The First Retainer part 1

Japan

"Jiji, you need to finish the story!"

A young boy looked up to his grandfather waiting patiently for him to continue. The old man needed to take care of certain shrine duties, leaving the boy in suspense.

"Now, Kouta. Let me rest for five minutes."

The old man slowly walked and sat down, the young boy came behind his 'Jiji' and started to massage his back.

The boy was about nine years old, and the old man was eighty-nine. The old man had a small hunched back, proof of the weight he had to carry throughout his many years.

He was dressed like a modern Shinto priest, because he was one. His family had owned the shrine for years, something he was extraordinarily proud of.

"Now where were we?"

"The samurai chosen by Izanagi finally entered the battle!" Kouta shouted.

"Yes, yes! The samurai!" The old man paused for a bit trying to remember.

He told Kouta about the samurai and how he had to face an assassin, a king and a knight all at the same time.

"He used the lightning of Izanagi to strike down the king. During that attack the cowardly assassin struck him from behind, mortally wounding the samurai."

"That can't happen! The samurai has to win!"

"The samurai's resolve was strong, and he turned back to defeat the assassin. He looked up and you know what he saw?"

"What?" The boy asked.

"The hero had arrived and defeated the knight. When this big battle happened, there were eight fighters and now only two were left."

"Ahh man, the hero was really cool! But I want the samurai to win too. Isn't the samurai from our family?" The boy said with a gleam in his eyes.

"Yes he was, your great great grandfather was the samurai." The old man's pride was showing.

The boy jumped around with his hands to the side, pretending to unsheathe a blade. "I hope I'm picked next Jiji! I want to be like the samurai! He won right?"

"Yes!" The old man lied, he didn't have the heart to tell him that the final battle ended with the hero winning. Sometimes lies are better than the truth, the old man thought.

"Jiji, what about you? Did you ever fight?"

"No, not yet." The old man had a somber look. "Just like you, I heard this story as a child. Hoping and praying to one day fight for Japan."

It's too late for me, is what he wanted to say next. He was just too old. The boy looked at his jiji and smiled at him.

"Then I'll go for you! I'll represent you so don't worry, Jijii!"

Little tears started to appear on the old man's face, when a loud thump reverberated through the house.

The old man went to check and see what happened. He saw his daughter-in-law and his son near the door, his daughter- in- law had thrown her brief case against the wall. The son was trying to calm her down.

"Hunny, plea—-"

"NO!" the woman screamed. She looked irritated, like years of resentment and hatred had finally taken its toll on her. She looked at the old man, at her father.

"This is all your fault." She spat.

"Mari, what's wrong?" The old man said with concern.

"Another failed interview! All because of this last name. The moment they see my last name I'm already rejected." She walked up to the old man "Why do you have to speak such nonsense to people? Do you know why everyone thinks we are 'the crazy shrine people'? Huh?!"

The old man didn't say anything.

"It's because of you and your lies! Your crazy lies. We aren't descendants of a shinsengumi member, your great grandfather wasn't a fighter in some war for God!" She got straight to his face.

"Your wife thought the same, she was just too kind to tell you. No one cares about this shrine, you should have listened to your dad and your grandfather and just sold this horrible place. It's an omen! Nothing good comes from being here."

In his youth, the old man heard the same things said by his own father and grandfather. They said the same horrible things to his great grandfather.

And since the great grandfather owned the land, he left it to the old man. Knowing that only he would care about the shrine.

"You just need to calm down, Mari. The gods have done nothing to—"

"Yeah, they have done nothing," she interrupted the old man. "They did nothing for mother, they haven't done anything for us." In her rage, she walked to the living room and grabbed her son.

"We are leaving. I don't want you near my son anymore."

"Hunny, you are being unreasonable. Dad means well!" The son finally said.

"Yeah he means well, that's why we both get rejected for jobs. Gossiped by people in our neighborhoods." She paused after saying that.

"And little Kouta gets relentlessly bullied. We moved him from three different schools in the last two years!"

The old man was shocked. He looked to the boy as if to ask if it was true. The young boy did not look his jiji in the eyes. He stood watching his daughter-in-law take his grandson outside. It felt like his heart was ripped from his chest.

"I'm sorry dad, just give her some time to cooldown." The son bowed to him, as he was about to leave he turned back to his father. "The shrine was defaced again, I was going to stay and help you clean it but… I'm sorry. My family needs me."

The old man walked to his son and gave him a hug. This hug told the son everything he needed to know.

"I'll talk to her, dad."

"I know."

The old man held back tears, hurtful words that he has always heard. And now he was losing his grandson. In all of his years he had never once doubted or cursed any god. He was always a devoted priest. Devoted to prayer, training and the shrine. For the first time in his life doubt started to seep in.

"Maybe this was all for nothing."

He grabbed a bucket filled with water and soap and went outside. This was the third3rd time this month someone had graffitied the shrine wall.

"Here lives the crazy samurai."

The old man sighed and began to clean.

Was everything a lie? He knew how crazy everything sounded, but he believed in his great grandfather. He believed in his faith, in his ideals.

Your wife thought the same.

Those words echoed in his mind, did his wife really feel that way? Was he the reason she died? All the stress of being with this senile man?

His faith had finally wavered, he dropped to his knees, letting go of the sponge in his hand.

"Please god, anyone! Please show me, send any sign! Tell me I was right, that my faith and my life wasn't a waste of time! That my great grandfather was telling the truth."

