Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 25
This account was originally found on Livejournal, I am not the original author—I am just a fan of the journal and have found reading it on livejournal clunky to navigate and rife with errors/instability (such as having to refresh multiple times due to the page in questions becoming unavailable often requiring multiple refreshes. The original post can be found here, published by DJ-Yomi, and was published on May 15th 2008.
We’re on our way back from Japan, and all is well in Shikoku again. ^_^ Hinako is on the mend, the youkai are safe, and the kami of the Mountain of Resurrection has been purified.
As I said in my last journal, we made just about all the preparations we could before heading to the Mountain of Resurrection, but we still had to deal with the issue of getting into the place. Anna could get herself in, but not anyone else, so we needed another solution. As I said before, one way in was to make a doorway using the blood of an onryo or a woman on her way to becoming an onryo. So…I summoned Oiwa (who’s only the most classic example of an onryo in Japanese legend!). I didn’t want to ask her to shed her blood for us, but we really didn’t have any choice.
She wasn’t happy about it, but she understood how important it was, and willingly agreed to help us out since it was me asking. I wish I could have done something to heal her…but she’ll be okay.
While she was there, Oiwa also asked to speak privately to Echo. It turns out she had some important information for me, but had been forbidden from telling it to me. She wasn’t forbidden from telling it to Echo, though, and so she did so. It had to do with Miko.
Miko, the shikome I knew as a child (before she became a shikome) and who is responsible for giving me the shikome taint, is obsessed with me. That much I knew. She’s been charged with protecting me twice, once by Amaterasu and once by Izanami, and so she’s very determined. But since she was the one who gave me the shikome taint, she also feels extremely possessive of me, and that is completely unacceptable. I’ll not be treated as Miko’s “property.” Something will need to be done about her sooner or later, and probably sooner. I’m convinced of that, especially after learning of her plans for Echo.
Oiwa warned Echo (who then told me) that Miko was planning on murdering Echo when she and I go to Yomi to see my mother, which is the plan once we return to America. I cannot endanger Echo like that, so she won’t be going to Yomi with me. Instead, I’ll have to make sure she’s safe. Of course, Ray has her Vigil Branded, so even if Miko did attack, I’m sure he’d be there to protect her in a flash. But I’m still worried.
Anyway, I was really grateful to Oiwa for sharing this information with us, especially since she risked the wrath of the Dark Mother, the head of all shikome, to do so.
Speaking of the Dark Mother, Oiwa also said that she has a deep interest in Tabby. Miko has told her about Tabby, and Tabby apparently has the makings of a sort of elite shikome, kinda like Miko. That’s exciting, and I’m really happy for Tabby…but I will not allow Miko or the Dark Mother to take her from me. >_< Despite her flaws, Tabby is very precious to me, and I won’t lose her, especially not after losing Amy as well. She and Robin will be going with me to Yomi, but I’ll keep my eye on them to make sure nothing happens to them.
With all of that information out of the way, Oiwa told me that she’d stick around and help protect me from specters and anything else that might try to possess me. With that, she merged into my body, basically possessing me herself but without exerting any sort of control over me. It would help keep specters from possessing me. It was kinda like when I was hosting her spirit to help her heal. It’s so nice to have her looking out for me. Oiwa’s so wonderful. ^_^
While I was summoning ghosts, I also summoned Amy. I wanted to make sure she was okay. She was, and I was glad to hear that Angela, Karen, and Annie, the three ghosts I befriended just after their deaths in New Orleans, were there to help guide her. She didn’t remember much of her life as a shikome—she said it was all kind of a blur. But I asked her if she could please try to help any of my other shikome who happened to find themselves dead. I want to take care of them even after they die, after all. She agreed, though for the time being, I think she’s too bewildered to do much. I think she’ll be okay, though.
The only other major issue we had to deal with before leaving was the fact that Hinako was being drawn to the Mountain of Resurrection. She was able to fight the urge to go there at the time, but we all realized that her urge would become stronger and stronger as time passed, and that she might eventually be forced to make her way to the mountain. That would endanger her and our plans, so we had to stop that. We suggested to the kitsune at the temple that they use their powers of illusion to keep her from wander away from the temple, much like they did when we first encountered them and they made us wander around in circles looking for the abandoned temple.
And then we headed to the mountain. The drive to its general area wasn’t bad, and once we arrived, getting in wasn’t difficult since we had Oiwa’s blood. Ray used his masterful skills in calligraphy to “write” a mystical door into being, and we passed through it. You know, the more I learn about him, the more I find that he exemplifies the samurai virtues! Who would have thought that Ray had a respect for the arts aside from the martial kind? ^_^
Once on the mountain, we made our way toward its summit, where the ritual was to take place. The mountain didn’t sit still and wait for us. It sent the undead to stop us. We had to fight our way through a host of zombies and shitidama to reach the summit. The zombies weren’t a big problem, and our followers took care of most of them. The shitidama were another matter. They weren’t too dangerous, but their long, filthy claws could inflict grievous wounds. Fortunately, our teamwork again saw us through. And I got a great action shot of Ray in the middle of one of his badass combat moves. It’s one of my best photos ever. Ray is so handsome in it. ♥ ^_^ ♥
When we arrived at the top of the mountain, I also got a picture of a massive black torii gate that marked the site where we would have to perform the ritual to purify the place. It was rather intimidating. The photo I took looks awesome. I think I’m going to get a nice print made, ‘cause it’s dark and gloomy and really creepy looking.
