Shadow of the Past

"Sanno!" echoed in the darkness. Having crossed the boundary of reality and the new dimension created by the explosion of Magmatama, Sanno was mentally transported to the past, when he wasn’t yet an old man, in which life was supported by cybernetic implants.

Five-year-old Sanno was running down the street, hurrying to his mother's work, with packages in his hands. A man suddenly appeared from behind a building, the boy crashed into him, dropping the things.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?"

"Huh? A foreigner!?"

Sanno didn’t accept the helping hand and began to collect the food that fell out of the packages. The stranger decided to help after all. When they finished, the foreigner held out a small glass dome with something inside.

"Here, take this as an apology."

Sanno didn’t trust foreigners, but he didn’t want to refuse a free thing. He quickly grabbed it and ran away.

"I didn't tell you how to use it!"

Sanno arrived just in time for his mother's lunch break and delivered the bento to her. He also showed her the glass dome.

"What is this?"

"I don't know, a stupid foreigner gave it to me. I think there's something inside."

It wasn't hard for his mother, who worked in a sewing factory, to find a magnifying glass. They saw a microscopic octopus with a wind-up key on its head. The mother wound it up with the smallest needle, and the octopus began to move, moving exactly like an octopus.

"Unbelievable!" Sanno cried out. "I have to show this to daddy!"

"Wait!"

Sanno grabbed the octopus and immediately threw it away, pricking himself. Sanno put his finger with blood in his mouth.

When the wound healed, the boy went on his way.

"Sanno, you forgot your lunch!"

Holding the octopus dome in his hands, the Boy turned around cheerfully, coming to his senses and anticipating a delicious lunch.

"If only I hadn't forgotten my bento, then… But all the gods have abandoned me… except one."

The Boy headed towards his mother, but before he could reach her, he saw his mother turn into a black silhouette with a frozen, shining, loving smile. A bright light poured out from behind the woman, and then an explosion was heard.

August 9, 1945. Nagasaki.

"No, it was destined by fate"

The mother instantly turned to ashes. All that was left of her was the so-called shadow of Hiroshima: a scorched trace on the ground in the shape of a person. She protected her son with her body and didn’t even have time to understand it.

However, the shock wave and the residual glow were still dangerous. At that moment, the power of Susanoo awakened inside Sanno, as he believed then. The pores all over his body suddenly opened, releasing a gas that refracted light. It did little to help with the shock wave, but it did soften his fall.

Sanno's father, Ikari Shin, was an experienced aircraft designer and test pilot. He helped develop the famous Japanese fighter "A6M Zero" by Horikoshi Jiro during World War II. At the time of the explosion, Shin was testing a new prototype in the skies over Nagasaki, which was supposed to "save Japan." Although most were already aware of the inevitable capitulation. The plane was damaged by the shock wave, his father died.

Five-year-old Sanno had only memories of his parents.

“Do you know who the kamikaze are?” The father asked.

"Brave pilots who ram enemy ships, sacrificing their lives! For Japan and the Emperor!"

"Ha-ha, that's right, but why do they call them that? Because they’re the gods of the wind! Now it’s extremely important to achieve dominance in the sky — this is the future!"

"Wind gods? Like Susanoo?"

"Almost, haha… Now I need to continue working on the blueprints. Help Mom in the kitchen."

"O-okay!"

"Damn Americans… that damn Amaterasu… and the power of the stars that killed my parents…"

Sanno became an orphan of the war, left without relatives. he’d to do everything to survive. When he grew up and got a job at a machine factory, Sanno became obsessed with mechanisms, like his father. Gradually training the abilities he received from Susanoo, he also became obsessed with revenge against Amaterasu.

At the age of 12, Sanno saw a report on TV at the factory about an unusual pillar of light near the city of Izumo. He then settled in a small village near which there was a flash of light. There he made friends with the village children, among whom were Fumiko, Ami, and Yomi.

But the closeness between the latter two and Sanno's age prevented them from getting close enough. The children called Ami the sunshine girl, but Sanno had no way of verifying this.

