Chapter 1- The Curse has Returned
The Moon Cave, a place of wonders, legends, power and prayer… it was said that this shrine held many secrets. Even though it was true, no fool dared to venture and discover any of them, for the fear of losing themselves to the caverns depths. No one dared to remove anything from the cavern.
Until now.
A shadowy figure moved slowly and quietly up the small staircase that led to the caves entrance. He stood warily in front of the mouth of the shrine. Most days, he felt a sense of security and light when he saw this sacred place. Now all he felt was fear and anticipation. He strode into the cave, and felt the shadow of an ancient power fall upon him, chilling him to the very marrow in his bones. Eventually, he came across the Moon shrine itself—a small temple, with a large bell hanging under its roof. A sword lay embedded underneath the bell. This sword was known as Tsukuyomi, at least, that was the writing inscribed on its hilt when properly translated. No one dared to raise this blade from its hold, and now he knew why.
No, it is impossible! It is a legend, a fairytale!
He walked up the cold, short staircase that led him to stare straight at the sword. The shadowed form looked at the sword with apprehension and a foreboding sense of doom. He grabbed the hilt with both hands and pulled.
The sword was free.
He stared at the blade. Nothing happened.
Then something did.
Eight pairs of crimson eyes were glaring at him. Panicking, he ran down the staircase, but tripped and fell to the ground. He stared up at the creature, eyes filled with fright. The creature was massive. Its body was the shrine. Eight dragon like heads upon thrashing, snake like necks waved ominously. The eyes of the beast were blood red with evil. One of the heads, presumably the leader, came face to face with the man. When it spoke, its voice was deep, hollow, and like thunder, while its breath reeked of smoke.
"He who seeks power… he who hast broken my bonds… Utter a prayer of darkness, and unleash my true power. Vow unto me, and thou shall receive dark power beyond imagination."
The man was absolutely speechless. Had he unleashed the most powerful evil the world- nay, the galaxy has ever seen?
The dragon-serpent hybrid of a demon unleashed a loud and thunderous roar that echoed throughout the cave. The man ran out of the cave as fast as he could. The eight shadowed heads broke out of the mouth of the cave. One head shattered the monument that labeled the place as such. The lead head roared once more into the sky. A reddish black haze began to roll quickly in all directions, and the sky overhead darkened. Trees were uprooted, grasses and flowers withered away by the power of the terrible curse. The powerful shadow destroyed everything.
However, one thing escaped the damage, though temporarily.
For hundreds of thousands of years, a cherry blossom tree of immense size and strange power kept the lands beyond it protected from any demon that plagued this one land known as Nippon. Its roots spread throughout the land and kept careful guard of the land and the world, yet now the saplings had fallen to the curse, and the tree, Konohana, barely stalled the curse. It would not last long. A statue of a wolf lay in front of the tree, once a symbol of prosperity. But a hurtling bolder would see an end to that. The boulder almost collided with the statue, when a pink robed woman, or rather sprite, appeared at the last second to intercept it. The tree sprite was the living spirit of Konohana, whose power kept the world at peace. Her name was Sakuya.
"No…" she breathed, "How could this be? The demon has returned? It has been almost 500,000 years since it was finally sealed forever!" There was no time to waste pondering over the before. She turned to face the statue. Sakuya outlined a circle.
"Amaterasu," she called, "your power is needed once more. Shine your rays of light upon this withered world and see to it the demon is forever destroyed!" She threw the newly formed reflector into the sky, and came to a landing on the statues back The circle lighted red, with blue and orange flames emerging from the reflector. The wolf statue was now a vibrant, white wolf. Red markings appeared on its face, down its sides and tail. On it shoulders were feathery wisps of what seemed to be fur modeled like a flame, and red marking appeared on them to. The wisps formed on the back of the wolf's feet as well. Finally, tendrils of pure light emerged from it back. It howled and shook itself as if it was drying itself, but instead of water, flakes of light flew off of it.
