(Misaki)
My hands shook as I tried over and over again to sense a deity aura from the objects in the glass cases before finally sighing and laying my palms flat upon the glass, closing my eyes in frustration. This is what she had been keeping from me! How could the regalia not be here?! Granted, I understood that I held Kusanagi but Ama had told me that the blade had made the decision to come to me. I had always assumed that it had traveled to me from my fathers possessions. But looking over at the blade that rested in the case before me my stomach plummeted as my mind registered that this blade looked NOTHING like the real Kusanagi.
My mind began to work quickly, running a mile a minute as I stood up straight.
So many questions...
but looking to the window there was no time to have them answered. The sun was slowly beginning to creep from behind Fuji-san. I turned quickly to my paling father.
"Otosan, I must leave. But I will return as quickly as I can. Do not let anyone know of this, the country will not respond kindly. The people will feel that they have been lied to. Allow me to find out exactly what is going on. Once I do I will return."
His eyes were far away and the shock on his face had overtaken any response he may have given my words.
"Otosan!" I shook him once, hard. His eyes cleared and he took me in. "Act as if nothing has changed. No one is aware besides the two of us for now. Hai?"
He nodded in agreeance. "Hai."
"Wait for my return." I kissed him once on the cheek before pulling him from the room and shutting the hidden wall behind me. Quickly I pulled in all of my wound up energy and disappeared from the palace.
My body formed whole again at the foot of mount Fuji where Inari's foxes waited for me. Imari also sat on a boulder near the face of the mountain, bounding over to me but slowing to a walk when she saw the expression on my face.
"Misa...what is wrong?"
"Ama...has been lying to me... It is time she give me the truth."
As the suns rays blasted fully over the top of mount Fuji-san Inari and I began our assent back to Takamagahara.
(Chi)
My vision was blurry as I stirred, rising from the wet ground beneath me. Looking down I saw that my robes and my hands were all coated in a thick layer of blood.
'Oh god...'
What was that? I'd never heard that voice before. It was clear and much younger...It sounded familiar to the ear but I still could not place it over the yowling of the voices that only got louder to drown it out. Soon it faded completely and my mind clouded any thoughts of it by filling them with immense hunger and searing white hot pain. My annoyance grew only because I just wanted a moment to process the moments of clarity I'd been given back inside the palace walls. Fleeting questions were only allowed to linger a moment before disappearing into the black smoke swirling around behind my eyes.
Who was that? How had I known her name? Why didn't I just kill them as I had millions of others? What was the significance of that woman? And finally, why had I had a vision of her in my mind in the first place?
There was no such thing as memory for me anymore but somehow I had a memory of her. In the brief look I was given she was beautiful in a long sleeved Kimono beneath cherry blossoms. Had that been me she was smiling at? Why would she have ever smiled at me?
Then suddenly, 'WE ARE HUNGRY BOY!?'
'yes yes, so very hungry!' some of the others whispered.
My hands pounded at my temples for them to be quiet but they would not concede.
I had just destroyed a large fishing village just outside of Hiroshima, and even while still coated in the blood of the men, women, and children of the town my demons still thirsted for more. The Muramasa was heavy on my back as it always was after feeding. It was heavy with the souls of those the blade had struck down and their wails of begging for release always drew me to physical sickness.
"You must be strong Chi-san."
I flew around; the deep voice of the same man that had followed me in shadow along the path outside of Hiroshima castle finding me once again.
"Who are you?" I growled.
"I am Sensei." he answered quietly.
"I have no Sensei," I spat.
Still I saw no one, only hearing the voice within the trees. I turned and turned ready to cut down any tree that continued to play its tricks upon me.
"She will guide you Chi-san. You have not risked your very soul for no reason. You always lived for a purpose. A war is coming, and you will need to be ready..."
"I am the creator of war demon!"
Silence, but only for a moment. "Be ready. She will come for you soon."
And just like that, the haunting ghost was gone like it had never been there in the first place.