CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Fight With Whopper

As soon as we moved beyond the mouth of the cave, the cavern grew immensely dark. I blinked a few times to get adjusted to the lack of light, but it didn't help much. I switched out my weapon for Divine Insurgence, whose blessed flame wasn't extinguished by water, although it only helped with visibility slightly. I slowly moved forward through the tunnel, watching the segmented, dark walls. However, as I rounded a corner, I saw a small glimpse of white, barely larger than a pinprick, but definitely light. I ran forward, kicking up sand in my wake in a beeline straight for it. The light up ahead stood out like… Well, a candle in a dark room. It was a jellyfish-like creature, with stubby clear tentacles and a ghostly pale fire contained within its transparent skin. It floated purposelessly in front of us, bobbing slightly up and down. It looked so squishy and inviting, I couldn't help myself, so I prodded the creature with a paw. It rippled slightly, and the white light within its gelatinous shell turned pink. I pawed it repeatedly, and the fire turned red, then orange, yellow, cycled through the whole rainbow, then went back to white.

"I think these guys are called 'hinotama'." Hiraku said aloud, his voice distorted by bubbles. "Pretty harmless, so long as you don't burst them."

"Well, we'd better be careful then." I said, and gently nosed the jellyfish-like creature forwards. I bounced it along, using it as a spherical, multicolored torch to light the way as we walked further into the gloom. After a few twists and turns, the tunnel widened, and we came across a carved door with an etched stone dragon circling the rim of the doorway. Two white hinotama floated by the door, far larger than the one we'd brought along. An inscription was carved into the middle of the door. 'A rosy face in the morning, white bones in the evening.' It seemed straightforward enough. I hop-floated over towards the jelly-creature on the left, and poked it. Nothing happened, and I realized that, given the size difference, a much larger jolt was needed. I backed up a few steps then charged forward, ramming into the creature with my head. It rippled discontentedly and changed color to a rosy pink. The door moved slightly, blowing sand out in a cloud, and then both sides came apart in the middle and receded into the wall.

Taking the small hinotama with us, Hiraku and I moved into the next room. Taking sudden initiative, it bobbed and pulsed ahead of us until it reached the middle of the room and hovered there- shedding faint light on the walls of the chamber. We could see more hinotama, but these ones were… black. The fire inside them either were out, or the flame itself burned black. From this distance it was impossible to tell, so I hop-swam closer, but then I saw something move in the water nearby. A dark streak, long and thin, leaving behind more inky darkness in its wake. I whipped around, seeing more dark ribbons criss cross through the water, and a fighting ring rose around the center of the room. "Ikuchi." Hiraku muttered, watching them dart through the water. "Oil eels." One of the dark streaks opened its mouth to reveal dozens of sharp little teeth and lunged forward. I dodged aside, and as it passed by I hurled my reflector towards, it slicing through its oleaginous flesh. It shrieked and spilled what looked like ink or oil instead of blood. The oily eels were fast and slippery, but no match for my rosary and brush. The divine fire of my weapon burned through them, and power-slash sliced them in two. To my pleasant surprise, when they exploded into little blossoms of coral and yen, they also dropped several ink bottles. When the last one was defeated, the fighting ring lowered, and revealed that the hinotama that had been out now burned a bright white. Each glowing jellyfish was situated outside a doorway, and in the now more powerful light, the ceiling was visible too. Another draconic carving coiled around the roof of the cave, but with five inverted circles neatly settled by each other in the very center.

Only the center path was clear, other entrances were currently shut or locked. I had a feeling, in order to ascend further through the dragon cave, we would need the proper color combination in order to do so. The path winded down a short tunnel, until we came to a room with three hinotama floating serenely in a line, a massive hinotama suspended in a golden bubble above our heads, and large, sealed door in the back. A small green stone rested in the middle of the room, enshrined with the words: 'Behold the clear sky, bright above the sea, parted by majestic cloud.'

