東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 9:Mountain of Faith

—25—


"Owww. My feet are asleep and my head's about to crack open."

"And exactly who's fault is that, Renko? Even though this was all your idea, I ended up caught up in it too," I moaned, rubbing my head while limping along on numb and cramping feet.

After more than an hour of forced kneeling, Keine's lecture had finally ended with the blinding impact of a headbutt as its final punctuation. We stumbled back to our office behind the schoolhouse and collapsed in a heap, Keine's words still ringing in our ears. "You knew you had class tomorrow but you still stayed out drinking so late you had to show up like this!? How do you think that looks to the children! You're supposed to be teaching them how to be good people! What's more, you're role models! If they see you doing things like this they might try the same thing! Even if you were somewhere safe last night you were still outside of the village! Who's to say that these kids will be as lucky if they decide to follow in your footsteps? Worse still, you didn't even have the presence of mind to let me know where you had gone!" We had had no defense to offer, kneeling in silence as our legs cramped up.

Even with our reprehensible irresponsibility in mind though, the headbutt had still hurt. A lot.

Renko was crawling toward me on her belly as I tried to muster the energy to sit up. "Merry, my head hurts. Let me sleep on your lap like you did with Sanae last night."

"No way. If I kneel any more my feet are going to fall off."

"Tch. Stingy."

"It's your fault we got headbutted."

"You could at least call it a badge of honor. It's a wound I suffered saving Gensokyo from being consumed by an all-out religious war."

"Saved how? You didn't save anything, Renko. You spent the whole fight sulking in the corner after making a fool of yourself."

"That's not true! If not for the boisterous humor and conviviality of the great Usami Renko, master detective and socialite negotiator, Reimu would have been in a bad mood all night and never have agreed to let Kanako have her branch shrine."

"I don't think there's a single person in all of Gensokyo who would agree with that version of events."

"Well you're a Relativistic Noologist, Merry, and I think that's what happened, so who are you to tell me any different? There's no such thing as objective truth, right?"

Renko seemed to be recovering quickly. I wouldn't have minded if she had decided to spend a bit more time sulking. She was right that the conflict between the Moriya and Hakurei shrines seemed to have been resolved though. Reimu had agreed to construct a small altar to the mountain goddess on the grounds of her shrine and Kanako hadn't asked for anything further. All in all, it was a rather anticlimactic ending.

"I can't believe I let you make me think this was going to be a real incident for a while. I'm going to make this whole thing into another book just so I can tell the story of your delusional failure."

"Wait a minute, Merry, don't tell me you think this incident is over already."

"Are you saying it isn't?"

"The mystery of the Moriya shrine is still unsolved. There's still plenty to puzzle out." Renko sat up, one hand still massaging her forehead, but a clear and determined expression on her face as she turned to look at me.

I frowned back at her. "What mystery? Sanae explained everything to us last night. Are you still hung up on whether Moriya Shrine is really the Suwa Grand Shrine from the Outside World or not?"

"Well, that's part of it, but there's some other questions too. Why don't we summarize what we know so far, both the mysteries that have been explained and the ones that haven't been."

My partner retrieved my brush set and writing desk from the corner of the room and thrust them at me. With a groan I settled into a sitting position once more, preparing ink and paper to make a list. By now I was completely accustomed to Renko’s mystery solving process.

Below is the list of mysteries Renko dictated to me at the time. I am writing this story after the fact, so in hindsight I can see now that there were things I recorded here that reflected some of the misconceptions we were both operating under. Rest assured though that the list below is exactly the same as the one I recorded back then.

𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐲𝐚 𝐒𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞:
• Why was it moved to Gensokyo?
• Why was a large lake moved along with it?
• Is the Moriya Shrine the same place as Suwa Grand Shrine in the Outside World?
• If so, why does the Moriya Shrine consist of only the Akimiya, one of four shrines that makes up the Suwa Grand Shrine?
• If Moriya Shrine is the Suwa Grand Shrine, then what happened to the Suwa Grand Shrine and lake Suwa of the Outside World?
• If Moriya Shrine is not the same place as Suwa Grand Shrine, why do they look so similar?
• Why is it called the Moriya Shrine?

𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬:
• Is Yasaka Kanako a form of the god Takeminakata or of the goddess Yasakatome who was worshipped as his wife? Or is she somehow both?
• Is Moriya Suwako the god Mishaguji, or is she someone else?
• Why was Moriya Suwako hidden behind a barrier?
• Why did the two goddesses come to Gensokyo along with Sanae?
• Have they vanished from the Outside World completely, or are the versions of them we see in Gensokyo just aspects of the goddesses that exist here while also remaining in the Outside World?

𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐊𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐲𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐞:
• Who exactly is she?
• Why did she leave the Outside World behind and come to Gensokyo?
• Does she possess powers of her own, or are the abilities we witnessed just the borrowed powers of Lady Yasaka and Lady Moriya?
• Why was she being worshipped as a god in the Outside World?
• If she was, and if her powers were hereditary, have other members of her family been worshiped as well?

𝐌𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐤𝐚𝐢 𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧:
• Why has the publication of the 𝐵𝑢𝑛𝑏𝑢𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑢 newspaper stopped?
• Where is Shameimaru Aya and what is she doing?
• Why are the tengu so wary of Moriya Shrine and its inhabitants?

"Renko, after everything we went through last night and all the time Sanae spent baring her heart to us, are you doubting her story?"

I raised my eyebrows as I looked over to Renko. Perhaps it was unscientific of me, but I didn't want to believe that Sanae could have poured out the emotion we had seen from her last night as part of an act. To even suggest it was too cruel considering what she had told us.

Renko crossed her arms and thought for a moment. "No, I don't think she's lying."

"But you doubt the story she told us?"

"I'm sure everything she told us was consistent with what she had experienced. But the way she sees events may have been colored by someone who was manipulating her."

"In other words, you think there's some secret hidden in the Moriya Shrine that even Sanae doesn't know about then."

"There might be. Or I could just be missing something. That's why I need your help to reason these things out." Renko took a seat behind her desk and turned to face me. "Let's start by laying out the bits of the story we know so far and separating the information that's trustworthy from what's questionable. Sanae was a child who could see gods. She was born into a family of wind priestesses who passed that role down along maternal lines. Because she was unable to fit in with the society of that world, Sanae trained as a wind priestess herself even though doing so went against her grandmother's wishes. Being an unusually powerful priestess, Sanae began to gain a following of her own, not as a priestess of Moriya but as an object of worship in her own right. After that, she, Suwako and Kanako came to Gensokyo, supposedly to get Sanae away from that predicament. Is all of that right?"

"Yes, I'd say that's a fair summary of Sanae's story."

"Overall, I'd say it's a good story. It makes sense and all, but all of it's only from Sanae's point of view."

I tilted my head, surprised by Renko's frustrated appearance. "Well, it's Sanae's story isn't it? Whose perspective do you think is missing?"

Renko hunched her shoulders, pacing with her hands clasped behind her back as she spoke. "Well try to imagine the story from Kanako's perspective, for one. Consider her position. Sanae is a priestess in the service of Kanako and Suwako in the Outside World. Let's not worry about if this is at the Suwa Grand Shrine or not for the moment or who the goddesses might actually be. The important thing is that the shrine was a place where Lady Yasaka and Lady Moriya could gather faith. But instead Sanae herself became the object of worship housed there."

"You're suggesting that all of the faith that was supposed to go to Lady Yasaka and Lady Kanako ended up going to Sanae instead?"

If that really was the case then I imagine that things would look very different from either of the goddesses’ perspectives than they might from Sanae’s point of view.

