Uesato Hinata wa Miko de Aru - Chapter 5

Hero History Apocrypha - Part 1
Uesato Hinata is a Miko

Chapter 5 - Wishing for your return.

This was before the Vertexes invaded.

I came to Wakaba-chan's place to play, as usual. That day, she was practicing iaido at the dojo, again.

I loved seeing her swing her sword.

After she was done with her practice, we were sitting at the veranda, drinking tea and chatting. Just random small talk. Then the fatigue from her training finally showed itself and she lay down in my lap.

"Mhm... Thanks, Hinata."

"No, no. Being able to give you a lap pillow is a special privilege of mine."

I think those were happy days.

I was happy just being by Wakaba-chan's side. I wished for those peaceful days to continue forever.

A swallow made its nest in the overhand visible from the veranda.

The mother bird brought her children food. The baby birds sat in the nest with their mouths open and chirped excitedly at the sight of their returning mother.

"What a nice family they are."

Wakaba-chan was watching them with a smile on her lips.

"You're right."

I softly patted her face, and Wakaba-chan closed her eyes in comfort...

However.

The birds' behaviour wasn't proof of their good relationship.

From what I've heard, it was a "fixed action pattern", simply a form of reflective action to certain stimuli.

That the mother bird simply reacted to the colour of the baby birds' mouths and their cries and put food in them on reflex.

That things often perceived as a display of animals' affection and parental love are little more than fixed action patterns in a lot of cases. That, for example, a bird warming eggs isn't a display of its love towards its children. The shape and colour of the egg simply trigger a fixed action pattern of warming it in the bird's head. There was a famous experiment... Mock eggs of the same shape and colour as the real ones, but several times larger, were placed in front of an oystercatcher. As a result, the bird abandoned its own eggs and started warming the mock ones. The larger size provided a stronger stimulus, so the bird acted, moved by its reflexes.

So was there no love between the birds?

Were they simply repeating reflective action with a void in their hearts?

...And what about me?

Were there emotions and love in my own actions?

The Vertex invasion happened several months later.

Thanks to Shinju-sama's barrier, Shikoku was separated from the outside world and escaped the threat of the Vertexes. That gave humans a brief period of respite.

Wakaba-chan became a Hero who fights the Vertexes and I became a Miko who hears Shinju-sama's voice.

The Heroes were gathered in the Marugame castle, while the Mikos were gathered in the Taisha headquarters. There were a mere five Heroes in Shikoku, but the amount of Mikos was slightly larger. The majority of them were young girls around elementary-middle school age. Some came from Shikoku like me, and some escaped to Shikoku as refugees.

Back when I only joined the Taisha, all the Mikos looked gloomy, and the atmosphere felt heavy. It was suffocating, as if being submerged in tar. But that was only natural. A lot of the Mikos lost family and friends to the Vertexes, or were nearly killed themselves. A lot of them were traumatised and thus mentally unstable, and, being mere children, they couldn't control their emotions like adults.

Quarrels occurred every day, and bullying happened too. It was like classroom chaos.

I wanted to change the mood even a little, so I desperately tried to help people get along as much as I could. I don't know how useful I was, but in a few months the Mikos mostly calmed down and there were virtually no more arguments.

"Thank goodness", - I thought.

One day, I overheard priests talking.

"I have no idea what's on Uesato-sama's mind. She never says or does anything selfish. Instead she always helps others or mediates arguments."

"She's a nice and honest child, that much is certain. But can a child her age really live that way?"

"It's creepy."

"There's something wrong with her."

Of course, I pretended that I hadn't ever heard that.

Their words didn't make me angry or sad. I felt a strange sense of understanding: "I see, so that's how I make people feel."

..."I don't know what's on her mind."

I must be quite an empty person. Inside me there are no desires directed at myself. My actions have always been prompted by other people. I never did something based on "I want to do this", but always "because they're like that".

Some people describe people who act for others as "kind" or "thoughtful". But in reality, it's because they don't have something called a self.

And, true enough. To an outsider it really must look creepy.

---

Autumn 2019.

Koori Chikage-san's passing, Hanamoto Yoshika-san's disappearance from the Taisha, the battle against the Vertexes that occurred in summer - all of those felt like distant memories.

The battle in summer was of unprecedented scale, with seven never-before-seen large Vertexes invading Shikoku. The two remaining Heroes, Wakaba-chan and Takashima Yuuna-san, took them on. Yuuna-san fell in battle, and Wakaba-chan was heavily injured.

The damage was massive, but the Heroes successfully protected Shikoku and Shinju-sama. Thanks to them, the strengthening of the barrier was complete and Vertexes couldn't invade Shikoku anymore.

