Chapter 8: Fury

"This is just…unbelievable." Roland muttered out his words.

"You better believe it, my avian friend. This is just a display of what Okami-Amaterasu can do to make this world a better place." Shigeru said proudly.

"Well, I certainly can't say that I don't believe you anymore. So…what are we supposed to do now?"

"This may be hard for you to take in but, you must restore all the other guardian saplings spread around Nippon. They are the only way to get rid of the curse that was enacted upon these lands! And another thing, it would be wise to try to visit your father who is purportedly confined to the laboratories. You will find the truth to this catastrophe from him."

"Okay wait a minute, a couple questions. First, how the hell do we travel all over Nippon without any form of rapid transportation? Let alone getting out of this city. And second, what does my dad have anything to do with this!"

"Well, I know that you are very clever, Roland. I'm confident that you will find a way to traverse through these lands. As for your father…I have sensed that his place of work was the origin of the demonic force. The only advice I have, is that you must venture into the rabbit hole to uncover the veracity behind everything."

Roland thought carefully about Shigeru's words. He was very skeptical about the claim that his father was supposedly the source of this disaster.

"What can we exactly expect out there? In terms of potential enemies?" Roland asked unnervingly.

"Not so favorable characters I'm afraid. Demons, a lot of them, having destructive abilities and come in all sorts of forms. But fear not Roland! As the goddess will help you progress through your journey safely and in a flash!"

"I see. Well, we will try our very best to get through. It's not like I have anything else to do here after all. It was nice seeing you again, Shigeru-San."

"Likewise, Roland. May our great mother serve you well, and I shall be constantly sending you my prayers." Shigeru smiled warmly.

"Alrighty then. Are you ready to head out, Amaterasu?" Roland turned over to her only to see that she was curled up into a ball with her eyes closed, silently napping.

"She is known to do this often whenever there is a discussion between others." Shigeru chuckles.

"Well, how adorable." Roland squatted down to Amaterasu's level to pet her, but not before her ears perked upwards followed by her head.

Amaterasu heard footsteps, coming closer and at a rapid pace. She knew that they were human, but also sensed that they weren't friendly. She got the rest of her body up and posed herself into a defensive position.

"What is it girl?" Roland asked with a concerned voice. He then also heard the audible footsteps approaching, he whipped out his blade to prepare what was coming them.

Just as he got his weapon out, a decent number of armed guards appeared before them from the same path of stairs that Roland and Amaterasu came from.

"Any of you move a muscle and you'll get your head blown off!" One of them shouted.

Amaterasu was now in her fighting stance while barring her teeth at them. Roland had the urge to strike as fast he could, but he feared for Shigeru's safety. A moment later, a man who appeared to be an officer in the ranks stepped forward in front of his other men.

"Well well well…what do we have here? I figured that somebody like the two of you would create such a lovely spectacle that we all have just witnessed. Strange for a blood thirsty, avian murderer and a dementia-ridden old fart who should be in a nursing home to collaborate with each other. Hell, that white mutt could be responsible for all I know as well!" The officer openly taunted the trio.

"Forgive me, captain." Shigeru calmly stepped forward. "It is I, who had invited them here, in order to restore the guardian sapling and cleanse this land from evil. I deserve all the penalties for my actions."

"While I appreciate your efforts to lighten up the atmosphere around us, that doesn't excuse you for not only violating the order of not bringing in unauthorized individuals, BUT you also conspired with one of the most wanted criminals! You know well what the consequences are for this…"

"Leave the poor man alone you pig! You'd ought to deal with me in this matter. He did absolutely no harm to anyone!" Roland angrily shouted while planning his attack.

"Oh, we will deal with you alright, but we have priorities…"

The officer glanced at the guard and gave a small nod. The guard then unexpectedly pulled the trigger and fired one round. This made both Roland and Amaterasu flinch, Roland quickly glanced down at his body to see if he was hit, that was not the case. It wasn't until he turned his head slightly sideways to discover who has been really shot. It was Shigeru, lying down on the ground motionless, and with a noticeable bullet wound on his forehead. Roland scrambled down to Shigeru in a hopeless attempt to revive him, but to no avail. Amaterasu was also next to them and in absolute shock. She couldn't comprehend about how these men can execute an innocent person, especially a man of peace and a faithful believer in the good gods. Anger and resentfulness soon took over Amaterasu, as well as Roland.

"Oh my god…you…you…killed him. Why? WHY! YOU SICK FUCK!" Roland wailed with full fury. His body became tense as steel while rage was pumping through his heart and all throughout him. At this very moment, vengeance was the only thing that was on his mind and wanted nothing more than their blood, regardless of whether Amaterasu would object to it.

