[The End of Osamu Ashikaga]: Respite

After the destruction of China, the Eye of the Underworld melted into a sludge of transparent fluid and white matter, falling into the Pacific Ocean to be washed away. The eye served its purpose, so its loss didn’t mean much to Osamu. The Shoku Twins returned everyone to Yakutsk to finally rest.

Just as Osamu predicted, the destruction of their Russian allies and the world’s nuclear safety net compelled the North American coalition to pull back and prepare for the coming onslaught of demons. It was too late for the people of China, but they figured they could at least protect their continent from destruction.

There was no military force on the planet that could challenge Osamu, the vampiric lords, or the armies of Minavere. All that remained was to await the destruction of humanity. The people of Minavere spent the entire day celebrating, drinking, and clearing the debris left behind by the battle. They gathered bodies and prepared them for cremation while the wounded continued to receive treatment under Anya’s leadership.

To celebrate the historic day in vampire history, senators Yana and Balakin were rounded up by the SSK and brought outside the senate building before a massive, bloodthirsty crowd. Hima and Carmilla sat at a tea table set up in front of two wooden posts outside the senate building.

Balakin’s remained silent as the SSK walked him to his post, his face pale and lifeless. Yana, on the other hand, was hysterical. She wept violently and tried to break free herself from the two agents walking her to her post. All her efforts and tears were in vain.

Her usually perfectly tied hair was unbound and frizzled. She was stripped down to her bra and panties before the audience while Balakin was stripped down to his boxers and socks. The crowd laughed and cheered as they drank vodka and ate whitefish Stroganina or sweet kierchekh made from blueberries, cream, milk, and sugar. Yana and Balakin were facing their execution, but the people of Minavere were having the time of their lives.

“Let us go! Please!” Yana sobbed. “I beg of you, Your Highness! Please! Look what’s happening to you, to all of you! You’re blinded by hate! Osamu took advantage of our people’s pain and used it to advance his own plans! Why can’t you see that? You all want to exist in this world, but there’ll be no world left to exist in if Osamu wins!”

Hima lifted her teacup and smiled before taking a sip. She stood up from her seat and sauntered over to Yana, leaning into her ear.

“Save your tears. The worst comes after you die.” Hima whispered, pulling away to face the crowd. “While we understand that most of the United Pacifist Party were also lied to by Johan, senators Yana and Balakin knew exactly who he was and what his true objective was. They alerted the Russian state to our presence in an attempt to kill us all and to squash the birth of our nation.

“That is a sin that cannot be forgiven. As your queen, it is my duty to shield you all from such despicable traitors. I will destroy anyone who threatens our lives, our homes, and our right to exist in this world. May these two traitors join Johan and humanity in hell.”

The crowd unleashed a deafening roar as Hima returned to her seat next to Carmilla. The SSK agents readied their rifles and aimed at Yana and Balakin, the former screaming for mercy while the latter accepted his fate in silence.

“On my mark!” Carmilla shouted. “Three…two…”

The SSK agents fired on the count of two rather than one. It was the same trick employed by the Japanese firing squads that nearly killed Taeko seven years prior. It was to ensure that the individuals being executed would die before they knew what hit them.

Gunshots rang out and the rounds pierced through Yana and Balakin’s chests, striking their hearts and killing them almost instantly. They both slumped forward on their posts and blood stained their bodies and underwear.

Hima released a sigh of relief as the people of Minavere gave each other toasts, danced, and played music in the streets. Never before had she seen her people so free, so happy to be alive and exist in the world. At long last, the vampiric race had been liberated from the curse of Dracula’s legacy.

“It’s finally over, huh?” Carmilla asked.

“Yes.” Hima answered. “Johan is gone and humanity is being annihilated as we speak. In due time, we’ll be able to leave this place and start rebuilding civilization.”

“…Does that mean Osamu is ready to give up his heart and blood?”

Hima rubbed her thumb along the rim of her teacup. “Not quite yet. There are still a few things he needs to take care of. I told him we’ll wait a bit longer. He did help us out, after all.”

For Osamu, the hardest part of his grand plan was over. He destroyed the Exorcist Program, the Shinto Pantheon, defended against Russia’s exorcists and armies, and managed to win the soul of Minavere away from the clutches of Johan Sommers and the United Pacifist Party. More than anyone, he earned his rest.

He sat with the Shoku Twins at the bar of the hotel, sharing a bottle of whiskey between them.

