Vanishing

The wind died down and the waves subsided. The great torrents stirred up by the heavenly divine power quickly calmed. Above the now-quiet sea lay countless floating corpses and wreckage. The stench of blood seeped into the salt of the tide, and the crimson sunset reflected off the blood-stained waters.

The Sea Nation army was annihilated. Just as the Arakawa folk were on the brink of defeat, they had won a sudden victory. Under the command of the Lord of Arakawa, the Arakawa folk began to clear the battlefield, capture the leaders of the Sea Nation, and treat the critically wounded. Due to the disparity in numbers, the Arakawa folk could not capture the entire Sea Nation army and focused primarily on taking high-ranking officers as prisoners.

Because of the previous bloody battle, many of the Arakawa folk wished for nothing more than to kill every last member of the Sea Nation. However, because the divine will conveyed by the Miko could not be defied, they suppressed their resentment and moved quickly to clear the battlefield.

On a stretch of beach, many captured Sea Nation generals were gathered. Many were still unconscious. Among them, the commander-in-chief, Otakemaru, lay charred and senseless on the ground. The Miko Kikyo was beside him performing healing, while Uminari, Kujira, and others watched anxiously from the side.

"Cough... cough, cough..."

"Young Lord!"

Amidst a fit of violent coughing, Otakemaru slowly opened his eyes. The first things he saw were the anxious gazes of his subordinates and the indifferent expression in the Miko's eyes.

"It's you..." Seeing Kikyo, Otakemaru's expression froze. He immediately bolted upright and reached out, groping around for his weapon, only to grab thin air.

"Dammit, where is my sword..."

As Otakemaru searched frantically, a hand caught his wrist. Otakemaru turned to see his own attendant, Kujira.

"Stop it, Young Lord. We have already lost..." Kujira said seriously, looking at the panicked Otakemaru. Otakemaru froze at Kujira's words, then muttered blankly.

"Lost... you say... we have lost..." As Otakemaru spoke, he turned his head to look at the bloody sea, at the corpses and wreckage covering the surface. He continued, "You say... our Sea Nation exhausted its full strength to gather a massive army, only to fail to take a single river or conquer a single piece of land... and just like that, we lost..."

Otakemaru's eyes were filled with dazed confusion; clearly, he found the current outcome impossible to accept.

"Divine will cannot be defied... Young Lord, let us end it here..." It was Uminari speaking from the other side. His robes were tattered, and his front was stained with blood, leaving him looking wretched.

"Divine will cannot be defied... Divine will... where does divine will place the Sea Nation! If we stop here, where is the Sea Nation's future!" Otakemaru shouted. He forced himself up, and the sand around him began to tremble silently.

At that moment, a ball of water flew from a distance and struck Otakemaru squarely, knocking him back to the ground. Following the water ball came a majestic voice.

"Fool. What can you achieve by resisting now? The heavenly god has shown great mercy by sparing most of the Sea Nation folk. Do you intend to continue leading them into a hell of eternal damnation?"

The Lord of Arakawa stood on the other side, looking at the wretched Otakemaru as he spoke slowly. Otakemaru seemed to have been cooled down by the water. After standing up again, he recalled the divine might from earlier and, as if deflated, collapsed onto his buttocks on the sand.

Indeed... what could he achieve by resisting now? As long as his actions were contrary to the divine will, everything would be in vain. The gap between mortals and gods... was simply too vast. Even a Yokai Lord like himself was like an ant before such power.

Seeing that Otakemaru had quieted down, Kikyo breathed a small sigh of relief. She then spoke to him.

"Since you are awake, let us begin the serious business. Yokai of the Sea Nation, why did you attack Arakawa? Why did you invade the land?"

Hearing Kikyo's question, the Sea Nation members looked at each other. Finally, Otakemaru spoke again.

"Why invade the land? Haven't I made that clear before? Naturally, it was for the future of the Sea Nation!"

"The Sea Nation's... future?" Kikyo was slightly surprised by his words. She continued, "Has something gone wrong with your Sea Nation?"

When Kikyo asked this, a silence fell over the Sea Nation folk. Finally, the sea yokai elder, Uminari, stepped forward.

"Regarding the matters of the Sea Nation, allow me to answer you, Lord Divine Messenger. The Sea Nation has indeed reached a critical moment of life and death. Our invasion of the land was, in fact, a move of necessity."

Thereafter, Uminari began to tell Kikyo about the Sea Nation.

...

The Sea Nation of Suzuka Mountain is located in the deep ocean south of the Japanese Archipelago, far to the east of the continent.

Generally speaking, the prosperous areas of the ocean are located along the coasts and within the coral reefs of the continental shelf. The deep sea, far from land, is usually barren, especially the pitch-black depths where one cannot see their own hand. However, the Sea Nation was an exception.

For unknown reasons, since ancient times, the Sea Nation in the deep sea had been extremely prosperous. This deep-sea region, which should have been dark and barren, seemed to be favored, possessing an abundance that even the shallow seas could not match.

In the deep sea, all sorts of strange seagrass and coral covered the once-barren sea bed. Various schools of fish flourished in these waters. This abundance gave birth to countless sea yokai, who had lived here for generations, multiplying and growing over hundreds of years while constantly engaging in bloody infighting.

A century ago, a sea yokai named Suzuka Gozen returned to these waters after learning the culture, military tactics, and Jutsu-shiki of the humans on the northern mainland. She unified all the warring sea yokai and established the Sea Nation, naming it Suzuka Mountain after a mountain she had heard of on the mainland. From then on, the Sea Nation walked a path of unified prosperity.

Decades ago, the first leader of the Sea Nation, Suzuka Gozen, went to the Underworld for her own reasons and never returned. Otakemaru then became the new master of the Sea Nation. Shortly after he began his rule, strange things began to happen.

The seagrass began to die, the coral began to wither, and the number of fish dwindled day by day. For reasons unknown, the entire Sea Nation began a rapid and total decline. The once-prosperous sea plains fell into ruin, gradually returning to the barren state a deep sea ought to be. The sea yokai who had long resided there suddenly faced a struggle for survival.

Because of the Sea Nation's natural abundance, it had nourished a massive population of sea yokai. Now that the Sea Nation had suddenly withered, their survival became a massive problem.

It was then that the elder of the Sea Nation, Uminari, received a revelation. He discovered that the power of endless life that once nourished the Sea Nation was flowing away. Faced with this situation, they had to find a way.