Chapter 232: Chapter 231: Retainers To The Sun

Story of Yamata No Orochi.

Yamata No Orochi, was once one of many otherworldly beings that found itself on Earth with no way to get back to the realm it hailed from.

Masterless and to its own mind incomparable, it happened upon a couple who by chance had eight daughters. In a bid to amuse itself it told them that it would devour one of their daughters every year on a whim.

It proved a merry distraction, the year of eager anticipation between each of the promised meals made it that much more satisfying a meal when the time finally came.

For seven years its entertainment was indescribable, the ever growing anguish the couple and remaining girls felt was more intoxicating than any liquor.

In the eighth and final year however, unbeknownst to Yamata No Orochi, the storm-god Susanoo had descended to experience the mortal world that had been an increasingly urgent topic of conversation amongst the gods.

Seeing a sign of civilisation drifting along a river, he followed it upstream to find the supposed extra-natural species that had apparently self-realised their own existence through natural evolution.

When he found nothing but a simple farm and three pathetic examples of the species so racked by grief they could hardly articulate a sentence, he was disappointed to say the least.

“You three. What hardship grieves you so deeply it makes the gods seem foolish to me?” His words struck them as confusing and harsh, the man’s grief quickly turning to anger in the wake of the stranger’s indifference.

“The great serpent comes each year and devours our children, how am I supposed to feel!? We had eight beautiful daughters before it appeared and now we have but one!”

’So they care for their kin? Hardly the rabid soulless creatures that have been described to me.’ The thought was a heavy one, followed by his silent wondering as to whether the humans before him were exceptions or examples.

Growing angrier by the stranger’s perceived apathy, the farmer stepped forward, but froze as a hand raised towards him.

“Anger at harm done to one’s family is natural, but foolish actions will have dire consequences regardless. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Susanoo, god of storms and I wish to slay the serpent preying on you.”

The humans’ eyes widened as they dropped to their knees in reverence, anger gone in an instant and grief dulled in the light of renewed hope.

He asked how far the snake spanned and was told he stretched from peak to peak and would be unable to pass through the valley between if it weren’t strong enough to push them aside.

“Perfect…” The god said, catching them by surprise.

“Forgive me, but we are but simple folk, our thoughts are far from the enlightened ones that are common to the divine.” Susanoo chuckled at the sentiment, increasingly certain that what he’d heard was nothing more than rumours spread by worry-ers.

“Your farm has eight gates I see… I take it you like the number… Place a barrel of sake at each one and offer it in exchange for your daughter’s life.

The serpent will surely to plot and accept so it may delight in the shock when you realise you’ve been taken for fools, but as it drinks I will call lightning down upon it.”

So that is what they did and Susanoo stayed as their guest until the fateful day arrived.

The serpent noticed the disguised god and used him as a point to mock his victims, asking if they found themselves short on hands to tend the land.

“Yes, we are! Please don’t take our last daughter! We have prepared alternative offerings a barrel of Sake, one for each mouth, waiting at each gate!”

The snake laughed, an expression of joy so powerful it shook the earth beneath their feet and caused it to split apart.

Susanoo was impressed for a second, as the man remained composed. In his time sharing their roof and home, he had seen no sign of either evil or ill-intent, but that charade came crashing down in an instant.

“Man, you are but food to me and prey does not bargain with a predator…” The snake moved in threateningly and the man cowered, suddenly using the daughter he supposedly tried to protect as a shield.

Susanoo wrestled to keep his fury at the betrayal hidden, whilst the snake bellowed in renewed laughter which suddenly seemed to mock him.

“…Your cowardice and foolishness amuse me so, so I think I will accept your bargain, if only to make you suffer another year. Besides, the seventh got stuck in my throat and I’ve tried all in vain to wash her down.”

The whole scene made his blood boil, his temper a mirror of the storms he embodied and as the snakes heads went their separate ways to reveal the point where eight became one, Susanoo called lightning down from them heavens to himself.

The air was filled with flashes of blue violet and white, but even as the snake turned to ash the storm refused to die.

“You did it! The snake is dead!…” The man cheered with selfish elation. “…Lord Susanoo? Why does the storm not die with the snake?”

Susanoo ignored the man, walking past him as the lightning began to bear a greenish hue, until he came face to face with their last living daughter.

