Chapter 33: Centuries Out of Date

"Oof."

The attack was sudden, occurring immediately after the teleportation back to the palace of Kyoto. Almost as soon as I finished rematerializing, the ambush was sprung, the white haired attacker latching her arms around me and burying her head into my chest.

"I knew you would win." Shiro said, pressing herself to me so hard it was like she was trying to merge with me, "Nii-san."

"For someone so sure of my victory, you are sure taking advantage of pretending to be worried." I deadpanned.

She turned her head to look up at me, making sure I could clearly see the pout on her face. Rolling my eyes, I hugged the small girl to me and started gently patting her head, causing her to bury her face into my chest again.

"So, this is thy sister?" Ranni inquired from behind me, causing Shiro to look past me and take in the cloaked form of the Moon Goddess.

"Who are you?" She asked, her characteristic bluntness shining through.

"I am Ranni, the Dark Moon. Consort of Damocles." She replied, deadly serious.

"Mhm." Shiro snuggled back into me, "I won't lose."

"Lose?" The Goddess was stunned, "Lose what? Are we in competition?"

I laughed, causing her to turn to me, "Consort? What did she mean?"

"Don't worry about it." I smiled, "We can discuss it latter."

"Very well." She was clearly unhappy, but didn't have enough time to argue further as the rest of our group finished teleporting.

"Mom!" Similar to what happened to me, Yasaka was also hit by a missile in the form of a little girl, "Did you beat the bad guys?"

"No, little flame, they were beaten before I arrived, thanks to Damocles." Yasaka softly explained, causing the little Kitsune to look over to where I was still hugging Shiro.

"They were so strong though…" She whispered, not quiet enough however as Shiro stopped hugging me to proudly put her hands on her hips.

"Nii-san is the strongest, I told you." She exclaimed, causing most present to look at her fondly, used to her constant talking me up.

"Indeed. Mine knight is unparalleled." Ranni, meanwhile, merely nodded seriously to the childish exclamation, "Thou have a discerning eye."

Oh god, I thought as they turned to look at each other appreciatively, there are two of them.

Yasaka had allowed us to rest in the guest rooms of the Palace, apparently she would be setting up a big song and dance to reward us for protecting Kunou tomorrow, but seeing as it was already so late, she recommended we get some rest first.

Of course, before we went to sleep, I gathered my Peerage to discuss what had occurred that night. Arrayed in front of me were Kasane and Naomi sitting next to each other on a pair of pillows, CC sitting crossed-legged on another, with Ranni and Melina standing by the wall observing. Shiro, for her part, had once again claimed my lap as I sat facing my Peerage.

"The leader was wielding the True Longinus." I spoke, making sure that we were all on the same page.

"So, fairly important then." CC explained for our guests.

"Yes," I agreed, "I don't know who was backing him. But if he had that weapon, then he was not a low level peon."

"Will we be in trouble for killing him then?" Naomi asked, looking a bit worried.

"Yes." I answered, "Him and the people with him. They were likely all part of the same group, or an alliance of them. Us killing them doesn't really affect the situation though."

"How so?" Naomi asked.

"They attacked us." Kasane spoke, her militaristic leanings shining through, "Or rather, they attacked our allies, the Yokai. Our ties with them have been public for a while now, so they either didn't care our factored us getting involved into their thought before this. Our response merely moved up the timetable of an inevitable conflict."

"Exactly. Whoever is backing them, we were going to fight them eventually." I said, "That's not even counting the other thing that happened…"

My voice trailed off as I looked to our guests, the Snow Witch and the Kindling Maiden. A quick look on my phone had been enough to confirm my fears, Ranni's arrival was large enough to attract the attention of the entirety of the Supernatural world. Even the mundane world had noticed, the 'optical illusion' of the moon changing position in the night sky something that was rather difficult to hide.

Thankfully, no pictures of her Rune had appeared in the mundane media. That would have been a bit more of a mess to cover up.

"Indeed. Apparently your… Consort's arrival here has torn fate to shreds. All the clairvoyants are whining about it." CC spoke, taking control of the conversation, "About that. What exactly is you two's relation to Damocles anyway?"

"He and I have been vowed to each other." Ranni responded, extending her hand and displaying a familiar ring sitting prominently on her finger, "He is my one and only Lord."

"I am his Maiden." Melina followed that up, "Bound to his soul."

CC narrowed her eyes at the two of them, while Kasane and Shiro bristled and Naomi looked uncomfortable.

My Queen spoke deliberately, "Those statements can be taken multiple ways. I wish to be clear. Does this mean that your relationship is intimate?"

Ranni looked my way, before a gleam entered her eye as she said, "Indeed."

At the same time Melina sputtered out a denial, "No, of course not!"

