"If you could... I would like to hear about the Yatagarasu." Tabuki said.

Sakura sat up a little straighter in her chair, suddenly more interested in the conversation.

"Hm... well, I'm afraid I don't make a habit of proselytizing, these days. Even so, I would be more than pleased. The Yatagarasu, great three-legged crow, is a close contemporary of Lady Amaterasu, both serving similar functions in relation to the Sun. Her authority is rather more general and widely known, of course, while the Yatagarasu fills rather more specific, but no less important roles. This is general knowledge, of course, and I do not mean to bore you by going into the particulars and minutiae of inter-pantheon relationships and twisted chains of authority and superiority."

"I would not be much troubled to listen to such a lecture..." Tabuki muses thoughtfully.

"Even so, the telling of it would continue until my tongue wore away to nothing, and barely the surface of things would have been revealed." Sakura said, shaking her head. "In continuing, I will simply say that the Yatagarasu is a known messenger of the Heavens, who makes clear intervention of a divine nature, within the realm of man. In a more specific sense, the Yatagarasu fuels and tends to the fires of the Sun itself, who's light shines down upon the world both to warm and protect the beloved and to sear and drive into hiding the accursed."

"In less poetic terms... manipulation of nuclear reactions similar to the internal workings of the sun." Tabuki says aloud.

Sakura smiles, very slightly.

"That is, indeed, correct. This ability is suffused throughout every atom of the body of the Yatagarasu, in flesh, blood, and bone alike. Though in general, the more traditionally mystic allegory of feeding a bonfire, as though with felled trees, is preferred."

.... Hm. And now Okuu bears the Yatagarasu's power. Tabuki shakes the thought off.

"There is, I am afraid, not so much more that I can say. My memories have been protected by the Yatagarasu's enshrouding light." Sakura says, apologetically.

"Protected?" Tabuki asks, pointedly.

"Yes. Of late, this may not the case, but Gods have not always rested easily in close proximity with other Gods, and it would not be unknown for religious fanatics to undertake clandestine ventures against the interests of the servants of a God not their own." Sakura explains. "Defiling and destroying holy altars or artifacts, committing arson against rival shrines, abducting and strenuously interrogating shrine maidens in an attempt to wrest free secrets that might be used... it was common practice, at least in our case, for the Yatagarasu to not only take personal measures to defend and reclaim us, if such should come to pass, but also to prevent enemies from gaining any sort of victory that might be used in an attempt to justify losses suffered due to these offenses."

"Protected, then... in the sense that those secrets you might know cannot be wrested away from you, no matter what tortures might be employed." Tabukis restates, frowning thoughtfully.

"'Torture' is... such an ugly word, and accusation." Sakura said, tone mild as she corrected the phrasing. "Something that one wouldn't easily walk away from, levying such accusations against other congregations. But people would be 'questioned'. Possibly 'interrogated'. There may be the occasional unsanctioned 'inquisition'."

"Different labels for the same concept." Tabuki replied.

"Perhaps so. But that is 'Politics'." Sakura said, simply. "The art of phrasing things in such a way as to give no offense... or in situations which require it, to structure your speech in such a manner as to give exactly the level of offense you intend. As I was once the Head Priestess of the Yatagarasu's Shrine, I know this well... and hence have more concealed within my head than most. As such, I may simply be unable to give you an answer you request, if it was related closely enough to information the Yatagarasu's wisdom saw fit to protect. I merely wish this known in advance."

"I see... then, as the former Head Priestess of the Yatagarasu's Shrine... how have you found yourself in the underground?" Tabuki asked.

"I came in search of my God." Sakura replied. "Some long time ago the Yatagarasu was set in battle with a mighty foe, and they were both sealed and hidden away by a third party before the battle drew to its natural close. It is supposed that this was done to secure the safety of the surrounding land and its inhabitants, and accounts are uncertain as to whether or not the attempt was approved of by the Yatagarasu, or if it was the Yatagarasu's own plan, to accept the risk for the sake of binding this foe. What was known was that the battle would not, and did not, end with merely that, and that they would emerge elsewhere. As the years passed, and the Yatagarasu did not return to the shrine, many of the shrine maidens...."

