Pantheon Book 2: The Way of the Tao

Yamata-no-Orochi

        "You're sure this is the plan we're going with?" Marcus says skeptically. Melody nods, but she can't admit that she's too fond of it either. She looks over the eight large barrels sitting in the center of the deck, their contents sloshing with the waves. Koji weaves between them, inspecting each barrel one more time.

"It's the best plan we've got," Melody replies flatly. She glances up at Oliver, flying above the ship and watching the riverbank in the rising sun's light. It was a long night, but they finally made it to the Takase River. At Koji's instruction, they started sailing inland, following what he referred to as Orochi's stink.

"Alright, let's go over it one more time," Koji says once he's done with the barrels. "Mel is going to do her magic-y stuff to float the barrels around," He begins, wiggling his fingers at them. "Marcus will do...whatever he does to make them look like people. Then he'll attack, and hopefully, Orochi will start snapping them up like flies."

"Right," Melody confirms.

"Meanwhile, what exactly will you be doing?" Marcus adds with a huff. "You know. To deal with your monster."

"I told you; I'll be watching! Making sure nothing goes wrong!" Koji replies quickly. "I'll be up with Oliver in case Orochi tries to get away."

"So basically, doing nothing." Marcus hisses. Melody sighs, looking out over the river. While she spent the night brainstorming ways to deal with the monster, Marcus was complaining about how little Koji seemed to do in every one of his ideas. While they were arguing, Oliver helped her come up with the current plan, based on the original legend.

"Remember, Orochi's got eight heads," Koji says, leaning on the gunwale next to Melody. "Each head needs to down its own barrel. I don't know if it will work if one doubles down."

"It all goes to the same stomach, right?" Marcus says.

"If you're going to have an attitude all day, just go help Oliver look out for it," Melody snaps. She rubs the drowsiness from her eyes, trying to ignore Marcus's annoyed glare. He takes a few steps back, shapeshifting onto a hawk before shooting into the air. Koji gives a confident wave as he does, letting out the smallest sigh.

"Thanks for that. He's been on my case all night." He says, sitting down on the low rail. "You'd think he doesn't trust me or something."

"He doesn't," Melody replies flatly. "Are you sure there's nothing else we need to know? Nothing you left out?" Koji pauses, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. Melody stares back, catching what looks like a nervous twitch, but it's gone before she can call him out on it.

"I mentioned that Orochi has eight tails too, right? And he knows how to use them." He replies with an overexaggerated shrug. "They're like whips the size of trees."

"And you haven't seen any of the other Kami gods in a month?" Melody presses.

"Around that, yeah," Koji confirms. He hangs his head sadly, rubbing his fingers together. "I heard there were attacks, sure, but I didn't know anything big had happened. I just hope we can make it back before..." He pauses again, then flashes a wide grin. "Not that I mind, though. I've always been sort of the outcast. Believe it or not, I'm the first Shinto apprentice that's not Japanese in... probably three generations."

"You're not Japanese?" Melody says curiously. "Then, how did you-?"

"Long story, not worth getting into," He dismisses with a wave. "I'm Canadian, came to Japan to visit family. I'm not the biggest fan of how things work over here, but after I became an apprentice, I kind of had to stay." He shrugs again, a twinkle in his eye. He stands up, flashing his teeth. "Everything in Japan is so uniform, so strict. I prefer things to be a bit wilder." He brushes a lock of her hair from her face with the back of his hand. "Untamed. Not so restricted by rules."