Reverend Ohgami was not happy. He hadn't been convinced of the wisdom of Chikane's plan to begin with, and the sight of Himeko dressed as the Solar Priestess merely redoubled his doubts.
"This is wrong," he said, even as he led the girls through the thicket behind the shrine. To say that their course was off the beaten path was no more than the simple truth--there were paths through the forested area, but the route they took was not on them. Only the Ohgami family knew the series of landmarks--not even trail signs, but simply a series of natural features, a particularly gnarled root here, a split-trunked maple there, and so on--that led to the hidden shrine. Himeko was sure she wouldn't have been able to find it herself; while she'd gone there twice in her previous life (and who knew how many times in the forgotten lives before that) it was too long ago and things were too different.
Chikane didn't seem to have that problem; certainly she showed no hesitation as she picked her way through the trees. She didn't seem to really be following Ohgami so much as traveling in the same direction. For her part, Himeko was just glad the priestess outfits had sandals for footwear instead of wooden geta. She'd worn those once in the course of a class project and if she had to walk through the forest in them she'd snap an ankle after three steps.
"She is not the Solar Priestess. She should not be wearing those vestments, nor entering the sacred ground of Ame no Murakumo. It mocks the sanctity of the rite and may rouse the god's wrath."
"If it wasn't for Himeko, Yamata no Orochi would have won last time. I'm the one who should incur Ame no Murakumo's anger if it should fall."
"Be that as it may be, she has no power. She can add nothing to the ritual and indeed may put it, and even herself, at risk!"
"Reverend Ohgami, I have heard all of those objections before," Chikane said coolly. "You've said nothing thus far that Himeko didn't already point out." The unspoken implication, If I didn't listen to those objections from her, why would I hear them from you? hung between them. Miya-sama had made a pronouncement, and that as far as Chikane was concerned was that.
"If she herself objected, then why have you insisted upon her presence?" Ohgami replied, clearly thinking that was not that.
"Because I feel strongly about this as Lunar Priestess," she said. There was just a tone of anger in her voice, only a whisper that no one else would have noticed, but Himeko did. She took several quick steps forward and clasped her twin's hand. Chikane turned to look at her, surprised, and Himeko smiled back. Chikane returned the smile, and when Himeko released her hand Chikane brushed her fingertips across Himeko's palm in a subtle caress.
"The ritual requires two," Chikane added, her calmness restored. "It won't work if done alone, and I do not have the power to break the priestesses' seal by pure force. If it is to work, then I need a partner, and there can be no one better than Himeko for that, since she has performed the ritual with me countless times in the past."
"Unless she is no longer the Solar Priestess in the present cycle because of the will of Ame no Murakumo."
"If there is a price to be paid for offending the god, then I will pay it, but we must press forward or all may be lost." She then rather bluntly changed the subject. "Have you made any progress in determining what shrines might be the ones associated with the sealed Orochi?"
"As to that, we have. There are many shrines throughout Mahoroba, more than one might expect in a town this size."
"Well, it is the center of the battle between Ame no Murakumo and the Orochi," Himeko pointed out. "The people have good reason to seek the gods' protection."
"That's so, but there may also be another reason."
"Camouflage?" Chikane suggested.
"That's what Minako speculated as well. The presence of so many shrines may well be to disguise the identity of those few which are important, to prevent inadvertent tampering."
Himeko shivered at the thought of an Orochi god somehow being unsealed during the interval between cycles.
"But there is a clue. The seals on the Orochi are part of the web of destiny," Ohgami continued. "They would actually date to the beginning of the conflict, to the first time you defeated the god of destruction. In that way, if we find that a particular shrine or prayer gate has a specific and limited history, we will know that it is not one of those we are looking for."
"That's good thinking," Chikane said. "Once we've narrowed down the possibilities, we can investigate directly, and see if there's any way we can reinforce the seals or else to interfere with the Orochi's attempts to break them. Of course, we'll have to be careful so that we don't end up leading our enemies directly to what they need."
