Hidan no Aria - Volume 20

DECEMBER 25, 2022 ~ FROZZENDETH

In a mountainous forested area southwest of Hirosaki City, near the border with Akita Prefecture…

Hotogi Shrine is located deep in the mountains, where people do not usually come to visit.

As my vision returns to darkness, I fall, getting caught in the branches and leaves of the beech forest.

And then, docha.

(… ouch…!)

Kou. I guess she could only see the top of the forest from the steel tower when she moved me.

It might have been all she saw beforehand, but she could have told me that before she moved me at least.

I was lucky that the ground was just decomposed leaves, but if it had been a rock or something, I would have fallen to my death. I must have fallen at least 20m? I was able to break my fall by using the multi-point landing technique though at least.

But anyway…

This is the forest surrounding the shrine of Hotogi Shrine.

After a short walk through a somewhat familiar landscape, I came to a mountain road that looked like a animal path… this is the main path to Hotogi Shrine.

This ancient approach to the temple is not easy to discover even if you are trying to find it on foot.

It is difficult to find on purpose.

Hotogi Shrine… it is an extremely exclusive and does not like to interact with the outside world.

And now I can understand why.

As can be seen from Shirayuki’s flame magic and her oracle techniques, the Hotogi priestesses have been a ESP group for generations, and have been inheriting their psychic abilities for just as long.

For the long history of this country, there have been powerful and feared people who have been exploited by others to use their power for their own gain.

In order to protect themselves from them, the Hotogi hid the road leading to the outside world, and shut themselves up in their shrine. In other words, the Hotogi shrine is a kind of ESP village. It is a hidden village for psychics.

(The supernatural is still a confusing area for me…)

And relying on my handgun to aide me…

I begin on my way.

In the darkness, through the grass and the cold wind, kicking up snow and dirt.

… enshrine, pray, exorcise…

Sacrifice shrine, ancestry shrine, ceremonial shrine, festival shrine…

Good luck, bad luck… God…

Many of the characters in Shinto Buddhism were being used to indicate locations.

Shrine… there it is.

For me, who wandered around the whole world for Aria…

For the Scarlet Goddess…

For answers…

I will get what I have been looking for.

When Shirayuki and I went to see the fireworks when we were still in kindergarten, the stone steps that led out of the Hotogi Shrine…

I climbed up the stone steps, looking up at the moon. It is just before midnight.

Stone lanterns are spaced at equal intervals on either side of the stone staircase, and the winter plum blossoms under the moonlight colour them.

After climbing up 135 steps to the torii gate, which is painted a more vivid scarlet than those found in the Kanto region, I reach…

From the right side of the torii.

“… I knew you would come.”

… Konayuki Hotogi.

Shirayuki’s sister-in-law, who I had once guided throughout Butei High during summer vacation last year, appeared. She had a drawn dagger in her white hand.

And there was one more, Hanayuki…

This is also Shirayuki’s siter, appearing from the left with a naginata.

I think Konayuki is 15 and Hanayuki is 14 now. I wonder if they did this all out of respect for Shirayuki, but all of the sisters had straight bangs.

In addition, behind the torii gate, from the shadow of the wild fox statue of Inari, I could see…

Kazayuki, the one who had once saved me and Reki in Kyoto, had appeared with a Japanese bow.

Kazayuki is one year younger than Shirayuki, so she is 16 years old. Her long black hair was tied up in a ponytail with a white ribbon.

They were poised to intercept any intruders with short-range, medium-range, and long-range armaments, respectively.

Shirayuki’s sisters, who stood like goalkeepers guarding the torii gate that separated the human lives from the divine realm…

“I thought the Hotogi had a rule regarding a 8:00pm bedtime?”

I spoke to them with a light-hearted way of saying “hello”.

If there is a dispute here, it might be a little rough.

But my fears were not meant to be. The three hotogi priestesses were silent for a moment,

“… you have come to see big sis Shirayuki.”

“Just now, a scarlet star appeared which signifies a heavenly calamity… the star looked like Kanzaki Aria-sama, and onee-sama was chasing after it…”

“… she has gone into hiding. Onee-sama has come to find the presence of the Divine Body since this evening.”