"Thinking of it that way casts things in a different light, doesn't it? Maybe Kanako and Suwako brought Sanae here to keep her from stealing their shrine in the Outside World. If that were the case, it would explain why Sanae was worried about having us see her fight or use her power, right?"

If that were the case, the last thing she'd want is for people here to start worshipping her instead of the goddesses again. Sanae wasn’t worried that we’d reject her as a friend after seeing her abilities…

"...she was worried we’d end up worshiping her…"

"Exactly. That's why she initially tried to keep the fact that others had worshiped her in the Outside World a secret from us. Kanako and Suwako didn't mention it either. They were all in on the attempt to try to keep it hidden."

"So in other words, you think that by coming here, the three of them were trying..."

"To turn the living goddess Kochiya Sanae into just a regular human girl. That's probably why Lady Yasaka and Lady Moriya were both so happy that Sanae had made friends with two regular humans. While I’m sure they also hoped moving here would give her the freedom to live her life as she wanted, I think they had a more pragmatic reason to do that as well."

Renko paused, thinking to herself for a moment before making another declaration. "In a way the relationship between Sanae and Kanako is just like the relationship between Takeminakata and Moriya — In order to avoid having Sanae steal all of her faith, Kanako ended up playing the role of the native god this time when all of a sudden an upstart new god shows up in the form of Sanae to kick her out of her own home and take what's hers."


—26—


After a statement like that, I clammed up. I didn't want to say anything disparaging about Sanae or the goddesses who acted as her parents, but it was hard to discount Renko's logic. Could they really have deceived her into coming here for their own ends?

Kanako had told us that all things have two sides. Sanae probably thought that her goddesses had left the Outside World to rescue her, but they might have done it to save themselves. That said, it could still be true that their goal had also been to give her a better life. It was a two-sided situation all the way around and one that was impossible for me to judge as an act of kindness or self-centered cruelty.

"That’s about as far as my conjecture can get right now though. I don't have any answers for the rest of it," Renko said, flopping over backwards and stretching out on the tatami.

"I think that's as far as we 𝑐𝑎𝑛 get right now. I don’t know if that shrine is really the Suwa Grand Shrine or not. Or who Lady Yasaka or Lady Suwako really are, or even why the tengu are so worried about them. We're probably missing some key details. But at any rate the mystery of the Moriya Shrine is far from solved, Merry."

"You're not planning on asking the Youkai Sage to take you to the Suwa Grand Shrine of the Outside World, are you?"

"Well, that would be great. No, I'll assume her help will be impossible to secure as usual. We'll have to settle for the next best thing, Merry."

"You're going to keep poking your nose into this aren’t you?. Do you really think that's a good idea?" I muttered. Renko had rolled over so she was laying on her stomach, resting her chin against the tatami mat. "Renko, the reason you're always butting into incidents is because you want to make the world a more interesting place, right?"

"More or less."

"Are you sure that that's what poking around the shrine and revealing something that's been kept hidden from Sanae will do? What if there's nothing interesting there, just something that will make Sanae feel awkward or unwanted?"

Renko sat up and fixed me with a stare, suddenly serious. "I admit that's a possibility, but this time this goes beyond mere curiosity. The mysteries of the Moriya Shrine hold important implications for the two of us, Merry."

"...You're talking about the relationship between the shrine on the mountain and Suwa Grand Shrine in the Outside World, right? You want to know if history has diverged from the course we know of."

"Exactly. If the Suwa Grand Shrine has really disappeared from the world beyond the Great Hakurei Barrier, then either our time travel has changed the flow of history or you and I have come to a parallel world where history is divergent from what we knew. Unless we can get to the bottom of this mystery, we'll never be able to discount the possibility that the Outside World surrounding Gensokyo isn't the one we know of."

"Well then why don't you explain that we're time travelers to Kanako and just ask her why the shrine was still there in our time? That would be the most direct solution, wouldn't it?"

