(Misaki)
Many emotions scuttled through me as I starred into the space the former samurai no longer occupied. There was a dull ache taking shelter in my chest that was unfamiliar to me. I was not entirely sure where or how to place it, or the memory that surprised me as I turned in circles searching for him. The hill with the sea of bright light creeping towards us as his warm arms covered in those dark lines I saw when he was on the ground today as he cried out in agony and as the darkness ripped into his flesh, melding violently with him held me. There was never a reason in Takamagahara for feelings such as sorrow or longing. Or perhaps I never had reason to let them surface while I was there because I had no real reason for longing to survive. I had absolutely no recollection of Chi-san until hours ago and I was still processing the things that came back in bits, never a full memory. But I did not need a full memory of him to feel the stinging pain of watching someone I knew that I cared for being tormented by these demons; because of me. If I recalled nothing else I knew that this; his condition... was somehow my fault.
For three days the sun rose and fell before I made the difficult decision to leave the place I'd found him in. I'd hoped that he would return in search of me, if nothing else hoping that his curiosity of how I located him and who I was would win out against whatever else he was feeling, but on the fall of the sun on the third day I knew that he wasn't coming back.
I wondered as I walked the path from the ghost house he'd left behind if he like me did not remember our pasts together. But something in his eyes when he saw me enter through that gate said that in some small expanse, he remembered me. But there was so much darkness swarming in and around him that I was almost sure he could concentrate on nothing else. As much as I wanted to take as much time as needed to locate him once more, I descended for a different reason and my fathers life and kingdom depended on me. As hard as it was I needed to shove my aching heart back into its heavily guarded cage and focus on the overall problem at hand.
(Chi)
The choking haze only cleared after no breath entered my lungs. The cough that descended on me was thick and dry. The laughter of the damned was loud and obnoxious as they found my inability to draw breath amusing. My hands gripped at the crackling cold kissed blades of grass beneath me.
Why did she have to see me that way?
Why was i so concerned with what a deity thought of me? No one had asked her to track me down and intrude on what I could only gouge from the look on her face as a horrendous sight. She was always curious.
I blinked hard a few times before pushing this body that felt like it had been trampled by war horses to its knees. That thought...It was almost as if I knew this person somehow. But my memory...I had never retained anything but the thought of hunger and blood for so long that the fog that clouded my mind was too thick to sort through. Though oddly enough, a part of me; a sane part if any semblance of that was left in this shell of body, longed for remembrance.
On my knees I was at least able to recollect what the woman had attempted to do. The act of recklessness that I somehow knew she was good for that forced me to draw away and push myself the furthest I had gone while traveling through the dark haze. That searing light that had tried to force its way beneath my skin and into my veins. Hot white fire that had the voices in my mind roiling and hissing in agony and anger.
"Well what do we have here? I have not had a visitor in many decades."
The drawl to the voice that appeared from thin air made me focus on just where I had landed myself. I did not recognize the place. I sat in rolling fields of short grass, with no sound living in it. The sky was pitch black and the air was cold and void of life. Lifting my head I came across a giant snake, black as burnt coal with eyes the color of a dragons amber. Its spine was decorated with long webbed spikes sharp to the tip. Its belly slithered and recoiled around the trunk of a thick dead tree sporting no leaves. Beneath that tree was a stone throne, a worn grey that was carved with what I saw as a depiction of war along the entirety. The snakes eyes rolled down to me, its tongue skirting out to taste the air ahead of it.
"My apologies, how rude I must be. But then again, I am not the one who fell from the sky into someone elses land..."
His scales made a hissing sound as they scrapped against the chipping bark of the white oak and the other scales along its body. It moved with all the swiftness of a snake, strange for how large it was. In a blink it was right before me. Its body stretched up to the sky, its head lowering into an arch inches from my face. My chest heaved at the sight as it spoke silently to me.
"Wh-where am I? and who are you?"
"tsk tsk tsk...no formality. You are in the land of Namegata Country. And the presence before you Is The Yato-no Kami."
'Calamityyy....leader.....destruction, hate, manipulation.' the voices shot back as soon as the snake uttered the name. But was I not a god of calamity? I'd never heard of a Yato-no Kami. The snake seemed to realize my unending confusion and before me it began to shrink and shift before a man with long white hair and Kimono decorated in the same scene etched onto the throne behind him. Blood splatters decorated the ends while swords clashed and waves rolled. The story etched on the Kimono was endless but the quietness of the voices struck me as odd as well. They never quieted for anyone besides death and something told me that I was staring a form of death in its very face. The aura to the man was demonic as I recognized the smell to be similar to my own. A snake demon? One who brough calamity?
The man as he bent closer gave me a better look at his face. His cheeks and Jaw were narrow and his eyes were red like the dawn before a Tori gate. His disapproval for my lack of reaction to his name was palpable. He was disappointed.
"As expected, my name has fallen quite far from history, seeing as how one of my own does not even recognize me."
Confusion drew my brows together. "One of your own?..."
His chuckle was deep and sinister. His still clawed nail dipped under my chin and drew blood as he drew my head up to make eye contact. I gritted my teeth as my eyes widened. The irises of his eyes even held war. Three thousand years worth of death played themselves out to me. It struck fear deep into the pits of my body and completely silenced the chaos within.
"Dear lost one, I am your father. And I am the only one who can teach you how to silence the internal battle within. But, my wisodm comes with a price."
(Misaki)
The castle was silent as most slept. Aside from the switching and low murmuring conversation of the guards all was quiet. I fleeted through the blind spaces until i reached my fathers private library. I did not knock on the door as I knew he was expecting me. When i entered the great room he was pacing before the open balcony doors. I closed the thick doors I frequented laying my ears against trying to get an earful of how to rule this country and turned back to him, hurrying to his side.
"Otosan, if worry anymore you will weigh a horse path into the tile."
He stopped and looked at me, his eyes wild with that worry. My heart ached as I read all of the fear for not himself, but the country in his eyes. "Oh Otosan, we will fix this..."
"If the country becomes aware. If the corporate warriors of the state become aware, they will have my head for this. This will be what they need to overthrow my rule Misaki-san. That cannot happen."
"It will not. I will not allow it. It is no the mandate of heaven. I shall not let it come to pass Otosan."
He took a short steadying breath and calmed himself. "What must be done?"
And there was the voice of the Emperor that I'd heard my entire life. The voice that arose in meetings and addressing his people. The voice that was praised by the people, and myself. The hair along my neck rose and a small smile plagued my worry.
"I must locate the suspected locations of the Regalia."
"How will you do that?"
"I will ask the only one able to answer these questions. The golden goddess herself."
His eyes widened as the nine tailed fox bounded through the high balcony window and stopped before me. I pressed my forehead to hers and conveyed my message.
"What are you doing daughter?" he questioned quietly.
I finished my message first before sending the fox back the way she came, silently thanking Inari for her services. "I have sent word. Now we wait for her reply."
Her answer was swift and in the form of a line of light when the sun rose. as the heat graced my skin the word flowed into my very being. I had sent my father to bed late into the early morning when the sky was still and jades color and left only a note as I departed once again. I had my answer. Ise grand shrine in Mie prefecture. The most sacred spiritual home for our people. The grand shinto shrine.
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