Mirror World: Destined Return

A man wandered around a deserted street with no destination, his disheveled black hair fluttering in the wind.

“Mother, my mother... Where are you?” he sorrowfully mumbled.

He was Susanoo, looking for his mother, Izanami, who had disappeared one day.

“Did you not want to see me anymore... because I cause so much trouble?”

He missed Izanami’s warm embrace. Whenever he was in her arms, the fragrant scent of spring, filled with life, had always tickled his nose. A whiff of that scent of the earth had always suppressed his innate violent nature and his impulse to destroy everything he saw. Izanami was the only person in this world who could stop him, but she was now gone.

“Mother! Mother—!!!” Susanoo shouted sorrowfully.

However, Izanami did not appear. An unstoppable, violent storm filled Susanoo’s black eyes. The despair that he would never see his mother again awakened his destructive nature.

“AHHHHH! HAND OVER MY MOTHER! WHERE HAVE YOU HIDDEN HER?!”

One stomp of his foot created a storm that razed his surroundings and tore the sky apart.

***

“What did you say?” Susanoo asked Izanagi, his father.

“Izanami has moved on to the afterlife. You can never see her again,” said Izanagi, the God of Creation.

“What do you mean, Mother is dead?!”

“She suffered irreparable burns from giving birth to Kagutsuchi.”

“Kagutsuchi!” Susanoo shouted in anger, aimed toward Kagutsuchi, the God of Fire. A storm filled his eyes when he screamed, “I will kill him!”

Izanagi shook his head. “He already is.”

“What?”

“I killed him with this very sword.”

Izanagi extended his arm, gripping a sword. It was a giant, double-edged, straight sword named Ame-no-Habakiri, Izanagi’s divine blade.

“I shall give you the Ame-no-Habakiri, so cease your life as a wanderer and rule the seas,” he said.

Susanoo simply stared at the blade in silence and asked, “Have you... been to the afterlife?”

“I have.”

“Did you meet Mother there?”

“I did.”

“Then why?! Why didn’t you bring her back?!” Susanoo asked, glaring at his father, unable to understand.

“Izanami is not the Izanami you once knew,” Izanagi replied with slight disgust. Susanoo remained silent, and he continued, “Her entire body was rotten. Maggots were wriggling all over her.”

Susanoo stared at his father blankly and mumbled, “So, you’re saying... You abandoned Mother for that kind of reason?”

“What?”

“She must be crying alone in the afterlife, then!”

Susanoo turned around and walked away without hesitation.

Izanagi watched his son walking away and warned, “I told you to rule the seas. Consider yourself warned.”

***

Susanoo defied his father’s orders and reached the entrance to the afterlife.

I will be there soon, Mother! Wait just a little longer! he shouted inwardly.

His destructive nature grew more severe without Izanami. He was afraid that he would ultimately destroy the world at this rate. However, the moment he set one foot into the afterlife, he heard a wrathful voice.

“You have defied me!”

Susanoo turned around and saw Izanagi, his face crumpled with rage.

“Father...”

“I ordered you to rule the seas!” He pointed his hand at Susanoo and declared, “I banish you from Takamagahara. Go to the mortal realm and atone for your sins!”

“But I must meet—”

“Silence! If you resist, you will end up like Kagutsuchi!”

Space itself was distorted from the end of Izanagi’s finger, and the world around Susanoo changed completely. Susanoo had been forcibly sent to the mortal realm, landing upside down at the entrance leading there.

“You are no longer part of the Takamagahara! You now belong in the mortal realm!” Izanagi’s voice echoed thunderously from the sky.

“Gurgh! Fine! I was done with that stifling place anyway!” Susanoo shouted back.

Once his plan to rescue his mother fell apart, so did his desire to remain in Takamagahara. He stood up and was about to enter the mortal realm, but suddenly recalled his brother and sister, Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto and Amaterasu-Omikami. He especially missed Amaterasu, his older sister, the Goddess of the Sun, with a striking resemblance to their mother, Izanami.

Yes, Sister will understand me! he thought as he turned around and set out to say his farewell to his sister.

***

The scenery on each side of a river was nothing alike. One side was stormy, and dark clouds covered its sky. The other side was filled with bright sunlight. Susanoo, standing on the stormy side with the Ame-no Habakiri at his waist, looked across the river.

“Sister—”

“Bastard! Takehaya-Susanoo-no-Mikoto! Have you come to take my throne?!” shouted the beautiful woman on the sunny side of the river, fully armed.

“That’s not it, Sister... I just wanted to see you one last time before I—”

“Do not lie to me! I heard about your banishment from Takamagahara! You are trying to ascend by taking my place!”

“No... That’s not true... You’re wrong,” Susanoo mumbled blankly, staring at Amaterasu’s eyes filled with hostility.

