A/N- Thanks so much for the reviews, Catorrina, rexy-plexy95, and ZAP IS ZAK! It makes me happy when you review.
Disclaimer: Wait, what?! I don't own Okami?! Are you kidding me?! But I've got rights and everything... oh, wait, no I don't.
Do you remember when I said that we would come into the city bloodied with demon guts and that it would be raining and it was lighteningy and all of that crap? Do you remember how I said that? No? Go look at the last chapter if you forgot. If you didn't, please ignore this. Like, what I'm saying right now.
Anyway. Yeah, I was being sarcastic. I didn't think that we'd actually go to the city being this gross and wet. I probably looked the most epic as we walked into town because my shirt was off because it had gotten pretty badly ruined. Well, while my shirt was off and all, I only had bandages and such covering my body. And, with Larka's training, I had gotten a formidable six-pack.
OH, YEAH, BRINGIN' SEXY BACK. Or not.
Yuuki, while my shirt was currently off, kept her eyes firmly forward. Her cheeks were rather rosy, though, which made me smirk. It was kind of funny that she got embarrassed because I was displaying my body since I had no shirt. Ha. I have to be somewhat hot if I attract this many girls, Larka! Darn you, half-sister of mine!
"Hey, Jin, you know I was talking to you, right?" Larka asked. I blankly glanced at her. Dang it. Need to make these openings shorter because I keep forgetting what's going on right now instead of focusing on the past and... well, you get the point.
"Yeah, I didn't think that you were paying attention anyway," she said, waving it off. "You were probably more focused on something less important than what I have to say, like your muscles or Yuuki's breasts or something." Dang it. She hit the mark. Both times. Shut up, I like being a pervert!
"Stop staring, idiot!" Yuuki squeaked, her face burning as she covered her chest with her arms. All that really did was force them together more, though, which forced more perverted thoughts to enter my mind.
"Not helping," I stated, staring even more.
Larka, at that point, helped me by punching me on the arm. I grabbed my arm, pouting, and rubbed it. She gave me a lecture that is much too boring (violent, really, but what's the real difference with this chick?) to go into at the moment. Maybe later.
"Anyway, I need to talk to you about the people at the palace," Larka finally said after I gained about fifteen bruises on my right arm which was closest to her. "They are stuffy, stupid, near-sighted, love flattery, and hate to be called wrong. They are immature brats. The princess is okay, but she's super-mild so she just goes with what everyone else says. You need to be a humble peasant before them."
Okay. Confusion.
"Aren't we gods? Shouldn't they be humble peasants before us?" I asked, frowning.
"You'd think. Last time I went there and tried that, though, I pretty much was screwed and they kicked me out of the palace against my will. The king, though, was very nice and told those people to go burn in hell for all time for upsetting the great Goddess of the Moon," Larka stated. "Then he had each of their tongues cut out."
"Okay, he seems... eccentric," I said, frowning slightly.
"Are you kidding me?! It was epic!" Larka cried, grinning wildly at the thought of people's tongues being cut out. "Divine retribution wouldn't have been nearly as fun as what this guy did! He was such a win! If there was any king that I was have rule the world, it would be him."
"He did rock," Dravis agreed. "Sucked when he was killed."
"Yeah, that did suck," she agreed.
As the two went on about the horrendous acts that said king did, I felt somewhat left out. Had I known this man? Were we friends? I knew nothing about my past besides the fact that I loved Yuuki very much in the past and the fact that I was a pervert. What other connections did I have to people? Did I have other friends besides that pot-bellied freak, Susano? Jeez.
A hand slipped into my own and I glanced over to Yuuki, who was staring at her other hand while holding onto my left. I gripped her hand and stared at her hand as well. It was small. Much smaller than mine or Larka's. Maybe not Dravis', though. He had girlie hands.
"Jin..." she began hesitantly.
"Hm?"
"Well... it's just... I really do love you. No matter what."
I felt my face burn up slightly. Again, I couldn't help but wonder how such a beautiful young lady had fallen for a dork like me. And I'm not just talking outer beauty, I'm talking about inner beauty as well. She had gotten much more beautiful inside since I had first met her. I felt happy.
"I love you, too," I replied softly.
She smiled warmly up at me and touched my cheek with her hand that wasn't holding my own. I felt my face continue warming up, but... but it was a good kind. I was feeling absurdly happy, once again.
