Returning Welsh Dragon Hero - Chapter 23

"—Hey God! I'm right here, I'm unworthy! SO HIT ME WITH YOUR FUCKING BEST SHOT!—"

Static.

The prayer scrambled and broke as the reconstruction failed again.

Michael sighed for what felt like a hundredth time today.

The Archangel was once more in the Seventh Heaven going through the Prayer that was left behind from the Incident a month ago.

It was something that Angels of Heaven were surprised by, thinking it was a miracle, or just Michael having finally made a breakthrough in managing the System of Heaven.

System of Heaven existed to collect and manage the prayers and wishes of the faithful. To answer prayers, deliver salvation or even grant miracles.

The System protects humanity. Empowering them, alerting the angels of catastrophes, or responded to infringement into Heaven territory by other Pantheons by delivering smite, through the concentrated Holy Power that held up the System supplied by the faithful.

It was in a way an active living thing, not dissimilar to the Heavenly Dao of the Celestial Bureaucracy. Except more active and just better in everyway according to Michael. Also it existed before the Heavenly Dao, so the Chinese were just copying them and made a knock off. Not really that surprising.

However since the death of the Almighty—the very thought never stop bringing grief to Michael's heart—the System was overwhelmed. It still functioned, but slowly from time to time errors would pop-up. It required more and more of the angel's attention to deal with, that simply put they plainly couldn't afford to leave Heaven. Thus more and more of the angel's duties were delegated to the Church, as Heaven believed their guiding hand on Earth should be trusted and respected.

Michael sighed. All that did was open the door to abuse and corruption that became entrenched in the institution of the Church.

At times angels would try to be more active on Earth before inevitably having to return to maintain whatever small role they had in helping maintain the System, and improve its functionality.

Its worse when prayers aren't answered for too long that, they can't be answered anymore. Either the situation that required them changed so much that there's no point in answering them, or the person who prayed had long passed. That faith energy just gets left behind and left stuck in the System slowing it down and impairing it, till far, far, far later on that energy gets absorbed.

Its why the Archangels rarely were seen outside of Heaven these days. They just plainly can't afford it.

Michael smiled in melancholy thinking back in awe at his Father.  For God to have been able to manage the entirety of the System of Heaven on his own, and command their armies against the devils, fallen angels and dark creatures of the night, fight off other divines and seal the Beast of the Apocalypse.

His Father really was the Most Holy, Omnipotent Creator.

Because without him the System, almost all too quickly, simply accumulated too many prayer that couldn't be answered without an angel approving or disapproving it. Thus the power of the faith was just left there within the System unprocessed or absorbed till the prayer is addressed.

The worst part is automating answering and processing prayers just simply wasn't possible. The structure wasn't present within the System. Likely his Father didn't see a need, or thought every single stray prayer required his full attention. Thus was his Love for mankind.

In simply term, the System of Heaven suffered a massive backlog. Centuries worth of it.

Until recently.

About a month ago, on April 4th something occurred.

Neither Michael nor the other Archangels know exactly what.

A dimensional anomaly? Some kind of breach into the System? That had caused a panic and a half.

The System just activated a celestial attack or something resembling it somewhere, and so far the Archangels haven't found anything had happened in the world. No location or Pantheon was Holy Nuked. No sudden massive appearance of someone with Holy Power.

Just nothing.

Only the result of the Backlog Clearing Incident, or just the Incident, was left behind.

That the System received, as the Archangels realized later on, a Prayer.

This Prayer cause centuries of worth of faith energy to be processed absorbed and then release a never seen before amounts of Holy Power (not since the Biblical God's days) somewhere.

The only reason why Michael found out this was caused by a single Prayer was because he was meticulously scouring the System, sealing himself in the Seventh Heaven determined to find out what happened, and that's when he stumbled upon it.

"God, please!—If this isn't—emergency? Humanity is in danger. No, it's incinerated. So isn't most definitely now the time for—AREN'T YOU SUPPOSE TO BE MIRACLE GIVEN TO HUMANITY? SO DO SOMETHING! B—"

When a Prayer enters Heaven's System it is not only cataloged by how severe the need of it is compared to all other prayers and the impact on mankind as a whole now and forever, for it to go unanswered, but the person and their circumstances are recorded as well.

