Chapter 4
Disclaimer: I own nothing, unless you count Moarte as a character.
Warnings: Fluff, a sun goddess disguised as a good doggo, More fluff and more trauma.
A/N: Woot, woot! Chapter 4! We are moving this fanfic train right along! I am constantly getting ideas for writing. Some good and others, well, bad. Like I do have planned a part that would focus on Amity Park without Danny, but should I focus it on Sam and Tucker or Itegami? I am kinda leaning towards the former as it has plenty of potential story wise (Sam and Tucker getting "adopted" by the ox dad would be too funny, but appropriate).
Anyways I would like to thank MoonShadow7117, Flygande Kitten, makar688, seantriana, Ultimate Trojan, Anonymous, Amari45, chaos-no-kyuubi, krzys2000 and Asarcasticchild for all the Follows, Faves and Reviews! They are gratefully appreciated!
Anonymous: Awe, thank you! I tried my best with the world building, as that is not my strongest suite when writing.
Itegami is a dad and he doesn't care who knows. He is super close to treating Danny like a newborn calf.
I am also glad you like how I have Danny act around older spirits and beings. It makes sense to me that since his core is young, Danny would instinctively reach out for comfort from someone who is close to him and older. Moarte doesn't mind. He likes younglings and will do anything to protect them. Clockwork has a special fondness for Danny as he is a Child of Time. All of Danny's allies see the good in him and want to foster it. Heck, even Ember has a special place in her core for BabyPop.
As for who the tiger is, all will be revealed later, I promise.
And Rigel is a tiny little bean who does his best and doesn't want to lose his job (We will be seeing more of him). I love your comments and they fill me with joy!
Asarcasticchild: I am glad you like the story! I would suggest you check Okami out. It is a beautiful game and I love the story behind it as well. I do know that there are Let's Plays on youtube that you can check out as well!
Thankfully, previous knowledge of Okami is not required for reading this fic, as I will be covering some of the basic story of the game throughout the chapters.
I have no plans for dropping this fic, so I do plan on continuing. Bien sûr y de nada!
Reviews, Faves and Follows are this story's life blood.
I hope you all continue to enjoy this story, as I enjoy writing it.
With that being said, let's get this chapter started!
Danny was more than grateful to see the sun rise. He had failed to fall back to sleep, the nightmares made sure of that. His dad insisted that he scan Danny's room for ghosts with a very loud device. Fortunately for the boy, his mother put a stop to that. After pushing Jack out, Maddie turned to her son.
"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked, concern filling her voice. "About the dream, I mean."
Danny shook his head. He wasn't sure if he could trust his own voice to not betray him. Maddie sighed and gave her son a small smile.
"Well, if you want to talk," she replied, "I am always here for you, dear."
With that she left the room. Even though he felt like he couldn't talk to his mom, Danny was glad to hear that she was willing to listen to him. It felt like the first
normal thing to happen in his life.
"T-thanks, mom." The young half ghost replied, his voice barely above a whisper.
Laying his head back down, Danny tried to get back to sleep. Unseen by him and undetected by his ghost sense, a figure that was hiding in the shadows floated towards the boy and landed next to him on his pillow. It wasn't until he felt something on his cheek that Danny knew that the creature was there.
Moving quickly, Danny was prepared to defend himself from an attack.
"Alright, you..."
Looking at his pillow, Danny saw a tiny tapir-like creature (which looked like someone took an elephant, bear, ox and tiger, gave it the eyes of a rhino, and threw it into a blender). The creature squeaked as it tried to hide further into the pillow. Danny dropped his guard as he tried to get a closer look. It looked so familiar. A spark of a memory came to him:
"This little one, Star Child, is a Baku," the Sun Lady had said, holding out her hands for Danny to see. "They are known as dream eaters and love to eat bad dreams. They are also very protective and loyal to their charges."
"Woah!" A then 7 year Danny replied, "cool!"
The Sun Lady smiled brightly.
"This little one is here to help protect you when you sleep, Star Child." She said. "Now all he needs is a name..."
"R-rigel?" Danny inquired.
The creature squeaked in replied. The boy had not seen the baku since he was younger. Tears filling his eyes once more, Danny picked Rigel up.
"You...But...How are you still here?" The half ghost questioned. He thought that the creature had disappeared like the Sun Lady had. Feeling a bit betrayed, the tears flowed silently.
