Vol 1 Chapter 15 (1/2)

VOLUME 1

PART 3: NINIGI NO MIKOTO (1)

Chapter 15: Expedition to Ame-no-Iwato (Front Half) (2)

Occasionally, I thought back to the past.

My clan lived in a remote corner of Kyushu (3), in a shrine which pa.s.sed down one single duty from generation to generation.

That duty was the sealing, management, and control of the Supreme G.o.d Amaterasu.

Yes, I came from a mysterious lineage that had somehow captured the Supreme G.o.d alive, and used that to maintain a world that was convenient for humans to live in.

We were an unsavory group of spiritualists who were pulling the strings from behind the curtains.

If there were G.o.ds residing in everything, then you could take that to mean that there were also G.o.ds living within the bodies of humans. The spiritual powers of my family came from turning that way of thinking into a finding tools or skills with which we could harness divine powers.

Of course, the divinity of humans was not intrinsically high. In the end, we didn’t amount to more than averaged-leveled creature G.o.ds.

But humans could train, exert immense effort, or just take in or consume more G.o.ds to heighten their own powers.

There were then the spiritualists who surpa.s.sed the rest, and who sought to punish the evil G.o.ds who threatened this world made for the comfort of humans. In order to preserve that world, they also warped reality through an alteration, so that most people didn’t know of their existence, or just didn’t believe in them.

In any case, ever since I was born I had been raised as one of those spiritualists.

I went through h.e.l.lish, torturous trainings day after day, but I was content.

Because I was raised in a closed-off environment like the shrine, I was halfway brainwashed and grew up believing that we were forces of justice striving to protect the world.

Even though we were little more than rebels who had tricked the Supreme G.o.d into being captured alive, and were arbitrarily forcing the world into a shape that served us.

And so, shut in that prison, I focused every ounce of my strength on my training. But sometimes I couldn’t take it anymore and managed to escape. The training I was put through to heighten my spiritual powers was incredibly taxing, and I was also just a little girl filled with curiosity about the world and humans outside.

Every time I escaped, it would raise a huge panic back home and I would get dreadfully scolded, but I didn’t pay that any heed.

And then, after the shop I frequented for manga and games also set up an internet connection, my entire worldview crumbled into dust.

Through the network lines, I was able to travel from the ascetic, amus.e.m.e.nt-free environment of my village into the wide, chaotic world outside. Through reading blogs, I increased my awareness of the world.

And then, upon reading the homepage of a certain spiritualist, I suddenly was made aware of the truth… of the true ident.i.ty of my clan.

It seemed that in order to preserve this world made for the comfort of humans, the power of the Supreme G.o.d was pa.s.sed down from generation to generation from parent to offspring.

My particular family, those who took Tsukuyomi as a surname, was the clan tasked with that outrageous responsibility.

I was astonished, and also frightened.

To preserve the state of the world… that was just way too monumental of a task.

Every piece of training I had gone through up to this point was to prepare myself for that task.

It was all so when the Supreme G.o.d was sealed in my body, I would be able to control those powers and prevent them from running wild.

The next year, my mother, who was still young, pa.s.sed away.

The power of the Supreme G.o.d was then pa.s.sed down to me, who had been raised from birth as a shrine priestess, and although much celebration was had, this event marked the beginning of true h.e.l.l for me.

I often had nightmares about my past.

“Hnn………”

I woke up from a listless sleep and began to move around under my covers.

Spring was still far off… and the nights were terribly cold, so I curled up inside my futon.

When I checked the clock next to my pillow, I saw that it was six in the evening.

After I had lived a while as a hikikomori, I found myself p.r.o.ne to insomnia, and my biological clock had also been completely thrown off.

And even if I woke up, it’s not like there was much to do.

It was also pretty cold, so maybe I should sleep for a bit longer.

Yawwnnnnn…

I yawned, thinking sweet things like Yeah, that’s a great idea. Sleep a bit longer. So I began to drift off again, when…

“Hm?”

I suddenly noticed something.

When I tried to sleep on my front side, I noticed that something felt off near my chest.

It didn’t hurt or itch or anything… it just felt like there was something intruding there.

It’s not like my b.r.e.a.s.t.s were big enough to bother me when I tried to sleep, so maybe there was some stuffed animal stuck there or something…

A bit irritated, I turned over and then felt around on top of my bed with my hand, looking for the culprit.

