Chapter 34
I take Lord Susanoo’s hand and rise from the ground. I can see him grinning from ear to ear.
“You are great, Ryan!”
“Thank you, Lord Susanoo.”
“Hahahaha! You deserve it. This is the first time I have had this much fun fighting against a mortal in a long time. In fact!”
His grin grows wider, and he continues.
“Ryan Hernandes! I give you my blessing! The storm shall not harm you! The ocean shall not claim you! Lightning shall be your strength! This will be my blessing to you! I, Susanoo no Mikoto, bless you!”
I hear thunder rumbling outside, and I feel power coursing through my body. I see my body shine, and a lightning ring appears on my back. I notice four Shime-daiko drums around the ring and a Hidari-mitsudomoe on the drum.
“This is…”
“This is my blessing to you! It is a Lightning Seed! It will grow stronger as you do! At the moment, you can only summon a bolt of natural lightning to hit your enemy and enchant your body using lightning. In the future, I want you to be powerful enough to summon lightning that can split the heavens!”
I look at him and nod.
“I will not disappoint you.”
“Hahahahaha! I know you will not! Come on, then! Let’s celebrate! Bring sake! Come on!”
Lord Susanoo laughs and drags me back to the palace. However, before he can go far, his sister stops him.
“Wait a minute, Susanoo. I still need to reward him for what he has done.”
“Hmmm? Right! You are right, sister.”
Lord Susanoo releases me and says,
“You want a sword, huh? That is easy enough.”
He punches the air and creates what looks like a black hole. He puts his hand inside that hole, and a second later, a katana appears from that black hole. He throws his sword at me and says,
“Take this. It's from my personal collection.”
I look at the katana and draw it from the sheath. I can see purple lightning coursing through me, and I feel something click inside my mind. I look at Susanoo and see him grinning.
“I know that sword will choose you. That katana has been with me since Minamoto no Yorimitsu died. It is made from a special ore from a meteorite that fell a long time ago. This sword has a mind of its own and will not release its full power unless it accepts the one holding it. This sword will not rust, will not become dull, and you can channel anything to it. It can even channel divinity.”
“If it can channel divinity, why give it to me, Lord Susanoo? Isn’t it better for you to use this sword?”
“Because I have my own sword. It might be broken, but Kusanagi is still a great sword to have.”
Kusanagi is broken, huh? Damn. I want to see the legendary sword with my own eyes. It is an iconic sword, after all.
“I see. Thank you.”
“It is your reward. You don't need to thank us. However,” Susanoo’s face changes into a serious expression, ”I need to warn you about something. That sword is a Holy Sword. It is effective against all Youkai. I don’t want you to kill Youkai just because you can. I don’t mind you using that thing to kill criminals, but once you use it to kill the innocent…”
I see his eyes flash with power, and I feel a massive pressure on my body. Luckily for me, it lasts only for a couple of seconds before disappearing.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes. I swear that I will not kill the innocent.”
“That is good.”
And now he is back to his cheerful self.
“Let’s get back to business! Let’s drink!”
==||==
How did it come to this?
“Let’s dance, Ryan! Dance!”
“Bwahahaha! My sister is right, Ryan! Go and dance!”
I can only sigh and put on the dancing clothes. I never thought that Lady Amaterasu was a dancer and she liked to dance. After knowing that I could do a Kagura Dance, she immediately asked me to dance with her.
This time, she wants to do a dance for her mother, the Goddess of Creation and Death. Lucky for me, she was willing to share this knowledge by giving the move directly into my brain. So here I am, dancing with a literal Goddess.
While dancing around, I can see Yasaka join us for the second verse of the dance. I can see many Youkai surrounding us, clapping their hands together and some of them cheering at me. I did not know this kind of thing was happening in DxD.
However, thinking about it, almost all festivals in Japan involve dancing, singing, and drinking. The most well-known one is the ritual dance to lure Amaterasu from her cave. It involves singing, dancing, and drinking.
“What are you thinking, Ryan? A dancer needs to focus on their dance.”
I look to the side and see Yasaka dancing beside me. I smile at her and continue to dance. I continue to move around and follow the rhythm of the music the other youkai create. Unlike the Dance of the Fire God from the system, this dance uses a jumping and dashing move. You need to jump from one place to another and swing your fan.
It takes us two hours to be done with the dance, and after the dance, I can see Amaterasu offer a prayer to her mother. Even though she is the leader of Shinto Faction, Goddess Izanagi is still the big boss behind the scenes. She is the primordial Japanese myth, after all. Not only that, she is also the Goddess of Death. You did not want to piss off someone with the title of Primordial of Death.
“Ryan, here's some sake.”
I look to the side and see Yasaka holding a sake cup. I smile at her and take the cup. She sits next to me, and the two of us just watch the other clapping their hands and having fun. I take a sip of the sake and smile a little. Even though I have yet to sleep, I don’t mind spending my time like this.