Paul was sitting, staring into nothingness, when Shoko returned carrying a tray laden with food. He didn’t react as her geta clattered across the marble floor. Shoko looked at him, and put the tray down on a table before climbing into his lap.

Surprised, Paul looked down at her, as Shoko curled up and rested her head against his chest.

“Hello?”

“You looked sad and lost and lonely.”

Paul opened his mouth to refute that, and found he couldn’t. Sighing he nodded, and then rested his chin on the top of her head, Shoko’s ear tufts tickling his face slightly.

“I suppose so… how are you holding up little one?”

Shoko sighed.

“Surviving… I felt her die you know. Like a pang in my chest. Inari says we share a bond, something she wove to keep me alive when my… my mother died.”

Paul lifted his head slightly and looked down at her.

“Oh god…. I’ve been so preoccupied with myself, I honestly didn’t stop to think how you must feel. I am so, so sorry Shoko!”

Shoko shrugged.

“It’s.. well it’s not ok… but I think I would be worse if I couldn’t still feel Inari. It’s faint, but I know she’s still there. Even though her body is dead, her spirit still exists.”

Paul opened his mouth to say something...then closed it as he thought. After a moment he buried his face in Shoko’s hair again.

“That’s good to know. I...I was thinking, what if I’m wrong?What if Inari is dead and gone, not just dead. But.. thank you Shoko. I was beginning to despair.”

Shoko chuckled, albeit weakly, but still it was a small merry sound from her.

“You remember when you first arrived? How Inari was just waiting to die, and I was trying my hardest to pretend everything was alright? And how you told her off and gave us all hope again? Well… I’m just returning the favour now.”

Paul sighed, and then straightening up, smiled slightly down at the small kitsune shaped bundle of fluff in his lap.

“Thanks Shoko-chan… I needed that. I could feel myself sliding into a bad place mentally again, and you’re the best antidepressant I know of.”

Shoko leaned back against Paul’s encircling arms, tiling her head up she smiled up at Paul with a big grin.

“That’s because I’ve had years of practice!”

Paul laughed, shaking his head.

“I suppose you have… talk about finding the silver lining there Shoko-chan!”

Shoko laughed in a self-satisfied “Hee-heeee..” sort of way while grinning broadly.  Paul’s answering smile was a bit lob-sided and more of a sketch, but was none-the-less genuine.

“Right, well, this helps, but it’s not getting anything done.”

“Nuh-uh, Paul-sama. Eat first! You’ll think better if you’ve got something to fuel your brain!”

Paul eyed the tray dubiously.

“Hmm.. not disputing the point, but how much thinking do you imagine I’m going to doing? There’s enough there for  a small army! And when did you even get time to cook all that?”

Shoko shook her head as she hopped down off Paul’s lap.

“That’s because half of that is Inari’s.”

Paul glanced at the shrouded form, and then looked back at Shoko.

“Um… she’s not going to be able to eat that…”

Shoko huffed, pouting slightly.

“Baka, those are her offerings. Word has already started to get around and people are already making offerings to her.”

Paul raised an eyebrow.

“Riiiight… well, I guess it does no harm. Oh..fudge! I just thought, I’ll need to notify The Emperor of what’s happened…”

Shoko shook her head.

“Kiko already has, and told him you’re going to get her back. I’m supposed to tell you that whatever you need, you’ll have it. In meantime there’s to be a special announcement on TV asking people to pray for her.”

Paul opened and closed his mouth, as a dozen or more thoughts collided in his head on the way to his mouth. In the end he just nodded.

“Yeah… that might help. There’s so much about the nature of Divine magic I just don’t know… not that anyone knows.  But I think worship is important. Prayers for her could do some good.”

Shoko nodded firmly.

“and if everyone is praying. That has to do something, right?”

Paul nodded, then slowly stood up, sliding Shoko off his lap before swiping some imaginary dust from his hands and talking as he crossed over to the tray of food.

“Well, I guess I had better do my part then. First things first, eat, then see what Kiko’s found in the archives that might be relevant. Throw a few ideas at her what to look for maybe, and then see if I can come up with a plan. Then hold a council of war once everyone’s here.”

Shoko nodded.

“Katsu and Katsumi have gone to fetch Suz-metal. She’s in Beijing and can’t just get a flight home.”

Paul’s head whipped round as he stared at Shoko.

“Beijing? What was she.. no… let me guess. Road of Resistance?”

Shoko nodded. Paul sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Ok… so did nobody think that maybe sending the Goddess of Battles off to fetch her might not be a good idea? Besides how are they going to get in and...out.”

Paul paused, his face frozen as the answer to his question burst into his head like being hit by one of the Yamato’s 16 inch Mk3 shells.

“Oh... bloody… hell! Please tell me they are not going to fly the Yamato into Chinese air space?!”

Shoko bit her lips, and nodded. Paul closed his eyes for a moment.

“Right. Well. Not much I can do about that now! As long as it doesn’t trigger world war three, I’ll deal with that problem later.  Moving on!”

Shoko murmured.

“Katsu said she’d be polite…”

Paul snorted, but didn’t comment, instead devoting his attention to filling a bowl with rice and some of the Teriyaki. After a short while while he ate in silence, and Shoko placed the majority of the bowls of food in a circle around the chaise lounge with Inari’s silk draped body on it. That task concluded with a short silent prayer, and the traditional hand claps, Shoko came and sat next to Paul.

Paul leaned back eventually with a sigh.