'Well, that's simple. The pattern must be blue, blue, white!' I thumped into the jelly creatures so that the first two hinotama were sky-blue, while the last one stayed white, but nothing happened. I paused, confused. 'Wait, the sky and sea are parted by majestic cloud.' I realized my mistake and changed the middle and right colors to be flip-flopped, and bubble above our heads popped. The giant jelly creature sank to the floor and created sand clouds when it touched down, then sat there like a blob, utterly helpless and slightly rolling with the current. Unsure what to do, I rolled the heavy-tama back towards the entrance. I scanned the main room and saw that in front of the furthest-left entrance was a little protruding stone, about the perfect size as our prize. I rolled it on top of the pad and the little stone sank into the floor, and the door rose. I pushed the hinotama forward, vision blocked by its mass, until suddenly it fell out of sight.

I looked down into a precipice, the heavytama slowly sinking until it hit the bottom a hundred feet below with a thud I could feel from the top where I stood. I donned the steel-toed boots, and stepped off the cliff to descend down to it. The pitch black of this deeper cave was more intense than above, as if the darkness pressed in against you. The light of the rotund flame-jelly revealed writing on the wall, which read: 'Tread with care traveler, the way is darkened with holes, the earth swallows all.'

"Spooky." Hiraku commented as I removed the boots, and I nosed the bulky hinotama forward, away from the cliff face. The sandy bottom of the ocean was littered with fish bones, and other bones that stood out well in the faint light. I could see patches in the ground nearby, gaping holes in the sea floor that I had to roll the hinotama around so that it didn't fall in. I could see ikuchi swimming in the corners of my eyes, and saw the many-legged scuttling of crabs in the dark. One paused for a moment, facing me, and slightly crouching so that I could see there was a human face on the shell. It shoved a chunk of detritus in its mouth threateningly, watching us predatorily like a vulture just waiting for its chance. I rolled the heavytama towards it, and the light made the monster sideways-scuttle away back into the inky black water. I continued through the dark, avoiding the holes and staying close to the heavytama, until we reached the peak of a hill. The ball-like hinotama sped up as it went down the far side of the hill, and I had to run to keep up, not wanting to be left behind in the dark. Eventually, the jelly-creature slowed as the grade flattened, and I saw a platform carved in the ground. Nudging it forward, the hinotama sank into place and started glowing brighter, lighting up the area and revealing several carved messages across the walls. One read: 'Anger in old bones, yearning to take their revenge, on all who venture near.' Looking further up, a riddle spread across the ceiling read: 'The earth eternal, through all ages it endures, the green arises first'

'This must be the code for the hinotama in the main room! The first one needs to be green!' I thought triumphantly. A chest appeared, which I swiftly opened and found a lockjaw key inside. I grabbed the key in my jaws and looked around- there was another tunnel off to the right. Without the heavytama to light the way, I couldn't very well go back to the start through the minefield of pits and hungry monsters. So I followed the path deeper, away from where we'd come. The passageway became a tight, narrow tunnel with tiny black spiky dots on the walls, sea urchins no doubt, that got larger as I walked along. Eventually, it opened into a large, surprisingly bright room with no floor. Before I entered, I saw there was a message carved into the wall: 'The wind swiftly lifts, to carry sinners skyward, hungry mouths cleanse them.' I looked at the path ahead, and towards the ceiling. The roof and walls of the cavern was matted with spiny, dark bodies- giant urchins. The path ahead of us was hazy, and I could tell there was a strong current swirling about inside. Not keen on being swept into a spiny, hungry urchin's mouth- I once again donned the steel-toed-boots and shuffled inside. It felt like I had entered a vacuum, It almost felt like my fur, even my skin, would be sucked off my bones, but the boots forced me to sink. Before sinking too low, I took the boots off, and was whipped upwards, before quickly putting them on again and sinking back down. It made for a rollercoaster trip across the room, soaring up and down, avoiding the urchins everywhere. "Akime!" A faint shout broke my concentration and I looked up. Hiraku had lost his grip on my fur and was flying towards the ceiling. I whipped out my rosary and swung it upwards, traveling just a tad faster than the current. He managed to grab one of the wooden beads at the end of the string, and I reeled him back down. Fortunately, soon it was all over. I reached the other side and made a bubble for myself, feeling like all the air had been sucked right out of me.

In front of us there was an open gouge in the floor, with more water pouring out of it and upwards. At the very top was a clump of cracked rocks. I flicked my tail in the water and drew a quick cherry bomb. The explosive was quickly whisked away by the current towards the ceiling, and exploded shortly after making contact with the rocks. I removed my boots and soared upwards, swimming out of the current after I passed the cliff's edge and gently floating down to meet it. Just ahead was a door, through which I could see the main room, and above the doorway was scrawled another answer: 'Heavenly clouds above, air so pure and soul freeing, as a simple white'

'White second.' I recited to myself so I didn't forget, and entered back into the main room.

