Author's Note: 20 hours ago, someone asked, "When is the next chapter?" Now. The answer is now.
After you read this chapter, remember there is one last chapter on its way.
Part II: The Trials
The God of Love brewed surprisingly good tea.
Mikan was already sipping her second cup, the chamomile calming her and the hint of lemon maintaining her energy. Natsume refused the tea, perusing Narumi's refreshments for an appetizing treat. They both sat in the loveseat of what appeared to be an opulently decorated parlor, fit for a baron or a lord. Perhaps gods and humans weren't so different after all.
"Is it possible? For a human and a god to marry?"
Natsume had explained their situation to the dazzling blond, dressed decadently in shades of flaming pink, vivid red, and luxurious purple. He, too, glowed with the essence of a god, though he was much more outwardly friendly than Natsume so Mikan had an easier time thinking of him not as a revered divine being, but rather just a friend.
Apparently Natsume hadn't accepted Mikan's proposal straight away because he wasn't sure it was even allowed. Could a god be bound by human laws?
The God of Love was quite amused by the whole predicament. "Certainly, when I had pushed Natsume out of the sky so many years ago, I had never imagined it would end in matrimony. A torrid love affair or simple companionship, yes, but matrimony?"
The memory of their first meeting returned to Mikan, and she turned to Natsume. "Oh, so you weren't kidding when you said you were sent by the gods."
"I have always been honest with you," said Natsume, finally taking a biscuit from Narumi's assorted collection.
"Really? You mean besides the fact that you are a god yourself?"
Natsume amended his statement: "I have never told you an outright lie to your face."
"I distinctly remember you saying things like, 'I must return home. My human family will be so worried. Work is difficult, the harvest comes late this year.' Do you even know how to plow a field?"
He did not. "Well, I have other skills and talents."
Before Mikan could retort, the God of Love chuckled. "How delightful you two are."
In a rare display of affection, Natsume took Mikan's hand, interlocking their fingers. There was no mistaking his intentions then.
He wanted to be with her.
And she, too. "What would I have to do?"
"You will just have to become a goddess yourself, or at least, a demigoddess."
Natsume frowned, and Mikan was already aboard the same train of thought. "Don't humans become gods only after they have died? If they have lived virtuously or done good things. I want to marry Natsume and be with him alive, and I do not think I have been good enough to be venerated."
"Yes, you could do good deeds or have a god-ordained journey. Those are surefire ways to become a god." Narumi paused. "There is one other way."
He shot Natsume a meaningful look. "A very trying way." It didn't take Natsume long to catch on.
Mikan watched the flicker of fear on Natsume's face quickly dissolve into determination as he turned to her.
"You will have to undergo the Trials."
Mikan took a deep breath before pushing open the double doors to the Great Hall of the Gods, and she was taken aback by the sight in front of her.
Rows upon rows of gods lined the edges of a long gilded walkway, craning their necks to look at her, expectantly, excitedly. At her arrival, some even cheered while others groaned. Were they happy to see her? Disappointed?
Mikan self-consciously waved and smiled to ease her own nerves, but it was for naught. The gods soon turned away from her and started migrating towards a dark-haired goddess near the front of the room.
Most of the gods cleared out afterwards, simply vanishing into thin air, but the one who had collected all the gold remained, along with four others. Nobody called anything to order; even the gods sitting upfront slouched in their throne-like seats. Though Mikan had meticulously prepared her appeal, she couldn't help but think the atmosphere was a bit… informal.
Cautiously, Mikan approached, trying her best to project an image of elegance and sophistication, dressed in borrowed robes of the God of Love. Nobody in Minamimura owned anything so fine.
Five gods remained; three goddesses and two gods. Natsume had prepared her to expect only four, the ones out of many who volunteered to hear her plea.
The God of Life, brimming with vitality and enthusiasm.
The Goddess of Memory, with eyes dark like Natsume's and shimmering with nostalgia.
The God of Time, with a weary face and graying hair, looking dazed but carefree.
The God of Dreams, unexpectedly alert but young with kind eyes.
The odd one out was the dark-haired goddess who was counting all of the money. Though her countenance was severe, she seemed the most approachable out of all the ineffable divine beings; the four of them conversed amongst themselves, almost oblivious to Mikan's presence.
"What was that about?" Mikan asked the loitering goddess directly.
There was a moment's silence as though the goddess could not believe Mikan had the gall to speak to her so forwardly. "An easy trap to catch fools' gold."
At Mikan's blank stare, the goddess sighed and clarified, "We were having a wager. You are the first human in centuries to request to become a demigod by the Trials, though none before you have succeeded. We were betting on who you would be."