At the summit, Juanita began the ritual, leading Dahlia, Quinn, Kimiyo, Sera, and about half of Ray’s followers. She was really good! I was surprised, and my girls, who were paying a lot more attention to the ritual itself, said that she really knew what she was doing.
The ritual took awhile to complete, and the Mountain of Resurrection did all within its power to stop it. The battle that we fought there was, without a doubt, the most incredible battle we’ve had to date. It was amazing. First, more undead swarmed us, trying to work their way past Ray, Adam, Anna, Pierre and I to disrupt the ritual. God, undead are so cool. Not that I appreciated being attacked by them, but…I’m gonna have to learn how to make zombies. ^_^
At the same time, the mountain’s kami emerged, rising from the ground as a humanoid beast of stone, earth, and withered vegetation. It looked dangerous, and we couldn’t fight it. Killing it would solve nothing—we were trying to purify it. So while the others fought off the undead and protected me and our followers, I distracted the kami.
It was originally a kami of fertility, right? Knowing what I do of such things (thanks to Echo, who is kind of a Greek version of the same thing), I figured that using my sex appeal to keep him occupied might do the trick. So…I began a slow, sultry (yet elegant!!) strip tease. After all, by some accounts, that’s more-or-less how Ama-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto drew Amaterasu out of the cave she shut herself up in when Susano angered her…though the actual texts say it was much more chaste than that. Knowing Amaterasu, I think that the idea that it was actually a strip tease is probably just wishful thinking on behalf of some folklorists. But since I’m a modern girl, and incredibly sexy, I decided that a strip tease would be the most potent way to demand the fertility kami’s attention. Fortunately, we were able to complete ritual before I had to remove my bustier and underwear. *whew*
Actually, my biggest fear was that the kami would try to do more than just watch. I don’t know what I would have done if it decided to rape me…but fortunately it didn’t come to that. O_O
While I was busy keeping the corrupted kami from attacking us, the others fought off waves of undead. And then, rising from the ground like zombies, the undead corpses of four scions attacked. Actually, one of them might have still been alive, but his mind was completely gone, maddened by the corruption of the mountain. It was all a blur, so I’m not really sure… Anyway, they were dangerous. I mean, they were basically undead versions of us, right? But the others were up to the task of besting them. And to help them, I worked my compelling presence into my strip tease, causing them to stop and lower their defenses momentarily, which allowed my allies to finish them off. Everyone was really amazing. Anna was a whirlwind of death, Adam helped support the others, and Pierre laughed madly as he used his newfound ability to harm ghosts to destroy as many specters as he could. My shikome focused on zombies and hungry dead, and they seem to be getting better at fighting!
But the undead scions weren’t our biggest problem. As we fought, a shinigami began to manifest. Yep. A real shinigami. The white-cloaked stranger himself appeared to destroy us. Shinigami are almost like minor gods of death in their own right. There was no way we would have stood a chance against it if not for Ray and the bean that Togo gave him. When the shinigami manifested, Ray ate the bean and grew into a gigantic version of himself. He fought the shinigami single-handedly, and the battle was quick but intense. The bean infused Ray with the power of those he has protected. It gave him tremendous strength, and thanks to that, he was able to defeat the death spirit.
Finally, Juanita and the others completed the ritual. The sky lightened and plants all over the whole mountain began to blossom and turn green again. The kami was purified. I stepped forward to speak with it and spent some time thanking it for returning to the light and showing it the honor and respect that it now once again deserves.
For the most part our injuries were minor. Those of us who were hurt were able to heal under our own power, for the most part. And so we left the mountain. I started to put my clothes back on, but Ray decided to get flirtatious about then and complained that since he was fighting, he didn’t get to watch me. So as a reward to him for killing the shinigami (and, well, because I really, really like him), I stayed clad in only my lingerie for awhile longer as he swept me up and carried me off the mountain (he was still gigantic for awhile after the battle).
You know…I’m really in love with Ray.
We also rescued the relics the dead scions carried. They had some nice weapons and such, but one of them, who was another daughter of Izanami, carried a doll,. She was a western-style doll with pale skin and black hair; she kinda had a goth lolita look to her. I kept the doll. After all, her owner was my half-sister. I later found out that she had had a daughter who had died, and that her daughter’s ghost often inhabited the doll. Sadly, the scion’s ghost was maddened by the specters, and tried to attack me when I summoned her. *sigh* Anyway, I’m keeping the doll safe. I may find a way to return it to its owner if she can be saved, but if not, I don’t think mom mind me taking care of it.
So, the problem in Shikoku is solved. Once we purified the kami, Hinako began vomiting up the taint, which was unpleasant for her but necessary. There were a few other issues…like Chiaki getting angry with Sayuri for stealing lamp oil and Ray deciding to go into Yomi to help Chiaki deal with her curse somehow. But for the most part, we’d done what we set out to accomplish, and it was time to go home.