And I was reporting at a meeting at the Taisha headquarters.

"...This concludes the report of things I've seen outside the barrier."

The day before, me and Wakaba-chan went outside the barrier together to confirm with our own eyes what happened outside the barrier.

The barrier was strengthened, but the world outside was still swarming with countless Vertexes. Large Vertexes exactly like the ones Wakaba-chan and Yuuna-san defeated in the summer battle were being reborn, making clear this despair-inducing fact - Vertexes could regenerate without limit.

But the biggest piece of news was this - the very world outside the barrier had been remade.

Up until then the world outside the barrier, while ravaged and devastated by the Vertexes, was still no different from the land of Japan where we used to live.

But when me and Wakaba-chan went outside the barrier, something that's difficult to even express in words occurred. It might've been truth or a mere illusion, but the sun fell from the sky and swallowed the earth, covering it in lava and fire. It was a sight straight out of hell. It was daytime, but the sky was black as if at night, and neither sun nor the bright blue sky were visible. It was no longer the world we used to live in. It was another world.

I told the priests about everything I saw outside the barrier.

"The gods aren't planning to let up on the offence... Is that what this means?" - heavily said an old priest after hearing my report.

"But since the barrier was strengthened..."

"No, we've got no idea how long that will last."

"The only Hero remaining now is Nogi Wakaba-sama. We don't have enough combat strength if the Vertexes happen to invade again."

The priests began to anxiously and chaotically talk amidst themselves, but no good ideas to break out of the situation came out of it.

In the end, one of the priests spoke with an anguish-filled voice: "It seems that... Holding the Fire Offering Festival is our only option."

Those words silenced everyone.

"You do understand how heavy the sacrifices we'll have to take are, right?"

Karasuma-sensei, who was taking part in the meeting, gave the priest who brought the words "Fire Offering Festival" up a cold glare.

Fire Offering Festival.

Taisha's last-resort measure, the ritual had been considered for a while. It wasn't a way to fight against the heavenly god and the Vertexes it sent - it was a declaration of complete surrender.

Six Mikos would be chosen as sacrifices, and words of begging for forgiveness would be directed towards the heavens. Humanity would admit defeat and beg for a cessation of attacks.

"Begging the heavens for forgiveness through the Fire Offering Festival - that itself I can agree with", - I began: "If surrendering lets us protect the people, if it saves us from any more fighting, then we should admit defeat and beg for forgiveness, however humiliating it might be. But..."

The problem was - six Mikos would have to be sacrificed in order for that to happen.

"Uesato-sama... The decision is up to you."

The priests looked at me and bowed their heads.

I couldn't give them an answer.

After the meeting I was walking through the hallway of the dormitory, lost in thought.

If decision to hold the Fire Offering Festival was made, I would inevitably be amongst the six Mikos to be sacrificed. The priests entrusted me with the decision for that very reason.

Naturally, the Fire Offering Festival would be a ritual held for the first time in human history. It wasn't certain whether the ritual would really earn us the heavens' forgiveness. For that reason, the Taisha would throw everything they had at it to make it succeed. The chosen sacrifices would be the ones most likely to work.

My Miko powers were apparently the strongest out of everyone, and I served as the Mikos' representative of sorts. If someone like me was sacrificed, then the heavenly god would probably accept humanity's surrender as real. I was a fitting sacrifice.

In addition to that, some of the priests saw me disagreeable in light of my powerful Miko abilities that made me stand out. So, they must've seen the situation as a chance to get rid of me so I wouldn't get in their way, with the war over.

If I agreed to the Fire Offering Festival, then things would be set in motion in order to hold the ritual as quickly as possible. And the Fire Offering Festival would be conducted in no time.

But there would be five more sacrifices aside from me. And what would happen to Wakaba-chan if I was gone?

All the other Heroes had died, and then so would I...

What would happen to Wakaba-chan, left all alone?

As I was passing the cafeteria, I saw Aki-san and the other Mikos gathered there, presumably because it was time for dinner.

"Big sister Hinata! You came here!"

Tatsumi-san, one of the Mikos, called out to me in a flowery voice.

I normally lived in the Marugame castle, so I could only come to the Taisha headquarters occasionally. But the others still treated me as a friend.

I came into the cafeteria and joined the other Mikos. To my sadness, I couldn't find Hanamoto-san amongst them. She had left the Taisha many months ago, and I had no idea where she was.

I talked with everyone, looking at the face of each and every one of them to see if anyone looked depressed or unwell.

