Himeko sprinted through the woods, lungs on fire and legs aching with every step. It felt just like when she had been fleeing from the Sixth Neck, only that time she'd been running away from danger and now she was running towards it.
They'd been fleeing for a couple of minutes, weaving through the trees. Professor Ohgami was leading the way, but she looked back over her shoulder every few seconds to make sure that the girls were with her. Himeko hated that she was abandoning Chikane to fight alone, but her twin was right. She couldn't help, and the Orochi would certainly try to use her against her beloved.
Minako turned her head again, then stopped in her tracks and turned around. Marika spun, too, wondering what her aunt was seeing, and a quizzical expression crossed her face.
"Huh? What's--"
Himeko was about to turn and see, too, when Professor Ohgami took a step forward and in a motion so smooth as to be almost instantaneous, reached out, caught Marika by the neck and shoulder, and snapped her spine.
The scream caught in Himeko's throat so all that emerged was a terrified whimper.
"Why...why did you do that?" she forced out through a voice that was suddenly choking off with tears.
"Because I've always liked her, and I wanted her death to be clean and easy, without suffering," Minako replied matter-of-factly.
"You...you're Orochi!" Himeko gasped, backing away on suddenly shaking legs. Chikane! I have to warn Chikane!
"Yes."
She waved her hand and a glowing violet seal blazed up on the ground beneath Himeko's feet. When she hit the edge she was stopped cold, as if the glowing symbol was only the base of a cylinder.
"Stay there for a while," the professor told her. "I have to go see your sister, and I don't want you interfering."
"Chikane!" Himeko screamed, finally finding her voice. "Chikane!"
"Feel free to shout all you like; sound only travels one way through that seal. I thought you might distract her, otherwise. Perhaps I'll tell her hello for you?
Himeko had beat on the seal with her fists, tried scraping away the markings on the ground with her shoe but nothing worked. She'd been forced to wait there, terrified of what the professor would do to Chikane, until the seal finally vanished. She immediately set off at a dead run to get to Chikane, hoping against hope that she'd find her twin alive and well.
The run took only a few minutes but seemed to last an eternity before she came out of the woods. The shrine residence was just gone, together with a large chunk of the forest behind it. The courtyard looked like it had been shelled by artillery, and four figures could be seen. Two men and a woman were sprawled, still and unmoving, but the fourth...
"Chikane!"
Tears were streaming down Himeko's face when she reached the other girl.
"You're all right! I was so scared, Chikane! Professor Ohgami is an Orochi! She killed Marika, and I thought she--" Belatedly, she realized that Chikane's eyes were shadowed, her face as black and hopeless as she'd ever seen in this life. "Ch-Chikane?"
"I know, Himeko," she said softly, no, dully. "Not just an Orochi, but the Solar Priestess as well."
"The Solar Priestess too? How?"
Chikane shook her head.
"I don't know, but she is. She had the mark, and the full power of Yokusemi no Mizuchi besides. She destroyed three of the other Necks--I'd already killed one--then held me down, helpless. I couldn't do anything at all to fight her. Then she took my blood, so that she could wholly unseal Orochi itself." She held out her arm, where she'd bound the slash up with a strip off her T-shirt. Red had seeped through; the wound probably would need stitches at the very least if Chikane hadn't been Lunar Priestess.
"Then she's going to summon Yamata no Orochi?"
Chikane nodded.
"I don't see how anything can stop her."
-X X X-
Minako landed lightly on the eighth torii as she arrived in the Orochi shrine. Anger and hatred hammered at her in palpable waves, not directed at her precisely but at the totality of the world, at all existence. There was a certain purity to it; Yamata no Orochi's malice was so all-encompassing that it transcended boundaries. Even the despised miko of Ame no Murakumo who had sealed it so many times were not held worse than any other human; they were merely its enemies.
"Don't worry; I'm going to let you out to play in a minute," she said up at the dark sun. "But first things...well, First things...first."
She leapt from her gate across to the only one still occupied by a Neck. At close range, the ruin of Reiko Himemiya actually made her flinch, not so much from sympathy but from the realization that this was precisely what Chikane had hoped to accomplish in that battle.
