The Day Honma Meiko Became a God / The Two Who Disappeared

"Back then, you used this place as your secret base and left enough traces here. You, with your special talent, resonated with the Ley Line here during that time and unintentionally signed some kind of 'contract' with the Ley Line."

The name "Ōmiya Omiya Shrine Maiden" refers to the name that Honma Meiko personally carved in a corner of the wooden house.

Although everyone left their names here, only Honma Meiko's name and the mark of the Super Peace Busters received a response from the Ley Line.

"The reason your body became weak after drowning is because your fate as a human being should have ended when you drowned five years ago."

"But that doesn't mean you died. If you had died then, your soul would have merged with the Ley Line here, becoming the Mountain God of this place. You might even have become the first god to awaken in the Chichibu Region after the Mystery Revival, thanks to the power of the Ley Line."

Chapter 201: The Day Honma Meiko Became a God

"My original destiny was to die five years ago, and then... become a god?"

Such words were indeed quite a shock to Honma Meiko.

However, it wasn't that she hadn't made similar preparations at all.

When she first joined the Chat Group, watching everyone share their stories, she wondered what her own story should have been like.

After she mentioned that she had been saved by Miyauchi Hiyage once, some people in the group said, "You're the female lead, how could you possibly die there? Even if Miyauchi Hiyage hadn't come to save her, she would definitely have survived because of something else."

After all, how could there be a female protagonist who dies before the story even begins?

But she never truly accepted those remarks.

Especially with the help of the Omiya Shrine Maiden, she saw the circumstances of the day she fell into the water more clearly, and finally confirmed it:

If it weren't for Miyauchi Hiyage, she would indeed have died that day.

Thinking this, she couldn't help but move a little closer to where the Miyauchi Hiyage located.

Perhaps it was because she knew this in her heart that she trusted Miyauchi Hiyage so much, even though she had only met him a few times.

But now, after telling her this fact, the Omiya Shrine Maiden gave her something even more shocking.

If she had died at that time, would she have become a god?

Is this really true?

This is just too bizarre.

Before Honma Meiko Miyauchi Hiyage could speak, Miyauchi Himekage frowned and asked the Omiya Shrine Maiden, "Do you mean I shouldn't have saved Menma in the first place?"

The Omiya Shrine Maiden naturally shook her head.

"Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, and this is absolutely true. Moreover, once a mortal soul becomes a deity, your soul may be influenced by divinity, causing you to gradually lose your human emotions."

"It's hard to say whether this is good or bad, but according to what I've read in the divination, drowning and becoming the Mountain God of this place was indeed her original destiny."

"However, fate is never fixed."

"Even the Amenominakanushi cannot absolutely control the fate of humanity."

She comforted Honma Meiko, saying, "So, although you, Meiko, were destined to die young, Miyauchi- kun's two appearances led your fate down a different path."

It happened twice, once five years ago and once today.

This is also Honma Meiko's fate is still shown as having drowned five years ago.

"If Miyauchi Hiyage hadn't brought you to our shrine tonight, your body might have completely lost its vitality in a few months, and you would have returned to the fate you had five years ago, becoming the Mountain God of this place after your death."

"I was just amazed that you could become a god so easily, and I didn't mean anything else."

For a Spirit Medium practices the path of the Shinto, becoming a true deity or divine messenger is naturally the ultimate pursuit.

These deities are not simply those that are moved into shrines after a person's death because of their status in life, such as being an emperor or the emperor's sibling.

These deities, which rely on faith and incense offerings to continue their existence, are most prone to collapse or even complete extinction once they lose these offerings and faith.

The Chichibu Shrine now enshrines the so-called "The Four Pillars," namely the local official who built the shrine and his ancestor, then Amenominakanushi no Nakashujin, who was brought in by State Shinto after the Meiji Restoration, and the last one is the younger brother of the emperor during the Showa era.

