The Okami Hero: Amaterasu
Arc 1: Origins
Chapter 7: Akuma-Yomi
[Monday 4th September 2271]
[The Astral Plain]
The Demonic Dragon, Akuma-Yomi roared loudly as he revealed his name, sending a small shock wave through the entire Astral Plain. Izumi braced herself, but was still blown back a few steps, while Keigo barely managed to hold his position thanks to his strength and stabbing his feather blades into the clouds at his feet.
Keigo grit his teeth; "What the hell is going on today!? Amaterasu, Celestial Brush Gods, Infernal Brush Demons, Astral Resurrection… am I dreaming!? This is one hell of a nightmare!" he snapped.
"I-I honestly don't know! Lady Sakuya told me that I was the reincarnation of Amaterasu and that I used to have these friends called Brush Gods, but I have no idea what's happening!" Izumi exclaimed, "All I know is that we need to beat that thing somehow!"
"Defeat me!? The Dragon of Destruction!? You delude yourself, Puny Goddess!" Akuma-Yomi laughed mockingly. The Demon no longer spoke in Torikago's voice with an added demonic echo; now he spoke in his own deep, rumbling voice… it certainly suited the form of the mutated mess that he'd forced Torikago's body into.
Akuma-Yomi suddenly took flight, circling the children from the sky and forcing them to stand back to back so as to never let the demon out of their sight. The two watched it carefully, and with a whispered word from Keigo, both launched attacks. Izumi shot her mirror towards the Dragon, aiming for the torso where the scales hadn't covered his body, while Keigo manipulated one of his feather blades to fly through the air and pierce one of the Demon's eyes.
"You will not bring me down!" Akuma-Yomi roared, flying away from the attacks. His large form made him a slow flyer, and the children's attacks followed him as both were controlled by the user's will. However, once the Dragon got far enough away, Izumi's mirror did a U-turn and returned to her.
"My mirror came back? I guess there's a range limit..." Izumi frowned as the iron disk took its place on her back.
"It's fine; I've got him!" Keigo said, focusing on weaving his feather blade through the air pressure whipped up by Akuma-Yomi's flapping wings. It got close enough and then lunged for the Dragon's eye, but the Demonic Reptile just opened his mouth and spat a glob of red liquid, which looked a lot like blood, at the feather. It hit, and the feather sank into the liquid and rapidly decayed, rotting away before the children's eyes and leaving only dust.
Keigo gasped; "He dissolved my feather like it was nothing! Was that acid?"
"It didn't look like it melted… what was that stuff?" Izumi frowned, "Does that thing have a different quirk from Torikago?"
Akuma-Yomi laughed mockingly; "Did you think I would have the moniker; Dragon of Destruction, with only the power that Torikago wields? Foolish girl! The red ink I produce corrodes whatever it touches, making it age rapidly out of existence!"
Keigo suddenly grabbed Izumi around the waist and picked her up, before doing his best to take flight. "We can't stay here like sitting ducks if he can spit that stuff! We'll take to the sky!" he said, flapping his wings hard.
Izumi frowned, feeling Keigo's sweat dripping off his face and onto her back. He was pushing his limits and was barely able to get them a foot off the ground. "Keigo, your wings are too small now! You barely had enough feathers to fly by yourself before! There's no way you can carry my weight with even fewer feathers! Fly away and get help, I'll try to hold him off!"
"I'm not leaving you to die!" Keigo yelled.
Akuma-Yomi roared with laughter, before suddenly dive bombing the two. Keigo's eyes widened and he tried to fly away, but Izumi had been right; with so few feathers left, he couldn't outfly the Dragon on his own, let alone while carrying Izumi's weight (though the girl was fairly light compared to what Keigo was used to). The Dragon pulled up just inches from colliding with the two, the air pressure he produced making Keigo lose control and fall to the ground. Izumi hit the ground first, and Keigo landed on top of her, which proved to be good for Izumi, as Akuma-Yomi spat more red ink at them. The ink splashed against Keigo's wings, making him scream as they began to corrode. Thinking fast, the boy jettisoned the feathers that had the ink on it, letting them be corroded without damaging his body but leaving him with even fewer feathers with which to fight. He wouldn't be able to fly now.