But there was nothing there.

I suddenly got a bad feeling about all this, and touched the suspicious area on my chest with a finger.

Something felt strange.

“Wha-“

I lost any and all will to sleep, and flew up from my bed in a panic.

I turned on the room’s lights with a remote control, and told myself to calm down.

I tried my best to not look down at my chest but headed for the wash basin that was set in my room.

I washed my face to wake myself up a bit, and then once again took a look at myself.

There was a strange bulge coming out of my body.

“What the h.e.l.l is this…?”

The bulge originated near the base of my collarbone.

It was big enough to push up against the fabric of my pajamas, as if a.s.serting its own existence.

And it also just didn’t seem natural.

The bulge was uneven, and it was hard for me to imagine what could be lying beneath it.

Now that I thought about it, when I got into the bathtub last night, there was already a small b.u.mp forming around here…

It was small enough that I thought it was just a pimple or something… so I had left it alone.

Did that thing suddenly grow big?

“What is this… why is it so swollen already? This… isn’t cancer is it? A tumor or something? I-If this is some weird disease, what am I going to do…?”

Almost near tears, I began to unfasten the b.u.t.tons on my pajamas, one by one.

I was scared to check exactly what this thing was, but it was far more scary to just leave it be and continue not knowing what was going on.

I steeled myself and exposed the top half of my body.

And what appeared there completely blew my expectations to bits.

“Eh…?”

–

It was someone’s hand.

–

Someone’s hand was extending from the wrist, out of my chest.

It looked like a right hand… It was a slender hand which was pale to its fingertips, and the nails were well groomed.

This was probably a girl’s hand. Although…

That hand sure did seem familiar…

To test something out, I took my own right hand and put it right next to the hand sticking out from my chest.

They looked exactly the same. From the length of the nails from the positions of the moles.

“This is my hand…? What is going on…?”

“Sasami-saaaan~~.”

As my face paled and I began to shake, I heard a carefree voice calling out to me.

It was my brother.

“It’s dinner timeee~~. Are you awake~~? If you’re not awake your oniichan can come and give you a little kiss like sleeping beauty ufu ufufufufu~~”

My brother was spouting some random nonsense, but at a time like this I felt I could trust this hentai to help me.

With my face still pale, I rushed to the door of my room and opened it.

“Oniichan!”

“Uwah, you surprised me!”

It was rare for me to go and open the door (my brother usually just barged in himself), so it looked like my brother was a bit shocked. He steadied the plate of hot food he was holding with one hand, while he dutifully covered his face with the other like some nude model who had to keep his face hidden.

I clung to my brother’s arm with tears threatening to fall from my eyes.

“Oniichan, oniichan, what should I do?! Umm, there’s this thing on my chest-“

“Sasami-san’s chest?”

My brother moved one of his fingers so he could look through the crack at me.

“Actually, why does Sasami-san have her pajama top half-open…? Hahaah, I understand now! Finally, my love for you is getting repaid, yes?! I understand, I understand, just leave the rest to your oniichan! Come on, onto the bed-“

“Shut up you idiot! Listen to what I’m trying to say!”

I screamed at my brother as he began to try to forcibly drag me to the bed.

“What are you thinking, you d.a.m.n pervert?! We’re siblings, aren’t we?!”

“Eh? I though you just wanted to sleep next to me because you had a scary dream… was that not it?”

“A-Ahh, so that was it… I was thinking of something completely different…”

“What were you thinking? Sasami-san, you’re such a naughty girl! What kind of scene were you painting in that cute little head of yours? Come on, you don’t have to spare any details, just tell your oniichan! Just tell me, hurry up, hahhh hahhh hahh…”

“You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you?! Also, why the h.e.l.l are you stripping?! If I just wanted to sleep next to you why the h.e.l.l would we need to get naked?!”

As I spat out the foulest obscenities at my brother, I managed to shake his hand off and distanced myself a bit from him.

And then, my face flus.h.i.+ng completely red, I showed my brother my slightly exposed upper body.

“Here, look at this…”

That hand was still dangling out from my chest.

It didn’t seem like it was going to grow any bigger than this… and it wasn’t moving either… also, a tumor or something like that wouldn’t ever look this much like a hand.

