven't received an oracle for a while now. Since before…"
"Right." Utano exhaled sharply. "And you're worried because of that?"
Mito looked down at her soba. The broth was probably cold by now. "I guess."
That wasn't quite it. The oracles were important, but they weren't the real reason.
"There's something else bothering you, right?"
A beat passed. Mito lowered her voice to a whisper. "I keep thinking about Asahikawa." She said as she stared at the soba. "And how w-we… we…"
We're next.
Utano clasped one of her limp hands. Her palm was cold to the touch.
"I'm scared too."
Mito looked up from her bowl, glancing at her through her short bangs. "...Really?"
"Yeah. It's an awful feeling." Utano whispered. "Like… it doesn't matter what I do, the monsters will adapt to it."
Yuuna had become strong enough to battle a thousand Vertexes on her own.
It hadn't mattered, in the end.
"But…" Utano gently squeezed her hand. "The thought of… freezing up and doing nothing… it's even scarier than anything the Vertex could throw at me."
There wouldn't be a repeat of the Battle of Asahikawa.
She would never lock up like that again.
"Utanon…"
She recovered, and gave her friend a small smile. "So, it's okay to be a bit scared, Mii-chan. But don't let it consume you, because you're not alone." She said firmly. "You have me, Koori-san, Yoshika-san, and Karasuma-san. We'll get through this together. All of us."
Mito stared at her. A second later, she barreled into Utano's arms and enveloped her in a hug. The soba had been forgotten a long time ago.
"Thanks…"
Utano hugged her back. She needed it too.
----=----
Someone was waiting for them at the shrine's entrance, beneath the grey torii gate made out of concrete. The sun was gone by now, so they had to get closer to see who it was.
It was Yoshika, in her ceremonial Miko robes. She was the one who wore them the most.
She greeted them with a curt nod. "Good evening, Shiratori-san. Fujimori-san."
"Hey."
"Good evening, Hanamoto-san."
With pleasantries out of the way, Yoshika quickly got down to business. "I am here to tell you Kumiko-san wishes to speak with you, Shiratori-san." The braided girl with the glasses said. She turned to Mito. "You can accompany her, if you want."
Mito seemed unsure. "Okay…"
"We'll go see her right away." Utano said. "Thanks, Yoshika-san."
The Miko only gave her a nod. She stayed behind as they entered the shrine's complex, and headed towards the living quarters.
They passed the empty mess hall, walking through the quiet hallways in the direction of their rooms. The priests were all asleep already. They'd decided to walk back to the shrine, so it was very late by now.
Karasuma's room was right next to theirs. It had been Mito's at first. Utano knocked softly.
A muffled reply. "...Come in."
She turned the door's handle and they made their way inside. It was almost identical to their room. Two futons on two sides of the walls, with some sparse furniture. Utano glanced at the right side of the room, and saw it pristine. There was a pink flower clip on the small bedside table, and she immediately knew what she was looking at.
The other side of the room was very distinctly Karasuma's. Her lab coat was thrown on top of the messy bed, along with some other discarded clothes. The floor was a mess too.
"Good." A column of smoke rose up from behind the futon. "You're here."
Karasuma herself was curled up on the floor beside the head of her futon, leaning against the wooden walls as she hugged her knees. Her long black hair was in disarray, and she didn't have her lab coat on, for once. A pair of tired eyes glanced at them, with a smoke on her lips.
"Karasuma-san." They hadn't spoken in almost a week. "What's up?"
"Nothing much." She took a long drag. "As you can see, even scum like me can survive the death of someone dear."
Smoke escaped her mouth. A lot of it. She was glad the window was open, at least.
Mito hesitantly spoke up. "Are you… okay?"
Her hair shook from side to side. "No." She said easily. "And nothing you do or say will make me feel better, so please don't waste your breath, Mito-chan. I'm not worth it."
Her friend was at a loss for words.
"Yoshika-san said you wanted to speak to me." Utano prompted her, drawing her attention away from her friend.
