Waka certainly was a strange fellow, but there's no time to be dwelling on that, now is the time to be checking what there is to do in the Agata forest, and that's exactly what Amaterasu did, she explored the forest, trying to see what she could find.
While exploring Agata forest, Amaterasu sees Susano, who seemed to to be talking to himself about becoming strong enough to go to Taka pass and fight a big monster.
It seemed it'd be best to leave him be, just in case anything weird happens.
With that though, Amaterasu continues to explore Agata forest to see what she can find.
Amaterasu though soon seems to find a young boy fishing, the young boy's name is Kokari (こかり), he's been searching for his dog, Ume (うめ), the last place he saw him in was he Tsuta (つた) Ruins.
From what the boy knows, there's a key to open the entrance to the Tsuta Ruins, but as he was running away, he tripped and fell near the water's entrance as the key fell into the water.
The boy has been searching for the key for awhile now, yet he's still been unable to find it at all.
Just seeing the boy cry and not try to help his dog was annoying Issun to the point to where he had to say something.
"Listen kid, fishing is all about attitude, there's nothing you can't catch with the right attitude, fish, babes, whatever, it all can be yours, now go ahead, act like your having fun."
"Now that I think about though, this murky water is starting to give me creeps!"
"Well, people call it the deep abyss since they can't see the bottom, but that's not why these waters are so famous, legend has it that a big fish swallowed the moon's reflection on the surface of the water, but, no one knows if the legend is true though, yet for some reason, to this day, no one can see the moon's reflection over the water, in fact, the moon doesn't even rise here in Agata forest"
As the boy used his fishing rod, pretending to cast it out as if he had a line and hook, Amaterasu and Issun soon came up with an idea.
Amaterasu used her celestial brush to rejuvenate the missing line and hook to catch any fish, and to help Kokari out, they'd make the fish easy for him to catch while helping him reel in the fish.
If it's gonna be the way to get into the Tsuta ruins then they might as well have used this opportunity to their advantage.
Each time, Amaterasu fixed the missing line and hook.
The first catch was a rather nice and delicious crawfish.
How much could this Crawfish possibly sell for?
The more thought that's put into it though, a crawfish certainly couldn't have had the key, so they tried again.
Once again, they caught another crawfish, but, a crawfish is too small, there's no way it could have the key.
Certainly this time Amaterasu could help Kokari catch the fish that has the key.
In the water, a big fish was swimming around, this had to be the one, this had to be the fish with the key.
While it did put up more of a fish than the crawfish, Amaterasu still managed to help Kokari catch it.
The big fish it self was none other than, a giant Salmon.
"Wow, that's a big one!"
Kokari was rather shocked with how he managed to reel in something so big, but as it spat out the ruins key, Kokari was now determined to go back into the ruins to save his dog, Ume.
However, before Kokari could go to the ruins, Amaterasu took the key which infuriated Kokari.
Amaterasu knee that Kokari would be no match for whatever kind of danger lurks in Tsuta ruins.
While it did bother her slightly to steal the key, she knew that if she didn't, Kokari could get seriously injured.
Therefore, she decided to go and save Ume for him.
Once Amaterasu made it to the Tsuta ruins, as she put the key in, the door to the ruins opened, Amaterasu was more worried about saving Kokari's dog, Ume, but when Issun though about how people haven't visited the ruins I years, the first thing that came to his mind was treasure.
Once in the ruins, just one quick look at this place was enough to worry anyone, it looked bleak and disgusting,
Just drawing a lily pad on the water didn't work since the purple water just seemed to devour instantly.
Maybe this purple water was some kind of poison?
Either way, first things first, Amaterasu knew she needed to find some way to deal with that poisonous water, so that's what she decided she'd do first.
With that in mind, Amaterasu began her exploration of the Tsuta ruins.
The Tsuta ruins itself was quite big, even if Amaterasu were to take a guess of how much progress she's made, she wouldn't even know where to start.
While exploring, Amaterasu found a stone ball.
No matter how hard she tried to push or use her brush techniques, it wouldn't budge.
Perhaps she needed to do something in this room for it to actually move?
However though, Amaterasu came across a strange flower, but this was no ordinary flower, upon closer inspection, this flower actually moved, in fact, it was a monster known as a bud ogre.
The bud ogre seemed to be unaffected by Amaterasu's attacks, but as it got tired out, all Amaterasu needed to do was to use her celestial brush to bloom it and attack from within.
By doing this, she was able to defeat the monster, and the stone ball seem to become moveable.
However though, there was one question about this strange ball.
Where would Amaterasu even take this ball?
She didn't know what to even do with it, so she decided to push it along, thinking that she might where the ball might go up ahead.
Upon finding a switch, as Amaterasu pushed the ball onto the switch, the door to next area opened and Amaterasu continued her search deeper on throughout the Tsuta ruins.
However though, the moment she stepped into the next room, she instantly ambushed by two bud ogres this time.
They were no match for her though, even if she was hit a few times, she still managed to defeat them rather quickly.
With that, she went deeper into the Tsuta ruins.
