Chapter 2: Death by Spanking
There were many ships in the fleet of gods, but none were as massive as The Assembly, and for good reason. The Assembly was built as a meeting place. In the shape of a giant barge set adrift in the oceans of space and time; it held enough room for the ship of every god ever dreamt of to land. The mortal beings who worshiped and feared the gods would never understand, while they argued and fought over small plots of land, fame and love; the gods' claimed ideas as their domain. And just like ideas, they were not bound to any one culture or location, but spread ever outward from their origin; dying, only to be reborn as a new incarnation of what they once were.
And so there he was, King of The Spirit World. He was Yama-daiō now; it was always a favorite of his despite the hideous appearance. However, a special spot in his heart remained for the paired incarnations of Enma and Koenma. There was just something about using a toddler to handle the judgment of souls while keeping an ace up his sleeve in the form of his "Father" that tickled his funny bone. Unfortunately, he would probably be Koenma again rather shortly.
He liked to think that he had grown much during this last incarnation, enough to at least take responsibility for his failings. He winces as he glances at the case and the data files in his hands while steadily walking to The Amphitheater. It was much like what you would expect from an amphitheater, if amphitheaters could move through space and time and had enough seats for all the gods. It mostly stayed docked to The Assembly but it had moved before.
He was not looking forward to this. While he was always the first person in a new dimension to die so that he may sit in judgment of those who followed, death by spanking was such a terrible way to go. Finally he reaching his destination, and drawing in one fortifying breath, he takes the last step forward. The doors open with a soft hum. Eyes straight forward, he marches to the table set aside for him in the orchestra. Taking note of the kami who were there, he is only moderately relived. It was a mishmash of pantheons and domains; some were familiar faces, some not. That was jury duty among the gods for you.
It was always eerie when only enough gods for a quorum met, the voices echoed repeatedly with all the empty space, turning even whispers into a cacophony if more than one spoke at a time. He had never wanted to be in this position again, and to be so over the same immortal object a third time? When he had told the gathered gods that the object had been dealt with? It was a disaster!
Reaching the table he gently sets the files and the case down, though he knows next to nothing can destroy the jewel inside, no matter how fragile it is in appearance. The Amphitheater, which had slowly quieted upon his entrance, erupts into furious whispers as the gathered gods spot the sparkling jewel. Out from among the voices one stern voice rings out, leaving only silence in its wake. "What is the meaning of this, Yama-daiō?" It was Ame-no-Koyane, the first in charge of divine affairs. Yama holds himself steady. It wouldn't do to flinch now, not while the eyes were all upon him.
"I come bearing bad news. I was mistaken when I believed the Shikon fiasco resolved." He hurries on, speaking over the resuming whispers. "For those of you who do not remember, or were not involved in the previous assemblies I will summarize. The Shikon no Tama first entered our awareness upon the death of the great miko Midoriko. When her soul arrived in The Halls of Judgment it was fractured, and four aspects of her soul were missing in their entirety. She was given medical attention, and eventually we discovered that she had used the sacred powers she was given by Amaterasu-ōmikami to bind the soul of a powerful yōkai named Magatsuhi."
He reaches for the two case files on top of the pile and places them in the viewer, so that the other gods may review them. Electronic systems were so much easier to deal with, even if the amount of work was still the same.
"Unfortunately, Magatsuhi was an absorption-amalgamation yōkai with a human soul as the nucleus." I don't even want to remember how much time we wasted trying to figure out what happened, only to realize that half our problems were because we had three things with the same name: the yōkai, the human nucleus and the evil will of the jewel were all called Magatsuhi...
"As a miko, Midoriko-san held no sway over the human portion of the yōkai, and the seal irreparably corrupted while it was cast. Instead of surrendering her life energy to bind the yōkai to the earth, she ejected part of her soul and bound part of his soul to it in the form of a jewel." He gestures to the jewel glowing softly on the table; "This jewel unfortunately."