03/19/2012, Yomi, Perpetual Night.
Through the deep darkness of Yomi, the japanese realm of the deads, flies a black butterfly. It's goal? The goddes of this cursed realm, Izanami no Mikoto. The crazy creator goddes of japanese mythology and as thus the perfect victim for Nyarlathotep. No one can escape their true selves, not even gods. Especially gods.
The lands of Yomi are a wasteland of pitch black and conplete darkness, with blue spiritual flames, the souls of the ones who has been reclaimed by the goddes, roaming around aimlessly. "It is the toxic realms of darkness and power" whine in a choir a group of souls as the butterfly floats over them exploring the place with a sense of curiosity fueled by the potential of this land when they will be his. "It is the hidden place that hates the light" murmurs another cluster of spirits, the butterfly relishes their hopelessness. "It is the land that devour the sky" grumbles a final batch of damned souls making the butterfly twist in air by the sheer amount of negativity in this realm.
The butterfly lands on the wicked branch of a withered grey tree. It looks ahead, a giant ravine breaks the plain territory of Yomi. In it's center stands a giant palace, the dreary residence of Izanami herself. Made of dark stone and obsidian, resembling an ancient japanese castle. From the windows craved in the stone shines a purple light which it's the only kind of illumination in the entirety of Yomi.
Nyarlathotep morphs from his butterfly form to a human one. Long white hair, a red coat on his shoulder covering an elegant dress consisting of a white shirt with golden buttons. Pale skin with black eyes, the left one covered by a monocle in the shape of a wristwatch pointing the midnight. The Shadow of Mankind moves towards the castle in silence, a vicious smirk forming on his face, while he listens to the endless complaints of the souls.
Nyarlathotep slowly walks the massive bridge that connects Yomi with it's goddess' castle whistling and enjoying the view. A spectacular scenery of dread and desperation, truly some of his favourites emotions. The Crawling Chaos can't but be excited for the mass of negativity coming from the castle in front of himself. Anger, jealousy, sadness so many emotions ready to be exploited.
"Here's to you, Izanami" starts singing Nyarlathotep, unable to contain his eagerness and greed. Possessing a god. A GOD! Not those disgusting bat-winged devils. Oh... what is he saying? He loves his children, he just hates the original ones. Oh well, his dear son Shalba will know how to make good use of them, unfortunately he has been able to make only a Shadow Self of the former Beelzebub, he will think about revealing the true selves of the other devils. Nyarlathotep proceeds in his walk to the castle.
"Rest forever here in my heart" Nyarlathotep is now in front of the giant door of the castle. Engravings of the goddess Izanami, depicted as an indescribable beauty which makes Nyarlathotep to laugh darkly. Beauty comes from the heart, from the soul. Bodies aren't but a mere tool, that's why Shadow Selves are the truest selves... the same is for the personas... has to admit reluctantly Nyarlathotep. This goddess seems obsessed by physical appeal. Useful. He understands it, love this is what will bring Izanami down. Her obsession with beauty is caused by love.
"The last and final moment is yours" Nyarlathotep's hand gently pushes the door opening it slowly. The loud, deep sound of the giant portal's opening echoes through the castle's empty alleyways. Apart from that, only a distant sound of sobbing is heard. Loneliness, another useful information. Love caused loneliness, loneliness fueled obsession. The grin on Nyarlathotep's mouth doesn't fade. He goes for the double stairway in front of the main entrance.
"That agony is your triumph" finishes to sing Nyarlathotep as he walks towards a throne room where a woman is sitted. Wicked cries are now clearly audible, endless and full of sorrow. They could bring any normal person mad in mere second. But Nyarlathotep? Oh how much he loves this. So many repressed emotions, this goddess is screaming for his help! She needs to be saved and cleansed by that ridiculous attempt to relieve her pain. No one can escape pain. Not even gods.
When Nyarlathotep takes a step into the wide room the cries suddenly stop, Izanami grimace changing from a mask of pain to a mask of fury. "IZANAGII! COME BACK!" shouts the goddess taken by madness. Her back bends clear sounds of bone breaking as she screams her loved one name in frenzy, like she was possessed by some sort of force. The skull like face reigned by pain of Izanami turns, facing Nyarlathotep. Her scream becomes an howl. A territorial animal. So many information, one more useful than the other. Finally, he knows who the true Izanami is. Obviously not this one. This wrecked and delusional witch. Nyarlathotep flies away, back in his original form.
