—3rd Person POV, Shinto Pantheon Great Hall—
Standing outside the Great Hall, Inari could hear her fellow deities arguing with one another. Faced with the potential downfall of their Pantheon tensions were high, and everyone was understandably tearing into Susanoo for causing it. Berating his fellow deities, Susanoo argued that it was their right to do as they pleased in regard to their supporters. In his eyes, they were there to do as the Gods demanded no matter what it was.
“What is so wrong about demanding she offer me a few women? The women up here are beginning to bore me, and I wanted some new ones to enjoy.”, Susanoo stated as he sipped on his sake, “They already have one foot in the grave as it stands, I was simply trying to save a few of them…especially Yasaka. She could have had an enjoyable life as my concubine, but instead, she ran off with another man.”
“Who exactly let them get that far, oh wait, that was you!”, Amaterasu berated him as she slammed her fist onto the table, “You knew full well the deal I struck with Yasaka’s ancestors, and you chose to ignore our pact. I cannot believe I ever thought you could handle such a simple task, all you had to do was accept tribute every month. Instead, you used every meeting to try and seduce married women into sleeping with you! After several generations of being turned down, you stopped supporting them all while slowly increasing the tribute amount! When they finally reached the breaking point, you tried to strong-arm that poor child into siring children with you. Have you no shame!?”
“To feel guilt, one must have a conscious…”, Takemikazuchi commented as he stared at Susanoo.
“Oh piss off!!”, Susanoo spat in response.
Unsure if she should enter, given her current appearance, Inari was about to walk away when Amaterasu called out to her. Having sensed her friend’s arrival, she had waited for everyone to say their piece before having her enter. With everyone’s frustrations vented a bit, she hoped that Inari had some good news that would lighten the mood. Turning back to look at her, everyone watched a beaten, rotten food-covered Goddess enter the room.
Before Susanoo could say anything to her Amaterasu rushed over along with Hachiman to check on her. Healing the deep lacerations on her face and arms, Amaterasu felt terrible for pushing this work on her dear friend. She had hoped that Inari, being a Kitsune, would have had a good chance of having a reasonable discussion with Yasaka but it clearly did not end up that way.
“Inari, I did not think they would go this far…I am sorry for pushing this duty on you.”, Amaterasu apologized with a remorseful expression.
“It…it is okay.”, Inari replied as she gripped her clothing tightly, “Please…please do not ask me to do that again.”
“I assure you, I will never ask you to do that again.”, Amaterasu promised before turning to her brother, “Do you see what you have wrought upon our Pantheon!? They once welcomed our arrival, and now all we receive is anger and hatred from them.”
“Haha, you cannot pin this on me sister dear.”, Susanoo laughed at them, “They should have shown her a level of respect befitting their better! It seems like I was too lenient on them, the populace should have groveled at your feet just being in your presence. When they did not do so, you should have beaten a few of them around to get that respect. Maybe I should go down there and show you how it is done.”
Staring at him in disbelief, everyone present could not believe his arrogance. Amaterasu had made it clear that harming the Youkai was forbidden, but Susanoo refused to accept that. Having first-hand accounts from other deities that had seen Cole's power, Hachiman was the first to shoot out of his seat to put an end to those thoughts.
“Absolutely not!”, Hachiman shouted, “I will cut you down before I let that happen!! That man is a Beast that no one in this universe has a hope of even competing with. Have you not been paying attention to what we have been saying this whole meeting!? He demolished Lucifer and his Pro-War Faction of Devils then today he annihilated Lord Hades and his Grim Reapers!! We will not stand a chance against him, upsetting him will get all of us killed.”
“I will help him kill you as well…”, Takemikazuchi told Susanoo, “As deities, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard than the mortals. We gave our word to the Youkai that we would protect them, but you failed them countless times. Our once good and honorable names are now stained because of you and your lust for women.”