I changed the hinotama outside the first door to green, and left the second one burning white. I walked past the middle door- still locked in place, towards the fourth door with a sweating, nervous lockjaw on it. The miniature blocking demon struggled in vain as I approached, then relaxed when the key was flung into the lock, causing it to quickly vanish. I trotted into the room, which was empty save for a blue demon gate and a tattered placard. The riddle for this room had long since deteriorated beyond comprehension with age, but the task ahead seemed obvious. I passed through the gate, dark energies momentarily surrounding me, and I faced the demons within. I was faced by three waves of monsters: first was several ikuchi and some of those human-faced crabs, then two isonade and an ushi-oni, and to top it all off- Jiro and Saburo. Two crabs which linked together to form a giant, intimidating shark- Ichiro. After the monstrous shark was defeated, the fighting ring fell, and a riddle was revealed: 'Soul burning brightly, smoldering in righteous rage, orange as a flame.' As the demonic presence in the room faded, a waterfall on the back wall sprung back to life and began flowing towards the right side of the room, where a doorway, which had been blocked by a curse, now stood open. I walked through it, following the stream.

Inside this room, I saw an array of strangely shaped rocks, carved into different shapes and heights, and words carved on the sides that were jumbled and made no sense at all. Near my paws lay the hint: 'The salt water flows, steady and sure as the sea, when the path is clear'. I guessed that meant the blocks needed rearranging so that the hint would be revealed.

"What were those weird human-faced crabs by the way?" I asked Hiraku as I pushed one block across the floor. "I... don't know." He confessed. "You knew what the ikuchi and hinotama were, but not the ushi-oni, or the isonade. It seems like you're only a useful Nippon guide half the time." I said, panting from the exertion, but rewarded by a click and a stream of water. "Noo, I definitely knew about isonade before we fought it."

"You just didn't care to volunteer that information?"

"So you want me to just announce the name of a particular creature right before we're about to fight it, every time a new one shows up? Should I roll out a dramatic scroll of my own artistic interpretation too?"

"Maybe." I responded. "How about every time we do come across a new creature, and I know what it is, you give me some of your yen." He propositioned. "Haven't you tried to tell me before that it's OUR yen?" He'd told me this when we passed merchants on the road and saw something he liked, which at the time didn't work. "True, it might be worth it just for bragging rights- but an extra incentive wouldn't hurt now would it?"

"I'll consider it." I told him. After a few minutes of pushing and shoving the peculiar hunks of rock around the floor, I found the right arrangement. A steady river of water flowed from the entrance to the room, through the maze in the middle, and out the other side to fill up a small pool. A key appeared in the middle of the tiny pool of water. I grabbed it, and could taste the water it rested in was extra- salty, maybe that's why it behaved different than the water around us? No matter, key in mouth, I backed up to the entrance of the room to try and read the words on the sides of the blocks again and was delighted to see: 'Kings under the sea, water holds mighty power, blue as dragon scale'

Committing it to memory, I ran out the now-open door to the main room and changed the fourth and fifth hinotamas to orange and blue respectively, then loped back to the middle door- where the last piece of the puzzle lay inside. I trotted up to the locked door within and pressed the key up to it. The door swung open to reveal dozens of little lights of mini-hinotamas. One was quite larger and floated above the others, the smaller glowing balls scattered around like flowers in a field. A small inscription near the entrance read: 'Delightful display, snowdrops bow their pure white heads, to the sun's glory.' I set about changing all the little 'tamas to white, Hiraku and I each covering half the room. I noticed a small riddle written on the back wall: 'Above is below, only when opposites shine, anger becomes peace.' A bit confusing, but perhaps it would make sense further into our journey. After the last tiny jellyfish was shimmering white, I set my focus on 'the sun'. I walked forwards, and swam/jumped high enough to hit the large hintoama until it turned red, and then it glowed so bright it was almost hard to look at. When the light began to fade, I looked back at the glowing creature, and saw a message on its gelatinous surface. 'Descent from on high, the celestial creature, color divine- red'

'Straightforward and simple, I like this one most of all.' I ran back to the main room, and changed the middle hinotama to red. All five of the hinotamas pulsed, floating up and down, bobbing towards the middle of the floor. When the rainbow of colors united, they spun together and flew towards the ceiling, locking into place inside the five-circle carving on the cave's roof. A great rumble shook the entire room as five separate triangular pieces of the ceiling withdrew, and revealed a dark route directly upwards.