Upon making it to a large bridge though, as she was walking across, Issun's nose seemed to be bothering him, but the moment he sneezed, the bridge started collapsing and Amaterasu quickly had to make a run for it, as the collapsing bridge was slowly catching up to her, the moment the last part of the bridge she was on began to collapse, she quickly jumped for the ledge, pulled herself up and went into the next room.
With the bridge out though, Amaterasu would have to find another way to get back, perhaps maybe this exploration throughout these ruins would be longer than she thought?
Upon finding the source of what was poisoning the waters and polluting it, Amaterasu destroyed the things using her power slash brush technique.
With the poison gone, it was now safe to jump in the water, in fact, there was an easy method of travel to get down from the waterfall, that method would be to jump and have some fun swimming around, but of course Amaterasu hasn't forgotten about Ume, perhaps she'd do that swimming another time.
For now, she needed to help Ume.
During her search, she found a small room that had a few dead spots, but nothing a bit of the green sprout brush techniques can't fix.
Upon bringing the beauty back to the room, a constellation appeared.
Amaterasu knew the drill, so she filled in the missing stars and with that, the next brush god appeared.
"Ah...Amaterasu, origin of all that is good and mother to us all, I am Tsutagami (つたがみ), the last of the trio in the Hanagami flora gods, have humbly awaited your glorious return for 100 years, may the fresh spring growth bloom for your luminous snow white form, bring upon new life to this land, the land which suffers under evil."
With that, Amaterasu gained another brush technique the last of the Hanagami, vine.
With this new found ability, Amaterasu could reach places she hasn't reached before.
Perhaps with this new found power, she could possibly find Ume.
Upon finding strange leaning statue, Amaterasu begins to climb it using her now found brush technique.
Upon making it to the top and seeing 4 hooks and 4 Konohana blossoms( このはな), Amaterasu soon got an idea.
She began to use her vine technique to attach vines to the hooks to lift up the cap that's blocking a new pathway.
Upon opening the pathway and going down the linear path, Amaterasu accidentally walked past the path and the moment she noticed and looked down, she fell down to the ground, upon landing, Issun fell off of her as well.
"Ow, nice going furball, I keep telling ya not to space out like that!"
Issun was rather furious, but upon hearing something move, Amaterasu looks up, still on her back and legs still open from the fall.
"Hey, something moved."
Issun went up the big thing to get a better look at it.
"Check out this big flower, we just might've stumbled something here now, Ammy, flowers like this big one here are usually packed with treasures!"
Issun was rather excited, but as he looked into the flower, he saw an unconscious dog.
"Hey, is that a dog down there?
Upon seeing the flower move, Amaterasu quickly leapt for Issun, but as the flower attacked, it's attack just barely grazed Amaterasu's tail.
Issun was rather angry though with being covered in Amaterasu's slobber, but that was the least of their concern at the moment as something began to get up.
"Aren't you that dog that has been sniffing about, I won't allow you to ruin my master's return!"
The big monster itself was the infamous spider queen, said to have a bud on her back that she uses as a disguise to pretend to be a flower.
"Sticking your nose where it doesn't belong will get you killed, now speak your last words, fool!"
Amaterasu only barked, but this bark seemed to infuriate the spider queen.
"How dare you, while dog may not usually be on my menu, I suppose I'll have to make you an exception!"
"Hey, what about that dog you gobbled up, and besides, this 'dog' here isn't just some dog, she's a God!"
"Well now, it seems that the beast itself can speak, even so, that doesn't matter in the slightest, I'll send you back to where you came from, this won't hurt a bit, now just stand still for a moment as I tear you apart limb from limb!"
Upon seeing the hooks on the spider queen, Amaterasu was reminded of how she got into the place and used the same technique, using her celestial brush to draw vines onto the hooks.
Upon drawing enough vines, Amaterasu attacked the spider queen from within, using everything she had to fight back.
It was a tough battle for Amaterasu, both the spider queen and Amaterasu fought furiously, but in the end, Amaterasu won.
Upon defeating the spider queen, a burst of flowers shot out as she turned into a giant flower.
With that, Amaterasu was able to traverse the vine covered ruins and defeat the evil spider queen who was lurking within, the arachnid's body was turned into a beautiful blossom as a feeling of tranquility flew throughout the ruins, inside the blossom it self was a dog, most likely consumed by the spider queen herself, just when everything had started to settle down, Divine instrument, Snarling beast, a weapon that was once long sealed away by the spider queen's evil magic appeared before Amaterasu.
"Well now, it seems the spider queen was hiding a sacred weapon, you know what, maybe we'll get more weapons if we can defeat some other monsters, either way, I can't wait to see what the one we got now does."
It was quite easy to tell that Issun was happy to see what the weapon Amaterasu got does, but as he looked into the flower, he remembered the dog that was inside.
"Look at that, Ammy, the dog is just sleeping there, you gotta wonder if this Ume, you know, the dog that the little kid was looking for, how about we bring him back when he wakes up, but first, how about good victory howl, make it a really good one so that it'll wake him up."
With that, Amaterasu looked up at the small area where there was light from outside showing and howled as the sun shone down on her and cherry blossoms fell down from the sky.