"...Amaterasu?"
Until he saw it for himself, Sū ěr couldn't imagine a fox's face could hold such a complex expression—a mix of reverence, helplessness, loathing, and pain. It was a look that couldn't be described in a word or two, all triggered by the name Sū ěr had mentioned.
"Or the whole of Takamagahara. What is it like in there? Our luck was quite good earlier; we happened to see the stone sphere containing the Tenson disappear at the top of the Milky Way. Is that Takamagahara? Can one still enter it?" Sū ěr asked casually, like a curious passerby.
He didn't know if the fox was being so kind because she sensed his and Think uniqueness. He refused to believe such a youkai would let anyone just swim in her fur. She likely saw something that a minor youkai couldn't, but no matter; if she was willing to cooperate, Sū ěr wanted to know more about this world.
"Thou wishest to go to Takamagahara?" the Nine-Tails asked, surprised.
"Just curious," Sū ěr answered frankly.
"Abandon the thought. The gates of Takamagahara are closed; even I cannot return... No, perhaps being unable to return is a mercy..." The jade fox shook her head in warning. Her sudden change of words suggested that something was happening inside Takamagahara.
And as it happened, Sū ěr loved hearing such secret stories... exploring the mysterious unknown.
"Why?" he pressed.
"I know not." The fox was startlingly honest. "Before the Celestial River was blocked, I had already fallen to Ashihara no Nakatsukuni. None know the current state of Takamagahara. If thou wishest to know of its past, I can tell thee: the gods therein spent their days in revelry, treating the praise of Amaterasu as their greatest task, regardless of the years... But that is not what thou wishest to know, is it?"
Using the Nine-Tails' descent as a divider, Sū ěr had no interest in the Takamagahara before then. Compared to the boring lives of the gods, he wanted to know the secrets of these few hundred years. Clearly, it was the Takamagahara after the path was severed that was worth investigating.
"We heard from a youkai that the Milky Way is blocked and the gods can't travel freely between the three worlds. Do you know why?" Think asked, popping her head out from the glowing fur. "As an aspect of Amaterasu, surely you know the reason?"
"Because of... a terrible crime..."
The Nine-Tails' voice suddenly became incredibly low. As her words fell, Sū ěr noticed the world around him lose a third of its brightness, as if a thick cloud had covered the sun. He looked up in alarm, but the blue sky held only a lone, blazing sun; not a cloud was in sight.
When Sū ěr looked down again, everything had returned to normal. The brief change seemed like a hallucination, but Think slight shake of her head toward him proved it was real.
Having also captured the anomaly, the massive jade fox raised her long, beautiful neck to watch the sky. After a long time, she lay back down, but this time she seemed to have lost the desire to speak, her eyes half-closed in thought.
"Is it Amaterasu?" Sū ěr asked gravely, immediately linking the anomaly to the sun in the sky.
But the fox only shook her head, turning to words that puzzled Sū ěr and Think.
"Gentle, kind, shining all her brilliance upon the whole world... upon god and man alike, upon the demons born where the light does not reach, even upon Yomi where the dead return, wishing that those lost souls might be satisfied by a sliver of sunlight. Even when her crude and insolent brother ran rampant, she could not bear to blame him..."
Sū ěr guessed she was describing Amaterasu.
"Has something happened... to Amaterasu?" Sū ěr interrupted the praise to speculate. Actually, he wanted to say she had died, but he chose to be euphemistic to respect her feelings.
She neither confirmed nor denied. This fox, whose eyes had been peaceful from the start, was like an elder on their deathbed—seemingly talking to others, yet wandering through their own life's thoughts.
Suddenly rising from the ground, the beautiful fox gave her body a light shake. Think was shaken out from the shimmering, wave-like fur, falling right into Sū ěr arms. Nine tails blossomed like a flower, emitting a light so brilliant that even mortals could look at it without pain.
A sun walking upon the earth. That was the only thought in Sū ěr mind.
The Nine-Tails seemed to be stretching, but when the brilliant light slightly faded, Sū ěr was surprised to see the string of Magatama that had been hanging around her neck fall off. They had even shrunk in size and were now floating before him.
A long, slender strand of jade fur threaded through the beads, forming a closed loop—a beautiful necklace. The fur emitting a faint glow was, of course, from the Nine-Tails herself.
Without a hint of shyness, Think took the necklace and began to toy with it impatiently.
Sū ěr understood the fox's intent, but that only made it more unbelievable. This was indeed their first meeting. This jade, which Yukari said was a gift from Amaterasu representing loyalty, was the treasure she had stolen centuries ago. The intent of a gift was obvious.
So why take it off? Why give it to him and Think? They had no deep history, no foundation of trust.
It made no sense.
The Nine-Tailed Fox looked as if she had fulfilled a difficult mission. she let out a long sigh, not casting a single glance at the Magatama—coveted by countless demons and gods—showing not a trace of reluctance.
Looking the beautiful fox in the eye, Sū ěr waited for her explanation.