"Intruder! This is my... this is our heaven! I WILL TEAR YOU APART FOR DARING TO STAIN MY PARADISE!" shouts Izanami no Mikoto launching spectral weapons at Nyarlathotep. "Your heaven?" mocks an identical copy of Izanami, just with yellow eyes. "This is not my heaven" points out the shadow, calm in her voice as she looks around herself. "How you dare invade Yomi? I KNOW IT! I KNOW IT! YOU ARE THAT UNGRATEFUL CHILD! THAT'S WHY YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL TRYING TO MIMIC ME! AMATERASU IT'S YOU!" Izanami's scream of hatred thunders through all of Yomi. Every single soul feels the anger of their queen.
"Amaterasu? Me?" asks Izanami's shadow. "YOU ARE MOCKING ME! FIRST YOU STOLE MY REALM! THEN YOU LET YOUR FATHER TO BE KILLED!" the sovereign of Yomi rushes at her shadow grabbing her by the neck. Her skeletal and wrinkled hand, with sharp nails like the teeth of a shark, grinds the shadow's neck. Izanami looks at her shadow and... pales. Izanami feels disgusted. She sees that face... that skull trying to resemble a face. She sees the maggots infesting her skin. She doesn't see beauty, she sees ugliness, a monstrosity. "You... disgusting child!" Izanami tosses away her shadow and maniacally starts to brush her hand to wash away the feeling of the skin of the shadow. The feeling of her own skin. "Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting, disgusting" blabs the goddess.
"You shouldn't treat yourself so badly" says the shadow getting up. "A goddess unsure of her beauty. Beauty doesn't mean anything" hisses annoyed the yellow-eyed Izanami. "BEAUTY IS EVERYTHING! BEAUTY IS WHAT MAKE ME A GODDESS!" screams the real Izanami launching herself again at her shadow. "No it doesn't and I know it. Even the love for Izanagi that you feel. I know it doesn't exist. Still you live inside it like a fairy tale, following a love that doesn't exist. You, I we both know it".
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" the whole palace starts to tremble at Izanami's fury. She hovers the shadow ready to annihilate her. "Mine isn't desire for love. Mine is desire for revenge. Revenge for that weak man who dared to leave me. Do I really wanted to be loved by a coward? His death... the only thing bad about it is that I should have been the one to kill him after tremendous tortures and after destroying his family and land along with him, right?" the voice of the shadow enters in the head of the goddess as she quivers in pain. "NO! NO! NO! REVENGE ISN'T A FEELING WORTH OF A QUEEN" shouts Izanami.
"When I, Izanami no Mikoto, look at myself I see only ugliness, all fault of that traitor, he could have stayed in Yomi with me, but he decided to leave. However that doesn't matter I'm not a queen who has to sit on a throne near her king. Izanagi is no more and I am satisfied about it. I can still vanquish his children and take their kingdom for myself" tells Shadow Izanami as the castle trembles.
"I am you Izanami. There is nothing you can do about it. You can't cover your eyes any longer, look at me. I am you. This is your face. This is your body. This is you and this is all Izanagi's fault. Your pain? Your anger? Your sadness? This is all Izanagi's fault" the Shadow looks directly into Izanami's soaked eyes. "YOU ARE NOT ME! I AM A QUEEN NOT A MACHINE FOR REVENGE!" shouts the goddess enraged by the shadow's behavior as she starts to fight her.
Izanami's immense power breaks in a blink of an eye the body of the shadow in two, but it doesn't trouble the shadow at all, she begins to laugh instead. "YES!" shouts Shadow Izanami after hearing Izanami refuse her as she transforms into her shadow form. Her skeleton frees itself from the thin skin enveloping it, leaving only a bloody-red mass of bones that starts to assemble and grow in dimension forming the monstrous body of Shadow Izanami.
An immense red skeleton with dozens of arms and legs that dances in a macabre dance barely contained in the throne room. The shadow's long black hair sprout from the skull and float in the air like they have a mind of their own. On the bones grow thousands of twigs and branches made by purple wood covering the entirety of the Shadow, but the skull and the ribcage. These plants absorb the air around them unleashing a poisonous thick miasma of violet colour. The ribs surround a heart made of a pale lilac crystal enveloped in a mucous and slimy transparent substance. On the surface of this heart some bubbles explodes, like a pot of boiling water bit instead of water this strange substance, liberating a cacophony of sounds every time one of it explodes.