The priest nodded. If he was going to respond, though, it was lost when the trees parted and they found themselves staring at the hillside. The leafy canopy was so thick they'd come up on it without Himeko even noticing that it was there. The rock face was bare stone, but there was a narrow gap in it, the mouth of a cave.
"This...this cave is technically on the Himemiya estates, isn't it?" Himeko remembered. "Do you think that they know about it? It would be pretty bad if Reiko did..."
Chikane frowned.
"I don't think so. In this world, there doesn't seem to be any connection between the family and the legend of the priestesses. My grandfather had schemed from the very beginning to try and take advantage of the last cycle, but it seems that only the Orochi blood was passed down to Reiko this time, without deeper meaning."
"Souma and Tsubasa talked about 'Orochi blood' before, too," Himeko said. "But...I thought the Orochi were people called by despair, resentment, and hatred for the world?"
"The way my grandfather explained it is, the power of the gods can only manifest through certain bloodlines that have a connection to the spirit world, like how the Ohgamis are able to use their spiritual power as shrine guardians. You and I are always reborn into one of those families, and the Necks of Orochi are members of those bloodlines who have a deep-seated resentment for the world."
"So Mom or Dad might...have been an Orochi?"
Chikane nodded.
"Yes; at least one of them has to carry the mystical bloodlines--I suspect most people in Mahoroba do. So if they'd been resentful or fallen into despair, Yamata no Orochi could have called them. But I don't see how anyone with you for a daughter could hold ill feeling towards the world."
"Me? You're the one who's good at everything, Chikane: school, athletics, student council; if we weren't miko you'd have a brilliant future." Oh, geez, I said "we," she thought an instant later, realizing that wasn't quite accurate. Chikane didn't notice her slip, though, or maybe just chose to ignore it.
"They're proud of me as parents, but it's you who makes them feel loved." She shrugged. "To me, our family is just...a place I happen to occupy for a short time; to you they're a family. I respect Mother and Father for being good people and raising us well, but you love them as a daughter does."
Himeko felt herself blushing furiously.
"Chikane..."
"Now, though, I think we should stop embarrassing Reverend Ohgami with personal revelations. Shall we continue?"
Himeko nodded, and Ohgami led the way across the threshold.
"This cave is sacred ground," he said, "kept sealed by the Ohgami Shrine. Only by following the proper path can anyone find it, except one of the priestesses, whose connection to Ame no Murakumo is so strong that it cannot be tricked by simple ritual barriers."
"That's another good reason why Reiko probably isn't aware of the shrine's presence. She couldn't find it on her own. Unless knowledge of the shrine was passed down in the Himemiya family, then there's no reason for her to even suspect its existence. Although, as an Orochi she could find the area if she knew to look for it and break the barriers by force."
Himeko wasn't really listening to her sister's speculations, being all too distracted by her own thoughts. The cave walls seemed to be pressing in around her, looming up as if they were massive weights ready to fall and crush her. She wasn't claustrophobic; this was something else, though still a threatening weight in her own mind it was not the weight of stone but of memory.
This was where it happened.
Reverend Ohgami lit a torch, its dull orange flame replacing the flow of sunlight as they descended deeper into the cave.
This was where Chikane...
Himeko shook her head forcefully.
No! She would not think of it that way. It had hurt, yes, and it had been terrifying while it happened, really more from the sudden change in Chikane from kind and supportive to threatening and cruel than from the actual violation. But she understood why Chikane had done it: to try and protect her from further Orochi attack by removing her blood's power, and also to use the blood from Himeko's first time to prepare to summon Ame no Murakumo so that all Himeko had to do was wish for the God of Swords to descend, and yet again to give Himeko a reason to hate Chikane and kill her in the final battle. In two of those three goals she'd failed, most especially the third one, but that was the weakness of plans born in despair rather than reality.