"I do." She said. "I need to get something off my chest."
The words tingled Utano's neck. The tone of perpetual sarcasm that covered everything Karasuma said was gone. This was important.
"Okay." The situation felt familiar. "What is it?"
Another drag, slow and deliberate. "The truth. I'm not a Miko."
The words were so simple Utano thought she'd misheard. She stared at Karasuma, confused.
"What?" Mito asked what was on her mind.
"There's not a lot to understand." She said. "I'm not Yuuna-chan's Miko. I never was."
"How…"
"By lying, of course." Her tone was bored. "Her real Miko was a girl named Yokote Matsuri. A few hours after I met the two in Nara, the bus we were using to drive to Nagano was attacked. Matsuri-san… didn't survive.
"The bus had been destroyed by the horde, so I grabbed the first car I saw, put the injured Yuuna-chan on the backseat, and drove away, towards safety."
Didn't survive.
"What…" Utano struggled to get the words out. "What happened to her, exactly? To Matsuri-san, I mean?"
"I told you. A Vertex crashed into the side of the moving bus and killed almost everyone." Her voice was very, very small. "Only me, at the driver's seat, and Yuuna-chan, survived."
"That's… awful." Mito immediately said, a pained look on her face.
Karasuma said nothing. Only the low zizzle of her cigarette reached her ears.
Utano crossed her arms, breathing in, and out. Something didn't add up. "Why lie?"
Karasuma shrugged. "Why not? It made things easier for us if we claimed I could hear the voices of the gods. Gave us credibility." The cigarette was practically fused to her lips. "Otherwise, I'd just be some girl who got really fucking lucky. Yuuna-chan didn't need someone like that. She needed a Miko."
"What did she think of this?"
Another drag, another pause. "She thought it was okay, as long as I didn't mention Matsuri-san to anyone. If it made it harder for people to push us around, then the lie was worth it.
"Of course, you and Mito-chan turned out to be really nice people, but I still kept up the charade. Yuuna-chan needed someone to look out for her, and people… respected me because of my role…"
Utano had no idea what to think of this. It was ridiculous. She'd never suspected a thing.
Yuuna had lied to her, many times.
Out of necessity, maybe.
Still…
"None of that matters anymore." The older girl said. "I just want the Vertex to hurry up and kill us all already."
Mito flinched. Anger, sharp and hot, spiked in Utano's throat. "Karasuma-san!"
She shrugged, and dived back into her cigarette. "Whatever. I've told you everything." She rested her head on her knees. "Leave me alone."
Utano didn't budge. "What about the others? Have you told them about it?"
"Yes." She didn't look up from her knees. "Glasses-chan has known for a month now. I told her because at least one Miko needed to stay in Suwa while the other went on the rescue mission." Pure contempt dripped from those two words. It was hate, raw and full of grief, for everything they represented. "She… told Chikage-chan a few days ago."
They were the last ones to know. It was fitting, Utano thought. She was the one who spent the most time outside of the shrine. If Karasuma had ever slipped up in her web of lies, then she hadn't been there to see it. Mito spent the afternoons with her, so she was in the same boat.
Karasuma fell silent.
They left her room after that. They stood in the quiet hallway, still processing through everything they'd been told.
"I… didn't think Yuuna-san was capable of lying…" Mito said quietly. "Karasuma-san, sure, but…"
"Yeah. Neither did I."
…
Karasuma was partially right on something. None of it really mattered anymore.
Yuuna was gone. There was no one to blame except the self-pitying smoker inside that room.
Utano sighed, releasing some tension she hadn't realized had been there. They went inside their room without much fanfare.
----=----
At first light, she was already back in her fields, preparing the recently harvested soil for the next sowing.
Utano knew what really mattered. Her fields, her crops, and her best friend. They'd helped hundreds of people just yesterday! If Karasuma wanted to wallow in misery and regrets for weeks, then she'd let her.
