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, Yami was defeated. Also, the Day of Darkness transformed Obieta into something, and Blue flew away (possibly never to return to the story).
It was dark. It had been dark for almost as long as he could remember. But he couldn't remember much of before anymore.
"Shin." The word echoed out into the emptiness, but only silence returned. "Waka." The words were nearly meaningless now. Were they names? One of them was his. The other was… He couldn't remember. He had a sense there had been other names, too, but they had been lost to him. There was only a blank space where he felt the memories should have been.
There was a way out. This was the second time it had appeared—had it only been the second time?—since he had ended up in this place. A mass of swirling dark clouds, conjuring the image of a break in the endless barrier. It hissed with a blackness darker than the void around him, whispering promises of escape.
Accept me, and wish darkness upon this world… Somehow, it gave him memories of a dark heartbeat, a sense that he could once hear that and many more things, but now he was deaf to them all. Voices. He had heard voices. He could still hear his own voice, but it wasn't the same, wasn't the same way. He'd been able to hear more, so much that the world became too… too… And what the world had been was only another gap in his hole-ridden memory.
Accept me, and your memories will return. He looked again towards the dark swirling clouds. Just a step through the gateway… There was some warning that itched at the back of his mind, some consequence… He took a step towards the portal. It would linger for only a while, and after that who knew when it would reappear. He wanted—needed—to remember.
Shin stepped through, and the world filled with light.
"It's beautiful…" Amaterasu stared wide-eyed at the scenery of the Celestial Plain, bending down to trail her fingers through the bright-colored flower petals as she wandered by. "I… I think I remember this place." She frowned, brow furrowing in thought, an expression of pain flickering across her face. "No," she murmured to herself, "Sakigami remembers it…" Waka looked up, hopping out from the Ark's new cockpit.
"Is everything all right, cherie?" Amaterasu shuddered, and he worried for a moment as her wolfish features began to return.
"It's just…" Then she doubled over, clutching her head.
"Amaterasu!" One by one, the fourteen brush powers emerged from her, transforming into their animal forms. Amaterasu's shape begin to shift back into that of a wolf, and Waka rushed to her. Around them, the other brush gods slumped, collapsing with vacant looks in their eyes. "Amaterasu, please, look at me." He lifted her head, searching her eyes for any sign of recognition. Her tail wagged faintly in reply, and Waka could only watch as she diminished to the size of a puppy within his arms, red markings reverting to their simpler versions. From the other brush gods' bodies, circles of light—not unlike the brush powers that had just carried them from Amaterasu's body—coalesced, floating off into the distant sky.
Amaterasu yipped, springing out of Waka's hands and running off through the trees. He looked around at the vacant-eyed circle that remained. Hasugami's flute rolled from his fingers. Yumigami stared off at the sky, almost as though still searching for the Moon. A large sheep with a drinking gourd across its back leaned against the slumped-over Itegami. Off to the side, a cat curled up, eyes aware and glancing around, ears pricked as though searching for some now inaudible sound.
"What happened to them?" Waka demanded.
"The others… They remembered times of before. It took those memories back." All of them had memories like that? He looked off again towards the long grasses where the newly young Amaterasu had run.
"Why didn't it affect you?"
"It did." The cat stared back at him, unblinking. "I can't hear the voices anymore… But I had no memories of before to take." Then her eyes began to cloud over. "I had a daughter. She's gone now. They said she fell off the tower." She gave a choked sob, eyes and ears searching for something now lost and quickly fading. "I… I can't remember her face. I can't remember her…" And then the last glimmer of light, nearly caught in a reflection of tears, faded from her eyes.
Waka stepped back, away from the cluster of dull-eyed animals, and walked off in the direction where Amaterasu had run off, still turning over the words in his mind. What were the brush gods, really?
When the sun returned, seeming harsher and brighter than it had ever been before, I found I couldn't fall asleep. No matter how long I curled up in the shrinking shade, restlessness sprung my eyes open again. So I gave up trying, accepted that new oddity, and looked around the field at the paths. One of them, lined by light-leaved trees with dark trunks, led into a short valley-like pass. Kamiki Village had been that way, hadn't it? There would be humans in there, plenty of them… But there would also be more shade, and Yomigami would be waiting. Hopefully.