“Thank you for everything, girls.” Osamu said. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“We should be thanking you.” Omagatoki said, knocking back her glass of whiskey. “Ah! Spicy!”

“Right, I guess you two aren’t accustomed to drinking alcohol, huh?” Osamu asked, a slight smile on his face.

Akatsuki sipped from her glass. “It’s a bit difficult to drink, but it’s strangely…delicious.”

“That’s good.” Osamu said, hanging his head. “Listen, I know we put off talking about this for a while. The day seemed so far off when we first formulated this plan, but now it’s getting closer. The demons will eradicate humanity on their own, so I need to start the next phase of the plan. Or at least, my part in it.”

Omagatoki put down her glass and looked away. “Yeah…it really did seem far away at the time.”

“Before I give my heart and blood to Hima, I want to make sure I’ve done all I can for our friends. I think it’s best if we get everyone back to Moonglow Castle for now.”

“You won’t come back to Minavere?” Akatsuki asked.

Osamu smiled as he lifted his head to see the wall-mounted television, the news channel showing mass celebrations in the streets and interviews from wounded soldiers. “…No. My job here is done. I’ve only been the king of a nation for a short while and I’m already exhausted. I can’t imagine what it was like for Amaterasu all this time. By now, she should be free of her burdens. I’ll be free of mine very soon too.”

Omagatoki tucked in her lips and brushed the tears on her eyelashes with her thumb. “I don’t wanna say goodbye yet…”

“Hey…” Osamu said, rubbing Omagatoki’s back. “It’s not over just yet. We’ve still got this last bit of work to do. Are you still with me?”

Omagatoki nodded. “Until the very end, Osamu.”

“My feelings exactly.” Akatsuki said with a smile. “We’ll let everyone celebrate for today, then we’ll head back to Moonglow Castle. Will you be joining everyone, Osamu?”

“No, I’m going to try and get some sleep. It feels like a massive weight’s been lifted off my shoulders.”

“Yeah, you should get some rest.” Omagatoki said. “Sleep well, Osamu.”

“Goodnight, Big Brother Osamu.” Akatsuki added.

Osamu downed the last of his whiskey and stood from his bar stool. “Thank you, girls. Go out there and have some fun, okay? You deserve it.”

Akatsuki and Omagatoki kept their smiles up until Osamu disappeared down the hall and far away from view. Their plastic grins melted away and revealed the mournful frowns hiding underneath. Omagatoki stared into her reflection in the wall-mounted mirror in front of her. Her hair was frazzled and full of split ends. Her eyes were baggy and dark as the night sky.

Now that the battle was over, the fatigue and exhaustion seemed to hit her all at once. Only when she found the time to rest did her bones ache and her flesh waver. As strong as she and her sister were, they were both glad that the fighting was over.

“It’s really coming to an end, huh?” Omagatoki asked.

“Yeah…” Akatsuki answered.

“I wonder if that means we can be free of our burdens soon too.” Omagatoki said.

“What do you mean?”

“The Shinto pantheon is gone. We have no masters anymore, Sis. Once Osamu is done, Hima and the vampires will carry on his will. There will be no need for us to be here. We were forced to become gods, but if we so choose…we could die.”

Akatsuki leaned forward, releasing a heavy sigh. “You’re right. We could finally rest…all thanks to Osamu.”

“We’ll make the decision together, whenever we’re ready. But if these really are our last days on earth, let’s enjoy them. Together.”

Akatsuki’s smile blossomed on her face as she lifted her glass of whiskey and Omagatoki lifted hers. They clinked their glasses together in a toast to their liberation from the shackles of the Shinto pantheon. At long last, their burdens would soon be over. Their long, turbulent lives would finally end the same way they began — together.

Outside, beneath the raven sky of Yakutsk, the vampires poured drinks for their fellow neighbors and soldiers, tirelessly roaring like lions into the air. Couples embraced and kissed in the middle of the streets and car roofs became stages for the drunken, patriotic songs of civilians and soldiers alike. The mood wasn’t jovial for everyone, however.

There were those that wished Manami and the surgeons had saved Johan and not Osamu. Some of them had no hope that the world would ever become a good place for vampires. Some couldn’t support the eradication of mankind, while others believed their own race was a scourge upon the earth blighted by an irreconcilable history of genocide, warmongering, and expansionism.

