Repulsion

Miketsu never imagined so many things would happen in one night. Initially, she had only planned to rescue the infants abducted by mysterious individuals, but she never expected it to lead to a series of unforeseen circumstances, ultimately affecting the Three Realms of humanity, demons, and gods in Heian-kyo.

All in all, this series of events had a profound impact on Heian-kyo. The onslaught of yokai disasters, Tsuchigumo, and the Great Snake had at one point brought Heian-kyo to the brink of complete destruction. Under Miketsu's leadership, the combined powers of the Three Realms within Heian-kyo were brought to bear, and these incidents were ultimately resolved with minimal cost.

After vanquishing the Great Snake, Miketsu, dragging her weary body, once again transformed into Owl. She organized and guided the Hundred Demons in their withdrawal from Heian-kyo and secured renewed assurances from the Three Great Clans that all remaining yokai in the Minamoto Residence's dungeon would be released as compensation for Owl's leadership in bringing the Hundred Demons into the capital to quell the disaster. Thanks to the yokai's naturally strong vitality and regenerative abilities, Miketsu's Hundred Demons suffered little damage.

Afterward, Miketsu disguised herself as Asakura Hao and met with the three Senior Secretaries at the Onmyoryo. Miketsu intended to explain the ultimate descent of the deity to the Three Great Clans in her capacity as an Onmyoji. However, to her surprise, the three men thanked Miketsu directly for inviting a heavenly deity to descend and save all living beings before she could even say much. This left Miketsu, who was about to speak, momentarily stunned.

“Although I was planning to explain it in that direction myself… you guys had everything figured out beforehand, even before I said anything. That’s quite impressive…”

Thanks to the three Senior Secretaries' prior discussions and deductions, Miketsu saved a significant amount of explanation. She simply had to go along with their assumptions. During this, Miketsu, due to her continuous battles, inadvertently showed signs of fatigue. This expression was keenly noticed by the three, who interpreted it as a sign of immense exhaustion from performing the divine descent. They all invited her to their respective family homes to offer excellent medicines for restoring spiritual power. Hearing their offers, Miketsu, whose head was swimming and who only wanted to go back to sleep, directly stated that these medicines were useless and she would recover on her own. Indeed, medicines meant to restore human spiritual power would have no effect on her, a deity.

Miketsu thought this, but Kamo no Tadayuki interpreted her words differently.

“Medicines for restoring spiritual power are useless?! Does this mean the problem Asakura Hao is facing is very serious, something that cannot be solved by medicine? Did she suffer severe, perhaps even irreversible, damage from the divine descent?”

Kamo no Tadayuki’s reasoning was simple: how could invoking the power of a heavenly deity with a human body come without any cost? He himself had paid a heavy price for activating the Azure Dragon Seal, almost becoming a cripple from directly bearing divine-level power with his physical body. While Asakura Hao’s divine descent might not require her to directly bear such power, other costs must have been incurred, unless Asakura Hao was a cherished devotee of a heavenly deity, and the deity descended without any regard for the cost to themselves.

At this thought, Kamo no Tadayuki was deeply moved. He hadn’t expected a young Onmyoji like Asakura Hao, who had only recently arrived in Heian-kyo, to possess such resolve for the sake of the human realm. He immediately bowed in thanks to Miketsu, startling her into quickly helping him up, while inwardly grumbling that she truly had no major issues and a good night’s sleep would fix everything.

After bidding farewell to the Three Great Clans, Miketsu left the Onmyoryo and headed back towards Mount Inari. Walking through the streets, she saw the extensive damage to Heian-kyo, which had previously been a battlefield for countless yokai. Onmyo-sei and ordinary people were tirelessly carrying out various cleanup efforts everywhere. Countless injured were being treated, and bodies were being transported, most of them ordinary citizens caught in the crossfire.

Compared to Miketsu’s Hundred Demons, human casualties were far greater. Miketsu couldn’t help but sigh deeply at this.

Upon returning to Mount Inari, Miketsu decisively shed her clothes for a good soak in a hot spring, then changed into a yukata and slept. After resting sufficiently, the next day she sat in a warm room within the Secret Realm, placing the Blade of the Three Realms on a low table, and began to analyze the divine power she had just been able to wield.

First, it was clear that Miketsu’s divine power was sealed. This seal required Miketsu to use the Divine Bow Mode of the Blade of the Three Realms to bypass it and release divine power, mobilizing the Power of Faith to infuse herself and weaken the seal, thereby achieving almost full use of Inari’s divine power. Therefore, every time Miketsu used divine power, faith was an indispensable key. This was the first way Miketsu discovered to use the Power of Faith for herself. To maintain prolonged use of divine power, Miketsu needed sufficient reserves of faith. If she didn’t assault the seal, Miketsu could still release a minimal amount of divine power using the divine bow, but it would be far from enough to manifest a Divine Domain.

Then there was the seal limiting Miketsu’s divine power. This incredibly powerful seal had not actually been broken. After Miketsu stopped assaulting the seal with the Power of Faith, the seal once again suppressed her divine power, returning her to her previous state.

It wasn’t that Miketsu lacked the ability to destroy the seal; with enough faith, she could have attempted to shatter it directly. However, Miketsu did not do so.

One reason was her concern that destroying the seal would immediately alert its caster, making them realize that Inari Okami had not only awakened but had also fully regained her divine power. This could prompt them to take countermeasures against Miketsu once more. Although this day would inevitably come with the expansion of Inari’s faith, Miketsu hoped to postpone it as long as possible.

As for the identity of the entity that sealed Inari Okami’s divine power, Miketsu had various conjectures, with a strong possibility that it was connected to Takamagahara. Facing an unknown potential adversary, Miketsu still needed some time to prepare.

The second reason was that Miketsu discovered, after suppressing the seal to regain divine power, a sense of repulsion—a repulsion from the world itself. Miketsu felt some force pushing her out of her current realm and space. This feeling only vanished once she manifested her Divine Domain and was within it.

If she were to completely destroy the seal, Miketsu felt it was highly probable that she would be expelled from the human realm by the world itself, unable to maintain her presence without a Divine Domain.

Through this phenomenon, Miketsu roughly understood one of the reasons why true deities resided in the Celestial Realm. Perhaps it wasn’t that they didn’t wish to remain in the human realm… To avoid being repelled by the world, Miketsu also chose to temporarily preserve the seal, allowing it to continue limiting her divine power so she could maintain her presence in the human realm.

The existence of deities is not accepted by the human realm itself…