"Okay, just because Dravis and I are talking and stuff, that doesn't mean you two can go off in lovey-dovey land," Larka said, making us both jump back from each other. "I mean, yeah, I know you two are in love and all that crap, but that doesn't mean that you have to be so dorky and look at each other like you're lovesick puppies or whatever."
I felt my face burning up in a bad way. "Larka! Shut up! I'm your older brother, so do what I say!"
She laughed out, "A- as if! You... you dork-wad! No way!"
Annoyance grabbed me and I was about to retort rudely when a small voice cleared her voice to the left. I glanced over and blinked as I saw a girl standing there. She was tall, but not nearly as tall as me. Her black hair was in a braid down her back and she was wearing a fancy-schmancy kimono. She held a parasol over her head as she looked at us.
"Oh, Megumi-hime," Larka said, blinking. "What're you doing here?"
Hime? Didn't that mean, like, princess? Huh. That's funny.
Oh. Wait a minute.
"Ah, I heard you were coming," she said, her voice very soft. "I... I wanted to come see you and welcome you formally before the lords could come along and spread some... misfortune your way. A... also, I wanted to meet the famous Kouin-sama."
"He's got a girlfriend," Yuuki said shortly.
"I- I didn't mean like that!" Megumi-hime said quickly, blushing. "I just... I wanted to meet him since I have heard so much about him!"
"Good or bad?" I asked.
"Both," she replied shyly, looking down at the ground.
"All right, then," I answered.
So far, my impression of her was a pretty good one. She wasn't a complete jerk, she didn't want to hurt me, and she wasn't an ex-girlfriend. For me, that was the best impression I had had of a girl since I was in the present/future/whatever. Most girls here were insane. Beautiful, but still insane.
"So, Megumi-hime, ready to go back to the palace? You had to have snuck out because I don't sense any bodyguards," Larka stated. "It was nice of you to come out here to meet up with us, though, being that you're a dainty little cream-puff-princess and all."
I frowned at the fourteen-year-old. "What's that supposed to mean? She's the most normal person I've met so far. Don't call her cream-puff-princess."
"I- it's fine, that just how Larka-sama shows her affection," Megumi-hime quickly said. "I take no offense."
"Wow, maybe you do love me if that's how you show affection," I said, giving my half-sister a frowny look. She kicked me in the shin, making me shut up. Ah, yes, brother-sister love.
"Fffff," was all Dravis said as Larka cleared her throat to start talking again. She didn't seem to care. DANG IT. She would've whacked me upside the head if it had been me that had done that. What's the difference between me and him besides height and what type of relationship we have with Larka?!
Anyway. Not important.
"We'd better get you back to the palace, Megumi-hime," Larka stated, folding her arms. "Or people are gonna get pissy and start throwing a fit."
Megumi-hime nodded, looking at her feet as though somewhat ashamed that she had sneaked away. I thought that, despite me having a girlfriend and all, she was a really cute girl. She was super-shy and stuff. What was the "Otaku Terminology" for this? Moe? Something like that.
No crush on her though. Just cute. I love my Yuuki.
"So, we goin' to the palace?" Dravis asked. "Will there be food?"
Megumi-hime seemed hesitant to answer. "Since you two have been gone... well, the government has changed a bit. A small group of men are trying their best to put me out of power and make King Lee the Emperor of Nippon. It's... hard to fight them..."
Larka frowned, and glanced at me. Yeah, this wasn't good. Would we have to go into battle-epic-awesome-mode? I already felt my fingers itching to pull out my swords and cut of some heads. I've gotten somewhat violent thanks to Larka, yes. I will blame her for all of my sins. Wait. Do gods sin? Oh, whatever.
"No," Larka said flatly.
"Eh?" I asked.
"I read thoughts, remember? And you are not allowed to go into battle again until you're completely healed up. The last time that we had you fight, remember what happened? It was only two days ago, Jin. We didn't even really want you to be walking around. I won't allow you to go into battle again because I don't want you dying," Larka said, folding her arms
I sighed. She was probably right, there. I had to be careful about my body, because it was human body that was trying to deal with godly problems. If I wasn't careful and didn't get enough energy or rest, then I could probably die.
"What happened to Kouin-sama?" Megumi-hime asked, sounding concerned. "Is he alright?"
"He hasn't been very nice to his human body," Yuuki said, gently touching my arm. "After we take care of this, we need to get to Jin's temple because his current body can't deal with what's going on and all of the powers that are inside of him... it's difficult to explain."
I nodded, looking down. "Yeah."
