[The End of Osamu Ashikaga]: Freedom

Amaterasu’s quaint little shrine stood miles away from the city of Kyoto. It was nestled deep in the countryside, away from any immediate threat. And yet, even from such a distance, her shrine was rocked by tremors. The earth shuddered with every footstep taken by the colossal skeletons as they trampled upon Kyoto and its people.

Neighborhoods, shopping districts, grade schools, public parks, ancient shrines and temples, all of it became ash and debris beneath their skeletal feet and nebula cloaks. The people caught in the shadow of the skeletons were crushed in the most torturous positions.

With every step, hundreds of Japanese men, women, and kids died huddled and squished together, as many of them were running through the clogged highways leading out of the city. It simply wasn’t possible to outrun something that took such massive steps. Dozens of them were trampled on while in kneeling positions. The skeletal feet pushed their bodies down while one of their legs remained bent in a ninety-degree angle, their feet planted flat on the ground.

Some people were just a few paces shy of escaping the march of the skeletons. When their bony feet came crashing upon them, only half their bodies were crushed beneath their weight. Young and old, their faces crinkled in agony as their hips and legs were ground into red paste.

In their horrific, final moments, thousands of people were crushed while sandwiched between their neighbors. Their cheeks squished and flattened. Their teeth gnashed together. Their limbs folded backwards and inwards in grotesque and inhuman ways. The people who were fast enough to avoid being crushed beneath skeletal feet were quickly set ablaze by their long, nebula cloaks that dragged behind them.

Amaterasu stood on the stone steps of her shrine, watching the eastern horizon glow with an orange light. It wasn’t the rising sun that illuminated the sky, but the flames ravaging Kyoto and its people. The smoke and ashes rose like black pillars reaching towards the stratosphere. Even from far away, Amaterasu had a clear view of the smoke.

She reached out her hand as the air stank with the odors of sulfur and carbon. She watched a small flake of ash slowly fall from the air and into her palm. A warm breeze blew past her and pulled her hair and white robes backwards. The edges of her lips curved upward in a satisfied smile as she closed her eyes and spread out her arms.

When she focused, she could just faintly hear the distant screams of her people. The wind carried their dying cries and terrorized shrieks to Amaterasu like they were gifts.

Uzume’s soft voice rang out from behind. “Lady Amaterasu, we need to leave. We’ll die if we stay here.”

Amaterasu lowered her arms and slowly turned her head to face Uzume. “You heard him, Uzume. He’s going to destroy this entire world. There’s no safe place to go.”

“I know. That’s why I suggest we return to Heaven immediately. Everyone who worships us will die, but…at least we can wait for a peaceful end in Heaven. Surely that’s better than being crushed or eaten.”

“We’ll take Osamu’s children with us, then.”

“And what about Anne?”

“Leave her. Let her fend for herself.”

Amaterasu and Uzume hurried back inside the shrine. Handcuffed to a wooden chair, Anne wiggled around in her seat as the two goddesses walked past her and towards Osamu’s comatose children.

“Hey! Let me out of here!” Anne demanded. “Please! I don’t want to die!”

“I’ll grab Yuuto.” Uzume said.

“Answer me! You can’t just leave me here!” Anne cried.

Uzume carefully scooped Yuuto into her arms while Amaterasu carried Kiyoko out of her bed. Amaterasu turned her head beamed an apologetic glance at Anne, whose brows rose with shock.

“I’m sorry, but you’re on your own.” Uzume said. “We’re not taking one of his collaborators with us to Heaven.”

With those stinging words, Uzume and Amaterasu disappeared with the children. Heavy quietude fell upon the shrine as Anne realized she was facing the end of the world all alone. Another tremor rocked the building, causing the dozens of candles lining the sanctuary to flicker and the wooden support beams to creak under the stress.

She wept as she tried to wiggle her wrists out of the handcuffs. All she managed to do was cut her wrists against the steel edges of the handcuffs, causing them to bleed. She hyperventilated through her gritted teeth as she kept fighting against her restraints, squeezing more blood from her wrists in the process.

“Don’t let me die here, please!” Anne cried. “I don’t wanna die! Please! Please!”

The shrine doors suddenly opened. Surprised, Anne sat petrified in her chair. She slowly turned her head and saw Omagatoki standing before her with a dead, blank expression in her eyes.

“You’re…one of the Shoku Twins…” Anne said. “Please, can you help me? I need to get out of here! Amaterasu and Uzume already ran away! They left me to die!”