Konayuki, Hanayuki, and Kazayuki each told me a part of the complete story.

I knew they would be here. Both Aria and Shirayuki.

Kazayuki then said “goshintai”. (TL Note Goshintai means “object of worship”.)

When I used to come to the Hotogi shrine when I was little, I was told that I should never go to the place where the goshintai is located.

… That is my final destination.

I have travelled all across Japan, the USA, UK, Europe, Kiinokuni and China… It has been a long, and yet short, trip, around the world.

“At this stage, even I can understand what is happening.”

My Hysteria Mode mind just spun out a theory that could conclude my journey.

“You Hotogi Miko’s must have enshrined the main body of the Scarlet Goddess here.”

At these words, I could see Konayuki’s finger switch.

She is an easy girl to understand. Alright, it appears I was right.

With eyes asking if they should eliminate those that know the truth, Hanayuki looks up to the oldest sister there, Kazayuki, with eye contact.

But.. Kazayuki stopped her sisters questioning gaze with her own gaze.

The three of them look at me again, so I continue my earlier conversation.

“Irokane seems to be an extremely rare kind of metal with trace amounts found in Riko’s rosary and the “scarlet bullet” is said to be the largest concentration in the world. But the Ruruirokane I saw in the US was tons. The metal might have been made into car parts, but the mass of that was huge. The lapis colored irokane at the bottom of the lake that the Urus has is the size of a boulder as well.”

Konayuki and Hanayuki looked to be a little surprised listening to my story, but Kazayuki, who was in charge of public affairs, seemed to know about this, and kept her cool expression on her face.

“The Irokane I have seen was divided into microscopic and gigantic pieces. There has been no in-between. In other words… there is a huge natural “gemstone” of Hihiirokane, Ruruirokane, and Rereirokane that cannot be created artificially, and small pieces cut from the original are found in various places. Of those gemstones, the one that is holding the scarlet one is you, the Hotogi Shrine.”

Japanese people don’t try to uncover the sacred objects of Shinto shrines unnecessarily. This is just a matter of getting caught in the crossfire.

That is how the Hotogi have been able to hide this fact for over two thousand years now.

They must have a huge lump of Hihiirokane, probably weighing tons.

“…”

Konayuki and Hanayuki looked at each other with a face of surprise in a “they know” kind of way.

None of them answer me though. Neither does Kazayuki.

But that silence shows me that my guess was correct.

“You don’t have to answer me. I know you don’t have the authority to. I am going to ask Shirayuki directly about the details now. That is what Aria’s younger sister told me to do.”

And as I step to go around them…

The Hotogi sisters did not stop me from going through the torii gates.

They must be…

They must be worried about the Hihiirokane gemstone, Aria, the Scarlet Goddess, and their older sister, Shirayuki, who has gone after it.

They want me to protect Shirayuki if I can.

So it looks like they were left to decide if I pass or not…

They decided to let me through.

They worshipped a power that was beyond their control. The hihiirokane and the Scarlet Goddess. I am now a samurai, going to confront the revived Scarlet Goddess to save Aria and stop her from bringing on a storm of war.

It seems that everything is going just as I thought,

“Toyama-sama, please save… please save Shirayuki-sama… please…”

The young Konayuki was beginning to cry, covering her face with her hands.

“Don’t worry, Konayuki.”

I try to calm her down with the kindest smile I can make.

I really wanted to put my hand on her shoulder or pat her head, but then she would complain that I was being unhygienic. She is a man hater but even moreso obsessed with cleanliness.

(speaking of which…)

I remember Konayuki saying that “The hidan will collapse” in one of her prophecies.

”Tsuieru” is an old Yamato word meaning “water overflows”. In the past, the kanji for the collapse of rivers and dams was also written as “kekkai”. (TL Note: this is a bit confusing, basically evolution of words and how they are written for her prophecy.)

Irokane is one and all, all is one.

Hidan overflows.

Hihiirokane overflows.