It seems that because of the Emperor, the shrine of the other emperor's younger brother is now very popular, with special festivals held every year to worship him. In fact, the amount of incense offered to him is even more abundant than that of the three deities with thousands of years of history.

However, despite such fervent worship, due to his own lack of divine power, the other party only awakened a slight trace of divine power after the Mystery Revival. He still needs at least several decades or even hundreds of years of offerings before he can become a true god.

However, if the worship of the deity is interrupted for a year or two during this process, or even after the deity has become a god, the deity will lose its divine status at lightning speed. Only when the deity is worshipped again in the future will it have the opportunity to regain its divine status.

The shrine maidens and priests of Chichibu Shrine were fully aware of this, knowing that lifting the other party up to the Four Pillars was already a sign of weakness from the Reverse Side World to the Front World during the mysterious decline of that time, and they did not believe that the other party could become a true god at all.

In contrast, if one can first connect with the Ley Line and become a deity, then even without incense offerings, one can rely on the power of the Ley Line to maintain one's existence for a long time.

Even during the mysterious decline, these 'gods' still do not dissipate thanks to the Ley Line, but they are still unable to use much power and often need to slumber to hibernate.

However, these deities are not numerous in Japan, and they are almost all hidden away. They are deities who do not want to interact with humans, nor do they want to live in Takamagahara, the abode of gods.

Even the higher-ups of Shinto were unable to extract the truth about the other gods' secrets about the human world and the mysterious decline from these already scattered and isolated deities.

Moreover, as time went on, those gods either chose to leave the human world or completely hid themselves away, preventing others from discovering their whereabouts.

Only recently, after their Mystery Revival, have some traces of a few reclusive deities who had failed to find a way out of the human world and had hidden themselves away been rediscovered. But for Japan, which once boasted eight million deities, this is indeed just a drop in the ocean.

"Why does it sound a bit like a legendary monster?" Miyauchi Hiyage, standing to the side, couldn't help but feel a little puzzled after hearing the explanation from the Omiya Shrine Maiden.

However, judging from the somewhat envious expression on the Omiya Shrine Maiden regarding Honma Meiko's current situation, there must be a difference between the two.

"Most mountain spirits and wild monsters are indeed born from the Ley Line, but their birth is somewhat similar to that of cursed spirits, requiring human 'emotions or desires' to fully manifest."

"Therefore, these monsters that appear because of desire can be considered 'illegitimate children' of the Ley Line, not recognized by the Ley Line. However, they do possess extraordinary power, and like cursed spirits, they can become stronger because of human emotions, and even leave their birthplace after they grow up."

"Even during the period of mysterious decline, these monsters did not suddenly disappear from the human world like the gods. Instead, they hid in the human world. Some monsters even secretly mated with humans and had offspring. However, the phenomenon of half-demons has existed for thousands of years, but it has only become relatively more common in modern times."

Only a very few pure-hearted "spirits" can be chosen by the Ley Line and become local deities.

As she said this, she looked at Honma Meiko was fidgeting in front of her, with a sigh.

"Your soul is very pure, and may even carry a hint of 'elf' aura. Coupled with your early death, perhaps for this reason, the Ley Line here have taken you as their own child. They want to accept your soul here after you drowned according to your original destiny, and make you the Mountain God of this place."

At this point, the Omiya Shrine Maiden glanced subtly at Miyauchi Hiyage, who was standing behind Honma Meiko.

She didn't know how Miyauchi Hiyage had forcibly intervened and changed Honma Meiko's fate, but considering that the other party's destiny was inherently ambiguous, it was quite normal for her to have some strange aspects as a junior favored by the Jujutsu Society and that Satoru Gojo.

Among the extraordinary are those who go with the flow, martyrs who are willing to sacrifice themselves for a prophecy, and those who do not bow to fate and always stick to their own beliefs.

There is no difference in quality between the two, but it seems that Miyauchi Hiyage is the latter.

It's unknown whether he will have any impact on the Jujutsu Society or even the entire Reverse Side World in the future.