Deliriously crying, the old man continued to beg. His tearful eyes stared at the graffiti. "I'm not crazy,." he affirmed.

He had caught himself doubting his ideals, took a second to ask for forgiveness and then took heart. He slowly started to get off the ground, his resolve burning bright once again.

"Please tell me the Tryfing was real, please give me the chance to fight."

////

Above Earth

Sub-space stratosphere

Inari was hovering over the earth waiting for Damaris to appear to her. It had been only a few minutes since the countdown started but she already saw Ra race down to earth.

"Did he already penpoint a strong retainer?" She wondered.

She looked down to her right and saw the young trickster heading down, Zhong Kui was seen next. He actually saw Inari and gave her a bow of respect before descending to earth.

Damaris flew to Inari and the two greeted each other.

"Okay, Time for your rundown, Lady Inari."

All humans have ather lying dormant inside of them. Ather is the spiritual energy that deities and angels have. Human ather is locked away, only being unlocked when they enter the fantasia world; the battlefield of the Tryfing.

During the selection phase the deity looked at four statistics or stats, that only they and the angels can see. These stats were:

Strength: this stat includes the health, athleticism, muscle, and physical strength of a human.

Intelligence: this stat includes wisdom, common sense, thinking process, problem solving.

Ather: this stat explains how much spiritual energy a human has innately.

Resolve: how strong a human's soul is. Never backing down or giving up, the resolve stat can turn the tide of battles if the retainer has a high amount of resolve. The wildcard of all four stats.

These stats are simplified when the deity or angel look at the potential retainer. With one being the lowest and six being the highest, a stronger retainer means a better chance at winning the Tryfing.

"So that about sums it up, Lady Inari, where do you wish to start?" Damaris smiled as she was looking at a tablet.

"My homeland of Japan."

It was like the earth warped to the location that came out of Inari's mouth. There the two stood over her holy land of Nippon. Inari's eyes flashed, in her vision she saw thousands of lights appear. These were the souls of the humans that had the potential to be a retainer. There were two sets of colors, orange which was the color with the most lights and green the color with a scant few.

"Miss Damaris, what do the green lights represent?" asked Inari, as she stared intensely on the lights.

"Green means they are descendants of past Tryfing warriors," read Damaris from her tablet.

The Japanese deities have always participated in the Tryfing, unlike the Greeks this year and the Egyptians last year for example. Izanagi took second place during the first Tryfing, while Raijin took sixth place during the second Tryfing. "So these are our loyal subjects?"

She honed in on only the green lights, and as she was examining the lights. One of them started to buzz. As if it was saying "ME… PICK ME."

"What the heck? I've never seen a human soul do that." Damaris had moved closer to where Inari was, her eyes were also shining, staring at the buzzing soul. "Is it praying?"

"Yes, that human is praying to be picked.'' Inari looked perplexed. There was a human that believed in the Tryfing legend? And wanted to fight? She started to head down to the buzzing green light.

There she saw the old man who had wavered in his faith. He had just asked for forgiveness and started to pray.

"Who is this human, Miss Damaris?"

Damaris took a picture of the old man with the tablet she held, this tablet was connected to the book of life. Using its connection to the book, it's able to pull all information for the selected human, see their past and look into their soul. She pulled the man and his stats.

"Kento Sanosuke, age; eighty-nine years old, Descendant of a previous Tryfing retainer and also a descendant of a shinsengumi member....That's so cool!" Damaris shouted. She caught herself being unprofessional and coughed. "Devoted his life to the shrine, has three kids and two grandkids. Woah, it says here that he has prayed everyday to fight in the Tryfing. Let me pull up his stats."

Kento Sanosuke

STR:<0/0/0/_/_/_>

INT: <0/0/0/0/_/_>

ATH: <0/0/0/0/0/_>

RES: <0/0/0/0/0/_>

Inari was shocked, this old man had high stats in ather and resolve, not to mention having an above average intellect and average strength. Damaris then showed the tablet to Inari, she pressed the play button. In seconds they saw Kento's past, his relationship with his great grandfather, his years of devotion to his shrine, and his final moments with his late wife. This was an honorable man that never had the chance to show who he was to the world.

Yes…This old man was an excellent choice. Inari stepped forward and started to tear through the subspace veil.

"Kento Sanosuke, your prayers have been answered. I, Inari, ask you…. Do you wish to fight for my cause? Do you heed the call? "

Kento turned around, fell to his knees and wept. Damaris would always remember this retainer selection , a genuine beautiful cry, from the devoted man who needed this moment the most.

"It's real. Wuah…IT'S REAL," he bawled as Inari nodded yes. Kenta wiped his never ending tears, he bowed to Inari.

"I have waited my entire life for this moment…"

The old man had practiced this moment almost every single day, he knew exactly what to say. He thanked his great grandfather for that.

"I heed your call, and wish to fight for your cause. As your eternal retainer."

Third Tryfing

Official judge: heroic Greek deity, Achilles.

Support judge: Angel, Damaris.

Chosen deities:

Ra: Demi-God

Lugh: Knight

Zhong Kui: Exorcist

Inari: Polymath: Kento Sanosuke

Freya: Assassin

Nuada: Conqueror

Minerva: Tactician

Team Arc-Angel: Hero

Fantasia world: not yet created.

Starting year: not yet decided.