"Even if she told us that the Suwa Grand Shrine was still in the Outside World, we'd have no way of verifying that since we can't observe it for ourselves. We'd just be going in circles. In order to sort this out we'll have to find the answers ourselves. If the Moriya Shrine really is the Suwa Grand Shrine then that raises a lot of questions."

"Like why is the Akimiya the only part that entered Gensokyo?" I asked, running my finger down the list of questions.

"Right. It's got all the really memorable parts of the Akimiya: the giant shimenawa, the Onbashira, and the big lake behind it. All the memorable things that would suggest that it’s 𝑡ℎ𝑒 Suwa Grand Shrine. But if it really was the Suwa Grand Shrine then there's also a bunch of things missing. If the gods who are enshrined there were going to move the place, you'd think they'd want to bring everything, right?"

"That’s right. It’s missing the other 3 compounds."

The Suwa Grand Shrine that Renko and I had visited on the way back from the hospital where I had been isolated had been composed of four separate shrine compounds. Two on the northern side of Lake Suwa and two on the southern side. Those shrines on the far side were supposed to be the place where the gods walking across the lake would come ashore. Without them and the rest of lake Suwa there, the yearly miracle of Omiwatari which the shrines had all been founded around couldn’t happen.

The Omiwatari was supposedly a natural phenomenon which caused the winter ice of lake Suwa to rise into a series of jagged ridges due to repeated expansion and contraction that formed a zig-zagging road between the shrines on either side of the lake. The legends of the place claimed that this path was the road used by the god Takeminakata to visit his wife, the goddess Yasakatome in her shrine on the far shore. In our time though, we had only seen pictures and computer-generated images of the Omiwatari. The real event hadn't been witnessed in decades due to global warming.

"If the Moriya Shrine is really the Akimiya, and if the lake on top of the mountain is really Lake Suwa, then there has to be a shrine on the far shore. If there isn’t, then why would they need the lake at all? Takeminakata, Yasakatome, Lake Suwa and the shrines on opposite sides of the lake. If any one of those is missing then there’d be no Omiwatari, and if there’s no Omiwatari, why would there be a shrine in the first place?"

"Maybe it's there and Sanae just didn't include it as part of the tour."

"I suppose that’s possible. Ideally I'd like to cross the lake so we could check that out." Renko groaned and looked up at the ceiling, folding her arms in front of her as she thought.

"Renko, if we suppose you're right and Moriya Shrine isn't actually Suwa Grand Shrine, but just something made to look like that place, then Sanae would have to be aware of that, wouldn't she?"

"She'd pretty much have to be, I guess."

"But what would be the point of any of that? Suwa Grand Shrine is pretty famous, but not enough so that people in Gensokyo would know about it, so there'd be no prestige in trying to connect themselves to a famous shrine here. Besides, if they were going to do that, wouldn't they want to call it Suwa Grand Shrine instead of Moriya Shrine?"

"Clever, Merry. That's the core of the mystery here."

Is the Moriya Shrine a half-hearted copy of Suwa Grand Shrine with half of its buildings missing, or is it the real deal and only a fraction of everything got moved? And in either case why? Renko stood up from her desk, grabbing her hat as she did so and putting it on. "Alright, now that you get it, let's get to investigating."

"Really? You want to go back to the shrine again? How will we even get there?"

"Of course not, Merry. We've got some info closer to home we need to gather first," she said, flashing me her troublesome grin.


—27—


As might be expected, our first stop was Hieda manor.

"Takeminakata is mentioned in the 𝐾𝑜𝑗𝑖𝑘𝑖 so let's start by investigating him, along with anything we can find out about Yasakatome and Mishaguji."

If Akyuu really was the reincarnation of Hieda no Are, she should have literally written the book on the ancient gods of Japan. I’m not sure how much information she might have about the native gods of the Suwa region specifically, but when it came to information about Japan’s mytho-historical past, there could hardly be anywhere better to ask.

When we knocked on the door, however...