"Scary girl," she remarked. It kind of proved her point, though, when the good side was represented by someone like that.
Reiko whimpered when Minako bent down and yanked the black sword from her grasp. The solar mark glowed fiercely from the older woman's chest and black fire ran up and down her arms as she summoned her power as a priestess and an Orochi both.
Then she snapped the Shadow of Take no Sukunazuchi over her knee. The sword dissolved into nothingness, and Reiko squealed, more like a wounded animal than a person. Minako grabbed her by the shirtfront, holding her up at arm's length easily with the enhanced strength of a fully empowered Neck.
"If it's any consolation to you, what I have in mind for Chikane will be much worse than this."
She opened her hand, and the girl plummeted through the clouds, echoed by a dull thud a moment later. The surge of malice from Orochi's eye above confirmed the death.
"And now no human wills remain to confuse or distract. The eight gods will act as one, guided only by my intent."
She returned to her own gate and faced the center of her shrine.
"Yokusemi no Mizuchi!" she shouted. The demon appeared behind her gate, throwing no shadow in the sunless temple of Orochi.
"Beneath darkness are gathered the eight ancient gods:" she intoned.
"Take no Sukunazuchi!"
Behind the First Neck's gate, a towering shape began to manifest, shadowed armor with rotting black wings, a straight sword in the ancient Chinese style held point-downward in its gauntlets. It was translucent, even wavering--a mere Shadow of itself without the tangible force of Minako's own god, but it was there, manifested at her command.
"Yatsu no Onokoshizuchi!"
A tentacled horror like a massive worm with a forest of eye-tipped and claw-tipped tentacles seething and twisting around its hideous maw.
"Hi no Ashinazuchi!"
A hulking, hunchbacked giant whose quadruple-sized right arm was only its most obvious deformity.
"Ooube no Senazuchi!"
A centipede-like creature with an antlion's mandibles wreathed in hungry flames.
"Ho no Shuraizuchi!"
A titanic humanlike head, only with two faces, one wreathed in hatred and one in despair, slowly rotating to show both sides. Stark madness stared out of all four eyes.
"Izuhara no Tamazuchi!"
A great black panther, the length of its body studded by irregular-shaped eyes and leering, fanged maws.
"Take no Yamikazuchi!"
A second armored figure, this one like a samurai with a full-face mask of a fanged devil, but bearing no weapon in its gauntleted hands.
"Yokusemi no Mizuchi!"
The hawk-demon screamed its hatred and defiance to the heavens.
"Now is the time for all to become one!"
She unsheathed the Solar Blade and extended it before her.
"Orochi is darkness!"
The dried blood that smeared its tip began to shimmer.
"Orochi is the snake that twists in the core of the world!"
As if absorbing moisture from somewhere, it started to glisten.
"Orochi is mankind's malice!"
Liquid again, the droplets began to trail down the steel.
"Orochi is the darkness born from between the stars!"
The first drop separated from the blade, but instead of falling it flew upward, rising towards the hungry eye above.
"Orochi is the name of the gods!"
Eight inhuman, monstrous voiced roared a crescendo as the blood-drops rose.
"Yamata no Orochi is the will that binds those gods together!"
A ringing chime seemed to echo through Orochi's shrine, like the tolling of a funeral bell.
And the dark eye began to grow and swell.
-X X X-
Throughout the town of Mahoroba, the earth shook. Seven seals were torn asunder as the will of Yamata no Orochi called to its imprisoned body. Titanic pillars of violet-streaked darkness reared into the sky; those who looked at them shuddered and turned their heads away. The darklights seemed to radiate shadow, not as the mere absence of light but as an inherent, positive quality that could stand by itself.
The pillars extended into the sky, joined by an eighth that seemed to conjure from thin air. They converged, as if drawing together as they reached for a single point in the sky, soaring towards the pale silver of a daylight moon.
-X X X-
The seal was broken.
