"I now pronounce you Rose Bloodmoon's Apprentice, Minakami Tsukiyomi, of the Esk region, Legendary champion and guardian of Veldonia, Warrior and Samurai of the Greenwood, protector of the Legendary Lightning Phoenix, and the only known half-yokai. You must protect Rose at all cost, agree to keep your life on the line for hers, and that you could die anytime, protect her with your life. I now announce to you the royal apprentice of Lady of the heir, Rose Bloodmoon…." said the royal officer of the Bloodmoon castle. It switched to a scene in a field. Tsukiyomi and Rose walked side by side. "So, now that you have worked your ass off to get this position, I'm guessing you're going to stay with me all the time? Can I call you Tsuki?" Rose had asked. The things twisted to another place. The queen….. "Tsukiyomi, you have violated the rules of this kingdom and have stepped out of place. Therefore, you will be punished with discipline."
"This isn't fair! He really didn't mean it! Tell them, Tsuki!" Rose exclaimed to her mother. Tsukiyomi lowered his head. "No matter what, they won't listen/ If I have to be punished then so be it. I have stepped out of my place and it is my job to get back in line."
Tsukiyomi awoke, sitting up quickly with a sharp pain in his back. That couldn't have been a dream, it felt too real, maybe a memory? Tsukiyomi wrapped his fingers around the pendant. He saw that Tadashi was still asleep. Light from outside was too bright so he laid back down. He wanted to know more, he wanted to dream again and for that memory to continue. What happens next? He knew it was Rose, and he knew he became her apprentice. He had so many questions. How old had he been back then, all those years ago, those three-hundred years? And why him out of so many people? It could have been one of the former leaders.
Tsukiyomi takes the pendant and holds it in his hands. But he opens his eyes and sees that he wasn't in the hut. It had seemed he had gone back in time. Sure enough, he did, and he saw Rose sitting at the end of a long table. Twenty-six others sat at the table, people of all ages. And behind Rose was him, holding a sword. Rose was making a speech. "I appreciate all of you for coming as quickly as you could. I chose you all for a reason. Now, beginning the idea of these walls. My thought was, considering the darkness has been spreading at an uncontrollable rate, we need to keep people safe, everyone. Before I go into much more detail, I would like to thank you all and explain why I have chosen each one of you to help me. Including the humans i have chosen, Sybil Black, Camilla Wilhemina, Mayva Carnation, April Cludonia, Zeke Darkai, Stilton Fraya, Victor Falendgore, SCarlet Glorophina, Marian Rhodonia, Miles Rosebold, Stephonien Lucita, Veldonia Belle, and Levi Zeniinthean. And to the demons and yokai I have selected as well, Aster Crobuzon, Penny Clorina, Pazu Delphinium, Dorphian Serafina, Hellena and Helm Yashmeen, Lyra Jasmanium, Hans Marigold, Nevilliotus Fran, Porsynthia Chen, Victoria Primrose, Morrice Whither, and Marilyn Zinnian. And now I understand that some of you might be young and confused, but please rest assured that your age for this project does not matter. I have been around long enough to know dn I know what I am doing. I will..no, Tsukiyomi and I will stand with you and by your side throughout these hard times. It will break my heart if anyone rejects or sides with the bad in this world. I want to trust you all and I want you to trust each other. Now, before I continue on, are there any questions?" The memory ended as Tsukiyomi was back in the hut. It seemed that the pendant did this: it had belonged to Rose and had in fact collected the memories she had and shared with others. Tsukiyomi turned only to see Tadashi staring at him. "W-What?" he asked, Tadashi seemed almost frightened.
"Y-Your eyes.." he stuttered, "They-they were red and your skin was..you- you looked nothing like yourself.." Cold sweat ran down Tsukiyomi's back. Tadashi still didn't know that Tsukiyomi was a half-yokai. He didn't want Tadashi to know. What would he think? But he was confused. Did his yokai form show when his pedant was showing him memories. Tsukiyomi began to reassure Tadashi. "What are you talking about? You must be seeing things."
"Maybe you're right. I must be still half asleep. What were you doing anyways?" asked Tadasdhi, Tsukiyomi stayed silent. And with a sigh and a slight smile, Tadashi said, "I don't want to keep secrets. If we are going to be with each other for a while, it would be wise if we just told each other things."
"N-Nothing! Nothing at all!" Tsukiyomi lied, "I swear on Rose I'm not!" Lying to Rose was considered rude, but if it's to keep Tsukiyomi safe then it's worth it. Although, Tadashi must have been keeping his suspicions on high alert.
After a few cups of morning tea, Tadashi and Tsukiyomi set off to the next closest wall, Glorophina. The gate to Glorophina was just across Kracked Skull lake. Before leaving, Tsukiyomi grabbed his belt with the sheath of his new katana. He was excited to carry around a true weapon now. Tsukiyomi thought about his sword. If he had a sword in his past life as Rose's apprentice, what did it look like? Even if he did, he couldn't remember. Although, the pendant could show him.
He still didn't know how to tell Tadashi about it. He did lie to Tadashi. Ever since he met Tadashi, he had been lying. He didn't want Tadashi to know about him being a half-yokai. What would Tadashi even think? He didn't want Tadashi to know and he wanted it to stay that way.
The two were close to the docks and waited for a ferry to arrive so they could cross over. "What's Glorophina like?" Tsukiyomi asked as the two boarded the ferry.