Tatsumi-san, first year of middle school. The youngest of the Mikos, she was traumatised by having her parents slaughtered by the Vertexes, and used to always look gloomy in the past. I did all I could to ease her worries even a little. Sometimes, on nights when she couldn't fall asleep, we even slept in the same bed. But nowadays Tatsumi-san rarely looked gloomy like she used to.

Shiki-san and Manabe-san, third year of middle school. The two of them were good friends now, but in the past they used to fight all the time. Their fights always happened over trivial things, so they were most likely caused by anxiety and frustration. I mediated their conflicts whenever a fight broke out, and eventually the two of them became best friends, closer than anyone else.

Oowada-san, second year of high school. In the past she used to be stressed out by her life at the Taisha and her position as a Miko and was prone to self-harm. So back when I lived at the Taisha headquarters, I always stayed close to Oowada-san so she couldn't harm herself. And eventually her self-harm tendencies went away and she became one of the elder members the others relied on.

There were also Chiba-san, Shinohara-san, Kasai-san, Yuasa-san...

"Did you have business here today?" - asked Aki-san. I told them about the reason I came to the Taisha that day and what I saw outside the barrier the other day.

About how the defeated Vertexes regenerated.

About how the world outside the barrier was remade into something completely different.

After I finished talking, the mood got heavy.

"But the barrier was strengthened, right? So, the Vertexes can't go inside anymore... We're safe, right?"

Shiki-san shook her head with suspicion after hearing Manabe-san's anxious words.

"Not necessarily. Any wall, no matter how sturdy, has its limits."

Oowada-san agreed in a grim voice.

"Yeah... And its limits might be a few months or a few years... No, maybe even a few days."

Shinju-sama's powers weren't infinite. In fact, if the heavenly god really wanted to, it could probably break Shinju-sama's barrier in a blink of an eye.

The battles fought made it clear that at that point the heavenly god and its Vertexes were far stronger than the land gods and their Heroes. It almost felt like humanity only was allowed to survive out of mercy.

I didn't tell the others about the Fire Offering Festival. I couldn't tell them "five out of you are going to have to die".


After I came back to Marugame, I continued pondering about whether to hold the Fire Offering Festival or not.

I looked over the castle out of the classroom window and saw Wakaba-chan, earnestly swinging her sword.

After she saw what was outside the barrier, Wakaba-chan began to train herself even more rigorously. Even despite the fact her wounds hadn't fully healed yet and she should've been resting.

It looked like she was hurting herself on purpose. As if she was punishing herself for the fact all other Heroes had died - that she couldn't protect her friends.

Wakaba-chan's heart was in a perilous state. If any more pressure was put on her, she would inevitably break.

Me and Wakaba-chan were together for as long as I remember myself. We spent as much time with each other as with our families, or maybe even more. For me Wakaba-chan was like another half of myself. For Wakaba-chan, I was like a part of her body.

Wakaba-chan was cracked, and my death would likely shatter her completely.

"...In order to protect Wakaba-chan... I can't die..."

I went outside and came up to Wakaba-chan.

"You shouldn't be pushing yourself too hard."

"Yeah, I know that. But since I'm the only Hero left... Anzu, Tamako, Chikage and Yuuna protected this world with their dear lives. I must do the same."

Wakaba-chan stopped feeling hesitation about dying. It must've been because she's seen so many close people die.

If another battle happened, Wakaba-chan would most likely lose her life. The heavenly god's forces were overwhelmingly powerful, and death swallows those who fear it the least first.

I couldn't let Wakaba-chan die. I had to stop the fighting in order to keep her alive.

I...


"Let's conduct the Fire Offering Festival."

The next day I came to the Taisha headquarters and made a declaration to the priests in the meeting room. Their eyes were focused on me.

"Uesato-sama, you and Aki-sama are the first in line to be chosen as sacrifices. Do you understand that?" - asked the old priest.

"Please respect Aki-san's own will in regards to that. As for me, I'm ready to be sacrificed."

After I died, Wakaba-chan would probably fall into despair and attempt all sorts of things. It would be better to keep my death hidden for a while. To come up with a reason why we wouldn't be able to meet. Or maybe to have a fight with her and make her not want to meet me? It would probably be possible to conceal my death for a while with the other Mikos' help. I would use every card in my hand.

The priests lowered their heads.

"Understood. Then we will begin selecting the other Mikos to be sacrifi-"

"There is no need for that."

A voice interrupted the priest's words and with it, the Mikos entered the meeting room.

Oowada-san was leading them. She put a sheet of paper in front of the old priest.

"All of us Mikos talked this over and selected the sacrifices for the Fire Offering Festival. Everyone acknowledges this."

Six names were written on the sheet of paper Oowada-san brought in.

"Eh..."