Because there was a fourth thing, Himeko thought. Chikane...had been expressing her love and desire for Himeko openly for the first time, in the only way that her misguided, guilt-ridden mind could believe such feelings could be expressed.
No, coming to this cave again did carry a heavy burden of past memories with it, but they weren't echoes of pain and fear long since put aside. They were the memories of seeing her beloved in torment. Tears stung her eyes as she thought, I will never, never ever let Chikane feel that way again. No matter how hard it is or how much it hurts, I will always make sure she knows how I feel about her.
Realizing that Chikane, too, was probably recalling some of the same memories, she hurried forward and when Chikane had fallen a couple of steps behind Ohgami, Himeko leaned in and flicked her tongue against Chikane's ear. Chikane spun, startled and wide-eyed, and Himeko gave her a teasing grin. Her sister stared at her for a couple of heartbeats, and then her expression softened.
"Silly," Chikane murmured under her breath. "And...thank you."
Himeko's smile grew.
"You're welcome."
They descended into the passage, going deeper into the heart of the mountain. Himeko thought it was odd that they'd call to a god enshrined on the moon from a spot deep inside the earth. On top of the mountain would have made more sense to her, somewhere reaching for the skies. Then again, when it came to ritual and magic she often didn't understand things. In truth, even when she had been the Solar Priestess it had often felt like she was just along for the ride. Strangely, she felt no confusion about the ritual they were about to perform; every word and movement seemed graven in her heart.
I guess if you do something through a few dozen lifetimes it kinda sinks in, huh?
Eventually, the passageway widened out into a cave. A series of prayer gates arched over the stone path as it progressed into the cavern, forming a boundary between the path and the sacred precincts. On the far side, the cavern floor was covered over by a large lake of black water that only dully threw back the light from the priest's torch. The extension of the passage jutted out into the lake like a pier, ending directly beneath a massive boulder that descended from the cave ceiling like a stalactite. The shimenawa tied around it made it look like the boulder was the kami enshrined here, but Himeko knew that wasn't quite right. She wanted to ask, since she was sure that Chikane and Reverend Ohgami would both know, but she was embarrassed by her own ignorance.
Some shrine maiden I am! The thought stung at her. I can't even remember the names of things! Maybe that was why she wasn't a genuine miko any more. Sometimes, after all, it seemed that her only qualification for being part of this was her closeness to Chikane. Last time...I started acting on my own and changing things. Maybe...maybe Ame no Murakumo just got sick of my blundering?
She wished that she knew the answer. Part of her just wanted to turn and leave, to end what seemed more and more like a farce with every step, but she didn't. She couldn't abandon Chikane, regardless of the cost to herself. Himeko loved her so much that it scared her sometimes. The choices she'd made, she knew, weren't exactly normal.
Refusing rebirth in the restored world, condemning her own soul to imprisonment for the interval between cycles just so she could be with Chikane?
Choosing to be reincarnated as twin sisters so that even from birth they never had to spend a single day apart?
No, Himeko was too honest with herself to deny it. If Chikane asked something, needed something of her, she would defy fate or the gods or any kind of suffering to try to give it. That was all there was to it.
Reverend Ohgami lit the lamps mounted along the passage sides, causing the cavern to come alight with a glow eerily brighter than the two lanterns should have shed. The water stirred, small waves lapping at the edges of the stone pier.
The tamagushi were there already, in rests at the base of the first prayer gate. Chikane took one of the swordlike wooden wands and Himeko the other. Chikane extended a hand to her.
"Are you ready?"
Himeko placed her hand in her sister's and nodded. It wasn't quite a lie; she was willing to act even if not prepared for it. Together as one, they passed through the first torii. Chikane stepped past smoothly, but Himeko felt something as they breached the boundary, a nebulous force that seemed to push at her as she entered the gate, then dragged at her as she emerged.
"C-Chikane, are you sure this is going to be okay?"