Knowing that her brother had not left the Pantheon Realm, aside from a few hours for meetings every century or so, Amaterasu understood that her brother was blind to the truth. He foolishly believed that the Pantheon was among the greatest powers in their universe, but the truth was they were far from it. They ranked below many other smaller Pantheons because hardly anyone here trained anymore. While the other deities strengthened themselves through hard work, her Pantheon had become fat and lazy…Susanoo being the worst of them all.
“I assume there was no chance of reconciliation?”, Amaterasu asked Inari as she took her seat, “We really need their support to sustain our power and realm.”
“Lady Yasaka and the Youkai Faction have made their feelings known…they do not want ever see our faces again. You had to be there to see it Amaterasu, the hatred and disgust they had for me was unbearable. So many families were torn apart by starvation and their enemies that this hatred will never dissipate from their society.”, Inari said as turned to Susanoo and began to weep, “I took a small faction of the punishment you deserve for ruining their society!! I was pelted with stones and rotten food by angry families!! Fathers berated me for letting the Devils take their wives and children away, Mothers cursed the ground I walked on because we took their babies from them, and children wished we would die because they have no parents to love them anymore!! Do you understand the pain you caused them!?”
“You are a Goddess of the Shinto Pantheon, and you let them degrade our faction like that!?”, Susanoo shouted at her, “All of them should have received your Divine Wrath for their actions, mortals should never question our authority and decisions!! See Amaterasu, this why you should have sent a man to meet with them instead of a woman.”
Stepping on a preverbal landmine, the room started to shake as Amaterasu’s power ran rampant. Glaring at her brother, she did not hesitate to slash his face up with her blade for uttering those words before her. Cutting him over a dozen times, Susanoo fell to the ground screaming in pain as his blood sprayed onto the floor.
“Next time you say something like that, I will cut your manhood off and make you eat it!”, Amaterasu said as she calmed herself down, “Inari is by far a better deity than you have ever been. You should be apologizing to her for making her go through that for you.”
“You fucking bitch!!”, Susano howled as he quickly tried to heal himself, “I will not apologize to that fox for what I said!! She let them do it without a fight!!”
After everything she had endured today, Inari was done listening to this. Grabbing a pitcher of sake, she smashed it into his face causing his wounds to burn as alcohol and shards of pottery got into them.
“You ungrateful pig, I am not stupid like you are!! When I arrived Cole almost killed me with just his killing intent!!”, Inari shouted as she kicked him in his fat stomach, “Unlike us, everyone down there knew Cole would protect them so they did not hesitate to do it. If I did anything more than try speaking to them, I am sure I would be dead right now!! He could have killed me with impunity, but let me walk away with my life. Even though I may not be happy that he won the Youkai over and scolded me for not doing my job properly, I can respect that he treated me with some dignity.”
Having spoken her mind, the Kitsune ran from the room bawling her eyes out. Having never been treated that way by mortals and her own kin, Inari was overwhelmed by it all. Not wanting to be around anyone for the time being, she retreated to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
Healing his wounds the best he could, Susanoo picked himself up and was about to give chase when several katanas were pointed at his throat. Takemikazuchi, Hachiman, and Amaterasu were all ready to behead him if he took another step after her. Knowing that now was not the time to deliver payback to Inari, Susanoo reluctantly sat back down.
“Lay a finger on her, and I will cut you to pieces. Now that we have lost the majority of our followers, I suggest you go find more for us with Hachiman and Takemikazuchi.”, she told him, “I expect the two of you to keep him in line, and stop him from further embarrassing our Pantheon. If he does anything wrong, kill him.”
“Embarrassing us!?”, Susanoo shouted taking offense to that.
“We are now a Pantheon with no major following…”, Amaterasu remarked with an angry smile, “Do you understand what that means? We are running on borrowed time, and the longer we go without a sufficient number of prayers and offerings the weaker we will become. Our relations with our neighboring Pantheons are not good, and we may face problems in the coming future.”
Grabbing Susanoo by his collar, the two of them dragged him away to prepare for their journey. Letting out a sigh when they were gone, Amaterasu got up and went to find Inari to comfort her.