Taking a moment to first draw a bubble and take a deep breath of fresh air, I coiled my legs under me and then launched myself off the ocean floor upwards. The little hinotama from the dragon cave's entrance was swept along with me, and I bounced it off my nose as we ascended into the dark water column. I swam ever higher, launching the hinotama off my snout ever further and steadily cycling though the color of the rainbow, until it didn't return. I was perplexed by the sight above me. I could only just see the light of the glowing jellyfish, past it there was something circular yet hazy above us, it looked like we had reached the surface? My head broke through the water and I took a breath of air, then tilted my head as I gazed up at another body of water, floating above us, the tiny hinotama floating within. The seawater was suspended in the air as if contained in a giant bubble. Curious, I dove below the water's surface again and kicked as hard as I could towards the top of the water, jumping out of the water and splashing into the bubble, where I treaded water. I dog-paddled my way to the top of that water bubble, and saw even more pockets of floating water above us in the cavernous tunnel. "We must be getting closer to the ruins… That's why the water is acting so strangely. Ancient places often carry a power all their own." Hiraku tried to justify what we were seeing, and I nodded acceptingly. I hopped from bubble to bubble, occasionally using Nuregami's power to create short-lived bridges from one bubble to another, nearly falling sideways out of one into the emptiness below, and mistiming a jump so I was set back to a lower body of water. Hinotama floating in tiny pockets of water lit our way as we ascended. Eventually, we made it to a single, giant bubble, as vast as the water now far below us, it filled the cavern's whole expanse from one wall to the other. I launched myself and holy-eagled into the suspended dark water, and a deep sound reverberated through my body. I felt the bass noise in my bones, the growling and roaring of what sounded like a huge beast. I looked upwards, and saw a faint light in the darkness, struggling with a ribbon-like silhouette. Kicking my way through the pitch-black seawater, I drew closer, and could begin to make out the true forms of the shapes. One was a dragon, long, lithe, and powerful. The other was a giant whale, or rather the skeleton of one, with a bright red fire burning within its ribcage. The whale was flanked by a school of large silver fish with glowing yellow eyes and very mechanical movements. The great beasts circled each other, the dragon's hide was battered with cuts and bruises, while the whale's bones looked pristine and untouched. "Do you think that's Otohime's son? What was it... Jimmu?" Hiraku asked quietly as the dragon made another unsuccessful lunge at the whale demon. "It looks like he's having a hard time with that monster, maybe we should help him out?" He suggested, but I was already on it, butterfly-kicking myself closer to the battle.

Both giant beasts tore through the water faster than I could keep up. My rosary lashed desperately through the water, but when it finally made contact, the beads simply bounced off the whale's bones. No wonder the dragon prince looked to be in such bad shape, the whale was apparently protected by some sort of barrier. I paused to take a breath of air, and noticed that hinotama floating nearby were all the same color as the flames within the whale's carcass, and I had an idea- remembering the hint on the wall from the last puzzle room. 'What if the colors were opposite of the whale's fire?' I swam up to the nearest hinotama and hit it until it turned green, then swam in a large circle to do the same to the rest. As soon as the last fiery jellyfish turned green, the great fire within the whale's chest went out. The dragon took his chance and rushed forwards- careening through the dark waters like a long, silvery missile, until he made contact with the demon. His powerful body smashed into the vulnerable monster and knocked several bones off its skeletal form. I seized the opportunity as well, and sent my rosary out to lash at its ribs, taking away more demonic power. The whale shook and began moving again, and the fire in its ribcage resurged. This time, the flames glowed orange. 'Orange... That would be blue.'