In short, the sudden intervention of Miyauchi Hiyage has probably confused the Ley Line.

The contract is in effect, and the person should indeed die, since the contract has already been established. But where is the Mountain God I chose?

But the Ley Line don't have such high intelligence; they only have the subconscious to call upon the Mountain God they have chosen.

"Then your body also feels that you should give up this human body and become a true god, but your own perception tells you that you are truly alive. This contradiction is the root cause of your body becoming weak."

In the eyes of the Ley Line, it is not drawing on the life force of Honma Meiko, but rather helping its "good daughter" to break free from the constraints of her physical body and complete the evolution of her life level as soon as possible.

"And for priestesses like us, even after a lifetime of cultivation, it is almost impossible to be chosen by the Ley Line. At most, with the help of incense offerings, we can become a divine messenger after death, parasitizing the Ley Line."

"However, due to the mysterious decline, the messengers of the past either left with the gods or remained in the human world to eke out a living, or even degenerated into demons. It is only in recent years that new messengers of the gods have begun to appear again."

Under such circumstances, it is indeed something to envy that Honma Meiko was so easily chosen by the Ley Line and rose to prominence in one step without any training.

As she said, after becoming Mountain God, Honma Meiko still has the opportunity to become the ruling god of the entire Chichibu Region before the other gods return to the human world and before the new gods arrive in Chichibu.

By then, Chichibu Shrine will be able to shed its status as a state Shinto shrine, and rightfully remove that wicked deity from the shrine, and give Honma Meiko a deity name she likes, to be enshrined as the new the Four Pillars.

While such things are rare nowadays, in the Reverse Side World, especially in the human world before the gods parted ways, it was perfectly normal for shrines to adjust the gods they enshrined due to conflicts or rivalries between the gods.

However, she glanced at Honma Meiko and, seeing the other's hesitant expression, knew that she could not possibly give up her human identity.

Or perhaps the other person hasn't fully believed what she said, nor has she considered that she might have the opportunity to become a so-called deity.

A healthy, innocent, and sickly young girl who only wants a healthy body would find it very difficult to make the choice to give up her body and the "human emotions" she currently possesses.

Even though she is a top-level Spirit Medium has cultivated for decades and can give up her physical body to become a god, she would still have some hesitation if she were to lose her emotions and even her memories as a human.

She could see this, so before Honma Meiko made her stance clear, she spoke to the other person first:

"The contract between you and the Ley Line cannot be broken, because that contract has penetrated deep into your soul and the Ley Line of this place. If it is forcibly broken, your current body cannot withstand such consequences, and it may even trigger a riot in the Ley Line. I think you also hope that this will happen."

"The best option now is to maintain the existence of the contract, and then I can try to communicate with the Ley Line to prevent the contract from affecting your body for a short period of time. It may even be possible to have the Ley Line use Spiritual Power to nourish your body and help it recover as soon as possible."

"As for the timeframe, I'm not entirely sure yet. It depends on how persistent the Ley Line here are with you, but it should buy you a few years."

"Of course, because we need to take care of the Ley Line's emotions, you shouldn't be able to leave Chichibu City too far away for a long time to come. Otherwise, it may cause your connection with the Ley Line to break, which will also trigger a backlash in your body and an upheaval in the Ley Line."

Upon hearing this, Miyauchi Hiyage couldn't help but scratch his head.

Previously, Honma Meiko had only visited Asahigaoka once, which wasn't too far from Chichibu.

Because of her health condition, Honma Meiko had stayed in Chichibu City and had not gone out, which is why she remained safe and sound.

He had previously considered taking Honma Meiko to a more distant place to try and break the thread binding her and see what would happen.

Fortunately, before taking any action, I first consulted a professional at Chichibu Shrine, otherwise it could have caused a real mess.

Then, the Omiya Shrine Maiden solemnly extended an invitation to Honma Meiko.