Staring up at the eye of Orochi, Minako could see that the dark sun wasn't a "sun" or "eye" at all, but a window. With the seal that was its "glass" broken, the unfettered power of the god poured forth in a seething cloud of blackness. The eight gods--all now fully incarnate--stared up at it, trembling with restrained eagerness to fulfill their sole purpose.
Then Minako screamed as the will of Orochi filled her. The pain was excruciating; power no human was meant to command tore at her soul. But where the Orochi's force was chaotic and unfocused, its Eighth Neck's will remained pure and controlled. The light blazed forth from her chest, enhancing, focusing the chaos of Orochi into a single path.
Her path.
Perhaps none but one of Ame no Murakumo's miko could have carried this burden, mastering the will of the totality of Orochi as the Necks did with their individual gods. Even then, "mastery" was a hypothetical concept at best.
But then again, the only command Minako wanted to give was the one the god wanted to carry out anyway.
"Go!" she roared into the darkness. "Go and tear this miserable world to pieces!"
-X X X-
It was as if all nature had turned on itself at once. Volcanoes erupted, spewing pillars of magma and ash high into the atmosphere. The seas rose, thousand-foot tsunami cresting over coastal cities. In the hearts of the deserts, winds rose, sirocco that raged with such intensity that stone and metal were scoured away to nothing. Fire engulfed forests and jungles; ice storms of impossible intensity blasted the polar regions, instantly sheathing entire cities in foot-thick layers of frost.
And everywhere, everywhere, people died.
-X X X-
In Mahoroba, the shaking had never stopped. Buildings fell; fissures opened in the ground. Ruptured gas lines supplied fuel for sparks and whatever wasn't being hurled down seemed to be set alight. The screams of the dying rose from the valley.
In the shattered courtyard of the Ohgami Shrine, Himako clung to Chikane, tears streaming down her face.
"Mother...Father...everyone!" she whimpered. "Chikane, isn't there anything we can do?"
"She's really done it," Chikane said, cradling her beloved close but not looking at her, instead looking up into the sky, at the seething blot of darkness on the face of the moon so immense that she could see it from earth. "She's summoned Yamata no Orochi and unleashed it upon the world. Only Ame no Murakumo can stop what is to come, and without both priestesses we can't summon the god. Professor Ohgami isn't a virgin, so she'd have to shed my blood to break the seal, and I can't see her...cooperating..."
Her voice trailed off, causing Himeko to lift her face away from her twin's chest to look at her.
"Chikane?"
Then Chikane laughed. It was not a nice laugh. It was a cruel laugh, the merriment of a person taking pleasure in the misery of an enemy. Yet to Himeko it was as sweet as the music Chikane could coax from the piano. Her eyes widened, and she could feel her smile grow as hope filled her, driving out grief and fear.
"She doesn't need to cooperate. She already has!" She let go of Himeko and touched her bandage. "Isn't this the blood of a pure priestess as shed by the other?"
"Then...you can...?"
Chikane shook her head.
"No, we can. You and I. It takes two people, after all."
"But I don't have--" Himeko began, but stopped suddenly, her face lighting up as memory struck her. "Oh! Souma!"
"Exactly! Last time he filled in for me. This time, you can fill in for...well, yourself." Chikane was not going to give that lying traitor the honor of acknowledging her as the rightful Solar Priestess. "Let's go."
They ran as fast as they could from the courtyard to the hidden shrine. The ground continued to tremble beneath their feet as they traveled, and more than once Himeko lost her balance, having to be caught by Chikane to keep from falling.
"I'm sorry," she said when she stumbled a third time. "I'm such a klutz; I can't seem to keep my feet under me while the ground's shaking like this."
"Don't worry," Chikane told her while helping her up. "I'm sure you'll get your 'sea legs' in a minute."
Truthfully, Chikane was more worried about how the cave would react to the quaking earth. How much stress could it take? If the holy place was buried, could Ame no Murakumo even be called?
Her fears were not borne out, though. The cave entrance was right where it should have been, open and unblocked. When they took their first steps inside, they were surprised by why.
"Oh! The ground is stable in here!" Himeko exclaimed.
