Weeeelp, I got into my very first car crash a few days ago. Two years of driving before I finally got the smack down… well, I gave the smack down. It was my fault and the only way for me to get over the guilt and trauma is to laugh about it. Ah, laughter… such a wonderful coping mechanism. O-O'

So I got farther in Okamiden and the things in the game have almost seriously altered the plot line until I closed my DS and sat there, thinking; wait, none of this part here makes ANY sense with Okami. What in the world is going on? Eh, oh well. I'll just keep my story the way it is without changing much. The most I'll probably do is put in Sugawara, but I doubt even that. He's such a BAMF as King Fury, not going to lie. I favor villains five times out of ten and I found it hard to lay down the iron paw of the Okami on him since he's a Moon Tribe brother… but I got over it for the sake of the plot that I NEED to get through.

Enough idle chatter! Onto the story with Amaterasu and Issun…!

By the way, does anyone know any good Japanese names for girls? I need to come up with one and I'm stumped since I can't even give my AMERICAN characters good names. I have one name that I might use if I can't find anything better.

…...

Despite the recent occurrences, good and horribly bad, Issun couldn't help but begin to relax. He slid open the door of the room that he and Amaterasu had been given at the inn for free. It was small, but very well decorated and there were two beds.

"Well, look at that, Furball. You get your own bed!" Issun laughed as he stepped in.

Amaterasu followed more slowly. She looked around with her head lowered to the ground and hesitantly sniffed at the air. She was not used to being inside such a small room in such a small building. Usually, her size permitted her from walking through most doors. However, she had yet to recover from losing her godly powers to the cursed air that hung over the village. Her new experience in a small room and her knowledge that if anything went wrong, she had no godly powers or divine instruments to protect her made her uneasy.

"Oh, come on! It's just a bad! Haven't you ever slept in a bed before?" Issun rolled his eyes in impatience as Amaterasu stalked in far too slowly for his liking.

Amaterasu sniffed one of the beds with her ears flat against her head. She didn't know what it was or if it could be trusted.

"Like this." Issun demonstrated by flopping onto the mat Amaterasu had been sniffing. She jumped back at the sound it made when Issun laid on it, but calmed down when she observed how relaxed Issun looked. "It's a whole lot nicer than sleeping on the ground, let me tell ya."

Amaterasu felt more courageous now that Issun had demonstrated how nice these things on the ground were. She was curious to try it for herself. With a few bounds, she jumped easily over Issun and stopped at the mat on the other side of him. She put an experimental paw on the thing called a "bed". Her paw sank into it slightly. It felt squishy. She walked onto it awkwardly; it didn't seem to hold her weight very well.

"That's it! Now lay down and relaaaax…" Issun said with a sigh.

Well, if Issun was enjoying it, she should to! Amaterasu walked in a circle once and lay down. The mat took her weight and sank slightly, holding her in a cushiony feeling of warmth. It was the best thing she could ever remember laying on. She wagged her tail as she curled up more in the bed and closed her eyes.

"Atta girl." Issun laughed at her as she rolled onto her back to enjoy it even more. "Get rested up so we can get to work tomorrow at finding those stupid dogs. If they're anything like you, we're in for a hard time."
Amaterasu woofed once and looked over at Issun, still on her back so he was upside down. This amused her and she wagged her tail harder. How did Issun get on the ceiling?
Issun took off his hat, shoes, bag, cloak, and sword and laid them in a less than neat pile at the side of his bed before pulling the covers over himself while lying down. He closed his eyes with the full intention of going to sleep, but he was too troubled to relax enough.

Crimson Helm. That monster sounded horrible beyond anything that he had ever heard of. What sort of monster had the power to take over a shrine and stay there for one hundred years comfortably on a meal of priests and priestesses? It was all very troubling and to know that they would have to deal with the beast was even worse. Issun couldn't imagine what it looked like, much less think of a way to confront it. To make matters worse, Amaterasu still showed no signs of recovery. As a regular wolf, she would be completely useless in a fight against any demon. He hoped that she would recover soon because, no matter how much training he had received from his grandfather in sword fighting, and no matter if the skills he was taught were created originally by the best swords master who ever lived, he wouldn't be able to stand against Crimson Helm without assistance from the goddess, Amaterasu.

Amaterasu watched Issun upside down until he fell into an uneasy sleep. She could practically smell the stress coming off of him as he slumbered. There was no way for her to know what he had been thinking or understand his emotions but she watched him anyway before she decided that she wanted to curl up and sleep as well. She began to do just that, curling back into a comfortable ball position before closing her eyes to sleep.

