Human Side Stories: Miyakuro: 2

Human Side Stories: Miyakuro: 2

…

Commisioned by Chaosbrain

Wordcount: 2000

…

Japanese Arcologies are filled with worthless shit. In my opinion, Japan went to fucking hard on keeping cultural heritage sites. A restaurant or two is fine, but fucking whole hills covered in forests with shrines on them? One is okay. Half a dozen spread out across three arcologies? Fucking ludicrous. Sure, they count as parks and people love to fuck around in nature every now and again, but there’s a point in time when you look at the three hills you’re lifting up into space and say “that should be fine” instead of going “let’s throw up three more.”

But I have to admit that if each shrine came with a decent problem solver like the one in the Tokyo Arcology, then I’d not consider them all worthless. 

Time sinks with low returns, maybe. 

“This place is pretty very.” Right, right. I was getting so irritated by the situation that I forgot that I had company that wasn’t Gugnir. My student walked up the stone steps of the hill, between the shrine gates and trees, with nothing besides awe on her features. Man, it must be nice to be stupid. All you see is the nice, pleasant surface of the situation. Yep. It didn’t even cross her mind that all the manpower involved in this could have been used to find and secure her whole village a dozen times over. Also, someway and somehow, her Japanese was coming along better than her Mandarin. It was actually tolerable. “Special… this place is?”

I carefully considered the question before answering. 

“No. Not at all. Feel free to piss, shit, or cut down any of the trees here, if you want.” I told her the truth. Unfortunately, my student is the irresponsible and ungrateful sort. Her eyes narrowed at me, before she huffed and punched me in the shoulder. Crossing her arms, she took several faster steps ahead. What a rude little shit. “That wasn’t a lie, you brat. It’s nothing to you and it’s nothing to me. Something being special is relative.”

“Special to others is special for me.” Tch. There it was. The shitty ‘nice person clause’ that Li grafted onto my student. It wasn’t bad enough that I had to have a student, but they also a had to be a relatvively decent person. Whatever was going on in his head while he made the rule up, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t looking forward to teaching my students that ins and outs of the real world, especially if the majority of what they’re seeing is a utopia after they’re rescued from lives of utter shittiness.Yeah, sure give the black-ops guy the child orphans with histories of abuse from other parties and who’ll be living in heaven from now on. That’s not going to fuck me over in the slightest. “Knowing of other peoples is of greatly importance.”

“Then, good luck with life, idiot. If everything and everyone’s important, then you’re shit out of luck when you actually need to do anything constructive, let alone choose who are what to save.” Well, at least until you manage to get ridiculously powerful. When one reaches the point of a Concept in strength, it’s less about doing the right thing and more about being careful about what you label as right. Those who have strength have the responsibility to use it for those who don’t. Those who have true power, who can’t be matched within the realm of reason, have the obligation to live and act properly and be a good example. Why? Because if no one can punish you, then anything you do is correct by default. “Be smarter. Stand on your own. Make your own beliefs important.”

“That… that is of good reasoning, but I do not wish to be disliked by others. I am not as strong as teacher to the disliking of others.” Okay, I’ll admit that’s a good point. There’s no way that you can be as great as me. It’s only natural that you’ll like fads just because other people like them, especially since you want to make ‘friends’ and ‘acquintances’ with ‘people.’ It’s immature and I don’t like it, but I suppose it’s my job to beat that silly concept out of you. Hm? What’s that? I’m week to compliments, even backhanded ones? Shut up or I’ll kill you, voice in my head. I’ve done it before. “This place is cared for very much. It is loved by the one who cares for it. I am sure they are a person of peace and calm who I will like to be with very much.”

Again, I carefully considered my student’s words about the situation before answering.

“Oh, yeah. Totally. Best person. Best shrine maiden. 10/10.”

That was, as the kids say, totes the best answer. 

…

The Shrine was the typical, Japense self-fellatory expression of culture.  A centuries old, fat pagoda thing that was routinely visited because it’s just something that’s expected, and maintained entirely through donations. I have to admit that those that did the maintaining at least did pretty well, according to unbiased, historical sources. However, what organization that was community-based, unaffiliated with politics, and raised children as child warriors from good stock didn’t have success back in the old days? That’s right. None. As far as supernatural-fighting humans go, those who tended to Japanese Shrines were average, and they certainly didn’t deserve entire hills with leylines all for themselves. 

They should’ve done the reasonable thing, grafted berseker rituals on the hills, and told humans to use it whenever something nasty shows up. Why bother with things like bloodlines, tradtion, and tithes when you can just drop a few bloodthirsty warriors onto a circle, see them get really, really pissed off, and throw them at the enemy? It’s much more resource efficient, especially back in the old days when humans killed and murdered on a daily basis. 

