'Now what?' demanded Ayame.
I hadn't realized that the Amefurikozō had followed us until my eyes fell onto him where he was seated on the branch of a nearby tree, watching us.
'Take me to the god of rain!' I called at the young spirit, desperately.
For the time being, I had no idea how to dissipate the grief that had instilled itself in Ameonna's heart and stop the rain. To make it worst, we were running out of time. The first thing to do was to ask the god of rain for a delay.
I doubted that he'd leave room to talk when he'd appear to finish Ameonna off. Wisdom would want that we keep him away.
'He doesn't receive anyone!'
I insisted, 'I absolutely need to meet him.'
The young spirit looked conflicted.
'He'll be angry with you and with me. He doesn't like to be disturbed. And he despises humans.'
'Please?!'
He thought over it for one long minute, before he finally gave in and accepted. 'Aright! But I would have warned you!'
I would have sighed in relief, had I not been nervous over meeting with the god of rain and the outcome of our exchange.
The little boy spirit came down to the ground and performing a few signs with his hands, he said a kind of spell and a hole opened up in the ground.
'Are you serious?' Ayame exclaimed at me, skeptically.
I looked at him.
'Will you please stay with Ameonna and guard her against any danger until my return?'
He asked me, cockily, 'Guard her?! What tells you that I won't kill her the moment that you're gone?'
'If you wanted to kill her, you wouldn't wait for me to be gone. You've made it clear earlier,' I pointed out and he made a face, though not disagreeing.
There hasn't been any death because of the rain so long and I prayed that nothing too bad happens at the village till the time I come back.
With anticipation, I stepped closer to the large hole in the forest floor which opened onto a stone staircase that led underground. I closed my umbrella and followed the Amefurikozō down it; the spirit's lantern lighting up on its own, procuring us with light.
The staircase ended onto a long straight tunnel carved into stone. We made our way down the tunnel, the walk lasting a good half-hour until we arrived at a right bend and around it, was the exit. The tunnel- which, in fact, was a cave- gave off onto a gigantesque lake surrounded by a thick forest.
A rowing boat was waiting for us on the shore.
I was stunned to see that it was fully daytime in this mysterious place; the sky an appealing blue, the sun shining brightly above head. The tunnel we had taken was definitely a magical passage the spirit had opened and I was pretty sure that we weren't in the same realm anymore.
I took place into the small boat and the Amefurikozō rowed us across of the lake.
Kōmori-san peeked its head out of my bag and the spirit looked at the small animal, with curiosity.
'What kind of animal is this?'
'You've never seen a bat before?' I asked, a bit surprised and he shook his head in answer, his face flushing red in embarrassment. Though, I could see the spark of interest in the spirit's eyes.
'It's a mammal and apparently, there are all types of bats,' I informed him. 'Mega bats and Micro bats. Insectivores, frugrivores, fish-eating bats, vampire bats that are hematophagous, etcetera.'
The animal moved to onto my back, clinging itself there.
A whole moment passed but we never reached the other side of the shore.
Instead, the latter became invisible to the eye. The lake seemed to stretch on for miles and miles ahead of us.
Clouds had settled in, making the sky take a dark gray shade; humidity reaching its peak.
To my astonishment, a torii came into view right ahead of us, standing boldly in the water. I couldn't remember having seen any kind of structure on the lake from the shore.
Where did this torii come out from?
It measured several meters in height and width.
We crossed through it and I didn't fail to notice that the torii didn't show any signs of damage which could have been caused by water. It looked new and yet, kind of ancient, at the same time.
The Amefurikozō continued to row for some time in the white mist- which rose just after we had crossed through the torii- until we reached a Jingū-ji shrouded within it.
There was no land, the Jingū-ji sitting on a platform right onto the lake, with pillars for support.
We came down the small boat onto a large set of stairs at the entrance of the Jingū-ji. The stone gates were wide open, guarded by two giants. The two bearded men were over-muscled and measured at least two and a half meters in height. Their heads were completely shaved, except for some hair tied in a pony tail at the back of their heads. They were dressed in Chinese clothing and armed with staffs.
'Stop there!' they exclaimed in unison, pointing their weapons in our direction, their stares threatening.
'Amefurikozō, what does this mean?' demanded a young man who arrived on the other side of the gate, at this exact moment.
The latter resembled any human of around twenty-four, wearing Gothic clothes. He was lean and of average height, his long black hair tied in a pony-tail. His hand was rested onto the butt of the katana at his waist, his expression nonchalant.
I swallowed hard in trepidation.
'She wishes to meet the boss,' the Amefurikozō answered, in a half-strained voice.
The two giants looked at the man with the katana, as if expecting him to give an order. I concluded that he was far above them- including the little boy spirit- in rank.
He was not human, of course, none of them were.
'The master will not be happy,' the man with the katana grumbled at the Amefurikozō and I, giving us an unhappy look. And then, after more consideration, he released his guard and so, did the two giants.
'Come with me!' he ordered, turning around sharply and we tagged along with him.
The Amefurikozō remained a few steps behind the older male and I remained one step behind the latter.
The older male casted at us unpleasant looks the whole while he guided us through the Jingū-ji.
'He's the secretary of the god of rain,' the Amefurikozō whispered to me on the sly.
I had seen it right, then. He was of a very different rank than everyone else.
'In fact, he's a dragon.'
'A dragon?' I asked, bewildered.
'Yes. In the hierarchy of dragons, he's of second class. I let you imagine how powerful he is!'
I gulped.
If he's this powerful, how much more powerful is the god of rain? What kind of creature will I be dealing with?
