Chapter 16:

The Goddess Of The Moon

Valkyria Squadron


Oriente 6, Heaven

When I woke up again, my room at the inn was back, it was daylight. I was lying on a futon, checking that my wound was bandaged and although it hurt a little it was not serious, as it had been treated. A noise came from one of the doors, it was Momo who had a cup of ice cream, she was looking at me surprised, so much so that she even dropped the spoon.

"idiot"
"Are you awake!"
"Don't hit me with these scares!"
"You almost made me drop my ice cream"

"Are you mad about that and not about the trouble I got into?"

"With your luck it is normal that you have one or the other encounter"
"But you must be more careful, you have been recovering from several injuries and yesterday you tried to bleed to death and frozen"
"Are you trying to break a record in how much trouble can you get into before anyone else?"

"I swear I was only trying to go to town and return for the afternoon, I did not think it would take long".

"But it's almost winter now, you were lucky that a snowfall did not surprise you with those clothes!".
"Now the good news I was able to get the portal working for a moment yesterday".
"The bad news is that it was in emergency mode because we had to bring blood from the headquarters to give it to an idiot who almost died in the forest because his body has a rare type of blood that is not easy to get. So the power converter that was not calibrated still could not support it and burned the power source, so now it will take longer to fix it and I did not bring another power source so I will have to order it and wait for it to arrive, which maybe it will take me a month".

"A MONTH!"
"I can't wait that long!"
"I have to go back as soon as possible!"

"So think better of it before you do something silly"

I was still talking to Momo when someone else came into our room. It was Urakaze, with his armor, although now he was using a lighter one with fewer plates, in addition to a hunting bow and arrows.

"With your permission"
"You're better it seems"
"You have no idea how scared you gave me"
"I almost thought that I had already lost the hotel completely"

"Thanks for your concerns" I replied.

"A little more and you don't get out of that"
"The wound was torn a lot from walking injured and you lost a lot of blood"
"Although it seemed strange to me that Momo knew how to treat you and what medicine would work for you"

"Well it's part of my job to keep my boss alive, although it would be easier for me if he took better care of himself" answered the crystal angel.

"After a blood transfusion and a little medicine, we managed to heal you from the wound"
"Since then, Momo and I have taken turns taking care of you and sleeping"
"The wound is completely healed and unmarked thanks to the exceptional help of the manager of this hotel"
"Which would make a ridiculously high fee, so high that your father will be forced to return this place to me."
"Although I'm afraid we don't have good painkillers so it might hurt a bit for now. But don't worry it's nothing serious"

"But what was it that attacked?"
"If he was able to hurt you, it means that he must be exceptional"Momo asked.

"I don't know who it was"
"I got lost in the forest and thought about spending the night in a temple near a river."
"But then a young woman appeared, it seems that she came to hunt"
"Since it seemed like she was from around here, I asked her for help to get out of there and she even accompanied me. But after walking for a while we started talking."
"I told him that Urakaze has an inn around here and just when he heard this he changed completely and began to attack me"

"Wait a minute!"the samurai girl interrupted me.
"Do I attack you when you hear my name?"
"Like she was?"
"How was the place where she was?"

"Yeah she thought I heard the name was when she started acting weird"I started answering.
"She had traditional Japanese clothing although worn"
"But her appearance was different, she had blonde hair and blue eyes"
"As a weapon he had a kind of naginata and a bow"

"Was she surprised to see you?"She kept throwing questions.
"Did she say something about your ears or tail?"
"Whatever!?"

"Well at one point she told me that she was happy to see another kitsune, although she had never met an Arctic, I asked her if there was another that she knew, but she did not answer me"
"Do you have any idea who she is?"

Urakaze was silently looking at the ground thinking. She took a moment to think about what she was about to say, and resolutely spoke again.

"A long time ago I was tasked with hunting a kitsune. Apparently, she had deceived the lord of the region, I thought it would be easy because she had experience hunting Yokai, but it was nothing what I expected. It was someone quite powerful, it was Tamamo-no-Mae, so I lost my life in that encounter."

"I know the legend of the land that spoke about it"I told her.