But Utano wouldn't do that. She was a Hero. She had a responsibility to Suwa, its people, and to her friends.
Anything but freezing up. Anything.
----=----
Time passed.
Utano submerged herself in routine. It gave her focus. A purpose, when Takeminakata-sama remained silent for weeks. Her fields were her first priority. The Vertex were quiet, and she hadn't seen one since their return to Suwa, almost a month ago now.
Her friendships strained. Well, all of them except Mito, of course. The brunette would never leave her side.
The others, however…
Koori was a ghost she saw maybe once a week. The Hero had barricaded herself inside her room at the shrine, and only let her Miko in. Any attempts at striking up conversation had been stonewalled and ignored.
She wasn't one to give up, even when faced with a coldness only Koori could manage, but…
Things between them hadn't recovered since the rescue mission, and she was starting to doubt they ever would.
And Karasuma had left. Just like that. The day after telling her and Mito the truth, the older girl packed her things, got in her red car, and drove away. That was what the priest who'd seen her leave in a hurry said later, anyways. Nobody had seen her around town, and they'd searched for her for almost a week. She was gone.
She didn't even have the decency to say goodbye, to give Utano the chance to convince her to stay.
Adults could be heartless when they really wanted to.
Yoshika was still the same as always, thankfully. She spent her days praying in the kagura-den, or in front of a Mihashira pillar. She never strayed too far away from Koori. Those two were like Mito and Utano, in their own cold and aloof way.
A Miko and her Hero. Maybe it was better like that.
Utano stared at the tool shed Karasuma had built while they were away, storing the farm tools for the day. Everything had happened so fast, she'd never gotten the chance to thank her for it.
The evening was falling on her. Mito had left early in the day, leaving her alone with the dwindling volunteers. Most of them had already gone home by now.
She looked up at the sky, past her fields and the mountains that surrounded Suwa, towards the shimmering barrier that kept them safe.
Any moment now, the hordes could attack. It was possible they'd stick to the two-months ceasefire, and give the Heroes another month of respite.
Or, they could resume hostilities right now. Who knew? The Vertexes were unpredictable at best, baffling at worst. Utano couldn't even begin to guess at their battle plan.
A familiar sound reached her ears. Air being displaced at high speeds. Like an extremely fast plane was diving for her position. She closed the tool shed as she turned to face the new arrival.
There was no plane. Koori bounded along the outskirts of Suwa, a red and black dot in the orange sky. A few seconds later, she gracefully landed on the dirt road next to her fields.
Utano adjusted her straw hat and jogged to greet her.
"Koori-san!" She waved at her with a big smile. "What brings you out here?"
Koori, clad in her Hero outfit, straightened from her landing crouch and turned to face her. She was dressed for battle, scythe on her back. "Shiratori-san. Good evening."
"Good evening!"
Hesitation flashed across her face. A moment of consideration. Then… "There's something urgent you need to see."
Her tone was dead serious. Utano was getting tired of people only speaking to her when there was a crisis at hand. "What is it?"
She opened her mouth, then closed it, several times. "I…" Finally, she gave up. "It is better if I show you."
"Do I need to…" Utano gestured vaguely at her. "…suit up?"
"Yes." A nod. "That would be best. Let's return to the shrine, Shiratori-san."
----=----
After putting on her divine Hero clothes, she spared a glance towards the spear resting next to where Utano's weapon was usually enshrined, before heading out.
They didn't go far from the upper main shrine. Just before the Mihashira pillar on the outskirts of the courtyard.
Koori walked past the tall structure, ignoring it. Utano kept a tight grip on her furled whip as she followed closely behind her.
They came face to face with the barrier. The limit of the domain of Suwa's god, and the start of the Vertexes' domain. It was suicide for anyone but them to walk further and not be ready to sprint back inside.
Her fellow Hero stopped walking a footstep away from the barrier. She glanced back at her, deep brown eyes boring into her own.
She nodded once and stepped forward, vanishing into thin air.
Utano panicked, her eyes widening-- what!?
