Amaterasu explored all of Ryoshima coast, taking in her surroundings so she could truly see Ryoshima coast in all its beauty.
However, while making her way to the next area, she was attacked by two new monsters, an Ubume (うぶめ) and a bell guardian.
These monsters fought similar to monsters she's fought before, so she had no problem taking them down.
Before going to the northern coast, Amaterasu went to sei-an (せい-あん) city, however, it was covered in a mysterious green mist.
The green mist seemed to be making people feel ill, but Amaterasu and Issun didn't even know what was causing this to even happen in the first place.
Yet they continued exploring, hoping to find some kind of answer.
While exploring the area, Amaterasu found someone trying to fill the canal with water.
Amaterasu decided to help them out and with that help, they managed to fill the canal.
However, there's still the matter of the the strange mist looming over the city.
Amaterasu explored deeper into the city, however, with the bridge up, she thought there was no way to pass until she found a fisherman who guards the bridge by the name of Benki (べんき).
He refused to let the bridge up until he caught a fish, said to be known as the living sword.
However, by the time that happened, the mist's effects would've affected everyone, so Amaterasu and Issun got an idea.
Amaterasu decided to speed up the process by helping Benki fish.
The first catch was a rather small fish known as a Goby.
It seems though that from the looks of it, they'll have to try harder to catch the living sword.
With another attempt, Amaterasu uses her celestial brush and as Benki pulls in his catch, it seems to be yet another Goby.
Maybe though, just maybe this would be the living sword this time.
While this one did put up more of a fight, the fish finally gave in and as Benki reeled it in, the fish was none other than the living sword.
However the so called 'living sword' was more or less just a cutlass fish.
While Benki was slightly disappointed that his obsession for swords led him to catch what he was hoping would be his 1,000th sword turned out to only be some fish.
He a least gained a new love and obsession for something different.
Instead of collecting swords, he decided to pursue fishing, hoping that maybe if he pursues fishing, he won't push himself day and night to catch something or get something, only for it to be less than what he hoped for.
Yet with the bridge now open, Amaterasu continued on, but upon looking out in the distance, Issun believes that the source of the mist itself must be coming from the Imperial Palace.
With that, they decided to make their next stop the Imperial Palace.
However, before they could make their way there, they were stopped by Waka.
Issun thought that Waka was behind the mysterious mist, but it seemed that he wasn't.
Yet instead, Waka was looking for something that hasn't even crossed Amaterasu's mind and Issun's mind.
He was looking for the stairway to Heaven.
There's just one problem though, how would he even get to the stairway to Heaven, where would he even look in the first place?
All these questions bothered Amaterasu, but it wasn't her concern at the moment, her highest priority at the moment was to find a way into the Imperial Palace.
However though, in order to get to the Imperial Palace, she has to go into someone's place.
As she walked in, the girl who was at her desk look up and acknowledged Amaterasu's presence.
"Well...who would've thought that here of all places, there'd be a wolf, well now wolf, I must say, the world is in complete turmoil, perhaps maybe though you may have come to listen to what I have to say, wolf, we'll allow me to introduce myself, my name is Rao (らお), I'm the regent of Sei-an city, I was appointed by Queen Himiko (ひみこ) herself, so might I ask, what is it that's troubling you?"
When Issun got a better look at Rao, for him, it was love at first sight.
"Wow, this sister's stacked!"
"Excuse me, oh, I see, you got a cute little fairy with you."
"The name is Issun, sweetie, and by the way, I'm not trying to stare at your melons or anything!"
"Melons?"
"Aw never mind...anyway, you must run thing around here, well you see, there's a funky mist that's covering the city, and apparently there's talk of a Water Dragon or something off shore, so how come the queen decided to hole herself up in her palace, I mean, the people of her city are dropping like flies, so how can she be so lazy at a time like this?"
"So then, it seems you to have also sensed the evil forces over Ryoshima to then, I have also heard that the dreaded Orochi was resurrected in Shinshu field, though there was a brave swordsman who vanquished him again, the ripples though of the wave of chaos are unfortunately reaching Ryoshima, while the Water Dragon terrorizes the sea, an ill mist has been covering Sei-an city as you can tell, not to mention, in these last few days, the situation seems to have intensified, while I may not know exactly what's happening our peaceful Nippon, I can only imagine how much worse it might get."
