Behold the Exalt: Divine Interruption 3

Behold the Exalt

Chapter Five: Divine Interruption

Byakuren stood in the human village, waiting outside a door to someone's home. She waited, hand patiently holding the bell to the house. Byakuren had to agree that Shou's plan had been a good one, there was only one problem; Kanako and and Toyosatomimi no Miko also had the same idea. Kanako had brought Suwako, Miko had brought Futo. When the villagers watched the three groups all enter the village at the same time, everyone agreed that it was time to end the day and go to bed at around three.

Suwako and Futo were both watching Byakuren, Shou was watching Kanako and Miko, and she knew that when she rang the bell both of them would dive at her to fight over the doorway. Kanako and Miko had each gone to their own house, their hands patiently holding the doorbell. Byakuren knew what would happen when she rang the doorbell; it had already happened the first four times a bell had been rung.

It had sounded so easy: go search the human village for the priestess. Now everyone was standing around, terrifying people, and making fools out of themselves.

Byakuren rang her bell. Kanako and Miko both made a mad dash for Byakuren. Suwako and Futo took the opportunity to ring their bells. Shou leapt at Suwako, and Futo was a step behind Shou.

The door opened. The village blacksmith, man in his early thirties, greeted Byakuren, Kanako, and Miko in turn. As he watch them push, shove, punch, kick, bite, and crowd into his door, the man became certain of one thing. No matter what he said, no matter what he did, no matter who he spoke to, no matter who he didn't speak to, he was going to die today and there was nothing he could do about it. Each of the three leaders began speaking at the same time, pressed together and trying to shove their hands down each other's throat to silence them. The blacksmith couldn't even understand what they were arguing about, something about a priestess and derogatory remarks about each other.

The blacksmith's wife, seeing her husband stand at the door terror-stricken, came up with a plan. She quickly let down her hair, loosened her kimono a little, and gathered up every scrap of courage she had.

"Excuse me," she said, leaning against the wall with one hand and fanning herself with the other, "Dear, weren't you coming to bed?"

Everyone was silent. The blacksmith slowly turned to his wife, blinking back tears of joy. He had been saved. The blacksmith turned back to the door.

"I'm sorry, but I've got to go," He said, eyeing his wife for a moment, "I can't argue with my better half."

The door shut, and never in the blacksmith's life had he been so happy to be married.

Byakuren pinched her nose as she left the house. Apparently there was some sort of fertility festival today, because she had watched that happen three times already. When they had gone to the miller's house, who was unmarried, he dove through the back wall and made a mad dash for the fields, shrieking something about having to harvest today. The man promptly passed out when everyone caught up with him and he was interrogated in six directions.

Byakuren was considering throwing in the towel, but didn't dare let another priestess fall into the clutches of Kanako or Miko. Miko was staring at the door, and Byakuren caught her doing this.

"Don't you even think about it," Byakuren whispered to her.

"I'm not," Miko replied, her face turning red, "You know that I can hear ten conversations at once right?"

"What has that got to do with this," Byakuren said, "And why is your face turning red?"

"Well, we've um," Miko looked away, "We've started three conversations, and they're um, they're hard not to listen to."

Byakuren let out a sigh. "Hey Kanako," she called, "Come here, we need to talk."

Kanako pulled herself out of a conversation with Suwako and walked over. "What is it," she asked, "And why is her face red?"

"You don't want to know," Byakuren replied, "and honestly, I think we should all just leave."

"Oh yeah," Kanako said, "You just want us gone so you can find the priestess."

"Well, yes," Byakuren said, "But that's clearly not going to happen. If we stay here, we'll just make ourselves look like fools."

"Yeah, but" Miko shook her head, "If we do that then what's to stop someone from doubling back?"

"Look, all our temples are away from the village," Byakuren said, "So we'll all fly away together. besides, I think we've made enough of an impression here that no one will talk to us for awhile."

"Sounds good," Kanako said, "I'll go get Suwako and we'll leave. And Miko, do you have a fever?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Miko replied.

Kanako walked off. This was going to be harder than she thought. As Kanako walked to Suwako, who was apparently talking to Hina, Suwako turned to her with a wry grin.