Running through the barrier, she saw Koori immediately reappear in front of her and stopped in her tracks, but something was wrong--
The air was warm. Heated. She looked up beyond the short treeline.
At that instant, Utano's heart broke.
A Vertex invasion force large enough to obscure the sky itself was gathering just beyond the barrier. She counted six perfect Vertexes hovering amidst the swarm, large and bright clusters of smaller Vertex slowly fusing together and taking form into something greater. The sight made her leg muscles lock up.
There was another form behind the six perfect ones, a gigantic mass of squirming monsters at the back of the horde.
It was colossal. Large enough that she couldn't see its whole body from the ground. Words couldn't describe how enormous the thing was.
It had the form of a star-shaped ring with weird teeth poking inside, and it was still in the process of forming a good chunk of its body. The small Vertexes were white dots in the sky in comparison, and they streamed into its glowing surface in waves, slowly building it up Vertex by Vertex.
"H-How…!?"
Koori shook her head. "The Mihashira barrier has some sort of illusion that prevents anyone from seeing the true state of the outside world…"
Who was responsible for such a thing? Why would they…
Well, it was obvious why. So the people of Suwa wouldn't see the millions of Vertexes gathering at their front door, and despair.
The small fry noticed them. They diverted their course from the waves merging with the perfect ones, and began to charge the Heroes' position.
Utano grabbed Koori's arm and took two steps back, bringing her along.
The world outside returned to normal, like night and day. The afternoon sky was clear, and beautiful, and Utano couldn't believe her eyes. She poked her head outside one last time to confirm she really hadn't gone crazy, then quickly retreated back inside, losing her balance and falling on her back.
Koori was still staring beyond the lying barrier's surface. Utano didn't have the strength to get up.
"...What do we do?"
"I don't know." Koori responded quietly. "They are… beyond anything we've ever faced…"
It was true. The swarm that had sieged down and occupied Asahikawa City was nothing compared to the things waiting outside.
"We could attack them now." Koori suddenly proposed. "Before the gigantic ones are fully formed…"
Leap into the heart of the horde large enough to blacken the sky? It was suicide. They wouldn't last five minutes out there, let alone do any significant damage to the invasion force!
"That's suicidal." Utano said with a hard tone. "We can't just throw our lives away in a desperate attack and leave Suwa undefended! Especially when we can't even hurt the big ones!" She hissed at the end.
Koori shrugged with one shoulder. "Then we wait for them to launch their invasion." She said coldly. "And die then, instead of now. Either way…"
Utano flinched. She crumpled in on herself and hugged her legs.
Nothing Utano could say would make things better.
"After everything we've been through…" Utano mumbled as her vision became blurry. "None of it really mattered…"
Nothing really mattered, in the end. It'd all been a desperate struggle for nothing. For the same fate.
Koori glanced back. "...Takashima-san would despise seeing you like this."
Her words sent a jolt through Utano's body. She bit her tongue to contain a sob, and looked up at Koori with watering eyes.
"...W-What's that supposed to mean? You said…"
Koori faced her head-on. She towered over her as she spoke. "Takashima-san entrusted us with seeing this fight to its conclusion. We owe it to her… to fight until every single one of our bones break, until our bodies are riddled with holes and we physically cannot keep fighting…
"Doubling over with tears and sobs is the last thing she would have done. Our teammate would have taken as many of the monsters as possible down with her… And I will follow her example." A pause. Then, a question. "What will you do?"
Utano wiped at her eyes.
She felt horrible. Scared. Hopeless. The Vertex would exterminate them all before the year was over. One perfect Vertex had been enough to kill two Heroes and bring down a city. Seven of them could raze Suwa to the ground, and she could do nothing about it.
Her weapon had been useless against the scorpion Vertex. It hadn't even scratched the monster.
What could she hope to do to a Vertex as tall as a skyscraper? They hadn't seen a trace of Kosinpu since that fateful day. Without the strange power it gave to Yuuna, hurting them was impossible.
