Episode 49: The Gaze from Takamagahara — Sister Amaterasu's Sorrow

[Prologue] The Ruthless Conclusion Reflected in the Water Mirror

The heavenly realm, Takamagahara.

A majestic shrine built upon an endlessly spreading sea of silvery-white clouds.

In the most tranquil chamber located in its deepest recesses, a single beautiful goddess knelt before a pure water mirror.

Amaterasu Omikami.

As the absolute sun goddess who illuminated all creation and the young queen who ruled Takamagahara, her face was not its usual calm, brimming with affection; rather, it was pale with deep sorrow and anguish.

The water mirror reflected the scenery of the seashore in the lower world (Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni).

What echoed there was the sentence of Kanyarai (Divine Expulsion) by their father, Izanagi—that is, the declaration of Takehaya Susanoo-no-Mikoto's permanent banishment.

"There is no place for you in this country, eternally."

Amaterasu watched without a single blink the moment when, alongside her father's ruthless voice, the raging nature fell silent and the "providence of the ocean" possessed by Susanoo was completely stripped away from the world.

The image in the water mirror flickered, showing Izanagi ascending back to the heavens.

The eight million gods (Yaoyorozu-no-Kami) waiting in the corridors of the shrine let out sighs of relief one after another.

"Oh... the decision handed down by the supreme Lord Izanagi.

With this, the defilement of the earth will be swept away, and the world shall be at peace once more."

However, amidst the murmurs of relief from the gods, Amaterasu alone endured an intense pain as if the depths of her chest were being gouged by a sharp blade.

Her white hands resting on her lap trembled slightly with an emotion that was neither quite anger nor sorrow.

[Chapter 1] Unreachable Light and Remorse

"What kind of... sun that illuminates all creation am I?"

A small, self-deprecating scoff, so quiet no one else could hear it, escaped Amaterasu's pale cherry-blossom lips.

She had bestowed light and warmth upon every life in the world, nurtured the flora, and cherished the beasts.

She was granted absolute trust by the gods of Takamagahara as their "perfect and merciful ruler."

Yet, even with her immense, sacred light, she could never manage to illuminate the darkness of "loneliness" nesting in the heart of her closest blood brother, Susanoo.

(That clumsy brother merely wanted to be loved. He was simply crying out, seeking a warmth that would embrace him.)

Amaterasu understood the root of Susanoo's practically violent sorrow.

A brother who, despite being burdened with the colossal power of a god, retained the heart of an innocent child.

His madness did not stem from a malicious desire to destroy the world.

It was a tragedy caused by a power far too great failing to fit into a vessel far too fragile.

"Why was I unable to hold him...?"

As she gazed at the figure of Susanoo standing completely alone, covered in mud on the beach within the water mirror, a single tear traced down her cheek.

If only she had cast aside her facade as the ruler of Takamagahara, descended to the earth, and held her brother's hand, couldn't she have changed something before their father made the worst decision of "banishment"?

The intense remorse that her perfect sense of responsibility as the sun had ironically robbed her of the chance to save her one and only family mercilessly tormented her heart.

[Chapter 2] The Non-Intersecting Destiny of Light and Dark

However, Amaterasu knew.

Her inability to reach out to Susanoo was not out of mere negligence or coldness. Her destiny as the "Sun" absolutely forbade it.

Born from the same ablutions, she, too, had no "Mother."

The sense of emptiness and loneliness—wondering what she existed for—undoubtedly resided within Amaterasu's heart as well.

But by bearing the heavy burden of "illuminating the world" entirely on her own shoulders, she had strictly sealed that loneliness deep within her heart.

For if she were to complain of weakness even a little and let her light dim, the world would instantly be enveloped in darkness, and all life would perish.

(I was afraid that if I touched his overly pure lament, the loneliness sealed within me would also resonate, and I might break down myself...)

Susanoo's darkness was far too deep and raw.

If Amaterasu pitied him and embraced his mud-stained madness, the purity of her absolute light would be defiled, and even the order of Takamagahara would collapse.

"Light" and "Darkness."

Born together, yet bearing the tragic destiny of being rulers of dimensions never allowed to intersect.

That was what had built an invisible wall of disconnect between the sister and brother.

[Chapter 3] An Ominous Premonition and the Brother's Eyes

It was when Amaterasu wiped her tears and cast her eyes down to the water mirror once more.

Susanoo, left alone on the muddy beach, slowly raised his face.

