I'm actually really excited about Ōkamiden. I can't wait until it's released. :D
Anyway, each chapter of this story will have a theme from a Major Arcana tarot card. First up is Rao. I liked her, even though we never actually knew the 'real' Rao. Waka is coming up next.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ōkami. I don't own these tarot quotes either.
The High Priestess:
"When we pull the High Priestess card for ourselves or for a querent, it is an indication that we are in communication with unseen forces."
Her prayer slips are powerful weapons, however Rao is not a warrior but a priestess. She is well-versed in legends and hymns, not combat. The fox-faced demon with nine tails brushes off her attacks with a single swipe of his massive paw. She cannot see his face, as it is hidden behind a painted ceramic mask, but she imagines he is laughing at her. The monster is merely toying with her. Child's play.
Ankoku Temple offers no protection from the demon's onslaught, and the woman doubts anyone would hear if she were to scream for help. The clouds swirling over Ryoshima Coast are dark and murky. Any traveler in his right mind would avoid being outside in such foreboding conditions as these. No, she is alone in this. Alone outside the temple that has become almost like a second home to her after all these years, where she has spent so many hours with her prayers and lectures.
And perhaps, Rao muses in the back of her panicked mind, this is a fitting place for her to die. A devout priestess, meeting her demise at her very own place of worship. Backed into a corner, the woman throws another prayer slip in desperation. It ricochets off a tree and shatters the demon's mask, spraying jagged ceramic shards every which way, and the world suddenly spins as a heavy, muscled tail slams into her midsection. She is thrown through the air, finally landing against one of the old, worn gravestones with a sickening crack. Gasping in pain, Rao forces her eyes open, forces her head up.
She wishes she hadn't done that.
The sneering face of the fox demon greets her, tawny brown fur pitted with scars. His right eye is missing, nothing more than a hollow indentation surrounded by pale, furless flesh, but the other eye is ruby-red, as dark and gleaming as the blood pouring from her twisted body. The demon smiles, leans close, whispers to her in a seductive voice about how she's failed, failed to protect Sei'an, failed to protect Queen Himiko. And Rao draws one last painful breath before she is tossed aside like a broken doll, down the stone well tucked away in the craggy mountainside, and into the dark.
Her spirit lingers in the mortal world, weak and unseen. The body has not been discovered yet—the entrance to the well is hidden by magic, invisible to most human eyes. It leads to a winding tunnel that connects to the royal palace, only to be used in emergencies.
She is nothing more than a ghost now.
The fox-faced demon has assumed her appearance, as well as her duties as a priestess. Citizens from the capital continue to pray at the temple under the gaze of the doppelganger, unaware of the real priestess' death. They thank the new, fake Rao, return to Sei'an with a smile on their faces. And the monster sends them off with words of encouragement and, once out of earshot, malice.
The real Rao weeps. There is not much more she can do.
Months pass. The woman's broken body is little more than a skeleton now, dressed in tattered, faded clothing. People are visiting the temple more frequently than before, praying in desperate, panicky tones. They cry and beg for aid from the heavens. There is a poisonous mist spreading through the capital, causing all of its inhabitants to fall ill. What's more, the Water Dragon has suddenly become violent, Queen Himiko has locked herself away in the royal palace for unknown reasons, and the Emperor seems to be stuck in an unnatural sleep...
Rao is stricken with helplessness and sorrow. These poor people, there is nothing she can do to help them. She hovers over their sobbing forms, echoing their prayers with her own. They cannot see her but the priestess likes to think that maybe, just maybe, her words are being heard.
Eventually, the worshippers stop coming altogether. The Guardian Sapling is bare, leafless, and a cursed zone has spread through the entirety of Ryoshima Coast. The world seems to be made of nothing more than a heavy, oppressive fog, and the only visitors she has to the temple now are imps and lesser demons.
And yet...
The woman's tired eyes catch sight of a faint white glow through the dark haze one day, making its way up towards the withered Sapling. Focusing hard, Rao can make out the form of a magnificent white wolf, fur streaked with red markings and flames trailing from the Divine Instrument hovering at her back.
Could it be the Sun Goddess Amaterasu?
The priestess feels herself smile, the first smile she's given in many, many months. She still has a purpose in this world, Rao can feel it. Unseen, invisible, powerless as she is now, she can still help guide the Great Mother Amaterasu, if not in person but in spirit.