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+---- Thread: 2016-09-29: The Eyes in Her Fire (/showthread.php?tid=14546)
2016-09-29: The Eyes in Her Fire - robkelk - 03-06-2023
Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
September 17, 2016
6:00 AM
Rei was worried. She wasn't in Japan any more, which meant that she was nowhere near any of the 280 Hikawa Shrines. How was she supposed to carry out the rites on her own, without a kannushi in charge? But she was Sailor Mars, and in that role she was – politically – the most senior shaman of the Silver Millennium, she reminded herself yet again. There was no organized Shinto presence in Ottawa; her personal status would have to be enough.
She still feared the wrath of the kami if she was wrong – not for herself, but for her friends, both the other Sailor Senshi and the people she had met here in this refuge they'd found in Ottawa. And the kami enshrined at the Hikawa Shrines was known to be very wrathful on occasion.
No, she realized, that attitude was incorrect for a miko of the Hikawa Shrines. Follow the example set by the kami enshrined at the Hikawa Shrines, she told herself; it was better to take decisive action than to worry.
Her decision reached, Rei quickly made her way to the residence manager's office.
September 29, 2016
1:37 PM
"Thank you, Mii-san," Rei said as the professionals who had just finished installing a fireplace in her apartment packed up and prepared to leave.
"This is important to you," she replied as she signed the professionals' invoice. "And we made sure that you could use the fireplace to heat your apartment, too. Are you good with the firewood being stored on your balcony?"
"I'm not using the balcony for anything else," Rei replied.
"Do you need help with the firewood?"
"Bringing it in, and building the fire? No, that is a duty that I must perform myself. Thank you for offering, though."
Mii nodded in understanding; sometimes the person in charge just had to do it herself. "Will we see you at dinner?"
"I don't know. That depends on whether the wood cooperates with me."
4:05 PM
She had blessed the wood as she built the fire on the hearthstone, being careful not to dirty her miko robes. Now all that was left to do was to light it.
Rei transformed to Sailor Mars, selected a long taper, and whispered, "Fire Soul." A small flame appeared on the tip of her finger, and she lit the taper with it. She transformed back to her unpowered form and used the taper to light the tinder. The tinder lit the kindling before it burned out, and the kindling in turn lit the seasoned wood.
She watched as the fire took hold. Simply watching the flames gave her a measure of peace; this was something familiar in an unfamiliar world.
Then she heard... no, sensed... a voice. A gruff, angry voice. "Who calls upon me?"
"Miko of the Hikawa Shrines, Hino Rei."
"For what purpose dost thou summon my attention?" The voice was still gruff, but it was no longer angry.
"I am in a strange, unfamiliar land. I seek to be allowed to perform the sacred rituals that call upon your favour, in order to bless this place and the people who live here."
"A mere miko dares to call upon Susanoo for such an important task?"
This was the moment that Rei had been worried about. If she said or did anything wrong, the consequences could be dire. "Just as you dared to take up arms against Yamata no Orochi in order to protect Kushinada-hime, I dare to seek your blessing for the people who live here."
"Ha-ha! You know me well, young miko. But, no, you are not simply a young miko, are you?"
She hoped that his switch from archaic speech to modern speech was a good sign. "You see clearly, kami-sama. I am also known to some as Sailor Mars."
"So this is where you ended up in this refuge," Susanoo-no-Mikoto mused. "I would have expected to find you in Tokyo, or at the least in San Francisco; my sister Amaterasu tells me that I will need to turn my attention there at some time before the next solstice. Very well, young miko who is the reincarnation of one of my favourites. By the sacred pact between the mortals and the kami, forged in water and wood and fire and earth and metal many millennia long past, you may call upon me for as long as this sacred fire burns."
"You do me great honour, Susanoo-sama," Rei replied. She most carefully did not smile in relief, even though the crisis point had been passed; doing so could be taken as an insult to the kami.
"However, you must not expect my constant attention. This place of refuge has been claimed by another, one of Three to whom even the mihashira no uzu no miko must bow."
Rei was amazed to learn that there were kami even more powerful than the Three Precious Children of the primordial creator god Izanagi... but she did not doubt the word of her patron kami. "May I ask who this kami is?"
"It is dangerous to seek such knowledge, young miko."
"You have taught us by your example to face danger with resolve."
"Ha-ha! Again, you speak truth! She has many names; the one she uses in this place and at this time is Skuld."
"A Norse kami has dominion over you?"
"The triune kami of destiny, sometimes called Norns or Fates, have dominion over all including reality itself. Or so I've been led to believe." Rei felt a sensation of Susanoo-no-Mikoto moving closer and leaning in to tell her a secret. "Me, I'm not so sure, because of the current situation, but Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi say that it's better to humour them just in case. And I always listen to my siblings."
"You do?" Rei was horrified by her own question as soon as it slipped out of her mouth.
"Yes, I do. I don't always obey them, but I do listen. And if you were not one of my favourites, you would be punished for doubting me. Do not do so again." The sensation of Susanoo's closeness faded away, and she could once again sense him only in the sacred fire. "I forbid you from attempting to contact her directly through mystic means. If she chooses to manifest in this world, you may speak with her as you would speak with another mortal or with a kami, but you must not seek her out. At this time, in this place, that privilege is reserved for your landlord unless he grants that privilege to another."
"I understand, and I thank you for your guidance." Rei could think of nothing else to say to such a pronouncement.
"Now, do not speak of this conversation to anyone other than another miko, a kannushi, or a kami. Especially do not inform your landlord that you have spoken with me directly, for he would inform Skuld and then we would both be in trouble. I have remained here for too long as it is; I must be about my business elsewhere. Go join your friends here and tell them that you have successfully lit the sacred fire."
"I will, and I thank you..." Rei's voice trailed off as she realized that Susanoo-no-Mikoto was no longer paying attention to her.
7:33 PM
"Hey, that's great!" Makoto's voice came from the speakers beside the television in the common room, and both she and Kazari were visible on the screen. It was the last evening that they expected to need to talk by video conference before Makoto returned from her time in the woods. "We're both just about back up to normal for us, aren't we?"
"I suppose we are," Rei replied, confident in the knowledge – that by divine edict she wasn't allowed to share – that at least in one small area she had already surpassed her abilities at home.