Ashitaka to San no Sekki

Name means "Tale of San and Ashitaka". The name Mr. Miyazaki first thought for Princess Mononoke afterwards was "Ashitaka Sekki", since the movie tells about him.

Repartees are from the Japanese version of the movie, translated. I got them from Japanese Mononoke Hime script.

I don't own Princess Mononoke and English is not my first language! (Note: I will not say this again!)


A long, long time ago, this county was overrun by deep forests. Within these forests lived the gods of old
San was coming back from her herb-gathering. She was a quite beautiful young woman in age of seventeen. She had short greenish brown hair and sharp blue eyes. Se wore a dark blue kimono that just reached her knees, a hair band and a crystal dagger as a necklace.

San was a member of the Emishi tribe, the warrior clan who over five hundred years ago lost in the battle with Yamato clan and escaped far away to the east. Now they lived hidden.

San wasn't actually a pure Emishi, she had been adopted to the clan by their oracle Hii-sama. San had been found in the forests near the clan's village. Hii-sama had taken her in and taken care of her ever since she was a child. Tough Hii-sama had tried to convince everyone that San was trustable, many were still suspicious over her. There was only few people who accepted San. Hii-sama, of course, Jii-ji, the old man of the guarding tower, the clan's princess Kaya and the clan's prince Ashitaka.

San flushed a bit at the thought of Ashitaka. He was her best friend. They had grown up together. However, as they grew up, the feelings had grown and now they were engaged to be married as soon as they both reached age of twenty. They were deeply in love. The dagger that San had had been given to her by Ashitaka when he asked her to be his fiancée.

'Well, I guess the villagers have a reason to me suspicious over me' San thought as she walked. It was quite true. San had been different ever since childhood. She had always been nature-loving and some might even say, a little wild. San loved being outside and specially in the forests. She was also a very different to be a girl. She was an excellent hunter and fighter. This had as a reason that when she had been a child, she had not had much playmates. Ashitaka had been the only one, but since he was the future leader of the clan, he had had to train his fighting skills since the day he was able to walk. So, he hadn't had much time for San. Then one day, San got enough of that and she went with Ashitaka to his fighting lessons. It had not been very accepted at first, but Ashitaka had managed to convince everyone for that. Ever since then, they had been training together and they both were excellent fighters. Even with these things, San had other specialties too. She had always had a good sense of smell and hearing. Much better than a normal human. San didn't mind this at all, it was actually quite handy at times, but she didn't like that they made people of the clan more suspicious over her.

'Well, as long as I have Ashitaka….' She thought and tugged the crystal dagger gently. It was very special to her. Not only because Ashitaka gave it to her, but also because it was one of the few memories Ashitaka had had of his parents. They had died long time ago, when they had been just children. Ashitaka had taken care of his sister Kaya since then. San had been quite surprised when Ashitaka didn't cry at all when his parents died in the strange illness. She had not asked about it from him though. She felt that he didn't want to talk about it.

San's name meant "three". She had got that name, because she had been found the third day of march, the third month of the year. It was also because she had been the third child in the village at that time. Ashitaka was one and then there was a girl Sayu, who however had left the village three years ago, because she had wanted to see the land outside of the east.

"San!" she heard the familiar voice behind her

"Ashitaka!" Ashitaka rode his faithful red elk, Yakkuru. Ashitaka was quite handsome young man, he had dark brown hair as a mage on top of his head, dark blue warm eyes and he wore blue kimono-styled shirt and white pants.

"Good that I found you. Hii-sama says everyone must return back to the village"

"Yes, I've noticed something's up. I can't hear the birds and there's no scent of creatures anywhere"

"I'm going to check this out with Jii-ji in his tower. You go back to the village, and be careful"

"Alright. You be careful too!" she said as she broke into a run. She soon made it out of the forest and saw Kaya with her few friends

"Kaya!" she called out for her

"Oh, San!"

San went to her

"Ashitaka told me to go back to the village. Something strange is up here"

"Alright. Let's go"

Kaya and her friends started walking a bit faster. San saw them off. Then suddenly, she heard something. And smelled too.

'It smells like a danger!'

She turned around and saw something. It was huge and it was all covered in a strange slugs or worms.

It was a Tatari-gami!

"San, look out!" she heard the voice, it was Ashitaka who was riding Yakkuru. San saw him to shot the Tatari-gami. The arrow he casted hit and the Tatari-gami made a sound of pain

"San, nigero! Hayaku!"("San, run! Hurry!")

San ran a bit further, but only away from the Tatari-gami. She saw that those slug-things that were on the Tatari-gami had taken Ashitaka's hand to their thigh hold. Ashitaka managed to get rid of them, but they stayed around his hand. He casted another arrow. Now the Tatari-gami's slugs started to fell of and San could see it was actually a huge orange boar-god.

"Ashitaka!" she screamed as she ran towards him

"Are you okay?" she asked. She knew that that question wasn't needed, she could see he wasn't okay. He had fallen off from Yakkuru's back and he was holding his arm where the slugs had taken hold on. There was now a wound on it.

People of the Emishi started to gather around them.

"Ashitaka's wounded!"

"Someone bring Hii-sama here, quickly!"

"San! Ani-sama!"

Kaya came to them

"San, Kaya, don't touch my arm. This wound's not ordinary"

"Everyone, you mustn't get any closer!"

"Hii-sama!" San noticed, but didn't leave Ashitaka's side.

"What should we do?" Kaya asked worried

"Pour this water slowly on the wound" Hii-sama answered as she gave Kaya a large bottle. Kaya did so. Ashitaka groaned as she did. San held his shoulder thigh, trying to give him comfort. Hii-sama walked over to the boar

"Though I know not from whence thou came, rampaging god, I would humbly and respectfully speak to thee. We will build a mound on this place, and observe a festival in honor of thy departed sprit. Forget thine anger, and be calmed" she said as she bowed few times

"You damned fifthly humans. You will know well my suffering and hatred…" the boar growled as it's skin and flesh wore off as a blood, leaving only it's bones. When this happened, the horrible smell came into the air. At that moment, San just knew, the boar definitely wasn't lying. And if she was right, it was Ashitaka the boar had affected.