I scampered through the brief spot of burning sun, into the shade brought by the pass, and then off to the side. My tails easily swept brushstrokes along the wall, golden shine still forming and letting me run onto it. Feeling safe to let the brush power hold my weight for a moment, I looked up—or was it to the side?—at the village, now regretting that I never asked Yomigami. But back then, seeming so long ago, I hadn't ever imagined I would ever leave the coast.
In front and beside me there was a small river that flowed by, with a bright red, dark-planked bridge crossing it. Was that the River? I let the golden shine fade and hopped down from the wall, wincing as I hit the ground out of reflex and not actual pain. I looked over it. An almost-circle wooden construct—probably human—spun as the water sloshed by. On the other side, the water flowed out into the sea, around tiny islands that almost reminded me of home.
I'll be back there soon, I reminded myself. But with no Yomigami in sight or any of the things he had described, I decided it probably wasn't this. Will I know when I see it? I hoped so. But, following the river's path to a lake, I saw my wall-path would be cut off by a waterfall, with no bridge over or around it. Glancing around at the humans—it seemed that none had noticed me—, I went quickly across the brief bridge, then once I crossed it back to the nearest wall. Nearby, there was a strange reddish structure, like a doorway but with no wall around it, just a doorway standing there by itself. The pebbly path through the village led to there, where it morphed into smooth rock that continued upward. With no other ways in sight, I started up the path.
The stairs ended at and led into a grassy clearing. A complicated-looking stick structure was like a gateway into the clearing, stretching far up the rock face above. There were two paths on the ground, one with a gate and higher pass-like walls, the other with a wall of land on one side and open air and trees on the other. I looked back and forth between the two. Which to check first…? Perhaps the gates marked the right way. I stepped towards the right path, but something made me pause.
There was something important just along the left path. I could feel it. Keeping close to the wall—the open air unnerved me, like the top of the tower before I had fallen—, I walked down the fairly short path. As soon as I entered the clearing it led to I froze, a shiver running up my spine. Below the gigantic tree—it seemed almost as tall as the tower—and in front of another of those red gates, lying on a slab of stone, was a creature unlike anything I had ever seen before. Long limbs almost made it resemble a human, but it wasn't quite that. Beneath a coat of long white fur that lay over it, black markings—more even than mine—patterned across its human-bare skin.
It rose to a sitting position, strangely bright eyes blinking slowly, and I jumped back. Before I could creep away, its eyes had fixed on me.
"Do I know you?" The familiar language, accented in a way that reminded me of Ninetails, reassured me.
"…No?" He didn't look familiar at all, not in the way that those you remember are. Then he began to notice the surroundings, taking in the sky and trees and clearing around.
"This is Kamiki Village..." He turned around, staring up at the huge tree. "How long has it been?" How long since what? He seemed to have noticed my confusion, though he hadn't looked back at me. "I've been… away. For a long time." So he was old. But he knew this area. Perhaps he would know where to find… "The River of Heavens? Sorry, I don't know what that is."
"How did you…?" He finally looked at me, and seemed a bit sheepish.
"Oh, right. I can hear thoughts. Now it takes more effort, though…" He said this with a smile, confusingly. Why would he want it to be more difficult to hear? "It was loud before, hearing everything all the time." Oh. Just like my mother had been. That's what it reminded me of, at least. "I don't know why, though, but your voice is easier to hear than others." Maybe it was because of the markings we shared. He looked down at his arms in surprise, as if seeing them for the first time. "Perhaps…" Then he looked at me again. "What is your name?"
"I'm called Obieta." Then, still hopeful, I added: "Are you sure you don't know where the River is? Yomigami said it was somewhere in Kamiki Village…"
"Yomigami…" He frowned. "I think I might remember something about this River." Slowly, he rose from the slab, standing on hind legs like a human. "My name is Shin. I'm a bit lost here, too." Maybe we could help each other find the places we were looking for. Shin smiled and nodded.
Somehow, I felt a bit closer to home already.