Summary: The city of the Moon is attacked, setting off a chain of events that reach far beyond its source. One of the survivors journeys across Nippon, trying to stop what his people have released.
Disclaimer: I do not own Okami, it belongs to Capcom and Clover. Okamiden also belongs to Capcom.
WARNING: Possibly several Mary Sues, vagueness, OOC-ness, and contradiction of canon. To mention a few things.
Feedback, especially criticism, is greatly appreciated.
I was free, but my freedom did not last.
It seemed that merely seconds after life loosed its grip on me, I was weighed down once more. Life began again. I could sense nothing, nothing except for the hollowness, the feeling of incompletion. A hollowness that would soon be filled with creation, with life.
This journey was one that started long before I arrived. Many of these stories are not mine, but simply deserve to be told.
And so it began, in the cold and the clamor and the fright.
Tsukuyomi's eyes snapped open to a rumble that shook the city. Around her, the strips of light that ran across the room turned from blue to flashing red.
It's broken free. A chill of terror pushed away the lethargy of meditation as she stood up and rushed to the window. In the distance, Tsukuyomi could already see the monstrous figure, taller than the tower itself. Even far away, its eyes burned into her, Yamata no Orochi has escaped the Ark.
The serpent reared up its eight heads, and Tsukuyomi could only watch as the walls of her city were torn apart as easily as thread. Already the escape rockets were being launched, comets blasting into the sky, carrying the youngest of their children away. She couldn't see how many would survive, or if they would even reach the earth. These children's futures held the destiny of their people, and yet they were so clouded.
Their defenses slowly began to activate, awakening from their long slumber to finally serve their purpose, but it was futile, Tsukuyomi knew. One of its heads gave off a visible current of electricity, and their defenses were useless, puppets with their strings cut away. The demon had taken out the main generators.
Tsukuyomi closed her eyes as the screams began, the cacophony of fear echoing into the blackness above. The guards would be there soon, she knew; they would try to calm the people, evacuate them while others held off the demon. Tsukuyomi wished that they would all make it safely to the ships and evacuate, that the guards would survive their battle. But there was the painful truth: she knew many of them would not. If only… If only I could have seen enough to stop this… If only they had never been threatened to make this Ark.
Ever since the threats came disasters had fallen upon the Moon Tribe, one after another. Machines running rampant. A plague, forcing them to confine their mentors, the Tengu, within the Ark's depths, and now, this great serpent escaped from the Ark. And she had foreseen it all. She had seen, seen that red would stain the ruins of their home as this knowledge had stained her heart.
Now I may only stand by and watch the future come to pass. Tsukuyomi turned away, unable to watch her city crumble and become the ruins her visions had shown. There was nothing to be done as the ruler of the Moon Tribe. Even her brush, a weapon more powerful than anything the Moon Tribe could create, had been reduced to painting calligraphy. She picked up her brush from the shelf of a canvas, then looked over to the small shrine.
The city's most prized artifact, a double-edged sword, lay sheathed there, glimmering in that vibrant shade of blue that reminded her of the open skies and a place that, long ago, she had called home. A crescent moon, the simple emblem of their people, gleamed gold on its hilt. The blade's song called to her, beckoned her. It was time. Tsukuyomi hesitated for a moment. She had sworn to herself never to touch that cursed blade again, the blade of her betrayal. But the knowledge of what had to be done flashed again through her mind. This sword was their only chance. It was foreseen.
She unsheathed the sword and ran down to join the fight.
The clamor was deafening. The demon's roars, the guards' panicked commands, the people screaming in fear. Every weapon bounced off the monster's hide without leaving so much as a scratch. It let out a growl and one of its heads slammed downwards, smashing into the ground. Plumes of gray dust swelled up, and cracks spread out from the new crater the head had created. As the head prepared to swing again, the guards scattered, stumbling across the uneven ground.