"Keigo! Are you alright!?" Izumi yelled, crawling out from under the wincing boy.
"Yeah, managed to get the feathers off before I was injured. That ink really burns." he groaned.
Izumi frowned; "Keigo, you can't fly any more and you're almost out of feathers! Run away while I hold him off!" she begged.
"I told you, I'm not leaving you to die again!" Keigo shouted.
"It's okay! I came back again, remember?" Izumi argued.
"Do your really have time to be fighting amongst yourselves?" Akuma-Yomi cackled, performing another flyby ink attack. Keigo tackled Izumi out of the way, leaving the red ink to splash harmlessly against the stormy clouds. It looked like the ink didn't work on the clouds at least. Izumi wondered if it only worked on organic matter...
Akuma-Yomi performed a few more flyby attacks, forcing Izumi and Keigo to dodge, while he was cackling madly; "Foolish Brats! We are in the Astral Plains, a place accessible only by Gods and Powerful Demons! A Human like Takami, no matter how spiritually strong, cannot enter or leave on their own! Even if he flees, he'll never leave the plains alive! In fact, it works better for me, as I'll be able to kill you and then possess his body!"
Izumi growled and aimed her mirror to hit the Demon as it drew close for the next attack, but Akuma-Yomi easily raised his scaled arms and batted the attack away. The Iron Mirror hadn't hit as hard as Izumi wanted, and it only managed to lightly scuff the Demon's jet black scales.
"Even if I die, I'll come back again and again until I beat you!" Izumi declared, trying another mirror attack. This time, Akuma-Yomi flew out of range again, still laughing at the girl's attempts.
"Oh no you won't. Brush Gods and Brush Demons alike cannot exist outside of host bodies or the Astral Plain, and our power is greatly effected by the strength of our host! Torikago was weak, so my senses were dulled, but here in the Astral Plain I can sense you clearly… you used up all your Astral Energy during your last resurrection! It will take at least a day for you to be able to gather enough to resurrect again, and by that time I will have killed you! If you die without the power to resurrect, you'll be forced to reincarnate, reducing you to a newborn infant somewhere in the world and with no memories at all!" Akuma-Yomi boasted.
The Dragon then shot a trio of Torikago's Iron Rods from each of his wings, causing six of the things to go flying at Izumi and Keigo. Keigo managed to deflect a few by sacrificing some more feathers, but the remaining ones had to be blocked by Izumi's Mirror. No sooner had those six rods been deflected, Akuma-Yomi flapped his wings rapidly, sending wave after wave of iron rods at the children. This was too much for either child to block, so they ran and dodged, moving as fast as they could to evade the attacks. Keigo, while unable to fly now, could still flap his wings for a burst of speed, and Izumi briefly transformed into her full Wolf Form to outrun the spikes raining down on them.
"I thought they were limited! He couldn't shoot this many before!" Keigo yelled, trying to keep Izumi in his line of sight while running away from both her and the spikes, so as to avoid accidentally getting her caught in the crossfire. Keigo was right too; Torikago could shoot two rods, and with Akuma-Yomi boosting her, she'd been able to shoot just over twenty of them, but now he was firing volleys of at least that many every few seconds! The limit was either gone or so far increased that it no longer mattered.
Izumi tried to shout back an answer, but only succeeded in barking. She couldn't speak human languages while in Wolf Form. Making a risky move, Izumi skidded to a halt and then ran back towards the rain of iron rods, using her Wolf Form's superior speed and dodging abilities to dance through the attacks. She managed to get through the assault with only a few minor scratches, as her mirror blocked or deflected any direct hits she couldn't dodge, and this left her directly beneath Akuma-Yomi's form. Relatively safe from the rods, Izumi turned back to her Demi-God Form and shouted to Keigo.
