The Goddess of the Moon

Oriente 6, Heaven

When I woke up, 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 looked at me surprised, so much so that she even dropped the spoon.

"Idiot"
"Are you awake?"
"Don't hit me with those 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 for you to have one or two encounters"
"But you have to be more careful, you are recovering from several injuries and yesterday you tried to bleed to death and froze"
"Are you trying to set a record for how much trouble you can get into before anyone else?"

"I swear, I just wanted to go to town and come back in the afternoon, I did not think it would take long.

"But it's almost winter now, you were lucky that a snowfall didn't surprise you with those clothes!
"Well, the good news is that I was able to get the portal to work for a moment yesterday.
"The bad news is that it was in emergency mode because we had to bring blood from headquarters to give to an idiot who almost died in the forest because her body has a rare blood type 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 and I did not bring another power source, so I will have to order it and wait for it to arrive, which may take me a month.

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

"So think better before you do something stupid"

I was still talking to Momo when someone else came into our room. It was Urakaze, with her armor, although she now wore 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 much you scared me"
"I almost thought I had lost the hotel completely.

"Thank you for your concern," I replied.

"A little more and you won't get out of this.
"The wound was very torn from walking injured and you lost a lot of blood.
"Although it seemed strange to me that Momo knew how to treat you and which 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 she took better care of herself," the crystal angel replied.

"After a blood transfusion and a little medicine, we managed to heal your wound.
"Since then, Momo and I have taken turns taking care of you and sleeping with you.
"The wound is completely healed and unmarked, thanks to the extraordinary help of the manager of this hotel."
"Which would be 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 any good painkillers, so it might hurt a bit at first."
"But don't worry, it's nothing serious."

"But what was it that attacked you?"
"If it was able to hurt you, it means it must be extraordinary," 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 she came to hunt."
"Since she seemed to be from around here, I asked her for help to get out of there, and she even accompanied me.
"But after we walked for a while, we started to talk.
"I told her that Urakaze has an inn near here, and when she heard that, she changed completely and started attacking me.

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

"Yes, when she heard the name, she started acting strangely," I started to answer.
"She was wearing traditional Japanese clothes, although worn.
"But her appearance was a bit unique, she had blonde hair and blue eyes."
"Her weapon was a kind of naginata and a bow.

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

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

Urakaze looked silently at the ground and thought. She took a moment to consider what she was about to say and spoke again with determination.

"A long time ago, I was assigned to hunt a kitsune.
"Apparently, she had deceived the lord of the region.
"I thought it would be easy because I had a lot of experience hunting Yokai, but it was not what I expected.
"She was someone quite powerful, it was Tamamo-no-Mae against whom I lost my life in that encounter."

"I know the legend on Earth that spoke of her," I told her.

She was a kitsune that was created by Amaterasu, the sun goddess and principal in Japanese folklore who disguised herself as a human to help Emperor Toba. It was not specifically a goddess in the sense of a new goddess, since it was created by another goddess. But if she was the counterpart of the Sun Goddess, she could be considered the Moon Goddess. A certain fighter pilot I knew told me this. She was a beautiful woman, the most intelligent of the court, there was no subject she was not an expert in, astrology, science, philosophy, music, religion. Some claimed that she was a legendary power magician. It was said that she always smelled good and her clothes never got dirty or torn. The young emperor was said to be in love with her, but one day, before he could ask the beautiful Tamamo-no-mae to marry him, he fell ill. Apparently with a terrible disease that even the best doctors in the empire could not even identify until one day the head court magician said it was the girl fault, as he had apparently noticed something strange in her head, he cast a malefic against her to reveal her true identity, which they discovered was actually a demon, a Yokai masquerading as a human, a fox girl, a kitsune. 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 her beloved and her counter-argument, only wanted to save his own life at all costs and was full of rage. He gave the order to kill her personally, to persecute her to the end of the world if necessary, all for betrayal for which there was no evidence other than words spoken. Scared for her own life, she escaped from the palace, attacking several guards to get out. She was then chased by two of the best demon hunters sent by the Emperor himself. Tamamo defended herself, killing up to 60,000 of the Emperor's soldiers in her final 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 her already tired of sho much fight. They managed to kill her with a rain of arrows, layers of which blotted out the sun. Then the mages sealed her soul in a stone, from which her soul could not escape, but eventually, the seal weakened and a curse came out of it, killing whoever tried to do it. The emperor also died at the age of 16 from a disease that turned out to be caused by a poison from the sorcerer 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 the two hunters," I said in surprise.
"But do you really think it could be her?"
"Although I remember there was a stone on an altar in the temple."
"But what is the stone doing here?"
"It should still be on earth."
"Ironically, in a tourist place."

"We didn't want to leave a cursed stone that sealed an evil goddess on Earth where tourists go"
"We replaced it with 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 if it woke up, it could not do any more damage."
"Those of us around here are experienced hunters, so if anything happens, we would be the first to know."
"That's why no one goes into the forest, so the animals go there, which makes it a good hunting place for the families who live here."
"But no one has ever been foolish enough to go that far into the forest, until now."

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

"So you faced an evil goddess and came out alive," the crystal girl said as she started her second cup of ice cream.
"I have a new respect for you now."
"So what is your excuse for trying to see her again?"

"You said 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 gave it energy.
"But you have to give the right amount, a little or a lot, and it could burn the rest of the machine."
"Besides, how are you going to talk to her about helping you when you almost killed each other yesterday?"

"She was a person who helped 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 you some clothes for the cold and also some food so you can take it with you, I think she'll like it and she'll 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 few more pills to take away the pain and got ready to go back. Again I would do something stupid just to get back to my family, but if I succeeded it would be worth it. Besides, it's the worst thing that could happen to me here. The worst thing that could happen is that I have to go back and wait longer than I want to, but nothing more. Although it would be better to hurry, because I have no idea what Urakaze plans to do with her.