"Oh, oh dear," Megumi-hime whispered. "That's no good. And I need your help so badly right now..."
Yeah, so, this was one of those things where you felt split in two. This adorably sad and shy girl needed my help so badly because otherwise Nippon's government would fall apart. On the other hand, however, I didn't really want to die right now, and that was the consequence (most likely) of me helping her. Jeez... this was cruel.
Why don't you let me help?
The voice caught me off guard. It was...
Mom?
This is no time for that, Kouin, I'll come over there soon and help you out. Do try not to be too terribly stupid within that time.
Wait, I-
Her presence was gone before I could finish my reply. Her hasty words made me think that she wasn't exactly excited about the thought that I knew that we were related, now. Either that, or she was scared of what I thought. Kind of bad/annoying. I wanted to ask her so many things...
"Larka, guess who just spoke in my mind," I said, folding my arms.
"What did Mom say?" she demanded.
"She said she was coming, and she asked me not to be too terribly stupid," I replied. "Which kind of annoys me, to be honest."
"Coming?" Larka asked, sounding somewhat shocked.
"What is going on?" Megumi-hime asked. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," Larka assured the confused princess. "It's just... I'm probably gonna see my mom today after a really, really long time. I'm not sure I'm ready for that."
I glanced over to Dravis, who had suddenly looked down. He glanced up to meet my eyes for all of a half of a second, and I saw... discomfort? Annoyance? Maybe fear? Something along those lines. I was about to ask him why, when we Yuuki started speaking, which, of course, caught my attention.
"Do you mind if we talk about this inside? It's kind of cold out here..." She was rubbing her arms, and I noticed for the first time that it was really cold. Funny I didn't notice that before.
"Oh, right, that's not good for Jin," Larka said, instantly making me feel good that she was worrying about me, unlike usual. "Don't want the dork dying." Warm fuzzies are now gone.
"Let's get going, then," Dravis said before muttering something to Larka, whose eyes widened. She glanced over her shoulder before turning to me, her eyes hard. They said something along the lines of, "We need to move unless you want to die." I took the hint and took Yuuki's hand, gently pulling her along as Megumi-hime starting walking in front of us.
"So, what's up?" I asked, trying to make myself sound casual.
"Later," Larka replied.
"What?" Yuuki asked, sounding confused.
It was starting to feel like someone was following us. I swore that I could hear footsteps, but every time that I turned around to look, nobody was there. I'm not saying this so creep the pee out of you or anything, but it was starting to bother me. Felt like a horror story or something. Then the giant fist came up and crushed the stupid, favorite character...!
Oh, FU- That's me! Don't kill me, O Horror Author!
Luckily for me, instead of just freaking killing me, the author decided to make the evil guy suddenly appear in front of us. He had a large sword and cruel smile on his face. I had no idea who the piss this guy was, but he scared the piss out of me. The way he looked at us... it was like he wanted to freaking murder us, gouge out our eyeballs and intestines, put them in a soup, then drink it with our blood in a crystal cock-tail cup and a side of fingers, toes, ears, and our noses with boogers still inside.
Graphic, but true.
"Ready to go to Hell?" he asked, like he was asking what the weather was. "I can take you there, if you like. I'm sure my little Dravis would like to come home with his daddy..."
Daddy?? Dravis?? This freako was Dravis' dad?? Holy... I'm running out of non-swearing swear words. Holy orchids. No, that doesn't sound right...
Oh, getting off topic.
"Bane," Larka said coolly. "What do you want?"
Bane, and I'm just guessing here that that was his name, got a pained look on his face. "Didn't I... didn't I just explain that? I'm gonna kill you. Bring you to Hell. All that shit. Are you even listening to me?"
"Oh, yeah, you did, you-" Annnnd, I'm taking out the rest because of the fun little words that Dravis said because some of those things aren't appropriate for T fanfiction. Or even rated M fanfiction, to a certain point. Oh, the dirty mouth of this demon-boy.
"Thanks for the respect. Can I kill you now?" he asked.
This was worrisome. If we were to get into a fight, then Larka would have to protect me, save me from death, all that crap. It would be bad to get into a fight. I glanced over to Larka, who was already coming up with a plan by the look on her face. Which, quite honestly, relieved me. I didn't want to have to come up with a plan.
She mouthed to me that she had a plan, which made me sigh. Meanwhile, Bane was looking between us in confusion.
"What the f***?" he asked.
"Did you know your tie is crooked?" Larka asked.