"Hey busty babe, don't worry about it, why the person who helped that man vanquish Orochi was none other than Amaterasu herself, besides, your looking at her right now, if she can handle Orochi, she can handle anything!"
"Wait, this wolf, but didn't a man named Susano slay Orochi?"
"Well, he showed up for the kill, but Amaterasu did most of the work, in fact, she's about to show you her divine powers!"
As Amaterasu used her celestial brush, she drew a line from a candle to other candle, making it seem as if a fire was suddenly created above Rao.
In fact, this surprised her greatly as well.
"Well then, if this is perhaps the power of Amaterasu, maybe she could help me with my quest?"
"Your quest, I mean, what more could you possibly want, your practically already stacked to the ceiling?"
Rao completely disregarded the idea though when she remembered that her prayer slips weren't around.
Well, from the looks of things, if they wanted to get to the Imperial Palace, they'd have to help Rao, so Amaterasu started searching for Rao's prayer slips.
Upon going to check out the Imperial Palace, while there may have been no way in, Amaterasu was at least able to find Rao's prayer slips.
As she carried them by biting them, she brought the prayer slips to Rao, thinking that maybe with these, they could find some way or something, to help get of the mist that's been plaguing the city.
Rao was rather surprised to see that her prayer slips weren't stolen and was actually thankful.
With her prayer slips and Amaterasu's power, she had an idea.
Rao suggested that they go to the sunken ship, over out in the distance, it can be seen from the coast.
Rao brought it up since there'd be something to help them fight the evil forces but Amaterasu decided to tag along in hopes of finding something that would allow her and Issun to get into the Imperial Palace.
As they left, Rao mentioned the only way for them to access the sunken ship was at night time, but Amaterasu has a better idea.
She decided to find any kind of way she could to make the pathway to the sunken ship open up faster than just simply waiting till night.
As Amaterasu climbed the moon turret, she drew a crescent moon in the sky herself, and with that, the path way to the sunken ship opened up to them.
Amaterasu knew she'd drown if she swam, so she drew a lily pad and drew wind to get her to the sunken ship.
It didn't take long at all In fact to get there, but when she got inside, the doorway into the sunken ship was closed off by a curse, a sinister one at that.
Yet when Amaterasu turned back she saw Rao, who seemed to be quite surprised that they beat her here.
"This is where the fox rods are at that Queen Himiko was looking for, for this ship it self was sunk by the water dragon, due to that, it's filled with monsters, but my holy powers can fend off a few dozen monsters, for there's nothing to worry about, now lets go in."
"While that's all fine and dandy, babe, just what are we gonna do about this cursed door, I mean, was it sealed up to keep looters out, or was it curse of those who died when the water dragon sunk their ship, I mean, that thing is just seething with intense evil power."
"So, it seems, well, it certainly is a neat trick."
"Well, guess we'll have to find another way in."
"I believe it's time we joined forces, Amaterasu, there'll be more barriers sealed by this evil magic as we get further inside, for when we come to them, I shall use a prayer slip to break the seal."
When Rao dispelled of the curse, the both of them continued inside and began their search for the fox rods.
The sunken ship was indeed a rather creepy and scary place.
Ghosts seemed to be taunting Amaterasu, but they couldn't scare her at all, for her determination to find the fox rods rendered her immune to their scares, but not to the pain they could inflict with her.
However though, it didn't take long until Amaterasu was attacked by two new monsters, Jiro (じろ) and Saburo (さぶろ).
While their defenses was enough to trouble Amaterasu, she was still able to defeat them, even if she did have slight trouble.
Upon raising the water though, Amaterasu soon head back, hoping to find someway to continue on, but Jiro and Saburo came back and combined to form a much more stronger monster, Ichiro (いちろ).
While this monster certainly was bigger, it felt easier to fight, mainly due to its size and Amaterasu using her cherry bomb brush technique to handle it.
Amaterasu delved deeper into the sunken ship, trying to find the fox rods.