"You're right. I wonder why? When we performed the ritual of unsealing, the boundaries were destroyed, so this shouldn't be an enclosed space. And even so, the earthquakes are because of the power of Orochi, so they should be able to break down barriers in ways that natural events couldn't."
"Maybe it's because they're caused by Orochi?" Himeko tentatively suggested.
"Oh?"
Chikane called on her power to illuminate the dark passage, a soft moonglow washing through it.
"Well...the quakes are like Orochi's attack on the earth itself, and the shrine is the one point in the world closest to Ame no Murakumo, right?" the blonde tried to explain. She wasn't sure if she was saying it right, but Chikane understood her right away.
"So perhaps it's more resistant to Orochi's power than other places?" She placed the flat of her hand against the passage wall, feeling the faintest of vibrations coming through the rock, and set the thought aside. Ultimately it didn't matter, not unless the cave came down on their heads.
Quickly they came to the shore of the underground lake and picked their way through the broken gates until they came to the end of the stone pier beneath the great rock. Chikane took a deep breath, then gripped Himeko's hands with her own.
"Are you ready?"
Himeko nodded.
"Um-hm!"
"Okay, then."
Chikane unwound the bandage from her arm, then drew the Lunar Blade and extended the hilt towards Himeko. Her twin took the blade, her left hand and Chikane's right holding the hilt, combining to form a two-handed swordsman's grip.
"Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi:"
Himeko's voice joined with hers as easily as it had before. Solar Priestess or not, her soul knew the words.
"With the Mutsu Sword, we begin the ritual to cease the god."
Chikane extended the slip of bloodstained fabric.
"In my hand, the Moon bleeds that which..."
She let it fall, slipping away into the water.
"Your sword, the Sun has shed."
She could feel it! The power was gathering, it was working.
"Descend, God of Swordsmen, Ame no Murakumo!"
Here was perhaps the hardest part. Chikane had to pray for the god's revival, not just perform the ritual but actually crave it, wish for it in her heart of hearts. If there was anything she wasn't good at, it was submitting to the will of another. She glanced at Himeko, who smiled hopefully at her, and Chikane realized how stupid her last thought had been.
Please, let me make her smile shine forever.
Golden lightning crackled up and down the split face of the great stone.
-X X X-
On the moon, a shrine lay in ruins. It had been shattered, torn apart from within by a tremendous force. Here the will of Yamata no Orochi had lain sealed, and in its release only destruction lay in its wake. Yet more slept here than just darkness. So too did its eternal guardian reside, awaiting the call that rose to it from the dying planet like a spark of light. Since it had felt the first stirrings of the sealed god it had awaited that call, and when at last the prayer reached it the response was immediate. A pillar of light as brilliantly glowing as those of Orochi had been dark arose from the shrine and descended across the gulf of space in an instant like a great silver sword slashing the heavens.
-X X X-
The world exploded in silver light around Himeko. The mountain itself seemed to vanish; the cavern was thrown open to the sky by the descending power of the god. The brilliance seemed to surround her, infusing every part of her being. It sang through her body, restoring her inside and out. The presence was almost unbearable, as if the light filled her up to near-bursting, but it was also somehow sweet, and familiar. As Solar Priestess she'd borne this burden easily; as a normal girl it was hard, even terrible, but she managed--more than managed--to cope.
When her sight cleared she found herself next to Chikane, within a sphere of brilliant silver radiance. Chikane seemed fully healed; there was no sign of her injuries from the battle and her jeans and T-shirt had vanished, replaced by her priestess garb. It, too, showed no sign of damage; her vestments were neither torn nor stained. Himeko's clothes had changed, too, replaced by robes identical to the priestesses' but snowy white, without color.
"It worked!" She clapped her hands giddily. "Now we can save everyone, Chikane!"
Chikane smiled sweetly at her.
"You'll never change, will you?"
"Um, did I say something wrong?"
"No, Himeko, you said something very right."
"Oh...okay." She wasn't quite sure that she understood, but if Chikane was happy, then she wasn't going to worry about it.
Chikane extended a hand to her, and Himeko took it, lacing their fingers together.
"Let's go."
"Mmn!"