"Scarlet Glorophina, the original wall leader, was a human but loved all people. Some say she was very traditional, considering wall Glorophina are mostly people of the Chinese region. The walls differ in race, religion, nationality, and language. Scarlet was like a queen and always wore single colored clothing traditional chinese dresses as if she were to wed. Scarlet also had an obsession with oil-paper umbrellas and parasols with specific patterns embroidered and painted on them such as floral and dragonflies. The current leader of the wall Glorophina, is a young, royal, Blood demon named Fengche. Not every wall has a leader at the moment. He takes after lady Glorophina very well. Fengche is said to not really have an assigned gender. He's mostly referred to as a male but he looks and acts very feminine." Tadashi answered basically with the whole back story. Tsukiyomi thought he could relate to someone when he heard that this 'Fengche' guy wasn't really assigned a gender.
"Why are we going to Glorophina exactly?" Tsukiyomi asks, Tadashi pulls out an opened letter with a wax rose stamped on it. The ferry takes off and slowly out of Whither.
"This was a letter addressed to me all the way from Glorophina. It said something about my father and the current leader wanted to see us." He put the letter away back into the satchel he carried. 'Us'? The letter wanted to see both of them?
Tsukiyomi couldn't stop thinking that he had never been anywhere besides Whither until now. The ferry sailed past the wall gate that separated wall Whither and wall Glorophina, a river canal you could say. It was kind of dark and gray but up ahead, further past building's and such, Tsukiyomi could see a palace.
Tsukiyomi kept seeing the same floral pattern carved into the walls of the water canal and on the buildings and homes of the city. The palace sat on top of a hill above the small city, a road of red bricks leading to it. The population was an average of humans and demons, barely yokai.
The passengers on the ferry got off as they landed. It was November so of course everything was gray and cold but the scenery of the city and brick roads made it beautiful. Tadashi and Tsukiyomi had to walk to the palace, up the hill lined with red brick roads to the palace. It wasn't too far from where they landed.
As they reached the palace and got closer, Tsukiyomi was fascinated at the sight in the air. Everywhere, there were floating parasols and umbrellas in the air, just floating. Tadashi did say something about the former leader's obsession with them.
There were guards in front of a red gate that blocked the palace, but the gate was open and the two were able to pass through. They entered the inside of the palace to be greeted by two women. The women led the two down the hall, painted red with murals of Rose and sculptures of what seemed to be Scarlet Glorophina. The women opened doors to a throne room. Fountains spuing pure, clear water, vegetation in all corners,umbrellas and parasols, paper fans, it was traditional and royal. A boy, young looking, with white long hair and wore a hanfu and a mask. A girl stood next to him, traditionally dressed as well, waving a fan at her chest. Under the boy's mask, he was smiling. Little did anyone know, he wore the mask to hide scars. Tadashi and Tsukiyomi approached the boy on the throne. "You must be Okami Tadashi and Minakami Tsukiyomi. I am known as Fengche. This is my sister, ah-Li. Welcome to wall Glorophina, the wall of glory and fame, land of the paper fan. I am the current leader and I am happy you both came. Now, I assume you are curious about why I requested you to come here, right?" said Fengche, "Well, like in the letter I sent you, Tadashi, I wanted to tell you, I knew your father through a small part in my life. It's a shame what happened to him. Tanaka was a good man. He gave me something and told me that if I ever meet you I should give it to you." His sister, Li walked over and pulled a small bag from her sleeve.
"This is a Glorophian pouch that belonged to your father. It was made to fit everything no matter the weight." she said, giving the pouch to Tadashi. Fengche got up too.
"Your mission, you could say, is to collect all wall artifacts. These artifacts belonged to the original wall leaders and are said to hold the souls of these leaders. Your job is to go outside the walls and release these souls. You have to find the lost city of Luminesia. I would help you get there but I have a wall to run. You will learn the true purpose of this mission the more you go forward. But to start you off, here is the Glorphina artifact, the green emerald amulet." Fengche puts the amulet in the Glorphian bag that was given to Tadashi. To Tsukiyomi, this sounded like a suicide mission. How could they get outside? And traveling from wall to wall would take forever. They would have to collect twenty-five more since this was one down. "But why would we go out when we could never come back?" Tsukiyomi asked, Fengche smiled again, walking back to his throne. "Tsukiyomi, what if I said that I don't believe that?"
"Well then, you must be crazy!" Tsuki said, Fengche burst out into laughter as he sat down on his throne again. "Crazy?!" he said, "You think I'm crazy? That's absurd! Trust me, if I could, I would go out there myself! We aren't afraid of the unknown! That's why we don't know if ghosts or monsters or any sort of creatures actually exist!"
"My brother is right," said Li, "he trusts the both of you, but are you willing to trust him and complete this task?" Tsukiyomi looked at Tadashi since he was unsure how to feel about all of this. Tadashi seemed confident. The two nodded at each other, knowing they were ready. "We'll do it." said Tadashi. Fengche shield and clasped his hands together. "Perfect! Much obliged! I grant you a safe journey. But I recommended that you find people to travel with once you get outside of the walls. You two might already have some. You will need people with good potential and powerful users. I wish you luck and Rose be with you." The two knelt to Fengche and were led out. Tadashi attached the Glorophian bag to his belt. They then made their way back to Whither that day.