"I AM SHADOW THE TRUE SELF!" screams in an ecstatic voice the shadow as Izanami tries silence it with her godly power. Yomi doesn't obey it's owner anymore. "I said it to you! This place is a cage and you'll die here. As a prisoner!" dictates the new ruler of the japanese hell. Shadow Izanami circles the real one with her many bone arms as the plants grown on them start to crush the goddess, slowly entering her body with their roots. Destroying her body by the inside. Soon the body of the former goddess has become a devious ornament for the new throne room, replacing the sit. A disturbing tree, it's trunk made by Izanami's body supported by the violet branches of the shadow like an ivy that grows on a tree. The plant, if you can call it one, grows in the air forming a proper tree with the branches being Izanami's former arms and fingers on which twigs and leaves grow.
Shadow Izanami loses her monstrous form and looks satisfied at her creation. "Father do you like my sculpture?" she asks in a childish voice, looking at the black butterfly who has been watching the whole scene. "Very good" it answers. The butterfly lands on Shadow Izanami's shoulder. The woman smiles proud of herself, acting like an innocent daughter with her father. She then touches her face feeling the wrinkles of Izanami's old body. She frowns. Shadows are the perfection of a soul, they can't be ugly. The true form must be frightening, overbearing for the eyes, showing off all the negativity pushed down by the former false self. But their 'human' ones? No, no. That form must appease the eyes and deceive the soul. This is the double mature of shadows. The double nature of men. A perfect balance between false, deceptive and manipulative lie and overwhelming, cruel and painful truth.
The shadow's body changes. As thus Izanami no Mikoto is born anew. Long gray hair, combed like waves of an ocean ready to drown who is brave enough to sail it. Yellow eyes piercing the soul of who's being watched. Soft and bright skin instead of the cadaverous of former Izanami. A long white dress completely covers her body. Barefooted the shadow walks through the palace. "Father what are your desires?" asks in a soft voice the shadow to it's creator.
"Tell me instead. What is the greatest wish of Izanami no Mikoto?" Nyarlathotep replies reversing the question. "Not being alone anymore? Nah, it's getting revenge. Yes, I want to enslave the souls of Izanagi and his children so they can make me company too" smiles Izanami clapping her hands at the thought of retaking what's hers. "We will need a bit of help" says Nyarlathotep.
"What do you mean Father?" asks Izanami. "We will use the cultists of the false Izanami to bring chaos in Japan while we prepare the foundations of an army of lesser shadows. Exploiting the numerous yokais' emotions we'll be able to make Yomi a true Shadow Realm and by using the suppressed feelings of a goddess such as Izanami, it will be fast and easy. Possessing souls? Is this your twisted desire? Good. It shall be what will fuel our army, child" enthusiastically says Nyarlathotep with Izanami listening to him like a child hearing a fairy tale, many scenes of war and devastation playing in her mind.
"Shinigamis! YES! I WILL MAKE MY ARMY OF SHINIGAMIS RAID JAPAN AND IT'S PEOPLE FOR YOU FATHER!" Izanami starts laughing maniacally letting out millenials of hate that has been suppressed by that fool of the former Izanami. A god can't feel strong emotions? It's the opposite! Gods are more fragiles, more easy to break than any humans Nyarlathotep has ever encountered, even Shalba was more hard to break than Izanami no Mikoto. Ravaging this world will be even funnier than his bet with Philemon. And when it will come to humans... when humans will be ready to welcome their shadows. It will be a feast.
"I'll make a lot of paintings Father! I'll design every shadow to the last detail! I can't wait to see the face of Amaterasu when I'll set fire to her precious Takamagahara! I want to see Tsukuyomi being burnt by her own sister's flames! I want to hear Susano'o drowning in his beloved sea!" Izanami starts skipping back to her palace wanting to begin immediately on her shadows. Even if it is all useless work. Shadow can't be artificially modified, they are born from what you can't change of yourself. However repressing ourselves isn't something someone should do. "Let's go fishing" says Nyarlathotep making his way to leave Yomi.
03/20/2012, Tsushima, Past Midnight.
Finally they did it! They achieved to make a contact with Yomi! It has been difficult, years after years of failed attempts. The damn yokai factions, believing themselves to be in the right. To be ruling the supernatural side of Japan justly. Why are those christian arrogants still on their soil then? They are just cowards afraid of waging war against invaders.
