By the time she returned to the inn, it was completely dark.
Hitomi said goodbye to the trio including You in the hallway and followed Futaba into the room.
Futaba didn’t ask her many questions today. Futaba took a bath first. Hitomi had expected Futaba to say something—the previous two nights they would chat a bit, about You, about Chihaya, about the day’s events. But tonight Futaba just said, “Good night,” and turned over to face the wall.
Hitomi didn’t ask either. She was tired herself. When she came out of the bath, Futaba was already asleep. Her breathing was steady, her shoulders rising and falling slightly with each breath. Hitomi turned off the bedside lamp and lay down.
The room was dark, with only a sliver of moonlight coming through the gap in the curtains. In the distance, the sound of a stream, gurgling, mixed with the wind rustling through the bamboo grove.
Hitomi closed her eyes.
She fell asleep quickly.
***
She saw that mass of golden light again.
The light floated in the darkness, like a sun. The glow wasn’t harsh; it was warm and bright, carrying a sacred majesty that made one want to kneel. Hitomi knew what this was. She had seen it before.
The last time she saw it was at the entrance of Hakone Shrine. When Amaterasu Omikami descended.
Hitomi stood in that light, her heart skipped a beat.
‘Not again, seriously?’
She had a bad feeling about this. But she still bowed, her posture dignified, her movements proper. Then she knelt silently in the void, waiting for Amaterasu’s divine oracle.
The golden light trembled slightly.
The voice came from within the light, yet it seemed to resonate directly inside her head.
“Nissho Hitomi, correct?”
“Yes, Lady Amaterasu.”
Hitomi lowered her head, her voice respectful.
Amaterasu continued.
“I have a new mission for you.”
‘Lady Amaterasu, it hasn’t been long since your last divine oracle. Why are you here again?’
But she maintained a respectful expression on her face.
Hitomi’s bad feeling grew stronger. She waited for what came next.
“I want you to become the main wife of my nephew.”
Hitomi thought she had misheard.
“As a miko who serves me, Amaterasu, how can you not be the main wife?”
Amaterasu’s tone was matter-of-fact.
Hitomi felt a thunderclap in her heart, almost jumping up from her kneeling position.
‘What kind of joke are you playing?’
‘Me, the main wife?’
‘Even a blind person can see that the main wife is Mochizuki Chihaya.’
‘What qualifies me to be the main wife?’
‘Because I’m your miko?’
‘Or because I have big boobs?’
She opened her mouth to say something, but swallowed her words. Across from her was Amaterasu Omikami, the deity she served, the Lord of Takamagahara, Head of the Three Noble Children. Not someone she could argue with.
As if aware that her request was too willful, Amaterasu’s speech suddenly sped up.
“Alright, that’s settled. Execute the mission well.”
“I’m leaving now.”
The golden light began to dissipate.
Before Hitomi could say “Farewell,” the light vanished. It disappeared into the darkness of the dream space.
Hitomi knelt there, completely petrified.
Her mouth was slightly open, her eyes staring straight ahead, her mind blank.
For the first time in her life, she had the thought of defying the divine oracle. She wanted to run away.
‘No joke, I really want to run.’
‘Go back to Tokyo, go back to the Imperial Household Agency, go back to my small apartment, continue working, pretend I never met the Divine Child, pretend I never came to Hakone, pretend none of this ever happened.’
‘If that doesn’t work, I might as well run to the Celestial Empire. I heard miko are in demand there now. Lady Amaterasu probably can’t reach there…’
Hitomi mulled over these “rebellious” thoughts.
‘Main wife?’
She chewed over these two words in her mind several times, but still found it absurd.
‘Who is Chihaya?’
‘The next family head of the Mochizuki family, a miko raised from childhood to be a divine wife, the one who has spent the most time with You and has the best rapport with him.’
‘Even a fun-loving person like Futaba tacitly acknowledges her as the “main wife.”’
‘What qualifies me?’
‘Just because of Lady Amaterasu’s one word?’
She knelt in the dream space, stunned for a long while.
***
Then that mass of golden light appeared again.
The orb of light emerged from the darkness, hovered in front of Hitomi for a moment, and then—split.
A small mass of golden light, the size of a pigeon’s egg, separated from the main orb and directly entered Hitomi’s body in the dream space.
She could feel the temperature of that light as it entered her body. It wasn’t hot at all; it was a warm sensation, slowly spreading from her chest to her limbs, as if someone had lit a lamp inside her.
‘This is—’
Hitomi was stunned.
Amaterasu’s voice rang out again.
This time, her speech was even faster.
