Welcome, Amenominakanushi

Reiko changed into imperial robes and put on a porcelain mask painted with patterns symbolizing the gods.

A towering Sacred Tree had taken root in the concrete and reached into the sky. Its lush canopy radiated a sense of peace.

Before the Sacred Tree, Reiko stepped through an unusual sequence of movements and began a dance to honor the gods.

Jiang Hao knew nothing about dancing, but that did not matter. He remembered the dances primitive people had performed while praying to him. Reiko only had to follow those. Even if the dance was wrong, someone would interpret it, assign it all kinds of meaning, and proclaim it the most authentic dance for worshipping the gods.

Several meters from the Sacred Tree, a dense crowd of Easterners looked up at the high priestess beneath it. They held their hands clasped before their chests, their eyes full of pleading.

With their lives at stake, even those who never believed in gods offered their most heartfelt prayers, begging to be saved.

"Keep the camera steady. Whatever happens next, whatever you see, don't let your hands shake. Stay calm. We're professionals. We need to broadcast everything that happens here live to the station so the whole country can see it. We're going to make a name for ourselves. We're going to win the Eastern News Reporters Club's annual camera award."

In the crowd, Fukamizu Ideko quietly gave her cameraman these instructions.

The cameraman raised his free hand and made an OK sign.

If anyone there had faith in Reiko, Fukamizu Ideko and her cameraman were strong contenders for first place.

Reiko slowly planted the Yomi Jade Branch in the ground. With a solemn expression, she took out the Yata Mirror and turned it toward the branch.

A flash of pure white light swept over it, and the Yomi Jade Branch dissolved into specks of starlight.

"Priest Tomioka, what is Lady Reiko doing?" Nagaosaki Akira asked quietly.

"She's making an offering." Tomioka Yoshimasa had been watching the ritual closely, committing every one of Reiko's movements to memory. He lowered his voice. "High Priestess Reiko offered the Yomi Jade Branch to the great Amenominakanushi."

Then Tomioka Yoshimasa murmured, "So the great Amenominakanushi likes the Yomi Jade Branch."

Too bad I have no spiritual power. I can't go to Yomi.

Otherwise, I could pick a Yomi Jade Branch there and offer it to the great Amenominakanushi. Perhaps I could even become a priest in his service.

After a show of prayer, Reiko released the Yata Mirror.

Everyone watched the legendary Divine Artifact, the mirror, float upward. It rose above the Sacred Tree's canopy and blazed with light. The auspicious designs of turtles and cranes on its back seemed to come alive, opening their mouths in unison.

"We welcome Amenominakanushi!"

As though they had rehearsed it, the nearly ten thousand people below cried out together, "We welcome the great Amenominakanushi!"

As their voices faded, a man appeared within the radiance. He wore white ceremonial robes embroidered with gold and a ceremonial crown.

His long, pale-gold fingers gripped the Sacred Tree. Behind him was a divine disc inscribed with brown spells.

At the Prime Minister's residence, the people who had attended the earlier meeting were still gathered.

None of them looked well. Now that all four items High Priestess Reiko had requested were present, the crisis in Heijō-kyō was as good as resolved. They could go home and sleep, but no one did.

Their eyes remained fixed on the live television broadcast.

The moment Amenominakanushi descended, they grew excited. The priests in particular were in tears.

The gods truly existed.

The years they had devoted to serving the gods had not been wasted.

Who would dare call them frauds now? Who would dare look at them as though they were frauds?

They had already made up their minds. When they returned, they would establish branch shrines within their own Shinto Shrines and enshrine the great Amenominakanushi. Until the gods their families had worshipped for generations performed miracles of their own, they would be priests of Amenominakanushi.

Only Oonakatomi Kaito, the chief priest of Ise Grand Shrine, remained silent.

Why had the ritual recorded in the Chronicles of Empress Jingu, supposedly meant to summon Great Amaterasu, summoned Amenominakanushi instead?

Why was the Yata Mirror, long said to be one of the three sacred treasures Great Amaterasu had bestowed upon the imperial family, a medium for summoning Amenominakanushi?

Could it be that the great Great Amaterasu doesn't exist at all...

No... Impossible!

Oonakatomi Kaito's face went deathly pale. He shook his head frantically, trying to drive the blasphemous thought from his mind.

How could Great Amaterasu not exist?

The Chronicles of Empress Jingu must be wrong. That wasn't a ritual to summon Great Amaterasu. It was a ritual that could summon any god.

And the Yata Mirror wasn't a Divine Artifact Great Amaterasu bestowed upon the imperial family. She gave them only the Kusanagi Sword and the Yasakani Jewel.

There were never three sacred treasures. Later generations had forced that story together and rewritten it however they pleased.

Yes. That must be it.

Above the Sacred Tree's canopy, Amenominakanushi raised one long, pale-gold finger and pointed toward Yomi.

"By my decree: Shikoku Maiden Kusozikome, sever the connection between Yomi and the Living World."

"As the divine one commands!"

An eerie voice answered from within Yomi.

As the voice faded, something unbelievable happened. The descending vision of Yomi stopped, then vanished before everyone's eyes at astonishing speed.

"S-so fast."

"That was ancient Japanese! Shikoku Maiden Kusozikome answered Amenominakanushi in ancient Japanese. Could ancient Japanese be the true language, and modern Japanese a heresy?"

"As expected, the great Amenominakanushi rules Takama-ga-hara. All the gods must obey his commands, just as they did when he ordered them to create the world."

At the Prime Minister's residence, the priests could barely contain their excitement.

Though the Prime Minister was there and the Prime Minister's residence was supposed to remain quiet, nobody cared.

In Heijō-kyō.

Ten thousand people fell to their knees and cried out, "We bid farewell to the great Amenominakanushi!"

Even those who had never believed in gods believed now. The worldview shaped by decades of scientific education had shattered the moment a god descended, then reassembled into something new.

Those who had not believed in gods now believed they existed. As for those who already believed, no matter which god they had worshipped before, at that moment they were all devout followers of Amenominakanushi.

Jiang Hao felt a vast tide of faith gather around him. With a thought, he released his control over Reiko.

Reiko, who had been presiding over the ritual before the Sacred Tree, immediately fainted.