That must have been a prophecy meaning that the Scarlet Goddess’s power would be released. (TL Note: Understand now? Basically, the prophecy could be interpreted in that the bullet was destroyed, or that the Scarlet Goddess’s power would overflow. It was both.)

But…

… I will stop it.

… I will stop you. I swear it.

I have overturned even Sherlocks deduction. There is no way I will fail to overturn Konayuki’s prophecy.

Walking through the various sections, decorated with countless windmills, a craft favoured by the miko’s, I pass between a pair of komainu. (TL Note: the pair of Komainu here is the two dogs seen on the side of shrines, and exist to ward off evil.)

… ahh, the good old days.

It has been more than a decade since the last time I have been to the main shrine of the Hotogi shrine.

I may have forgotten this or that, but I remember parts of it.

By the way, I also intend to pray to the 8 million gods other than the Scarlet Goddess for my safety.

But, well, I did not intend to come here to pay my respects.

And so, going around the main shrine, relying on the light of the moon… I enter the cedar forest behind the main shrine, entering the forest that I was forbidden to enter as a child.

The forest looks like a snowbreak, but this is an artificial forest made to hide what was beyond.

After passing through the forest, which is only a few dozen meters deep,

(… mizuyumi… water bow.)

I arrive at the edge of the lake that I saw earlier from the steel tower, which was called as such in the past.

I used to think that Shirayuki and her sisters were saying “mizuyumi” instead of “mizuumi” due to an accent, but that was probably the right name of the lake.

The sacred object of worship for the Hotogi…

The Hihiirokane ore should be on the other side of this lake.

In that case, I guess I have to go around the lake, but then…

I got a call on my phone. It was Konayuki.

“… Toyama. Have you arrived at the water bow yet?”

“Yes. I am going around the lake shore right now. It is going to be quite a long walk, it will probably take about a half hour to get to the Hihiirokane.”

“I called you confident that I could at least help you with directions… I cannot tell you anything about the sacred object, but I can answer any other questions you might have.”

Konayuki, who appears quite rigid but is actually quite flexible,

“The water bow is actually a straight walk to traverse. In ancient times, it was called Omiwatari, and people would walk on the surface of the frozen lake to reach the object of worship, but today, due to global warming, there are many years when it does not freeze, so there is a hidden glass bridge just below the surface of the water.”

I was grateful for the information.

“I think from where you are you can see a small torii gate on the shore of the lake. There is another on the opposite shore. You can cross between the two. If you don’t wear geta, your shoes and may get wet, but you can get to the other shore in less than three minutes.”

Just as she said, there was a scarlet torii gate by the lake.

At a quick glance, there seemed to be nothing under the surface of the lake, but when I stepped on it… I found that there was, indeed, a bridge about 2-3cm below the surface of the water.

This idea is amazing. It is an invisible bridge.

“… Konayuki, you just saved me. As I was taught in Butei High, saving time is just as valuable as covering fire.”

“… you are welcome. However, there is no mobile phone service at Kaminabi, the cave where the Scarlet Goddess’s true body is. I have never been inside, but once upon a time, a sister who got drunk at a sake brewery-… Ah, never mind that, this is just a story I heard from Shirayuki-nee-sama, but apparently, inside is a human body. That is all I know.”

Like a human body…? Is it squishy like one?

“… that is enough information for me. I’m off.”

“Since I decided to help you, please make sure to bring everything to a close and come back. If you fail, I will make a straw doll of you out of ox hair and prick it! Well then, please be safe.”

I put away my phone with a wry smile on my face… I had heard that the Straw Dolls of the Hotogi Miko really could kill people, so that is one more reason why I can’t fail.

And so, I approach the water bow lake that is reflecting the celestial bodies and the moon… I cross over the dark lake.

It was as if I was walking in outer space.

As Konayuki had told me, my socks and shoes did get wet, but it took a lot less time than I expected. Eventually… I reached the other side of the river, a slope with a depression that looked represented Hotogi Mountain.

The foot of the mountain is a rocky terrain with no vegetation, and a mood of exoticism befitting the name of Kaminabi.