Upon finding a treasure room and though, fortune showered upon them, sadly it was only the lucky mallet and not the fox rods, but maybe with the lucky mallet, Amataerasu could somehow maybe deal with the mist swirling around Sei-an city.
Before they could continue searching, the sun came up and they had to swim away, but Rao noticed that something sinister was following them
"C-Can't you swim any faster, Amaterasu?"
"I mean, what were you expecting babe, Ammy is just a wolf, not a speedboat, oh I think I get it, babe, you wanna go to the bathroom, right, well we don't mind, and there's nothing but wide open sea around, no one's looking, so go ahead, that's what everyone does."
"You don't get it, this selling of the waves is a sign that it's coming!"
Rao seemed even more restless, but Issun was positive that Amaterasu could beat it, that is until he got a good look at it.
But as it attacked, Rao jumped off of Amaterasu and quickly used her holy powers to jump on the water and to safety, leaving Amaterasu and Issun in the ocean with the deadly Water Dragon.
Amaterasu quickly swam to shore, making lily pads as well so she wouldn't drown.
While they managed to make it to shore, the Water Dragon was right behind Amaterasu, ready to eat her within seconds.
However, before they could go and find Rao, the lucky mallet jumped out.
Issun thought it was running away and suggested that Amaterasu should change it, yet she had a feeling that maybe the mallet wanted them to follow it.
Upon finding Rao, both Amaterasu and Issun went to confront her.
While Rao certainly was sorry, she was more bothered about how they couldn't find the fox rods on the ships.
However, maybe if the mist is lifted from Sei-an city, they could learn more about the fox rods and possibly its whereabouts.
Amaterasu decided to continue following the lucky mallet until it led them outside a crack at the Imperial Palace.
The mallet shrunk Amaterasu down to size and sent her into the small hole,
Yet Amaterasu was quite surprised when she saw a small person, in fact, she almost thought it was a monster, but based on how the small person was talking, it seemed to be none other than Issun himself.
Amaterasu was quite distracted and wasn't really paying attention to Issun, but the moment.
However, as he hoped on her, the two of them went along and began their search for the source of the mist.
Yet as they were walking, Amaterasu was almost crushed by someone and Issun had to explain again that their small, therefore their not noticeable and it'll be easy for them to be crushed.
This wouldn't be something simple, they'd had to be careful as they explored.
"Hey what's that sound, sounds like someone's crying, hey wait a second, isn't that a jail cell, seems like someone is in there, but I can't tell who she is since she has her back turned, oh well, not like it matters, they usually turn out to be ugly when they turn around, and we don't wanna attract any attention if she decides to raise a fuss, oh just forget about her and lets keep going."
As Amaterasu ignored the girl like Issun said, she continued on, that is before being attacked by a thunder doom mirror.
However, the thunder doom mirror was no match for her and it was defeated almost instantaneously.
With the thunder doom mirror dealt with, Amaterasu continued on throughout the place.
When Amaterasu found a key, she began to look for a keyhole, but as she was passing by the girl in the cage, she soon spoke up.
"Hello, is somebody there?"
"Huh?"
"Are you perhaps mallet bearers, it certainly is hard to see from here."
"Mallet bearers, what are you talking about?"
"Oh, who might you be?"
"Oh, well, we're just a couple of passersby, are you the girl that we heard crying earlier though, it sounded kinda fake if you ask me, your not some monster trying to trick us now though, are?"
"What, oh, no, at least, I don't think I am, I came to Sei-an city to seek some of my grandfather's bamboo ware, but suddenly, the Emperor who lives in this palace had me arrested."
"Wait, your grandfather's bamboo ware, your grandpa wouldn't be that Mr.Bamboo we saw back in Kusa village?"
"You know my grandfather, you see, he raised me back in Kusa village, he named me, Kaguya (かぐや), unfortunately that's all I'm able to tell you, I don't even know why I was imprisoned here, I don't even know who I truly am or where I originally came from."
Amaterasu was in awe at how beautiful Kaguya was, but Issun seemed to be eyeing her from head to toe.