The goddess looked Mikan up and down, and a slight smirk graced her face.
"So you are Natsume's favored human."
Heat filled Mikan's cheeks, though a stirring in her stomach accompanied the pleasure. Natsume's favored human, huh? Mikan resisted the urge to grin like a silly lovestruck rabbit.
"Favored and favorite."
"Is that not the same?" A small smirk stretched across her lips, and for some reason, Mikan relaxed. In a way, the goddess reminded her of… Natsume; of a friend. "Hotaru, Muse of Invention."
"Mikan Sakura," she introduced herself with a bright smile.
Hotaru gave her one last look, up and down. "Cute."
Then, waving a hand over all her earned gold, she disappeared along with her money.
A bell chimed, and a breeze fluttered through the air, compelling her forward. The four gods straightened, and Mikan trembled before the full extent of their divinity.
"You are the human petitioning to undergo the Trials."
Mikan scurried to the front of the room and presented herself, making sure to keep her eyes low.
"Yes. I am Mikan Sakura of Minamimura, a village in southern Yamato." Even her tinny human voice boomed in the gods' great hall. "I wish to undergo the Trials to be granted the status of demigoddess."
Mikan held her breath to see how the gods would react. After all, who was she? A girl, a mere mortal from a small village, who -
The God of Time spoke first. "Sure, why not?"
In surprise, Mikan looked up, and suddenly they weren't the hallowed deities they were moments ago. Beyond the glow, she noticed the tired lines wrinkling the God of Time's face, the almost sickly pallor of the Goddess of Memory, the God of Dreams' eyeglasses. They had flaws and appeared human, though it felt blasphemous to think so.
"Most die anyway. It's your choice." The God of Life shrugged.
"I do choose."
The God of Dreams warned, "Do you understand that may never come back to the human realm the same? You may die, you may be transformed in unspeakable ways by the Trials."
"I have said my farewells. My family understands. I must do this to secure the future I want."
The gods did not seem to need further discussion. Perhaps they had discussed it beforehand.
"Your intentions are noble. You may undergo the Trials," declared the Goddess of Memory.
Eager to express her gratitude, Mikan bowed deeply and said, "Thank you for granting my request."
"Our pleasure."
Before Mikan could ask further questions, the God of Time interrupted.
"Well, I am off then. Got some hijinks to sort. Kaoru, you will oversee her Trials?" The Goddess of Memory nodded, and despite her innate fear of what the Trials might bring, it provided a small comfort knowing someone who looked like Natsume would be with her.
The other gods vanished, and only Mikan and the Goddess of Memory remained.
"At any time during your Trials, you may choose to stop. However, be warned that you may only request the Trials once. If you fail them now, you will never have this opportunity."
Mikan nodded gravely. "When do I start?"
"We begin now."
Darkness covered her eyes.
"In front of you are 10 plants. You must correctly identify which can heal a human and which bring death." As an afternote, almost amusedly, she added, "I would not touch them for too long."
Since she could not see, Mikan felt the divine being depart. She smelled, simultaneously, the sweet scent of medicine and the bitter tang of toxins. Kneeling to the ground, she did not have to reach far to find the objects of her tasks.
The first plant she touched bore thick leaves, almost leathery, and Mikan recognized it as a fig tree, similar to the ones she had grown up climbing. The little hard nubs of budding fruit confirmed her guess.
Setting the first to the side, she searched with her hand for the second plant.
Mikan cried out as she felt thorns bite into her flesh. Quickly she withdrew her hand, but the wounds seeped heat: poison. Her fingers trembled as the toxin burned its way through her veins up her arm. Desperately optimistic, she clutched her wrist in an attempt to prevent further spread.
Fear chilled her entire being as she realized she could die during the Trials. And on her first task.
Had she failed already? Dread settled into her bones, weighing her down. As hard she pressed on her arm to cut off circulation, the poison spread rapidly until a mighty shiver wracked her body.
"Tch," whispered a voice from the darkness. Mikan startled. "I did not realize you were so foolhardy."
"Hello?"
"Yes, yes, hello. Let's see what you've done now." The voice came closer. "Oh, only one plant identified, huh? Only one tenth done with the first task."
Though Mikan could discern the joking tone, her head spun and she felt herself begin to sweat underneath the clothing. Thorns pierced her throat and her lungs, making it difficult to draw breath. "Are you here to say my burial rites? Please deliver my body to my family when I have died. I want to be laid to rest in my homeland."
