Lee sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. Meditating and concentrating on using his ember in the form Hayato and Anzen had taught him to take. He muttered quietly as Sora stared into the horizon, keeping a check on the ever brighter light of the Doctor and Shogun's caravan.

After somewhere close to a minute more of concentration, Lee opened his eyes and spoke. "You're right about this road leading to the wall... I saw that the first gate was open and there was yokai wandering around, but not too many."

Shit. I knew that the first gate was most likely going to be opened, but even so, a sense of dread stirred within me. Or perhaps I was simply still taken aback by our strange yokai encounter. In any case, I needed to concentrate on the task at hand, and that was surmising a plan to get us into the walls without attracting any yokai.

Lee led the way down the path as I thought to myself.

Hayato and Anzen were ready to fight. Anzen was unhappy earlier with me for excluding him from our previous debacle, but he seemed to be in a more agreeable state since then. The real question was whether we should try cutting down the yokai Lee saw and risking attracting more, or taking one of the twins and trying to open a portal from the other side. But that could be decided when we actually arrived.

Soon our path went from jumbled cobblestones into a flat and neatly paved pathway with old and mossy stone tiles. Our surroundings were still obstructed by the trees around us, so we didn't know how close we were to the gate other than Lee's word. The only other indicator we had was my memory, and as the trees went from old oaks to cherry trees it became all the more vivid.

I remembered walking these paths in the dappled sunlight. The serenity of it all was something that I had forgotten. Now nothing more than a melancholy feeling. Forgetting that feeling is what caused me to stray from my duties I had promised Amaterasu and join the Shogun, which is why I wouldn't forget again.

We would walk throughout the forest and collect the wild cherries and use them in all sorts of ways. Remembering those hours spent collecting wild cherries made me wonder if the orchard still stood. It surrounded the outermost gate and was full of beautiful trees and flowers. Strawberries, apples, grapes, peaches, pears. Any fruit you could imagine, right next to the garden bearing every vegetable you could want. All that time spent hunting and gathering together... Well, not as much hunting. Amaterasu far preferred the act of eating the meat rather than catching it, so I practiced my trapping and bowhunting alone. Even though the game on the earth was brought to flourish like the plants for us to eat, she couldn't make herself harm the creatures. All the same, the meat on Mt.Fuji was the most tender imaginable, and the fruit the sweetest.

As our group finally reached the clearing from the trees and saw the gate I hoped that there might still be fruit to taste once more, but I knew that was a far fetched hope. Once the gate was fully in sight, I saw that it was creaked barely open. One couldn't see past the gates, but they were certainly open.

One yokai stumbled towards the entrance. With just a single yokai, we could go through with our first plan and cut it down before any others arrived. I looked over to the group and then to Lee. "Good work navigating us here."

Sora drew back his bow. "Should I get it out of our way?" I knew Sora only had ten arrows left, but I didn't want to risk another sour situation like last time, so I nodded my head. The yokai pushed the door open as Sora lined up his shot, but before he let loose, we saw something I had wished we wouldn't.

As the door opened it revealed at least a half-dozen yokai walking back and forth in the courtyard. Putting my hand on his arm, I mumbled "stop" to Sora, who had already begun to put his arrow back on the quiver at his waist. What was once an orchard full of trees, colorful vines and plants was now nothing more than uprooted earth and withering grass. They had demolished the orchard and the only food source that could be found within the palace's walls. Luckily food was nothing more than a pleasurable experience for Amaterasu, so she would never starve. But that didn't mean I wasn't upset at such a sight.

Besides my feelings, this meant we had to completely change our approach. All of us working together could most likely kill the half-dozen yokai given enough time, but we sorely lacked that with the doctor and Shogun only minutes behind us. The only option that fit with our time frame was trying to sneak past the yokai and open a portal from the other side. Hayato was both injured from our last fight and rather loud in these situations. Anzen had snuck into the Shogun's palace with me some three weeks prior, so I knew he could get quietly into the goddess' estate with me. With an unsure gaze to Anzen, I asked rather than commanded. "We could sneak by and open a portal on the other side. Will you come with me?"

Anzen just nodded and tightened the loose and noisy things on his person. The others began looking for a place to discretely wait.

The two of us moved quickly past the treeline of withered cherry blossoms and through the clearing of dead grass until we were hugging the red walls just next to the open gate. I looked at it for a moment. It was almost twenty feet tall and aside from the metal doors was made of age-old stones. We didn't have the supplies to climb over the wall, nor to go through it or under it. We would have to go through the door without being noticed.

As I began to move forward, Anzen muttered something quietly. Stopping and looking back, I saw his face frowning. Reluctantly, he spoke. "Hey... I, uh... Just so you know, I didn't mean what I said back then."

I nodded and smiled. It was hard for Anzen to say such things, as it was for me. I also put in the effort and reciprocated. "And I apologize for letting my frugality get ahead of our safety."

We both nodded and began to move once again. With all the things that had happened, it was good to know that our group was still strong.

Once I had crawled a small bit further, I could peek at the other side of the gates. Yokai walking in every direction, which meant we'd surely be seen if we simply tried to walk past. We needed something to distract them.