The next gate was worse, the force more tangible, the pressure on her body stronger. It was enough to make her stumble as she passed through, though she caught her balance before falling.
"Himeko, are you all right?"
"It's these boundaries. I can feel them; they're resisting me. They don't want to let me pass."
"But in that case they should block you completely. That's what the barriers are for."
"Maybe it's the vestments?" Himeko suggested. "They have their own power drawn from Ame no Murakumo, so maybe the boundaries recognize the outfit but not the person wearing it?"
"Or they remember the past but not the present." Chikane shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I've danced to Ame no Murakumo's will enough; I won't be stayed by this." Her hand squeezed Himeko's more tightly as they approached the third and final gate, and she raised the tamagushi. A silver glow shone from the symbol on her back; unlike normal clothing the Lunar Priestess's vestments did not seem to hinder the flow of light at all. Chikane brought the ritual wand down in a slashing motion, and the hindering force seemed to part and roll back, offering Himeko no opposition as she stepped through. They walked the last few feet to stand beneath the great stone.
"D-do you really think this will work?"
"It has to, Himeko. If I'm going to protect you and this world from the Orochi, I need to truly be the Lunar Priestess, not a phantom of myself. And perhaps this will also help to find...your successor."
She was having a steadily harder time discussing it, Himeko realized. The search for the Solar Priestess made the blonde think of Reverend Ohgami, and she looked back up the path to where he stood. He could not pass the gates--no man could, unless by breaking the barrier through sheer force--but he awaited the outcome of Chikane's attempt, disapproving but resigned to it.
"Shall we begin?" Chikane released Himeko's hand.
"O-okay."
There was, at least, no way she could mistake the form of what was to happen. The words, the movements of the ritual were engraved in Himeko's soul, giving the lie at least to the idea that she had never been Solar Priestess, that her past lives with Chikane were a fantasy. Not that she'd doubted, the bond between them being the only thing that she was still sure of in all this, but proof was good to have. Chikane was more analytical, less intuitive than she was, and proof was sometimes needed to make her see.
And yet, Chikane hasn't once asked me if I remember what to do.
Had the thought simply not occurred to her? Chikane assumed things sometimes, jumped to wrong conclusions. But that wasn't usually about this kind of thing, but about more basic, how-she-saw-the-world issues. Not about the practical details of a task at had. So maybe it was because when Himeko was offering all her protests as to why this was a bad idea, she hadn't mentioned what would be a sound, practical objection, so Chikane understood that she hadn't said anything because it wasn't a valid objection?
Or maybe the topic had come up in conversation months or even years ago and Chikane had simply remembered Himeko's answers?
Or maybe...this was so important to Chikane (why?) that she hadn't allowed herself to ask the question--to even have the conscious thought?
So many possibilities, some utterly innocent, some laden with emotion. Himeko didn't know which it was or how to find out or even if it was something that mattered. It was just something that seemed off to her, and she noticed it.
Probably because this all seems off to me! Me being here, doing this.
Which brought her thoughts full circle again. This was why she tried to leave this kind of thinking to Chikane; when Himeko tried it she went round and round and didn't get anywhere. She trusted her heart, her intuition and emotions to guide her. After all, if she'd been analytical in her last life she'd have concluded that Chikane was a ruthless, evil monster dedicated to Orochi, cut her down, and quite probably wished for a new world without her in it. It was only because she trusted in her heart that Chikane was a good person--a person she could love--that she'd found the strength to refuse Souma's logic, Ame no Murakumo's fate, Chikane's attempts at manipulation.
So what does my intuition tell me is right?
She walked across the pier and took up a position opposite Chikane, about ten feet away so the tip of the great rock was right over the midpoint between them. She raised the tamagushi as Chikane raised hers, the girls mirror images of one another. Her eyes met her sister's, finding a question in them, and she nodded once, sharply, in reply.