While most celebrated out in the open air, those who regretted the recent turn of events stayed inside, keeping their cigarettes and alcohol close by in solemn quietude. Manami was one of those people, watching the festivities from a hallway window in the hospital. The dimly lit hallway was draped in the alizarin crimson shade of the aurora borealis shining above the city.

Spotting her staring out the window like a lifeless mannequin, the senior surgeon that operated on Osamu slowly approached Manami. He reeked of cigarette smoke while the stinging vapors of strong vodka lingered on Manami’s breath.

“I’d wipe that miserable look off your face if I were you.” the surgeon said. “They’re executing senators Yana and Balakin today. If you look too unhappy, they might put you before the firing squad too.”

“They all look so happy.” Manami scoffed. “They’ve sealed the fates of billions of people and they’re celebrating. You made your choice today. Will you be able to live with it like they will?”

The surgeon dragged his hand down his face and looked out the window, witnessing the same elation Manami was. “In situations like this, you ask yourself what the alternative is. And what was the alternative, Manami? We follow a man who would’ve led our race to its extinction? A lot of us want to live, Manami.”

“And what right did you people have to damn an entire species just for that?”

“We could ask you the same thing.” the surgeon rebuked. “All those people out there…so many of them are relatively young vampires. They weren’t even born when the Old Vampiric Monarchy fell. The world excoriated their generation for crimes they took no part in. Do those people deserve to die for what Dracula and his cohorts did centuries ago? Don’t we have a right to live in this world as much as your kind does?”

“So we sacrifice billions to save tens of thousands?” Manami questioned. “I’m surprised a doctor of all people doesn’t see how twisted that is.”

“Your alternative is that we let one hateful race destroy a generation of innocent vampires. Those people weren’t born radicalized. They were raised to believe their race was a plague upon the earth, that their kind was predisposed to show unjust cruelty to mankind. That’s what our enemies saw in us because all they used to judge us was history. But when those young ones looked to their friends and families, all they saw were the people they loved. They weren’t the bloodthirsty barbarians they were reviled as. They were just…people. Vampires.

“When they realized the whole world wanted them dead and couldn’t be persuaded otherwise, they had only two people to turn to— Osamu and Hima. With those two at the helm, the vampirical lords had all the authority they needed to act in our people’s interest. They were the only ones giving us an option other than slaughter and oblivion.

“You may think of them as the most despicable beings the world has ever seen. I won’t deny the thought of such a large scale genocide doesn’t sit well in my stomach. However…the people of Minavere will remember them as national heroes, and they’ll do so because they reminded us that we too have a right to live in this world. We have a right to exist.”

Manami shook her head. “And it’s because we all have a right to exist that we cannot all exist, right?”

“No matter which way it would’ve turned out, genocide was the only answer. Had we saved Johan, you would’ve been guilty of the same crime you’re charging us with. Would you have thought yourself evil for it? The world isn’t as simple as good or evil. Everything is ruled by circumstance, Manami.”

Manami turned away from the surgeon and the window, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her robe as she walked down the hallway. “I thought it was scary enough that one man in this world thought that way. It’s utterly terrifying that he has the backing of a nation.”

Just like Manami, Taeko was also grappling with the consequences of her choice. She sat alone at the long, rectangular conference table in Room 1313 with her back facing the window and her head cradled in her hands.

Tremors rocked her body from head to toe. She could still see almost all of Southeast Asia burning before her very eyes. The horrible image seared itself into her memory. She thought she was prepared to back Osamu if it meant Minavere would be spared from Sommerism’s self-destructive dogma. Floating above the world and seeing an entire region be torched off the planet with her own eyes was an experience she never could’ve prepared for.

When she started the Third Great Holy War, Taeko was more than ready to dirty her hands and sacrifice civilians to ensure her plan would work and her friends would survive. She never wanted or expected the death toll to reach the billions. To kill that many people, most of them unarmed and trying to flee to safety, wasn’t just part of fighting a war. It was a concerted effort to annihilate humanity itself.

Though she knew that was Osamu’s plan, to actually see him do it, to witness him wipe away an entire group of people with such resoluteness, was utterly horrifying. There wasn’t the slightest bit of hesitation or remorse, not a single trace of humanity left in him.

The sliding door flung open, alerting Taeko to Osamu’s presence. The red light pouring in from the windows spawned elongated shadows all across the room and wrapped the outer strands of Taeko’s hair in its crimson, luminescent veil. Her face was cloaked in darkness as she locked eyes with Osamu. He shut the door behind and him and grabbed a seat across from her, the wall-mounted television positioned behind him.

