Chapter 23

 Chapter 23: One Problem Down, Another One...

The qilin seemed convinced by what the two gods said. After giving another endless farewell speech, it finally left.

The storm had passed safely.

Minato gave a heartfelt bow to the wind and thunder gods, who were sitting casually side by side on the veranda.

"You really saved me. Thank you so much."

Thanks to them, he'd avoided having terrible luck dumped on him instead of good fortune. He felt like he'd dodged a bullet. If the qilin had left some kind of parting gift, that would have been a disaster. Even though he'd taken a nice morning bath, he'd broken out in a cold sweat afterward.

He'd already replenished his lost fluids by drinking tons of water along with Seri, who had worked hard translating.

Of course, he didn't just thank his lifesaver gods with words he'd lined up bottles of their favorite sake without leaving any gaps.

He poured sake into the cups of the wind and thunder gods, who were laughing cheerfully. When the wind god spun his lacquered cup, gold flakes danced in it.

"That was rough. The thing is, he meant well."

"Well, that kid has had people begging him for that kind of thing for ages."

"He was so scared, I thought maybe humans had done something to him."

"Hard to say. Living people can't really hurt him."

"Maybe he just can't stand humans? He hated them from the start, and getting possessed by evil spirits might have been the final straw."

The thunder god tilted his cup. Watching his familiar, practiced movements, Minato asked, "By the way, about your bodies..."

When they'd visited just recently, they'd looked about three years old, but now they appeared to be around seven.

Even though their bodies had grown, they still wore nothing but loincloths.

No matter how spring-like the garden was, the outside world was rushing toward winter and getting colder every day. Those loincloths had zero insulation, so they looked cold. He couldn't help wanting to put some clothes on them.

Though they didn't seem to feel the cold at all.

The thunder god, who had been looking at the garden, asked, "Can I use the hot spring?" and Minato immediately answered, "Of course." He definitely wanted them to warm up.

The wind god finished his cup, took a breath, and put down the small cloth bag he'd been carrying on his shoulder. Minato had never seen this particular small bag before. The wind god stuck his hand inside and rummaged around, making rustling noises.

"We're returning to our original forms. Thanks to you."

"...Did I do something?"

"You recognize us as real and show us respect, so our existence has gotten stronger. We can use more power now too. Thanks."

These days, nobody believed in gods. Compared to the old days, very few people could even sense them. Even without gratitude or reverence from people, they wouldn't disappear completely, but they couldn't maintain their physical forms.

"Here, this is a thank you. And payback for all the usual stuff."

The wind god grabbed something long and thin and pulled it out of the bag in one go.

What appeared with a loud thump was a giant marlin.

It had the characteristic long, pointed upper jaw. Clear eyes. A silver, torpedo-shaped body. The smell of fresh ocean spread across the veranda.

Minato and the three martens sitting on either side of him all stared with wide eyes. It was easily over three meters long no matter how you looked at it, there was no way it could fit in that small bag.

Beyond the giant fish floating above eye level, the wind god smiled innocently.

"It's already been bled."

"...Thank you for your consideration."

How was he supposed to cut this up? Minato, whose cooking skills were limited to basic home cooking, was in over his head. He didn't have much experience filleting fish, and his santoku knife definitely wouldn't be up to the task.

Seeing Minato's strained face and hesitation, the wind god said lightly, "Just kidding. Watch this," and started moving the marlin toward the garden. It made eye contact with the poor floating marlin. While Minato and everyone else watched, feeling a bit awkward, it stopped just past the veranda.

The wind god moved his finger slightly.

The fish was instantly filleted into three pieces.

Immediately, several crescent-shaped wind blades chopped up the fish meat. In just a few seconds, it had turned into sashimi slices. The sizes were perfectly uniform. The cuts were sharp and glistening with fat.

It looked really delicious. Though there was an insane amount of it.

Excited, Utsugi grabbed Minato's arm and shook him. "Can you do that too?!" he asked with innocent, cruel expectation.

Asking a regular person to perform divine techniques was pretty unreasonable.

Driven by what little pride he had left, Minato squeezed out, "I... someday... I hope... to be able to," making a vague promise.

Torika muttered, "Why are you being so formal?"

He couldn't picture a future where he could do that. Right now, his maximum wind power was about as strong as a fan on low speed.

He gave an awkward laugh and went back inside, passing by the lounging mountain god to get plates for catching the floating sashimi slices.

---

After eating their fill of sashimi, the three martens headed back to their mountain home, holding their full bellies and looking reluctant to leave.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Minato asked the wind god to watch him use his wind power. His wind abilities were so inferior to the wind god's that it would have been too embarrassing to show them in front of the familiars.

A gentle breeze blew from Minato's palm, held over the reclining mountain god's back, making his long fur sway softly. The wind god nodded with a merciful expression.

"You can control it to some extent."

"...Yes."

Minato put in his maximum effort. The slightly stronger wind ruffled the fur and tickled the black nose, making the sleepy mountain god sneeze dramatically.

"Sorry."

"It's fine."

Though he answered generously, he scratched his nose with his front paw, looking itchy. The demonstration was over using the long fur had made it easy to see how the wind was working.

Fluffy, soft, lukewarm. That was about the only way to describe the gentle breeze, which couldn't compare at all to the wind god's masterful techniques.

The wind god put his hand to his chin and tilted his head.

"You seem to be holding back a lot. Are you scared?"

"...Scared. Am I... scared?"

"If you went all out once and learned your limits, you might be able to control it more freely."

"All out..."

"How about following your heart and blowing away someone you don't like?"

"I don't have anyone like that... not right now."

You never knew what the future held. Living here, he rarely had to deal with complicated, annoying human relationships, so his heart could always stay calm and peaceful.

No waves, just peace and quiet. He was wrapped in happiness like soaking in a warm bath every day.

After all, it was eternal spring here.

Maybe because of that, even though he'd been given this special ability, he didn't feel motivated to master it he figured "good enough" was fine.

But he couldn't stay here forever. He couldn't stay peacefully clueless forever either.

He should be able to control it perfectly when the time came.

Besides, if he accidentally let his wind power go wild in anger, the damage to his surroundings would be bad enough, but he might end up in a really terrible situation.

TV, weekly magazines, and then spreading all over the internet. In today's world, you never knew who was watching where.

Minato straightened up.

"I'll try it. I'll work harder."

"Good, do your best. You should at least be able to slice through some jerk's house with ease."

"That's way too violent."

His cheerful, laughing face was adorable, but his personality was pretty harsh. Minato was a bit put off.

The thunder god, holding sake in one hand and dipping marlin sashimi in soy sauce with the other, looked up.

"Want me to lend you my power too?"

"Just the thought is enough!"

He shook his head and hands frantically, refusing with all his might. Seeing Minato's pale face, the two gods laughed.

In the middle of their lively conversation, the mountain god, lounging on his favorite giant cushion, turned his face toward his mountain his true body. Gray clouds that had started spreading from the distant sky blocked the sunlight, and falling shadows covered the entire mountain.

The sky was changing to look like rain was coming.

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