Rigel, sensing his human's distress, squeaked as if trying to answer the boy. Danny wished he could understand.
"He says that he never left you, as per the Great Mother Sun's wishes." As if beckoned by a silent call, Itegami appeared.
Needless to say, Danny was surprised.
"I am sorry, young one." The ox said, "I would have arrived sooner, but I do not think your parents would of been pleased with that."
"I-it's alright, Lord Itegami." Danny replied, causing the bull to chuckle. "I-i should be going back to sleep."
Rigel squeaked in protest, catching the bovine's ear. Though he didn't fully understand what the little baku was saying, Danny could only guess that his small friend was telling the ox about the events prior to his arrival.
"I see." Itegami said, after Rigel finished his explanation. "Unfortunately he has always been like that."
"Who?" Danny asked, a bit unsure of if he wanted to truly know the answer or not.
But Itegami shook his head.
"It is nothing for you to worry about right now." The ox replied, shifting into his human form. "You need your strength for your journey."
Before Danny could protest, he could feel his room get colder. His core sang at the drop in temperature.
"I will make sure that you have a peaceful rest." Itegami stated firmly. "There will be no tiger attacks anymore."
Danny couldn't find the words he wanted to say. He wanted to yell at the elder male. But his core was causing his mind to go all fuzzy.
"Sleep now, young one." Itegami's words were like an order.
"But..."
sLeEp...Hehe...SlEeP sOuNdS gOoD...
"But..."
Danny couldn't hide his yawn as he felt his eye lids grow heavier.
Cold good, sleep good, ox man good...
Itegami watched as the Star Child fell back to sleep. Rigel gave a cautious honk, looking the boy over.
"No worries, my friend." The Celestial Brush god of Blizzards said. "He is just sleeping."
Rigel squeezed himself closer to Danny. Itegami laughed gently and pulled a blanket over the child's sleeping form.
"Sleep well, little Child of Ice," The elder male said. "Have no fears. I will guard you until morning comes again."
When morning came, Maddie came in to check on Danny. Seeing him sleeping peacefully for the first time in months, she couldn't bring herself to wake her precious baby boy.
As Jack and Jazz were getting things ready for their trip, the Fenton matron wondered if she was truly doing the right thing. She knew that the world's best ghost hunters and specialist were going to be at the seminar. Could she handle the knowledge that her baby would be in danger?
She longed to tell him that she knew of what truly happened that day in the lab. Maddie wanted to wrap Danny up in a giant hug and never let him go. She wanted to tell him that she didn't think that the work he did as Phantom was evil. Maddie wanted to support him.
But...
She worried that if she said that she knew his secret, Maddie would lose Danny forever. That he would disappear on her. Or call her a liar. Maddie didn't know which was worse.
So Maddie kept her secret to herself.
Looking around the room, Mrs. Fenton found her son's luggage all packed and ready for the 13 hour flight ahead of them. As much as she hated to do so, she began to wake her son.
"Danny, sweetie, it is time to wake up." She said gently. "We need to leave soon."
"'Mkay...mom..." The boy said groggily. "'m up..."
"Don't worry about breakfast," His mother continued, her violet eyes glittering in the morning light. "We plan on grabbing something to eat at the airport."
Danny, still a bit groggy from the night before, stretched his arms and got out of bed. The floor was still cold from whatever happened last night (did it really happen?!) and it did little to wake the raven haired teen up.
"When we leavin'?" He asked his mom as he searched for a change of clothes.
Maddie smiled.
"Soon, sweetie, soon." His mother replied. "Do you want me to take your luggage down for you?"
Part of Danny wanted to argue. He was okay to take care of his own luggage! But he knew his mom was trying her best to be helpful.
"Please?" He asked, rolling it over to him. "It might take me a while to get dressed."
"Alright, sweetie." Maddie replied, "but don't take too long. We do have a flight to catch."
Danny nodded as he watched his mom exit his room with suitcase in tow. Sighing as he finished getting dressed, Danny turned towards his bed. Looking at his pillow, he was slightly shocked to see that Rigel was there, snoozing away. It was kinda...cute, once you got past the idea that the baku was a chimerical creature.
"H-hey, Rigel?" The raven haired boy called. The tiny Baku's ears perked up at the sound of his voice. "Are you coming with me or..."
