"Good morning, Itachi-kun… yawn," said Mitsuki as she stretched her hands upward, yawning. Her eye looked somehow tired as she rubbed it. To Itachi, it seemed that she had woken up quite early in the morning to prepare.
"Can't sleep?" asked Itachi.
"Mmhmm, I was a bit anxious about today. But I'll be fine," smiling, Mitsuki responded calmly. Normally, whenever she felt anxious about something, she would either be finding a high place for her to ponder at, or talk it out. However, due to the change in arrangement, Mitsuki felt like she shouldn't be bothering Itachi for such minor concern, or wasted the room that he had paid for her. In the end, Mitsuki could only roll back and forth in her futon, fighting her own thoughts for hours before she could finally fall asleep.
Hearing her response, Itachi kept his silence, as there was nothing he could do. Mitsuki wouldn't want him to patronize her by suggesting further delay, especially since she had made clear of her decision and the reason on the previous day. Strengthening her resolve, Mitsuki clenched her hands.
"Let's go," she said as she took a firm step and walked out of the village.
The shrine was truly not far from the village that they had been staying in for the past couple days. Realising thus, Mitsuki couldn't help but wonder if the village was also related to her past somehow, but thankfully, so far, there was no sign of such thing. Sighing, Mitsuki took another look at the dilapidated tori. For some reason, she still dreaded the idea of going up the shrine, even if she had done it once mentally with Amaterasu's guidance. As Mitsuki let out a muffled disgruntled noise, she felt Itachi's gaze on her.
"Itachi-kun, you don't have to join me you know.. you can just wait in the village or something, haha.." said Mitsuki. Somehow, she felt ashamed that Itachi should witness her moments of weakness, especially now that she had practically bragged to him about her true identity. To what she said, Itachi responded with a frown, as if reprimanding her over her nonsense.
Sighing once more upon realising that she wouldn't be able to change Itachi's mind, Mitsuki turned once more towards the red toori. The tip of her fingers had gone cold from anxiety, and her hands trembled in response to her reluctance. Clutching both of her trembling hand together, Mitsuki took a deep breath and stepped forward. She felt like she shouldn't stall longer, not when Itachi was there to witness her.
Just like during her mental ascend, every step felt heavy, quickening her breath and drove her nausea up. With every step she took, Mitsuki felt like she didn't want to know what happened to her there in that shrine, but she knew that she must." It's not just for me after all." Repeatedly, Mitsuki recalled the sentence over and over again in her head, reminding herself of what prompted her to find out more about herself, as well as her wish for Itachi.
As Mitsuki reached the top of the stairs, she had to force her weakened leg to keep standing steadily as her heart continued to beat loudly in her chest. While she was taking her time to recompose herself, Itachi called out to her softly to check up on her condition.
"Are you ok?" he said, pulling Mitsuki's attention towards him. Hearing the worry in Itachi's tone, Mitsuki smiled as she looked back.
"I'm fine.. I'm scared but.. I'm fine.." said Mitsuki repeatedly, as if reaffirming herself. "It's something I must do," again, she said, more towards herself than to Itachi.
Yes, it was something that she must do, she thought. Reminding herself of the helplessness she experienced during Itachi's fainting, a fire burnt inside Mitsuki's heart. She didn't want to feel that way anymore, ever. Her power and authority might have been back, but without her full knowledge, Mitsuki couldn't be sure if any important information was left out somewhere within her consciousness, a critical one that might provide an answer to their predicament. Glancing unto Itachi once more to strengthen her resolve, Mitsuki tightened her clenching palms and took a few rhythmical deep breaths. Then, by mustering every ounce of courage that she had, Mitsuki advanced boldly towards the main shrine.
Inside the shrine was just like Itachi had remembered. Only then, in front of the altar, something felt different. Activating his sharingan, Itachi scoured around the temple. He couldn't tell what was it, but it was as if there was another presence within the shrine.
Mitsuki walked forward to approach the altar, and kneeled. As she clapped three times and uttered her prayer in her mind, the altar's door opened, revealing a golden colored fragment. Remembering the memory fragment that Amaterasu had bestowed her, Mitsuki was sure that the thing in front of her is another fragment of the same thing. Before reaching unto the shining fragment, Mitsuki spoke with slight hesitation in her voice that she tried to cover up by structuring her words as a demand.
"Itachi-kun, no matter what happened, don't stop or interrupt me, or take me out of here OK? I'll go ahead now.." said Mitsuki with the best, confident voice that she could muster despite her fear and anxiety, which threatens to overwhelm her.
Accompanied by another deep breath, Mitsuki reached out towards the golden light. "Here goes nothing, I guess…" she muttered.