"I see." CC's gaze flicked to me, before she pointed at me and jerked her finger to point towards the door, "You. Out."

Realising an out when I saw it, I took the escape offered. Shiro let me get up without protest, staring daggers at the blue woman in white. Before I left, I made sure that they did not strain the patience of our gracious hosts.

"Don't fight." I warned, causing them to all stare venomously at me. I put my hands up in surrender, "Physically I mean. We are guests here."

"I understand." CC responded.

I looked over to Ranni and Melina, who nodded.

Satisfied with that, I slipped away from that massive explosion before it went off.

"Trouble in paradise?" I was asked while sitting on the wooden floor looking out to the garden of the guest quarters.

"Not really. I chose my Queen carefully for a reason, I trust her to handle it well." I replied, opening my eyes and beholding the amused Kitsune who had questioned me.

She sat down elegantly next to me, chuckling as she did so, "Must be nice, to have someone to delegate that sort of thing to."

"Trust is important in a relationship." I grinned.

"True enough." She hummed. Her face then took on a hint of melancholy, "...Thank you for saving Kunou. I was terrified when she disappeared, seeing her arrive with your sister… I was so relieved."

I thought through my response to this. It was sudden, but her approaching me in private like this was likely entirely to say this to me, to prevent herself from displaying weakness to a devil in front of her people.

"I'm not going to insult your intelligence by saying it was the right thing to do." I eventually stated, looking out into the garden and seeing her shoulders tense at my words, "I did it out of selfish reasons. We are allies, even if only by trade, so an attack on you is an attack on me by proxy. Shiro would be sad if I just abandoned her friend to die. Not to mention that would put a strain on our business relationship."

Her shoulders relaxed, "Always acting in self-interest, aren't you?"

"Always." I agreed.

I felt a tickle by my side, looking down I saw one of her tails gently poking me before it retracted. Following it with my gaze, I eventually landed on the smiling face of the Kitsune.

"You truly are dangerous. 'An attack on you is an attack on me'? You just escaped troubles with the women in your life and then you tell another that… She might get ideas, you know?" It seemed now that I indicated I wouldn't hold the rescue of her daughter over her head, she defaulted back to the teasing she frequently indulged in at my expense.

This time though, I struck back, grabbing her hand and leaning into her personal space, staring seriously into her wide eyes, "And if I wanted her to get those ideas? What would she do then?"

The night was suddenly filled with silence. My sudden aggression, in comparison to my playing her teasing off or ignoring, seemed to be extremely effective. She breathed out a shaky breath, the moist air hitting my face and smelling faintly of cherries.

"You already have so many women, yet still you aren't satisfied?" Her teasing look was fragile and uneven, the emotional night taking it's toll.

Striking while the iron was hot, I dropped my voice as low as it would go, huskily whispering to her, "Us Devils are known for our greed."

The reminder of my race, rather than breaking the air between us, seemed to intensify it. I could physically feel her heat up next to me, her eyes meeting my serious gaze. Ruthlessly exploiting the weakness she was showing, I pressed.

"Well? What sinful ideas are running through her head?" I prevented her from even attempting to regain her balance, leaning even further into her, making her have to retreat slightly, her gaze suddenly filled with both fright and something else as it darted down to my lips.

"Am I interrupting something?" A voice spoke out, snapping Yasaka out of her funk and allowing her to scramble back from me.

"You are." I responded, sighing and turning to the new visitor, "But I'm sure you already knew that, Lady Inari."

"Inari-sama!" Yasaka yelped, before taking breath and recovering her equilibrium, "How can I serve?"

The fox that Inari was projecting herself as merely tiled its head, staring at the two of us, before her voice sounded forth again, "May I speak to Lord Sagan privately, Yasaka?"

"Of course!" The Kitsune bowed, her tails wringing themselves in agitation behind her as she turned and quickly moved back to the main area of the palace.

I watched her go until I was sure she was out of earshot, before turning to the little fox that housed a god, "Coming to save one of your Miko from corruption?"

"Hardly." Was the response, "Miko do not take vows of celibacy. Finally decided to stop pretending?"

"Pretending what?" I played dumb.

"I am a God. The most worshipped Kami in Japan. Yet here you are, speaking to me as an equal." She narrowed her eyes at me, examining me, "That speaks to either overconfidence or…"

"I see." I sighed, "There's no point in dancing around any more, not after what Ranni did. Everyone is going to be treating me as if I am a major player no matter how I act from now on."

"True enough. A power of her level, descending and calling you her Consort… Many would consider you something of a God yourself just for that." She spoke.

"Perhaps." I allowed, "If I may ask, why are you here?"

"You are a rising power. Even if you are not anywhere near as strong as her, the Dark Moon's interest in you means that you will soon be more than strong enough that angering you would be detrimental." She took a breath, "Your sister was attacked on our soil, yet we did not interfere. To that end, I wished to explain why to you."