This ends today. Today the Yomi shall rise and Great Izanami will drive away their enemies, finally reuniting all of Japan under one ruler. The eight yokai factions, the human's five principal clans and the gods of shintoism. All of them together, and everyone who will oppose this will be eliminated.
They even managed to find the long lost Kazan Ishikagawa, the legendary general lf Lord Nurarihyon, ruler of Kanto, himself. Thought dead, he was just preparing himself. He is considered a hero betwee their ranks, a cultist with decades of devotion to Izanami on his back. The Outcasts of Yomi, an alliance between believers of Izanami, rogue yokais and rebels who want to eliminate the christian menace.
It's the middle of the night, a numerous group of high-class yokai, all of them priests of Izanami or champions of her cult, have gathered in the heart of the Hakutaku forest in the island of Tsushima, a sacred place for them as the island symbolizes the last defence of Japan. Many talismans are placed on the trees of the forest and glyphs are engraved on their trunks. A near human village has been attacked and enough sacrifices have already been collected waiting to be killed. They just need an artifact, but their hero already thought about it. The Yomi no Kagami, stolen by Ishikagawa many years ago. Absolutely perfect, now it's all in their hands.
The ritual is simple. To make a passage for Yomi they need a great presence of souls, big enough to force a 'mass migration' to Yomi causing a portal to be opened. The problem is: they must be reclaimed by Izanami, not by other shinto gods and must be channeled in a single spot. Here comes in place the artifact, it will create and empower the intrinsic substance of Yomi: the kegare, and it will make much easier for this place to be connected with Yomi.
"Get ready, today our goddess will step once again on Japan" proclaims a cloaked yokai, a long wooden staff in his right hand. It reveals himself to be an ox-like yokai of the hakutaku species, from which name comes the one of the forest.
The fainted sacrifices are transported in the center of a large sunken area that has been liberated by it's trees. Their death will serve to another thing, other than the collection of souls in a restricted area, the area digged for the occasion must be filled with their blood as thus creating the proper portal for Yomi. It won't be strong enough to withstand the passage of Izanami herself, but it will be a perfect tool for communication.
"Wake up the sacrifices! They will be the first martyrs of our crusade!" roars the hakutaku beating his staff on the ground. When the humans gets back consciousness panic explodes. Some of them try to escape. Others to fight back in desperation. Others just scream for help or cry. Each on of them has a different reaction, yet a thing is common: fear. Fear that will fuel the Yomi no Kagami. Fear that will make their call for Izanami louder, stronger.
Using a forbidden branch of the Youjutsu, the manipulation of blood, or Ketsu no Jutsu, the believers of Izanami start to slowly killing the victims by bleeding and using the kegare to further improve the effectiveness of their wicked spells. Among them there are the last masters of this cursed technique, said to have caused many infamous massacres throughout Japan's history.
"High Priest Santhgrim, all is ready" says a kappa bowing his head to the ox yokai. He nods his head and walks down, near the lake of blood that is slowly rising. "I shall be the voice of our Great Goddess!" he dives in the pool of blood. The Yomi no Kagami suddenly explodes in thousands of pieces as a sense of dread fills the bodies of the yokais. But they do not perceive it as dread, they can't. This is divine justice! This is a blessing! The cultists bow seeing Santhgrim emerging from the blood in a state of trance. His eyes now completely white.
"My dear and beloved children" says the High Priest, his voice distorted by Izanami's possession. "You have done well. You want revenge, sweet and gorgeous revenge. It will be done!" shouts Izanami delirium taking the best of her. 'Father! Look at me! They are bowing! I can feel it! The Sea of Souls is close! AHAHAHAHAH THEIR IDIOTIC FAITH WILL CREATE OUR OWN COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS! YES! YES! YES!' the ox yokai starts laughing holding himself by the sheer amount of laughters. Today Izanami truly came back. The new year zero for all her believers. Outcasts of Yomi? A name fueled by an ideal. Ideals are boring. Ideals are useless. Only chaos may remain. Izanami laughs at them. Izanami laughs at the Shinto gods who will soon be her toys. Izanami laughs at everything. She feels alive.