"I did not realize Natsume liked melodramatic women. You were brave enough to talk to me. I know you must be brave enough to complete the trials."
Cool fingers touched the seeping wound, and Mikan hissed, recoiling instinctively. A firm hand grabbed her elbow, holding her arm up as a strange and unfamiliar sensation sucked at her wound, creating a soft whirring noise Mikan had never heard before.
"I may not have the power to heal, but I have the ability to create something that heals. I will grant you this gift only this one time. Be more careful for the rest of your tasks."
Whatever she had placed on Mikan's wound made a pop as it disengaged from her skin. Like the muse, the burning sensation slipped away, and Mikan felt with the fingers of her other hand the small puncture marks closing.
Within minutes, there was no wound, and Mikan was sure there was no poison ravaging her system yet she could still feel the ache in her hand, almost like a phantom.
They would not kill her; they could only hurt.
I would not touch them for too long.
Temporarily ignoring the plants of her task, she felt around her space for some kind of tool, but there was none to be found. If she walked off in one direction, somehow she went around in a circle and ended up right back with the plants. She had to finish the tasks with nothing but the clothes on her body.
Of course, her clothes. She still wore the thick and luxurious robes gifted to her by Narumi. Before she could think too much of the damage, she ripped off the hem of her robe. It wasn't too big a piece, but she supposed it would suffice.
Carefully, with the cloth wrapped around her hand, she tentatively touched the second plant again, but this time, there was no bite. The thorns could not pierce the fabric.
Meticulously and cautiously, she identified all ten of the plants, recreating the image in her head based on what she felt. Seven had healing properties, three did not.
Mikan split them up and lined them accordingly. As soon as they were in place, she smelled warm sugar and felt the goddess arrive.
Simply and without congratulation, the Goddess said, "You have succeeded at the first task. We move to the second one."
Her sight returned as she found the Goddess and herself standing on a mountain surrounded by blindingly white snow. Her eyes ached as they adjusted to the light, and she shivered as a freezing wind blew through her robes.
"Somewhere in this field of snow is a single luminescent pearl, lost by the God of Water. Find it. There is a cave with supplies nearby, though you will have to find that as well."
Once again, the Goddess vanished without further instruction.
Mikan got to work and spent ten days on that mountain before she was able to find the pearl by systematically plowing through the snow and bringing loads to the fire in her cave to melt away.
As with her first task, the Goddess appeared and whisked her away to the next task.
At first, Mikan thought there'd only be a few tests; perhaps seven, the lucky number, or eight, the prosperous number.
But after successfully completing her 14th task, Mikan grew despondent.
Nobody told Mikan when the tests would end. There was no reprieve, just one grueling task after another.
Catch a golden koi with three red dots on its head.
Successfully bargain with the God of Shadows.
Bottle the vapors of an underground waterfall.
Deduce through riddles how to escape a labyrinth.
Sew a dress made out of the North wind.
Brew a concoction to paralyze tigers.
And on and on, the ordeal continued.
Later, Mikan would find out the majority of gods had exploited the opportunity to handle their own business: collect magical items, run long-forgotten errands, prepare ingredients for spellwork and alchemy - any excuse to use a human for free labor.
And she would find out that there were 888 tasks in total.
"We are pleasantly surprised you have made it this far. Ahead of you lies your final trial."
Mikan nearly wept, if only she weren't so exhausted. She had sworn months had passed during her Trials, but not once had she slept. Her hands were scarred, her feet blistered, her legs thicker with all the physical exertion, her hair tangled and shorn in uneven places. She had long foregone the God of Love's robes, discarded somewhere a few hundred tasks ago. Instead, she wore a dress provided to her by the Goddess of the Moon, for whom Mikan had tied together the oceans.
"You have proved your worth in many ways, but now you must prove you deserve to stand by the side of the God of Fire."
Mikan nodded, eager to finally finish. Her hopes rose; she had endured thus far, she can endure anything else.
"We are rooting for you," she whispered before she disappeared in a golden flash.
Trying to muster the energy to stand up, Mikan granted herself only a few moments to catch her breath. Just a few… Okay, maybe a few more.
The smell of smoke tickled her nose. She inhaled deeply, and tendrils of fire lashed out towards her.
Mikan jumped to her feet and barely escaped the reach of the growing inferno.
No time for a break.
Eyes wild, she searched for a way out, and a figure caught her eye.
"Mikan!"
Her stomach dropped, and despite the scorching fire in front of her, her skin prickled with a chill.
Natsume.
There he stood, barely a field's length away from her. Natsume looked at her with such sorrow in his eyes, and Mikan could have sworn she saw a tear on his cheek.