Sakuya had done this before, long ago, but it was still a sight to behold. The wolf leaped of the base of the statue to the ground, and looked around.
"Amaterasu, origin of all that is good, I apologize to summon you once more, but the choice was not mine. If you would look up at the sky, you would see why."
Amaterasu did just that, staring up at the sunless sky. She growled once, signaling she was aware of what caused it.
"Amaterasu, there is no more time. I am close to falling. My spirit may endure, but my power won't. When that happens, the world outside of Nippon will fall to the curse of the dreaded demon." The wolf stared at her in disbelief. The world? How could she possibly handle that? As far as she knew, there were no saplings outside of these lands. Yes, she was a goddess, but even her power was limited. And the demon's curse was never that powerful. In the past, she had Waka by her side to assist her, but he had surely passed by now. She only knew of one other being that could help her. She howled into the sky. Sakuya wondered exactly what she was doing. A portal opened at her will. In a few short moments, a white and gold armored being walked out of the portal as it closed. The being was easily seven feet tall, with a golden armored chest and shoulders, and what appeared to be a golden mask. He held twin staffs. Sakuya gazed on in wonder. Who could he be? Amaterasu barked with warmth. It seemed she knew who this was. The being spoke.
"Amaterasu? It has been so long, sister!" Amaterasu nodded.
"Excuse me," said Sakuya with a hint of annoyance, "But who might you be?" The strange being turned around.
"Me? Amaterasu has never told you?" She shook her head. "Ah, okay. Seems to be keeping secrets. I am Takanuva."
"Takanuva? Well then what did you mean by 'sister'?"
"Term of endearment," he said quickly. He turned to Amaterasu. "You're summoning of me has not come without reason, I presume?" Amaterasu gazed skyward. Takanuva took a quick glance and knew. "Impossible… but he was sealed away! Some fool has set him free!" But who?
"Amaterasu…" Sakuya called weakly. Their attention was diverted. "I am fading… please… you must… prevail…" her form almost fell to the ground. Takanuva caught her before that happened.
"Unconscious… As long as the tree remains rooted, she shall not fade." He laid her resting form against the tree. Amaterasu licked her face with concern. "Amaterasu, I must depart." She shot him a hard stare and barked at him.
"I must do this alone. I will face the demon. I owe him for what he did." She shook her head and barked once thrice more. "Heroes? But they will never defeat that thing!" She barked again, giving him an explanation of sorts. "Wait… If this is true, then they are the only ones that can undo the curse. But they cannot use the brush, unless it is granted to them." Amaterasu grunted. "The golden armor can grant others control? But then how…" She gave Takanuva a 'wait and see' look. "Alright, if you say so. I will assist them. For now, try to see what you can do about this area." The white wolf nodded.
"Where did you say they were?"
Notes: This is a new story, and luckily, only one BIONICLE character, Takanuva. This story is labeled as a crossover between Okami and Sonic X(Yes, I chose the anime- deal with it!) I have put Trials of a Legend on a hiatus, because I do not know where to go with the story after Ch 10- as in, the plot was not as thoroughly developed as this one's.
Okay, so no Sonic characters yet- but they will be in the next chapter, I assure you. Veterans of Okami know that the beginning portion is very similar to Okami's. They also know the demon's name, but I don't want to spoil it for the Sonic fans. And as for Takanuva's familiarity with Ammy, that will be explained at one point, but not until much later. This story takes place 500,000 years after Trials of a Legend(Yes, Sakuya has not aged physically at all-She is a wood sprite). The whereabouts of Mata Nui and Makuta will also be listed eventually. I hope you like this, because I spent months on this story's plot.
Revision-Tahu won't be here, I replaced him with Takanuva. I'm sorry I did that, but hopefully you guys won't mind. I did that because I felt Takanuva was better suited to being flashy and "half-baked", more so than Tahu.