Well then. After the previous chapter being late you get this one early. Yay?

Even if the day pattern has become disfigured, we can be contented knowing that I am still finishing chapters at 10:45PM. Hazaah.

So then, looks like Waka isn't going to be breaking his chapters-being-unconscious record just yet... which I believe is either 4 or 5 chapters so far...

Now, I told you there was giong to be an OC in this story, so say hello to Kazuki. He'll probably serve some kind of purpose later but for now... he's just sorta there.

Also hey, looks like in the next chapter we'll be heading to an Okamiden-only area. ISN'T THIS EXCITING? 8D

No? OK.

Quoi… where am I…?

Waka struggled to regain his vision as he opened his eyes. Wherever he was, there was certainly a lack of colour here…

The last thing he could remember was facing those guards outside the city. He could still feel his head throbbing from when they'd knocked him out.

So why am I here…?

He jolted up instantly as he realised what this meant. Now his eyes were finally focusing properly he could see the cell he was trapped in, bars stretching across the window and making up one of the walls where the door was. Not only that, but there was a chain around his right arm. He tried to pull it off but it was locked tight.

Well, this was annoying. Thanks to that chain he couldn't just teleport out of here…

On the bright side, at least it was on his right arm. His left arm was still aching.

Now then. How do I get out of here?

He didn't know what the guards intended to do with him. If the plan was just to leave him here to starve to death then that would never work and he'd be stuck here for years.

No. He needed to escape. Amaterasu was probably worrying about him… and Issun would be complaining about him as usual, most likely.

Waka knew that there was no way of getting the chain off his arm without a key. The other end of the chain was attached to one of the bars on the wall but that was fixed firmly, one of the links around the bar. Simply tying it there would have been too easy to get out of. The only way he could escape from this would be if he could break the chain. Annoyingly, both his swords were gone, so the guards must have confiscated them while he was blacked out.

Still, the chain didn't look all that strong… maybe he could break it…

He tried pulling on the chain to rip the links apart. If he could break free from the chain anchoring him to this room them he could just teleport away and find Amaterasu.

Yet the chain wouldn't budge. There was a scraping of metal every time he tried to break free, so hopefully there were no guards around in here…

"Hey, could you cut that out? I'm trying to sleep here; it's the middle of the night, incase you hadn't noticed."

For a moment Waka froze. Then he realised that if it was a guard speaking to him then they wouldn't be sleeping whilst on duty. And yes, he'd been trying to ignore the moonlight shining through the barred window. Now it was just patronising him.

"Sorry, I'm sure usually people love being locked in a cell for no reason," Waka muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Eh, no worries. Just ignore me; I only got a few hours sleep before someone woke me up."

"Désolé," Waka apologised again. "I just have somewhere I need to be, that's all."

"That sucks. I'd say I do too but to be honest with you I'd rather be anywhere than this place," the stranger sighed. Waka couldn't see them since they were in a cell further along, but they sounded like a young man. "You've got an accent. You're not a tourist, are you?"

Waka laughed. "Hardly. I lived in the city before for a long time." 200 years to be precise, but he didn't need to know that. "I… left… last year, and apparently that's how long it takes for the guards to unexplainably turn on you and start calling you a demon."

"You're not really a demon, right?"

"Non, of course not."

"Okay good. And yeah, the guards have gone loopy recently."

"I'm guessing you're another person they've dragged in here for no reason?" Waka asked plainly.

"Yeah. The guards are going crazy. They think I'm a demon too. I've been in here for at least a day already."

Waka hesitated as he tried to phrase his next question. "Do you… do you know what they plan to do with you…?"

"Well… last I heard… they plan to have me executed."

"Quoi!?" Waka exclaimed. "Executed!?"

"I've been trying not to think about it."

"Mon dieu… this isn't right," Waka stated. He was unwilling even to admit to himself that the thought horrified him. "They can't just execute people on the suspicion that they might be a demon."

"Well, it's not as if we can do anything about it. We're stuck in here."

"Then we have to find a way out." Granted Waka knew that as far as he was concerned, for everything he'd done in the past he probably deserved to be killed. But he didn't intend on getting executed by the city's guards for no reason other than them going insane. He needed to get Amaterasu back to the Celestial Plain or the place could end up getting torn apart again.

There was a long silence.

"By the way… it's Kazuki."

"What?"

"My name's Kazuki. Friends call me Kaz. Well… yeah, everyone just calls me Kazuki really."

The prophet hesitated for a moment before replying. "Waka. I don't have any nicknames worth mentioning so I'll leave it at that."

"I could call you Wa if you want."

"I'm fine, thanks."