They streaked upwards, suspended within the sphere of light. The power of Ame no Murakumo carried them high above the shattered mountain, higher and higher until the air was so thin they would never have been able to breathe without the god's aid. The barrier surrounding them sustained their existence, preventing mere environmental concerns from touching them.
"Look," Chikane said. "It's already the beginning of the end."
Himeko followed the direction of her sister's gaze, seeing the curve of the earth stretch out before them. It was tearing itself apart, as if the planet's core was expanding, swelling obscenely within its shell so that the plates of its crust were separated on the suddenly larger mantle. Great walls of flame spewed thousands of feet upwards along the edges, forming a hellish web across the earth's surface.
"We have to beat Orochi and Professor Ohgami," she urged. "It's the only way."
It's so strange, Himeko thought. This is just like my past life. The planet in ruins and I'm flying to confront the one responsible, but I feel so different. Then she hadn't been going to fight, but to find Chikane, to learn why she'd done such things to the world and, yes, to her. Now, Chikane was at her side, and it really felt like there would be a battle. She hoped she'd be able to do her part; so far it had been Chikane who'd had to bear the weight of all the fighting, and Himeko didn't want her to have to do it all alone.
"There's only one place she can be," Chikane decided.
"The Lunar Shrine?"
"Yes...there! I can feel her presence. The power of Ame no Murakumo can always seek out his priestesses." She turned to Himeko and smiled. "Are you ready?"
"Uh-huh!"
In an instant they were hurled across the gulf of space, flying from Earth to the moon in seconds. Below them they could see the ruined shrine, its walls sundered, the stairway hurled down by the escape of the unsealed demon. They could see her there, the lone figure of the Solar Priestess, and they arrowed towards her. Minako looked up, but she showed no sign of surprise. Instead, a smug little smile played around her lips.
Then eight mouths opened. Eight voices shook the heavens with their fury and hate, malice and despair, and the great bulk of Yamata no Orochi reared up to engulf them.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A/N: Manga Himeko's most telling characteristic, apart from her love for Chikane, has to be her strength of will. She isn't particularly smart, she's not perceptive at all (witness her repeatedly thinking Chikane was in love with Souma...), she's physically weak, she's easily scared...and she recovers from extreme trauma in a matter of panels. She shrugs off being raped without even the short-term shock that anime Himeko goes through, she sees the world destroyed (including the death of Makoto and Kazuki) but immediately refocuses on finding Chikane, and she sees Chikane kill Souma right in front of her and in less than two full pages she's saving Chikane's life (better yet, within four pages she's asking Chikane "Why did you have to do that?"--Chikane thinks she's talking about killing Souma, but Himeko's already brushed that off--see pp. 185-190).
I mention this just in case anyone's wondering about how easily Himeko deals with Marika being killed in this chapter.
Basically, while Himeko can be startled or horrified by the initial shock of an act of violence or tragedy, she's capable of accepting it immediately and moving on without dwelling upon it. She is much, much tougher, mentally speaking, than Chikane is. I suppose it's an open question whether it was this quality of hers that made Ame no Murakumo select her as a priestess, or whether she's gone slightly around the bend from too many centuries in solitary confinement within the Lunar Shrine. I'm a romantic, so I tend to pick the former.
Minako's incantation is adapted from two of Chikane's monologues to Orochi in Vol. 2 of the manga, while Chikane's is very loosely adapted from Himeko's summoning in Episode 11 of the anime.
As for Ame no Murakumo's power being expressed by silver radiance rather than gold, that came from the fact that in the anime, when Himeko and Souma are flying the AnM mech, it's colored silver and blue. It only turns golden later on after the confession scene in Episode 12. The manga's black-and-white pages don't permit us to see the particular color scheme, but it's clear that when Himeko calls back the god to catch the falling Chikane it similarly has a new, glittering paint job. So with this evidence, I've decided that silver is the color of the god's power, as bestowed on its human vessels, while gold represents the actual will of the god, acting directly in the world. You could just as easily argue that the gold color is specifically that of the Solar Priestess while blue represents the Lunar Priestess (see ep. 12), but that's getting too confusing for the manga. ;)
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