…
It really was a bleak day. And things had been going so well… The Vertex threat had almost seemed like a thing of the past for a second there.
Like a… hazy… bad dream. Like she was still here.
Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of Yuuna seeing her like this. She'd already done something similar, hadn't she? Stood resolute in the face of impossible odds, and gone out swinging.
Utano couldn't just back down when presented with the same odds. She had to protect what was left. She had to protect Mito and Yoshika, and even Karasuma, wherever she was. She had to protect the people of Suwa and the thousands of refugees she'd saved with her team.
Maybe victory was off the table… But that didn't mean she would roll over and let the monsters extinguish the last remnant of humanity just like that.
Koori watched her as she willed herself to stand up. Utano looked at her in the eyes and spoke up.
"I don't want to bury any more friends." She said firmly. "Even if the situation is hopeless… I'll stand my ground, and defend Suwa with every fiber of my being."
Her fellow Hero gave her a small, almost invisible smile. "Good." She held out a hand towards her. "I am…" Koori started to trail off, but instead she shook her head and continued. "I am counting on you, Shiratori-san. We will not give them an inch of ground." They shook hands. Her small, uncalloused fingers were cold on Utano's rough palm. "I promise…"
"Yeah." She let go and stepped back, looking back through the barrier and towards the empty sky. "Not an inch of ground."
----=----
Time flowed. The oracle had given them two months of peacetime, and two months they had.
The news shocked Yoshika and Mito. Utano tried her best to comfort her best friend, and it worked, a bit. Koori had her own talk with her Miko.
The Taisha wasn't told. Without Karasuma to deal with the priests on a diplomatic basis, communication between the Heroes and the Taisha had pretty much stopped. The Mikos were technically part of the priesthood, but they did none of the duties a normal miko would have done. By this point, the Taisha only gave them shelter and food, and that was enough.
The same went with the local councilors in the City Hall. What was left of the government. Karasuma had been the one who had interacted with the councilors, and she'd been responsible for their special job title and paycheck, but now only the weekly check showed up to the upper main shrine. Worthless pieces of paper that Utano used as cup holders.
There was no point in stressing people out over things they couldn't change. Neither the priests nor the government officials could stop the imminent Vertex invasion.
Two weeks had passed since Koori discovered the invasion force gathering outside Suwa. Utano, back from her fields early that day, stared at the empty room in front of her.
Karasuma had taken Yuuna's hairpins, along with her own belongings. One side of the room had been completely cleared out.
She didn't know why she was doing this. Yuuna was long gone. Karasuma too.
Someone knocked on the open door, shaking Utano out of her stupor. She glanced back at Mito, standing at the room's entrance.
"Utanon."
A smile bloomed on her lips at that. "Hey. How's your day been, Mii-chan?"
"It's okay. I've been helping out Hanamoto-san." Mito stepped closer. "What… are you doing in here?"
Utano looked away. "Um…" She stared at the wooden ground. "It's just… I don't know…" she struggled to find the right words. "It's hard to believe they're really gone."
"Oh…"
"When I first saw them, I thought they were much stronger than me." She said. "Like the world ending hadn't really… bothered them, or something…"
She had been wrong, of course. Yuuna had seemed… off because her Miko had been killed by the monsters maybe a day before they arrived in Suwa. She'd been dealing with the loss since then.
And Karasuma… Well, she was an adult, and used things like cigarettes as a coping mechanism, but… she was… lost without Yuuna, in more ways than one. Was Utano really surprised she just up and disappeared like that?
Mito stepped up next to her and clasped her hand. "I wish they were still here." Utano closed her eyes, focusing on the sensation of Mito's hand gently squeezing hers. "I… want to talk with them for a bit. Get to know them better."
Her friend leaned her forehead on Utano's shoulder. "Me too…"
They stayed like that for a moment, before leaving the vacant room and walking out into the empty hallway.
