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.
Last chapter, our narrator and their companion are chased by the Water Dragon, and arrive at a possibly familiar island. This chapter finishes that arrival. And an extra scene has two Crow Tengu giving exposition about the state of affairs. Also, in case anyone's wondering, Obieta is a Japanese word for scared. Haha for lame puns.
After a stretch, the stone seemed to become tiles, but they were still scratchy on my paws. I looked around, then peeked over the edge at the end of the path. There was a sea of that liquid, bubbling and rippling below. It seemed like it would be even worse than falling into seawater to tumble in... The creature hopped onto a thin outcrop lining the edge of the pit and began to walk across, tails outstretched. I looked down at the liquid again, lapping at the edges. The creature kept walking on.
I mewled, backing away. I didn't want to be stuck in this place alone…
"What is it?" The creature's voice was sharp as it walked back along the outcrop, fixing me with a stare. I sank to the ground, whimpering softly.
"Can't…" Too scary... The creature gave a small growl of frustration, stepping back onto the floor beside me and picking me up again in its tails. I clung to the tails as closely as I could, nervously glancing down at the liquid as the creature navigated the pathway of thin ledges. The liquid lapped at the walls with a hiss, and I buried my head in my paws and closed my eyes.
Everything around me bounced, and I opened my eyes. The creature let me down from its back, onto safe dark—smooth—stone, and motioned for me to follow further. As I did, I noticed all of the squarish structures—buildings?—on either side, made from some smooth brown material that wasn't stone and touched with rectangles of white canvas-like sheets. Only a few pairs of torches lit our way.
We stopped. I stared up at the huge set of doors in front of us, leading into a building—smaller than the tower, definitely, but still large. The creature barked out a command in some language I didn't know, and in moments the doors swung open. It stepped inside and I followed, gaping at the sight that lay within. It was so huge, so much space, and yet it was inside… The walls and ceiling glowed with glimmering decorations, patterns and scrolls and two strange hanging orbs filled with light.
A grunting noise came from near the open doors, and I looked back from the center of the room and nearly ran away. Two bulky, furless creatures, skin mottled intensely green on one and blue on the other, stood beside the open doors, a third set of legs grasped around them. Their faces were hidden behind blocks of stone, each carved into a strange grimacing face. They looked around a moment, then grunted to each other and pushed the doors closed with a creak.
"Tobi!" The creature's bark echoed down the long halls, and I saw a strange bluish glow streak into the room, racing in spirals before it settled to drift in the air. Now I could see, it was some sort of… scroll? Much shorter than the one on Yomigami's tail, and not curled at all. It was decorated with an intricate pattern, the glow an aura around it, flickering like a torch.
"Welcome back, Lord Ninetails! How was your journey?" The scroll was speaking? I looked around the room, peeking around the strip. The voice had come from this direction, but I didn't see anyone else… A tail caught me mid-creep and nudged me back. The creature shook its head, and then its tails reached up to its pale face and… removed it?! The outline of the face was held in its tails, but on its head there was a new face, furred in the same color as the rest of its body. It had smaller eyes—one was stained over and did not open—and the elongated nose stayed, along with the strangely different proportions.
"I nearly got caught by the Water Dragon." The creature sighed. "I had to toss the Fox Rods to distract it." The slip's aura seemed to fade a moment.
"Lord Yami will not be pleased…" The creature just nodded, ears flattened as if some threat had entered the room. I glanced around again, feeling my own ears flatten, backing a bit closer to the creature. The strip turned so that its design was facing me. "And who do we have here?" Its eyelike pattern stared me down, unblinking, and I had to look away, backing behind the creature. One tail wrapped around me for a moment, comforting, then gently pushed me forward towards the slip.
"This is our new guest," I looked back and forth between the creature and the slip, "who will need to be shown around." The slip folded briefly, as though in a nod, and then the creature was walking away down the halls. I scampered to follow, but the slip flew into my way, eye still glaring back at me.
"Lord Ninetails has business to attend to. I will be your guide. I am Tobi, and I serve as gatekeeper here." I watched the creature, my only guide in this place, disappear down the corridor. "Tell me, what is your name?" I mewled, trying to crawl under the slip but the creature was too far away and it wouldn't let me pass…
"I'm scared…" I want to go back home… I want Mama to come back… But all that was here was a large strange, unknown place and a slip whose eye stared impassively back at me, and nothing familiar to hide in. Not even the creature's tails which if I concentrated hard enough I could imagine it was my mother's fur that surrounded me. Nowhere safe to retreat, everywhere I knew was far away, lost in dark clouds.
"Well then… Obieta, was it?" I didn't look at the slip, not wanting to face that eye-marking's stare. "Please follow me." I hesitated. But this voice was not as fierce as the eye it hid behind, and maybe the only way that I could get back to the creature… I stepped forward slowly, letting it lead me down the halls. "If you don't mind my asking, how have you managed to earn the favor of Lord Ninetails?" The creature? Was that what a Ninetails was?
"I… I don't…" Tobi led me through a doorway, and then I fell silent. Below, within a pit, strange creatures leapt across hanging platforms and hopped over spikes, dexterous limbs letting them swing around with ease. One of those creatures screeched to Tobi, sounding almost like when Ninetails had barked out commands, some other language.
"I will race with you another day. For now, we have a guest." The creature bared fangs, clicking to me, and as I shrank away it jumped back to join the others. Tobi turned back to me, aura glowing bright. "Welcome, friend, to Oni Island."
Extra Scene-
As a place between realms, the River of the Heavens wasn't always within the grip of reality. There were spaces where space seemed to bend and twist, pockets that spoke to Yomigami of places beyond. He had told other brush gods of the closed gateway to the Celestial Plain, a gateway that when opened only they could pass through. But there were others, open pathways that he kept to himself. One of them now radiated a plea, the plea of someone confined within.
He had gone close before, and let the pleading souls pass on. He circled around the gateway again, a slight ripple against the star-speckled sky. Yomi. That was the name he remembered for that empty place, known from the moment he had first known anything at all. He had taken his name from that place, as the only one who could bridge the barrier that held souls within.
"Is someone there?" The voice was gruff. Yomigami reached out and sensed within… There was courage, but behind it was a dim flicker of fear. And it radiated an unnamable energy, an importance that he could practically sense. He had never retrieved a soul like this before. "Are you… a god?"
"Yes. What is your name?" What was, rather. But Yomigami had learned that they still thought of the past life once theirs as remaining theirs still, and clung to names and memories like a lifeline.
"I was once called Nagi." But that had been so long ago, the hesitation told.
"Nagi, it is your time to awaken once again. Do you wish to start anew?"
"I don't have much of a choice, do I? Eh, I've been a hero once. It wasn't so bad." Yomigami raised his tail and let the ink reach into the gateway. Within his mind's eye, he could see a crack in the impenetrable darkness. The soul slipped through, and he followed its drifting path upstream.
He swooped above the ground to see a child materialize, floating on the starry water. Yomigami gave him a nudge, watching him drift into the current, streams taking him towards his destination far away.
The rivers of the heavens could lead to anywhere, if the time was right. And Yomigami could feel a passage ripple and open, far downstream, awaiting the child.
The dragon looked around at the stars, twinkling everywhere. Perhaps this was his purpose. Perhaps this was home.