Her voice came from the mirror, perfectly calm. Yet beneath that calm surged a pressure that made every priest outside the hall weak in the knees.
"First Yongye, then Minato Namikaze!"
"They have no respect for us Gods of Takamagahara!"
"They made monkeys out of our Divine Envoys!"
"Notify the Divine Council Hall. Let those two insects learn what... Divine Wrath means!"
Fusang, Izumo Grand Shrine.
Deep within the shrine's sacred grove, Susanoo-no-Mikoto's divine body took shape amid a burst of violent lightning.
He looked younger than Amaterasu, with sharply defined features and black hair tied in a neat ponytail. Fierce lightning churned in his dark-blue eyes.
His right hand gripped a pitch-black Totsuka Blade. Fine arcs of electricity coiled around it, bursting into rings of blue sparks among the sacred trees.
"Unworthy descendant, Minato Namikaze!"
His voice rolled through the grove, low and violent, shaking the surrounding trees.
"You dared use Takamagahara's Divine Envoy as a fire extinguisher, then went back on your word!"
"You dared release Doomsday in front of the whole world!"
"You dared humiliate Fusang before the whole world!"
He drove the Totsuka Blade into the roots beneath his feet. Its arcs of electricity flared, lighting the entire grove as bright as day.
"You'll spend ten thousand years paying for this!"
Midtown Manhattan, Yongye's new apartment.
A faint scent of Lemon Air Freshener hung in the living room. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, neon and the cold white glow of office buildings scattered across the glass facades like flecks of gold.
Back in his original form, Yongye lounged against the sofa with his feet propped on the edge of the coffee table. He held a freshly opened bottle of Iced Coke while the tablet before him replayed Minato Namikaze vanishing over Sendai.
A wide, undisguised