"We're in the Astral Plains now, Akuma-Yomi must be using its power to further boost his host. He can survive here, but he's still using Torikago's body so he can use her quirk!" Izumi shouted.
Akuma-Yomi sneered, ceasing his iron rod attack, "Clever little gnat. It's easier to fight in my own form, but so long as I possess this woman, I can utilise her power and also survive a lethal attack. If a Demon's Host dies, they can survive by simply abandoning the host. Consider it MY form of Resurrection."
"Like I'd kill you anyway!" Izumi yelled, "You used to be my friend in my last life, right? Then I'll save you from your corruption and save Torikago too!"
"Such arrogance! God or not, you are but a child and one without most of your power! Now die!" Akuma-Yomi roared, spewing a torrent of corrosive red ink. Izumi raised her mirror to block it and ran back to the iron rods that had embedded themselves in the clouds. The mirror and rods blocked most of the torrent, which didn't have the force to dislodge the metal. Unfortunately, Izumi had been incorrect earlier when she assumed the ink could only corrode organic matter; the iron rods rusted and turned to dust immediately upon contact with the liquid, and even Izumi's mirror began to rust, though much slower. Thankfully, Akuma-Yomi couldn't exhale forever and needed to stop his attack, giving Izumi the chance to run back to Keigo before the Dragon started up its attack again. Before Akuma-Yomi could catch his breath and look up, Izumi had dragged the winged boy behind a large collection of the iron rods to stay out of sight, being mindful not to touch them in case that gave them away.
"Damn it, we're running out of options!" Keigo frowned, "That won't take many more attacks." he said, pointing at Izumi's mirror. The reflective side was completely cracked and warped with rust, and the sturdy iron side had gone from greenish grey to a dull bronze. "My feathers can deflect one rod each, but it destroys the feather and I don't have many left." he gently flapped his wings, which were in a rather ragged and sorry state, "We can't run forever, and we're about to lose our only defence. Plus we can't even reach the damn thing to attack!"
Izumi frowned; things did look bleak. Akuma-Yomi was flying out of reach, and their ranged attacks required them to give up some of their defensive ability and didn't even do much damage anyway. If Keigo ran out of feathers, he wouldn't be able to attack at all, and without her mirror, Izumi would only have her claws and fangs, which would never pierce the Dragon's scales. Cautiously, Izumi began clawing at the clouds that made up the ground beneath them. They felt like cotton in her hands and tore away with ease, before slowly regenerating over the space of a few seconds. However, the stormy clouds carried a minor electrical charge, which Izumi could only stand for a few seconds.
If it weren't for the rubber soles of their shoes, Izumi and Keigo would have been slowly fried just by being here.
"Oh no… I had an idea, but it won't work unless I can get out of Akuma-Yomi's sight." Izumi frowned.
"Where are you, Children? Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Akuma-Yomi shouted, blasting some of the iron rods nearby with some corrosive ink, reducing them to piles of orange dust.
Keigo frowned, fear beginning to really settle on his face now. Victory seemed impossible, and if Keigo didn't die before Izumi, he'd be turned into Akuma-Yomi's new host; a fate worse than death. He resented being a bird in a cage for the Commission's Big Shots, but being caged within his own body was nearly the definition of hell itself for the Winged Boy.
"Come on, there must be some way to win! Didn't that freak mention some powers you had before? Sunrise and Divine Retribution?" Keigo asked.
Izumi blinked; "Well yeah, it was right after she first attacked me. Wait, how did you know that?"
"I left one of my feathers inside your skirt when I left. I was worried what Torikago would say or do to you, so I left the feather to spy. My feathers pick up vibrations and changes in the air, then sends them back to me, allowing me to work out what sounds were made near the feather. I heard Torikago's words and ran to warn someone before coming back, but then I couldn't get through the door so had to fly out a usable window on a lower floor." Keigo explained quickly; "Now one of those powers has got to do something! Divine Retribution sounds promising, you and that Dragon keep talking about gods; can't you use that to smite the bastard?"