“Ok, I should get to work rather than mope over my dinner. I’m no good to her if all I’m doing is wallowing in grief after all.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself Paul-san. I’m sure even if you don’t think you’re thinking, that you’re thinking of something in the back of your head.”

Paul looked sideways at Shoko, raising an eyebrow.

“My editor would draw a big fat red line though that sentence if I’d written it, but I know what you mean… and yes, I do have a few vague ideas floating around in the old noggin. But I’m reluctant to openly discuss them. I’m fairly sure, but not one hundred precent certain that Izanami can’t spy on us in Inari’s Sanctum, or my workshop. But I’m not absolutely certain, and I don’t want to tip our hand.”

Shoko frowned.

“Paul-san.. did Inari know of your suspicions?”

Paul shook his head, then made a rocking so-so gesture with his hand.

“We’d discussed in general terms. But no, not in detail. I wasn’t certain who was doing it, but I was sure someone was behind it all. There were too many coincidental incidences to be believable when you added them up. I figured someone was spying, but I didn’t know who… and it didn’t make sense at the time that Inari was basically ignored when every other god or goddess had gone missing. I wasn’t sure if she wasn’t behind it herself.”

Shoko’s eyes went wide.

“How could you think that! Inari would never…”

Paul reached out and ruffled Shoko’s hair.

“You know Inari has.. issues.. with her memory? And that kami go bit… strange, as they lose their powers? Well, I had the notion that Inari had suffered a mental split. Dissociative personality syndrome. Basically, two minds in one body… a ‘good’ Inari and a ‘bad’ one. History is a bit… well she’s not always painted in the best light in some of the old stories, and yet the Inari you and I know isn’t entirely as the stories made her out to be.”

Shoko jumped in as Paul paused for breath.

“But she’s not...that… right?”

“No… I think she’s suffered some kind of trauma that her mind has blocked her from remembering out of self-defence, but she’s still sane and whole. However since personality is partly a product of memories, it changed her, made her more sympathetic, mellow even… along with being a shut-in that is.”

Shoko nodded.

“Ok, I get it… so you were keeping secrets from her, for her own good.”

Paul winced, and then sighed.

“Yeah, when you put it that way, it doesn’t sound good does it..but you understand?”

Shoko slowly nodded.

“You couldn’t entirely trust her other self.”

“Pretty much, I figured it was either someone somehow spying on us remotely using magic, which shouldn’t be able to get past the wards around the mountain, or that. But now I know who’s responsible I know Izanami has the power to spy on us, since she stole it from Amaterasu.”

Shoko blinked.

“Wait, she stole Amaterasu’s power?”

Paul nodded.

“I think so. I think she’s the reason why so many kami have gone missing. She’s killed them and stolen back their power.”

“How?”

“Ok, you know how Inari divided her divine.. pearl, she called it… and gave it to Kiko, Suz-metal and Katsu? Afterwards she told me that she could take it back, reabsorb it since it’s descended from her Divine pearl. But to do so she’d have to kill them, at least for a short while, but that it ran the risk of them being permanently dead if it went wrong. The way I figure it, Izanami can do the same thing to all those Kami descended from her, or from one of the other primordials since they’re all kind of like brothers and sisters.”

“Ohhh…. But why would she do that?”

Paul shrugged.

“Revenge I guess. She died after giving birth to the god of fire, burnt from the inside out, and her own brother-husband rejected her when he saw her decayed form. I guess she’s held a grudge against life itself ever since. Or at least, so the stories seem to say. I have no idea what her end game is however, but it evidently involves needing a lot of power.”

Paul paused for a moment as he was struck by a thought.

“Hmm… I wonder just how much of a perfectionist she is, or how much power she needs?”

Shoko looked at Paul quizzically as he started to pace back and forth, talking out loud as his mind raced.

“Why did she chose to act now? Inari was at low ebb, and mortal… but she’s been an easy target before now. So why… Oh! Unless it wasn’t just about Inari? She could’ve anticipated we’d try to come for her, and have waited until the three new Kami were fully integrated with their divine seed, and back up to strength but hadn’t mastered their new powers… then she could use Inari to lure them in and gobble them up as well. Four for the price of one.”

“Paul-san?”

“Sorry Shoko, thinking out loud… and I think I might have to revise my plan before I even have one. I was thinking of just going in all-guns blazing and with Kiko, Katso and Suz at my back. But now that I think about it, that might be what she wants. Izanami might be madder than a sack full of hares, but she’s not stupid. I strongly suspect we’d be walking into a trap.”

“Then… we aren’t going to try and get Inari?”

“Oh no, we are, we’re just going to be a bit sneaky about it somehow. Maybe leave Kiko here to carry on if it all goes sideways., so Izanami doesn’t get them all.”

“She won’t like that!”

Paul nodded, imagining the normally mild mannered Kiko’s reaction to being told she had to sit at home…

“Yeahhh.. no. I think keeping the number of deities pissed off at me down to a minimum might be more conducive to along and peaceful life.”

Shoko chuckled weakly.

“That sounds like a good idea. Oh! What if we make it look like we’re doing exactly what she wants, but instead of her springing a trap on us, we spring one on her!”

Paul nodded, a slow sly smile spreading across his face.

“I like the way you think Shoko-chan! That’s a great idea, I can work with that! We can also let slip bits, scraps of intel, making use of the fact she’s spying on us to feed her false information about what we’re planning.”

Paul chuckled, and dusted off something largely imaginary from his robes.

“Right. To work! I’ve got details to thrash out, and a plan to conjure up! And  sooooo many questions that need answers first!”