The Jingū-ji was crowded with many other creatures of rain and water. All were disguised as humans, some were adults, others- children. Along the way, I came across of several other Amefurikozō who were running around and playing frivolously and our guide scolded them for the fuss.
At last, we stopped in front of a room in one of the corridors and I guessed that it was the apartments of the god of rain. The secretary removed his shoes and asked us to remain in the corridor as he entered alone. After a few minutes, he returned and allowed us in.
The room resembled that of dōjō. It was a rectangular hall, with absolutely no furniture except for a daishō set on a Katana-kake and a Shintō shrine on the wall at the shomen. The kamidana had the sculpture of a four-legged serpentine dragon and flower arrangements on it.
The right side of the room opened onto an outdoors veranda which gave off onto the lake.
Taking example on the little boy spirit accompanying me, I took off my sandals too before entering. We took seat on the floor in the middle of the empty room, facing the kamiza, while the secretary left us to ourselves, closing the door behind him.
A minute later, a shadow flashed across of the dōjō from our right and a figure took shape in front of us.
I was astounded at the sight of the creature holding itself there.
It was a levitating dragon with its body composed entirely of water!
I was awe-struck.
'Who dares to disturb me?' it roared, in an upset tone. Its eyes zeroed on me then onto the spirit by my side. 'A human? How did you dare bring a human here, Amefurikozō?!'
'This human girl wishes to have an audience with you, master!' the young spirit said, prostrating himself on the floor.
'What do you want?' the god of rain demanded at me.
'It's about Ameonna,' I replied, picking up my courage. 'I'm here to ask for a delay. I wish to help her but I need more time.'
The god of rain became silent for a few seconds, considering what I had said, before it roared, in an even angrier tone, 'I find you extremely arrogant and impetuous to show up here and ask me a favor. Why should I accord you what you wish? You are in no position to ask me anything!'
That was entirely true. I had no idea what to answer to this. So, I prostrated myself down in all humility and pleaded, 'Please! I beg for your indulgence!'
There was another moment of silence before the god of rain asked, rhetorically, 'The scale of dragon in your possession… I suppose that Ryuhei has given it to you willingly, isn't it? I really don't see how you could have put your hands onto it otherwise!'
I straightened up, not understanding what it was trying to get at.
'I accord you three more days of delay.'
My eyes widened at the dragon in astonishment and the Amefurikozō sat bolt upright, equally surprised.
'It's only due to Ryuhei's faith in you. You can thank him for this.'
The marshland dragon Ryuhei and the god of rain were evidently both dragons of the highest class of their hierarchy and I guessed that they knew each other well.
'Thank you,' I began to say, but the god of rain was already gone, having vanished in thin air.
When we came out of the dōjō, the god of rain's secretary was waiting for us and without speaking a word, he escorted us back to our boat.
'Thank you for having allowed us in,' I told him, timidly, bowing my thanks to him and I thought I saw him blush.
'A human pleading the cause of a monster! And I who believed that I've seen everything!' he muttered under his breath, looking away. He warned me, grumpily, then, 'Alright, the master has accepted to meet you this time but it doesn't mean that you can show up here anytime you want to ask for favors, okay?!'
'Yes-Yes!' I replied, quickly.
After I had taken seat onto the small boat, the young spirit accompanying me, rowed us away from the Jingū-ji.
'You've got the delay you require, good! But, have you got a plan yet or are you still trying to think of a solution?' demanded the Amefurikozō, sarcastically.
I averted my eyes, embarrassed. I had to admit that I didn't have many ideas right now; in fact, I had none.
The young spirit made a cynical laugh and I looked up at him, something occurring to me.
'You must know a way!'
He jumped. Then, he asked, cockily, 'Even if I know a way, why would I accept to tell you about it?'
A bargain, huh?
'If you tell me about it, I promise you that I'll buy you as many sweets as you want and I'll play with you a whole day!'
'Do you take me for a child or what?' he snapped, vexed. But contrarily to his words, saliva dripped down from the corner of his mouth and he flushed up when he realized that I noticed. He was tempted. Spirit or not, he remained a kid.
'Alright,' he declared, gruffly, giving in. 'But there's no guaranty that it'll work, okay? You may consider that it's a last resort.'
I nodded for him to continue.
'We need to find Hiyoribō!'
'Hiyoribō?!'
That's right! Hiyoribō was the yōkai which stopped rainfall. I believed that it was only a legend.
'I know where to find him, but there are a few problems. First of all, there's no way that I can tell whether he'll accept to help you. And if he does accept to accompany us to Iwaki, there's no guaranty that his powers will be sufficient to make it stop raining. Also, there's another thing that you should consider. If we leave right away, it'll take us one and a half day to reach him and another one and a half day to make it back to Iwaki. In other words, we'll be just in time. In the case that the plan fails, there'll be no time for you to try another solution.'
He stopped rowing and became quiet, leaving me time to decide.
It wasn't an easy decision to make. It was question of Ameonna's life.
On one hand, we could get back to Iwaki right away and try to find a solution there itself, before the delay expires. On the other hand, we could head to find Hiyoribō and risk it all.
I was caught in an ultimatum.
But there was another way to see this dilemma.
On one side was the possibility that the available solution works, on the other, the probability of finding some other solution which might or might not work.
What was the right method of choosing?
I wished I knew which was the right path to take. I wished such an important decision wasn't on my shoulders.
But I had taken this responsibility, so it was time for me to assume it.
Taking a deep breath, I decided, 'Let's find Hiyoribō!'
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Torii - a Japanese traditional gate
Jingū-ji - shrine temple
Katana-kake - a special stand for swords
Kamidana - miniature household altar
Kamiza - honorary place