-X X X-
The dark sun writhed and burned in the eternally violet sky. Within the sealed space of Orochi it was always sunset, thought Abe, for it was so for the world, the last moments of life before the eternal night fell.
The mists had rolled back from beneath the eight torii, revealing that the prayer gates did not simply grow in space but were affixed to an octagonal structure. The shrine of the eight gates was largely devoid of ornamentation, of signs of faith.
This was fitting, thought Abe. The Orochi had no faith. Only pain, and despair, and hate.
He knelt in the precise center of the shrine on the bare wooden floor, the eclipse that was not an eclipse burning above him, reaching out to the spirit of malice. Abe knew that of the Necks, he was the most devout, the most purely dedicated to Yamata no Orochi. This was not pride; even they would have admitted it. The Second, Fourth, and Fifth were too caught up in their own pain, their own vanity, and lashed out at the world like children having a temper tantrum. The Sixth went beyond this but was burdened by the limits of her own mind. The First was too enthralled by the now, of being Orochi. The Seventh had embraced the nihilism of the dark sun but chained it within his own will, the regimented logic of his mind.
Only Abe, alone among the Necks, had fully given way to the despair. The man, the self, was empty. The ego of vanity was absent. The sense of self that gave rise to the will was gone. The man had been destroyed in the futility of his wife's death, his last personal debts paid on the bodies of his tormentors. Now there was only Orochi. He surrendered himself to it utterly, letting the voice of his own pain be drowned in the malice of untold billions.
-X X X-
"The brave and mighty Susanou no Mikoto."
Chikane felt the power surge up at once as they began, not even at the first words but before that, at the act of will that called the start of the ritual. The air in the heart of the shrine grew heavy with power, a heat rising from the water, descending from the great stone. She felt her own power rising to match it, the power of the Lunar Priestess calling to its sealed half.
The seal was a door, barring her way. Why it existed she had no idea. To test the priestesses' dedication? To serve as some sort of balancing force against the restraints on the gods of Orochi? She could not say. This ritual was a key. Turn it in the lock and the door would open. So much easier when she'd been Orochi herself; no key was necessary when one could simply break in the door.
"God of Takemi Katana."
-X X X-
"God of Iwatsutsu no O."
The movements of the two girls were like a dance, the graceful motion of arms, of hands, the way even the billowing sleeves and trailing jackets blended in, forming part of the imagery. Light and dark, sun and moon, a perfect harmonious balance was in them.
Reverend Ohgami had expected as much from Tsukuyo. What surprised him was Hikari. Ordinarily she was earnest and good-hearted, but graceless and clumsy. Now, her every motion was an exact mirror of her twin's, performed in unison without the slightest lag time or hesitation. Their voices were as one as they chanted, calling upon the kami who sheltered and supported Ame no Murakumo.
He no longer doubted--and there had been doubts, though left unspoken--that Hikari had been the Solar Priestess in previous cycles. This ritual was a part of her, and in it he could see hints of what had once been, the light she had once shed as Hi no miko.
It made him wonder all the more why that role had been taken from her.
"God of Kanayama Hiko."
-X X X-
"God of Kanayama Hime."
Himeko could feel the power swell, could feel the lightning as it sparked in the air. The pressure was almost unbearable. She knew that there was supposed to be an answer from within herself, the power of the Solar Priestess calling to what lay beyond the seal. There was no such call now, nothing arising from within to balance the terrible pressure without, only Himeko's own will and the ghosts of the past that inhabited the vestments she wore.
She began to tremble as the pressure grew, the gathering power swelled. How long could she bear it? Even if her mind found the strength to keep on, how long could her body endure?
"God of Tsurugi no Ikusa."
-X X X-
"God of Tate no Ikusa."
Himeko was weakening.
Chikane could sense it, sense the imbalance in the power being summoned, how it threatened to rage out of control. She wanted to stop, to pull back, but it was too late for that. If they hesitated now, the gathered force would be released explosively. Injury was likely, and for one without any magic of her own like Himeko, death was quite possible.