—3rd Person POV, Shinto Pantheon Great Hall—
Standing outside the Great Hall, Inari could hear her fellow deities arguing with one another. Faced with the potential downfall of their Pantheon tensions were high, and everyone was understandably tearing into Susanoo for causing it. Berating his fellow deities, Susanoo argued that it was their right to do as they pleased in regard to their supporters. In his eyes, they were there to do as the Gods demanded no matter what it was.
“What is so wrong about demanding she offer me a few women? The women up here are beginning to bore me, and I wanted some new ones to enjoy.”, Susanoo stated as he sipped on his sake, “They already have one foot in the grave as it stands, I was simply trying to save a few of them…especially Yasaka. She could have had an enjoyable life as my concubine, but instead, she ran off with another man.”
“Who exactly let them get that far, oh wait, that was you!”, Amaterasu berated him as she slammed her fist onto the table, “You knew full well the deal I struck with Yasaka’s ancestors, and you chose to ignore our pact. I cannot believe I ever thought you could handle such a simple task, all you had to do was accept tribute every month. Instead, you used every meeting to try and seduce married women into sleeping with you! After several generations of being turned down, you stopped supporting them all while slowly increasing the tribute amount! When they finally reached the breaking point, you tried to strong-arm that poor child into siring children with you. Have you no shame!?”
“To feel guilt, one must have a conscious…”, Takemikazuchi commented as he stared at Susanoo.
“Oh piss off!!”, Susanoo spat in response.
Unsure if she should enter, given her current appearance, Inari was about to walk away when Amaterasu called out to her. Having sensed her friend’s arrival, she had waited for everyone to say their piece before having her enter. With everyone’s frustrations vented a bit, she hoped that Inari had some good news that would lighten the mood. Turning back to look at her, everyone watched a beaten, rotten food-covered Goddess enter the room.
Before Susanoo could say anything to her Amaterasu rushed over along with Hachiman to check on her. Healing the deep lacerations on her face and arms, Amaterasu felt terrible for pushing this work on her dear friend. She had hoped that Inari, being a Kitsune, would have had a good chance of having a reasonable discussion with Yasaka but it clearly did not end up that way.
“Inari, I did not think they would go this far…I am sorry for pushing this duty on you.”, Amaterasu apologized with a remorseful expression.
“It…it is okay.”, Inari replied as she gripped her clothing tightly, “Please…please do not ask me to do that again.”
“I assure you, I will never ask you to do that again.”, Amaterasu promised before turning to her brother, “Do you see what you have wrought upon our Pantheon!? They once welcomed our arrival, and now all we receive is anger and hatred from them.”
“Haha, you cannot pin this on me sister dear.”, Susanoo laughed at them, “They should have shown her a level of respect befitting their better! It seems like I was too lenient on them, the populace should have groveled at your feet just being in your presence. When they did not do so, you should have beaten a few of them around to get that respect. Maybe I should go down there and show you how it is done.”
Staring at him in disbelief, everyone present could not believe his arrogance. Amaterasu had made it clear that harming the Youkai was forbidden, but Susanoo refused to accept that. Having first-hand accounts from other deities that had seen Cole's power, Hachiman was the first to shoot out of his seat to put an end to those thoughts.
“Absolutely not!”, Hachiman shouted, “I will cut you down before I let that happen!! That man is a Beast that no one in this universe has a hope of even competing with. Have you not been paying attention to what we have been saying this whole meeting!? He demolished Lucifer and his Pro-War Faction of Devils then today he annihilated Lord Hades and his Grim Reapers!! We will not stand a chance against him, upsetting him will get all of us killed.”
“I will help him kill you as well…”, Takemikazuchi told Susanoo, “As deities, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard than the mortals. We gave our word to the Youkai that we would protect them, but you failed them countless times. Our once good and honorable names are now stained because of you and your lust for women.”
