Hey look, I'm updating in a timely fashion! How amazing! Happy New Year, y'all. Have a cursed field.
Disclaimer: Don't own nothin' but Jenna.
(Author's notes end)
They exited through a canyon. It wound on for a little while, and their path led through it, lined occasionally with dead and blackened trees. Jenna took the opportunity to examine their map and the red marks on it, left by Sakuya. "Issun, where is Kamiki on this map?" Issun jumped up and examined the map for a moment, then said, "Up here, this branch. See this whole big circular area? That's Shinshu Field, where we're headed. It's the most beautiful field in all of Nippon. I'm not so sure as of right now, though. With all the strange things going on, I'm getting a bad vibe..."
Amaterasu picked up the pace, starting to run forward. There seemed to be an opening up ahead. They headed towards it, and through it. Then they were out. A huge field met Jenna's eyes, and she stopped dead, as did Amaterasu. She heard Issun say, "Whoa..."
Huge indeed it was, broad and wide-open and bordered by higher walls of stone. Their feet were on a packed-down, sandy path, and grass spread out a ways on either side. The occasional stone and bush dotted the plant life. But the field itself wasn't what had arrested their attention. Most of it was covered in a grey, like dead stone, the color of wet concrete. Over this grey writhed strange auras of red and black.
"Hey, what's that up there?" asked Issun. He jumped off Amaterasu's nose and forward a ways, then stopped, likely peering forward. "I think that's the Guardian Sapling. But look at it! It looks like it's about to fall over!"
Jenna looked. Up ahead, the path branched. One part led straight into the mysterious zone of grey. Another path, splitting off, led to the left. But straight ahead was what seemed to be a gateway. They headed towards it, skirting carefully the deadened, bleak patches of earth that spiked in parts outward from the huge stony blot.
"Watch it," warned Issun. "Those Demon Scrolls mean trouble."
"Demon Scrolls?" Jenna glanced at a nearby green-and-black scroll and its accompanying spirit fires.
"Yeah. If they catch you, they summon monsters to give you a beating. Not that we got anything to worry about..."
Having moved a little closer, Jenna looked again. Through the gate was a big tree with many branches, curling into a spiral at the top like Sakuya's had. The smaller branches were thin and brittle, the larger ones seemed to droop under their own weight, and the whole tree was the dark color of dead wood. "Wow," said Issun. "This tree is supposed to be a place for travelers to rest and recuperate. Look at it."
They covered the final bit of distance and stared up at it. Jenna took a step forward and heard a crack. Looking down, she saw that many sticks had fallen from the tree. Looking at the tree again, she saw it was wrapped around with an off-white rope, and from the rope hung zigzagging streamers of paper. She understood this was supposed to mean the tree was sacred- she'd seen them in pictures of shrines from Japan. The white paper stood out ironically against the dark tree.
Issun bounced up to Jenna's shoulder and onto her head. She felt him shifting, looking around at the field. "This place is definitely cursed by the looks of it! Places where evil has taken hold, luring monsters from far and wide, are known as cursed zones. But I've never seen one this big. It's withered all the plant life in the area, even the tree!" Jenna started as she realized he was right- the grass of the field that was visible was a deadened brown.
"It'd take a monster with powers beyond a god to do this..." she heard Issun say. He paused. "Man, this is depressing. That tree's an offshoot of Sakuya. It protects the plant life in this area. Maybe the natural beauty here would return if we revived it, but how would we do that?"
As Issun stood thinking, Jenna walked over to the cursed zone, and Ammy followed her. She crouched to look at the dead ground, and then reached out and touched it.
A terrible evil force overwhelmed her, rooting her to the ground. She couldn't move. The sky turned black, the air was filled with choking dust. She realized with panic that she couldn't breathe...
Amaterasu lunged and tackled her, knocking her away from the curse and breaking her out of its power. She lay on the ground, gasping for breath. "Holy cow!" exclaimed Issun, leaning on her forehead to look at her. "This is bad!" He jumped off of her and onto Ammy and stared at the curse. Amaterasu nudged Jenna's hand, whining softly.
"I'm okay, Ammy," panted Jenna, sitting up and rubbing the top of the goddess' head reassuringly. Ammy yipped at her. Issun bounced on Amaterasu's back. "It looks like your regular cursed zone from the outside. But the evil in it is far worse than it looks! It would curse a normal person in a flash!" He bounced back to stand on Jenna's hand. "Are you sure you're okay, Jen?"
"Yeah, I think so. Just a little shaken up."
"You must be pretty strong to resist for even more than a second. Still, it almost got ya. You be careful, alright?"
