Chapter 601

Although it was called the side hall, it was actually the Shrine Hall of the old Shieki Eight Families shrine, located behind the main hall. The main hall was traditionally used for New Year banquets and major council meetings, while the Shrine Hall, as the name implied, housed the spirit tablets of the ancestors. Because it was nestled deep within a secluded mountainous area, the old Shieki Eight Families shrine had been spared the baptism of the colossal tsunami. Only howling gales and torrential rain lashed the mountain forests. Aside from that, the ancient cluster of buildings deep in the mountains was dead silent, and the white-robed Shinto priests who usually frequented the shrine had vanished without a trace... The Shinto priests of the Shieki Eight Families were hardly devout souls seeking goodness; on the contrary, they were all former violent felons who had committed crimes within the family and were consequently punished by being sent deep into the mountains to guard the ancestral spirit tablets, cleansing their tainted souls in tranquility. Yet "God" had suddenly resurrected, and a massive catastrophe had abruptly swept through Tokyo. Natural disasters of tsunamis and volcanic eruptions had broken out simultaneously. In such a life-or-death crisis, ferocious thugs were naturally far more useful than pious priests.