“I thought you were all good people, but there seems to be two more snakes than I was told. I have yet to see you displease me though, so come and be at my side until you do.”

The girl asked if he would spare them for anything, but he refused, making it clear her choices were to share in their punishment or stand at his side.

Ultimately, the only thing that might lessen their suffering were prayers from the living, so she decided to go with him so she might ease their suffering through prayer and memory.

They travelled to many places in their time together and eventually found they had stumbled upon the snakes nest, a gargantuan clutch of broken eggs that sent a chill down the girl’s spine.

“You can relax girl, these eggs did not hatch, but were smashed and eaten. Though…” He waved a hand which conjured winds to sweep away the shattered shells and reveal one still perfectly preserved that still possessed a chance at life.

“Is that truly the serpent’s child?”

Susanoo nodded. ’Let this be your final trial on our journey of this world. What will you do in the face of your tormentor’s offspring? Will you show compassion are stoop to petty vengeance?’

The girl approached the egg and reached for it, filling his heart with disappointment for a fleeting second before she stood and turned, holding it with the utmost care.

“How do I care for it? It may have been nourished by the blood of my sister’s, I would see their sacrifice honoured as strange as that may sound.”

Susanoo smiled and told her they were done with the mortal world, he blessed and remade her, born anew as more than human.

“I will take you to my sister, she has a soft spot for children and things of beauty. I have no doubt she will see you both cared for.”

Unbeknownst to either Susanoo or the girl, it was not the snake that laid the eggs.

Story of Shuten-Dōji.

Not long after the girl’s sixth sister was taken, as the snake made its way for it’s home, it pushed a mountain aside which decided to retaliate.

Bursting into ten thousand boulders, it collapsed onto the serpents body and cost it its meal as the recently devoured daughter was regurgitated.

At first it was furious to have lost its prey, but surprisingly the prey was as furious to have been lost.

“Am I cursed to endure this life and this world? Great snake, great serpent, great dragon, Yamata No Orochi, I beg you to devour me once more and release me from the pains of life and memory.”

Suspecting a trap, that maybe she had been burdened with casks of poison, the snake refused to devour her.

Unable to accept the refusal, she tried to bargain, proposing that if she could see it free from the earthen embrace it would reconsider.

Utterly perplexed and eager to eat her once more, the serpent agreed, reasoning that she wouldn’t try to free it if she didn’t truly desire to be eaten.

For seven days and seven nights, she toiled to free the enormous serpent from its predicament with no progress. Yamata No Orochi considered it might be a ploy to look sincere, but then she collapsed, burning with fever and bloodied from labour.

The serpent found itself curious, wishing to hear what made her long for death with such fervent desire. Taking the form of a man to escape the rock, he scooped up the girl and returned to where he called home.

When there, he spent twice as long tending her back to good health as she had spent to rob herself of it.

When she was back to full strength, he began his inquiry, learning a story of a monster greater than he. A man who played god, abusing those he had a duty to protect.

His sins were so grave it made even the snake feel sick.

“So please, won’t you eat me and end my misery?”

“No. I owe you no mercy and your tale has ruined my appetite, besides, if killing you is a mercy I’ll have to entertain myself in other ways…”

Returning to his serpent-form, Yamata No Orochi fell into slumber, dreaming of how he might recover the enjoyment the girl’s tale had soiled.

’It might be fun to make her a monster too, to quite literally make the man suffer at consequences of his sins.’

The idea delighted him and when he awoke he offered the idea to her as a chance to take vengeance and save her remaining sisters from their fate.

She accepted and swore herself to him, then disrobed and offered herself to him, but when he didn’t act she did so herself.

’When I said I wished to make a monster, did she think I meant through propagation? The girl is foolish, I doubt such a creature could carry the child of a superior creature.

Whatever, if by some miracle it bears fruit I can feed them their grandparents.’

To Yamata No Orochi’s surprise however, the process not only forcibly bestowed a blessing upon her, but it did bare fruit and in more ways than one.

The girl’s body mutated in the following days, taking on snake like traits such as the patches of scale-like skin a slightly and her round pupils becoming slits.

Yamata No Orochi found himself feeling respectful despite himself, for as agonising as the process clearly was, she never voiced anything but gratitude.

On top of that, her stomach had begun to bulge and he found himself taken aback at how adaptable the creatures he had been toying with were.