"My apologies, the Child of Miare is away at the moment," said the handmaid who answered our request with a formal bow and face that didn't look at all apologetic. Despite her frail appearance, Akyuu was a rather adventurous girl. We had taken her with us out of the village on several occasions to explore places like the Scarlet Devil Mansion or the Garden of the Sun. From the handmaid’s expression, I don't imagine the staff of the Hieda manor much appreciated Akyuu's adventurous nature. With her being the figurehead of the village though, I suppose I could understand why people might not approve of the risks she took every time she left the village.

"Did she go to Suzunaan or something?" Renko asked.

"No. The lady of the house is required at a planning meeting for the harvest festival. She is not expected to return until much later."

"Ah, I understand then, sorry to trouble you," Renko said. She removed her arm and the door swung shut with a heavy boom.

The yearly harvest festival that Akyuu was involved with was one of the biggest festivities in the village. In perhaps a week, the streets of the village and the road running south to the farm lands would be filled with tables and a public feast would be held with the local fertility gods in attendance. As the figurehead of the village, Akyuu was always tasked with officially welcoming the gods into the human world and presenting them with the offerings that had been collected. Keine was likely busy in the same meeting, working to arrange for security details and public safety measures. That left us without anyone in town to talk to.

"Well, Sherlock, it looks like we're sunk. What now?"

Renko grumbled, fiddling with the brim of her hat. "Hmmm, well if we don't have access to written records we'll just have to settle for first-hand knowledge. Hmm, who could we... oh! I've got it! We happen to know someone with first-hand experience of the mythic period of ancient Japanese history. I should have thought to ask her first!"

—

Not long after that we found ourselves in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. The forest, of course, had its name for a reason, and we had no hope of making it through without a guide. Thus, we made our way along the one path into the forest we were familiar with, which led to the dilapidated shack belonging to Fujiwara no Mokou. When we knocked on the door, her response was delayed and she answered with a large yawn and a sleepy expression, but once she saw Renko, her face broke into a smile.

"Hello again, Mokou."

"Renko! Come on in. Is Keine with you today?"

"No, sorry, and I'm afraid I'm not here to chat today either."

Mokou's shoulders sagged a little. "Oh, is someone sick? Do you need me to guide you to Eientei again?"

"No one's sick. I'm not even going to see Doctor Yagokoro. But I do need to talk to a little bunny. Do you think you could help me find her? I'll make it up to you later"

"You want to talk to a rabbit? The one selling medicine?"

"Wrong rabbit. I need to talk to Tewi. The leader of the youkai rabbits."

"Oh, her. I can probably find her for you. Just watch your wallet. She has a way about her of talking people out of their money."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind."

We set out immediately, following Mokou as she led us deep into the bamboo forest.

"The rabbits can be hard to find. They don’t tend to stay in one place, but there's usually a few hanging around Eientei, so we'll start there. What is it you want to ask their leader for though? All you're likely to get out of her is a pack of clever lies."

"I have to ask her a question about an old story."

"How old, exactly?"

"From before Kaguya and Eirin came to Earth. Probably from before you were even born."

"Damn, that 𝑖𝑠 an old story. I'm afraid I can't help you much then." Mokou pouted slightly. Despite the fact that Renko was the one asking the favor here, she had a way of making people want to do their best to assist her. Sanae had also fallen under the same spell. I suppose I'm one to talk though, she'd had her hooks in me for years now.

"You're plenty of help Mokou, we'd never find her or our way back out of the forest if not for you," Renko said with a grin.

"You’re assuming I’ll be able to find Tewi. That one is pretty tr—whoop!" Halfway through responding to Renko, Mokou had suddenly disappeared from sight. Renko and I stopped and peered into the hole that had suddenly opened where Mokou had been walking ahead of us.

"Whoa, Mokou are you okay?" Renko asked, leaning over the edge of the pit.

