It was difficult to breathe.

His lungs felt constricted, his heart twisted in an iron grip as he searched with wide, unblinking eyes. His gaze roamed the darkened stretch of the coast, his chest aching with the force of air past his trembling lips.

He had seen the wolf! The great white wolf, the beast that wielded the Divine Instrument, who was said to be a god... he had seen her! In a flash of white and red she had dashed by him, passing before his eyes as quick as a lighting bolt, there a mere second before she was gone in a whirlwind of dust and flower petals. Without even thinking he had dropped the parchment he had been carrying, along with the few pieces of charcoal he had brought along, and chased after the wolf's fleeting form. There was such desperation pulling at his heart that it frightened him, the intensity with which he ran, flying over the cobblestone streets of the city until he found himself sprinting along Ryoshima's vast shoreline.

His eyes had lost sight of the wolf long before, but his legs refused to give up their chase. He felt pulled along by something he could not name, some unidentifiable force driving him on. He just wanted...needed!... to find that wolf.

'A beautiful vision she is,' the villagers had said. 'You may not liken her to much more than just an ordinary white wolf, but no... you get close to her and you'll be able to see the truth. That wolf is a god.'

The captain of th heaven ship, the leader of the Tao Troopers assigned by Queen Himiko... the villagers regarded him as a god as well.

'Will one god know the way to another?' Riyu wondered, breath heavy as he continued to run, his eyes catching sight of dawn's horizon steadily creeping over the ocean's glistening surface. If he could find the white wolf...

Could he find Waka as well?

His pulse thundered in his ears. A howl echoed over the land, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. Riyu's eyes widened as his vision filled with the image of red and white, moonlit fur rippling over a sleek body, fastened with a glowing instrument of divine power.

He stared into the golden eyes of a god.