However, Amaterasu did not believe him because she had known him her whole life. She knew her little brother’s violent nature and impetuous tendencies that made him unpredictable.

“Go away!” she shouted.

“Sister Amaterasu—”

“Stay away from my territory! No one welcomes you!”

The jade embedded in her helmet shone as it exuded blazing flames. To Susanoo, who had expected warmth, Amaterasu’s cold and hostile attitude was too much to bear. Not only that, but the fact that it was coming from someone who looked just like Izanami made him feel like his mother was rejecting him.

“No one... welcomes me?” he mumbled.

“Of course, not! Who would welcome a ruffian like you?! Never appear before me again! You are no longer my brother!”

Amaterasu cutting off ties with him also cut the thin strand that kept him holding on to his sanity.

“Heh... Kehehehehe!”

Susanoo brought out his violent nature to its limit from the shock of his sister rejecting him and the despair of being alone. He unsheathed the Ame-no-Habakiri, and a giant storm blew in his eyes.

“I SHALL DO AS YOU WISH!” he screamed.

The entire world was filled with a storm of blades. It reflected his heart, shattered into sharp pieces.

“KYAAAAAHHH!” Amaterasu screamed, and Susanoo shed tears of blood.

Afterward, the injured Amaterasu hid inside a cave named Ama-no-Iwato, and Susanoo ran away to the mortal realm.

***

Susanoo couldn’t remember how long he had been wandering around the mortal realm. His eyes were completely blank.

“No one welcomes me, no one understands me, and everyone antagonizes me,” he mumbled.

What did I do that was so wrong? I was... born this way.

He had often vented to his mother, Izanami, saddened by his own existence.

“Mother! Why did you birth me this way?! Why must I be so violent, destructive, and receive everyone’s hate?”

Izanami hugged and consoled him every time.

“I loved your storm-like rage when I created you. That rage will one day change this world.”

However, Izanami was no longer there to console him. He had been left forever alone.

“AHHHHH!”

Susanoo unsheathed the Ame-no Habakiri every time he felt lonely and destroyed everything he saw. The humans of the mortal realm, startled by the sudden disaster, paid respects to him to quell his rage, but Susanoo’s desire for destruction only grew.

However, as Susanoo was wandering around like always, he one day arrived at a seaside with a cliff. It was a place called Izumo, always covered by fog. Just then, he heard someone sniffling from the cliff, and he walked toward the source. Once he reached the top of the cliff, he saw a woman with a wooden comb in her hair, weeping.

She smells like... the earth, he thought.

The smell of the ocean reverberated throughout the surroundings, but the smell of the earth was thick around just the woman. It was the scent that reminded him of his mother’s embrace.

Susanoo approached the woman and asked, “Why are you crying?”

The woman raised her head. She stared at the sword at Susanoo’s waist, then stopped crying.

“I am crying because no one will be there to take care of my elderly parents when I die,” she answered.

“Why will you die?”

“A serpent with eight heads and tails called the Yamata no Orochi resides in Izumo. If we don’t offer the monster sacrifices, it will flood the eight rivers of Kansai and fill this region with so much fog that ships can’t sail.”

“And you’re the next sacrifice?”

“Yes. In fifteen days... I will never see my parents again. Sniffle...” the woman said as she wiped away her tears.

Susanoo’s expression crumpled. She won’t see her parents again?

A giant storm brewed inside his eyes.

“Where is it?” he asked.

“Hurgh... Pardon?”

“Where is this Yamata no Orochi?”

“Across... the ocean,” the woman replied, pointing at the ocean beyond the cliff.

Susanoo immediately walked toward the edge of the cliff.

“E-excuse me! Mister warrior! What are you doing?!” the woman shouted.

“I will kill Yamata no Orochi for you,” Susanoo said as he turned around to face the woman, the gust disheveling his hair.

“You will... kill Yamata no Orochi?” the woman mumbled, staring blankly at Susanoo’s eyes that carried a violent storm. “That is... impossible. That serpent can kill even gods. Its tail has a sword that can cut anything in the world.”

“That’s great,” Susanoo said with a smile. “I hope it can also cut my rage.”

A violent gust blew, and he vanished.

***

Half a month had passed since Susanoo vanished from the cliff. In that time, a storm blew so violently in Izumo that not a single boat could set sail.

“Huff! Huff! Last one!” Susanoo yelled, panting heavily as he clenched Ame-no-Habakiri tightly and swung it down with enough force that it could slice the world in half.

Skreeeee!

“Chaaaaahhh!”

His slash caused an immense storm, severing Yamata no Orochi’s last head. Its giant body fell into the ocean, and the impact caused rainfall. The bloody Susanoo stuck his hand inside Yamata no Orochi’s tail. He felt a hilt, so he grabbed it and pulled it out with all his might. It was also a straight, double-edged sword like Ame-no-Habakiri. The blade was abnormally white and continuously emitted clouds.