The celebratory roars of the city bled through the walls and leaked into the room. Along with the incessant ticking of the clock above the sliding door, the victory cries of Minavere filled the silence between Osamu and Taeko for what felt like an eternity. Taeko refused to look at Osamu. Worst of all, she refused to look at her own fuzzy reflection in the black television screen behind Osamu.

“It’s done, Taeko. I did everything I set out to do.” Osamu said, breaking the silence. “Do you remember what we talked about in the bowling alley, about how all of this would end?”

“You’re still going through with it?” Taeko asked.

“Yeah.”

“…I don’t think I’ll ever forgive you for this.”

“I know. I knew that when I came up with this plan. I knew you’d hate me, the girls would hate me, and the whole world would too. But this…this was so much bigger than any of you.”

“So…if it came down to it, all of us were expendable?”

“The only ones that absolutely needed to stay alive were Kagutsuchi, Izanami, Gekko, and yourself. If something happened and I needed to kill the others for some reason, it wouldn’t have ruined the plan whatsoever.”

Taeko chuckled softly, her face reddening in vexation. “Was it all worth it, Osamu?”

“Yeah. In time, you’ll see that this was the only real solution.”

“You’re such a fucking bastard, Osamu…”

Osamu leaned back in his chair with his head hung low. His lips parted as if he were about to say something, but he shut them closed again. He raised his head and looked Taeko in her face, though she had no desire to look at him.

“I’m sorry, Taeko. If I could’ve done this without betraying you, without sacrificing what I did, I would’ve. But…that just wasn’t possible.”

“You’re not sorry. You got everything you wanted. Why would you be sorry? And besides, was it really impossible? Or did the Shoku Twins convince you that it wasn’t? Was any of this really what you wanted, or were you being manipulated by the twins and Inari’s bloodcraft?”

Osamu chuckled softly. “You sound just like my kids.”

“I’m starting to think they were onto something. Or maybe I just don’t want to believe that one of my best friends could’ve ever done something so monstrous on his own. And to convince yourself that you’re somehow easing anyone’s burdens…All you’ve done is force us to live with the knowledge that we all loved and supported the man who ended the world.”

“Like I said, in time, you’ll see this was the only way. Despite how it may have looked, Taeko, I kept all of you in mind as I carried out each and every step of this plan. That includes Amaterasu and Izanami.”

Taeko’s brows arched downwards in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“It was her family’s desire for a leader that turned Amaterasu into the tyrant she was. Now that the Shinto pantheon has been destroyed, Amaterasu will never have to bear the burden of her crown again. And while I can’t strip Izanami of her godhood, I did free her from the visions of death she kept seeing whenever someone in this world passed away. Now that the fighting is over, she won’t need to see such horrific things anymore.”

“…What?” Taeko gasped. “How did you manage to do that?”

“It was the Underworld’s Eye that made her see it.” Osamu answered. “The eye watched over Death itself, witnessing the final moments of every human being on this planet. It passed that information onto Izanami against her will. Now that it’s been destroyed, Izanami will never have to witness death again. She’s free from one of her biggest burdens now.”

“Why couldn’t she have freed herself from the visions earlier if all she had to do was destroy it?”

“I don’t think Izanami knew the eye was causing her to see it. The twins and I only discovered it when we went back to witness the First Great Holy War. The eye formed in the depths of Yomi as the war raged on. It wasn’t Izanami’s creation.

“The twins and I theorized that it might’ve been the consequence of Izanami wishing death upon the world when she separated from Izanagi. She cursed the world, and in response, the eye was born to make her witness her own cruelty. When she understood what she had done, she swore to look after the souls of the dead for the rest of time. She’s been paying for a mistake she made ages ago. Now…it’s finally over.

“My plan doesn’t end with me destroying the world. It ends with me planting the seeds of the future in its ashes. Amaterasu and Izanami are both free, Taeko. The feud between them and the rest of the pantheon sparked too many conflicts and tragedies to count. You and Gekko were both victims of that, but so were Izanami and Amaterasu. Now that the slate’s been wiped clean…they can finally set this right.”

Just as Osamu said, the slate had been wiped clean. Amaterasu and Uzume saw with their own eyes that the Shinto pantheon was gone. That day, they went back to Kyoto and saw the aftermath of Osamu’s destruction. The eclipse sat like a halo of fire in the sky, watching over the graveyard of shredded steel and collapsed buildings that remained, their structural skeletons reaching towards the eclipse like metallic fingers.

