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, Shin made a deal with the devil (or at least the closest equivalent) and was brought back to life in Kamiki Village, where he met Obieta. Meanwhile, Amaterasu and the brush gods got their life, age, and memory sapped out of them, worrying Waka. Also, last chapter ended on a very inconclusive note, and this chapter begins on a not-so-good opening line. No connection between the two, actually.
Also, just a warning, but this chapter is (comparatively) quite long.
"You know Yomigami?" Shin paused.
"In a way, yes." Not saying any more, he stared up at the tree that loomed, flowering, far above us. "I remember back when this tree was just a sapling. No one thought it would last a year…" When that tree was as small as I was? Then I remembered something Yomigami had mentioned, that plants grew, just too slowly to see unless you watched very carefully for a very long time.
How old is Yomigami, anyway? If he and Shin had known each other… Shin stopped, looking over at the gate that stood between us and the tree's trunk.
"And behind it there was a gateway…" I peered through the gate, a red frame around a hollow in the tree's trunk. Shin stepped through the gateway and gasped. Curious, I followed, and as I passed underneath the gate the world around me was flooded with a strange light. Looking back, even the world outside the gate now appeared bathed in green and white. The tree hollow had become a source of light, glowing as bright as the sun—and, as I winced a little, almost as blinding—, light flowing out as if it led to somewhere bright and this was just the doorway. Nothing I knew could be used to compare.
"That's the way to the River, isn't it?" Shin nodded, nearly imperceptibly, eyes glimmering even brighter from the light.
"It looks like when the gateway opened…" Then he flinched, as if suddenly overwhelmed by something. A series of contortions came across his face, which might have meant something to me if I had known more about human ways. Then whatever he had been reacting to vanished or was pushed away, and Shin looked again towards the gateway, then back at me.
"We just… walk into it?" I stepped closer, now forced to squint, but I could tell that the response had been a nod. I hesitated, but stepped in front of the gateway, squeezing my eyes shut. If I bumped into anything, I could just stop and turn around. Ears pricked and whiskers spread out to catch any hint of my surroundings, I walked forward, hearing the rustle of Shin's steps in the grass following me. This was it. This was where Yomigami was. This is where Mama would be... A few steps, and the ground beneath my paws seemed to lose its grassy texture. Even with my eyes shut I could tell it was bright, too bright to risk opening my eyes. I felt a faint tingling, the relieving coolness of darkness against my eyelids, and then my paws were on grass again.
I opened my eyes cautiously and was welcomed by the night sky. Trails of stars twinkled back at me from above and around the grassy island where we stood. Behind us, the light shone out from a pile of stones stacked in a gate-like shape, where we had come from. I walked over to the edge, and the sight below me nearly made me stumble. Where ocean or land should have been there was only more open sky filled with constellations. Legs shaky, I stepped away. Something about having stars all around made me almost dizzy, like the ground was going to tumble away from me and send me spinning away at any moment. But now that I tore my eyes to the grassy, hopefully solid ground, I couldn't see anyone except for me and Shin, who I looked back to.
"Do you know where Yomigami would be?" Shin frowned and shook his head, looking out at the path that traveled through the grass, before being cut short at a ledge and—from what I could tell—continuing on top of it. All there was besides the path were a few tallish branched plants with stems black like tree bark.
"This place looks... different. Different from…"
"From what?" He paused, seeming to search for the words.
"It seems its layout changes often. There's still only one path forward." And with that, we slowly started walking down the path. The light of the full moon above lit the sky and ground brighter than any normal night.
"Why… How…" I struggled to phrase my question. Somehow, there were stars all around us, and I wondered if Shin knew anything about them.
"I don't know, actually… This place is like a pathway, I think. A pathway through the heavens." Like Yomigami had said, I remembered. We stopped at the ledge, looking up. It was taller than it had seemed from a distance, the top far above Shin's height. Yes, I could use my brush to walk up, but what about him?
"I can get up there… I think." He backed up a few steps, looking the face of the ledge up and down. Then Shin ran at it, jumping at the rock face. There was a horrible scrape of claws against rock, then he dropped down onto the grass with a thump. He picked himself up, shaking his head, and ran at the ledge again. Again he ended up splayed out on the ground. "Ow…" I looked over worriedly, but he didn't move to stand. "I'm fine. You can go first." Hesitating, I painted a path up the ledge with one tail, then went to walk up, glancing back at Shin. As I crawled over the top, I heard him laugh harshly. "Defeated by a ledge…" When I looked over, he hadn't moved. Then I remembered something. Back on the tower, taking trembling steps across sides covered in golden shine… It had been my mother's brushwork. Not mine.
"Shin, I've got an idea." I saw him open his eyes, look at the ledge's face, and slowly stand up, nodding. Before I could explain, he'd already taken a few shaky two-legged steps up. Right. He knows already because I thought about it. The shine began to darken, and I quickly reached my paw over the edge to touch it, relighting it. That was the one other thing I'd learned—usually, a source of the brush power needed to be touching it for it to stay. Yomigami had told me that. And the tower, he'd said, was just one huge outlet directing Mama's power… The more I thought about that, the less I could wait to see them. I took my paw away and stepped back to let Shin pull himself onto the edge.