Izumi frowned and showed him her mirror; "I don't know for sure, but I think Divine Retribution is the name of this mirror… Sakuya said she returned my Divine Retribution to me in my past life to wake me up, and I had a dream where I was a statue and she gave me this mirror."
Keigo cringed; "That's not going to help."
"Sorry." Izumi said dejectedly.
"Forget about it. What about Sunrise? Is that your transformation power or something?" he asked.
"I have no clue." Izumi shrugged; "I never heard about it. I don't think its the transformation ability, since Sakuya said my Wolf Form was Amaterasu's True Form, and called my halfway transformation "Demi-God Form". But come to think of it, if I'm supposed to be the Reincarnated Sun Goddess, shouldn't I have sun powers?"
"We could use some sunlight here; the red sky and dark clouds are making it tough to see, especially when that monster's attacks are all black and red too. Maybe you could make some light to blind him?" Keigo suggested.
Another blast of ink destroyed more of the iron spikes, this time closer to where Izumi and Keigo were hiding. Keigo had to cover Izumi's mouth to stop her screaming from surprise. "Honestly, we need to try anything to survive. I don't want to sit around waiting to die or be made into that thing's host! Some sunlight would at least brighten things up, so we're not dying in the dark!"
Izumi's eyes widened; "Wait, that might be it! Akuma-Yomi is being powered up by the Astral Plain, right?"
"That's what he claims." Keigo nodded.
"But when I was here before, it didn't look like this; the sky looked like kinda yellowy paper, and the clouds were golden. I think Akuma-Yomi's corrupting it to empower himself. Maybe if I can make some light, it will drive out the darkness and weaken him!" Izumi exclaimed.
"That's a bit of a leap of logic, but I've got no better ideas." the boy said, looking unsure.
Izumi was sure though; she tended to second guess herself a lot, but what she'd just suggested made perfect sense to her, as if the instincts of her past lives were shining through. After all, her memories and knowledge from the past weren't gone; just buried in her soul. She needed to dig them up.
Closing her eyes, Izumi concentrated on the feeling of warmth that had first appeared after fusing with her mental image of Amaterasu; the event that first awakened her powers. When she let the light flow through her entire body, she transformed into Demi-God Form, and when she let it completely fill her, she turned into her original Amaterasu Form, but what would happen if she let that light flow out of her body? Focusing on a single finger, Izumi let the light surge forward, filling her arm until finally, it began to leak out of her finger. Izumi opened her eyes as Keigo gasped.
Black ink was slowly flowing from her finger, as if she was sweating the stuff from her finger tip.
"Ink? Like the stuff Akuma-Yomi's been puking at us… wait, didn't he say some stuff about Brush Gods and Brush Demons?" Keigo asked.
Izumi nodded, still enraptured by the ink flowing from her finger. With only a thought, she changed the colour, turning it yellow instead of black, then making it shift through all the colours of the rainbow.
"Brush Gods… Sakuya said I had twelve of them serving me… Ink and Brush Strokes… I think my abilities were based around those. I made ink, then drew things with it to use different powers." Izumi said, staring transfixed at her ink.
"Seriously?"
Izumi nodded; "I think so… I can't remember, but my instincts are screaming at me. Each Brush God had a technique, and I could use them too, but there was one that was just mine… If I don't have the Brush Gods on my side any more, then Sunrise must be the technique that was mine!"
"So you don't know for sure and are just winging it based on instincts?" Keigo asked, eyebrow raised.
"Basically." Izumi replied.
"Great, my kinda plan. So come on then; let's see what Sunrise does!" Keigo smirked.