I joined her to see Mokou sitting at the bottom of a surprisingly deep shaft that had been dug into the forest floor, rubbing her backside and grumbling as the mat of loose bamboo leaves that had been laid over the top of the trap floated down to land on her upturned face.

"Damn, I can't believe I fell for something like this! Hey, rabbit! You're somewhere nearby watching, aren't you?"

There was rustling in a patch of tall grass growing nearby and a voice called out. "Oh, I've caught a rare one today." The undergrowth parted and the very person we were looking for emerged.

Inaba Tewi. If her self-professed claim to be the mythical Hare of Inaba could be believed, then she was a mythological creature just as old if not older than the goddesses of the Moriya Shrine. "Aw, it's just the princess' friend. You must be having bad luck today, you usually don’t fall into one of these."

"I'm not her friend!" Mokou shouted from the bottom of the hole.

Renko looked up from the edge of the pit with a friendly smile and gave Tewi a small wave. "Hello Tewi. It's been a while."

"Oh, Renko's here too. Are you people teaming up to attack the princess now?"

"Not at all. I'm actually in the woods today looking for you, Tewi."

Tewi struck a pose, fawning doe-eyed at Renko. "Little old me?"

"Yes, I was hoping I could ask you to share your wisdom with me oh great Hare of Inaba. You were once saved by the god Ookuninushi himself, weren’t you?"

"Ohhh, well, at my age my memory isn't so good. If you want me rummaging around in the attic of my mind for treasures, it'll cost you. If you make a donation though, I'll throw some good luck your way. It's a small price to pay for a blessing from everyone's favorite rabbit."

"Ah, I can hardly pass up a bargain like that," Renko said, as Tewi produced a small coin box. I sighed and reached down to help Mokou out of the pit as Renko dropped in a handful of coins.

"Another satisfied customer. Now what did you want to know? Did you want me to tell you about the time I met Lord Okuninushi?"

"Oh, I'm sure that would make for a good story, but that will have to wait for a later time. I actually wanted to ask you about his son, Takeminakata-no-mikoto. Did you ever know him?"

"Takeminakata? The god who fled to Suwa after foolishly challenging Lord Takemikazuchi, right?"

The story Tewi was referring to was indeed an old one, the story of the so-called 'Transfer of the land' in which the mythical lands of ancient Japan were transferred from the control of the earthly gods to the heavenly ones. It's a story found in the 𝐾𝑜𝑗𝑖𝑘𝑖 but it's too complex and detailed a tale to relate here. If you're curious, ask Miss Akyuu about it. The crux of the legend was that Takeminakata foolishly challenged Takemikazuchi to a contest of strength, then upon losing fled all the way to the land of Suwa, begging for his life and promising never to return to the lands claimed by the heavenly gods.

"Oh, is that legend in the 𝐾𝑜𝑗𝑖𝑘𝑖 accurate then?"

"That’s the one about the heavenly gods driving out all the earthly gods including Lord Okuninushi, right? That much is true. The heavenly gods were a bunch of jerks."

Tewi crossed her arms and looked indignant at the memory. I suppose as the Hare of Inaba, she would be more inclined to favor Okuninushi and the earthly divinities.

Renko fiddled with the brim of her hat, tucking her chin to her chest as she ruminated.

Although Takeminakata came off sounding pretty pathetic in the story from the 𝐾𝑜𝑗𝑖𝑘𝑖, the myths from the Suwa region painted quite a different picture of him. There he was seen as a conqueror, a god who comes from another land and defeats the native god Moriya to claim the Suwa region as his own. If the story of the 'transfer of the land' was true, then Takeminakata had come to Suwa and did to Moriya what Takemikazuchi had just done to him.

"I see. Do you happen to know what became of Takeminakata after he fled to Suwa?"

"Nope, I didn’t keep track of him after that. I think I heard he became the god of that region."

"According to the local legends of the region that’s more or less right. Apparently he subjugated a native god called Mishaguji and took over the local shrines."