When they left Kyoto, the air was engorged by horrified screams of the dying, explosions, and demonic groans.When they returned, they were met with dead silence. Japan had been almost entirely destroyed and its people’s population reduced from 126 million to tens of thousands scattered across the country.

The demons, having leveled the entire country, had already crossed the ocean and made their way onto the continent to join in on the destruction of Southeast Asia. With mainland China immolated off the planet, those demons would march across the smoldering remains of the nation and spread the Middle East, Mongolia, and Russia, with Europe and Africa in their sights afterwards.

The land was almost unrecognizable. The demons left colossal footprints where high-rises and and town squares used to stand. They left craters and depressions in the earth that acted as open, mass graves for the millions of people that were killed in the slaughter. Twisted, mangled, crushed into paste, burned to char, the bodies buried in the ash and broken steel of Japanese civilization were left in all sorts of horrifying conditions.

Ash and fine rubble filled their eyes and mouths, their skin stained with the sickly green and gray hues of decomposition. The cars they fled in and the homes in which they took refuge in their final moments became like open caskets revealing the undignified corpses of the slain. Kyoto and Japan at large became a nightmarish hellscape, a communal grave for an entire race of people betrayed and murdered by one of their own.

Amaterasu and Uzume walked amongst the ruins of their nation in silence, stopping to look at the ruin and desolation that replaced the homes, businesses, and shrines that made up the city. A thick blanket of haze laced with smoke and ash covered the city, transforming each step of what used to be a familiar place into a guessing game of what was around the corner twenty feet ahead of them.

“I can’t believe he really went through with this…” Uzume said, the color in her face sapped away by the sight of Kyoto in ruins.

Amaterasu peered down into one of the craters littering the city, seeing a litany of charred hands and legs sticking out from the rubble. The few, human faces she did see were white with pallor mortis. Twin trails of congealed blood leaked from their nostrils and down onto the swollen tongues sticking out from between their lips. Their eyes had turned greenish-gray and bulged from their sockets, threatening to pop out at any moment.

The sight of it twisted Amaterasu’s stomach into knots. She turned away and rejoined Uzume, continuing their march down the aisles of ruin.

“No nation….no pantheon…” Amaterasu began. “All that’s left now is freedom.”

Amaterasu suddenly stopped in her tracks. “Wait, did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Uzume asked.

Amaterasu closed her eyes, focusing on the sound of a disembodied voice calling out to her from the distance. “Please…kill me…”

Amaterasu turned towards the direction of Osamu’s neighborhood and took off running. Uzume chased after her, hopping over piles of rubble and burnt out cars.

“Amaterasu! What’s going on?” Uzume panted as she followed close behind Amaterasu.

“I can hear Izanami! She’s close by!” Amaterasu shouted.

Amaterasu stopped at the foot of a small hill. A winding trail of stone steps led to Izanami’s shrine atop the hill, the very same shrine where Osamu once attempted suicide. Amaterasu sprinted up the steps and found Izanami’s shrine completely collapsed. The torii gates were reduced to sawdust and the shrine’s main building was nothing but a pile of burnt wood.

Amaterasu stumbled over her own robes as she ran towards the shrine ruins. “Izanami! Are you in there?”

Izanami lied face-down in the rubble, raising her head as she heard her daughter’s voice from outside. “Amaterasu? Is that you?”

“Uzume, help me!” Amaterasu urged as she lifted a broken support beam off the pile of rubble. Uzume joined in and lifted heavy pieces of broken wood and tossing them aside.

“Izanami, what are you doing?” Amaterasu asked. “Get out of there!”

“I never told you this, Amaterasu…but in order to kill me, you need to kill Kagutsuchi.” Izanami cried. “It’s a long story, but she has my real heart and body. I’m just an ikiryo, so if you kill her, I’ll die along with her.”

“What are you talking about?” Amaterasu asked. “No one’s killing anyone!”

“I can’t take it anymore…” Izanami wept. “I saw so many people die. It’ll just keep happening. I can’t watch it anymore. I can’t! Please, just kill me!”

Hearing her mother beg for death broke Amaterasu’s heart. She clutched her arm and gnashed her teeth together with so much force she almost turned them into powder. It took every ounce of strength in her not to cry out in grief and rage. After all, this was the second time Izanami begged her daughter to kill her.