"W- wha?" he asked, sounding even more confused.
"It's true, look at it," Larka said, pointing to him.
"I'm not wearing a tie, you smart-buttocks," Bane replied snobbishly. Of course, he didn't really say buttocks, but, whatever. I change things as I see fit.
"Shh, don't tell the octopus," Larka replied, raising one eyebrow while bringing a finger to my lip.
Her randomness seemed to be working rather well. Bane was totally confused by her strangeness, and as was I. Of course, I knew the plan, so that didn't matter. Anyway, it was a good plan, even if it was rather odd. Then again... what happened next?
The gods answered me. Literally.
I've told you Amaterasu is very beautiful? Well, it's interesting that she's amazingly beautiful even when she's falling from the sky to karate-chop Bane back to where he came from. If you can picture such a thing. Even though I was the one who happened to be seeing it, I still couldn't believe it. After karate-chopping Bane into the earth about a dozen meters, she snapped her fingers and he was gone.
"Whoa," I said.
Amaterasu blinked as she saw us. "Oh. Right, you're still here."
Her words were much less formal and archaic than before. It was weird, though, because she had the air of being extremely important and beautiful, yet she was talking with a bit of an Osaka accent, unlike her usual, formal, regular Tokyo accent. (Osaka accent... it's like having a New York accent or a Southern accent. Different dialect, same language, different ways of saying stuff)
"Uh, yo," I replied.
"Don't say 'yo' to your mom who just happened to save your life!" Larka snapped, hitting me, then apologizing afterwords because she had reopened my side-wound. "Plus, plus, plus, she's a goddess, Jin. So- so- so, um..."
It suddenly occurred to me that she was nervous. She had only met her mom twice: when she was born, and right before I met her. Once again, guilt because eating away at me for stealing our mother from Larka. Why couldn't I have shared her? I felt bad for my half-sister.
"A- A- A- Amaterasu-sama!" Megumi-hime cried, suddenly falling to her knees and bowing to the beautiful in front of the goddess. "I'm so sorry for being unprepared to meet you!"
"Oh, yeah, sure, no problem," Amaterasu replied, brushing it off. "No worries, okay?"
The woman then turned to us. I felt like her eyes were piercing into my heart. Her eyes, after meeting my own, went over to Larka's, meeting her's as well. Larka drew in a breath and I could see her start playing with her hair, obviously trying to clean herself up a bit. She was worried about her appearance. Huh.
"Come on, Larka," Amaterasu said, holding open her arms. "I've missed you."
Larka seemed stunned, but walked over numbly and wrapped her arms around her mother's waist. I could see, though, before she buried her head in her mom's chest, tears beginning to flow. For some reason, that made me give a slight, warm smile. Larka had really missed her mom. Our mom.
You know, I refer to her as "Amaterasu," right? Well, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe, since she was my mom, I should call her "Mom." I mean, yeah, I don't know her that well, but she is still my mom. I probably ought to.
"This is nice," Yuuki said softly, making jump slightly. I had almost forgotten that she was holding my hand because she had been so quiet.
"Yeah..." I answered softly, looking down. "It is."
Ama- Mom let go of Larka, giving her a firm smile. "Now, now, I know we haven't seen each other in a long, long time, but there's no reason to cry. You're my strong little girl. You've been through a lotta stuff, I know, but I want you to be smiley for now. Whack some heads for me, yeah?"
Larka nodded, wiping away her tears. "Mm'kay..."
Am- Mom gently let go of her daughter, giving her a sunny (ha ha, bad joke) smile. "My little Larka... you're such a strong, good girl. I'm so glad that I finally get to talk to you after all of this time. I really missed you. I hope that we can stay together for a while more."
"Right!" Larka's smile made me feel one hundred times better. She was one of those people that could make you feel absurdly depressed or absurdly happy. A slightly odd thing, but perfectly true.
Amatera- Mom's eyes met my own and I sucked in a breath. She knew that I knew that we were mother and son. She knew that I was confused about a lot of stuff. She knew that there was a whole lot that she could do to make me feel better. What she didn't know was that it made me feel better just to know that she was my mother and that she loved me.
"Hello... Kouin," Mom said softly, looking at me.
"Hi... Mom..." I managed out.
Oh boy. This was gonna be dramatic/awkward/touching/interesting, wasn't it?
A/N- Next time, we'll get into details on tons of other things! Like politics and Amaterasu and... STUFF... lol I'm pretty sure I have more than 100,000 words now! Squeee!
