Volume 18 - Ski Lodge Kobold, Chapter 138 - Ready and Waiting

Hideki's pilgrimage was coming full circle. A few months before, here in Okayado, the Shinto priest had his worldview shattered when he met a genuine mountain god. Specifically, he realized that the Shinto priesthood had failed mountain spirits in the modern age. Shinto gods walked the earth, yet they were receiving more support from the government than from Shintoism.

The very day that Hideki met Hakuto, the rabbit-like god of Yuriyama, the young kannushi set out on a spiritual journey. He hoped to meet other mountain gods, find out what the priesthood could do in service to them, and learn from their ancient wisdom.

Hideki burned through most of his meager life savings on travel costs, but he successfully made contact with over a dozen mountain spirits throughout Japan. As he journeyed, his deeds became known both to the spirits and to other Shinto practitioners. The Order of the Petal, a secretive Shinto sect devoted to the goddess of Mount Fuji, even reached out to him and invited him to meet the most powerful mountain god in Japan.

Hideki's meeting with Sakuya-hime still lingered in his thoughts as a blur of overwhelming emotion and awe; the mortal mind was never meant to bear witness to such beautiful majesty. But for the first time in days, something else occupied Hideki's thoughts. I hope this taxi driver knows what he's doing. The roads are pure ice, and now the snow's coming down like a blizzard.

Hideki peered out the window of the spacious SUV, but he couldn't see more than 20 feet before the world vanished into a swirl of white flakes. His breath fogged the glass, but it didn't turn to frost; the temperature outside had risen when the snow started, and had stabilized just below freezing.

As if sensing Hideki's unease, the taxi driver spoke up, "Don't you worry about the snow. I've got studded snow tires and all-wheel-drive, and chains in the trunk if we really need 'em. And we're the only ones on the road, thanks to that travel restriction."

Then the older man glanced back at Hideki in the rear-view mirror. He had a weathered face and gentle eyes that had seen more than their share. "I expect you're just the first of many that I'll be driving up to that new resort through the snow."

Hideki managed a small smile. The driver did seem to be quite skilled, and it wasn't just the weather that had Hideki stressed out. It was the source of the weather, the mountain god he was coming to see.

Korbin, the kobold business magnate behind the new Ski Lodge Kobold ski resort, had suspected a god might dwell in the mountain beneath the resort, so he had contacted the local Shinto shrine to ask what to do. Of course, Hideki had been out traveling Japan and trying to answer that very question for himself, so by the time Hideki had returned to his hometown, it was too late. The mountain had started to awaken, and all of Okayado was suffering as a result.

I just hope the goddess can be reasoned with, Hideki thought, running his hands through his short brown hair. From what Korbin said on the phone this afternoon, she stopped the coldsnap the second she awoke, and she didn't mean to bring any harm to the people of Okayado. Korbin already had a shrine built for her, but will she like it?

"Here you are, sir, safe and sound," the cab driver said as the car came to a stop in a brightly lit and relatively snow-free area. It was the resort's porte-cochere, a covered area for arriving and departing vehicles. The canopy was framed with whole pine logs, giving it a rustic log-cabin feel.

"Thanks. What do I owe you?" Hideki asked.

The driver waved a hand dismissively. "Nothing. Korbin's covering it. I think you'll find him to be quite generous, if you do a good job."

Hideki swallowed. "Oh, that's good to hear." I hope I can do a good job here. I've met a dozen mountain gods, and no two were anything alike. If this one's among the most stubborn, it'd be easier to pack up and move the entire resort…

Hideki had barely set foot in the hotel's lobby when someone called out his name. He turned to find a young woman jogging up to him. She was a liminal of some sort, with spotted yellow ears, a short tail, and a tall and slender physique.

"Thank goodness you're here, Hideki," she said as she bounded up to his side. "We've been doing our best to entertain the goddess, but frankly, we're all terrified that we'll say the wrong thing and anger her."

"Oh, I guess there's no time to waste then. Can you lead me to her, miss…? Oh, I'm afraid I don't know your name." Hideki had grown much on his journey, and one area where he'd improved substantially was speaking to women. Talking to a normal liminal girl was a cakewalk compared to calming down a fiery tropical volcano goddess or coming face to face with the overwhelming splendor of Sakuya-hime.

The woman smiled and said, "I'm Luru Leptai, but you can just call me Luru. After all, I'm already using your first name." She pawed at the ground with one boot-covered foot. "It was all Korbin told me."

Hideki raised one eyebrow. "So how did you know it was me? Surely other visitors have been arriving through these doors."