The System was suppose to show everything about this Prayer, from who prayed, to why, to their circumstances, and even their present situation.

None of that was correctly processed or recorded. Only the left over bits of a scrambled message to show that, in fact, a Prayer was the cause all this.

A Prayer who's urgency jumped it to the absolute first order of processing, then the System itself answered.

Something that shouldn't even be possible because it just plainly wasn't in the hardware of the System like Michael mentioned before.

Yet somehow, the leftover, scattered bits and pieces remnant of God's Will that suffused Heaven's being—which only concentration of to be of note was within the True Longinus—gathered together to form to make a decision for the System, thus activating it to grant that prayer.

It was something that Michael could only describe as a Miracle. And its why he has yet to tell anyone, none of his siblings, beyond the Four Great Seraphs, of which he was one, simply because of the... reaction this would cause.

Now with that faith energy backlog cleared, there was so many things the Archangels could do. For one, Uriel had been wanting a meeting with the Church higher-ups. Michael let him go this time with Gabriel as a calming influence. Yes, even Heaven uses Good Cop, Bad Cop on occasion.

Raziel had went about investigating some of the "secret" dealings and projects the Church had kept hidden, as well as finding out about why a number of Holy Maidens would be excommunicated and go missing over the years.

The rest of the Seraph were finally able to directly deal with all the prayers from the present time (around roughly the past ten years), since it's not like those would go away.

A lot of angels were freed up to help Exorcists directly in their mission and more importantly teach and guide them, because by his Father, the zealotry was making some of the younger Exorcists into dumbasses! And also to teach them that compassion was important, but also not to be tricked by someone taking advantage of said compassion.

Michael mentally apologized for thinking of Father's flock in that manner.   

One bad news that soured this Miracle was discovering all the angels that were breaking God's rules by exploiting loopholes in the System. Committing sins, killing non-Abrahamic faithful humans to deprive another faction of Sacred Gears, or working with the Old Satan Faction because both sides want the Great War back.

That had lead to Raphael take a group of angels to deal with this mess, while trying to keep it quiet from other factions discovering this internal dispute. Even Metatron returned from Japan to aid Raphael with this operation.

Father, what a mess. Michael shook his head at the thought. There was a lot of work to be done.

As for Michael though? He needed to get to the bottom of this. To finally reconstruct and hear the full Prayer and circumstances around it.

Or at the very least find the person who made the Prayer to understand what this jumbled mess was suppose to be.

Archangel Michael could only wonder, what kind of person, what pious soul, could have made that Prayer?

And more terrifyingly, what unimaginable situation was it for?

===x===

Walking through the festival in Ura Erimo, the noise didn't feel that different to Issei than the noise of a festival in the mundane side.

In the wide main street, there was a parade of youkai carrying and drumming on some taiko drums. There were several daishi, floats being carried down the street, each one dedicated to different gods.

Issei only recognized ones for Suijin and the larger one for Susanoo. He supposed these would normally be the ones be venerated a lot in a coastal town.

Vali had join them as he promised, walking next to him and while letting Issei's parents lead the group as they walked around and discovered more of the magic festival by themselves.

As the parade moved on and later died down, Issei and his group found themselves following the crowd, as they seemed to head to some short cliffs. A lot of the people there, mostly youkai, carried a fishing pole in one hand and a shield in the other or on their backs.

"Excuse me, good sir." Gorou asked a kappa passing next him. "Could you tell me what's happen? Where everyone going with fishing rods? And shields?"

"Oh?" The kappa blinked at the question, as he gave Gorou a once one. "Ah, you're new here. It's the Happy Fish Hunting contest!" He said with some excitement.

"Happy fish?" Gorou blinked and his eyebrow rose at the name. "Is that just the name of the contest, or would we be actually...?" He paused to let the youkai fill in.