Izumi nodded; trying to remember more of her past. Just making ink wasn't enough; she needed to know the brush strokes she used to cast Sunrise. She began calming her mind and focusing all her thoughts onto the word "Sunrise"
Images and words began surging through her mind, almost too fast for her to register. She saw the village she had watched over, Kamiki, shrouded in an endless night. She witnessed its people turned to stone by the night's curse, and she saw herself in lupine form running with Issun to the top of a hill, upon which was a platform overlooking the great Konohana Tree. She saw herself stand on this platform and look skyward. A circle of gold, clearly drawn with a single brush stroke of golden ink, suddenly appeared in the sky and right before Izumi's eyes, this circle filled itself in and became the sun itself, shining light down on the village and breaking the night's curse.
When her memories ended, Izumi smiled confidently at Keigo; "I think I've got it. I'll turn this place back to the light and bring that dragon down!"
Keigo nodded and gave her a reassuring pat on the back; "Let's do this. We'll be like Heroes from Legends, taking down a Dragon!"
Izumi grinned; she liked the sound of that! Willing the ink she was producing to turn gold, Izumi drew a circle on her palm in a single stroke (she couldn't figure out how she was supposed to draw it directly onto the sky as her past self had) then thrust her palm skyward and forced all the power she could muster through the circle. The golden ink began to glow, and the circle turned into a ball of light within Izumi's hand, then shot itself skyward. "SUNRISE!" Izumi cried, feeling a large drop in stamina as the ball of light left her skin.
Akuma-Yomi, spotting it, narrowed his eyes and spewed corrosive red ink, but the ink evaporated the instant it got close to the ball of light. "What is this!? You figured out how to use Sunrise by yourself!?" he bellowed.
The ball of light reached the sky and promptly exploded, forming a massive golden sun. The effects were immediate, as the red sky began to recede and be replaced by the parchment-like sky Izumi was used to, and the clouds began to lighten to their usual golden hue. Seeing this, Izumi touched the clouds with her bare hands and found that not only did they no longer shock her, but she could now move through them at will, as if she could choose if they were solid or intangible.
The light made Akuma-Yomi roar in pain, and his body began to smoke; "G-Gah! Curse you! You're trying to wrest control of the Astral Plain from me!? Master, grant me the strength to force her back!" he roared. With a mighty roar, Akuma-Yomi released a wave of dark energy from his body, causing the darkness to begin pushing back against the light. Izumi and Keigo watched with amazement as half the Astral Realm remained pure and golden, while the other half returned to the corrupted state it had been. These two sides pushed against each other, until they began to twist and grind together, going from two perfect halves to a whirlpool-like swirl of gold and dark grey, with the sky becoming the same but with parchment yellow and blood red. The sun Izumi had created floated in the dead centre of this maelstrom; the eye of the storm. After a few turbulent seconds, the swirl ceased moving, though the plain remained twisted between light and dark.
Keigo, peeking out from their hiding spot, frowned; "Looks like it worked, but not completely. Whoever this Master of his is, they're strong. Still, it looks like there's enough gold clouds for you to dig through. What's the plan?" he asked. He'd have preferred to take charge himself, considering Izumi's inexperience, but she was at an advantage in this kind of situation, while he had been left weakened by the loss of his feathers.
"Now that he's weakened, I don't think he'll be able to make as many rods with Torikago's quirk, which means he'll stick to his ink breath. Nothing either of us can do will hurt him, so I want to see if his own ink can corrode him too." Izumi said.
"Not a bad plan, but if it doesn't work, we're back to square one. Besides won't it kill him, and take Torikago down too?" Keigo asked.
"I have an idea for how to win, but I need to know if his ink hurts him. Do you think you can get one of his scales with your feathers?" Izumi asked.
The boy nodded; "Sure, but he knows my moves and will see it coming. Take one of my feathers with you and go under the clouds. If I'm not the one moving it, he might not see it coming. Just whisper to it when you're behind him, and I'll be able to hear and direct it to attack. With luck, I might just be able to chip off a scale."