Tsukuyomi ran towards the demon, drawing the sword above her head. Weight slammed down on her arm and she gritted her teeth, forcing herself not to buckle. The head snarled at her, thrashing against the flat of the blade. She pushed back, now holding up the sword with both hands. Slowly, it began to turn, the edge cutting into the beast's neck. The serpent gave a howl of pain and recoiled, the cut on its neck a single crack in its seemingly impenetrable armor.
Tsukuyomi dropped the sword, giving out a cry of horror as she looked at her hands.
Across each palm was a clean slice. Blood began to seep out of them, quickly forming a crust of red.
"No, no…" Her voice died away. Tsukuyomi knew of the sword, and even though her visions had shown her this fate it did not stop the terrible feeling of vulnerability. She swallowed, trying to keep back the panic that began to rise within her.
Fall by its blade… To be cut by it, to bleed… Tsukuyomi remembered a long-ago voice, rasping the curse with her last words, condemning her to a fate worse than death. The guards' captain looked back.
"Lady Tsukuyomi, are you alright?" She quickly hid her hands and picked the sword back up, nodding.
"How many have been evacuated?"
"Not many. The Ark is the only operational ship we have left." Tsukuyomi looked back at the monster, its heads all in disarray at one head's agony. There would be only a little time before it recovered. It didn't matter if the Ark was unsafe. It was a safer choice than to let her people stay and be slaughtered, her visions had shown her that.
"I can keep the demon distracted. Evacuate as many as you can to the Ark and set course for the Celestial Plain." The captain paused. Tsukuyomi held out the sword, struggling to keep her arms from shaking. "Give this to Ushiwaka. Under no circumstances must its edge be touched." The demon would not fall here, and she had not looked into its future, but someday it would fall by this sword. It must. The guard accepted the sword, worry obvious on his face.
"How will you…"
"Do not worry for me. Leave as soon as possible." Tsukuyomi turned to face the monster again, keeping herself between it and the retreating guards. The beast's scales gave off a golden aura, sealing over its wound. A barrier. The sword had pierced it, but nothing else she knew of would damage this demon. She swept a few loose black hairs away from her face with a trembling hand and crouched, studying the monster's movements. One of the heads snapped at her experimentally, and Tsukuyomi sidestepped it, but didn't predict the burst of water spat by another head. Tsukuyomi ducked down, not quite fast enough, and felt the jagged thorns of ice tear shallow gashes in her back. She bit back a cry, and the blue, water-spitting head gagged, freeing its mouth from the ice. The fiery orange head hissed at her, renewed hatred clear in its eyes.
There was a rumbling, not much unlike the growling of the demon closing in on her, as the Ark began to slowly lift off. The monster turned, all eight pairs of eyes focusing on the source of the noise. One of the heads hissed and lightning crackled, spilling out from between its jaws. Tsukuyomi smiled weakly. At least there is something I can use. She drew out her brush, its tip already wet with ink, and in moments the lightning was arcing back across the heads. As they writhed, the Ark soared out of reach, picking up as much speed as it could as it drew away from the Moon. The demon shook off the electricity, already refocusing on her. Weaponless and alone, Tsukuyomi ran.
She slumped against the side of a corridor, hearing the demon's roars grow closer. She held still, tensed. There was another roar, fainter this time, and then silence. The demon had lost her. Her people were safe. She tried to tuck the brush back, but it slipped through unresponsive fingers. Tsukuyomi couldn't feel her arms, and the numbness was spreading further, up her neck. She felt so tired…
No. Tsukuyomi struggled to keep her eyes open. Orochi might come back. She shivered as her vision blurred.
Her mind was clouding, slipping away from the present. She saw, far away and far ahead in time, a cave, and could see a majestic white wolf with red markings, glowing bright as the sun. Its name, a name she should know, one of family, now evaded her in this dreamlike trance. Tsukuyomi saw the demon, its eight heads, saw it lunge, and could see as the white vanished beneath red. Her eyes slipped closed.
It feels so cold…