Danny was shocked to see how quickly the creature moved at the meer mention of being left behind. Rigel wasn't going to fail in his duty again.
The pure white canine yawned as she woke from her sleeping area in the shrine. Today was the day, she could feel it.
The day her Star Child was coming.
13 hours. It took the Fenton family 13 hours to fly non stop to Japan. Of course that didn't count the amount of time spent with the TSA because somebody tried to bring some of their anti ghost weaponry (Dad!). Danny couldn't believe his luck. Jazz tried to pull off not knowing Jack Fenton. Maddie...well, Maddie handled the situation far better than either of her kids. She at least managed to convince Jack to leave the dangerous weapons in the Fenton RV. They would be seeing some of the latest ghost catching gear at the seminar (it was starting to sound more like a convention to Danny).
As soon as the plane had landed, Danny was more than happy to get off of it. It wasn't like he he was scared of flying. He loved the feeling of freedom flight allowed him...when he used his powers of flight. Flying in a plane...was different. There was something unnerving about being in a tightly packed cylinder with no room to breathe.
It didn't take too long for them to get to the hotel, where the front desk clerk greeted warmly. Soon they were led to their rooms and were planning on resting for the rest of the day.
Danny, however, couldn't rest. He could feel a pulling in his core. The young half ghost knew that nothing good could come from ignoring the pull, so he asked his parents if he could go exploring. Maddie had him promise to write down the hotel's address and take his phone with him in case he got lost. He also had to promise to be back before night, for his appointment would be the next day.
"I will, mom." Danny promised. "I probably won't go too far."
"Alright, Danny." His mother replied. "Just be careful."
Danny made sure that he also had a copy of the room key, so if he got back and his family was sleeping he could get in, and made his way past the front desk. There was a different clerk at the desk, a young woman with a sleepy look to her eyes. Her hair was a white as Itegami's, so Danny wondered...no, it couldn't be...could it?
"Be...careful, Star Child." The woman seemed to mutter under her breath. Danny wasn't quite sure if he heard her correctly.
"E-excuse me?" He asked for clarification, but it seemed like the woman was too focused on her job to answer.
Shaking his head, Danny headed out the front door.
Kasugami smiled to herself. Mother was going to be so happy.
"Thanks Kasu, for covering me for a bit." The usual clerk said walking back to the desk.
"No problem, Shizu." Kasugami replied, with a smile.
"My lord, it seems like someone new has entered our territory." A voice said in the darkness.
The Supreme Commander of All Monsters listened as his subordinate gave its report.
"Someone new, eh?" He replied. "We shall see who this creature is and determine if they should join in the Hyakki yagyō."
"Yes, my lord." The subordinate responded, fading back into the darkness that he came from.
As soon as Danny took one step outside, he was overwhelmed with a sense of awe and fear. Amity Park was nothing compared to Shibuya. He had never...something caught his eye.
"Rigel, what is that?" He silently asked his tiny companion, pointing to where he thought he saw a flash of white amongst the green of the bushes.
But Rigel was silent. The tiny baku hovered closer to his human.
Shaking his head, Danny continued his exploration.
He was shocked, to say the least, at the number of spirits and ghost floating about.
Unlike in Amity, no one seemed to pay too much attention to them. A few would get curious about him and floated closer to inspect him.
"Kore wa daredesu ka?"
"Kare wa atarashīdesu."
"Nurarihyon Lord wa kore ni tsuite shiritai to omoudeshou."
Rigel did his best to keep the curious ones away. The young baku knew it would be trouble if Danny was found by him.
Danny kept walking until he found himself at a river. Not noticing the warning signs, he approach it.
"Well, well, well." A voice from the river said, holding Danny as if in a trance. "It is not
every day that a child of the stars visits my river."
Child of the stars...where have I...
"Oh, come now child," the voice continued, interrupting Danny's thoughts causing him to lose the trail. "I will care for you."
Danny couldn't bring himself to break his attention away from the voice. Its tone matched that of the river: calm and swift.
"Come child, come closer...I will..."
The voice broke off in a pained hiss, as Danny regained his consciousness. How did he get so close to this river? As he tried to remember, the sound of growling brought his attention to the creature that stood between him and the voice. Standing before him, was a white dog(wolf?) in a defensive stance.
