As might be expected, our first stop was Hieda manor. As usual, the idea of making an appointment seemed to be a totally foreign concept to my partner, and we simply walked over to the gates of the compound, showing up completely unannounced.

"Takeminakata is mentioned in the Kojiki so lets start by investigating him, along with anything we can find out about the goddesses Yasakatome and Moriya. If Akyuu really is the reincarnation of Hieda no Are, she should have literally written the book on the ancient gods of Japan. Even if she doesn't know much about the gods of the Suwa region, she's bound to have some related material in her archives."

When we knocked on the door, however...

"My apologies, the child of Miare is indisposed at the moment," said the handmaid who answered our request with a formal bow and face that didn't look at all apologetic.

"Is she just in the toilet or something? We can wait." Renko offered.

The maid frowned at her, simply replying "The mistress has gone out. Good day to you." before signaling the doormen to shut the gate in our faces. Despite her childish appearance and frail health, Akyuu was surprisingly adventurous, often making day trips to places like the Scarlet Devil Mansion or the Garden of the Sun, both of which we had escorted her to in the past.

Renko stretched out an arm, wedging the heavy wooden door in place before it could be closed. Pressing her shoulder against it so that she could still see the handmaid, she asked. "Where did she go? Just over to Suzunaan?"

Outright scowling now, the maid replied once more. "No. The lady of the house is required at a planning meeting for the harvest festival. She is not expected to return until this evening."

"Ah, I understand then, sorry to trouble you," Renko said. She removed her arm and the door swung shut with a heavy boom. From the look of things I don't imagine the staff of the Hieda manor much appreciated Akyuu's adventurous nature. With her being the figurehead of the village and the meal ticket for everyone who worked at the manor, I suppose they felt acutely the risks she took every time she left the village.

The yearly harvest festival that Akyuu was involved with was one of the biggest festivities in the village, second only to the new year's celebrations. 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. Miss Akyuu, as a representative of the village 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. Lucky for us that we happen to know someone with first-hand experience of the mythic period of ancient Japanese history."

-.-.-.-.-

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 to Eientei without a guide. Thus, we made our way along the one path into the forest we were familiar with, which lead to Mokou's dilapidated shack. 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 -I can come by and kick your butt at shogi, if you like."

"You want to talk to the rabbits? Thinking of taking up a job selling medicine?"

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

"Oh! Yeah, 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 lead us deep into the bamboo forest.

"The rabbits are unpredictable, 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 fallen under the same spell after discovering Renko trespassing beyond the borders sealing Suwako into the lake, as had Kagerou before her. 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.

"Well that's nothing, just a little -wahaaaa!" Halfway through responding to Renko, Mokou had suddenly disappeared from sight. Renko and I stopped and peered into the hole that had suddenly appeared 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 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, smells like I've caught something that comes pre-cooked." The undergrowth parted and the very person we were looking for emerged. Tewi Inaba. 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, Smokey. It's rare for you to 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 teaming up with Smokey to attack the princess now?"

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

Tewi struck a pose, fawning doe-eyed at Renko. "Little old me? Have you fallen for my irresistible charms, human?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. In particular your fathomless knowledge of the mythical past has set my heart all aflutter." Renko said, pantomiming dramatically. "Tell me a story about those good old days, won't you grandma?"

"Ohhh, 'grandma' now, is it? 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. Information isn't free, you know."

"Ah, I came prepared this time," Renko said, as Tewi produced a small coin box. "I even saved you a coin from the Outside world. Here's 100 Yen if you ever find yourself in need of it." She placed the change in Tewi's box, along with a few pieces of money from the village.

"Oh, that's bound to be lucky! Or, if not, it will be after it's been around me for a bit. So nice to see someone who knows the value of a good story. Now what did you want to know? Did you want me to tell you about the time I met Lord Okuninushi?"

While I was watching the farce Mokou had propelled herself out of the hole on a thin column of bright red flame. She scowled as she landed on the ground beside me, but didn't interrupt.

"Oh, I'm sure that would make for a good story, but that will have to wait for a later time. I wanted to ask you about a different god than the one you met in that story. Do you know anything about Takeminakata?"

"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 is too complex and detailed a tale to relate here. If you're curious, ask miss Akyuu about it, if you can. 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, that isn't the particular story I was going to ask about, but that's a good place to start. Are the legends in the Kojiki accurate then?"

"Hmm, it's been a long time since I read a human book, but it said Amaterasu and her friends drove 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 favour Okuninushi and the earthly divinities, but I had never before heard anyone refer to Amaterasu, sun goddess and chief of all the heavenly gods of Shintoism as a 'jerk.'

Renko fiddled with the brim of her hat, tucking her chin to her chest as she ruminated. "Hmmm. Takeminakata comes off sounding pretty pathetic in that story. In the myths from the Suwa region though, he's 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' is true, then Takeminakata came to Suwa and did to Moriya what Takemikazuchi had just done to him."

"Oh, is that what Takeminakata did after he fled to Suwa?" Tewi asked with a chuckle.

"That's what the legends say. Do you suspect they're wrong?"

"Hmmm, no, that sounds like something he'd have tried. Was that all you wanted to ask?"

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

"No, not really. Lord Okuninushi had a lot of children, and that's coming from a rabbit. I never bothered keeping track of them all."

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

"I don't know anything about native gods. They're completely different from Lord Okuninushi."

"Oh, how so?"

"Native gods have no substance, no form to them really. They're not divine spirits, they're just embodiments of elements of nature. That means they don't have a physical form to look at, but they're also not confined to one way of being. They're everywhere that the thing they represent is."

"So worship of a native god 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 Moriya. If Moriya is a native god, then they can't be beaten like that, they're the land itself. Even a war god can't beat up every tree and stone."

As Tewi explained, a lot of things clicked into place for me. Takeminakata might have come into the region and claimed ownership, but worship of Moriya is worship of the land itself -not who owns it. So even if Takeminakata took over all of the shrines and rededicated them in his own name, then worship of Moriya would not have been threatened. The two faiths didn't really even contest with eachother. 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. Moreover, if Kanako was a form of Takeminakata and Suwako was a form of Moriya, it explains why the legends depicted Moriya as having surrendered so easily and why Suwako had seemed bothered by the idea of Kanako claiming to own the land. The truth of the matter is that surrendering ownership of the Suwa region hadn't cost Suwako anything. What did she care if a few buildings or ceremonies changed hands? The land itself was her shrine. Both the victor and the defeated could exit the battle intact and continue to work together.

"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 Moriya are native gods which 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, Youkai Mountain itself might be something that could be worshipped..."

"Right, that's what the myriad native gods are. Anything old enough to have a spirit can be thought of as a god to some degree. If Moriya is a native 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. But they're also everywhere that thing is, so a river god would be everywhere that river reached, for instance. 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 native god are unique. They are just for the thing in that one place, and each one is dedicated to a different god. Taken together, all the native gods are all known as the 'eight million kami' or the 'myriad gods.'"

"So then these myriad gods 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 native god is every part of nature they oversee though, and they could look like anything. Oh. Oh, I see you're making the human 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 another penny for my thoughts."

"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. With Tewi gently nudging her hand now and then she was so lost in thought that she managed to empty her coin purse without even noticing. By the time she did, Tewi had long since disappeared.