"Four items? Name them. I'll have them delivered at once."
Deputy Director Ozaki's voice was strained but resolute. To save Nara, and by extension his own career, he would procure forty items, let alone four.
Reiko looked at him, her child-like voice devoid of emotion. "The Sacred Tree. The Yomi Bloom. The Yata no Kagami. And a grand ritual."
"The Yata… no Kagami?" Ozaki's hand, which had been reaching for his phone, froze mid-air. He stammered, "Great Priestess, are you referring to the Mirror of Yata? One of the Three Imperial Regalia, along with the Kusanagi Sword and the Yasakani Jewel?"
Reiko nodded.
A look of utter despair washed over Ozaki's face. The Yata no Kagami was a national treasure of mythical status. It was far beyond the reach of a mere PSIA deputy director. Worse, he knew a secret few others did: the mirror kept at the Ise Grand Shrine was a replica. The original had been lost for decades. The Emperor himself had a standing, secret bounty for its return.
"This sounds like the ritual from the Annals of Empress Jingū," Priest Tomioka murmured, catching himself before he said Amaterasu. He quickly corrected, "...the ritual to summon a great god." A thought struck him with the force of a physical blow. Could that book be real? Not a myth created in Queen Himiko's name, but her actual grimoire, detailing her rites and methods of power?
Tanaka the Onmyoji filed the name away. This was the second time he'd heard of the book. He made a mental note to find a copy. If it held the key to real spiritual power, his days of bluffing could finally be over.
Meanwhile, the sky bled. The ghastly image of Yomi descended, slow and unstoppable. More skyscrapers were consumed by the sickly yellow light. Panicked screams echoed from within as people either fled in terror or froze, resigned to a hellish fate.
Reiko acted. She drew the sharp edge of a Purgation Arrow across her palm. Crimson blood welled up. Dipping her finger in it, she began to draw complex, glowing runes on the asphalt. When she was finished, she ignored the wound and formed a hand seal.
"Barrier!" she commanded.
The runes flared to life. An invisible dome of power erupted, enveloping the entirety of Nara. The descending underworld collided with it, its ghastly light washing over the barrier in waves but failing to break through.
"I can hold this for six hours," Reiko announced, her voice calm. "After that, my power will wane, and the barrier will fall."
"Six hours… not nearly enough time to evacuate," Ozaki muttered, his jaw tight. He gritted his teeth and dialed the Prime Minister's direct line.
In the Prime Minister's official residence in Tokyo, an emergency council was in session. Priests, onmyoji, monks, and department heads sat around a long table, their faces drawn and exhausted. They had been in this room for over twenty-four hours straight.
Prime Minister Tagawa took the call, his brow furrowed so deeply it looked like a canyon. "Deputy Director Ozaki reports that the Great Priestess Reiko requires a Sacred Tree, a Yomi Bloom, the Yata no Kagami, and a grand ritual to summon the god Ame-no-Minakanushi and sever Nara's connection to the underworld."
A Sacred Tree and a ritual were manageable. The other two items were a different story.
"A Yomi Bloom?" a monk mused. "A flower that grows in the underworld? The ancient texts say that when the god Izanagi journeyed to Yomi to retrieve his deceased wife, Izanami, he brought a flower from the living world as a gift. He dropped it in his haste to flee her decaying form. It is said that flower took root in the soil of the dead and became the Yomi Bloom."
"Where can we find one?" Tagawa asked, cutting to the chase.
"In Yomi," the monk replied simply.
A heavy silence fell over the room.
"Gentlemen," Tagawa said, his voice dangerously soft. "Who among you is willing to undertake this journey?"
No one spoke. Traveling to the underworld was easy enough—suicide would do the trick. The return trip was the problem.
"Is there no one willing to serve their country in its hour of need?" Tagawa's patience was wearing thin. If Nara fell, his political career was over.
Finally, an old priest cleared his throat. "Prime Minister, it is not a lack of will, but a lack of ability. We can enter Yomi, but we cannot leave. In all of Japan, there is likely only one person who can: the Great Priestess Reiko herself." He knew the truth. Everyone in this room, himself included, was a fraud. Reiko was the only one with proven power.
Tagawa nodded grimly. After another tense call with Ozaki, he announced, "The Great Priestess has agreed to retrieve the Yomi Bloom. That leaves one final item: the Yata no Kagami."
All eyes in the room turned to the head priest of the Ise Grand Shrine, O-Nakatomi Kaito. A cold sweat beaded on his forehead.