Izumi and Keigo both nodded to each other, their plan set. Keigo shed two small feathers and had them stick to Izumi's forearms as she burrowed into the clouds, opting to go just deep enough that her head was a foot beneath the top layer. She was able to easily run beneath the surface of the clouds, choosing to keep the ones below her solid while the ones around her were intangible. Being a God in an Astral Plain was convenient! As Izumi ran along the golden clouds, following the swirl and being careful to avoid the black clouds, Keigo jumped from his hiding spot behind the bars and began darting and weaving through them as fast as he could.
Akuma-Yomi noticed him immediately and began blasting with his ink. Keigo almost smirked; the Dragon wasn't using Torikago's quirk at all! He must have exceeded his limit now that his power wasn't being boosted by the Astral Realm and he wasn't flying down to reabsorb the fired rods, which to Keigo's mind meant that it was a risk for the Dragon to do so, meaning they must be able to hurt him! He wouldn't avoid them if they couldn't hurt him.
"Amaterasu has abandoned you, Little Bird! Accept your fate as my new vessel, and get revenge against her!" Akuma-Yomi demanded. Keigo just ignored him and kept moving, luring the Dragon's attention away from where Izumi was hiding.
Izumi popped her head above the clouds from time to time, just to ensure she was still going in the right direction (she was primarily using her Demi-God Form's enhanced sense of smell to navigate closer), and when she popped up and saw she was directly beneath the distracted Akuma-Yomi, she whispered "Now" to one of the feathers she'd been given.
With near-lightning speed, the crimson feather shot upward and sliced at Akuma-Yomi's tail. The Dragon roared in pain as a couple of scales rained down on where Izumi was lying in wait. The wound didn't bleed, instead releasing more of that noxious gas.
Izumi grinned and caught one of the scales; "Aha!" she cried, holding her prize a loft. It was about the size of a playing card, and was a centimetre thick, though shockingly light.
"THERE YOU ARE!" roared the now enraged demon. He inhaled and then exhaled the largest blast of ink so far, directly at Izumi. The little girl squeaked in terror and dived out of the way, leaving the scale behind. The ink hit the scale and immediately, it began to rot away, corroding as quickly as the iron rods or Keigo's feathers.
Izumi saw this and grinned. Diving beneath the clouds again to escape Akuma-Yomi's wrath, Izumi began explaining her plan to Keigo, while making her way towards him via his scent. Keigo listened to the plan through the feather remaining with Izumi, slowly beginning to think Izumi was either insane or a genius. Her entire plan was a long shot that relied on a theory of hers; that a direct usage of Sunrise on the Demon's body would drive out the darkness corrupting him and restore him to his original Brush God form… but it wasn't guaranteed to work and the plan Izumi had involved using up all their resources. If it worked, they'd be victorious, but if it didn't then they'd be defenceless against a VERY angry Dragon Monster.
Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Once Izumi was close enough to Keigo that his feather could return to him unnoticed, the duo began to implement Izumi's plan. Izumi performed the first step, then kept her mind focused while Keigo leapt out of cover and did his part.
"Hey, Dragon Breath; try this on for size!" Keigo yelled, firing his attack at the Demon. It was a massive wad of all his remaining feathers, aimed right for Akuma-Yomi's head.
The Demon laughed uproariously; "This is your new trick? You think making up and using a technique I haven't seen you use before will allow you to outwit me? You are naive, Little Bird!" he mocked, before firing a jet of corrosive ink at the wad of crimson feathers.
As expected, the feathers began to immediately corrode, leaving Akuma-Yomi to continue laughing mockingly at the seemingly futile attack. His laughter was cut short when a horrendous pain suddenly shot through his back, making him roar. Turning his head, Akuma-Yomi looked to see what had happened, really craning his neck due to still only having Torikago's human neck and face. His eyes widened with horror at what he saw; his own corrosive ink was on his wing joints! It was eating through them, making them rot away until finally, the wings snapped off and the Dragon plummeted to the ground with a roar of pain. He landed hard and rolled onto his back immediately, trying to rub the remaining ink off himself. As he writhed, he noticed the remains of his wings, and spotted a shard of a very familiar mirror slowly corroding between the scales…
The Demon's eyes widened as he realised what had happened; Keigo's attack hadn't been a slapdash attempt to catch him off guard, but a way of covering the approach of Izumi's mirror! It was a Divine Instrument, and thus resistant (though not immune) to his power, as Izumi had noticed earlier when it had survived an attack that the iron rods had been corroded by. Since it hadn't been immediately corroded, it had been able to carry some of the ink on itself after the feathers rotted away, and as Akuma-Yomi had been distracted with gloating, it had flown right through his blind spot and struck his wing joints, spilling the corrosive ink over them before finally breaking from the rust. The ink splashed on the joints then caused his wings to be broken off, forcing him to the ground.