I wavered. Did they know about the Fire Offering Festival? Since when?

And more importantly, neither my nor Aki-san's name were included in the six names on the sheet.

One priest sharply rebuked.

"This will not do. At the very least, Uesato-sama's sacrifice is required! If she is left alive, the heavenly god might doubt our surrender. Gods have been doubting and testing human hearts since antiquity. If we're going to surrender, we must display it with everything we can!"

"If you're going to sacrifice Uesato-san", - Oowada-san's voice resounded with conviction: "Then none of the Mikos will agree to be sacrifices in the Fire Offering Festival. That way you won't be able to conduct it at all."

All of the Mikos following Oowada-san were glaring at the priests stubbornly.

The priests were lost for words.

"It's not like the Fire Offering Festival is guaranteed to fail without Uesato-san. We're betting on that possibility", - said Oowada-san.

At the end of the meeting it was decided that the Fire Offering Festival would be conducted with the sacrifices of the six Mikos listed.

I was bewildered. The six Mikos named as sacrifices were: Oowada-san, Tatsumi-san, Shiki-san, Manabe-san, Chiba-san and Kasai-san. All of them were good friends of mine.

"...Let's rethink the people chosen, after all. If I sacrifice myself, I'll be able to save at least one of you..."

"Big sister Hinata, this is okay. It's best for these six to be sacrifices" - peacefully smiled Tatsumi-san.

"But why..."

"All of the Mikos who agreed to be sacrificed, myself included, volunteered. All six of us don't have any relatives left, so there won't be many people grieving for us when we die."

All six of the would-be sacrifices either lost their families to the Vertexes or escaped to Shikoku alone.

But...

Words wouldn't come out of my throat, and Oowada-san said, somewhat conflicted: "Tatsumi is the youngest, so I don't think a girl as young as her should be getting sacrificed either..."

"Then I should..."

Tatsumi-san interrupted me.

"Big sister Hinata, please live. I'm not strong enough of a person to die for a bunch of people I don't know the faces of. But if it's for you... Big sister, when I think that my death keeps you alive, I get the courage to participate in the Fire Offering Festival. So please live, big sister."

Could there have possibly been a more sorrowful way to make a decision...?

Oowada-san slapped me on the shoulder and spoke, almost as if joking.

"Besides, Uesato-san, Nogi-san would go absolutely furious if you were sacrificed! She'd probably slaughter the entire Taisha. Nogi-san is the only Hero still alive... And she needs you, Uesato-san."

In the very end, her voice trembled.

"I..."

Aki-san, who had been keeping her head down without saying a word, let out a voice.

As one with strong Miko abilities, she was supposed to be a sacrifice in the Fire Offering Festival as well.

"Aki-san, you have to keep living as well", - said Oowada-san.

"If you're gone, who's going to continue telling people about Doi-san and Iyojima-san? Doi-san, Iyojima-san and Koori-san, all the Heroes sacrificed themselves for this world. So, we have to keep as many people that can tell about them alive as possible."

Several days later, the Fire Offering Festival was held.

I was there and watched the Mikos jump off the wall into the flames outside the barrier.

And after the Fire Offering Festival was held, the remaining Mikos received an oracle.

The heavenly god had accepted humanity's defeat and surrender and granted it forgiveness. And it would cease any further attacks on humanity on conditions that humanity was not to step outside the barrier and that the Heroes had to abandon their fighting powers.

The Fire Offering Festival succeeded, and a peace treaty was signed.

Six Mikos paid for it with their lives.

I had a meeting with the priests and the Taisha came to the consensus that a ceasefire had been established.

After that, I was carrying my belongings through the dormitory hallway, about to return to the Marugame castle.

Six of my friends lost their lives in an instant. The shock of it was so strong, it emotionally wore me out badly enough that I couldn't think of anything.

"...You alright? I'll help."

Aki-san, who was passing by, helped me carry my belongings.

"Thank you very much..."

Feebly saying that was all I could do.

Aki-san nodded without saying a thing. She was usually so bright, but she didn't have even a forced smile on her face at that moment.

As I was coming out of the dormitory, I heard a voice say: "She pulled it off well."

Several priests were standing and talking to each other behind the dormitory.

"How did she tame them like that?"

"Tame? That was pure fanaticism. They were willing to die for Uesato-sama."

"If she was making them infatuated with herself for a time like this, she's terrifying."

Hearing that, Aki-san angrily began walking towards the priests.

"Now listen here-"

"Please wait."

I grabbed Aki-san's shoulder and stopped her.

"Please don't mind that. Let's go."

Having emotionlessly said that, I left so that I wouldn't be spotted by the priests.