Luru's face broke into a cat-like grin that showed four elongated canines. "Because of your outfit, silly."

Hideki looked down at himself and realized he was indeed wearing his white kannushi robes. He'd been wearing the full outfit so often of late, complete with the distinctive rounded black hat, that it had become like a second skin. His hat was in his bag to protect it from the snow, but he still obviously looked the part of Shinto priest.

"Oh. Duh. Of course," he mumbled, blushing furiously.

Luru waved a hand. "Don't worry about it. I promise I won't tell Korbin. Now let's go meet the goddess."

Hideki struggled to keep up with Luru's pace, especially when they crossed a section of deep snow and he had to hold his loose robes up off the ground to keep them dry. In an effort to get her to slow down and match his speed, he started up a conversation. "So, Luru, what do you do here at the Lodge?"

The gambit worked and she fell back to his pace. "Oh, I'm a ski instructor, at least once the season starts. For now, I'm just helping out wherever they need me."

"Oh, that's—" Hideki started, but he was cut off.

"Yeah, yeah, I know you're thinking it's strange that a savannah-native catgirl is a ski instructor, but I just love snow. I fell in love with it during my Exchange Program homestay, and now that I get to work at a liminal ski resort, I'm just beyond happy."

"Ah, that's ni—"

She interrupted again, "Though it's a little annoying how often I get sent on errands, just because of my long legs. I bet they think I'm a cheetah, but I'm a serval. There's a big difference, you know?"

"Uh…" Hideki began, expecting to be interrupted. When he wasn't, he realized he hadn't actually thought of anything to say. He ended up saying, "Uh, I suppose so."

Luru turned and smiled at him. "I'm sorry for talking all over you. Feel free to tell me to shut up if you need to. It's what my sisters do, after all."

"Alright, I'll do tha—"

Hideki was interrupted yet again, but by a different furry-eared liminal this time. Korbin called out, "Wonderful! You made it, Hideki. I hope the drive wasn't too terrifying because we need you at peak form for this." Then the buff kobold grabbed Hideki's hand and said, "Right this way. I'll introduce you to our resident god."

Then Korbin turned back and gave Luru a huge smile. "Thanks for all your help, Luru. You've been an amazing asset, and the season hasn't even started yet."

While Luru smiled happily at the praise, Korbin guided Hideki up a freshly shoveled path. He said, "As you know, I took the initiative and had a shrine built for the mountain god, but she hasn't seen it yet. I figured you might want to bless it first or something? I know business and fitness, so I'm a bit lost in the woods when it comes to all this mountain god stuff."

"No, you've been doing great. Passion and heart are what's important. I think she will see how much you care," Hideki said.

Korbin let out a sigh that hung in the air as fog. The wind had calmed down, but soft flakes of snow were still falling. "I certainly hope so. The shrine-construction company that your fellow priests recommended wasn't cheap, at least not for a job of this size."

Hideki blinked a couple times at that. If it was the company he was thinking of, they had been very affordable every time his shrine had contracted them, even on large scale remodels. Their only weakness was with small details; they didn't have an eye for intricate artistry. Then he saw Korbin's shrine and he finally understood.

The shrine was actually a massive shrine complex. A towering torii archway marked the entrance to an expansive open yard that was peppered with buildings both large and small. Korbin had spared no expense and included every element of a full-scale Shinto shrine, from administrative buildings to a worship hall to a honden to house the enshrined spirit.

The whole complex was about the same size as Hideki's home shrine, which housed nearly a dozen priests and priestesses. Hideki thought it was overkill, but it was too late for such talk now that it was built.

Once Hideki had finished touring the shrine complex, he told Korbin, "Let's go ahead and show her the grounds. It will take at least a day for me to bless everything, but there's no reason she can't start using it right away."

"You got it. She should be over in the ski patrol station right now, learning about all the stuff she missed over the last few hundred years." Korbin jogged ahead in the direction of a small log cabin that had an illuminated sign of a white square cross on a red background.

Hideki followed Korbin inside the cozy cabin and finally saw the goddess he'd been so nervous about meeting. She had pale blue skin, what appeared to be a crown of deep blue ice crystals on her head, and pale blonde hair that faded to an icy purple at the tips. She was also staring intently at a TV screen from less than a foot away. The TV was displaying a local newscaster talking about the sudden snow.

"You claim this isn't magic?" the goddess said.

A blond man in a heavy jacket let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes, I'm sure, ma'am. It's human technology called a television. It uses electricity to display images from far away."