"How exactly could Mr.Bamboo have such a cute granddaughter, well, you just sit tight honeypie, we'll get you out of there, for the great Issun is gonna straighten out that mean old emperor, then I'll come back for you and set you free, now don't sweat it ok, you just be a good girl and sit tight, we're gonna search every nook and cranny of this palace, and I'll make sure to give that emperor a piece of my mind when we find him, so just don't worry your pretty little head, I mean, my partner may not look like much now, but furball here is actually the one and only great Amaterasu, now just sit back and relax, we got it all taken care of, now let's go Ammy."
As they left, Amaterasu continued on throughout the area, even finding the keyhole and unlocking it, allowing her to open up a new pathway and delve deeper into this place.
While exploring, she came across a strange flask, however now with the blocking spider blocking the path, their only option now was to see what's inside.
The mist inside the flask actually felt comforting which gave Amaterasu an idea.
She used her gale storm brush technique to force the mist out, giving the room a comforting feeling.
In fact, it even caused a constellation to appear.
As Amaterasu filled in the missing stars, the next brush god appeared.
However, as the musical instrument that Red imps carry around, a sitar, attacker the god, he quickly had some of his sake to drink and slowed down time with the mist and smell that came from his mouth.
Upon dodging all the sitars, he looked at Amaterasu and properly greeted her.
"Ah...Amaterasu, origin of all that is good and mother to us all, after our separation, I was forced to wonder the corners of the earth, it wasn't long though that I was soon sealed away by a sinister power, but your arrival has broken that seal and now I, Kasugami (かすがみ), grant you the power of mist, glisten over all creation like fleeting dew."
As Amaterasu got the new brush technique, par for the course, Issun taught her how to use it.
"They say that Kasugami can wrap the whole world in a thick veil of mist that slows down time for all things, I mean, when you think about it, it really is true, I really did feel like I was in a dream work with no sense of time, but enough about that, that power you got back there was awesome, Ammy and if the legends really are true, then that brush technique can slow down any monster with just a single stroke, not even blocking spiders are immune, so let's try it out on the blocking spider."
With the new power, Amaterasu was finally able to delve deeper into the imperial palace.
She knew she was getting close to the source of the mist, it was only a matter of time now until she found it.
So with the new brush technique, Veil of Mist, she continued on.
When she remembered a place being blocked off by one of the guards sweeping, she used her veil of mist brush technique to pass by the broom without being harmed, allowing her to get to the next area.
Amaterasu soon found herself in the emperor's room and was quite surprised to see that he was actually the source of the green mist.
Nevertheless, she couldn't think of anyway to deal with the mist, gale storm wouldn't work, and her other brush techniques wouldn't work.
However, she came up with an idea, her idea would be to go inside and find the source from the inside.
The Emperor's mouth was completely open the moment she made it to the rafters, so with that, Amaterasu did what she had to do and jumped inside.
The source of the green mist was most likely inside the emperor's body, so she'd had to explore inside him to find what's causing the source of the mist.
However, the deeper she went, the louder a sound was that she heard.
She couldn't identify it at first, but then she realized what it was.
But when she made it to the source of the mist, Issun was quite surprised to see that the mist itself was alive.
"With this body under my control, it breathes an evil mist over the city, and you, must, how dare you attempt to clear the skies of my poison, for you see, waging battle with me inside of a living human body will be no easy task, even now, Goldnail, my mighty sword cries out for your blood, but before we do perhaps engage in battle, you should be aware of what might happen, by challenging me, not only are you putting yourself at risk, but your also putting the poor emperor at risk, I wonder what would happen if you accidentally struck a vein, or an artery, what if he suddenly went into cardiac arrest, the possibilities are endless, mutt, but now, come, step forward now, so that I, the indomitable Blight, may cut you down to size!"
However, Issun leapt from Amaterasu and attacked, but Blight managed to get out of the way, but even so, Amaterasu let out a sigh of relief seeing that Issun didn't directly strike the Emperor from within.
"Uncultured wretch, be warned, for we are in one of the emperor's organs, if we fight here, there's a chance as I said earlier that you'll-"
"Oh gimme a break, a little action in here will help him wake up, but let's talk about something real fast, your the one behind that poison mist, while possessing a human body may be an elaborate trick, that trick of yours now ends here, for with my supreme blade, Denkomaru, I, the magnificent and handsome Issun shall rend that hunk of junk that you call a sword!"
