Prologue

A loud roar, followed closely by an earthquake, travelled across the land of Nippon, waking the beloved sun goddess Amaterasu from her sleep. She had been visiting her best friend Issun, because she rather missed the little guy up in the Celestial Plains. Jumping to her feet, she surveyed her surroundings and was utterly shocked at the sight before her. There were Cursed Zones as far as the eye could see. Everything had succumbed to their wrath, and the worst part, they were slowly creeping towards her. She could only stay in those zones for so long before she was completely drained of her power and turned to stone. Ammy racked her brain, trying to find a way to flee and searching for an escape route, when she noticed something. Not too far in the distance, one of Sakuya's Guardian Saplings, although wilted, stood tall upon a hill.

Hoping that it would work, the white wolf with strange red markings used the Celestial Brush Technique Bloom on the tree. Soon after, the tree sprung to life, growing cherry blossoms that covered each and every branch until you couldn't see them anymore. A burst of pure light sprung from the tree, reviving all the plant life surrounding it while carrying a group of sakura petals along for the ride. Ammy happily wagged her tail as relief flow through her until a thought crossed her mind that made her blood run cold.

It was too easy.

As if hearing that, the petals from the tree started wilting and she could only watch in despair as the Cursed Zones attacked the tree with renewed determination. They surrounded it and drained its power, until the tree withered once more. That wasn't good, she was out of options. Looking around her once more, Ammy noted that the Zones had her surrounded and were closing in faster then before. Panicking slightly, Ammy repeatedly used Bloom in desperation knowing full well that it only worked on smaller areas. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself down long enough to feel something tugging at the back her mind. She froze. It took her a couple seconds to remember what usually causes it.

It happened randomly and each time it was a different kind of pull. Because each time it was a different sun. The suns of alternate realities which pass by each other, nearly touching, almost unnoticeably. As Amaterasu was the sun goddess, she had at least a tiny connection to other ones and when the came near she would always feel something at the edge of her mind. The tugging was also a way of gauging the proximity of the two different realities, as the closer they were, the harder it was.

There was a slight possibility that her Sunrise technique could break through the barrier that separates the suns. And an even slighter possibility that she could use that connection to pull herself through to the world that sun belongs to. Sadly, those chances were even worse off, because what Ammy was feeling was one of the tiniest pull since she noticed her ability.

The feeling of being winded brought her out of her inner musing as she realized that her front paws were touching the ever-growing cursed zones. Knowing that she was out of time, Ammy gathered the last of her power in the Celestial Brush in a last ditch effort to regroup and drew the circle in front of her that could decide the fate of Nippon.

Nothing happened at first and the sun goddess glanced worriedly around her as she had less and less room for her to stand. Suddenly, a bright light blinded her making the nearest cursed areas retreat. When Amaterasu opened her eyes they landed on the thing she had been hoping for, a portal. It was constantly shifting, didn't have a clear image and seemed exceedingly unstable, but it was a portal. Ammy stood hesitantly in front of it, knowing full well that the current bane of her existence was recovering and getting ready to attack again.

Glancing back, her eyes landed on her beloved, petrified, friend. Blinking back the tears of regret that were filling her eyes, the wolf took a deep breath before stepping through the portal. Her last thoughts in that world fell on deaf ears.

"I'll come back for you."


Amaterasu had been floating aimlessly in darkness in the place in between dimensions for what seemed, to her, like weeks, even though it was probably only seconds. When she had first entered through the portal, she had felt excruciating pain that rivalled the feeling of being used by Yami as a bat to destroy the brush god constellations. After being there for so long, the one of the things that kept her sane was the comforting presence of the twelve other brush gods in the back of her mind. The darkness was disturbed when a small speck of light appeared on the "horizon". Perking up, she started running awkwardly towards it as it grew brighter.

All of a sudden, a wisp of pure darkness shot out from behind Ammy heading straight for her. Caught off guard, she could only watch as it cut into her abdomen and stole something that looks suspiciously like the Yang symbol before racing past her into the light. Curling in on herself in pain, she noticed that with the absence of the object she seemed more vulnerable, as she started feeling the same pain as when she entered. Another side-effect came into her mind, as small cuts started forming across her body. Unable to bear any more pain, she let the arms of unconscious wrap around her.