...A minute passed… two minutes passed… she opened her eyes and lifted her head. The bed was comfortable, yes. But she was lonely on this side of the room. Her ears fell back against her head. She didn't like sleeping alone. Issun's bed wouldn't be any less comfortable than hers, would it? She decided to test this. She got up and walked very carefully to Issun and curled up at his back. She was right; his bed was just as comfortable. She snuggled with him and sniffed his scent. Amaterasu was confused. Something in her memory told her that this wasn't the normal smell that she would smell when she slept beside someone. The smell she remembers was a fresh scent with a hint of flowers. She had been smelling a lot of flowers lately; she wondered what that scent meant. She wanted to find the source of the flower smell, she enjoyed it. Not that she didn't enjoy Issun's smell; it made her think of having fun. Oh well, she would deal with the flower smell in the morning.

Issun was having the most wonderful dream; he had just single handedly defeated the horrible beast that inhabited the Gale Shrine. He was walking back to the village to present the monster's head to the beautiful priestess, Princess Fuse. The townsfolk cheered as he paraded into their small settlement, holding Crimson Helm's head high for them all to see. They began to call him such names as "Issun the Great" and "The Greatest Warrior Who Ever Lived" as they lifted him onto their shoulders. They struggled lifting him for a moment for he was so tall and muscular. A celebration of grand proportions took place around Issun as the crowd set him on the ground in front of Princess Fuse. She was wearing a cherry blossom pink kimono that was almost see-through and she looked ravishing. She thanked him graciously for saving them all, especially her. As Princess Fuse got closer, her voice slipped into a whisper as she said she would "do anything that Issun wished to show her gratitude…" Despite how strange Princess Fuse was, Issun was allowed to observe all of her beautiful features at this close of a range, but he put his arms around her and pulled her closer just for good measure. Her stunning eyes, her high cheekbones, her smooth skin, her hot breath on his face that smelled of rancid meat and drool…

Issun opened his eyes wide, his brow furrowed at how his dream had suddenly come to a horrible end. His very first conscious vision was that of Amaterasu, curled up in front of him with her head on the pillow right in front of his face. She had her mouth opened wide and her tongue was lolling against the thick wet spot on the pillow that she had created from her drool. To make the entire scenario worse, Issun found that his arms were wrapped around the lupine goddess and he seemed to have been holding her tenderly in his sleep.

He let out a mortified shriek before jumping upright out of the bed and backing against the wall. He wanted to put as much distance from the bed and Amaterasu. He hoped with all of his being that he hadn't done anything highly regrettable and frowned upon by most members of society with the wolf while he had been asleep.

In immediate response to the sound of Issun's distress, Amaterasu awoke with a loud yelp of her own, scrambling to her feet but slipping around in the covers. When she finally managed to stand up, she looked around the room for any sign of danger, the fur on the back of her neck raised.

"Ya stupid, flea bitten mutt!" Issun shouted at Amaterasu, exchanging his embarrassment with anger towards the poor, unknowing wolf. "What were you doing in my bed?"

Amaterasu lowered her body closer to the floor, her ears drooping slightly. She knew she had been bad again.

"Look what you're nasty mouth did to my pillow!" Issun grabbed the pillow and shoved it into Amaterasu's face. "It looks like someone peed on it!"

Amaterasu whimpered and scuttled to the other side of the room, her tail tucked between her legs. She glanced back at Issun with big, sad, brown eyes of sincere apology for her behavior before retreating to a corner to punish herself.

Issun watched somewhat guiltily as Amaterasu sat as close as she could to the wall and tried to make herself as small as possible. She looked even more pathetic considering that she STILL hadn't recovered her divine powers from the cursed air. Maybe he shouldn't yell at her so much when she was sick, especially when she kept giving him those eyes… those sad, puppy dog eyes.

He let out a sigh of surrender and exasperation as he knelt on the floor, rolled his eyes over dramatically and held out a hand to her. "C'mere…"

Amaterasu's system was instantly overloaded with happiness. Her face lit up with the most over-exagerated look of excitement Issun had ever seen in an animal as she made a mad scramble to turn around out of the corner and run at him. She was simply completely overjoyed that she wasn't in trouble anymore and she couldn't contain it any longer. Amaterasu sprung into the air and landed with the full force of her body in Issun's chest.

Issun fell to the floor with a loud thump and laid there stunned for a second while Amaterasu licked his face and everywhere else she could reach from her spot on his chest.

"Gah! Get off; you're slobbering me all over!" Issun shouted and tried desperately to push the wolf off. Even though she wasn't huge, she was still surprisingly heavy and strong. Issun couldn't move her. He was resigned to simply trying to protect his face. "Cut it out, you dumb furball!"

