Two Hundred And Ninety-Three

Two Hundred And Ninety-Three

As I lay there, the girls in my arms, I couldn’t help but smile. It was cute seeing the others record those video messages. I wonder whose idea that was? Shiro was usually very arrogant and standoffish, so seeing her cute side like that was fascinating. Motoko and Natsumi, their embarrassed faces, that was cute too, as was Hinata’s impish teasing. Yeah, I’m definitely a lucky guy. No question. Once more I can reaffirm why I fight. We suffered losses, losses we can’t replace. But if I let that stop me moving forward, and those precious to me suffer... no way.

“So, are you feeling better?” Eri asked, and I shook my head.

“I told you, I’m already fine. I still have regrets, but we need to move beyond that, keep going.”

“We do indeed.” Shaeula approved from my other side, where Hyacinth watched silently, her purple eyes trusting. “There are other matters to discuss, are there not-not?” She continued. “I need more details about the blessing you received. I feel a sense of peace from it. You said it was from the God-God of the moon, correct?”

“I’m curious too. First Aiko...” Eri said, pouting a little. “... I’m a little sad she gets such a gift but not me, but I get it. Compatibility and all, plus she needs it more, but even so... well, never mind. Now you, too. I didn’t even know they could be transferred like that.”

“Well, apparently in the visions of her death, she also saw Tsukuyomi, who said she needed to pass the Divine Favour on before she dies. Whether I’m the person she was meant to pass it onto, she wasn’t sure, but... I guess I won her over?”

“I see.” Eri answered. “Won her over, huh? What did you do?”

“Nothing! Look, I know you feel sorry for her as well. All I’m going to do is make sure she doesn’t meet the fate that’s ordained for her. Though it isn’t just her. These Princesses, we need to make sure they don’t die too. Well, I‘m already protecting two, right? What’s four more?”

“I am the only-only princess you need.” Shaeula snorted, tossing her head, hair tickling my bare chest. “Though I suppose I can be tolerant. After all, am I not-not your first princess? Shiro, she shall have to settle for second place.”

“Jealous?” I returned her snort with an amused one of my own. “There’s no need to be. Yes, we’ll be working pretty closely with Yukiko-san going forwards, and somehow we’ll have to persuade Princess Eleanor from the UK, and find the other two, but it’s just that. Work. After all, Shiro is going to save Yukiko-san, if you believe the prophecies of Tsukiko-san, so it’s quite possible that one of the others is going to be involved in facing the black giant than threatens you, Shaeula. It’s complicated, but...”

“Yukiko-san and Tsukiko-san, huh? Sounds pretty intimate to me, calling such important people by their names when you’ve only just met them.” Eri pointed out.

“It’s not like that. It’s just... well, Tsukiko-san, the Diviner, she finally had a breakthrough, getting to share some of the burden she was carrying. In that moment, it seemed wrong to call each other formally. Besides, like I said, we’ll be working together. That means all of you too!” I looked at my fiancées, who were showing me different emotions. Eri’s was complicated and a little jealous, Hyacinth’s was endlessly accepting, and Shaeula’s was proud and haughty. They’re all different, yet in some ways all the same too.

“Fine. I get it.” Eri conceded. “It’s not like I want them to suffer or die, and if we need them to protect Shaeula and Shiro, then we need them. Though all this begs the question...” her expression changed, now one of curiosity. “You told us a bit earlier, while we were... uh, enjoying ourselves?” It amused me that she could still blush like that when talking about sex, considering we had made love plenty of times now. “Just what new powers did the Divine Favour of Tsukuyomi give you? And you could take it in, despite being a Candidate for Tyr?”

Shaeula agreed, saying she also was curious, so I explained, as best I could. “Well, there doesn’t seem to be any problems accepting it. Though Taṇhā did say I wasn’t using the Divine Favour of Tyr, so I don’t think we can say for certain without more experimentation that you can have more than one Divine Favour without special circumstances, like Shiro has. Well, I got a nice boost to all my stats overall, especially Aether, and my Charm went up noticeably.”

“In the legends, Tsukuyomi was a bit of a mystery, but it’s generally accepted he was a handsome God.” Eri sighed. “What else?”

“League went up a little, and my Foresight grew explosively.” I said. “Then my light and darkness elements changed. And I got a new skill. The Future Reflected By The Moon.”

“A pleasing skill.” Shaeula approved. “So, do tell. What does this new-new skill do?”

“Well, it’s more a passive ability, but this is the description I could read with my Eye. Here.”

The Future Reflected By The Moon Rank 3 [Class: Legendary] [Type: Fate] -This skill draws upon strands of Fortune and Fate, sifting the myriad futures, searching for strands of intersecting possibilities where disaster may be averted by a single action, or great providence brought by a precise intervention. Mortal beings are unable to encompass the full scope of the tapestry of events that make up the uncertain future, so these moments of confluence, these nexus where events overlap, are seen as metaphorical dreams and visions, open to interpretation, but containing enough wisdom to serve as a guiding path, the illumination of the moon showing the way.

“There was more, but I couldn’t understand it, question marks as usual.” I sighed.

“So, does this mean that the Diviner can’t see the future anymore? I think, even if she’s relieved, losing that would be hard.” Eri observed. “After all, she’s been seeing visions a long time. Decades, right? For an old lady like her to suddenly find the core of her identity gone...”

“I think that is mean, mistress Eri!” Hyacinth chuckled. “I dooo not think she is that ooold, is she?”

“No, she doesn’t really look much older than twenty.” I said, agreeing with Hyacinth. “I think she’s past thirty, yes, but I don’t think she’s forty. I haven’t asked, I’m not that much of an idiot.”