From the back of her mind, the other brush gods were worrying about their mother. Even after falling unconscious cuts were still forming and she was losing blood at a dangerous rate. Sure, she was still floating towards the light, but she would die of blood loss before she even got there. So, like their mother, they took a risk. Channeling their power through the sun goddess, eight of the gods worked on forming a small barrier around her, shielding her from any more wounds, while the other four worked on stopping the bleeding. Channeling their powers like that was very restricting, allowing the four to only heal the smallest injuries before all they could do was help keep the barrier up. Doing that was also very draining, leaving all twelve gods feeling winded even with their joint power. Eventually their hard work payed off, as Amaterasu was engulfed in the bright light and sent to the other dimension.


Ammy woke up to birds chirping and the smell of leafs that filled the air. Noticing she was in a forest, she sat up to take in her surroundings, but some thing was wrong. Looking down, she realized that her paws weren't paws, they were hands. She also noted that her fur had been replaced by a long white kimono, albeit covered in blood with holes in front of where her wounds were. She was a human, a thirteen year old girl to be exact. She still had everything she had had as a wolf, including her signature sun-disk, with the addition of a white wolf mask adorned with her red makings that looked suspiciously like the ones from the Oina tribe, so she could guess what that allowed her to do.

Amaterasu smiled, it had been a while since she had been in this form. She stood up, wincing, and tried taking a few steps only to stumble. She was completely out of practise and, not to mention, covered head to toe in wounds. Looking around, her eyes landed on a stick approximately the same size as her. She crawled over to grab it and stood up again, ignoring the pain, using the branch as support. She took a few shaky steps before they became more and more steady.

Sighing, the former wolf closed her eyes and concentrated, searching for a mass of human life-forces that would indicate a village. She opened her eyes once more before turning to the East and heading in that direction, steeling herself for the walk and the pain. Trudging forward, she drank in the scenery around her, feeling the herd of dear to her right or the squirrels gathering acorns for the winter. She was tempted to go around feeding the different animals, but she knew she was running out of time with the way she was injured. As if to prove her point,she flung her hand over her mouth and hunched over as she had a coughing fit. When she removed her hand, she could only stare in shock at the specks of blood on her hand. She really needed to hurry up.

At first, she tried running towards the village, but soon gave up on the idea as she was in no condition to do so and because she couldn't coordinate her legs enough to do any thing more than walk. When she came across a small clearing, she decided to rest for a little while because she was starting to feel light headed. Ammy searched inside her small pouch, that seemed to be able to fit any thing in it, in hopes of finding some bandages or something. She found a couple of Holy Bones, but seeing as she wasn't a wolf anymore she didn't see how she could use them, so she put them back and kept looking, trying to find something else to stop the bleeding. After coming out empty handed, she gave up and just ripped of a strip of cloth from the bottom of her already ruined dress tying it tightly around the gash on her stomach. After a minute more of resting, she got up and started moving again.

It took no more than ten more minutes for the forest to thin and for Ammy to find a path. The dirt road was worn suggesting that it was regularly used for things like trading. She was feeling heavier and heavier as she walked along the path. Most of her injuries had been reopened the minute she started walking and she was leaving a trail of blood drops. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she made out two large gates that, most likely, were the entrance to the village.

As she got closer, she noticed two men sitting near the gates, guards most likely. Their postures were tense as both were casting piercing stares her way as she approached. She briefly wondered how she looked to them. A girl covered in blood and cuts with a ripped kimono that used to be white and what was probably wild muddied hair. They became even more tense when Ammy suddenly stopped. She lifted her hand to her mouth and had a small coughing fit for a third time since she had woken up before bringing it back down, now covered in a small amount of blood. She gave them a small shy smile, as a tiny trail of blood trickled out the side of her mouth, before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she promptly lost consciousness.


A/N

And there you have it, the first chapter of my first story on Fanfiction. I'd love to have anyone leave a review, weather it's constructive criticism, suggestions or if you find any mistakes. Also I'd like to know if the length is fine, so feel free to tell me if you want the next chapter to be longer. You see, I'm always paranoid with the length because I tend to get straight to the point without going into the details, like this chapter still seems too short to me. So tell me if you want this chapter to be longer, I don't mind.

Thank you for reading.

~OkamiGamer