Over the course of several months she laid dozens of eggs and the idea of them feasting on everything the world had to offer made him ecstatic.

His happiness came to an abrupt end however, the strain of laying them had taken its toll and yet her belly continued to swell and upon the end of the ninth month she gave birth to a child that was entirely human.

Bringing it into the world cost her the last of her strength and as she held the baby up to feed, she could feel her life slipping away. “I’m sorry, great serpent. I brought a failure on your legacy, but I simply can’t bring myself to hate anything we made together.”

Yamata No Orochi snorted, he could tell at a glance she had done no such thing. The child may have looked human, but was anything but.

For some reason though, looking upon the child after she passed made him grieve, so in human form he abandoned it outside a human city.

In just a few short years the creature had grown into a supernaturally strong young man, something the local lord couldn’t tolerate in his hubris.

Unaware of the boy’s monstrous lineage, the lord who had grown sick of hearing his subordinates’ petitions to see the boy trained and put to use as a symbol of their power, sent a monk to deliver a cursed mask to him.

The curse should have ripped his body apart as if set upon by raging oni, but his lineage let him absorb it and become one himself.

In public, in broad daylight, he changed into a monstrous oni and feasted on everyone visiting the market where the monk had given him the mask.

When the lord and his army arrived, the streets were littered with dozens of bodies and before the army had driven him off, what little of the lord he hadn’t devoured, joined them.

He then fled to a place that seemed to call to him, climbing to the peak of mount Ōe where he found more oni he decided to rule as a king.

For decades he ruled uncontested, even when the hero Minamoto no Raikō came to slay him with poisoned sake and divine equipment, he had the hero begging for his life.

Then in a flare of brilliance, a woman of unparalleled beauty appeared between them, the ground melting beneath her feet.

“I am the goddess Amaterasu, I have come to retrieve you Shuten-Dōji, your sister and your aunt are my loyal retainers and have requested your salvation.”

The words held no meaning to him though, all he saw was a beautiful woman he wanted and what he wanted, he took just a single step before he was driven into the ground.

“Amaterasu, my love, are we really taking in this pathetic cretin?”

“Tenko, if I wanted your opinion I’d have asked for it. Take him to the countless peaks and seem him housebroken, then introduce him to the other two.

This is your only duty until it is completed and you will not abandon it unless I call or it is fulfilled.”

“Oh really? I bet you miss me after a single week.” Amaterasu glared at him and he immediately raised his hands in surrender, then she turned to the hero and told him to claim victory and never speak of events.

Story of Suzaku

The day Izanami tried to kill her youngest brother, the god of fire and descended to the underworld to live at Nergal’s side, was the hardest day in Amaterasu’s life.

The birth of Kagutsuchi was a moment she had long awaited, but when his fiery form burned her as she brought him into the world, it was a visceral affair.

The pain was so intense and the damage so severe, it tore through her physical-form, soul-form, divinity channels and most importantly her mind-form.

From the various divinity infused fluids that the damage extracted, it ended being the birth of many a god, but the damage to her mind-form had left her unable to think of anything but killing what had harmed her so.

In the end, she was restrained, but her mind was broken beyond what anyone could comprehend. All except one anyway, her old friend Lady Ishtar had been invited to attend.

She released the full extent of her aura, rendering all but Izanami, Izanagi and herself unconscious.

“As much as I hate to say this Izanagi, only my brother has the power, talent and patience to piece together one so broken…” She set the scene to let her retire to Nergal’s side, wrote the script they would have to follow if they were to all continue to live with a chance of happiness.

“You expect me to give one I love so dearly to another?”

“Humans have a saying, “If you love them, let them go.” It’s a ridiculous sentiment, but regardless of how much you adore her, she will either keep trying to kill her child or die herself if he doesn’t treat her.”

Izanagi, reluctantly agreed, but his anger towards the son that had burned the bonds of its own family was murderous. The only thing that stayed his hand, was knowing that Ishtar would make him suffer a thousand fold any harm he done the child.

“Fine, but please drop the babe of with his sister, she is likely the only one immune to the boy’s flames and the only one able to survive teaching him control.”

For the first time, Ishtar’s arrival at her door was unwelcome, the news grieved her deeply and became a wound on her heart that festered with each passing moment.