Omagatoki slowly walked towards Anne, her feet creaking against the wooden floorboards. She looked around in every direction as though she were trying to find someone. Her eyes darted across the corners of the shrine, only to return to Anne as she squirmed and wept in her seat. The ominous air Omagatoki brought into the room was more than enough for Anne to realize that she wasn’t here to save her.

Omagatoki bent her knees and met Anne at eye level. “Where did the exorcists take Manami?”

“What? Omagatoki, please! Get me out of here!”

Omagatoki stood up straight, her sights transfixed on the handcuffs around Anne’s wrists. “A world without light. A world without gods. A world without hope. Osamu is getting everything he wished for. But there are some who wish to trample on that wish. I need Manami in order to stop them.”

“If I tell you, will you let me go?” Anne asked.

Omagatoki nodded. “Of course.”

“After they captured her, they flew her back to Japan. They were supposed to land later today, but the flight’s been diverted to Exorcist HQ in Sapporo.”

“Sapporo…” Omagatoki said. “Looks like I’ll be going to Hokkaido then.”

“I told you what you wanted to hear! Now help me! Please!”

Omagatoki smirked. “You’re not in this chair by accident, you know.”

“…What?” Anne gasped.

“I’m sure he’s hated you from the moment he met you. He kept his emotions in check because he needed you and Manami to coordinate the attack on Kyoto. But then, in one fell swoop, he was able to end this world and take revenge on you at the same time. You’re here by Osamu’s design, not by accident.”

“Revenge? For Inari?”

Omagatoki backed a few paces away from Anne. “I wonder…should I put you out of your misery right here? No, that would be too easy.”

Anne struggled and squirmed in her seat, tipping the chair over on its side and crashing onto the floor. Her screams of terror filled the shrine as the tremors shook its foundations and caused the candles to flicker again. Tears streamed from Anne’s face, forming dark dots on the wooden floorboards.

“No! Please! Get me out of here! Get me out!” Anne wept.

“No. I don’t think I will. What a pity, for such a young and beautiful girl to die alone.”

Omagatoki clasped her hands and disappeared, leaving Anne to die in the shrine. Another tremor rocked the building and extinguished the candles, plunging Anne into total darkness. The only sounds that kept her company were the distant explosions and screams coming from Kyoto, as well as her own labored breathing.

She screamed for no one and wept in total darkness. It was the perfect revenge, designed for the young girl that mortally wounded his beloved Inari.

Amaterasu and Uzume had expected to find sanctuary in Heaven’s palace. They expected to be safe in a realm far removed from Earth. They thought their fellow gods would be waiting for them, or rallying behind Amatsu as they all pitched in to save the world. Nothing could have prepared them for what they actually saw.

Heaven’s palace lied in ruins. The fires consuming it had died down, leaving pillars of odorous smoke and ash lifting off the partially collapsed rubble. The realm was overcast and grayscale, with not a single sign of life or light to be found. Amaterasu and Uzume stood in dumbfounded shock atop the steps leading to the palace courtyard.

They walked towards the palace, peering into homes and bathhouses on the way. All they found were bodies, some face down in puddles of blood and other charred beyond recognition.

“What…what happened?” Uzume asked.

Amaterasu marched inside the palace with Uzume trailing close behind. Every turn they took and every hallway they looked down revealed more bodies and dying fires.

“They were attacked. Some of them have slash wounds.” Uzume said.

Continuing down the hall, Amaterasu stopped before the double-doored entrance to the throne room. She carefully stepped over rubble and splintered bone fragments, putting Kiyoko down on the floor before trying to push the door open. She struggled to open the door and push it past the fallen support beams on the other side, but after a few tries, she managed to get it open.

Amaterasu carefully lifted Kiyoko into her arms and followed Uzume into the throne room. Sealed off from the explosion, most of the room was intact. However, part of the room had caved in, bringing some of the support beams down upon Amaterasu’s throne. Her white, gold-trimmed throne, her lifelong symbol of sovereignty and servitude to her people, had been broken into pieces.

Uzume looked to Amaterasu, expecting her to be distraught and devastated at the destruction of the nation she had sacrificed everything to build. But her brows raised in shock as she saw a smile bloom on Amaterasu’s face. Instead of tears, her eyes sparkled with joy.

“Amaterasu?” Uzume muttered with widened eyes.