Akuma-Yomi knew in that instant that he'd been played, a thought that grew worse when he noticed Izumi had popped out of the clouds and crawled onto his chest while he writhed. His solid red eyes met the emerald eyes of Izumi's Demi-God Form.
"Akuma-Yomi, this is the end! I'll force the darkness out of you and return you to what you were meant to be! You were once a Celestial Brush God; a friend! You will be again!" Izumi declared. The golden parts of the Astral Realm began to pulse and grow stronger, encompassing the darkness, and Izumi put both hands against the Draconic Demon's chest. A ring of gold appeared on her joined palms, and just as she had before, Izumi shouted "SUNRISE!" and released the technique. It didn't go into the sky this time though, instead going straight into the demon's chest.
Akuma-Yomi released a deafening roar as cracks began to emerge across his body. Black smoke billowed out from these cracks, followed shortly by golden light; as if the light had been literally chasing the darkness out of the Demon's body. The smoke burned away into nothingness in the light of the Astral Plain, and Akuma-Yomi's body began to melt away, leaving behind the non-mutated form of Torikago; unconscious and dressed in the rags of her former business suit, but undoubtedly alive and well. The Astral Plain seemed to shudder as the darkness was driven out, and the swirling war between the light and dark sides of the plain ended with the light side completely engulfing and erasing the dark, leaving the entire place as a tranquil sea of golden clouds, and an endless parchment coloured sky. The golden sun that Izumi had created faded away, its purpose fulfilled.
The light that had shot from inside Akuma-Yomi's body gathered together into a large sphere, which then began to shape itself into what appeared to be some kind of giant scroll. Izumi and Keigo looked at it with confusion, though Izumi was sure she'd seen it before. Suddenly, the scroll unfurled itself to reveal a massive ancient Japanese style painting of a white, serpentine dragon. It was beautifully done, and as Izumi admired it, the image of the dragon leapt from the scroll, winding itself through the air as it went from painting to flesh. It only emerged halfway, leaving a portion of the dragon inside the painting, while its tail stuck out the other end. The dragon appeared closer to the traditional eastern form of dragon than the western form that Akuma-Yomi resembled, and had four clawed arms along its body, each clasping a yellow orb of glass or crystal. The dragon had long white whiskers, resembling a moustache, and a similarly long strand of white hair on its chin to act as a beard. Its scales were as white as Izumi's Demi-God Form's hair and fur, and it sported the same markings on its face as Izumi did, as well as more of the same markings on its arms and along its spine. Its tail ended in what appeared to be a calligraphy brush, not unlike Izumi's wolf tail.
This was what Akuma-Yomi had originally been… this was a Celestial Brush God.
"Wow… now THAT is a dragon!" Keigo whistled, coming down from the adrenaline high of the fight. He still couldn't believe Izumi's crazy plan had worked!
"Are you okay now?" Izumi asked nervously, unsure of how to properly speak with the massive dragon. Technically, as Amaterasu Reborn, she was in charge of the Brush Gods, but she was still only a little girl faced with a mighty dragon.
"Ah… my mistress, it is so wonderful to finally see you again with my own eyes." The Dragon said, its voice deep and rumbling. He sounded a little like Akuma-Yomi, but without the evil echo and instead a more divine timbre. "I am so sorry… even if I was twisted by the will of the Evil One, I took your life. I can never atone for the things I have done."