Then he tamed a flock of cicadas with the power of Susanoo and set them on Tsutomu. To his delight, a pillar of light confirmed his guess, but to his horror, Yomi's grandfather died. However, the tragedy brought Ami and Yomi together.

Sanno didn’t want to kill the children and desired Ami's power. He left the village.

Sanno's search for new power led him to Izanami's grave. At a basalt crevice, he saw a foreigner doing something. When he finished, he noticed Sanno and said.

"My God! It's unusual to see a man here. I thought only women in labor came here."

The foreigner left, but his voice seemed eerily familiar.

Thus, Sanno found the mysterious black magatama. They were studied for the next years.

Returning to Izumo, he learned of Ami and Yomi's marriage. In a fit of rage, Sanno set cicadas on Yomi. But it turned out to be an incarnation of Tsukiyomi, the brother of Susanoo and Amaterasu. When Ami burned the cicadas with light, it reflected off Yomi and burned Sanno's eyes.

"Cursed Tsukiyomi… was always Amaterasu's beloved brother…"

After Yomi became infected with Izanami and fell into a coma, Sanno fled Izumo to recover.

And when he returned to Izumo, Ami wasn’t there. Sanno again immersed himself in engineering and magatama research, until knowledge wasn’t enough.

He entered a university in Fukuoka, where he unexpectedly met Ami and Fumiko. Their friendship sparkled in a new way; Sanno became Ami's senpai. They were constant rivals in kendo training and at the mountaineering club. Ikari didn't even notice how he fell in love with Ami, although he pushed her away with his behavior.

Their bond deepened when they began working together in the nascent cybernetic lab.

"Just a couple of months ago…"

Professor Tekumi, under whom they worked, began.

"Professor Ichiro Kato and I returned from the Mihail Pupin Institute in Serbia. We participated in the development of prostheses for disabled people of World War II. After many years, thanks to Rajko Tomovic and Miodrag Rakic, we finally finished the world's first bionic prosthesis! In scientific circles, it has already been nicknamed the "Belgrade Hand."

Thus, Ami received the first prosthesis to replace the hand she lost when lightning struck. However, she continued to push Sanno away and avoided relationships, obsessed with the return of her husband's soul. Then Sanno also stepped aside, immersing himself in new research, trying to create the perfect prosthesis.

Noticing his zeal and talent, Professor Tekumi recommended him to the rapidly growing Mukibutsu company, where Sanno continued to improve himself.

However, even the new incredible prosthesis he invented didn’t advance his relationship with Ami, although she was grateful. Sanno gave in and devoted himself entirely to Mukibutsu and Izanami, escaping from the uncertainty of his feelings.

Shuichi Yamanaka highly appreciated Sanno's successes and accepted him into his laboratory, which was engaged in revolutionary research in cybernetics. But their way was blocked by subsidiaries belonging to Sun Guardians.

Ikari used the power of Izanami and instilled in them the idea that they needed to get rid of them, to decapitate their leadership. They hired two yakuza, offering good money. At the end of the mission, the yakuza were beheaded and used in head transplant experiments. In the future, Takeshi got one of the bodies of his killers.

In secret, Sanno continued to create the DYM — Dai Yami Magatama, the great dark magatama, which he placed in the sky above the Tsukiyami family cemetery.

Initially, he only wanted to scare Ami by reconstructing the myth of the cursed rain, but everything went too far again. Sanno constantly heard Izanami, who revealed part of the plans. She wanted to collect the genes of her three "greatest children": Susanoo, Amaterasu, and Tsukiyomi. But Ami prevented her from getting the last two. However, there were other ways to return Izanami to this world.

"This is what happened… Ami spent all the red magatama, some remained in the umbrella. And when the white and black ones met them… Yomotsuhira opened. You fooled me, Izanami."

"Don't be upset, my son. We’re already close to the goal…”

Sanno opened his eyes and saw a blood-red glow coming from the bottom of the…

Abyss.