But if there were, it quickly evaporated in the heat of the blaze. Natsume himself remained untouched; the fire encircled him, but left a sizable gap.
"Please, Mikan, you don't have to do this."
Mikan tentatively reached a hand towards Natsume. "Ouch!" The fire snapped at her, and she quickly pulled back.
"I do not understand. Do I have to rescue you from the fire?"
Natsume shook his head. "The flames do not hurt me, but they will hurt you. I cannot control it. You must walk through the fire to reach me."
Mikan ruminated on this last task.
Walk through fire? Burn herself alive?
Surely this task wasn't impossible so, Mikan reasoned, the gods wouldn't let her die. Each task had pushed the limits of Mikan's life, energy, and logic, but each had been doable. It was the last trial; they wouldn't be so cruel to let her finish the others only to snatch away her victory at the end. There must be a caveat, some unspoken catch. Perhaps if she had enough faith, the flames would not hurt her.
Bravely, Mikan took a step forward, into the fire. Pain shot through Mikan's toes faster than a lightning strike. With a grimace, she withdrew her foot and immediately the pain disappeared, almost as though she had never been burned.
Mikan would have nearly forgotten what the fire's touch felt like, had it not been for the pain twisting Natsume's face.
"I beg you, Mikan, I love you more than you could ever know," Natsume sank to his knees, and it pained Mikan's heart to see him, for the first time in so long, so powerless. "Do not sacrifice yourself for me. We can still be together."
"I want to be with you as your equal. How can we ever marry if the gods do not ordain it?"
"Is it worth it, Mikan?" She could not believe her ears; could the time apart have caused Natsume to doubt?
Fiercely, she replied, "Yes, Natsume, you are worth it."
Mikan stepped again.
Mikan screamed and screamed. She must have screamed for hours, days, years, centuries.
However long it had been, maybe decades ago, she had given up on walking. She had buckled shortly after taking her first steps. She had not expected how fast the heat consumed her, how intense it burned her.
As the searing pain grew, so did her determination.
She must reach Natsume.
She will reach Natsume.
Little by little, she crawled toward him. Her vision was clouded by smoke and tears, but she could feel where he was, her heart directing towards his like a compass. Her ears rang with the echoes of her own screams and moans. If Natsume spoke any encouragement, she could not hear.
When at last, she could not manage to crawl, she willed her body to keep moving, one muscle twitching at a time to reach her goal.
Her hand reaching a little farther.
Her foot pushing a little harder.
Her belly sliding a little closer.
Finally, thankfully, blessedly, she reached out her hand again and felt it wrap around a boot, an ankle, a leg.
She had made it.
All at once, the fires extinguished themselves, and the pain started to seep out of her like a tree oozing sap. With the sweet, sweet relief of coolness entering her body, she managed to roll onto her back, collapsing.
But when she looked up, she did not see the wondrous face of her love; she saw the goddess smiling down at her.
"Well done, Mikan."
She had been asleep for a long while; she felt it in her muscles, in her bones, in the heady syrup-like sensation that clogged her thoughts.
She could not move, did not want to move. But her mind sparked as she slowly recovered her senses.
"Where am I?" murmured Mikan, her voice more breath than sound.
A hand tenderly brushed her forehead, and she realized she was sweating.
"You walked through fire for me, Mikan."
Natsume.
She wanted her eyes to open so she could see him, drink in his image that would heal her, but they were weighted down like anchors in the sea.
"I do not doubt that you would do the same for me," she managed to croak, though her throat was parched and her lips dry.
"I would, my love. I would set the world on fire for you."
And so Mikan Sakura of Minamimura became the first demigoddess in recorded history. The gods blessed the union of her and Natsume, the God of Fire. (With some caveats; some gods shrewdly saw the opportunity to ensure Natsume fulfilled his godly duties.)
Along with her demigoddess status, Mikan was granted a few powers. She could now see all divine creation, she could transport herself into their realm. And of course, she had to take part in the work. She was granted the ability to temporarily borrow the powers of other gods, only to be used to help. If she were ever found abusing her power, the contract and the outcome of her Trials would be revoked.
They married, surrounded by her family and his colleagues, underneath the sun on a warm day on the beach near Minamimura. Her village rejoiced and enjoyed the blessings of the gods for eons to come.
By and by, Mikan and Natsume settled into the idea of spending eternity together. Not too long after their union, they had a child, a son blessed with the powers of fire.
Years passed, and they had many more.
Decades later, and the whole family still prospered.
Life was good.
Part II: The Trials