"Something's come up." Mito suddenly spoke up as she closed the door. Utano glanced back. A rare smile adorned her friend's lips. "An oracle."
Utano's eyes widened. Takeminakata-sama's silence had been broken.
----=----
They gathered around the central table inside the sanshu-den. Utano stood at the front, with Mito next to her. On the other side, Yoshika stood calmly with Koori, dressed in her Miko robes.
Even the Taisha priests had gathered, worried after not hearing from their god for so long.
"This is what the oracle entailed." Yoshika started. "Two petals were being carried away by the wind. I saw rays of light break through the darkness, and shine upon the fragile petals. As they glowed with sunlight, they began to sprout more petals, until they became whole flowers once again. That is all."
Utano put a hand to her chin. "It's like the one from before. The one about blossoming."
Yoshika nodded. "Agreed. It is likely we will find more answers to this cryptic oracle once we visit the land god's iwakura."
The sacred rock enshrined in the shrine, the living embodiment of the god. They'd touched it, and were granted divine clothes that had protected them from bruises and cuts.
One of the priests spoke up. "We will begin preparations for the sacred audience at once--"
Utano held up a hand. "No need, thanks." She turned away, heading for the exit. Koori and the Mikos followed. "We'll just walk over there right now and see what's up."
There was no time to prepare a ceremony, or anything. The survival of Suwa depended on whatever the land god wanted to discuss, and the priests didn't know that. Either way, they followed behind the Mikos as they walked across the front courtyard of the shrine and stepped up to the honden.
A priest hurried to the front and unlocked the door with an old metal key. Utano and Koori entered the dark building, clad in their Hero outfits. What little light came through the entrance illuminated the enshrined iwakura.
As soon as they stepped inside, two bright lights suddenly materialized in the middle of the cabin. One was white, the other red. A commotion happened outside as everyone tried to figure out what was going on.
The lights calmed down, revealing two beings floating in mid-air. The one in front of Utano had emerged from the white light, and looked like a cartoonishly small doll with a traditional kanmuri silk hat, and wore an orange robe as it sat upon an equally cartoonish cloud. The spirit held a stick in front of its face, as if to ward off Utano.
A name was whispered into her mind. "Sutoku Tenno…"
The spirit in front of Koori looked like a baby oni. Two large eyes stared at the Hero from a red face under a brown hood that was connected to the rest of its brown body. It had two small, almost toy-like horns on top of the hood, with a puff of grey hair in the middle. It held a spiked metal bat in its hands, and it looked very much like a real weapon.
"Kidoumaru…" Koori mumbled.
After another moment of staring at them, the spirits burst into light, and vanished into nothingness as the lights slowly faded.
They were gone, but Utano knew better. She could feel Sutoku Tenno at the back of her mind, waiting to be summoned by her.
Mito hurriedly jogged to her side as the priests outside fell to their knees in reverence. "Utanon!" She said worriedly. "Those lights--!"
Utano shook her head. "It's fine, Mii-chan." She reassured her. "Those two are here to help, right, Koori-san?"
The Hero glanced at them as Yoshika stepped up next to her. "Yes." She agreed. "They are the trump cards we have been waiting for. Those spirits will give us the edge we needed in the coming battle."
Yoshika grabbed Koori's loose sleeve. "I hope it does, Koori-sama." She said with a tight smile. "I do not think the land god will be able to provide any more aid than this."
Mito nodded quickly at that. "Yeah. I got the feeling it would be focusing its remaining power on keeping the Mihashira barrier up."
"Don't worry." Utano said. "We'll put the power of the spirits to good use. I can promise you that."
The tension on Mito's face was alleviated just a little bit. Utano smiled in relief, a big happy grin no one could take away. Not even the enemies from heaven.
After all, now they had the weapons they needed to put up a fight. To stand a chance against the invasion force that would fall on them before too long.
----=----
It was late outside. The weeks had come and gone, and according to Yoshika, time was almost up. The Vertextes would resume hostilities tomorrow, or the day after.
