[SDU] [Chapter 63 – Ethereal – The Shrine of the Mikazuki]

[SDU] [Chapter 63 – Ethereal – The Shrine of the Mikazuki]

As we lay bare in front of the burned down shrine, some of the leaves on the trees fell down and was blown away by the wind. White was still recuperating from his recent fight against The Chaos Shogun, Kitsuneki.  He was almost about to be eviscerated by the Shogun’s chaotic magic but I jumped in just in the nick of time. White seems to be restless from the way he was making his face. He was probably agitated about what Kitsuneki had told him. After hearing everything from White, I can see why he would be in this state. His old friend would end up on the other side because of his own fault and he has nothing to fix that up.

I decided to open up a topic, “Hey, White. Do you know this place?”

White looked around and said, “Some burnt down shrine?”

“It’s not just any other shrine. It has its story. This was the once great Shrine of the Mikazuki. In our language, it is The Shrine of The Crescent Moon.”

“Crescent Moon…isn’t that the same name as that blade?”

“It is and it came from this shrine, right here. The government had recovered the blade when it was lost several years ago…”

“So it’s a treasure from this shrine? What happened here, anyway?”

“I’ll tell you…” I sat on the stairs as I begun wiping my rifle and said, “Like many other shrine, it is a place regarded as holy because of its associations with a divinity or a sacred person or relic, usually marked by a building or other construction. A place to worship a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped.”

“So what’s so special about this shrine?”

“As its name was stated, this shrine was made to worship the Crescent Moon that only comes twice in a month. Even so, it’s not like this shrine was only exclusive to a single phase of the moon. It’s just that the crescent moon was so special because of how beautiful it was. The clear whiteness of its curve and the darkness surrounding it makes it one of the most beautiful sights in the night.”

“Why are they worshipping the moon? It’s not like it does something to us, right?” said White.

“Don’t you know that the moon controls the tide of the sea? The moon is responsible for most of the tides through its gravitational attraction of the ocean. It is almost like…”

“Magic…and science.

“True…hence why this shrine was made, without the moon, the tides won’t change and fishes won’t come to nearby beaches as often as it supposed to. People will be hungry. The moon has blessed us with the foods of the ocean. It synergies well together with The Ocean Goddess.”

White suddenly brought out an interesting question, “Hey Ethereal, do you think The Ocean Goddess is the same as The Sea God?”

I gave his question a thought and said, “Well apart from their gender, I don’t think there is much of a difference between those two. We don’t even know if The Sea God is actually a humanoid creature, though…”

“From what I gathered, The Sea God is a dragon. A water dragon…I wonder…what would happen if they meet?”

“It might be a good thing or a bad thing.”

White then laughed and said, “It’ll happen in time, I’m sure.”

“What do you mean, White?”

“Let’s just say, I know a lot about those two…”

Although he sounded cryptic, I believed it was best for me to move on and continue the story of the shrine.

“In any case, we were talking about what happened with the shrine, correct? Well, one day, the leader of the shrine maidens had brought out the Mikazuki Blade that suddenly appeared the night before…”

“Wait. The blade just appeared over there?”

“I don’t really know the specifics but it was believed to be a gift bestowed by the moon. So they went with that story without even thinking logically.”

“That’s how every cult or following happens. Believing the things that couldn’t be explained…” White got up and decided to climb up the stairs.

I followed him as well and continued, “As I was saying, the blade was placed at the shrine and was told by the leader of the maidens that stealing the blade is taboo. You are not allowed to even make physical contact with the blade. This kind of rule just makes it more wanting for some of the young maidens.”

“I can see where this is going…”

“I’m sure you can guess what’s next…One fateful night, after enduring for days and days of temptation of wanting to touch the blade, a young shrine maiden touched it. An interesting fact to this was that it happened during a crescent moon. What happens next is what leads to the destruction of this shrine.”

“Does the blade have a curse or something?”

“It’s probably more than that, White. It’s probably because the young maiden wasn’t able to grasp the raw untapped power that was within the Mikazuki Blade. All powers that come from the blade was soon absorbed into the maiden. With the tremendous amount of power being placed inside a young, immature body, loss of control was the main effect.”

“Leading to the destruction of this shrine…” White finished for me.

“Yes…and that’s the story.” We have finally arrived to the main shrine.

The whole place was left behind as if someone just quickly moved away from this place. It was like a ghost town of some sort. There wasn’t even any Yokais that lived here.

“So this is the shrine…It looks better than I thought it would be when you said that it was destroyed.”

I wondered as well, “I wonder…could it be restored by the government?”

“Maybe not…this place still looks run down but it almost felt like someone has been keeping this place clean…”

I touched one of the wood structure and noticed, “Now that you mention it, there’s not a single cobwebs in this shrine…There’s also no dust over here.”

“Who could be taking care of this shrine?” wondered White.

“Even with my knowledge as a tourist guide, I have no idea.”

Then suddenly, White asked me, “What happened to the people here? Did they all ran away or died?”

“I think they were all caught up in the destruction of the shrine. It was midnight when it happened. Everyone was probably asleep.”

“That sounds…terrible…Was there any survivor?”

I tried to remember and said, “I don’t have any recollections of any survivor of this incident. But if you want to have the benefit of doubt then I’d say that the young maiden that absorbed the blade’s power is still alive. But I can’t confirm that, of course.”

“That might be the case…” White considers my fact.

We continued to look around the shrine throughout the night but in the end, we found nothing that could lead to anything about the whereabouts of this young maiden. But for some reason, I noticed that White seemed to be hiding something from me. It was almost like either he knows something or he already figured it out. But I bet he doesn’t really know a thing that happened here when considering that he never went to Nihon before. But something does tell me that White knows something that I don’t know. I wondered what it was throughout the night. A few hours had passed until White decided that we should rest for the night.

“I don’t think we should rest here, White. This is a shrine and that just meant disrespecting it.”

“You’re right. We should head back down and probably go back to the arena or our hotel.”

Then I said to him, “But I bet you don’t have that much time to be thinking about returning, right? Not when Kitsuneki runs away with the Mikazuki Blade. Who knows what he is planning with that blade.”

“You said that the blade could rip apart The Rift of Time, correct? I think that’s his goal. But what would happen once he does that though…”

“Didn’t he mention that he require more Yokai to take over Nihon?”

White nodded and said, “It could mean that The Rift of Time will be able to call hundreds of Yokais into this world.”

“It is called The Rift of Time…It’s probably had something to do with time itself.” I confidently said that and also added, “Ripping it apart…that would create some kind of space between the rift and our world…”

“Time and space, huh…Why it is always leads to that, I wonder…” White wasn’t making any sense to me.

“You seem to be keeping something from me, White. Is it because it’s too dangerous for me to know about?”

“How about you think of it like this…It is something that I should take care of on my own. You don’t have to know about it.” White smiled at me and continued to move.

That’s not really something that I like to hear. I think he really shouldn’t keep his secret just to himself if he thinks that his trouble needs some sort of help. He shouldn’t really be doing things on his own. It’s almost like I’m seeing my own sister, Zenith from him. Even that girl is keeping something from me. I wonder why is it such a good thing to not share something that has been troubling them. If it were me, I would just tell what my problem is and I can hope for someone to give me a hand…As for White…only time can tell once he finally finds a way to ask for help…

TO BE CONTINUED