Aki-san's anger wouldn't go away and she followed me.

"Why won't you get angry at them!?"

"What's there to get angry about...? It can't be helped", - I said indifferently.

"I treated them kindly and made them feel affection for me. Then I used those emotions to send them to their deaths in my stead... Even if someone ridicules me with words like that..."

"But Uesato-chan, you didn't do anything of the sort! How can they put it like that!?"

"No, they might actually be spot-on. I... might've been working towards that. I might've been acting to win their favour so I could sacrifice them in my stead if it came to that."

Just like when people falsely perceive a bird raising its children as an act of love.

Not even I could prove whether there was any goodwill in my actions.

"Aki-san. Please try to leave the opinion some priests have on me as it is. That Uesato Hinata wormed her way into the Mikos' hearts, manipulated them and sent them to their deaths instead of herself. Letting them think that way might prove to be useful sometime in the future."

"Uesato-chan..." - sorrowfully murmured Aki-san.

"Are you trying to punish yourself?"

"..."

"...Because you survived?"

My Hero friends.

My Miko friends.

So many people died. So many people died in just a few months.

"Uesato-chan, you... Your personality is completely different to Nogi-chan's, but this is what you two have in common. Your self-reproach. You can't forgive yourself for not being punished, for not being in pain. I don't know much about Nogi-chan, but from what you've told me about her... She's self-reproachful too."

Aki-san's voice was downright miserable.

When I told Wakaba-chan about the Fire Offering Festival and the defeat of humanity, she cried.

Her Hero friends had died and they were unable to take back the world that was stolen from them. It was a despair-inducing conclusion.

But after crying through the night, Wakaba-chan accepted it all.

That from that point onwards, we would have to grope in the dark, searching for a way to live in a world where so much was taken from us, in the cage that restricted our freedom.

But we wouldn't give up on striking back at the heavenly god, on taking back our country. We would hone our fangs in secret from the heavens, and wait for a time to strike back.

At that time, I began to think about the words Hanamoto-san said one time.

That eventually Wakaba-chan would fall victim to the Taisha's misguided leadership. That to prevent that, I would have to seize control of the Taisha.

From that point onwards, Wakaba-chan would probably be deified as the sole remaining Hero and turned into a charismatic figure. And the Taisha would continue to use her. And at some point, Wakaba-chan might have to suffer for the Taisha's goals.

The next day I came to the Taisha's headquarters again. Those days there were so many meetings and reports from the Taisha that I went there from the Marugame castle virtually every day.

"I would hereby like to officially submit the suggestion of renaming our organisation to Taisha (Amnesty) and our era to Divine Era."

I absent-mindedly listened to the proceedings.

The topic of the meeting was about how the Taisha should work with the society now that the war had ended.

The organisation would rename itself from Taisha (Grand Shrine) to Taisha (Amnesty), to signify that we've been granted forgiveness by the heavenly god. In addition to that, the name of the era would change from Christian Era to Divine Era... Those sorts of things were decided in the meeting.

When the meeting had run its course, an old priest spoke out.

"By the way, the Taisha's activities from now on are going to be different. Won't we need to downsize our personnel?"

Voices of disapproval and approval rose one after another.

"No, this isn't the time to be talking about that."

"There's no point in delaying it."

"Do you think you're the chairman now!?"

"Last time we did what you said it ended up a failure..."

Factions began forming amidst the priests. Even in that very meeting, whenever members of one faction made a proposition, members of the other one always opposed it. The third faction made proposals while judging the reactions of the other two.

Establishing the power relationships between the factions and vying for authority was of more importance in that meeting than its actual contents.

The war with the heavenly god was over for the time being. But the world would continue to exist after that. Who would hold the reins in the post-war world? Who would be in the position to reap the biggest profits? That's what concerned some of the Taisha priests.

"Shouldn't we assign positions based on rank and social standing?"

"Society has changed. It calls for different qualifications and ranks."

"It would take too much time to establish a new system now."

"But as it stands right now..."

And these people...

Doi-san. Iyojima-san. Koori-san. Takashima-san. Oowada-san. Tatsumi-san. Shiki-san. Manabe-san. Chiba-san. Kasai-san. They sacrificed their lives for this world, and these people will be the ones holding power in it?

"...Worthless", - I muttered quietly.

A nearby priest looked at me with suspicion. He must've heard my voice but not what I said. I asked him: "May I leave yet?"

"Understood. Go ahead, we will be discussing things here."

After hearing his answer, I didn't say a word more, got up from my seat and left the room.

After returning to my room I began browsing photos I had saved on my smartphone.