“W-What is happening to me? Help me, oniichan…”

“Hmmm……”

My brother approached me and seemed to be seriously in thought.

“This is certainly quite strange.”

He slowly grabbed onto one of my b.r.e.a.s.t.s and began to lightly squeeze it.

Squeeze squeeze squeeze.

“You’re already in high school, but these don’t look like they’re growing any bigger… this just won’t do. I’m not surprised you’re so worried. I understand, your oniichan will help you get these b.r.e.a.s.t.s to grow! When you get your b.r.e.a.s.t.s groped by someone else, you let out more female hormones, you know…”

“Oniichan…”

After I had killed my brother with the brightest smile in the world, I left his corpse there to rot and returned to the wash basin. I was an idiot to have any faith in that d.a.m.n moron.

But murdering my brother did make me feel better, and I definitely had managed to regain my composure. So I decided to test a few things out.

“I can feel this…”

I timidly touched this sarcoma (as I will call it from now on) that was growing from my chest.

I could feel my touch through it.

In other words, this meant it was connected via nerves to my brain.

Which meant that this was another part of my body.

I could probably also feel pain through it, so it would probably be a bad idea to just cut it off…

I put a finger to the wrist of this sarcoma, and I could feel the thud thud thud of a heartbeat.

It also was connected to my circulatory system.

Yeah, it really would have been a bad idea to chop it off. I might die of blood loss.

Although, I couldn’t just live with this thing forever.

I was a hikikomori, which meant I didn’t meet many other people and so it’s not like anybody would care about this… but this thing made it hard to sleep and it was just a weird feeling to have something like this growing from my chest.

I had to get rid of it somehow…

“But really, what’s wrong? Sasami-san…”

My brother seemed to have revived himself and walked over, seeming puzzled.

As I watched him warily to prevent myself from getting groped again, I pointed to the sarcoma on my chest.

“Oniichan, can you see this? Do you know what it is?”

“Uhh…”

My brother c.o.c.ked hi shead to the side.

“There’s a hand coming out of your chest. But that’s not anything strange.”

“……”

I knew it now.

This was an alteration.

No matter how off my brother was, if a hand suddenly sprouted from his little sister’s chest he should be surprised and immediately go to find a doctor.

But my brother wasn’t shaken at all… it was almost like this was completely normal to him.

In other words, some G.o.d had enacted an alteration, and this irregularity was the result.

I protected my body with my spiritual powers, but the divinity of humans was not that high.

If a strong G.o.d targeted me, I wouldn’t be able to defend against that.

But, who exactly was targeting me? And why me?

What was he after…? What was the point of making a hand come out of my chest…?

“Sasami-san.”

My brother had no way of detecting this irregularity, but maybe he sensed my unease… he pulled me in for an embrace as if I was a small child and stroked my head.

“Everything will be alright. There’s nothing to worry about. Sasami-san is a strong girl, so she’ll be able to overcome anything.”

“Okay…”

For some reason, I felt nervous, and I looked up at my brother.

I was greeted by a rare sight. My brother was not covering his face.

“We have plenty of money, and you can also buy food through the mail, right? Even if you didn’t have this room, even if you didn’t have me… you would be alright.”

“Yeah, I would be.”

I would come to forever regret my words back then.

It’s just that when my brother hugged me like that, I felt myself blush and had to act strong… so I looked at him with an angry expression and spoke curtly.

“I’m strong. I can do anything by myself. Oniichan doesn’t have to worry about a single thing.”

“Yes, that’s certainly true.”

My brother smiled.

“Ever since she was a child, Sasami-san could do her best by myself… I never had to save her, and all I could do is follow along and admire her…”

“Oniichan?”

I cowered a bit at the sound of loneliness in his voice and looked up at him.

I didn’t realize it.

The fingertips of the sarcoma that was dangling from my chest had begun to move.

The preservation of the world.

To manage and control this world that was made for the comfort of humans, I had to keep the power of the Supreme G.o.d sealed within me in check… and that was an unimaginably painful task.

Generation after generation, my family members tended to die young.

That wasn’t a surprise. The Supreme G.o.d was sealed within our kin.

Our bodies were honed to be the most suitable for keeping the Supreme G.o.d contained and in control. And to protect that bloodline, our family repeatedly practiced incest, causing our bodies to deteriorate.