Forbidden Love
Chapter 25: Past, Mistakes and Revenge
"Len, give me your hand," Luna said as she drew out her sword that shone under the crimson moon.
Len reached out his hand to Luna and she slit a small cut on the palm of his and her hand. Luna shook his hand and their bloods combined, a glow of light appearing.
"Since you have turned against Luka, I will use you as one of my servants. With this, you will not be able to betray me. If you are to betray me, death will immediately follow," Luna explained as the light disappeared.
"The Providence is the day that Amaterasu is to come out of the cave and shine her light to wash away the darkness that shrouded the universe when she entered the cave and hid her light," Luna started to narrate as she looked at the moon with Len and Momo both carefully listening to her.
"Momo-san, do you know who your true self is?" Luna asked, surprising Luka.
"Toyotama-hime," Momo answered quietly as if she was ashamed to admit it.
"Len, all of us are either gods, goddesses or deities before Amaterasu hid inside the cave. They're called our true selves. The happenings before the first Providence when we were still gods, goddesses, and deities are called the Sacred Occurrences. Before I tell you about the first Providence, I want you to know what happened during the Sacred Occurrences," Luna said.
Momo, who had known the sad truth since the day she was separated from her sister, couldn't bear to hear the story, but had no choice but to listen to it.
"Izanagi and Izanami were the first deities of this country. They were a married couple, but tragedy befell on them. Izanami died when she gave birth to their first child who was sent to Takama no Hara. Izanagi, who felt lonely without his wife or child, went down to Yomi to retrieve Izanami, but when he saw her hideous, decaying form, he ran away and didn't want to return anymore. Izanami cursed their descendants and told Izanagi that there will come a day where all of his people will die because of the heartbreak of their life source," Luna narrated, remembering the past.
"Izanagi's people's life sources were the sun goddess, Amaterasu, and the moon god, Tsukuyomi. Izanagi searched for servants for the two so that the curse would be kept from their knowing. The first servants were the inseparable sisters, Toyotama-hime who became Amaterasu's servant,and Tamayori-hime, who became Tsukuyomi's," Luna turned to Momo who dozed off into her still-blurry memories.
Momo knew that after her mother's death, she was taken away from her sister by Luna. Neru, who was still a little girl, didn't know about their relationship until Luka moved to their village. Neru didn't even make any guesses on whether they're related or not for Neru never saw their mother.
Neru's mother, who died due to an illness, looked just like Momo because they both had a beautiful shade of pink-colored hair. Momo inherited her kind, green eyes from her father and the pastel hair from her mother while Neru inherited her mother's yellow eyes and her father's blonde hair.
"If they were inseparable, how did they end up on separate palaces?" asked Len.
"Their mother sacrificed herself to the oracles to be able to separate them and their father offered some of his powers, too. This was the reason why their father became sickly and relied on Amaterasu's sunlight to help him," Luna explained.
"Then, came Ninigi and Konohanasakuya-hime. They fell in love at first sight when Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi came down to the Amane Shrine to view the blooming sakuras," Luna continued.
"The last ones were Orihime and Hikoboshi, who promised to never be separated, so they volunteered to be servants, thinking that they would end up serving in the same palace, but Hikoboshi became Tsukuyomi's and Orihime became Amaterasu's. The main servants from the two palaces weren't allowed to see each other unless it was an emergency. With the help of Amaterasu, they were able to see each other once a year on her birthday with the help of her rays that form a bridge for them. During that day of the year, they are able to be together without getting interrupted or violating the rules."
Len knew who Luna was talking about because unclear memories rushed in his mind. He knew that his true self was Hikoboshi and Rin's true self was Orihime.
"Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi met one day and they began to fall in love without knowing about the curse. They had no clue that their love was forbidden and nobody was harmed, but one day, an admirer of Amaterasu's became jealous when he found out that she loved Tsukuyomi and told her that they can never be together for their love was cursed and it was forbidden. Due to this, Amaterasu was heartbroken and hid inside the cave called Ama no Iwato," Luna explained, looking at the cave where Luka was in.
"Each of the servants from both side of the palaces had to sacrifice something in the end. However, you must learn about your own sacrifices yourself," Luna seriously said, looking at Momo and Len.
"Days after Amaterasu's hiding, the first Providence was supposed to happen with the help of Tsukuyomi. Using his powers to reflect his face on the Yata no Kagami, he was supposed to lure out Amaterasu, but his getting heartbroken was also too much for him that he locked himself away. Months have passed and the sun goddess never came out, shrouding the whole universe into complete darkness. Just like what Izanami said, Izanagi's people started dying because of the heartbreak of their life source. When Izanami heard of the news, she came out from Yomi and saw the darkness that she thought was the most precious thing she had ever seen, but Izanagi performed a ritual and sacrificed himself to make a fresh start," Luna narrated, remembering everything that happened.
"Izanami tried to stop him from doing the ritual, but she was too late. Much to her surprise, she was caught in the process which brought her here to the new generation of the Sacred Occurrences, where the involved gods, goddesses, and deities were turned into humans with knowing only the smallest clues about their true selves. Izanagi created the new generation of the Sacred Occurrences so that the mistakes that were made on the past would be fixed."
"So, Amaterasu is Luka and Tsukuyomi is Gakupo. Momo-san is Toyotama-hime and her sister, Neru-san is Tamayori-hime. I'm guessing Kaito is Ninigi and Konohanasakuya-hime is Miku. I know that I'm Hikoboshi and Rin is Orihime," Len thought, staring at the moon.
"But who's Izanami?" Len asked out loud with full curiosity.
"You're looking at her," Luna smirked.
"Just like I said, Izanami got caught in the ritual of making the new generation of the Sacred Occurrences that consisted of the humans that were once gods, goddesses, or deities, but I'm not human."
Hearing this, Momo and Len was shocked for they never thought that Luna had been Izanami all along.
"Luka's grandmother, Luna, never existed. Why do you think I hid myself inside that room? I never aged. I never changed. I've always looked the same ever since the first Sacred Occurrences," Luna sinisterly smiled.
"Demo, kurushikatta wa," Luna said as she clenched her fist.
"I was alone in there and I had to wait for all of you to grow up and learn about your destinies. It was like I was back in Yomi, but it was harder because I was all alone. I had no one to be there for me."
Momo felt bad to hear about Luna's painful past. Luna came up to Momo and stroked her hair.
"Don't worry, Momo-san. After the second Providence, I will feel much better," Luna said with a menacing smile on her face, shocking and worrying Len and Momo.
"I'm going to get revenge on my selfish husband."
Author's notes:
Amaterasu- the sun goddess of Japan
Toyotama-hime- Princess Toyotama; Princess Tamayori's older sister
Izanagi- deity and ancestor of Amaterasu
Izanami- deity and wife of Izanagi
Takama no Hara- dwelling place of gods and goddesses
Yomi- the underworld
Tsukuyomi- the moon god of Japan
Tamayori-hime- Princess Tamayori; Princess Toyotama's younger sister
Ninigi- Sir Ninigi; husband of Konohanasakuya-hime
Konohanasakuya-hime- Princess Konohanasakuya; blossom princess in Japanese mythology and symbol of delicate earthly life
sakura- cherry blossom
Orihime- Princess Ori; weaving princess
Hikoboshi- Orihime's lover; a knight
Ama no Iwato- heavenly rock cave
Yata no Kagami- a sacred mirror that represents wisdom and honesty
demo- but
kurushikatta wa- it was painful