Because of her. Because of her insistence that they proceed with this rite. Because she needed her full power as a priestess to protect, and ultimately restore.
Because she'd hoped against hope that if they could breach the seal they'd find beyond it not some but all of the Solar Priestess's power, that Himeko would be restored to herself by the sudden influx of divine force.
Because the alternative was too terrible to bear.
If Himeko was not the Solar Priestess, but Chikane had to go on as Lunar Priestess...
She couldn't think about that. The consequences were...
As lightning crackled around them, crawling across the surface of the great stone above and arcing to the water, a trembling began to creep into Chikane's body as well.
But not from the external forces pressing upon her.
"Along with the powers of the eight million gods."
-X X X-
"I wish for the revival of Ame no Murakumo."
The ritual pounded through the ether. Yamata no Orochi could sense that its foes were acting, and so Yuujirou Abe felt it through the communion he shared with his god.
They act! They act to unseal the God of Swords! They strive to shatter the barriers while I lie chained!
Abe felt the god's cries within his mind. Orochi's hate and fury was as his own. The eight gods had to rise up, to claim the blood of a pure priestess so that they could join as one and lay waste to all that was, to end a world that was hopelessly, irredeemably corrupted by the stinking ill-will of humanity, a plague on creation that could only be cured by absolute eradication.
There had to be a way, somehow, to free the chained darkness and match the steps of their adversaries.
A footfall brushed the floor behind him. Words fell softly from lips. There was no need for them to be audible to any but their speaker, for they matched those that reverberated through the will of Orochi.
"Release the God of Susanou."
-X X X-
"The atoning life shall be driven out."
Hikari was faltering.
Reverend Ohgami could not deny it. At first it had appeared that Tsukuyo's will had triumphed over all his doubts. Hikari had approached the shrine past boundaries he himself could not cross. She had not been struck down by the God of Swords. She had known the ritual as if she had studied it for her entire life.
But now...
There was pain in her voice. Her whole body shook. Every movement she made was a halting thing, an effort made against terrific pressure. While the priest could not see Tsukuyo's face most of the time, Hikari's was almost in full view and had become a mask of determination. Perspiration streamed down her skin, her teeth were clenched, and words forced through them when necessary, her eyes burned with an intensity that he could scarcely believe.
He'd known the twins nearly all their lives. Hikari and his own daughter had become friends almost from the first day of kindergarten. In all those years, Ohgami had thought of her much as he would regard a piece of candy: she was a kind, sweet, obliging girl, one whom even if she didn't observe the proper forms of politeness always captured the respectful spirit that was meant by them, but one with nothing hard at the center.
Marika had never gone along with that assessment. Once, when she was fifteen and they, in the way of fathers and daughters, had been arguing over something, he'd foolishly accused Hikari of being empty-headed and weak, a pointless friend. He'd apologized later, but in the heat of the moment Marika had snapped back that he was a blind fool if he couldn't see that Hikari was the strongest person she knew.
Now, he understood something of what she'd meant.
They pivoted, turned, raised their wands, and struck as if cleaving some opponent that stood in the center between them.
"Shinchoku."
-X X X-
As the last word left her lips, Himeko gave way to the forces bearing down on her. With a whimper of pain she dropped to her knees. The important thing, though, was that she'd gotten through it, completed the rite.
As she succumbed to unconsciousness, she had no idea if the explosive roar she heard was from the energies being released or just her own mind giving way to the pain.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A/N: Shinto terms are all taken from Wikipedia. The chant for the ritual summoning is taken word-for-word from the anime subtitles. The description of the hidden shrine comes from the manga, of course (as do several of the previous-cycle plot events Himeko alludes to). And the fact that the Orochi shrine actually has a main body instead of just being the eight gates is also another manga/anime difference (if this keeps up, these author's notes are going to end up cataloguing everything that changes between the versions!).
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