"Well, consider me interested." I leaned back, giving the Kami my full attention.

"What do you know of the Land of Reeds?" She asked.

"The Shinto version of Asgard, or Olympus. The realm of the Gods, right?" I answered.

"Yes, and no. It is our home, but influences us just as much as we influence it. All within it's borders follow it's rules, regardless of their personal power or domain." She explained, "The laws are unbreakable. It's the reason we could defeat your brethren when they tried to seize Japan."

At my raised eyebrow, she elaborated, "Not you Devils, the other ones. Angels. Yahweh's children."

Ignoring the stab of pain at one of God's true names, I thought about what she had told me, "So when His missionaries and angels arrived in your lands…"

"We sent our chosen mortals to combat his. The Angels were defeated by us personally, but they were too strong, had too much faith backing them up by then. We knew that if a full invasion were to occur, we would lose. So we shrouded Japan within a veil, that forced all who entered it to pass through to the Land of Reeds." Inari continued on.

She finished, "Even if your Christian God came personally, he would have still had to pass through the Land to reach Japan. If he did that, thanks to the Laws we would have won. He is a god of Light, the most powerful to ever exist on Earth, but in the Land of Reeds… All light stems from the Sun, Amaterasu. All the angels that entered the were subsumed and consumed by her light, unable to exist within it's borders."

I see. That explains why Japan had such a long period of uninterrupted isolation in a world as rife with mythology as this one. It seems that the 'Divine Winds' that destroyed the Mongol invasions were more literal than I thought.

"So Japan's Kami have been in a militaristic isolation since the first missionaries landed? That explains the lack of activity I suppose." I mused.

"Yes. Since the mundane side of Japan has begun integrating into the outside world, we lifted the Veil and allowed travel, but many among us still will not leave the Land of Reeds. Some believe that the Christian God will soon resume his crusade and do not want to be caught be a surprise attack." She confirmed, much to my confusion, "Others, like myself, believe that times have changed and the Kami should take a more active role than we are accustomed to."

Why would be worried about that? What the hell? It's common knowledge by now that God was… Oh wait. That's so dumb. Is that really the reason why the Shinto are still holed up in their private demi-plane like a bunch of shut-ins?

It made a twisted sort of sense. They had been completely cut off while it all happened, so of course they could not learn first hand and by the time they started slowly opened up it was old news that no one bothered to inform them of.

I guess the duty fell to me. "God is dead." I deadpanned.

The fox blinked, "What?"

"Yahweh." I emphasized, "The God of the Bible, the Christian God. He died fighting the Original Satans."

"When?!" Was the shocked question.

"700ish years ago." I must admit, the way she seemed to collapse at the news was intensely satisfying.

"So you mean… we have been…" She muttered.

"Cowering for centuries against a ghost, yes." I confirmed, causing her to bristle, "Don't look at me like that, my sister almost died because of this. I am very, very angry that you were all ignorant of this, but I don't blame you."

"Who do you blame then?" Her voice was bitter, but that was understandable.

"Michael. Azazel. All the New Satans. Every single idiot who decided to hide that fact away and pretend that everything was still running smoothly." I listed, causing her to calm down slightly.

"Those are some powerful people to hold a grudge against." She noted.

"Being an idiot, while annoying, is not a crime." I joked, earning a small vulpine smile, the earlier news weighing heavily on her. Noticing that fact, I asked, "I'm guessing you need to go speak to Amaterasu and confirm that I was telling the truth?"

"Yes. I should take my leave… You've given me a lot to consider. Before I go, I wish to confirm, what do you wish for recompense for our inaction in the matter with your sister?" She stood on her four paws, staring at me quizzically.

"I don't have anything pressing at the moment. How about you owe me a favour that I can cash in later?" Honestly, as insane as it sounded, I had bigger things to worry about.

"Gracious of you… Or very devious." She observed, before her tails spread out behind her, curing around her body, "Until next we meet, Lord Sagan."

The bundle of tails collapsed, squeezing down until the fox disappeared into thin air.

Show off.

I continued to observe the garden in front of me, not turning around as I eventually heard the sliding door behind me open.

"You sorted it out?" I asked.

"We did." CC replied as she sat down by my right side, "You really are a magnet for this sort of thing."

"Indeed, Consort." Ranni agreed with her, sweeping behind me and laying her arms on my shoulders, the cool skin feeling divine as they gently rubbed the places they touched, "Thou hath truly gathered worthy fellows. Upon that, you should be informed. I have declared thine sister a true Princess of Caria."

What. "What?!" I asked, surprised.

"It is most fitting, I thought." was the satisfied response.

Just what the hell happened in there?!