I made another circuit as quickly as I could, changing each hinotama this time to bright blue, and Jimmu made another attack with its guard down. The monster recovered quickly, and thrashed its bony tail in outrage. The bone whale groaned, and one of the silver missile fish swimming by its belly suddenly darted towards me, yellow eyes now bright red. I tried to deflect it with a power-slash but the brush-mark just bounced off its silver hide. The fish slammed into my side, exploding on impact, and blasted hot metal in every direction. Some pieces sliced through my skin and caused me to yelp in pain, the sound trapped in bubbles. A few spirals of blood flowed into the water, so I removed a small holy bone from my pack and crunched it apart, which instantly helped by reversing the damage and stopped the bleeding.

Another fish broke off from the swarm and headed towards me again, but this time I drew an air bubble in front of myself as a shield, and the fish swam right into it. The bubble popped into a thousand tiny pockets of air, allowing me time to dive below the fish out of sight. Instead of exploding, the bubble seemed to shock and disable the metal fish. The silver fish hung in the water, its eyes black and empty. Noticing that gray spirals curled off the tip of my brush when I hovered my tail over it, I used my brush to guide the seemingly hollow shell of a fish back towards its master. It instantly came back to life and charged back towards the whale, mouth open wide, and barreled into the powerful ghost-cetacean, blasting off a rib. The ghost whale moaned in pain, but recovered quickly. Its flames sparked back into being, this time yellow. 'Yellow… Purple.' I thought, and set about to changing the colors, dodging the whale's attacks the whole while. Once it was done, the light once again went out and Jimmu made his attack. The flame sputtered back to life once more, and the heavily battered whale skeleton's interior now shone with a ghostly white light. 'White… Black. The hinotama need to go out.'

More of the silver fish broke off from their swarm towards me, which I disabled with bubbles. However, instead of sending them back towards their master, I sent them towards the hinotama. One by one, the jellies popped in surprisingly forceful explosions- taking more health from the whale with every hinotama. Finally, the last one ruptured with the last silver fish's attack, and the dragon fully attacked, distracting the whale and striking heavy blows. The whale's ribcage was spread open, and I went in for the kill. Swimming between the ribs and attacking the dying flame at the heart of the hateful ghost whale. I struck at the vengeful flame, until at last it vanished. The empty skeleton hung dead in the water, before blooming into a suspended coral reef, corals growing from the whale's bones and then fading away. The only light remaining was from my reflector, which illuminated the curious and grateful face of the young water dragon. "Thank you very much for the assistance. I'm afraid the demon put up more of an arduous fight than I expected, and much delayed me." The dragon spoke, his head swinging close to us so he could get a good look at his helpers. His enormous, dark eyes were reminiscent of the sea itself. "We were directed here by your mother, Queen Otohime. We're on a mission of the demon-hunting kind, and she thinks the Ryo Court may be able to help us." Hiraku explained, and the young dragon nodded, creating a current with the movement that nearly swept us in its wake of his great head. "I see. Well then, please allow me to return the favor." He bowed his head "Climb aboard, and let's finish our separate journeys to the ruins together." I swam forward and settled between the giant, colorful ear-fins on either side of his head. "Hang on tight." The young dragon said to us, then whipped his tail back and forth to generate speed. His massive body moved through the water like a shark, incredibly gracefully and dangerously fast. We flew through the water and I clung on as hard as I could, with seawater trying to force its way up my nose. At last, Jimmu's head erupted from the sea in a giant plume of sea-spray, and I filled my lungs with fresh surface air. I shook my soaked fur, sending water droplets everywhere, and looked around from my perch on the ocean prince's head. It seemed the dragon cave ended in a deep but small lake, surrounded by misty, grassy knolls littered in ancient structures crumbling with age.

The water dragon bowed his head so that I could disembark. "Welcome to Ryo Ruins."

(AN: Whew! Another long chapter! There's always a bigger fish, or whale, or dragon. This was a fun chapter to write, as adverse to writing dungeon-chapters that I am. I've been waiting to get to this part for a while! Music I'd recommend listening to for most of this chapter is Celestial Cavern, a fan-created song based on Okami's soundtrack. It's a pretty nice fit!

I feel compelled to mention that not all the haikus are mine, I found the snowdrops one while looking for inspiration for writing the others.

Fun fact- larger sea dragons have to just stick their heads out of the mouth of the dragon cave like a garden eel to be with the court. Luckily Jimmu is still fairly tiny and can almost entirely fit in the pool.)