Sakura shook her head.

"Hearts grew weary, and faith flickered and gave out, in the Yatagarasu's absence. And so some decades ago, I found myself as the Head Shrine Priestess of an otherwise empty shrine."

"'Decades'... I wouldn't have guessed that, with you being human."

"You are too kind." Sakura replied with a smile. "But it is one of the Yatagarasu's blessings, an extended longevity, which even in the current state of things has yet to fade away. Entirely aside from this, my family is one which have always aged particularly well, though I gave up those ties in entering service of my God."

"I see..." Tabuki said, then frowned. "But with a battle possibly ongoing still, and Faith from worshippers dwindling as they turned away, would it not be possible that the Yatagarasu's failure to return became a prophecy which fulfilled itself?"

"Do not believe the thought has not weighed on my mind." Sakura said. "Certainly, as I have determined as best I can that the Yatagarasu fell in its battle... perhaps the outcome would have changed, if fickle worshippers could have stayed the course, and perhaps it is my own failure in not preventing them from turning away that led to the Yatagarasu's fall.... Be that as it may, my faith has not dwindled, and for so long as a God has even one who will offer their Faith, it will not disappear. The Yatagarasu will continue to exist, though its power now flows through another, as only one part of her whole."

"And you intend to raise her up as the new Yatagarasu?" Tabuki says aloud.

"Of course." Sakura stated simply. "From the moment she consumed the Yatagarasu, the outcome was beyond questioning. I merely wish to hurry it along."

"Well... in any case, you would need a shrine, I suppose."

"That is, I am afraid... putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. There are difficulties to consider, and obstacles... in any case, there is no point in erecting a shrine before a God is ready to take their place within, and gather the worship offered there. And not just any lump of wood or stone will do... I'll handle the matter when the time comes, but the place a shrine is erected should be somehow significant in its own right."

"I see." Tabuki replied. "Illuminating. But with all that said, there is one more matter I would like to bring up. It is the duty of Miko to spread their faith and convert others, is that not so? And so, teaching others..."

"I am afraid that I cannot do so, at this time." Sakura said, now frowning. "Once again... matters should be taken in a certain order. The God must be prepared to take their place in a shrine, or it is merely an empty building once erected. And there must be both Shrine and God before attendants might be a consideration. There is no point to preparing more servants to wait with me in anxiety, when that woman seems to make a deliberate point of blocking and turning aside every effort I put forward. At this point, considering the stubbornness already displayed it may be a year, or may perhaps be ten years, before any real progress is made, without any strokes of sudden fortune."

"Maybe so. But with more worshippers, and more Faith to offer, could it not be theorized that your god would be strengthened by the effort, and begin to ascend on her own. It could then be considered a worthwhile means of spending your time, with other avenues fraught with obstacles and delays... and I have available a number of fairies which would be more than pleased to serve in this fashion, should it come to that." Tabuki said leadingly.

"What you say has some truth to it." Sakura admits, but grimaces. "But you yourself admit it to be simple conjecture. It may be that this is the best use of my time, or it may be that while you are correct in your conclusion, it would take an assembled number of worshippers that would take enough time, and be sufficiently difficult, to gather that my purposes would be better served in continuing to butt heads with that woman. In any case... fae are not well known for their regular devotion to causes, as it happens. I have already watched as a congregation of those I myself had had a direct hand in training turned away from their path and shunned their beliefs, through fickleness at the first taste of unexpected hardships. I would not so swiftly set myself up to watch as my students abandon their faith when it is needed most, once more."

"That... isn't exactly..." Tabuki says, awkwardly.

"Your intentions may be good." Sakura says. "But at this time, I am not willing to spend the time required to train and induct fairies, when it can be better utilized. My apologies."

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