“They all wished this throne into existence.” Amaterasu said. “And I was chosen to take the seat. Osamu said that if the world would stop at nothing to kill him, he would destroy it in turn. And…if the pantheon would stop at nothing to overthrow me, then he would destroy it as well. We would both be free of our burdens. I am a queen no longer, Uzume. I’m finally free.

“Makes you wonder what the hell we fought so hard for, doesn’t it? All for the sake of this throne. Why did we change so much? Why did we become the monsters we are? It’s like we were all pushed by some invisible force. We went along with the madness, and for what? Survival? Ideology?”

“There is no force in this universe more powerful than the concept of a nation.” Uzume said. “I still remember when Gekko gave that speech to the gods. She was so young then. She couldn’t have realized just how right she was. Even we couldn’t have. I guess it’s the same story for every nation and every race. Every nation goes through its own madness. Wars, revolutions, genocides, whatever it may be. I doubt many of us agree with it. But…part of a collective…we become something other than ourselves.”

“It’s its own kind of Bloodcraft.” Amaterasu said. “But now we’re free. We have Osamu to thank for that.”

“Is this why you helped him? You wanted him to do all this, kill all these people?”

“I wanted someone, anyone, to find me.”

Amaterasu slouched to the ground with Kiyoko in her arms. Heaven was in ruins and the world would soon share its fate. It truly seemed like there was nothing else to do than to wait for humanity to be destroyed, and for any remaining gods to be cycled out.

Amaterasu released a heavy sigh. “Not Lady Amaterasu. Not the Queen of Heaven. Just…me.”

“Lady…I mean, Amaterasu. You asked me why I would stay loyal as terrible as you for all this time. And I said that once I found the words, I hoped you would listen to me.”

“Have you found them?”

Uzume smiled. “Not really. But I guess there’s no better time than now.”

“So, what’s the reason? I get the feeling you’re about to hit me with a love confession, Uzume.”

“No, it’s worse than that.”

“Worse? Oh boy, I can’t wait to hear this.”

“I believed in you. I believed you were still the little girl I grew up with. The same girl that snorted when she laughed. The same girl that got salt water in her nose the first time she ever went swimming. The same girl that would alway stop what she was doing and rush to help me when I needed it. That girl is who you truly are.

“The throne didn’t change you. It misguided you. You had to become this cunning trickster of a leader to keep us all alive and prepare us for war. We placed an incredible burden on your shoulders, and we got what we deserved.”

“A monster.” Amaterasu said.

“I’m sorry, Amaterasu. For all of it.”

“What do you mean? You didn’t do anything to me, Uzume.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect that little girl I knew from all of this. You always helped me, but I wasn’t strong enough to help you. All I could do was be by your side through the hardship. I didn’t want you to wander through the darkness by yourself. I thought it would be enough to just be there for you.”

Amaterasu turned her head, wiping the tears in her eyes with her sleeve. “You did more than enough. More than I deserved.”

Uzume stuck her hand out and pointed her pinky at Amaterasu. “Best friends forever?”

For the first time in centuries, Amaterasu felt her heart lighten and swell with joy. Uzume’s gesture reminded her of all the silly pinky promises they made as kids on the island, before the Shinto pantheon had ever existed.

Amaterasu wrapped her pinky around Uzume’s with a bright smile on her face. “Best friends forever.”

Back on Earth, beneath the darkness of the eclipse, a single, twin engine Learjet made its descent onto a remote airstrip north of Sapporo. The captain and first officer coordinated the landing perfectly, bringing the plane to a slow crawl after the wheels touched the tarmac.

Three male exorcists in plain clothes woke up from their naps, yawning as they stretched in their seats. Two other men remained awake the whole time, both of them sitting in the same row as their guest of honor; Manami Akiyama.

Her hair disheveled and her ocean-blue eye surrounded by a dark circle, Manami hadn’t spoken a word since the exorcists raided her Italian villa and killed all of her subordinates. There was no need for her to say anything either. Osamu and Dark Dawn had completely overshadowed Manami’s role in the attack on Kyoto. Manami’s vow of silence allowed her to listen closely to their conversations and learn more about what was happening.

“The news reports are saying the prime minister already fled the country.” said one of the exorcists. “Every major airport is being commandeered by the military to evacuate as many people as they can.”

“Holy shit…” another exorcist remarked, stroking his long, black mustache. “That bastard is really going to do it. He’s to kill everyone.”

“America and Korea are helping with the evacuation efforts, but it really makes no difference. Those monsters are crossing the ocean to go kill everyone on the continent, too. There’s nowhere to run. I guess the exorcists and the gods couldn’t stop him at Fukuoka.”