"You didn't do anything. You weren't yourself, right? Can you tell us what happened?" Izumi asked.
"Yes, of course. It was shortly after the Ark of Yamato was destroyed by the Evil One. Your previous form was cast into the void between realms and forced to reincarnate, but as we Spirits of the Brush cannot exist outside of you or this place, we fled here to the Astral Plain. But before we could arrive, my brethren and I were captured by the Evil One. He used foul sorcery to twist us into Infernal Demons and made us his loyal pawns, scattering us about to spread his evil plans. I was made to possess Ryuko Torikago with the intention of spying on, and eventually assassinating Sakuya the Wood Sprite. My orders were to report her actions to the Evil One, then eventually kill and replace her as Leader of the Mortals' Hero Commission. I was also to find Heroes or others with the ability to see Demons and Spirits, and corrupt them to his side. That is why I bade Torikago to take in the Winged Boy, Takami."
Keigo snorted; "Should I feel honoured that some kind of god took an interest in me?"
"Well it is pretty cool. Besides, you're my friend and if I'm a God, then you're a God's friend! That's gotta be something good, right?" Izumi smiled cheekily. Keigo chuckled and ruffled the girl's hair.
Izumi turned back to the White Dragon; "So, I'm guessing you're not Akuma-Yomi any more. I'm sorry, but I don't have many of my old memories, only a few short ones, so I don't know your name."
"I am Yomigami, the God of Restoration and a most loyal servant to you. I bore witness to everything experienced by Ryuko Torikago and my corrupted form, so I know you are now called Izumi Midoriya. Forgive me, Mistress, but my power weakens. I must take time to recover… but please, allow me to rest within you once more and return to you the power that I govern." Yomigami asked, bowing its head.
Izumi smiled softly, reaching up to pet Yomigami's head; "You're ordeal is over. Take as much time as you need to rest… If I'm your mistress, then it's my job to look after you. Please rest well." she said kindly.
Yomigami nuzzled his face against Izumi's body, almost lifting the girl off her feet with his size and getting a quiet giggle from her. "This kindness and warmth… I have missed it so. Wolf or Human, God or Mortal, the heart that beats within is still the same. I, Yomigami, the God of Restoration humbly return to your side, and return to you my Celestial Brush Technique: Rejuvenation. Fare thee well, Daughter of the Sun."
With that, Yomigami's body receded into the scroll he had emerged from. The scroll then rolled itself up again and transformed into a ball of light, no bigger than Izumi's palm. Within this ball, the kanji for "Yomi" floated. Izumi took it gently, and following her instincts, she pressed it into her own chest, feeling it fuse into her flesh and soul. The warmth of the light joined with the warmth Izumi had gained when she first awakened as Amaterasu, and images began to flash through her mind.
Izumi saw herself in her previous life, standing atop a hill beneath a starry sky. She saw herself looking up at those stars beside Issun. She saw the stars form themselves into the shape of Yomigami, and then she used the dragon's power to restore a river made of stardust.
When the images stopped, Izumi and Keigo were suddenly back in the Mortal Realm, in the same dojo they'd been fighting in earlier. Torikago was unconscious before them, and Keigo sighed with relief. Izumi smiled; pleased that she'd managed to win and free the first of her Brush Gods, as well as making a new friend in Keigo. With those thoughts in her mind, and the fatigue of the previous ordeal, Izumi sat down on the ground and quickly succumbed to sleep.
Keigo watched as she curled up, a small smile on his face. He had no idea what had just happened up there in the clouds, but he did know one thing… life wouldn't be boring with Izumi around!
Next Chapter: The First Tales of the Past
To be Released: TOMORROW!
For those who've never played Okami, the memories Izumi gained before using Sunrise and after merging with Yomigami are scenes from the game in which Amaterasu first unlocked those powers, as well as her first usage of them.
What did you think of the battle? Future fights will be more intense, once Izumi has trained and can fight effectively.