My hobby was taking photos of Wakaba-chan and keeping a record of them. After she began living at the Marugame castle as a part of her Hero duties, I began to take photos of Anzu-san, Tamako-san, Chikage-san and Yuuna-san as well.

But... I didn't have many photos of the Mikos. It was because after I became the Heroes' overseer, I spent very little time at the Taisha headquarters, and most of it was occupied by meetings and reports, so I barely had any time to spend with the other Mikos.

I barely had any photos of the Mikos who were sacrificed in the Fire Offering Festival either.

"Why..."

Why didn't I take more photos of them?

I knew it was too late for regrets.

But...

Even so...

"..."

I sent messages to Aki-san and Karasuma-sensei, asking them to come to my room.

Aki-san came immediately after I sent the message, and Karasuma-sensei arrived shortly afterwards. Apparently Karasuma-sensei had slipped out of the priest meeting halfway through. She sneered with boredom, saying that she had no interest in meetings like those.

I faced them two and said: "I'm done."

"Eh?"

Aki-san looked at me with suspicion, while Karasuma-sensei kept looking at me with the same expression.

"Up until now, I was generally treating the Taisha as my allies. But I'm done with that. They can't protect Wakaba-chan."

"..."

"And I don't need an organisation that can't protect Wakaba-chan."

The room grew silent. The one to break the silence was Karasuma-sensei.

"Planning to take over the Taisha?"

Karasuma-sensei guessed what I was thinking of.

Astonishment appeared on Aki-senpai's face.

"Uesato, that's gonna leave you with a bad name in history. And it won't bring your dead friends back."

Karasuma-sensei's voice was cold.

"Even if they don't come back", - said I with anger directed at myself: "I can inherit their wills. In fact, I'd rather end up leaving a bad name. Because I haven't suffered at all. Tamako-san died. Anzu-san died. Chikage-san died. Yuuna-san died. Wakaba-chan has burns all over her body that will never heal. In order to protect the people of Shikoku, Oowada-san, Tatsumi-san, Shiki-san, Manabe-san, Chiba-san and Kasai-san died! I didn't do a thing! I didn't endure any pain!"

What could someone who didn't endure any pain even do!?

Someone who hasn't experienced pain can't understand the suffering of a person that has. So, I wouldn't be able to be by Wakaba-chan's side. I wouldn't be able to keep supporting her.

I would protect Wakaba-chan and stay by her side. No matter what I would have to do. If I couldn't protect my precious person even after sacrificing so many of my friends to live on, then my existence would be worthless.

So, for that reason, so I could stay by Wakaba-chan's side, I had to fill myself with pain and suffering.

An empty person like me could do it.

"Right..." - said Aki-san somewhat sadly.

"Got it. I'll help you however I can. You do what you want to, Uesato-chan."

Karasuma-sensei said with exasperation: "I probably can't avoid helping you, can I? I can't really go against you after that incident 4 years ago."


After that, Taisha (Grand Shrine) was officially decided to be renamed to Taisha (Amnesty) and underwent several other changes.

Wakaba-chan became a pseudo-spirit and entrusted some words to the Heroes of the future.

In the meanwhile, I was proceeding with laying the groundwork and preparing things.

What I was about to do would require the Mikos to be firmly united.

And one more thing... An important piece was still missing from my hands.

But I found that piece near the end of autumn.

I visited a small shrine in Kouchi. The head priest of that shrine became a Taisha member, so the shrine wasn't working. The shrine office and the main shrine were both closed, but the precinct was kept clean and tidy.

And one corner of the precinct was carpeted with beautifully blooming red spider lilies. And one girl was sitting in that red flowerbed.

"Hanamoto-san, I finally found you."

She turned around with surprise.

"Uesato-san...?"

"This is a perfect place to hide yourself. If you have your father in the Taisha come up with a cover story, the danger of them coming here to investigate is low. And even if they do come to investigate, your father could tell you when it will happen so you could lay low for its duration."

It took me a long time to find out that Hanamoto-san was there. Not even Aki-san, who helped her escape, knew where Hanamoto-san was or what she was doing. The trail was cut off.

"How did you know that I was here?"

Hanamoto-san looked at me with caution.

"I heard it from Karasuma-sensei. That a wise man hides a leaf in the forest. I never would've thought that she, a priest, would hide your location despite knowing it. I kept pressing her, and she eventually told me, if reluctantly."

"...What a blabbermouth", - muttered Hanamoto-san to herself with a wry smile.

"What beautiful red spider lilies. Do you take care of them?"

"Red spider lilies grow up strong even without particular care, though it helps to weed, check the soil and tend to them sometimes."

"Just like Chikage-san. So, is she buried underneath them?"