Amaterasu finally jumped off of him but was still overflowing with joy. She showed it by looking up at him, her face forming a smile as she panted heavily. Issun smiled as she wagged her tail and followed at his immediate side while he grabbed his things and walked out the door to check out of the inn. They still had some very important business to attend to. Saving the world and stuff like that.

Ushiwaka stood in a very large and grand room. The lighting was dim as he approached the very far back of the room where a woman was sitting. Her soft prayers to the gods echoed off of the walls of her throne room and created a symphony of whispering that seemed almost ethereal in nature. The soft flames that flickered atop of hundreds of candles flickered at every inflection in the whispers that floated through the air. It gave Ushiwaka chills as he slowly made his way across the long, green carpet to an altar that was blocked by a screen curtain. In front of the altar sat the woman, lavishly dressed in expensive and regal clothing. Her head was bowed to the altar. Ushiwaka noticed that the altar was certainly not normal as far as the standards of Nippon went, for there was a large orb floating just above it. The orb had a yellow cloth that floated around it like a veil, framing its gleaming figure perfectly. Ushiwaka could tell that the orb had great power just at a glance; a glance was all he dared to look at it. He feared that he might lose himself in its power if he looked too long.

The whispered prayers suddenly stopped and the candles flickered without interruption. Ushiwaka quickly observed his surroundings both physically and spiritually once the prayers ceased. The woman sat up but did not turn around entirely as she addressed him.

"You are quite early, Captain." The woman's soft, sweet voice commented.

"I assumed that whatever you had to tell me was important so I made my way to your palace post haste." Ushiwaka said with a slightly mischievous smile on his lips. He dropped to one knee gracefully and gave the woman a deep bow, lowering his head in respect and submission to the woman who stayed hidden behind the screen veil.

"This is true, but I have not yet informed one of my servants to send for you." The woman answered Ushiwaka.

"Think of it as a convenience for you." Ushiwaka lifted his head to speak directly to her.

"You're sight of the future never ceases to amaze me. Without any assistance from any magical artifact, you can make predictions…" The woman said with a sad sigh in her voice. Her head inclined to the orb floating above the altar.

"Yes, my queen… However, your artifacts paint a much more clear and accurate picture than my visions." Ushiwaka said quickly but not without tact.

"I Suppose…" The woman lowered her head to the altar once more.

"Excuzes-moi… but I hope this is not the reason you wish to see me; I don't have the power to aid you in this manner. I can only serve you as the Captain of your special forces." Ushiwaka said, tilting his head slightly in an attempt to read her emotions. She was well guarded but Ushiwaka felt confident that he might be able to glean her motives without too many questions.

The woman remained unnaturally silent for a few uneasy moments for Ushiwaka. She was more difficult to read than he had thought. "…You have been disappearing frequently as of late, Captain."

"Ah, pardonne-moi, my queen. It was not out of disloyalty-…" Ushiwaka tried to explain without letter the woman know too much about his activities lately.

"There is no need for an explanation, Captain. I have seen it in my crystal ball. Your searching is at an end, yes?" The woman asked kindly.

"Well, it is difficult…" Ushiwaka said nervously with some embarrassment. He did not enjoy admitting to such a high authority figure that he was still not in control of his own situation. "My search is only half over."

"I do not understand entirely what you have gone through, but it seems that a powerful being requires your assistance. You have my leave to go and fulfill this destiny." The woman said.

Ushiwaka bowed to her once again.

"Merci, my queen." Ushiwaka said with a large smile.

"No need to give me false thanks, Captain. I knew that you would have left my service in order to help her whether or not I allowed it." The woman said; a trace of a smile in her voice.

"Ah-… yes…" Ushiwaka laughed nervously.

"You will still serve under me until that time comes, won't you?" The woman asked him.

"Yes, I will."

…

I finished Okamiden! Wooo, what a wild ride that thing was. Not as epic as its predecessor but pretty good none the less. I was surprised by the graphics of the game considering that it was for DS even though I thought it was too short, didn't tie things up at all in the end, and killed off the second best character of the game. Poopheads. I kind of want to make an "Okami: chapter 2: okamiden" story but there wasn't a whole lot of plot to the game to work with... I did cry at the end of the game so that's a good sign that I got into it. Main thing, I won't be distracted by the game anymore and I hope to put more into writing now that I got that out of the way.

I heard whisperings of a third game for the okami series, but without clover studios working on it, I can only imagine that it will be even worse than okamiden. I really don't know what to think about it. I'll probably buy the game and play it since I'm an Okami fan but I don't think I'll preorder it… provided these whispers are true.

Btw, how do the fans of my story feel about me writing a pre-story to the events in this fan fiction I'm writing? I've been contemplating if I even want to go there or not…

My birthday is coming up soon! It's in a matter of days! Wish me happy birthday on June 15th! :D