"Hmmm, Mishaguji? Huh." Tewi tilted her head in consideration.

"Does that story strike you as odd?"

"No, not really. Was that all you wanted to ask about?"

"No, there's a few other things too. Do you know anything about the goddess Yasakatome, Takeminakata's wife?"

"No, not really. I only cared about Lord Okuninushi. I never bothered keeping track of his children."

I suppose in hindsight it was foolish of us to assume that just because Tewi had been involved in an ancient myth herself she would know anything about this particular legend.

"Alright, do you know anything about the god Mishaguji then, by chance? Could you maybe tell us what they looked like?"

"Even if I did, I wouldn’t want to speak of them. They’re bad luck. Totally different from Lord Okuninushi."

"Oh, how so?"

"The Mishaguji have no substance, no form to them, really. They're not divine spirits, they're myriad gods, just embodiments of elements of nature. If part of nature receives faith and worship and a name then the concept of that part of nature can become a native god. That means they don't have a physical form to look at, but they're also not confined to one way of being."

"So worship of a Mishaguji is less like worship of a particular person and more like worship of nature then?"

"Hmm, I guess if you consider it in human terms, yeah, that's about right. That's why it's funny that Takeminakata would claim to have triumphed over Mishaguji. Mishaguji can't be beaten like that, they're the land itself. That would be like saying he chased every tree and stone out of Suwa, it’s just silly."

As Tewi explained, a lot of things clicked into place for me. Takeminakata might have come into the region and claimed ownership of the shrines, but worship of Mishaguji is worship of the land itself.. The two faiths didn't really even contest with each other. If that were the case, it would explain why the Suwa Grand Shrine had one god they worshipped publicly and another they venerated in secret. If Kanako was a form of Takeminakata and Suwako was a form of Mishaguji, it would explain how Lady Kanako and Lady Suwako could work together. One being the public god and the other a hidden god perfectly fit the explanation Tewi was providing. In the battle between the two gods, neither one of them might have really been defeated.

"Wait a minute Tewi, let me make sure I have this straight."

"Hmm?"

"You're saying that deities like Okuninushi or Takeminakata are divine spirits, but deities like Mishaguji are totally different and have no physical forms other than that of the land itself associated with them right?"

"That's right. Or it's supposed to be, anyway. Nowadays humans mix a lot of other concepts in with Lord Okuninushi too."

"So, for example, a mountain itself might be something that could be worshipped..."

"Right, that's what the myriad gods are. If Mishaguji is a myriad god, that's what they'd be like."

"What about splitting themselves into multiple parts and being in multiple places at the same time, that's something gods can do right?"

"Only divine spirits, like Lord Okuninushi. Native gods are the divine essence of the thing being worshipped itself, so they stay where whatever the thing they are is. Shrines devoted to a divine spirit like Lord Okuninushi all venerate the same god and he's present in all of them. Shrines that are dedicated to a myriad god are unique. They are just for the thing in that one place, and while each one is dedicated to a different myriad god, all of them are collectively called Mishaguji.."

"So then these myriad different Mishaguji don't take human forms?"

"No, they can if they want to, but that's not really them. They can create a projection that looks like a human, or a beast or anything else, but that's not their body, and if something were to kill it they wouldn't die. I'm just a rabbit, so I always look like a rabbit. A myriad god is made up of the spirits of every part of nature they oversee though, and so they could look like anything. What’s with that face now? Did I say something that's too hard to understand?"

"No, no, quite the opposite. I feel like I understand much more now than I did before. You've just given me a lot to think about. I feel like I ought to pay you for the insight you’ve provided."

"Oh, that is quite thoughtful of you indeed. Not all scholars can claim to be so wise." Tewi said, smiling as she held up her coin box again.

Renko fiddled with the brim of her hat with one hand, while the other mechanically fed coins into the box. I watched as her fingers played over the well-worn fabric, her brow furrowed in concentration. I had no idea what fantasies might be percolating in her head though.