"I used to be able to jump up walls like that with no problem," he admitted, "but now my brush is gone, and apparently some of my other abilities as well…" Then he looked up at me curiously. "Kabegami was your mother?" I nodded.
"When we find her, I'll introduce you. She's really nice. And Yomigami knows about lots of places." Just speaking about it, I felt a sort of excitement. I was going to see Mama again. I was going to go home. Shin only frowned, though, and looked down, seeming suddenly sad. "Come on, let's go!" Ahead of us, down the path just a little bit, was another glowing gateway. I hurried down the path towards it, hardly remembering to stop before going through and look back for Shin. He had followed slowly, but I watched him close his eyes and step through into the light before I did the same. There was that tingling again, the light visible even through my closed eyelids, and then I was walking again onto soft grass.
This time when I opened my eyes, I almost thought I had stepped out at the base of the tower. I was standing on a green island, and rippling gently only a few steps away was the brightest, bluest river I had ever seen. With every eddy, the water sparkled as though there were bright stars caught within its currents. No—the water itself seemed like it was made of starlight. I went to the very edge of the island, dabbling a paw in—it was tingly like the portal light but hardly wet to the touch-, and laughed as flickers danced playfully across the surface. As I did so, I noticed my paw—the dark lines on it were receding, seeming lighter against my fur. Looking even further up from the water, I caught sight of the coast across the river, water and sand streaming down at its edges to some unknown ground far below.
"I hope you know how to swim..." I jumped, finally remembering that Shin was there. He trailed off, looking thoughtful.
"No…" Now that I realized that we would have to get into the water to get across, the river seemed far too wide. "Are you sure there isn't any other way?" But the more I looked around, the more I realized that besides the river we were surrounded only by the faraway sky.
"Well, maybe I could…" He went to reach for something—that had been at his side, apparently—but didn't find it there. "Right. I don't have my brush anymore. But…" He looked at the shining water, thinking. "Maybe I could teach you the brush technique." A brush technique for crossing water? Was he a brush god, like Yomigami or Mama?
"Okay." I raised my tail and waited for his instructions. I remembered Ninetails, carrying me and walking across the water—it seemed so long ago. Was that what this was like? Had he been a brush god, too? After a few seconds of complete silence, I turned around—to find that Shin was as still and canvas-like as the rest of the surroundings. Oops. He doesn't have a brush, so I guess he can't… I let my tail drop, watching him blink confusedly at me for a moment.
"So, what you do is draw a circle on the water where you want the lilypad to appear…" I wasn't sure what a lilypad was… But I lifted my tail, trying to make a circle. When I finished, I watched as the misshapen circle of ink melted away into the air. "It doesn't have to be a perfect circle. You just have to make sure it's round and the ends of it meet…" I tried a few more times, unsteadily making a complete oval. There was only ink. "Well, it—" Before Shin could speak any more, I was lifting my brush to try again.
Come on… There. A perfectly non-shaky circle. I dropped my tail, almost in defeat, as the ink still faded away.
"—usually does take a while to learn a new technique." I stepped back, already knowing what was coming. "We might have to swim across." I backed away a little more. "It's okay. You can hold on to me. It'll be quick." And Yomigami and Mama were waiting on the other side. Shin lowered himself into the water, clinging to the side. "That's odd. It feels… dry." Meanwhile, I stared at the waves from the shore, forcing myself to step forward.
Water's okay. You've lived around it. And Shin will keep you safe. I tried to reassure myself, but I still felt a little dread in the pit of my stomach. Then it growled, and I realized it was more hunger than fear. I wonder if there's fish in there… I clung onto Shin—as gently as I could, remembering my longer claws—as he paddled across, staring into the water (or rather what I could see of it around the floating mass of white hair). It actually didn't feel wet or unpleasant at all, except for the waves lapping too close to my head for comfort. When we reached the other side, I clambered out onto the sand as quickly as I could. Mama was here somewhere.
There was nothing except for a brownish box and another stone pile of a gateway.
"Yomigami?" I called. Maybe he was in the sky somewhere… Shin just watched with a mournful look in his eyes. "Yomigami!"
"They aren't here." I was overcome with confusion. Why weren't they here? Where were they? Maybe… Maybe they were through the next portal. "Obieta, please. They're not here." I turned to Shin, but there was nothing I could say. He wouldn't look at me, eyes fixed on some distant star by the sandy shore. But… before the star, closer, there was something there. I could almost see it, blurred and faded, a swirl of light. Another portal. "We can't go through there. It won't let us through." Shin had moved away now, bending down to slide open the box.
"How do you know?"
"It's because of what we are."
"Well… let's take the way we can go, then." My voice was shaking. I headed towards the gateway, hardly remembering to close my eyes in time. I heard Shin's hurried footsteps behind me.
It was evening, and when I opened my eyes I saw Kamiki Village's gate looking back at me. We were back where we'd come from. I sat down, feeling my eyes sting.
"Why weren't they there…?" I didn't know where Mama was. I didn't know where Yomigami was. I didn't know what to do, where to go. They weren't there… Shin emerged from the light and sat down beside me, speaking softly.
"Kabegami wanted you to know… She misses you. And she is proud of what you've done." But she wouldn't ever know about any of this, would she? She was gone. Gone in a way that meant she would never, ever come back; like Oni Island, vanishing with hardly a trace it had ever been… "I'm sorry."
All I could do was break down in tears.