Her lovely Father told her about an interesting bunch. The Khaos Brigade, that is a name! She likes it. 'Father I hope they will entertain you' she prays herself while saying it. When the Khaos Brigade will be completely overthrown by her magnificent parent, she will be ready. Patience. This is a thing her Father said she needs. Patience. They are not invincible, even though her Father is the strongest being in existence.
Shadow Selves are a long process to make, truly a work of art. They are defeatable if the target is chosen wrongly and their normal forms can be killed. Moreover her Father said one more thing... about a Philemon, his supposed counterpart. It seems that sore loser will not accept Nyarlathotep not participating anymore in their gamble and so he will send someone to stop him. A wildcard. That title instinctively brought shivers down Izanami's spine... she doesn't understand why.
03/31/2012, Hansha Kagoshima, Day.
"Lord Toku! We have news regarding the yomists" says a tengu kneeling down in front of his lord, Toku the leader of the Kyushu yokai faction. Toku is an enkoh, a subrace of the more diffused monkey yokai. Their main difference is the long and soft white fur covering their entire bodies apart from the bright pink face, hands and feet. If someone would have to describe Toku's policy in one word they would say: conservative. The enkoh reveres the old traditions and it's convinced that the yokai must remain isolated from the rest of the supernatural world, which doesn't give him the best reputation among the others yokai leaders, but still is neutrality is respected by his peers.
"What did you discover?" asks Toku sat with his legs folded in the war room of the royal palace of Hansha Kagoshima, the supernatural side of the city of Kagoshima capital of the Kyushu faction. "Not only Kyushu has experienced attacks of the yomists my lord. Lady Yasaka asked our ambassador to send someone to investigate here in Kyushu as she thinks the matter originated here" replies the tengu, already prepared to the ire of his lord. However Toku remains in silence, pondering.
Joining forces with Yasaka? Letting her minions to wander in Kyushu? That's madness, but still Toku thinks about it. "Make her know that we can fix our problems alone" after some minutes of silence comes the answer of Toku. "Yes my lord" the tengu bows and takes his leave.
04/02/2012, Urakyoto, Evening.
"My Lady, all the Eight yokai Lords of Japan, but Lord Nurarihyon refused to form a combined strike force to eliminate the followers of Izanami. They are rather occupied with other matters or too proud to accept our help".
In the heart of the supernatural Japan, Urakyoto, the supernatural Kyoto, a meeting between it's ruler the nine-tailed fox Yasaka and her advisors about the uprising of a new faction of rogues affiliated with Izanami is being held.
"They are all underestimating this matter" says Yasaka looking at her subjects. "How has the strike to their base here in Kyoto ended?" asks the kitsune while waving a coloured fan. An okuri-inu yokai, the most diffused species of wolf yokai in Kansai, stands up to answer his lady's question. "We managed to destroy their outpost, but all the enemies we were able to capture managed to kill themselves so we couldn't get any information". 'Religious zeal... the worst of all' thinks Yasaka after hearing the report.
"I have something to tell everyone" says the usually silent Sojobo, the strongest tengu of Mount Kurama and their king, second in strength and prestige in the Kansai only to Yasaka herself. Everyone in the council listen closely to the wise yokai, a legend says that when Sojobo speaks even the bustling city of Kobe is silent. Many compare the figure of Sojobo among the yokais to the one of Zekram Bael among the devils. As thus many refer to him as Great King of the Tengus.
As the strongest tengu Sojobo appearance is very human-like, he has a long white beard with few spare hair on his head. Like all the tengus of highest his face is red with a long nose. He wears the characteristic clothes of an hermit with a long blue blanket covering his shoulder.
"As everyone of you know I've been the first and last yokai to receive the blessing of our creator Izanagi before his death". Despite Sojobo's composure and calm in his voice it's still clear that he was talking about something that ached him. "However what I am about to say is a secret. A secret I held for many centuries, something that Izanagi himself asked me to maintain until it was time. And that time is now, I fear". This revelation shocks the council of Kyoto, but they don't dare to interrupt Sojobo. "Before his death he told me something. A prophecy" continues the yokai as he narrates the tale.
10/03/1133, Mount Kurama, Midnight.
I was a young tengu back then, my generous lord Izanagi entitled me the King of Tengus just three years prior, a great honour for the young me. I was tasked with the protection of Mount Kurama north of Kyoto, sacred home of the tengu race, from there I would have assisted the yokais and the humans following shintoism for the years to follow.
