HxH: Ryomen... Satoru?

"Make my statue look handsome," Cyr stood in front of the sculptor, showing off various angles and details of himself.

The sculptor had to capture intricate features like the curse markings on Cyr's face and the patterns on his clothing.

"I… I understand…" the man holding the tools replied nervously.

The carving process took nearly half a month.

The finished statue stood two meters tall, carved from white marble. Even the flow of the hair was finely detailed—each strand distinct. For the eyes, Cyr had provided Paraíba tourmalines—translucent, vivid neon-blue gems that stunned onlookers with their ethereal brilliance, praised as the kind of jewel that could only exist in Takamagahara.

As for the clothing, it was painted using artist-grade pigments mixed with crushed gemstones—similar to the way thangka are painted—creating a brilliantly colored, extravagantly luxurious outfit.

Just one look made it obvious: this was an incredibly expensive piece. In this age, there likely wasn't a single work of art more lavish than this.

The day after the statue was completed, the shrine itself was also finished.

Then came a series of elaborate rituals: welcoming the statue into the shrine, offering food and other ceremonial tributes.

And, as Cyr had ordered—prostration.

That part caused a slight pause.

Cyr sat beside his own statue, casually glancing over the offerings on display while smiling at the crowd before him.

"Three…"

"One."

The entire line of people dropped to their knees in perfect unison.

A few slow to react were executed on the spot, right in front of the hall.

On the newly built floor—smooth as white jade—blood seeped in, leaving faint, indelible stains.

"Clean that up. Keep going," the white-haired youth said as he lazily bit into an apple he'd pulled from his own sleeve, speaking with utter nonchalance.

He hadn't even bothered to touch the food laid out as tributes before his statue.

Not that the ingredients were bad—wild boar, pheasant, abalone and the like were actually decent.

But the cooking? Mediocre at best.

The final dishes looked so unappetizing, he'd rather snack on fruit from his pocket.

Maro and Sora casually dragged the corpses out and dumped them outside the shrine before returning to continue the ritual.

The white tiger statues had also been installed on either side of the shrine's entrance.

No matter how angry or resentful anyone might have felt, in front of Cyr, they all restrained their emotions, bowing their heads and playing the part of obedient subjects.

From then on, no one called him "Gojō Cyr" anymore.

They addressed him only as "Moon God", or "Your Highness."

Later, statues of Cyr began being moved into the shrines that once belonged to Tsukuyomi—by his command.

This forceful seizure of shrines, divinity, and even faith itself didn't stir even the slightest reaction.

The so-called gods of Takamagahara… did absolutely nothing.

This greatly disappointed those who had been hoping to see Cyr punished by divine wrath for such blatant blasphemy.

---

"Did I not change enough?" Cyr murmured to himself as he sat alone in the shrine.

After the ritual was complete, everyone had dispersed. As for the priests and shrine maidens, it was said there would be a selection process.

Cyr had appeared out of nowhere. No one believed in him. Even if they did, there was no guarantee of any divine favor.

Then again, priestesses who worshiped other gods rarely received blessings either.

But at least those gods stayed out of the way—virtually nonexistent.

Cyr, on the other hand… was very much alive, and very much present in the human world.

This part was a bit more complicated.

Priestesses who had already grown up typically didn't change their beliefs—they wouldn't worship one god today and switch to another tomorrow.

So the group in charge had no choice but to seek out children who were born with spiritual power, planning to persuade—or more accurately, brainwash—them into believing in Cyr.

Cyr himself didn't particularly care about priests or shrine maidens. He just felt something was… off.

He'd killed this many people already, was even planning to turn the Three Great Families into his own personal lapdogs, and yet… why hadn't the world's consciousness appeared?

Wasn't this enough to count as altering the main storyline?

What more did he need to do? Wipe out everyone in Heian-kyō? Make it so the future cast of characters didn't even get the chance to exist?

It's not like he was some kind of mass-murdering maniac.

"And I've even taken the divine name and the shrine… and still no god has come to challenge me…"

"This world doesn't have a real god system, does it?" the white-haired boy murmured from his seat atop the platform.

If there were gods, wouldn't they have already blown up in rage from being publicly humiliated like this?

After all, gods aren't emotionless beings. They have tempers too.

Cyr imagined it from the opposite perspective—if someone ever disrespected him like this, he wouldn't hesitate to take them out on the spot.

Even the dogs in that person's household would get slapped around by him.

"Yo, does this world have gods in its setting?" Cyr asked the system.

[In this world's framework, there exist systems for humans, yokai, gods, ghosts, and cursed spirits,] the system replied.

So the world wasn't that big, but the taxonomy sure was colorful…

"Then why hasn't any god come down to fight me?" Cyr asked, sounding genuinely disappointed.

He was kind of looking forward to trying out a god-slaying scenario.

The system remained silent.

"The world consciousness hasn't shown up, Sukuna hasn't shown up—I've stirred up this much trouble, and it's still not enough?" Cyr clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed.

"And when the hell do I get to jump timelines, anyway? The main plot starts a thousand years in the future—that's my real stage. This era…"

"I'm gonna die of old age at this rate. I'll never make it to the future…" Cyr kept grumbling.

Who knew when—or if—the system would ever have enough energy to send him a millennium forward.

[Energy accumulating. Please remain patient, Host.] came the system's cold and businesslike response.

"…Tch." Cyr clicked his tongue and rose to his feet, pushing open the shrine's heavy wooden doors.

The shrine was fairly large, built atop a small mountain. After all, Kyoto was surrounded by mountains on three sides. Placing the shrine on a mountaintop also helped keep it away from residential areas.

Besides the room housing his divine statue, there were several other smaller buildings meant to serve as living quarters for priests and shrine maidens. There was even a courtyard.

To reach the shrine, one had to climb a long stone stairway.

Once the stairs—built from piled rock—were scaled, visitors would see a red torii gate, the symbolic threshold between the human and divine realms, flanked by two large white marble tiger statues.

Only after walking a bit further would the shrine buildings come into view.

Cyr was, all things considered, satisfied with the shrine.

But because he wasn't sure how long he'd stay in Heian-kyō—or whether the locals would defile his shrine once he left—he made a decision…

He'd study barrier techniques.

He would set up a barrier around the shrine.

°°°

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