"Oh yeah! It's the actual happy fish!" The kappa said sounding hyped. "Bit of a tough competition, given the usual reigning 'champion'," He snorted at that but didn't sound angry. "The tough part is the Isonades they bring into this thing, so be sure to get a shield if you compete."

"Ah, I see. Thank you for the information." Gorou bowed.

"No problem, see you later!" The kappa laughed and waved back before he ran forward with the crowd.

"Dear, are you going to compete?" Miki asked, looking a bit worried.

"Hmm, I don't know." Gorou rubbed his chin unsure. "I mean, it's the Happy Fish." He said with some excitement as well.

The legend of the Happy Fish is that whomever catches it, and frees it is granted a wish for their kind act.

Issei could already tell his dad wanted to compete.

"Can you guys wait here for a second? I'll go ask around, like on the rules and stuff." Issei told them.

"Don't bother. I already know." Vali said, surprising Issei. "I looked it up this morning as I had some free time and was bored."

Yeah, sure. I buy that. Issei didn't say those words, but he did think them. He waited patiently for the half-devil to explain.

"Basically anyone can compete. You can use whatever tool you like to fish, as long as it doesn't damage the environment too much, and nothing that causes ecological problems, like poisons that stays in an area for years or anything like that." Vali said.

"Who the hell would do that?" Gorou asked shocked.

"Someone trying to deal with the Isonades. They are bred for this contest, so they are stronger than the average ones. They have the Mirror ability, letting them match and reflect the power and skill of whoever faces them. That's why they can snatch fishermen off their boats, with their tails. They Mirror the fishing ability of their hunters, and hunt them instead." Vali explained. "They have a limit of course, but no one wants to get that serious in a friendly contest.

"The shields are because once the Isonades get above water, they would attack the fishermen. The contest once someone successfully gets the Happy Fish, and pull it out of the water into their hands. The Isonades are trained to protect and free the Happy Fish whenever it is caught by a bait. Not that the thing itself isn't very smart and illusive." He finished his explanation and the group found themselves reaching the cliffs with the crowd.

"So all of these people are competing to get a wish?" Gorou wondered. Given what's on the table, this really did seem like a tough competition.

"Not really." A new voice spoke to the Hyoudou group. "Some want to eat it."    

As the turned they saw another fisherman. He looked like a young man with white and blue robes and shorts, made for movement, yet hinted at having a noble station. He had blue eyes and dark blue hair stylized in a very high pony tail, that went out of a hole at the top of his amigasa, a wickerwork straw hat.

The young man held fishing rod relaxed, balanced again his shoulder, while holding straw bags, held by a blue rope on the other shoulder.

"Eat it!?" Miki asked in disbelief.

"Well, they are, without exaggeration, literally the most delicious fish in the world." The mysterious fisherman said.

Issei blinked a few times as a certain... quality about this fisherman felt familiar to him. Looking at Vali, he seemed to identify not just what but who the fisherman was. Seeing Vali not treating this unknown divinity as threat, Issei relaxed a bit.

"B-But, aren't the fishies... Alive alive?" Asia asked.

The god fisherman looked at Asia for a moment, before chuckling.

"You mean 'sapient'? No, no. They are as intelligent as a smart animal, but that's it. Even their wish grant ability is limited by person's inner desire as they don't understand complex instructions. So if you make a wish, keep it simply and really focus on it. Anything that requires a paragraph to explain, it won't manage and just try for an approximation based on your inner desires. Same for anything too big or world changing, it doesn't have the power to do that." The god fisherman explained.

"Ah, I see. Thank you for that, good sir." Gorou said bashfully.

"Jin. The name is Jin my good man." 'Jin' introduced himself.

"Hyoudou Gorou." Issei's dad said back as the two shook hands. "And this is my wide, Miki, my son, Issei, my adopted daughter, Asia and Issei's friend, Vali." He said, introducing everyone else.

Asia blushed and looked down, trying to suppress a giddy smile at how she was mentioned.

"Thank you for the help, Jin-san." Issei said stepping forward. The god paying special attention to him. "Do you know where we can find any fishing rods for the competition? We didn't exactly know about it until now."