His gaze was not directed toward the underground Ne-no-Katasu-Kuni, but straight upward—toward this very Takamagahara.

Amaterasu's shoulders flinched with a start.

Even through the water mirror, the pitch-black emotion dwelling in his eyes pierced Amaterasu's entire body like an icy chill.

There was not a shred left of the "wailing child starved for affection" from moments before.

They were the eyes of a fierce god whose overly pure thirst for love, after being completely rejected by his father and stripped of any place in the world, had totally inverted into a "bottomless hatred and murderous intent" toward the world itself.

(...He's coming.)

Amaterasu intuited.

There was no way that brother with such raging power would meekly obey their father's command and descend to the bottom of hell without a word.

As a spite against their father, or as revenge against the world that took everything from him, he would definitely launch some kind of attack.

(What lies beyond his gaze... is me. Susanoo will absolutely invade this Takamagahara, the shining realm that was given everything and received our father's favor!)

Her pity as a sister rapidly shifted into the "defensive instincts" of an absolute ruler.

If Susanoo were to unleash his bottomless hatred and destructive power in Takamagahara, this sanctuary where the gods resided would face a tragedy worse than what occurred on the earth moments ago, and it would be utterly annihilated.

[Chapter 4] The War Maiden's Attire and a Tragic Resolve

"Listen, all of you!"

Amaterasu stood up forcefully with a snap and declared with a ringing voice toward the shrine's corridors.

Her voice held not a trace of her previous sorrow; it was brimming with the absolute majesty of the supreme deity ruling Takamagahara.

"A-Amaterasu Omikami? What is the matter?"

Ignoring the bewildered gods, Amaterasu pulled out the hairpin binding her beautifully long black hair, letting it down with a swish.

"Fortify the defenses of Takamagahara immediately! Set up camps on both banks of the Heavenly River of Tranquility (Ame-no-Yasukawa) and prepare your weapons!"

With a fluid motion, she retied her soft, feminine hairstyle into the looped braids (mizura) typically worn by male gods.

Then, she began to equip herself with weapons brought from the back of the shrine.

Around her left and right mizura, and the vines binding her wrists and ankles, she wrapped layer upon layer of clinking strings containing five hundred sacred, divine curved jewels (Yasakani-no-Magatama).

On her back, she slung two quivers—one massive quiver holding a thousand arrows, and another holding five hundred arrows—and in her hands, she firmly gripped a mighty bow of dread majesty (Itsu-no-Yumi).

"Lady Amaterasu... your appearance is just like a war god marching to battle... Whatever could be happening?!"

The god of wisdom, Omoikane, stepped forward, turning pale.

Holding her bow in one hand, Amaterasu strode toward the banks of Ame-no-Yasukawa, answering while staring straight ahead.

"My brother... Susanoo is coming."

In her eyes dwelled the light of a heartbreaking, yet terrifyingly cold-hearted resolve—she had prepared herself to strike down her blood brother with her own two hands.

[Chapter 5] The Approaching Black Storm

Just as Takamagahara began to scramble in preparation for battle.

RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE...!!

A terrifying sound like a massive earth tremor that violently shook the space between heaven and earth roared up from the lower world.

When the gods looked down at the earth from the banks of Ame-no-Yasukawa, a scene that made them doubt their own eyes spread out before them.

The withered mountains on the earth were being violently scraped away with a deafening roar, the seawater surged violently in reverse, and the thick dark clouds split cleanly in two.

From the epicenter of that destruction, an anomaly of divine aura, like a giant black tornado piercing the heavens, was ascending at breakneck speed straight toward Takamagahara.

"Hii...! W-What is that terrifying aura?!"

"The mountains rumble, and the land itself is screaming...!"

While the gods recoiled in terror, only the fully armed Amaterasu stood resolute and unyielding across the Heavenly River of Tranquility, gripping her mighty bow tightly.

*(Come, Susanoo. If you intend to defile this Takamagahara with that hatred and destroy the world...)*

Amaterasu hooked her fingers onto the bowstring.

(I, your sister, will shoot you through the very soul and end it!)

Along with a divine aura that shook the heavenly realm, her brother, who had fallen into complete darkness, approached.

The queen of light and the fierce god who lost everything.

The time for the first, last, and most tragic clash between sister and brother, which would determine the fate of the world in the Age of the Gods, was fast approaching.

(KAMIYO Episode 49: "The Gaze from Takamagahara — Sister Amaterasu's Sorrow" - End)

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