"Yeah... Uesato-san, so why are you here? Did you come to take Koori-sama away from me?"

"That depends on your answer, Hanamoto-san."

"...What do you mean?"

"I want you to help me."

I told Hanamoto-san what I was planning to do. After she heard me out, she laughed with satisfaction.

"Heh, that's a good one. Uesato-san, you might pull it off."

"Will you help me, Hanamoto-san? Since you said before that I should take control of the Taisha."

"Yeah, you're right. I did say that. Still, you're a terrifying person... To think you'd actually pick this path. It seems that Nogi-san is even more precious to you than I thought."

"Yes", - I answered without hesitation.

"So, you'll help, right?"

"Got it. I'm in. But I have a condition."

"What is it?"

"Don't take Koori-sama away from me. Also, a proof of Koori-sama's existence... I don't care in what shape, but I want one to be left for posterity."

"You didn't have to say either of those, I was planning to do so in the first place. Now that Yuuna-san is gone, you are without a doubt the one who treasures Chikage-san the most, Hanamoto-san... So, I'll leave her remains in your care in the future too. I won't let the Taisha lay a hand on them. As for a proof of her existence... It might be hard to do right away, but I'm planning on reviving her name in history in some way. You have my word."

"I see... Then it's okay."

After I heard Hanamoto-san's answer, I extended my hand to her. She took it.

"Well then, it's time to start the usurpation."

Hanamoto-san returned to the Taisha and to her position as a Miko.

The priests were surprised, but the Mikos welcomed her back in without any questions.

I informed the Mikos beforehand that I would be calling her back in.

Did the priests notice the change in the Mikos' attitude? No, they probably didn't.

A few weeks after Hanamoto-san returned, I came to the Taisha headquarters early in the morning without any announcement.

"Last night, an extremely important oracle came from Shinju-sama. Please assemble the priests as soon as possible."

When all the priests were gathered in the meeting room, I gathered their attention and made my announcement.

"The contents of last night's oracle were incredibly clear and carried an unprecedented strength of Shinju-sama's will. In this oracle, Shinju-sama showed how it would interact with the human society... And how things would change compared to their current state. For the time being, let's call the relationship between humans and Shinju-sama the Old Testament and the new relationship the New Testament. Will that be okay?"

"So, what was the oracle about...?" - asked the priests.

"Up until now, the management of society and the Taisha was left to humans. But from now on, Shinju-sama itself will be managing those. From now on, oracles will be more frequent, and Shinju-sama itself will be passing down decisions. The Taisha will have to follow all decisions made by Shinju-sama."

The priests began to stir.

The contents of the oracle I was relaying meant that Shinju-sama would take away all manners of authority from the priests. Everything would have to be done in accordance with the oracles, and the priests wouldn't be able to say a word.

"U-Uesato-sama, are you certain the oracle you speak of is correct?" - asked one of the priests fearfully.

"There is no mistake about it", - I declared clearly.

"Last night we also received an oracle with exactly the same contents."

The door to the meeting room opened and the other Mikos entered the room, with Aki-san leading them.

"That from now on, Shinju-sama will make all manners of decisions and the Taisha would have to faithfully follow all of them. All of the Mikos received this oracle."

When Aki-san finished, Hanamoto-san continued.

"If we go against Shinju-sama's will, then any and all protection for humans will be revoked. If all of the Mikos received the same oracle, it must be one of extreme importance and priority, and we must adhere to it strictly. We must implement it fast and faithfully."

"B-But... That is..." - one of the priests raised his voice.

"Could this be some sort of mistake?

I look at the priest. He was carefully choosing his words of protest.

"But who's going to examine the oracles? What if the oracles aren't true...?"

The priests were concerned. Concerned about the possibility of my lying. They had no power to receive oracles. The priests had no way of determining if the Mikos were colluding and lying.

In truth, the oracle about how Shinju-sama would now be managing the Taisha was a lie.

But the Mikos wouldn't tell the priests that my words were a lie.

"We priests must verify the oracles... To determine whether to act on the oracles or not..."

"There won't be a need for that" - immediately declined Aki-san.

"Yeah, that won't be necessary", - added Hanamoto-san.

"You have no power to receive oracles, you help won't be necessary. And adding pointless processes like verifying the oracles would only slow down the implementation of the oracles and go against Shinju-sama's will. Besides, the very act of verifying divine will is a grave insult to Shinju-sama."

The other Mikos also began pitching in.

"Aki-san and the others are right."

"We'll verify the oracles ourselves."

"We're the ones who receive oracles, so."

"D-Don't say nonsense!" - shouted one of the priests.