Jin grimaced. "Ooof. You should have tried buying one some time throughout the past week. I'm afraid all you'll find now is the cheap stuff with the detachable hook, so you can free the string from the Isonades if they prove too much trouble."

"That sounds good." Gorou said with an approving nod.

"The standard ones come with an automatic barrier against physical and magical attacks. The really good ones has a reflective force field to damage the Isonades when they attack you." Jin explained with an apologetic smile.

"It's fine." Issei said. "Can the fisherman have someone help them?"

"Yes, but only one person." Jin nodded.

"Then it is settled." Vali spoke up. "With my divide dealing with the monster fish should be easy picking, and Gorou-san can focus on capturing the Happy Fish."

"Vali, thanks but, it's my dad." Issei gave his friend a side eye.

Miki cooed at the boy's heartfelt worry, while Asia smiled.

"Issei, Vali, I'm grateful for you wanting to help me, but," The two Dragon Emperor looked at the Hyoudou father. "I kinda want to do this one on my own."

===x===

After a bit of protest Issei and Vali had agree to let Gorou compete without their help. Although Issei still registered as Gorou's second, to step in and save him if things got too dicey.

"Fishermen! Get ready!" An announcer, another rabbit youkai shouted into a plastic megaphone.

There were many other contestants standing atop the cliff. Next to Gorou was an oni on one side and tiger youkai on the other.

Gorou stood at the cliff that was part of a cove, looking down at turbulent waters with many sharp shark-like fins of different sizes swimming around. There were jaggered rocks at the bottom of the cliffs.

And in the waters Gorou could see the isonades.

It had a long body with many scales, sharp fins, and a very sharp and jaggered shark tail. It's head looked like a nightmarish monstrous fish that could be found at the bottom of the ocean.

Gorou gulped. Was he really going to do this? 

He looked back at his family. Issei was two steps behind him ready to act should Gorou fall. Far behind with the cheering crowd were Miki, Asia and the stoic Vali. The white haired boy seemed to give him a approving look, as he reevaluated him, beyond a normal human who was Issei's father.

Gorou's eyes settled on Miki.

He looked at her stomach. It was a miracle when Issei was born, alive and healthy. Issei was actually their third son, with his earlier siblings having ended up as miscarriages.

That's why Gorou jumped into this contest. He didn't know if they would be likely this time, like when they did with Issei. Or if repeating the hyakudomairi he once went on would have been enough, so he saw the chance to get an actual tangible way to ensure Miki's delivery goes well for her and Issei's future sibling, as something he must get.

Gorou looked forward and tightened his grasp on the fishing rod that Issei got and Boosted to enhance its durability and steadiness.

"The rest is up to you, dad." 

His son seemed to have figured out why Gorou wanted to do this without any help. He had become really smart. Or rather he always ways, but now he had the maturity to always apply that intelligence.

"GO!" The announcer shouted, and Gorou was broken out of his musing.

His body just reacted and he whipped his fishing pole launching the string and hooked bait forward.

Dozens of the other participants did the same. Some fishing lines were obviously enchanted by magic as they glowed and flew in unnatural ways, hitting the water like a homing arrow.

A few minutes went by with nothing happening.

And then contestants started dropping. Literally.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" A rokurokubi screamed for a long, long time on her way down. She was pulled down by the isonades's tail, literally stretching till it reached her on the cliff, grabbed her by the tail fins and pulled her down.

Soon after other contestants would fall from not letting go of their fishing rods in time. Others were hit by magic spells of sorts, and that broke their footing on the cliff.

"Ha, fools." Said the oni next to Gorou. This is why you should focus on water-type magic enchanted rods—"

No sooner than the oni finished saying that, a tentacle of water had grabbed him, and snatched him down.

The oni screamed.

Gorou felt a tug at his pole and immediately activated the hook detaching feature. Nothing happened to him. He let out a sigh. That would be his fist hook. the fishing rod came with three. Three chances to escape the isonades if one were unfortunate enough for them to get your bait, rather than the Happy Fish.

