Chapter 6: Meet the Greatest Warrior Ever

"…So 100 years ago, Ammy's past life helped a legendary warrior defeat an eight-headed serpent to keep it from eating the guy's girlfriend?" Iris asked as they approached the path past the village, "And now, the eight-headed serpent is back and it's up to Amaterasu to stop it?"

"Yeah, that's about the gist of- hey!" Both Amaterasu and Iris stopped when they saw the enormous boulder that blocked the path. A well-fed merchant was attempting to push the boulder, but to no avail.

"Why can't I move? My brain wants to move, but I cannot get my body to comply! He grunted as he struggled. "Is this demonic possession? I sure hope not!"

Who says "I sure hope not"? Before Iris could say anything, however, another monster, this one much larger and holding a stringed instrument, rose out of the ground. Here we go again…

"I'll deal with the green ones, if you don't mind!" Iris said as two green monsters appeared. She quickly grabbed her sword and swung down on the closer imp, knocking its bamboo dart gun out of its hands while Ammy used her shield-thing to slam at the red imp and destroy its instrument.

"Good idea!" Issun called back. Iris ran through the second one and twisted her blade before pulling it out again, but Amaterasu quickly Power-Slashed them in half before she could deal the final blow. The red imp had already burst into a small bunch of flowers. Iris picked up the two demon fangs that fell to the ground, and returned her attention to the merchant.

"Whoof, I can move again! But I still can't move the boulder…" The merchant said, and Amaterasu barked. Iris opened her bag to put the demon fangs away, and frowned. Inside the bag was, along with her notebook, all of the things Amaterasu had collected thus far (some pottery and prayer slips), but in one of the compartments…

"Where did these scrolls come from? Hey, this one looks important…" She pulled it out and opened it – it had information on the shield-thing and other weapons. "Ah, so it's called a Reflector…" She leafed through the other scrolls as the merchant kept talking, and found one detailing information on the monsters (the green ones were Imps, the larger ones were Red Imps), a scroll about valuable treasures ("Hey, didn't Ammy just find one of these in the river?), and another on the different Brush Gods and the powers they had. At the bottom of the bag rested a map of Nippon. "That river of stardust sure did some weird stuff to my bag... but at least this will come in handy." She put the map away.

"Girly, were you listening at all?" Iris looked up at Issun and Ammy.

"Huh?"

Issun slapped his forehead. "He asked us to find Susano to get rid of the boulder!"

"Who's Susano?" Iris followed Amaterasu as they began walking towards a nearby house, absentmindedly putting the scroll back in her bag – how much could it carry?

"He's a descendent of Nagi and he claims to be the greatest warrior ever," Issun said as they approached the door, "but he's really a two-bit middle-aged man who spends more time sleeping than training – I don't think I've ever seen him ever actually train." Amaterasu nudged the door of the house open.

"Are… are you sure it's okay to just walk in?" Iris frowned as Ammy entered the house. "It doesn't feel right… I think I'll wait for you two out here."

"Suit yourself," Issun said, and Ammy dashed in, leaving Iris to sit down near the door and look at the noon sky. Around her, the village buzzed and hummed with life, and she felt herself starting to drift off.

Iris was shaken awake from her nap not a few minutes later, when the door swung open and Amaterasu ran out with a bearded man hanging on for dear life, while Ammy seemed to be having way too much fun with this. Iris scrambled to her feet as they ran back to where back to the boulder was.

It was only a few minutes after she got to where Amaterasu was that the man – Susano – went running back to his house. "You gotta be kidding me…" Issun was saying something to Ammy, who simply wagged her tail. Then, just as Iris was about to ask what she missed, the wolf took off again. "Cut that out!"

Susano was behind his house, lounging around with an empty bottle that had once held sake. "I know I told that merchant I could help, but a boulder of that size?" He muttered, looking at the opening of the bottle. "I don't care if I'm of legendary bloodline, it's just too big!"

"What's he talking about?" Iris whispered.

"Nagi," Issun responded. "He makes a big show of being the legendary hero's descendent, but he's all bark and no bite."

"Hm?" Susano frowned. "Oh no! I can't believe I've run out of sake at a time like this! This won't do one bit! That's it for today. I'll just have to train tomorrow."

"Couldn't we ask to buy some sake from that Kushi woman?" Iris muttered at Ammy, who tilted her head to one side. "She seemed nice enough, and she did lend me these clothes- dang it Amaterasu, quite running off without me!"