It was a kitsune that was created by Amaterasu, the sun goddess and principal in Japanese folklore who posed as a human to help Emperor Toba. It was not specifically speaking of a goddess at all in the sense of being a new Goddess, as it was created by another goddess.
But if it could be considered the counterpart of the sun goddess and therefore the moon goddess. A certain fighter pilot I knew told me.

She was a beautiful lady, the most intelligent of the court, there was no subject that was not an expert, astrology, science, philosophy, music, religion. Some claimed that a legendary power mage. It was said that she always smelled good and her clothes never got dirty or torn

The young emperor is said to be in love with her, but one day, before proposing to the lady that he wanted. The man was sick, apparently of a terrible disease that even the best doctors in the empire could not even identify. Until one day the court magician said it was her fault since apparently, he had noticed something strange in her head, which they discovered was indeed a demon posing as a human.
Apparently, the magician accused her of working for an enemy daimyo and trying to kill the Emperor with some kind of poison. The emperor himself far from believing in her, wanting to save his own life at all costs and full of rage. He gave the order personally to kill her, persecute her to the end of the world if necessary
She, scared, escaped from the palace, attacking several guards to get out of there. After this, he was hunted by two hunters, personally sent by the Emperor. Tamamo defending herself, she killed up to 60,000 soldiers of the emperor in her flight. She begged the hunters for her life but they cruelly refused.

In the end, it took a huge army and the best magicians to stop it. They managed to kill her with a rain of arrows, layers of extinguishing the sun. Then the magicians locked her soul in a stone, from where her soul would not be able to escape, but the seal eventually weakened and a curse came out of it that killed whoever would do to it. The emperor also died of his illness, at the age of 16, produced by a disease that turned out to be coming from a poison of the magician who accused Tamamo. After sending the best priest who had managed to appease Tamamo's soul. She promised not to kill again if they left the stone where she died alone.

"So you were one of those two hunters" I said surprised.
"But do you really think it could be her?"
"Although I remember in the temple there was a stone on an altar."
"But what is the stone doing here?"
"It's supposed to still be on earth"
"Ironically in a tourist place"

"We weren't going to let a cursed stone that sealed a goddess lie on earth where people went".
"We exchanged it for a replica about 300 years ago"
"It was a big enough operation not to wake her up, the angels also helped us a lot."
"After that, we made it the temple deep in the forest so that in case it woke up it could not cause more damage"
"Those of us around here are experienced hunters so if something happens we would be the first to know"
"That is why nobody goes to the forest, so the animals go there, which makes it a good hunting place for families who live here."
"But no one has ever been foolish enough to go that far into the woods, until now"

"This is bad enough, if she left the stone it means that the seal was broken, so she might plan to attack"
"I have to talk to others to warn them and make a plan against her"
"You guys stay here and don't go near the forest" Urakaze said as she quickly left the room.

"So you faced a goddess and came out alive!?"Said the crystal girl when she started his second cup of ice cream.
"I have a new level of respect for you now"
"So what is the excuse you are going to use to try to see her again?"

"You said that the portal's power source had burned out, if she is a goddess wouldn't I be able to give her enough energy to function for a moment to allow me to pass?"
"Wait, were you already hoping that I would try to find her again?"

"When the machine broke I thought you would try to do something crazy and listening to your story I thought you would try to do something like that."
"The machine would work if something like a goddess gives it energy. But you have to give the right amount, a little or a lot and it could burn the rest of the machine."
"Also, how do you plan to talk to her about helping you when you almost killed each other yesterday?"

"She was a person who was helping me until I heard about Urakaze, so I think she is a good person"
"Maybe if I talk to her again she could help me if I promise her that no one will hurt her"

"Don't worry, the angels are here to help, I'll get your clothes for the cold and also some food so you can take her, I think she likes it and she will listen to you better with a full belly"

After that Momo went out for a moment to get exactly what she said. I for my part asked for a couple more pills to remove the pain and getting ready to go back. Again I would do something silly just to get back to my family, but if I was successful it would have been worth it. Besides, it's the worst thing that could happen to me here. In the worst case, I just have to go back and wait longer than I would like, but nothing more. Although it would be better to hurry because I have no idea what Urakaze plans to do with her.