"Like I've stated, priorities. Now that he's been taken care of in the appropriate manner, it is your turn, and the mutt will be next."

The officer was then about to raise his right hand to signal the rest of the men to fire, but not before Roland froze time, warped in front of the man, and drives the blade right into one of the officer's eyes. He quickly scanned through the other guards and noticed one of them wielding a machine gun. Roland ripped the weapon from the guard's hands and unleashed a barrage of bullets that were levitating in the frozen space. He quickly grabbed a spare magazine from the guard and warped towards Amaterasu. Once time resumed to the normal pace, the bullets all flew through the column of guards and minced them into fragments.

Roland afterwards stood still and panted. He then looked down at himself, he noticed just how drenched he was from the blood of his foes. The fury that once occupied his body has departed, and instead was channeled over to the guards in the form of blades and bullets. Meanwhile, Amaterasu pondered over the lifeless Shigeru, in disbelief that he was taken away by those whom she has sworn to protect. Even though she isn't new to the concept of human brutality, she had never witnessed it in person nor thoroughly understood the full scope of it. How could humanity be so easily duped and let themselves commit malevolent acts on behalf of the forces of evil, was beyond her. But for now, she let herself accept the justification of their punishment that Roland has executed.

In the distance around them, the familiar chorus of civil defense sirens began howling, but this time in the "Attack" signal which is represented in a form of a wailing tone. This harrowing sound made Roland realize just how bad of a situation that they were in. The city was going into lockdown and reinforcements are to arrive in full force.

"Amaterasu…we must get out of here, now!"

Amaterasu emigrated from her tunnel vision. He was right, they needed to move and fast. But first, she wanted to at least make the area agreeable again as it was before the slaughtering. She outlined the corpses of both Shigeru and the guards with her tail. And soon enough, their bodies were absorbed by the surface and replaced by all sorts of florae. Shigeru's flower was notably larger than the rest, Amaterasu then looked at Roland for instructions.

"Alright, we'll make a break for the subway. But we're gonna have to fight our way out of here, you take care of the big guys, while I'll deal with infantry. Got it?"

Amaterasu nodded, and both made their way towards the stairway where they came from. Just as they reached the bottom, they encountered an entire battalion of guards who started shooting at them on first sight, along with the Sentinel mechs that Amaterasu met before. Roland was teleporting in a zig-zag pattern while firing his machine gun, which managed to suppress the guard's advances.

Amaterasu was covering Roland from the mechs by power slashing their projectiles back towards them. The two slowly made their way to the street where the entrance for the metro was located. Roland's plan was to make a break for it before they get overwhelmed. Roland was taking cover behind abandoned vehicles and continued to shoot in long bursts. Amaterasu on the other hand, did not take any cover at all, but instead climbed on to the top of a car to get a better viewpoint, and power slashed all the incoming projectiles. A few of the munitions that she deflected hit the mechs and disabled them temporarily.

With the heavy firepower neutralized from the enemy's side, Roland decided to make the final push towards the metro, dodging the incoming fire along with Amaterasu. As a coupe de grace, Roland enabled the overdrive feature on his gun that enabled additional plasma to build up and coat the bullet at the end, making the weapon even more destructive. However, his shooting spree ended when he heard a thunderous whirling noise coming right above him. It was an attack helicopter, that also spotted Roland and Amaterasu as it made two unnatural shrieks, warning everyone in the vicinity that it was about to engage.

"Hurry! Get inside now!" Roland yelled as he dove onto the stairway for of the metro entrance right as the chopper fired its cannon, narrowly missing him and Amaterasu.

Unfortunately for Roland, fragments of the cannon shells splintered through part of his legs, and as a result made him tumble down the stairs. However, he recovered quickly and didn't notice the pain due to the adrenaline rushing through him. As he and Amaterasu made their way towards the ticket gates, Roland noticed that there was a block of 1-meter-thick steel barrier retracted on the ceiling which stretched throughout the width of the platform entrance.

These were in fact blast doors, designed to withstand a nuclear blast and double the station as a fallout shelter. This gave him an idea, he quickly looked around, and then spotted an Emergency Hydraulic Door Release switch on the far side wall next to the suspended doors. Instead of walking or warping over to the switch, he drew his pistol and fired once at it. The bullet penetrated through the glass cover and the impact made the switch lever drop. An alarm went off as the doors slowly lowered and slammed shut onto the floor, cutting off access to the outside just in time as the guards rushed in from the surface entrances and started shooting at the barrier, without making a single dent on it. Silence has settled in throughout the station, apart from the heavy breathing coming from Roland and Amaterasu, and the occasional breeze of cool, crisp air that flowed through the tunnels.