Utsushiyo Monogatari: Crimson Shadow

Chapter Twenty: Humans Part 1

Takemikazuchi carefully inspected the sculpted stone statue of himself with a scowl. The face was nothing like his, nor was the fat body.  Futsunushi cringed with the look on the furious face of a very insulted Kami. "Lend me your lightning strike." 

"Brother, it is quite fetching and brings a light cheery mood to Kashima," Futsunushi dissuade him. Takemikazuchi was not using him for another tantrum to destroy something. The humans revered his brother more than they did him.

"Lend me your lightning strike. Or the cedar trees kodama may suffer."

"Fine, shall I split the stone?" Futsunushi replied with a sigh. The threat was real. What Takemikazuchi asked, he will get by hook or by crook. Right now, it was the sculpture. Better him performing the lightning strike than an inferno enveloping the shrine. That already happened a few times. 

"Not a good time," Futsunushi warned softly as a pale looking Gu-in walked past on her way to Mitarashi pond. She had not recovered and given the volatile nature of his brother, it did her no good to be near him.

"Oh?"

Too late. Takemikazuchi spotted her and grabbed her wrist with a dangerous look in his eyes.

"What do you think of this?" He pointed at the stone sculpture. Puzzled, she glanced at Futsunushi who shook his head.

"Well?"

Examining the sculpture, she could guess his mood by the impatience displayed. Pretending to reading the inscription carefully, the culprit was none other than the Heian Imperial court. Beauty in Heian was a plump face, unlike Takemikazuchi's sculpted looks. A metaphorical double edged sword laid before her. The humans were trying to please their revered Kami in the worst possible sense - their best image.

"Well," she paused carefully. Diplomacy was the weapon of words. Once verbalized, never to be taken back. 

She continued, "Two options: show your human form or true form to them in order to be accurately portrayed."

"Why would I do that? What's the second?"

"Accept it. They tried to give you the beauty of an imperial aristocratic standard," she replied in a very low tone. 

"Fine. No need for the lightning," Takemikazuchi said in a most unusual calm. 

"Oh," Futsunushi raised his eyebrow at Gu-in in surprise, mystified at the sudden change of mind in Takemikazuchi. 

Out of the blue, a large pinning rock appeared. With a flying leap, Takemikazuchi reached out. With a forceful slam of his hand, smashed it through the statue. Upon impact, a deafening boom swiftly sent out shockwaves through the ground, causing it to move like a liquid. So much for the change of mind, Futsunushi erected an invisible barrier against the flying impurities. Secretly to his great relief, his brother would not listen to anyone, including Gu-in. The earth yawned as the soil broke up and spewed forth its dirt on beleaguered Gu-in who had fell from it. The hilarity of the event caused him to lift his sleeve upwards to hide the absolute delight on his face as he politely pretended to cough like a human. She was warned. The urge to break out into laughter at her was irresistible except Takemikazuchi's mood place an end to it.

The pitter patter of clogs were heading their way. Priests and shrine maidens had fled the halls for their dear lives, thinking that it was an earthquake. Only to gasp synchronously in shock at where the stone sculpture once stood. A large piece of protruding rock have been shoved so violently into the ground that mounts of soil were strewn around the entire forest. A few saplings broke from the impact. Unseen to them were the two Kami before it.