Knowing that her brother had not left the Pantheon Realm, aside from a few hours for meetings every century or so, Amaterasu understood that her brother was blind to the truth. He foolishly believed that the Pantheon was among the greatest powers in their universe, but the truth was they were far from it. They ranked below many other smaller Pantheons because hardly anyone here trained anymore. While the other deities strengthened themselves through hard work, her Pantheon had become fat and lazy…Susanoo being the worst of them all.
“I assume there was no chance of reconciliation?”, Amaterasu asked Inari as she took her seat, “We really need their support to sustain our power and realm.”
“Lady Yasaka and the Youkai Faction have made their feelings known…they do not want ever see our faces again. You had to be there to see it Amaterasu, the hatred and disgust they had for me was unbearable. So many families were torn apart by starvation and their enemies that this hatred will never dissipate from their society.”, Inari said as turned to Susanoo and began to weep, “I took a small faction of the punishment you deserve for ruining their society!! I was pelted with stones and rotten food by angry families!! Fathers berated me for letting the Devils take their wives and children away, Mothers cursed the ground I walked on because we took their babies from them, and children wished we would die because they have no parents to love them anymore!! Do you understand the pain you caused them!?”
“You are a Goddess of the Shinto Pantheon, and you let them degrade our faction like that!?”, Susanoo shouted at her, “All of them should have received your Divine Wrath for their actions, mortals should never question our authority and decisions!! See Amaterasu, this why you should have sent a man to meet with them instead of a woman.”
Stepping on a preverbal landmine, the room started to shake as Amaterasu’s power ran rampant. Glaring at her brother, she did not hesitate to slash his face up with her blade for uttering those words before her. Cutting him over a dozen times, Susanoo fell to the ground screaming in pain as his blood sprayed onto the floor.
“Next time you say something like that, I will cut your manhood off and make you eat it!”, Amaterasu said as she calmed herself down, “Inari is by far a better deity than you have ever been. You should be apologizing to her for making her go through that for you.”
“You fucking bitch!!”, Susano howled as he quickly tried to heal himself, “I will not apologize to that fox for what I said!! She let them do it without a fight!!”
After everything she had endured today, Inari was done listening to this. Grabbing a pitcher of sake, she smashed it into his face causing his wounds to burn as alcohol and shards of pottery got into them.
“You ungrateful pig, I am not stupid like you are!! When I arrived Cole almost killed me with just his killing intent!!”, Inari shouted as she kicked him in his fat stomach, “Unlike us, everyone down there knew Cole would protect them so they did not hesitate to do it. If I did anything more than try speaking to them, I am sure I would be dead right now!! He could have killed me with impunity, but let me walk away with my life. Even though I may not be happy that he won the Youkai over and scolded me for not doing my job properly, I can respect that he treated me with some dignity.”
Having spoken her mind, the Kitsune ran from the room bawling her eyes out. Having never been treated that way by mortals and her own kin, Inari was overwhelmed by it all. Not wanting to be around anyone for the time being, she retreated to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
Healing his wounds the best he could, Susanoo picked himself up and was about to give chase when several katanas were pointed at his throat. Takemikazuchi, Hachiman, and Amaterasu were all ready to behead him if he took another step after her. Knowing that now was not the time to deliver payback to Inari, Susanoo reluctantly sat back down.
“Lay a finger on her, and I will cut you to pieces. Now that we have lost the majority of our followers, I suggest you go find more for us with Hachiman and Takemikazuchi.”, she told him, “I expect the two of you to keep him in line, and stop him from further embarrassing our Pantheon. If he does anything wrong, kill him.”
“Embarrassing us!?”, Susanoo shouted taking offense to that.
“We are now a Pantheon with no major following…”, Amaterasu remarked with an angry smile, “Do you understand what that means? We are running on borrowed time, and the longer we go without a sufficient number of prayers and offerings the weaker we will become. Our relations with our neighboring Pantheons are not good, and we may face problems in the coming future.”
Grabbing Susanoo by his collar, the two of them dragged him away to prepare for their journey. Letting out a sigh when they were gone, Amaterasu got up and went to find Inari to comfort her.