Anyway, in regards to bloodthirsty, slightly manic mouthbreaters…

Hikari showed up in her typical wear, which was like a beat cop with money issues and a sudden growth spurt. Hyoudou practically eyed her up the first time they met. Honestly, I saw the appeal. Then, my brain kicked in and saw that she was literally like a leashed, rabid dog that was ever-so-slowly being reintroduced to the concepts of being a decent human being. Her focus was on killing Youkai, punishing them if they did something that didn’t merit killing, and pretending that she’s actually a better person than she used to be. Props to her, she’s convinced herself and is actually changing, but one fucked over support pillar and she’ll regress back to being a mad bitch faster than the Cradle would if humanity wasn’t cheating like crazy.

Anyway, as per usual, she was pissed off, angry that I existed, and pissed off that she was angry that I existed. 

I didn’t even need to use my Eye of Wisdom for that. 

“What’s up, midriff mutt. I’m here to tell you that you’re back under my direct management and that your territory now includes the entire Cradle. Congradulations, you are now going to be overworked for the rest of eternity.” What? Did she think all the shit I was going her was free? Okay, I’ll admit I had most of those things just lying around because I knocked over a few factions here and there while I was growing up, but it’s the principle of the matter. I don’t believe in free meals. I believe in debts with too high of interest rates to be ever paid off, so that people will have to work until I magnamiously allow them to retire and reject their debts. “Here’s my student. Look at her. She’s better than you in every way and I just met her yesterday.”

I have to admit that I was looking to get the two to fight. Not for some inane reason like Hyoudou would have, along the lines of somehow finding it attrative to see two people tear each other apart, but because I was bored and didn’t have anything to do for the rest of the afternoon. It would also give me a good idea about how to train my new student, and see how Hikari was shaping up, but I could do that in glance.

But it wouldn’t be entertaining. 

Unfortunately, my Li’s decision to fuck me over was all-encompasing and unceasing. 

“Greetings. I am being Nian Zhen. It is happy to be meeting you.” Dammit, I wanted to see a fight, but Zhen was just being Zhen. Jeez, how could you be such a Zhen, Zhen? Why can’t you be more like me? Wait, I’d only dislike you more if you were like me. Forget that. Keep being you. Having irritating, decent person is better to have around than another me. I’d hate it. “I wish to be getting along with you.”

Given her behaviors and hangups, Hikari’s response to those words were to glare at me, step forward, and cross her arms.

What a judgy btich.

“If you’ve forced this young woman into working for you, I won’t be working with you no matter how much good you promise to do, Miyakuro.” 

“Firstly, calm the fuck down. Secondly, where do you hide your massive balls in those pants? Thirdly, this girl was forced onto me by Li Song to keep me on the straight and narrow in my new job. Honestly I’d rather not have her with me, but I don’t exactly have a fucking choice.” I waved Hikari down. Weeks and weeks of careful investiment and coddling made it so that she actually backed the fuck off instead of doing something stupid. I knew that she had a hero complex big enough to make Lucifer blink, but I thought I’d worked on it for long enough that she wouldn’t risk fucking over a literal Divine Blessing over a single girl. “So, calm yourself the fuck down. I’m not forcing her to be with me. She’s stuck onto me like a barnacle, I hate it, and aI can’t do anything about it.”

And people call me a terrible, mean, and vile god. Look at me, I’ve basically got every right to strip away my Blessings from this girl, but she’s still staring me down like an angry mutt. If you think I’m going to back down from a single glare, I’ll have you know that you need to be at least twice as scary as you are right now, because this young, human male body is stupidly week to that sort of shit and I can barely hold off instinct and nature with all my millenia. Fucking hormones. 

“Please, do not be of fighting. I am appreciative of your intent, but it is placed wrongly. I am a lucky, appreciative student of Kita Miyakuro.” Oh, look. The linguistically inept individual raised to be an idiot all her life, so that a few old bastards can enjoy meat during the apocalypse, is smarter than my foremost agent in the Arcologies. I don’t know whether to be proud or disappointed. Actually, that’s a lie. I’m disappointed in Hikari 100%. Bitch, read the mood sometime. “I am here by request and am very grateful for acceptance. I was of the rescued from the planet by Miyakuro, with my people, after I defeated monsters who kept us to be of cattle.”

For a second, I thought that was it. 

Hikari and Zhen were going to be acquintances.

Instead HIkari took interest in Zhen, her eyes narrowing, and she said words that threw me for a loop.

“How did you kill these monsters who kept you and your family for food?”

“It was of judicious violence and fire. Miyakuro praised me for impaling chieftain cannibal on tree from rear to mouth, then set alight, for his crimes.”

I saw Hikari’s feelings of admiration and respect for those words a mile away thanks to the fact I wasn’t an idiot, in real time due to the fact I had an Eye of Wisdom, and then heard them aloud in reality.

“Nice. Well done. You hunted down all the stragglers after one by one?”

“I did. Then, I made a big fire to burn their home, treasures, and bodies together.”

“I see. Very good.”

Figures that my two subordinates were both bloodthirsty lunatics.