"Haha, if you're going to lose your nerve that quickly, maybe you should quit old man. For all you know, that might have been the Happy Fish you just escaped from." Said the tiger youkai next to Gorou.

"Ha, yeah. Lost my nerves for a second." Gorou laughed the comment off, and just focused on the water.

To his relief he saw that those that fell into the cove weren't killed. Beyond some scraps and bruises, they were all fine, as they were rescued by beautiful ningyo. Magical fish ladies, mermaids basically.

One even waved at him. He supposed as the only normal human around, he looked particularly vulnerable.

He chuckled and waved back, wondering if Miki could cosplay as a mermaid. He shook his head, and turned his focus on the contest and water how others are doing.

Part of the rules was that he could stand around not fishing for ten minutes before he was disqualified. So he timed himself with his watch and spent five minute watching how others are doing.

...It was incomprehensible for him.

Some people were pulling the isonades into the air, before jumping and engaging into a kung fu battle with the monster fish. The monster fish used martial arts back. Somehow.

Others would use magic spells that would be fired back at them just as fast, if not faster than the caster. Sometimes a spell would be fired before the caster had used their own spell. The isonades had already Mirrored their ability and used it before them.

Two people would keep switching between who held their fishing rod. Their string ended up being pulled by two isonades, and one of them fell in instantly.

Then it happened.

Someone pulled the Happy Fish.

It looked... beautiful. White scales with some orange along its body like a koi fish. It's body was long, cylinder with a fat middle. Its head had two wooden horns, almost like an eastern dragon.

One thing that was clear right away, the Happy Fish was enormous. The isonades were as big as a human adult in length. The Happy Fish was three times that size.

How the hell am I suppose to drag that out of the water, even if I catch it? Gorou said to himself.  

The one who pulled it had been Jin. He managed to wrestle the Hapy Fish for a while, before the isonades jumped up, biting the fishing string with a while, even pulling on it, till finally it snapped. Jin pulled the string back to reapply the hook, or fix it.

As Gorou looked on, an idea came to mind.

"Issei." He finally spoke to his second, his son. "How good are you at making magic stuff? Like changing the ground, or making a pillar of stone or something?"

"Umm," Isse blinked at the question. "Kinda? Not something that's viable in a rushed situation, but I can make something if I have time."

"Well," Gorou looked at his watch. "In a bit, you'll have ten minutes. Better start now." He quickly told Issei what structure he wanted him to make. Issei immediately understood from his grin.

 Gorou released his fishing string into the sea once more. He waited till something, anything caught, and the second it did, he detached the hook. That would be his second one. Only one hook left. One chance.

Gorou waited for Issei to transmutate the earth, working as quick as he can to reform the ground. Soon, Issei managed to create the shape Gorou wanted.

Two stone pillars with a connecting pillar between them. All cylindrical. Basically an H-shaped stone, like the ones used as goal posts for American football.

Issei then went further and reinforced the H stone pillar with multiple Boosts.

"Ready?" Issei asked.

"You did your part. Now it's my turn." Gorou nodded.

The isonades Mirrored the one hunting them. Gorou was just a normal human, thus the isonades would be limited to his strength and weaknesses. Using the environment wasn't part of his abilities.

Gorou threw fishing string over the H-stone, letting the line land on the middle horizontal pillar, and the hook fall into the sea.

 He wait for a while.

And wait, and wait.

He wondered why it felt like the fish wasn't biting this time, now that he intended to hunt them.

He let out a breath, took one in, and tightened his grip.

The line went taut. A fish bit.

Gorou pulled with all his might against a thrashing equal force that was fierce and relentless.

One look at the sea and Gorou could see, he predictably caught an isonade. That was fine. That was expected even.

"Issei," he said through gritted teeth. "How strong is the rod and the strings?"

"Strong enough." A quiet sound of 'Boost' rang in the background. "But I'll prepare the Boosts just in case."

Gorou nodded, even if he couldn't see Issei's expression as he focused on the isonade. It pulled, it weaved, it thrashed.