"Although saying this at this time may sound a bit forced, our Shinto is indeed one of the supernatural forces that has the deepest research on the Ley Line, and Chichibu Shrine is one of the oldest shrines in Saitama Prefecture."

"Therefore, I hope you can join our shrine. I will take you as my disciple and teach you the secret methods to establish a normal connection with the Ley Line. After you learn these secret methods, you can also communicate with the Ley Line on your own, which will buy you more time until you are qualified to become a true god."

She paused at this somewhat sensitive point before adding, "Of course, this doesn't require you to give up your body, but rather to become a god along with your body."

"Although there haven't been any cases of physical gods achieving godhood in modern times for many years, the current wave of Mystery Revival is getting stronger and stronger. I think with your talent, you still have a good chance."

There should be another chapter before 9 AM this morning.

Chapter 202: The Two Who Disappeared

As the Omiya Shrine Maiden explained, Honma Meiko aware of her physical condition, felt a notification coming from her Diary.

It seemed to be a reminder that her mission to go to the drowning site and find out the truth about her body had been completed at this moment.

Under the watchful eyes of the two people, Honma Meiko did not answer, but instead took out her Diary to look at it.

Sure enough, according to the notes in the Diary, she had completed the previous task and received a considerable amount of Reading Points as a reward, and a follow-up task had also appeared.

To be precise, it was a commission that she could freely choose.

The former involves abandoning one's own body and becoming the Mountain God of this place in a normal way. Although there will be certain constraints, one can retain all one's emotions and memories under the influence of divinity by simply consuming Reading Points. Furthermore, one can gradually grow into a more powerful god by continuously completing subsequent commissions.

According to the Diary's markings, this is considered an A-level commission, which, in addition to a large number of points, also grants an extra chance to win a prize.

Following this choice, there is a note in the Diary indicating that due to her personal reasons, the actual difficulty of choosing this path will be greatly reduced. This basically confirms what the Omiya Shrine Maiden said: as long as she dies, she will immediately become the Mountain God of this place, and then step by step become the god of the entire Chichibu Region.

However, the Diary also noted that although becoming a god in this way would grant one power of at least the highest level in a short period, the upper limit would be "that is" the level of a regional god, and even with the help of the Diary, it would be difficult to develop further.

As for the latter, that is what the Omiya Shrine Maiden just said: continue physical training, advance both body and spirit, and eventually achieve physical godhood.

This allows you to retain your complete self without being subject to any constraints.

Even after becoming a god, their power surpasses that of ordinary deities, and they still possess the potential to continue growing.

However, since she cannot take shortcuts, this process will be more difficult and lengthy, and she will certainly encounter many dangers.

According to the Diary's criteria, this is naturally an S-rank request.

Although her future choices were Rank A and Rank S, the reminder from this Diary made Honma Meiko suddenly feel much more relaxed.

As for gods and spirits, didn't she already obtain this even more magical Diary a month ago?

In her eyes, the being who brought the You Know Who across the world to this place and created this Diary was more like a true deity.

Look at the tone of your own Diary.

She's still just a sickly girl who's been practicing Ripple Chi Kung for a month and gets breathless after walking just a few steps.

As a result, her Diary reminded her that after making her choice, her upper limit might only be at the level of a regional master.

So, if the existence that created this Diary can make her even stronger in the future, then what level is the existence that created it?

The Omiya Shrine Maiden believed that Honma Meiko would not choose to give up her life, so she told Honma Meiko that she could try to take the path of becoming a god in the flesh, a path that no one had walked in a long time.

If it really doesn't work out, it's fine to go back to the original path.

But in reality, looking at the two choices in front of her, Honma Meiko.

After all, she doesn't have any particular obsessions or desires right now.

If she were to die now under the contract's effect, then with the Diary's protection, using just a few Reading Points would allow her Spiritual Body to appear no different from a normal human in the eyes of ordinary people, enabling her to interact with people normally and eat and drink as usual.