"Did you forget? I took that Yūmeiden's notebook." Hyūga Shigeo said quietly.
Uchiha Itachi's forehead twitched. He'd spent two months investigating and one notebook solved it.
They sailed west. The sun sank below the horizon. One sat, one stood on the boat. Soon they vanished across the sea.
Several small boats followed silently behind them.
The man on the boat looked at his companion and asked, "Are you sure that ship is heading to the Divine Guardian Sect's island?"
"Yes, Goda-dono. This is our chance to swear to the Dark God. No matter what, we will destroy the Divine Guardian Sect this time."
"Yes!"
"Long live Jashin-sama!"
"Long live Jashin-sama!"
The people on the boat cheered in low, fervent voices.
These were the evangelists from the western part of Yu no Kuni. When Shigeo and Itachi passed a town earlier, Shigeo had slipped a note to these men saying he'd been threatened and was to be offered as a sacrifice to the Divine Guardian Sect, begging them to save him.
Of course that was a ploy. Two churches in one country breed rivalry.
Shigeo bet the Jashin cult would act once they learned the Divine Guardian Sect's location.
Sure enough, after receiving the note they quickly made plans and followed.
A prearranged trap. Invite them into the urn. He did not mind muddying the snare further.
Night deepened. Thick fog rose off the sea. An ethereal female chant floated over the water. They had heard that voice on Yūmeitō. It belonged to the Yūmeiden's followers.
They skirted reefs and a towering islet. Then a green-glowing island suddenly rose before them.
"This is Ghost Elephant Island?" Shigeo asked.
Itachi said nothing. He, too, was shocked by the sight.
Although fog had filled the path, here everything was clear. The full moon shone bright.
From afar torches lit the island. The flames burned green like ghost-fire.
"Hyūga Shigeo, you really aren't afraid to die!"
On a huge coastal rock a man stood. His hair tied in a long ponytail. Tattoos marked his face. His eyes glowed green. A triumphant smile curved his lips.
Hundreds stood behind him, robed in black like the men who'd followed. Only eye-slits showed in their hoods.
"You gotta come even if you're scared. I was sitting at home when disaster fell from the sky. Didn't even know why. You all schemed against me. Running won't fix it. Better to finish this fast and have time to drink with my friends." Shigeo patted Itachi and looked back. "Right?"
Itachi thought, only two words: bad friend.
He smiled faintly and faced the island man.
"Good guts, good nerve. Please…" the man feigned calm, then gestured, pointing to the island's highest peak.
Shigeo and Itachi landed and, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, followed the so-called Henshinden Lord up the mountain.
At the reefs, the Jashin cult boats halted. The scene before them was beyond what they'd expected.
"That's Hyūga Shigeo? Notify Jashin-sama — they've captured Hyūga Shigeo!"
They didn't know the legend, but seven tailed beasts in one body stunned them. If the Divine Guardian Sect had seized Shigeo, it was a major event. Jashin-sama must act.
"Yes!"
One man wrote a coded note, tied it to a carrier pigeon, and sent it aloft.
Shigeo and Itachi climbed. Black-robed figures lined the path. The women's chant echoed, adding a strange layer to the island's atmosphere.
No obstruction. They reached the summit.
A wide clearing. Human skulls perched atop tall bamboo poles. A cold wind blew. Green torchlight flickered like ghost-fire.
At the clearing's center a man sat on a high stone throne. Muscular build. Green eyes. Under the full moon his hair flared as if a god ready to fight.
To his left stood the Yūmeiden Lord they'd met two months earlier. So this man must be the sect's head — the Divine Lord himself.
"Cut the niceties. This is a Hongmen banquet for you — you planned to kill me?" Shigeo stood in the clearing and looked up.
"You're exactly the sort who should die. Seven tailed beasts— such an abomination. To protect the shinobi world, we as Heaven's guardians must exterminate your kind." The man on the throne boomed.
Itachi snorted inwardly. Their rhetoric mirrored Akatsuki's supposed aims. No wonder Akatsuki wanted them wiped out. Any who obstruct or who know their plans must die.
"How laughable. You scream about protecting the shinobi world and then what do you do? Murder, arson, capturing living people to make living puppets, slapping curse marks on the dead to force them to serve. You plant skulls to show how many you've killed. Don't call yourselves righteous. You're a rotten cult!" Shigeo sneered.
The Yūmeiden Lord snapped, furious: "You're no different. You abandoned Konoha, provoked the Five Great Villages, and disrupted the world. You're a demon to be exterminated. What right have you to speak?"
"Exactly. Let's settle it with blood. Talk's cheap. Save the sermons. You protect the world? You're a pack of crooks."
(End of Chapter)
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