“We should talk to the branch leaders here. I mean…what are we going to do? They’re at Kyoto already. Another day or two and they’ll be surrounding Hokkaido too. If you ask me, we should just leave Manami here, cut our losses, and flee to the continent. At least then we’ll have some time.”

“Hey, Manami.” said the exorcist sitting next to her. “Did you know he’d do this?”

Manami kept her silence, much to his anger. He suddenly grabbed her by the hair and pulled her head closer to him. “Say something, you traitor! We all have friends and family in Kyoto! They’re all dying because of you and Osamu! At least have the decency to tell us if this is what you wanted!”

A third exorcist got up from his seat and stopped at Manami’s row. He rubbed the lenses his black-rimmed prescription glasses with his striped shirt before putting them back on his face.

“Leave it. She’s not gonna answer any of us. It’s not like it matters now anyway. The most important thing right now is not letting Osamu kill us all.”

The cabin door opened and the Learjet’s airstairs descended towards the ground. Three black SUV’s waiting on the tarmac, just as the Hokkaido branch had promised. At least, for the moment, Hokkaido was safe from the disaster engulfing the rest of Japan and slowly reaching out towards the rest of the world. The bespectacled exorcist yawned as he grabbed his duffle bag out of the overhead storage unit and marched towards the airstairs.

He turned to speak to the two exorcists sitting next to Manami. “Alright, help her up and let’s get out of here.”

“Sugi, you still have my cigarettes, four eyes?” asked a fourth exorcist.

The bespectacled exorcist checked the pockets of his brown leather jacket, smiling as he realized he had accidentally pilfered his friend’s cigarettes after all. He grabbed the box of out of his jacket and held it in his hand.

“Sorry, man. Don’t try to smoke in the cabin next time.” Sugi said.

As Sugi was about to toss the cigarettes back, a loud bang rang out from outside. Blood splattered on the wall behind Sugi as he suddenly fell onto his back. The sound of breaking glass and ringing metal filled the cockpit from behind the locked door, as well as brief screams from the captain and first officer.

“Down! Down!” screamed one of the exorcist as everyone hit the floor. “Sugi! Are you okay?”

Sugi’s eyes drifted upward as blood pooled out of his chest and mouth. He was completely unresponsive.

“Why are they shooting at us?” cried one of the exorcists.

Manami raised her head and stole a glance outside from the window. She saw twelve men get out of the black SUV’s on the tarmac, all of them wearing black jeans and short-sleeved t-shirts. Black gas masks covered their faces, all except for a thirteenth face. It was a woman with long, raven hair and skin as pale as Death itself.

Just as she finished counting the men assaulting the plane, a sudden, metallic rattling coming from the airstairs stole her attention. A tear gas grenade bounced into the cabin, prompting the exorcists to hurriedly crawl to the back of the plane. The grenade hissed as it dispelled the irritating gas into the cabin, burning everyone’s eyes and throats.

“Fuck! I can’t see!” one of the exorcists screamed, standing up off the floor to try and run.

A second exorcist reached out his hand and shouted at the top of his lungs. “No, stay down!”

The moment he stood up, bullets came flying through the window and struck him in the armpit, chest, and through his neck. He collapsed onto one of the seats, his blood running down the cushion. The sounds of footsteps alerted them to the men rushing up the airstairs, armed with KRISS Vector submachine guns.

The three remaining exorcists were shot before they could clasp their hands to defend themselves. One was shot clean between the eyes, the second was shot four times in the back, and the third was shot in chest and left arm. The third exorcist groaned in pain as the attackers stood aside and made room for the woman leading them. She climbed aboard and stood in front of Manami, who cowered on the floor of the cabin behind her seat.

The woman removed her gas mask, revealing her face. “Manami Akiyama. You’re coming with me.”

Manami couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Omagatoki stood before her dressed in black, her hands covered with thin, cotton gloves. Listening to the chatter of the armed men behind her, Manami noticed they were speaking in Russian.

“Omagatoki?” Manami said, shivering on the floor.

Omagatoki reached out her hand, her eyes aglow with ill intent. “Osamu’s in trouble. You know a man named Johan Sommers, don’t you?”

Manami’s eyes widened and her pupils constricted. The color left her face as the name seemed to ring on and on and her head. Johan Sommers meant something to her, something dark and terrifying. In order to ensure Dark Dawn would succeed, Omagatoki knew she would have to find out all she could about Johan, no matter what it took.