After climbing up the rocks, which were subtle steps, I found two large rocks that looked like gates, overlapping each other like the character “人”.

Inside the opening was another torii gate decorated with old five-colored silk.

It was quietly hidden in the shape of a rock that you can’t see from a distance.

… the torii gate leads to a tunnel, it is designed to allow entry into the depths of the rock.

It this a natural cave…?

No. Illuminating the inside with the flashlight, I could see a passageway just big enough for a person to pass through.

This is man made.

Rather than being dugout though, the structure looks as if the stones were gathered and the crater was carefully filled in.

(It resembles a pyramid upside down… I feel like an archaeologist…)

On the topic of being an archaeologist… geothermal, perhaps?

I immediately noticed that the temperature inside was quite high.

It was nice for my cold body and it helped dry my shoes, so that was nice…

(Hey, hey…)

… this rock passage.

There are holes in the rock walls on either side that look almost like cupboards, and bronze mirrors and bronze bells are stored, resembling photos in history textbooks.

This is amazing. Even to my untrained eye, I can see the historical value.

Maybe the Hotogi should stop being so secretive and register itself as a world heritage site?

This cave is like a labyrinth, and was dug like a maze with its many forks and some paths that showed signs as primitive traps. I was eventually forced to turn back.

The correct path must have been traversed many times, so I judged the most taken path based on the sand and rocks under my feet… As I walked along, even though I was lost, I began to understanding the meaning of “like a human body” that Konayuki had told me earlier.

The path I followed was wide and narrow.

If I consider the wide path as the intestine, and the narrow path as the veins, their shapes roughly correspond to those of a human lying down.

And there were empty spaces, that I believe are lungs or brains.

(That must mean…)

The most important organ in the human body, the heart, should be where the most important thing for the Hotogi is.

As I was thinking that, I passed through the throat position, and came out into a wide space that seemed to be the stomach.

“…”

There, made of smoke, was a massive fox.

The smoke had stabilized itself into the form of a giant fox.

The big fox had its head facing me, and its tails erect and spread out like a peacock… one, two, three… 9 tails in total.

But, even I, am not surprised by something like this anymore.

I even have a vague idea of who it is supposed to resemble. Sadly, it seems I have developed a sense for understanding the paranormal.

“… is that you Tamamo?”

“… the Scarlet Goddess, the Hotogi Shrine Maiden, and a Toyama Samurai are all here. It is time.”

The massive fox spoke without moving its mouth…

The pitch might be lower, but it is still the same way that Tamamo spoke.

Does that mean that this is Tamamo’s true form?

If that is the case then I prefer her the way she looked up till now. Even in that previous form, she claimed it was necessary to have her tail and ears, but she was still a human girl in appearance. This must be Tamamo’s true form than.

“… I must scold you, but also apologize… You have let Aria’s love for you rise too high. You are truly a womanizer. But, I did predict that the Scarlet Deification wouldn’t occur until the last day of the third month of this year… I must apologize for that. Because of that, there has been deaths.”

My mind was suddenly filled with thoughts of Yen and Rurugami…

“I won’t let anymore die. If someone must die, it will be only 1.”

I say this with the determination to stop the Scarlet Goddess, even if I myself must die…

Tamamo, though, took that as meaning I was prepared to kill Aria.

“Prepare yourself, young warrior. Sometimes a samurai might be called upon to kill a woman or a friend. You must do what you must, I will do the rest. Conquer without reserve.”

Even ignoring the first half, the second half…

She is implying that should I fail, she will succeed.

“Thank you for all your help so far. Whenever me, Aria, and Shirayuki get together, we usually get into a fight. It was always so hard to clean up afterwards.”

I walked around Tamamo, who showed me the way with one of her tails, and…

I stepped into the passageway that was on the wall.

There was a gradual ascending staircase, and scarlet torii gates were lined up in rows about 30cm apart. It was like a torii tunnel.

Beyond that, it was bright, with a hint of fire.

I discarded my flashlight, which was a potential distraction, and in terms of the human body…

… I stepped into the shrines heart.