Amaterasu remembered the first time to this very day. It was after she had tricked her family into annihilating half of itself during the War of Kin. After the war died down and Amaterasu’s side emerged as the victor, she ventured into Yomi alongside Tsukuyomi their mother. Izanami begged for death then after suffering through her divorce from Izanagi and the splintering of her family.

Izanami’s voice was tinged with the same sorrow and hopelessness as it was back then. All those years ago, Amaterasu brought Izanami out from Yomi so she could serve as a pillar of strength in her newborn pantheon. The war changed Amaterasu from an innocent and overwhelmed girl to an austere queen with an aura more gelid than the East Siberian air.

This time, Amaterasu answered her mother’s suicidal without ulterior motive. She was no longer a queen reaching out to a living weapon that could cement her place on the throne. She was a daughter desperately trying to save her mother.

“I’m sorry…” Amaterasu sobbed. “I’m sorry, Mom. For everything. I tried so hard…and it was all for nothing. In the end…I just wanted to destroy it all. I let Osamu do this to the world, to the pantheon…because I couldn’t take it anymore. If I knew things would end up this way when I took the throne, I would’ve denied it outright. Maybe then, I wouldn’t have made you suffer as much you did. Maybe Dad and most of our family would still be alive.

“Nothing could ever bring them back. Nothing can make up for how horribly I treated you. But I can’t grant your wish. I’m not a queen anymore. I’m not even a goddess. I just want to be your daughter again. So don’t tell me you want to die. Please…live through this…and be my mother again. Ikiryo or not…the real Izanami or not…I still love you.”

Amaterasu’s hands were coated in soot, her fingers sprinkled with oakwood splinters from the large pieces of rubble she lifted up. She gently laid her head on the fallen support beam in front of her as tears fell from her closed eyes. “It was you who saved me when I was buried just like this…right? You answered me, after everything I’d done to you. For once…let me be the one to save you.”

Izanami’s eyes widened in shock. She had waited ages to hear those words come out of Amaterasu’s mouth. That terrible feud between mother and daughter spawned thousands of years of distrust, tragedy, and hatred between them and all the gods in the pantheon. At the end of the world, Amaterasu didn’t want to be a queen nor a goddess. She just wanted to be Izanami’ daughter again.

Millenia of bad blood all seemed to melt away in an instant as Izanami remembered what Osamu said to her back at Moonglow Castle. Amaterasu had no idea what she was getting into when she became the queen of Heaven. She was a teenage girl facing an unimaginable amount of pressure to singlehandedly save her family. The lives of all her kin were in her hand when she realized the very same truth that Hima did; we all have the right to exist, and that is exactly why we cannot all exist.

A grieving, teenage girl was left to answer life’s greatest paradox, to navigate the post-war perils of life and lordship with her own two, unsteady hands. Hands that should’ve been tending to her languid father and arranging flowers for her late sister were instead made to command one half of her family to kill the other. She made immeasurable sacrifices, only to realize she was still beset by enemies from all sides, while the allies closest to her carried hearts engorged by avarice.

In her fight to maintain all that she had built, Amaterasu became a mighty queen at the cost of her own personhood. Izanami finally understood how alienated and alone she must’ve felt, to have not a single person to share such a heavy burden with. It would’ve driven anyone mad. As much as they once hated each other, Izanami and Amaterasu might not have been all that different.

The ghostly, orange light of the eclipse shined like a spotlight on Izanami’s face as Amaterasu and Uzume lifted the last few pieces of rubble off of Izanami. They dragged her out from the collapsed shrine, watching as her broken legs slowly repaired themselves and twisted back in the right direction.

Exhausted, Amaterasu and Uzume fell onto their bottoms as Izanami turned and lied on her back. Everyone took a moment to catch their breaths.

“Mom…” Amaterasu panted. “Are you okay?”

“No…” Izanami cried, covering her tear-soaked eyes with her arm. “I should’ve been the one to apologize to you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I’m sorry I didn’t protect you when you needed it most. You don’t have to forgive me for any of it, but I want you to know…I’m truly, truly sorry.”

Amaterasu grabbed hold of Izanami’s hand squeezing it tight. Hearing those words from her mother choked her up. She couldn’t speak a word, as much as she wanted to. But with that gentle touch of the hand, Izanami knew that she and her daughter had finally reconciled. With all of their burdens destroyed by Osamu, they could finally start over.