Bracing for whatever ahead, Mitsuki reached her hands forward to touch the fragment. The moment her finger touched the gem-like fragment, Mitsuki felt a sensation flowing from inside the stone unto her hands, and towards her body.
It was pain.
Suddenly, her blood trickled down her palm, then her wrist, then her shoulder. It was as if countless invisible blade were slicing through her flesh, directly passing her clothes, silently, simultaneously, threatening to cut every inch of her body apart from within.
As the pain spread throughout her body, Mitsuki's breath turn ragged, and soon, she couldn't hold her scream in anymore.
The sudden turn of event surprised Itachi. His mind couldn't comprehend what he just saw. One moment, Mitsuki touched the odd object, and in the next moment, the object glowed with a blinding light. Following, wounds started sprouting on Mitsuki's body out of nowhere, and she let out a bloodcurdling scream as her wound spread all over her body, dying her kimono red. If not for the fact that he couldn't sense any attack coming, Itachi would have thought that they had been ambushed somehow. However, he sensed nothing, no other shinobi, no chakra, not even movements of the seemingly invisible blade which had cut Mitsuki's flesh open.
Concerned, and unsure of what else he could do, Itachi dashed over towards Mitsuki, calling her name. Suddenly a gust of wind that shouldn't be in the shrine blew violently, blocking Itachi's approach.
"Don't come near me!" Mitsuki shouted, holding her pain. She too, didn't know what was going on, but she was afraid that it would be dangerous for Itachi to approach her then, whether because of the invisible threat, or because of the surge of energy and emotion within her. "My brain feels weird now, if you touch me now, I.."
"I might accidentally kill you," Mitsuki muttered as she clutched her hands together into a prayer in an attempt to refocus her thoughts.
"It will be ok, I'll heal.." she said with a voice loud enough for Itachi to hear, while concentrating herself to heal her wounds.
However, it was indeed a bizarre view. Wounds continuously appeared on Mitsuki's pale skin, yet in another second it was as if her skin and muscle tried their best to stitch the wound back together, repeatedly.
Hands, legs, back, neck. Slices over slices manifested, some thin, some wide and deep enough for Itachi to see her bone through her flesh. It was as if she was carved simultaneously by different blades, all over her limbs. Eventually, Mitsuki's leg gave in, yet even so, she didn't stop the gust of wind that blocked Itachi's path.
"What on earth is happening!?" Itachi thought to himself as he clenched his fist. He felt frustration over the fact that there was nothing he could do to help. Thick scent of blood filled the air in the shrine as Mitsuki continuously bled from the wounds that constantly closed and reopened all over her body.
Taking a glance towards Itachi's worried face, Mitsuki smiled lightly, with a slight frown in her forehead as sweat trickled down her body and burning her wounds as the salty solution dipped into her open wound while she tried to hold her mind together from turning insane because of the pain.
"I'm fine," Mitsuki whispered softly, enough for Itachi to hear over the gust of wind. Hoping that Itachi could hear her, she repeated the word once more, louder. "I'm fine," this time, it was for herself also. As she kept repeating the words in her mind, memories flashed and overlapped over her words as it echoed within her brain.
"Why are you here if you can't help us?"
"Are you saying you will just let us off to die?"
"What a joke, all loving Amaterasu-sama? If she's all loving, how about actually helping us?"
"Oyamatsumi-sama, take our blood sacrifice. We give unto you the holy maiden. Please let us off as the payment of our sacrifice."
"I'm fine," Mitsuki thought as tears trickled down her cheeks as the resurfacing memories brought a deep sorrow unto her heart.
One by one, pieces by pieces, her memory returned. Along with it, came the unpleasant sound that filled her ear.
Chop.. chop.. Comes the sound of blades piercing unto soft pieces of flesh.
"Endure.." thought Inaba.
Twack.. Smack.. Rung the sound of a solid metal hitting hard pieces of bones, breaking them.
"At least, you'll be more useful this way," said the villagers as they let out a cruel smile, looking down at Inaba who was laid down at the altar with her limbs tied up.
"I'll just wait it out, It'll be fine.." she thought, as tears trickled down her face as she stopped herself from screaming.
Chop.. Chop.. Clack.. Clack..
Again, sound of splitting bones, sound of limbs being severed.
"Ah that's right.. I.."
"I 'died' once here.."
The gust of wind halted as sudden as it came. Along with the disappearance of the wind, Mitsuki collapsed. Swiftly, Itachi dashed over to catch the girl as she fell.
Author's notes:
Yes, that's why there's content warning. Further warning, ahead there will be more bloody content and suffering even though I think it won't get super-duper graphic, so uh… I hope you guys are up for that (?)