Korbin closed the door behind Hideki and himself, then said, "Hey Jens, everything going alright?"

Jens saw Korbin and a relieved smile appeared on his face. "Yeah, I suppose. My Japanese just isn't good enough to explain all the things she has questions about." What he didn't say was that she wouldn't believe him even if he had the vocabulary. The goddess refused to believe most of what he said about technology, even after she'd seen it with her own eyes.

"Well, Hideki's here to take over and show her to her new shrine."

With that, Hideki stepped up next to the icy spirit, who was still sitting in a chair and examining the TV. He clasped his hands, bowed deeply, and said, "Most revered mountain spirit, I am Hideki, a Shinto priest. I've come to bless the shrine that Korbin had built for you. Would you like to walk with me to see it?"

She distractedly said, "Oh, of course," then pulled her eyes from the TV. She rose from her chair, which was now crusted in a sheet of pristine ice, and followed Hideki to the door.

Korbin stayed behind with Jens, leaving Hideki alone with the goddess. He wasn't too worried, however, since she seemed agreeable enough. They walked in relative silence until they came in sight of the large red torii archway that served as the entrance of the shrine complex.

"Ah, that's a familiar sight. It seems some things never change," she said.

Hideki nodded. "Yes, the whole shrine was built in the traditional style, so I hope you'll find it to your liking."

They passed through the arch and into the clearing on the other side, and she stopped abruptly. She glanced around at the buildings and the wide open space, then said, "I suppose there's a small shrine somewhere in here for me?"

"No, this is all for you. There didn't seem to be any shrine on this mountain, so Korbin took it upon himself to have this built for you."

She shook her head and flakes of fresh snow drifted down from the tips of her crystal-like hair. "I don't think you understand, young kannushi. I'm asking which part of this is for me, rather than for the larger gods like Konohanasakuya-hime and Oyamatsumi, or for the numerous unnamed kami of nature."

Hideki smiled at that. Most mountain gods had to go into hibernation when the old Shinto ways faded and their worship dried up. They all struggled a little at accepting that humanity cared about them again, but this goddess had an understandably harder time, thanks to the sheer scale of the change. She'd gone from forgotten and alone to the star of the show in an instant.

Hideki gestured forward with one hand. "Let's just go to your honden first. It will be your living quarters whenever you wish to take humanoid form." He guided her around the outside of the main worship hall, which was a wide open room with polished wooden floors and a peaked roof above, and to a two-story building behind.

The building looked like a traditional Japanese shrine building, with a smoothly sloped roof, elaborate under-hangings beneath the eaves, and red-painted support beams. Less typical, however, it had a second floor in the same style, and in a complete departure from tradition, the building had glass windows, climate control, and indoor plumbing.

"This is your home, if you want it. You can do anything you want with the house, and if you want any additional amenities, Korbin is more than willing to provide."

"Amenities? Such as?" she asked.

Hideki couldn't help but smile, because this was one of his favorite parts of serving mountain gods. "Humanity has made some technological advancements lately, particularly around convenience and information, like that television you saw earlier. You have no obligation to engage with that technology, but if you'd like to try it out, you might find something you enjoy."

She nodded slowly, trying to hide how curious and overwhelmed she was. Then she waved a hand at the buildings around. "And what about this shrine? What is its purpose?"

"I'll be dedicating it in your honor shortly, and once this resort opens for the season, the shrine will host visiting humans, coming to pray to you and pay tribute. The public doesn't know about you yet, but if you want, Korbin is ready to fund a promotional campaign to get your name out."

Then Hideki froze solid, only figuratively. He stammered, "Uh, I am so very sorry, but I just realized that I do not yet know your name. I apologize for the offense."

She smiled. "Don't fret, kannushi. You could not have known it because I had not yet decided what it should be. The name I last held is far too archaic and stuffy for this era. I want a name that feels free and fun, so I've decided that I'd like to be known as Rosty."

Hideki bowed and said, "Very well, Rosty. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm at your service for the next few days as I bless and certify the various parts of this shrine complex."

Rosty stepped inside her new honden and walked around the spacious cabin. She touched some counters and windows, inadvertently coating them in frost. Then she turned back to Hideki. "Korbin had all of this built, just in case a mountain god dwelled in this region?"

Hideki followed her around, trying to maintain a distance that felt available without being annoying. He answered, "Yes. Korbin is very insistent that he pay back with interest everything he takes from this mountain, and he truly wants a relationship of mutual respect with you."

A mischievous grin appeared on Rosty's face. "Oh, how wonderful. I'll make sure to show my appreciation in return."