"Why do you care?" asked Jenna wryly, managing to grin at him. His normal green glow turned an embarassed pink. "Well, you're a pretty strong fighter and all, ya know, don't want you dying on me now, and plus you're a hot babe, it's nice to keep you around just to look at ya!" He laughed. Jenna's eyes narrowed with annoyance and she flicked him away with her other hand. "Ow. Yeah, yeah, I deserved it, whatever. Look, can we drop it?" he said, brushing himself off.
"Sure," said Jenna, not really having the energy to pursue the subject further.
"Great."
Ammy nudged Jenna's hand, giving her one last look-over with her golden, sunny eyes. Jenna became suddenly aware that her arms were shaking with fatigue. "I'm fine, Ammy." She stood, and nearly fell with dizziness. "Yeah, I am totally not fine," she said ironically. "I can barely stand up."
Amaterasu barked. "Can I ride on you for a little bit, Ammy?" she asked. Amaterasu wagged her tail and let Jenna climb on. "Where should we go?" asked Issun. "We can't do anything here for now."
"Somewhere else, then," suggested Jenna. "Maybe we'll find something that'll help us."
Ammy trotted out of the gate, apparently unbothered by the added weight of Jenna on her back. They took the first branching path that split to the right as they moved away from the tree. Jenna pointed out a house. "D'you think whoever lives there didn't get cursed, maybe?"
"Maybe," said Issun. "We should check, at least." Amaterasu sped up, suddenly racing over the ground with astonishing speed. Jenna clung on as tightly as she could. They reached the house in a flash and Ammy skidded to a stop. Conveniently, the owner of the home chose that moment to appear. He had an axe in hand and looked like he was going to chop some wood. Jenna climbed off of Amaterasu's back, discovering that she had recovered somewhat, perhaps due in part to the proximity of the goddess. "Thanks, Ammy," she said.
They approached the man. Jenna let Issun do the talking. "Yo!" he called. "D'you know what happened here?"
When the man spoke, it was with a mellow, inward voice. Jenna thought he sounded like a hippie. Did hippies even exist in ancient Japan? Whatever. "I was out here chopping wood and communing with nature when I heard a loud rumbling from the lake. Then there was a huge gust of wind. I don't know what happened next, but when I came to, it was like this. Sorry."
"Well, I guess that helps a little," said Issun halfheartedly.
"I noticed a figure running from the lake towards Kamiki," offered the man. "Does that help?"
"It might," said Jenna. "Thanks."
As they were about to leave, Jenna suddenly pointed towards a nearby cave. "What's in there? Do you know?"
"I do, man. It's the entrance to a place called Hana Valley, the site of an awesome waterfall. But monsters have moved in there now. There's a trippy crystal ball that makes plants grow enshrined there. Actually, not long ago, that Susano guy went marching in there. It's weird. Normally he runs away at the sight of monsters. Anyway, you shouldn't go in there, man. Bad karma. You might get attacked."
"Thanks," said Jenna, and turned to follow after Ammy.
"What was that for?" asked Issun.
"There's a Guardian Sapling in there. Didn't you look at the map?"
"Yeah, well-!"
"Forget it, we need to get in there," Jenna interrupted. "I don't like that curse at all, and the longer we go without a solution, the more nervous I'm going to get."
"Yeah, it's spreading pretty fast, huh?"
Amaterasu was already trotting away. Jenna tried to jog after her, and had to call, "Ammy, wait up!" The goddess stopped, making Jenna do the same as she caught up. "Thanks." Amaterasu gave her an intense look. The Canvas appeared, and Jenna blinked as Ammy's brush drew a circle around her, like she was using the Sunrise technique.
The world restarted, and Jenna froze as golden light shone around her and filled her with warmth. Something inside her, some wound slowly healing, closed up, and her energy came back. Jenna grinned with amazement. "Whoa! What did you do?" The red-and-white wolf gave her a doggy grin. "Thank you!" said Jenna, petting Ammy's thick fur.
Ammy licked her hand, then started to trot away. This time, Jenna kept up.
Ahead, a wooden bridge crossed a stream. Amaterasu ignored this, and took a left, but Jenna stopped as she saw the stream. Clogged with slow-moving mud, it certainly didn't look healthy. She looked up and got a foreboding feeling. That water was coming out of Hana Valley.
(Chapter Ends)
How's that? Jenna and Issun are pretty fast friends, hm? There hasn't been much joking in this chapter, but uh, I think it's kind of hard to joke around with a big giant field of evil power kind of looming right there. Yeah. Anyways, Jen and Issun are both just getting used to doing chapters, so they flat-out refused to do author's notes. Heheheheh.