However, before Issun could fight Blight, Amaterasu forcefully bit at him and threw him onto her back as she fought Blight herself.
However, she knew she couldn't be as rough and tough as she usually is, if she did, she would kill the emperor.
A life was at stake here, in fact, many lives were at stake here.
If the emperor died, no one could run the place except for the queen, but there's always the chance that Blight will just use her body to fill the city with the evil mist and will kill everyone, including the queen.
Yet if Amaterasu surrendered, her and Issun would be killed along with the rest of city, and depending on Blight's power, possibly all of Nippon, or the world!
This wouldn't be an easy task, Amaterasu knew this.
The odds were against her, but even so, it was now or never.
With the thought of protecting everyone, Amaterasu leapt into battle.
When Amaterasu manages to get the sword that controls Blight out of him, she started going through all the exorcism slips that she managed to get off of Rao, using every last one to slowly exhaust him, but she soon ran out rather fast.
She knew that the sword would eventually go back to Blight to keep controlling him, so Amaterasu used Veil of Mist, hoping and praying that should could destroy him.
With one second left, she defeated Blight.
Blight, the disease that was residing within the body of the emperor and was also born of the intense hatred and evil of the cursed sword itself, Goldnail, was the source of the mist that had been plaguing the capital's citizens.
Yet even a creature so despicable and full of hatred was no match for our heroes, Amaterasu and Issun.
With Blight's defeat, the fog was lifted from Sei-an city.
The emperor was also now freed of the evil influence of Blight along with Sei-an city going back to normal.
Amaterasu and others had finally earned a brief moment of rest, but even so, that brief moment of tranquility and rest would be shattered by evil.
For you see, from Goldnaill's defeat, a familiar blackness left it.
The spirit of evil and hatred that had once resided within the sword, a spirit that was black as midnight, deep as the sea, rose slowly skyward.
Make no mistake though, this evil spirit was definitely one of the foul spirits that dispersed from Orochi's destroyed and broken body.
The spirit quickly and steadily rose, before soon shooting off toward the distant sea, over the horizon, it moved with a sense of purpose, almost as if it were about to rendezvous with a lost friend.
Amaterasu and Issun had little time to rest due to this.
For if they were to truly restore the capital to its normal routine, they still had to take care of the threat of the Water Dragon.
For you see, this tale is far from over.
However, aren't you forgetting something?
Something important you?
I'm sure you know good and well what it is.
With Blight defeated, Issun suggested a victory howl, but there was still the problem of Kaguya.
Amaterasu seemed a bit confused, but Issun took over and decided to control the emperor, but something was off.
As he started to shake and move around, Issun and Amaterasu surely thought this would be the end.
Thankfully it only lasted for a short amount of time and they were safe.
Now was the matter of getting the emperor to unlock the cage.
"Are you...the emperor, but if your here, wouldn't that mean that those two are...oh dear me, it's all my fault, how am I ever going to apologize?!"
Issun knew he was about to have fun with this.
Since the emperor was asleep, he could pretend to be the emperor and have a little fun with Kaguya.
"Well, let's see here, how about you start off by making me 100 dumplings"
"Huh?"
"Just pulling your leg, sweetie."
"That voice!"
"What, did you really think we we're going to buy the farm that easily, I mean, the emperor was being controlled by a nasty stomach virus, but at least we took care of it no problem, things should back to normal real soon, honeypie, now then, let's make this royal oaf open that cell of your's, I mean, it shouldn't be too hard."
Issun managed to open the cell door easily, almost as if he's done this sort of thing lots of times before.
"Oh, thank you so much, I though that I was never going to get out of there."
"No time for chit-chat now bamboo girl, we may have free the emperor from that monster that was controlling him, but there's still some things that are a bit dicey around here, so we're gonna hightail it outta this place and I suggest you do to, now let's see here, oh yeah, I know what I'm missing, coochie coochie coo!"
Issun tickled a spot on the emperor which caused him to spit out Issun and Amaterasu.
Amaterasu seemed eager though to do the one thing she normally does after defeating a boss like that.
Amaterasu looked up into the sky and let out her famous victory howl as cherry blossoms fell beside her.
Another one of the bad guys was finally defeated.