The Naraka is the Decision

Shizuhana stopped at the top of a hill, with the meadow stretching out below her like a sea of silver shadows. Her followers surrounded her in silence, expectant. Then, she lifted her gaze to the two moons and spoke:

"The path I offer you is not a paved road, nor a doctrine carved in stone. It is a path that dissolves with each step, for only through dissolution can the Colorless Truth be found."

She spun her Ame-no-nuboko in the air, tracing an invisible circle before her.

"But every journey begins with a first step. And although absolute negation cannot be reduced to rules, there are paths that must be crossed to shed the veil of the world, this false world. Listen closely."

She turned toward her followers, and with a firm voice, she pronounced the principles of the path:

"The first step toward the colorless truth is the negation of the name. Everything that has a name is chained. Anything that can be pointed at is trapped in form. To advance, you must learn to see beyond names: A river is not a river. A sky is not a sky. You are not even what you think you are. Abandon the safety of words."

One of the followers murmured quietly: "Then how can we communicate?"

Shizuhana responded firmly. "Not with words, but with understanding. That which is true does not need to be spoken."

...

"In the second step, just as the name is a prison, the form is its reflection. Your bodies, your identities, everything you think you are… is nothing but a self-imposed limit. Everything that has form can be broken. Everything that has boundaries can be crossed. Only when you abandon the idea of what you are, can you begin to see what truly exists."

One of the followers, trembling, asked: "And if we disappear while doing so?"

Shizuhana looked at him serenely. "Then you will discover if you were ever real."

"And in the third step, you must know that the universe was woven with imposed meanings. The Gods of the Dawn and the Dusk filled the void with color, with love, hate, and purpose… but all of it is nothing more than a golden cage. Existence does not need meaning. Only when you discard the need for a purpose, can you see the truth as it is: without adornments, without bindings, without distortion."

One follower gritted his teeth. "But isn't meaning what gives us direction?"

Shizuhana nodded slowly. "And that is exactly why it keeps you trapped. The truth is not found in following pre-established paths, but in completely losing yourself."

No one present knew how to respond to Shizuhana, so they decided to remain silent as they tried to process the magnitude of her words, something that had never been seen in the natural order of all things.

Until someone asked.

"And... What is the last step?" asked Ryvuastra, who had previously been doubting Shizuhana's words.

"When the time is right, you will know, you must do it." Shizuhana replied with an enigmatic tone.

The silence persisted after Shizuhana's words, as if a shadow of uncertainty had settled over the gathering. Ryvuastra lowered her gaze, still digesting the goddess's enigmatic response.

But another voice rose among the devotees.

"Returning to the true issue... Shizuhana-sama, you spoke of something else. Something you perceived deep within the veil."

It was Maigha, one of the goddess's most thoughtful disciples. Her tone was serious, as if she had been holding that question for a long time.

"The Unknown Force... that nameless presence lurking behind reality. You said its existence was a deeper enigma than creation itself. So tell me, how do you plan to unravel its truth?"

The words echoed among the crowd. Until now, Shizuhana had spoken about the nature of meaning, the prison of names, and the deception of form. But what Maigha was asking was different: a mystery that even challenged Shizuhana's understanding.

Shizuhana closed her eyes for a moment. In her mind, she felt it again: an unyielding presence, hidden behind the illusion of the cosmos, a will without judgment or desire, indifferent to creation and the poles.

She opened her eyes.

"I don't know."

That answer left everyone stunned. Shizuhana had never said 'I don't know.'

"From my own knowledge, I cannot unravel the truth of that Force. No matter how much I contemplate it, its nature remains hidden. Its essence escapes even my principle of transcendence, because it is neither white, nor black, nor a form I can touch, nor even a void I can fall into."

The tension grew thicker. Even the gods who followed her were afraid of the invisible shadow Shizuhana had mentioned.

But then, her voice became more resolute.

"If the truth cannot be reached from here... then I will go seek it where no one has dared to go."

The crowd looked at her, expectant.

"I will descend to the Realm of Naraka, the forbidden hell."

A murmur of disbelief spread.

"That's madness!" Ryvuastra exclaimed, stepping forward. "That place... The Samsara-Kshetra... It's not for the gods! No one has ever returned from there. It's an abyss where creation and destruction devour each other. Even if you are the strongest among us, your essence would be irreparably destroyed."

"Exactly." Shizuhana looked at her intensely. "That is precisely why it is the only place where I might find an answer."

The gods watched her with a mixture of fear and admiration. Naraka was the forbidden domain, the abyss where everything dissolved in infinite tension. No god, not even those from the Dusk, had dared to set foot there. Only those who received divine punishment were taken there, and they never returned. Going there voluntarily was an unprecedented madness.

"If that Unknown Force is beyond creation and the dualistic system, then only a realm that transcends both extremes can reveal it."

Maigha clenched her fists. "But Shizuhana-sama… that's the same as seeking death."

"If death holds the answer, I will accept it."

Her voice did not tremble. There was no challenge or pride in her words, only an absolute certainty.

"I am going to Naraka. Not as a goddess, not as the bearer of ego... but as a vestige seeking the truth."

The wind blew through the meadows, and for a moment, the two moons seemed to shine with a spectral light. Shizuhana's journey to the Forbidden Hell had begun.

『The Realm of Naraka... The Samsara-Kshetra... It is a forbidden hell, beyond light and darkness, existing outside of life and death... It is said that the Realm of Naraka is the forbidden product of tensions between white and black, where both incompatible forces merged into one, creating a "Hell of Neutrality," where both essentially incompatible forces became one, acquiring a nature like that of an eternal hell, with infinite tension that crushes the soul.』