“Yes, a woman’s age is a delicate matter. I’m happy to see your density is slowly decreasing. Well, I guess you would learn to handle girls, considering.” Eri laughed softly. “Sorry Hyacinth. I just get a bad feeling that she’s going to be a rival. We have enough!”

“True. No battle goes as planned, and perfect circumstances don’t exist. Considering your tactical disadvantage having to rescue what effectively were civilians from a numerically superior and significantly powerful force in hostile territory, managing to come back with survivors without losing any rescuers was a good result. Though I’m sorry about Mori-san.”

“Yeah, calling his fiancée taking serious injuries a good result is tactless, Major. To think you criticised me!” He was trying to lighten the mood, and I appreciated it. Still, I’d been through this enough already today.

“She’ll live, and we can fix her in time. So I suppose it was a good result, if far from a perfect or even satisfactory one. So, what’s the situation in Kyoto? I saw a few reporters loitering around the hospital.”

“Not good. Tsumura-sama has been running damage control. We have the key areas locked down, but it’s impossible to stop information leaking in this day and age. Everyone has a smartphone and social media, after all. There was already a little interest in the Conclave, although outsiders only really knew that Kyoto was filled with more shrine maidens and priests than normal...” The Major filled me in.

“Yeah, lots of cute girls sure do attract attention. I’m envious.” Lieutenant Nakano said, before his face fell. “Oh, sorry. Considering what happened, that was an unkind thing to say.”

“Maybe, but... well, that doesn’t matter now. So, you’re saying that a lot of information got out. I was sent some footage of Ren-san that was taken by a streamer. His words didn’t give too much away regarding the Boundary, only that it wasn’t any sort of accident. I’m guessing that was originally the plan?”

“You know it. We’re not saying anything, but again, footage of ambulances and even some of the bodies is online. All day tension has been building, it isn’t like Japan has many events of this scale. It’s why that serial killer got so much attention recently.” The Lieutenant agreed.

“Well, the current idea is to claim it was an extremist cult. At least on the surface. You’re probably too young to remember the Subway attack back in the nineties. Well, fortunately everyone is pulling together. Your influence goes further than you think.”

My influence? I asked as Hyacinth and I followed them to a room where Takakura-san, Saionji-san and Kudou-san were waiting, along with Yukiko-san, and surprisingly enough Chiyo-san.

“No Bankei-san?” I asked, and she shrugged.

“No, he has other business, so I am sitting in. Well, your face looks better.” She examined me, her eyes narrowed and tense. “I see you’ve reached a conclusion.”

“I have. No more looking back. But we don’t have time for this. So, what did we decide?”

“Hasty, aren’t you?” Saionji-san said, and I could see that Akai was sleeping, curled up next to him on a chair. “Well, I understand. This matter is troubling. Yasaka-san has been busy too.” He grinned. “I know my old rival Yasuhide here has his people running around too, old man Bankei as well.”

“Everyone is busy.” Takakura-san said. “As for your influence... well, for once, the main and opposition parties of the Diet, as well as the heads of the nobility, and the Imperial family, as well as the shrines and temples...” he nodded at Yukiko-san, who gave me a wan smile. Well, she’s had quite a shocking day too, thanks to me and Tsukiko-san. “... have all agreed. Fujiwara and Ichijou houses have quite the investment in mainstream media such as Television and Newspapers, and other noble families follow their lead. We can’t do much about the internet, but we can muddy the waters enough to offer a plausible explanation. As long as we do that, we can keep matters secret for now. However, when coupled with stories worldwide which are coming more frequently and with greater scale, it is only a matter of time. we certainly do not have years anymore. Months would be best, but at worst case we could have weeks, or even just days.”

Days? I hope not. We aren’t ready. “Yeah, there’s likely to be civil unrest, possibly even rioting, depending on just what gets revealed. Internationally, there’ll be chaos.”

“Yes, we share your fears, as does the Prime Minister and the nobility.” Takakura-san agreed.

“The Emperor as well.” Yukiko-san muttered. “It’s important to maintain stability and continuity.”

“Well, while we are maintaining silence, we’ve been subtly leaking that a doomsday cult is responsible. None of the people involved are real individuals, but with some creative fabrication of data, we have faked a number of dissidents and their leader. We’ve even started using the internet and social media as a cover, fighting fire with fire.” The Major explained.

“That won’t stand up to in-depth scrutiny, though.” Takakura-san took his cue from the Major’s explanation. “The deeper cover is that this was an act of international aggression. Terrorism, as it were. Those that break the first cover story, after already breaching our wall of silence, will surely think that is the true reason. They’ll feel proud they put one over on us and discovered the conspiracy, and most won’t look further. All we need is to buy as much time as we can, while we finalise the Ministry and the supporting necessities.”

“Is that wise? Won’t the country involved deny it, and take issue with us? Should we be raising international tensions right now?” I asked.

“Well, we are merely pre-empting trouble.” Takakura-san sighed. “Thanks to the information from the Lady Diviner, and what you have gathered yourself, consensus is that Chinese aggression is imminent, though considering that Kyoto seems to be a target, it must be related to the Chosen of the Gods. So having the final layer of our misdirection be an act of terrorism is a worthwhile risk.”

“Really? I can’t say I like it, accusing another country unfairly. But I assume that wiser heads have thought of this?” I mused.

“Yes, stoking the potential for war, now of all times, is folly.” The Major agreed. “The cover-up will make it seem like Chinese extremists, dissatisfied with past tensions, rather than a state-sponsored operation. China will deny it, of course, but many won’t believe their denials. All we need is obfuscation and confusion to buy us more time.”

Well, this is a real mess. Damn you, Yamato-san. Not only did you get so many people killed, but you’ve also nearly revealed the existence of what we wanted to keep hidden... As the conversation continued, I stifled a yawn. It was looking like a long night...