Gorou with all his might, use the leverage from the H-stone, and stepped back, one foot at a time. He put all his focus into not losing his footing.

Once the isonade head was above water, it went insane, as sometime he would slam into the cliff side, or try to swim toward Gorou to slack the line, before pulling away again.

Gorou almost lost his footing in one of those tricks.

"Dad!" Issei went to step in.

"No!" Gorou cried out. "Let me do this!"

It might have been a matter of useless pride. But what kind of father would be so dependent on his son?

"This is stupid, you know that!" Issei called out.

"If it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid!" Gorou said back, and Issei stilled before he laughed as he saw similarities between his father and someone else.

Logically with how weak as just a human Gorou was, the isonade would be just as weak. If Issei intervened, it would grow, maybe not as powerful as his son, given what Issei told him about his match with Vali. But it would grow strong enough to ruin this contest, and stop it, even if Issei fought and beat it. Likely the cove cliffs won't survive.

It's not just a matter of Gorou doing this to prove something to himself, to show that he can still give to this family. Rather, in his heart, Gorou had come to see that if he endured hardship, then his children would be safe.

The hyakudomairi for Issei. The Happy Fish for their next child.

It was idiotic, but it made some sense to him. Maybe having one example of that being the case shouldn't mean there was a pattern.

But this contest was a sign. Coming here was a sign.

Sometimes you have to go out and forge your destiny.

And sometimes destiny comes to you and knocks on your door.

A man must answer when destiny gives you a chance.

He saw it then.

The Happy Fish moving.

The Happy Fish coming to Gorou's bait. His isonade bait.

He had only seen it by luck. The Happy Fish diving after an injured isonade. Maybe that meant nothing. Maybe it was just swimming in that direction. But it was an hint of a clue, a single ray of light, so he grasped it with all he had.

The Happy Fish swallowed the isonade, grabbing onto his hook.

"ISSEI!"

[BOOST] [BOOST] [BOOST] [BOOST] [BOOST]

The Boosts were cast on the entirety of fishing rod and the stone structure. Gorou grinned at his son understanding, of not Boosting himself, of letting him do this with his own strength.

Gorou ran under the H stone, he passed by it and jumped off the cliff.

People cried behind him. Some in shock, some in terror and worry. He heard Miki's cries among them. Even in the chaos he heard her. He spun to look at her, to give her a grin to reassure her.

He gave his son and firm look, and Issei nodded back.

Gorou fell and pulled on the fishing pole with all his might.

The Happy Fish was pulled. It broke through the water from the initial pull then slowed.

Gorou swung himself to the cliff, and began to pull down, as he ran down the cliff toward the raggered rocks.

The force and momentum continued and increased as the Happy Fish was pulled all the way up the cliff.

Just as the fish head's reached the stone bar, Issei moved, pushing the fish from it's belly letting it flip and fall on land on it's back, and grabbed the fishing line.

Gorou saw the pointy rocks coming toward him faster and faster...

"DON'T LET GO!" Issei cried, and Gorou obeyed with all his might, grasping the fishing rod with his whole body.

The fall rapidly decreased and Gorou fought to hold on. Then the speed slowed even further and he didn't feel himself slipping. Eventually the falling stopped. Gorou looked down to see he was three quarters of the way down. Thankfully the rock were still far away, but he felt it was still too close.

He could also see the ningyos nearby with glowing magic symbols above their hands, looking at him in a panic and shock. They probably would have been able to save him.

He chuckled apologetically, as he likely gave them a scare.

Then the fishing line started going up. Gorou sighed in relief and looked up.

The speed he rose in grew sharper much quickly, before soon, he was back on land, and hugging his son.

"Winner! Hyoudou Gorou!" The announcer shouted, and the people, humans and youkai alike shouted in cheer and celebration.

They were also shouting something about a new champion overtaking Suijin.

Gorou didn't care. He was just glad he could make his wish.

First he'll take his deserved beating from Miki, then enjoy the best the make-up sex and holy-shit-I-am-still-alive sex he'd ever have.

Right, first things first. He's gonna need to push the fish off the cliff, won't he?