Utano had crawled inside her futon a while ago, and she was trying to get some sleep.
She couldn't. Anxiety crawled up her skin, keeping her alert and sleep-deprived. She turned on her side and looked out across the room towards Mito's own futon.
Utano sighed. So many things that could go wrong. Things that were outside of her control… she was unable to protect those close to her from them. Utano was kind of useless at anything that didn't involve swinging a hoe. She hadn't been prepared to be a leader.
"I wasn't ready…"
Mito's blanket stirred. Her face emerged from the bunched-up cover and blinked a few times as she turned to Utano.
"Utanon…?"
"Uh, sorry if I woke you up, Mii-chan." Utano whispered across the quiet room. "I just can't catch a wink of sleep…"
She could hear her light breathing. "Do you…" Mito's soft voice trailed off into silence.
"What?"
After a moment of nothing from the person-shaped blanket, she spoke up again. "D-Do you want me to sleep with you?"
Utano's brain screeched to a halt.
Her thoughts drew a complete blank. Red bloomed across her ears and her face, and she was suddenly very grateful for the pitch darkness of the room. She even forgot to breathe for a long second.
The futons were very small. And with the old wooden floor, they couldn't push the two together to make a larger bed without waking up the whole priesthood at two in the morning.
"I-It's okay if you don't want to," Mito started as her silence continued. "It's just--"
"I don't mind." Utano said, hiding her warm cheeks behind a pillow. "I don't."
She could practically hear her sigh of relief. "O-Okay…"
Mito stood up from her futon and quickly closed the distance to hers barefoot. Utano scooted closer towards the wall, giving her friend ample space to lie down. She got in without issues, and Utano draped the blankets over the two of them once she finished settling in.
She laid on her back, staring up at the low ceiling. Utano did the same. Occasionally, they would brush against each other underneath the bed cover and the blankets. Once they finally found comfortable positions, Mito stopped kicking her leg so much, and Utano slowly relaxed.
Utano could feel Mito's warmth next to her. It was the best sleeping medicine ever created.
Just as her eyelids started to droop closed, Mito whispered something very, very quietly. "...Utanon?"
She struggled to stay awake. Mito had something to say. It was important. "Mmh?" As she turned her head to face her, Mito's big brown eyes stared back at her in the darkness. "...Mii-chan?"
"After everything is over," Mito whispered. "I want to open up a food delivery service."
"Why's… that, Mii-chan?"
"Because I want to deliver your vegetables to the whole country," she said in a quiet, but excited tone. "You'll be busy growing them, so you'll need someone to handle the logistics side of things…"
Utano paused, her sleepiness gradually clearing away. "...The whole country?"
She felt her fingers brush Utano's arm. "Yeah. From Nagano to Nara, to even Hokkaido. I'll drive to those places and deliver your produce myself."
Utano was amused. "You'll learn how to drive, Mii-chan?"
A nod that brushed against Utano's short hair. "Mm-hmm. That's right." Mito confirmed seriously. "And we'll both be sad that I'll be away traveling for so long, but then when I come back to Nagano, we'll reunite and everything will be alright."
She reached over and put a hand over hers. "Maybe I could go with you when the fields are empty and the farm king has nothing to do."
"Yeah. That would be really nice." Mito turned over her palm, and they held hands. "And sometimes… sometimes we'll fight, or argue, and things will look like they're really bad." Her voice broke as she began to whisper-shout. "But we'll make up! We'll be partners and have each other's back through thick and thin, no matter what!"
Her enthusiasm warmed Utano's chest.
She calmed down a bit. "What do you think, Utanon?"
"It's a great idea." Utano squeezed her hand with care. "I love it, partner."
"M-Me too." Through the black pitch darkness, she could see Mito's happy smile. "Thanks, partner…"
Mito turned on her side and grabbed Utano's arm like a pillow. She reached out with her other hand and gently embraced her back.
Exhausted after a long day of hard farmwork, and with her dearest friend in her arms, sleep came easily.
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