“I am not an unreasonable deity. This is an advance payment for you, my Divine Grace.”
“Alright, that’s settled. I’m leaving now.”
The golden light disappeared again.
This time it really disappeared. The dream space returned to its original state—a void of darkness, nothingness.
Hitomi stood there, feeling a bit dizzy.
Divine Grace.
‘Did Lady Amaterasu say Divine Grace?’
‘The Divine Grace that no one has received since Emperor Go-Daigo?’
‘Divine Grace. This is Divine Grace. The Divine Grace that no one has received in over seven hundred years since the Nanbokuchō Period.’
‘You gave it to me for such a trivial reason?’
Her mind was in a mess. That bead in Chihaya’s hand, the Divine Grace of Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, could extend a miko’s lifespan, increase cultivation speed, perform high-level curse arts, and even reverse time. It was a treasure that hadn’t appeared since the Asuka Period.
Now she had one inside her too, all because Amaterasu wanted her to be the main wife, and just gave it.
Hitomi’s feelings were extremely complicated.
She stood up, took two steps in the dream space, then stopped. She wanted to sigh, but couldn’t. She wanted to curse, but couldn’t get the words out.
‘Because of this reason?’
‘Because of such a casual reason as “I want you to be the main wife”?’
Hitomi felt the world had gone mad.
She looked down at her chest. That pigeon-egg-sized light had already merged into her body and was invisible, but the warm feeling remained. Real and clear.
This was Divine Grace.
The thing she had read about countless times in scriptures, the thing that only appeared in legends passed down through the Nissho clan, was now inside her.
Hitomi took a deep breath.
She didn’t know whether to be happy or to cry.
Divine Grace was very precious.
‘But the problem is—what the hell use is this thing for competing for the main wife position?’
‘She’s not going to a tournament.’
‘Can the main wife be decided by just one word from Lady Amaterasu?’
‘Chihaya stands there, dignified and cool, handling everything properly, exuding the aura of a main wife from the inside out.’
‘What does she have to compare with Chihaya?’
‘Just because she has bigger boobs?’
Hitomi closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Then she opened them.
Her desire to run away grew even stronger.
***
Hitomi woke from the dream.
It was still the middle of the night.
The curtains weren’t drawn tightly; a sliver of moonlight leaked through the gap, drawing a thin white line on the floor. On the bed beside her, Futaba was sleeping deeply, breathing evenly, occasionally turning over.
Hitomi lay in her futon, eyes open, staring at the ceiling.
That warmth inside her body was still there.
Not as strong as in the dream. It was like a small ember buried in her chest, continuously emitting warmth. Warm and comfortable.
She reached out and touched her chest, but of course felt nothing. Divine Grace was not a physical object, not like that bead in Chihaya’s hand that could be taken out and shown to others. It was inside her, deep within her spiritual power, fused with her flesh and blood.
Hitomi turned over to face the wall, closed her eyes, and began to pray silently in her heart.
‘Lady Amaterasu, what exactly are you thinking?’
She received no answer.
The chirping of insects outside the window came in waves, very rhythmic. In the distance, an owl hooted once, then fell silent. The sound of wind passing through the bamboo grove, rustling, like someone whispering in the distance.
She remembered during today’s sukiyaki, she had thought to herself, ‘No rush, there’s still time. Let me get to know you more slowly, You-kun.’
And she had prayed to Lady Amaterasu to give her more time.
‘Now look. There might not be that much time.’
Lady Amaterasu wanted her to be the main wife.
She wasn’t even fully adapted to being a “wife,” and now “main wife” had come crashing down on her.
Hitomi buried her face in the pillow and let out a muffled sigh.
‘Tomorrow, how should she face Chihaya?’
‘Face that Chihaya, who is dignified and cool, handles everything properly, and exudes the aura of a main wife from the inside out?’
‘As for running away, forget it. What good would running do?’
‘Where would she run?’
‘She is Amaterasu’s miko, raised in the Nissho clan from childhood, works at the Imperial Household Agency, every thing she does is related to the gods.’
‘Where could she run to?’
And…
She remembered You’s face.
That person who casually gave Divine Grace to someone he met for the first time, who didn’t play by the rules but always hit the mark, the person she wanted to know more about.
‘Be his main wife?’
She closed her eyes, still found it absurd. But there was something more in her heart than before. She couldn’t tell what it was.
She turned over, looking at the moonlight on the ceiling. The chirping of insects outside the window came in waves, very rhythmic. In the distance, the sound of the stream, gurgling, indistinct.
Hitomi took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.
‘Forget it, sleep first. Handle things tomorrow.’
She closed her eyes.