The only time she had ever been so withdrawn, was after a squabble with her brother Susanoo in the wake of ill-behaviour. Unlike then however, she was not a child and could not hide in a cave whilst she threw a tantrum, she was a god that governed things no one could do without.

She withdrew yes, but only inside of herself. Her heart walled off all but completely, she performed her duties as a shadow of her once glorious and illuminating self.

Her siblings visited her regularly, but she spoke not a word to anyone, she performed her duties and raised her brother but interacted with no one and done nothing beyond that.

She loved them all dearly in spite of their flaws. If the mother she loved and who had no flaws to speak of could fall as low as Ishtar had told her, then how long until the flawed ones hurt her just as deeply.

Time ticked on and her brother reached maturity and finished his training under her tutelage, but that just meant the end of her interactions.

The only one that even dared to approach her anymore was the ever persistent fox, Tenko, who only wanted her body and only so desperately because he couldn’t have it.

As she rested in her inner sanctum, a timeless space in the heart of a yellow sun, the door suddenly flew into the realm’s fiery cocoon.

“You have moped long enough child! I apologise for my absence, but I have had orders to follow, now is the time to pull yourself together.”

The voice was unmistakably Ishtar’s, one she now associated with the most grave news she had ever received. In an act of futile defiance she raised an open hand and clenched it into a fist.

The motion was that of a puppet-master pulling strings and as she did so, the sun around them closed in, not that she was under any delusion it would be enough to harm Ishtar.

To her surprise though, she suddenly heard the Elder-god screaming. Her head shot up and she saw Ishtar’s flesh bubbling and burning away, immediately opening a clenched fist to make the sun return to normal.

She ran over to aid the wounded goddess, slidinng the last few feet on her knees as she started healing the damage. “Why did you let it burn you!?”

“You aren’t the only one who still mourns that day. I couldn’t risk leaving my mind-form undefended, but I wanted to know what it felt like for her, to be cremated from the inside out across every layer of her being.”

She coughed up blood which continued to bubble after being brought to the boil. “Are you sure you protected your mind-form? If not then you were half-mad before you even set foot in here!”

“I have to say, I think if anything your mother under-reacted, that was certainly an experience I’ve no wish to second.

Look child, I know how much you hurt, I carry plenty of pain myself, but living in fear of living is being a corpse with a pulse.

Your mother was lucky we were there to stop her killing a child, but if you die as a result, then she truly did die a monster.”

Amaterasu was lost, no idea how she could possibly live and risk suffering through the pain of such a thing again. Ishtar’s unique brand of harsh and brutal comfort wasn’t exactly helping either.

“Do you want to follow in my footsteps and experience her pain first hand?”

The words left Amaterasu wondering if her mother’s old friend truly had gone mad, reminding her that no flame could burn her even if she wished to.

“Are you certain? I think you might be surprised, suns are very hot yes, but have you ever felt purgatorial flames? They burn far hotter and I have some on hand, since you seem to need a lesson and a friend, why don’t we “kill two birds” as the humans say.”

Amaterasu considered Ishtar’s proposal, finally agreeing and Ishtar told her to focus all the divinity she could muster in her womb.

When she had done that, she was instructed to picture the most beautiful child she could ever want and then began focusing enough of her own divinity to stabilise the creation.

When Amaterasu confirmed one last time that she wished to proceed, Ishtar introduced the purgatorial flames and accelerated the process.

When Amaterasu went into labour, she restored time to normal and supported her through all twenty hours of the experience.

It had worked and as Amaterasu held the baby girl with wings of fire that could burn even her, Ishtar stretched her barrier over the new mother to include her physical body.

“I see what you mean. As someone who had never been burned, I had no right to judge someone reacting to a thing I couldn’t understand.”

“Never worry child, but you have fallen for my trap so I shall leave you to enjoy the consequences…” Of course Amaterasu asked what “trick” she was speaking of. “…Raising a brother is one thing, but you’re a mother now, so you have no choice but to risk loving another.

Now, what will you call your daughter?”

“I’ll call her Suzaku, I think I’ll make her the representative of our element and my season, I’ll also make her the guardian of the south when she’s older…”

Ishtar chuckled, scarcely able to believe how far she’d planned the life of a child she didn’t even know she was having, then turned and left.

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