"A-ah...he is yours?" The voice said, revealing itself. It was about the size of a child with deep green scales, webbed hands and feet, a shell, a beak and a dish like indent on the top of its head. "M-many apologies, great one. I did not know."
The pure white canine barked again and the creature shrank.
"I-I am sorry," It said, turning its attention back to Danny. "If I had known you were protected by the Taiyō, I would not of called you to my river."
The creature took a careful bow.
"I give you my word here and now, young Taiyō no ko," the creature continued, "that no matter the river, no kappa shall bring you harm."
The kappa straightened its posture.
"I swear to you that I will help protect you till the end of my days. I..."
"Okay, okay. I get it." Danny said, finding his voice. The white dog sat by his side, sensing that he needed her more. How was it he found himself in these situations?
"My apologies." The kappa stated again. The dog next to Danny let out another bark, warning the creature. "Ahem, I guess I should be heading back to my river now."
The dog let out another bark, startling the kappa, causing it to dive back into the river.
Upon seeing that they were alone, the canine carefully grabbed the boy by the pant leg and led him away from the river.
Once they were back on the main road, Danny noticed that the sun was getting lower in the sky. He had to head back to the hotel!
But, thanks to that interaction with the kappa, he was all turned around.
"Great...I knew I should of brought a map." The teen said to himself. "Let's see...I came from over there, I think, so it would only make sense that I head back that way...Right."
He looked in the direction of his arrival and saw nothing familiar.
"Oh man..."
The dog, sensing his frustration, sighed and began walking in the other direction, looking back only to see if he was following. When he wasn't, she would look back and let out a bark to call him forward. He listened and soon enough, Danny was brought back to the hotel.
"Ah, thank you." The young half ghost said. A part of him knew how silly it was to be thanking a dog like he was, but he knew, deep down, that this dog was something more. Why else had the kappa reacted to her? She was something, or someone, important.
Entering the hotel and walking past the front desk (the white haired lady just smiled as she saw the teen sneak by with the dog following right behind him), Danny made his way back to his room. Quietly entering, Danny held the door open long enough for the dog to enter. He felt drained. All he wanted to was crash in his bed and go to sleep. And so he did.
Curling up next to him, as if she was protecting him from all that was around, Amaterasu fell asleep next to her precious Star Child.
End of Chapter 4
A/N: Welp that is chapter 4. They are now in Japan, and Danny now has a kappa (maybe more) as his subordinate. Yay!
Ahem.
Who is the more child like voice that Danny hears when Itegami lowers the temperature in his room? That would be his core. Since he is of the ice element, his core would naturally react positively to colder areas. Combine that with the fact that an elder spirit is near him, allowing him to feel safe, his more childish aspects will naturally come out, much to his confusion.
So why Shibuya? Well, it is one of the few places in Japan that I know something about. I also didn't want to keep writing Japan over and over again. That would not be proper. So I went with where my mind took me: Dogs to Hachiko to the Hachiko statue in Shibuya ward to Shibuya is in Tokyo to Tokyo is the capital of Japan. Yeah, my mind is funny like that.
Who is Kasugami? Kasugami in the game of Okami is a Celestial brush spirit in charge of the Veil of Mists technique. Why is she a hotel clerk? I dunno. It just felt right to me. Will she be appearing more? Possibly. It depends on how the story goes.
What is with the Kappa? Kappas are river spirits that are very mischievous. They have been know to lure humans to the rivers they inhabit and drown them. They like to eat human innards and cucumbers. If they are bested by the person they are trying to trap, they pledge the Kappa will pledge their loyalty to said person. Hence Danny's new friend (even if he had help with the creature).
Will Danny make the connection between the dog and Sun Lady? Give him time. He is a bit oblivious to certain things.
Translations:
Bien sûr: French for Of course.
y de nada: Spanish for you're welcome
Hyakki yagyō: the night parade of one thousand demons
Kore wa daredesu ka?: Who is this?
Kare wa atarashīdesu.: He is new.
Nurarihyon Lord wa kore ni tsuite shiritai to omoudeshou.: Lord Nurarihyon will want to know about this.
Taiyō: Sun
Taiyō no ko: child of the sun.
Kappa: mischievous water spirit. Literally River Child
So next time will probably be how things are in Amity Park without Danny and the doctor's appointment (Hopefully). See you then!