"You're probably just saying what Uesato-sama tells you to!"

But those words had no effect on us.

It was just as he said, all the Mikos were assisting me. Faced with the choice of siding with me or the priests, they would choose me with 100% certainty.

It wasn't because I was an outstanding or a charismatic person, no. The Taisha only saw the Mikos as tools... And this was their way of protesting against that.

Even if I spoke of a false oracle, no Miko would deny it. From this point onwards, anything I declared to be an oracle would be treated as one.

And if oracles determined everything for the Taisha, it would mean absolute authority for me.

Two amidst the disturbed priests lowered their heads to us before the others, displaying their obedience.

One of them was Karasuma-sensei. The other was Hanamoto-san's father.

"I agree with Uesato. The realistic problem is our lack of ability to receive oracles. And since we have no way of asking about Shinju's true intentions, all we can do is do what the Mikos say."

"I also believe we should obey Shinju-sama and the Mikos. They're the ones who saved Shikoku through the Fire Offering Festival. We couldn't do a thing. That moment made it clear that we're of no value."

Hanamoto-san and her father agreed that he would take my side. He realised how incompetent the priests were from the very beginning, so he easily agreed to help out when his daughter asked.

Aside from Hanamoto-san's father, I laid the groundwork for some other priests to join the Miko side of the argument. And other than those, priest after priest began assembling under the Mikos' banner. In the end, more than half of the priests showed the intention of following our words.

But the most influential people in the priest factions were still not convinced. They were glaring at us with impressively angry expressions.

"I'll just say this for your own sakes", - sharply said Karasuma-sensei: "But it would be wise not to harm or threaten Uesato. She's not just loved by Shinju, but also by that Nogi Wakaba. I'd be more scared of that if I were you. She's lost all of her Hero comrades, so if some harm were to befall Uesato, who knows what Nogi would do. What I'm saying is, ask yourself if you're prepared to die."

From that day forth, not only the Taisha's name changed. So did its structure.

Nearly all of the authority held by the priests went to us Mikos.

Naturally, those priests who prided themselves on their authority didn't become obedient right away. They kept being obstructive and rebellious towards us Mikos.

But the "oracles" I passed down, the Mikos and the priests allied with me gradually removed the opposition.

I had plenty of things to do.

I couldn't leave the Taisha even for a moment until all of my reforms were done. If I was absent, the opposing faction could pull something off and undermine all of my efforts. I couldn't go back to Marugame castle until I made the new Taisha system rock solid, and my days without meeting with Wakaba-chan continued.

Wakaba-chan herself, as the sole remaining Hero, was no longer an ordinary person, and had to participate in all manners of public affairs. Sympathy calls to people suffering from uranophobia, visits to areas that were damaged by the Vertexes and many more. She lived a busy life. The two of us only exchanged messages, and sometimes phone calls.

Autumn ended and winter came. One snowy morning, I sent her a photo with a comment saying "Snow's piling up." Wakaba-chan responded with a long message saying "Training in cold weather improves your mental tenacity etc..." Reading that message put a smile on my face.

Spring came, and it slowly began to get warmer. Worried that Wakaba-chan might let her guard down because of the temperature and catch a cold, I called her to give a word of warning. Wakaba-chan laughed it off and told me that she was fine and not to treat her as a child. Two days later I received a message that read "I might've caught a cold..."

Summer. Talking to Wakaba-chan on the phone, I could hear hints of weakness in her voice. She might've been suffering from summer heat fatigue. All the work must have been tiring her out.

Another autumn came, another winter passed...

The second summer of the Divine Era.

I was walking under the sakura trees of the Marugame castle. And she stood there, across the petals scattered in the air.

I smiled and called out to her.

"Did you grow a little? Your face matured too. You were already a looker before, but now you're even prettier."

She peacefully smiled at me.

"Heh. Thank you. Are you done with your work yet?"

"Yes."

I nodded.

"I haven't completely reformed everything yet, but it's at the point where the opposition won't be able to hinder me anymore. I think that soon the Taisha will be an organisation much closer to the people. But since it is an organisation, it might eventually degrade as time goes by..."

"All we can do is leave that to the ones who will be living in that age. Don't worry about it. I'm sure that there will be people with good hearts in the future, and that they will lead things in the right direction."

"Yeah, let's believe in that. I will once again be living in the Marugame castle from now on. Together with you, Wakaba-chan."

"Right... Welcome back, Hinata."

I was embraced in her arms.

I finally felt Wakaba-chan's warmth again, after so long.

"I'm back, Wakaba-chan."

[Hero History Apocrypha Part 1 -
Uesato Hinata is a Miko - End]