Searching through the pockets of my kimono was fruitless. A sandstone, and a piece of bread I had neglected to eat earlier. Anzen noticed my rummaging and caught on to the plan. As he dug into his pockets I could only hope he had better luck.

As his hands returned empty, I knew we had a predicament.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. I hated the idea of literally throwing all our funds out, but we had no more need for money and the coin purse tied to my belt was the only option that was left.

Quickly untying the knot and securing it in my hand, I threw my arm back and finally slung it forward. The bag of brass coins flew magnificently through the air and eventually crashing into a pile of metal instruments, reminding me of how I used to have so many training dummies and racks of blunt weapons that I practiced with. I may not have had the slightest chance to recover any of my age-old belongings anymore, but the yokai were more than sufficiently distracted.

We ducked past the gate as yokai howled and investigated away from us. As soon as we had gotten inside the wall Anzen and I ran deep into the orchard, or, what was left of it. The trees hid us as we weaved past more crowds of yokai, still ambiently walking closer to the final inner gate.

Our work was efficient as we quietly moved from one pile of uprooted dirt and leaves to the next. Yokai only getting more and more dense as we caught our first glimpse of the innermost wall. It was small and made of white stones, inside it was only a tiny yard that immediately led to the palace. I could already see the many levels of the multistoried building jutting into the sky. The stone walkway that led to the final gate was covered in dirt, grime, and ash. Yokai huddled around the small gates that opened to the palace. These were particularly large. Instead of the average ten to twelve feet, they stood taller than fifteen. It was like watching titans shuffle in herds.

But enough speculation, we needed to get moving. We reached a safe enough spot between two uprooted trees, giving us full cover from all sides. Once I knew we would be safe, I gave Anzen the signal. Within a moment a foggy portal appeared in front of us, though nothing came out of it.

Moments passed with nothing to be seen until in the distance I heard loud yelling. It sounded like both Hayato and Lee's voices, followed by horns sounding in the distance like last time we were spotted by the doctor and Shogun's men.

Without hesitation, I jumped into the portal, but I simply passed through it like it was a regular cloud of mist. I jumped back through and eventually gazed at Anzen with a frantic dumbfoundedness.

In an anxious voice, Anzen shook his head. "Hayato must not have opened his end of the portal yet!"

All the yokai from within the gates rampaged towards the sound of the noise as the horns blew louder.

As soon as I decided that I would have to just try to outrun the yokai and help the rest of our group, figures began to appear out of the foggy portal. All of them unharmed, looking mighty pleased with themselves more than anything.

The blank-faced Sora spoke "Hopefully we did not startle either of you. We thought to make a diversion."

Hayato nodded. "We knew there were going to be yokai blocking our path, so we decided that we could both clear a path and slow down the Shogun."

Lee added. "Yeah, but we didn't take the time to realize what it might have sounded like."

I took in a sigh of relief. It was a very clever idea and usage of Hayato and Anzen's ember. For half a second I thought our plans had gone horribly wrong, but luck was with us once again. I was proud of how we had become such an efficient team, and never in my years of solitude would I have expected climbing Mt.Fuji once more and redeeming myself. It was something I would constantly dream of whenever my old insomnia lent me time to rest, but it had now become a reality. It was time to regain my honor, prove myself and in that, bring the world to what it once was.

With a nod to my companions, I stood and exited our hiding place, taking in the spring air. Reminiscing over how brightly and warmly the sun would shine over the estate. Finally, I moved my gaze to the ancient gate. Seeing the swung open gates made my heart instantly turn from weightless to sunken.

With all the yokai moved towards the Doctor and Shogun, I ran as fast as my wobbling legs would take me. The blue, black, and purple world seemed to blur and streak as I got closer to the broken hinged-gates. The questioning shouts from my friends fell upon deaf ears.

I ran through the final walls to see the inner yard as destroyed as the orchards. Sun lilies and the most beautiful flowers withered and stomped over.

The red palace walls were painted a darker shade, darker, darker, culminating to a single spot just in front of the large doors.

My gut churned, I felt as though my heart had jumped into my throat and beat there as I stared.

The most intricate silk kimono, torn into nothing more than scraps of fabric, revealing what was once beautiful pale skin, now ghostly white and saturated in sanguine liquid hardened from months of exposure. Beautiful black hair ripped from where it belonged. Delicate limbs torn and mangled beyond repair. A once familiar abdomen and bosom turned into nothing more than a pile of gore. Face barely recognizable. Lips unmoving and no longer smiling as they always were. Eyes pale and unliving, staring into nothingness. The thing I loved most in the world taken away from me by horrid means.

I was too late. Far too late. Everything that I had feared would happen did, in a manner even my nightmares would never visualize.

My gut wrenched, and the lump in my throat finally gave way. My stomach violently emptied onto the yokai-trodden path.

There were voices behind me, but the words were unrecognizable like they were heard from underwater.

Voices became shouts became hands grasping onto my kimono and trying to pull me into their arms as my weight slowly shifted forwards. The now blurry world around me faded into black as I let myself fall to the ground unconscious.

Blackness beckoned, and I no longer resisted its call.

Amaterasu was dead.