It was a cold and rainy night, I was dealing with the revision of the information my vassals gave me after a meeting with the human emperor of the time, when the human high society and leaders still had ties with us of the supernatural side of the world. It happened suddenly, a moment before I was holding a parchment noting down my thoughts. A moment later I was hurrying to prepare a meet for my God.
I heard a knock on the paper door to my office, before I could answer Izanagi entered. I was shocked by his sudden appearance, but I quickly bowed. "Sojobo, my faithful servant" he spoke with his authoritative voice, was it worry what I heard in his tone? I thought I was just tired and imagining things, but I was right. Lord Izanagi knew his end was near.
"My lord. How may your humble creation assist you?" I asked kneeling in front of him. "Rise Sojobo, we have no time. What is about to happen must stay between these walls" he said signing me to stand up. "Of course my lord" I quickly answered obeying his order. My feelings back then was a mixture of great honour and pride. I didn't knew what burden I would have to bear for the centuries to come.
"Soon the Christian God, Yahweh will come here and me and I will have a very important speech" told me Izanagi. I blinked my eyes a couple of times, unsure of what I heard. "My lord, pardon my impudence. Have you decided Japan should stop it's isolationism and support the Heaven faction in the war of the Christian pantheon?" I asked, great shame for daring to question my lord. But the need to know was too strong.
"No Sojobo. This is why we will talk here on Mount Kurama. This will be... an informal meeting if you pass me the term. However the fate of the world itself is at stage depending on what me and Yahweh know" answered my lenient sire, forgiving my rudeness. I just nodded my head. "I ask you to stay here and be my witness". I wanted to ask hin other questions. Why me, why he needed a witness. With hindsight now I understand, he chose me to carry his message to the future.
I stayed there, in the corner of the room in silence. When Yahweh arrived I saw a man greatly different from what I expected him to be. He was just a normal man dressed in elegant clothes. His look was older than Izanagi's, but they didn't differ so much. What stunned me the most was that Yahweh came alone. Just like my lord he chose a mundane body, a mundane attire. If it wasn't for Izanagi I would have never guessed he was the infamous Yahweh, the god of many religions. The god who rivaled the strongest beings in existence.
They talked about a prophecy. They talked about a Messiah. They both used the same term to refer as him. Messiah. They didn't talk about an hero from Japan. They didn't talk about a future saint of christianity. This Messiah was universal... a Messiah to us japanese as much as to the christians. The Prophect of Messiah. This was what they talked about.
They already knew none of them will see him. They both knew they were fated to die before his coming. The Messiah will come in the toughest of times. When the world itself will be at risk, the entirety of it. The Messiah will come during an age of apparent peacet. He will come during the age of lie. When war will be routine, a ruthless and savage war without any restraint. No more political, economical or religious reasons. Just hate, anger and sadism. When Yahweh left I was speechless.
"When the time will come you will know it Sojobo. I entrust you with this secret" said Lord Izanagi. I watched as my god left, later I understood what the age of lie looks like.
04/02/2012, Urakyoto, Evening.
Sojobo stops talking, his tale has shocked the entire council. Yasaka is the first to speak. "What makes you think this is the age Lord Izanagi told about?" asks the blonde kitsune. "The sudden rise of a rogue faction following Izanami. The denial of the yokai leaders. The many proxy wars between supernatural and non factions all over the world. We are all delusional to think we are at peace, think about the skirmish happened last month between our forces and the Glasya-Labolas. It didn't cause a war, but still it caused deaths and those weren't rogues but our own. These are all symptoms described by the Creator Izanagi" answers Sojobo, his response causing the mood in the council to darken.
"So what can we do?" asks the okuri-ino yokai his fists clenched. "Even if Great Izanagi told that we can't stay here and do nothing, waiting for a Messiah we won't know when he'll come" continues the yokai, earning many approval nods from the council.
"I never said that, this is why I suggest, Lady Yasaka, we restart our policy of federalism and we speak to the other factions in Japan. Only by staying united we can prosper". Sojobo's proposal isn't new, during her time as the ruler of Kansai Yasaka and the King of Tengus already tried to unite the yokai factions in a federation. However with little success, even the kamis weren't together on this matter. Susano'o and Takemikazuchi, the protectors of Kyushu and Tohoku, were strongly against this union. While Inari and Tenjin, protectors of Shikoku and Chubu, were in favor of this solution.