Everything was silent outside the city as Amaterasu warily padded towards the entrance. She knew that Issun was angry at her right now but hopefully if she left him alone for a while he'd get over it.

Although, he'd never gotten so upset over something so trivial before…

Right now though, she needed to find a way to rescue Waka. Hopefully the guards would at least remember who she was.

As soon as she reached the city gate, she noticed two guards standing outside. Upon hearing their pawsteps they both glanced up, noticing her instantly.

Amaterasu gave a hopeful bark, tail wagging. Did they recognise her?

"Intruder!" one of them shouted.

"We won't let you harm the city, creepy wolf!"

Her tail drooped. So the guards didn't recognise her after all.

The second guard took the bow from his shoulder and loaded an arrow into it. "Stay back, demon!"

A second later he fired. Luckily the goddess was more than able to jump out of the way as the arrow embedded itself in the ground.

She looked around quickly. The first guard was unsheathing a sword and the second one was reaching for more arrows. Not only that, but she could see more guards heading up here from the city.

As much as she wanted to remind these guards who she really was by kicking their butts, she didn't want to hurt them. It looked like she was going to have to find another way into the city.

Ducking as an arrow whizzed past her fur, Ammy turned and raced away before any of the guards would try attacking her again.

She hurried down the path leading to the gate to North Ryoshima. Perhaps she could find a way down into the city from the cliffs there.

The gate wasn't even there anymore. There were a few remains of wood as if it had burnt down, although it seemed that had happened some time ago. Apparently a lot happened while she was on the Celestial Plain…

Racing along the path, Amaterasu suddenly slowed to a halt, head raised and ears pricked. She was getting a strange sense about this place…

North Ryoshima looked a lot different than before as well. Now there was a massive gaping hole in the ground in the middle of the area which definitely hadn't been there before. Curiosity getting the better of her, she raced over to check it out.

As she reached the edge of the hole and looked down, she noticed a few pieces of metal glinting in the moonlight amongst the shattered rocks. The hole was pretty big, stretching for at least thirty metres along, and she noticed that further along the ground there were more pieces of scattered metal. It looked like the same type of material that the Ark of Yamato was made of… had there been something made by the Moon Tribe here?

Unfortunately, since Waka wasn't here, he couldn't tell her.

But still, now that she was closer to the hole in the ground, the strange sense she'd picked up seemed even stronger… it almost seemed like an evil aura. Yet there was something odd about it. It definitely wasn't an imp, that was for sure.

In some places here the ground had crumbled away. Amaterasu hopped down into the hole to get a closer look. She walked over to the edge of one of the gaps, jumping back quickly as a few stones fell away under her paws. There seemed to be some tunnels down here…

The aura was coming from somewhere within the tunnels, she could tell. Perhaps this was what was affecting the guards?

Well, whether it was or not, it was definitely something evil. That was enough to require it to be checked out.

Drawing a cherry bomb to make the gap bigger, Amaterasu waited for it to explode and create a bigger entrance before jumping down into the tunnels.

It took a painfully long time for sunlight to finally seep in through the barred window of the cell. A guard walked through the hallway at first light, presumably on patrol, although Waka made sure to avoid eye contact. There was no saying what those guards would do if they really thought he was a demon.

Once the guard left, it was eerily silent in the prison. Waka had given up on trying to think of an escape plan; he'd spent all night trying to come up with a way out, and got nothing. He couldn't break this chain off and there was no way of unlocking the door either.

He was starting to wonder if this was how Amaterasu had felt when Tero captured her…

The only alternative to sitting in here in silence would be to talk to Kazuki, but Waka wasn't exactly big on conversations. He wouldn't have been able to think of anything to talk about.

Eventually the silence was broken by the sound of footsteps. Was the guard back already?

Once the person finally came into view he saw that it wasn't a guard at all, but a young girl. What was she doing here…?

Then he realised that he recognised her.

Kagu.

She was a miko, she was allowed in the palace – and that included the prison area. Though why anyone would want to come in here without good reason he'd never know.

"Oh, it's you," she said plainly, stopping outside his cell. Obviously she recognised him from when they'd met before a few weeks ago.

"Oui, it's me," Waka shrugged. "Fancy lending a hand and telling the guards that I'm not a demon?" They'd worked together to defend the city before. Combined with the fact that Kagu was a miko, she must know that he wasn't a demon.

Yet still, she glared at him. "It doesn't matter whether you're a demon or not. You still deserve to be in here!"

"Quoi?" Waka blinked, but Kagu turned and raced away out of sight without answering.

What was that supposed to mean…?

"Wow. What the heck was that all about?" Kazuki spoke up at last.

"I don't know," Waka sighed. "I honestly don't know."