“So, this was why the fog was so thick,” he remarked.

He pointed the sword up, and the sword shook as if resisting him. However, Susanoo’s overpowering caliber suppressed its shaking, stopping it from releasing clouds.

“Since you came out of the tail of a snake that summons clouds, I shall call you Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (Heavenly Sword of Gathering Clouds).”

Susanoo fastened both swords at his waist and returned to the cliff where he had met the woman. However, the woman wasn’t the only one waiting for him there. On the cliff and the area around it were filled with the people of Izumo who had heard about Yamata no Orochi’s death. They had rushed out of their homes to welcome Susanoo.

“H-he’s back!”

“Yeaaahhh!”

“It’s the warrior who killed Yamata no Orochi!”

“Please tell us your name!”

“What in the...” Susanoo trailed off, confused by the welcoming he had never received in his life.

He frowned, feeling the unfamiliar sensation of his heart fluttering. Just then, the woman who had been crying on the cliff ran to him and hugged him.

“Sir warrior!” she shouted.

“L-let go... of me.”

“You are our blessing! Our savior!”

Susanoo froze upon hearing the woman’s joyful shouts.

I’m a blessing? he thought, recalling what his sister, Amaterasu, had said to him.

“No one welcomes you!”

I thought no one would welcome me.

“Aren’t you... scared of me?” Susanoo asked the woman.

“Pardon?”

“I am the storm that disrupts the serene sea. Why would you welcome me?”

The woman blinked in confusion, then said with a smile, “Is that so? But I love the storm. The sea without a storm is no sea!”

Susanoo remained silent, then recalled the words of his mother, Izanami.

“I loved your storm-like rage when I created you. That rage will one day change this world.”

The people’s cheers echoed around him.

“Yeaaahhh!”

“The warrior of the storm defeated Yamata no Orochi!”

“We’re safe now!”

I... get it now, Susanoo thought, finally understanding what Izanami meant. My rage will change the world.

He was born with a violent and destructive nature, but it was also the nature of recreation. After all, destruction must exist for new creations to occur.

I am a god who destroys all that is old and diseased to create them anew.

Susanoo had been sad about his existence until now because he believed he had been incomplete, only destroying things. That was why he had searched so desperately for his mother, because he thought he would be complete with his mother by his side. However, at this moment, Susanoo felt complete despite being just himself. He had discovered his reason for existence.

I am violence and destruction, and so I am recreation.

Susanoo smiled. He then turned to the woman who had given him enlightenment and asked, “Thank you. What is your name?”

“Pardon? My name?”

“Yes.”

“My name is... Kushina,” the woman replied, her face reddening after seeing Susanoo’s smile.

Just then, a voice only Susanoo could hear echoed in his head. It was the voice of his father, Izanagi.

“I am proud of you, my son. You killed Yamata no Orochi, whom even the gods had given up on. This feat is more than enough to wash away your sins. I shall allow you to ascend, so return to Takamagahara.”

Susanoo smirked and mumbled inwardly, I’m fine. I have decided to live in the mortal realm. There is still much I have to destroy here.

“You defy me... to the very end.”

That is why there is meaning in my existence, he said inwardly as he threw the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi up toward the sky. Please give this to Sister Amaterasu. It is an apology for the injury I had inflicted on her before.

“Are you sure? It is an incomparable divine sword.”

I am more than satisfied with the Ame-no-Habakiri you have given me, Father.

“Ahahaha! You have matured! Very well. I promise your days ahead will be filled with nothing but glory.”

“Huh?!”

“The sword is flying!”

“The warrior of the storm has offered Yamata no Orochi’s sword to the gods!”

The people of Izumo began praying as they watched the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi floating up toward the sky.

Susanoo turned to Kushina, who was staring intently at him, and asked, “Is there a place I can stay here?”

***

Two men were standing across from each other at the vast ocean. One was Seong-Hwi, clenching his head tightly from a splitting headache.

“What pains you so?” asked Susanoo, the man across from Seong-Hwi, in a rough but smooth contradictory voice. “Was my life so painful? Or is it your life, being mirrored with mine?”

Seong-Hwi panted heavily as his eyes finally regained their focus, and he stared at Susanoo, who was staring back at him with warm eyes.

“You and I are alike,” Susanoo said.

“Do you mean the fact that... we yearn for our mothers?” Seong-Hwi asked.

“Yes, and that you hold a storm-like rage in your heart.”

Seong-Hwi couldn’t refute anything Susanoo said. The voice that had truly commenced his life echoed inside his head.

“Wait for me right here. Mommy... Mommy will come back to get you, no matter what.”

Her words would not have been so embedded in his heart if she had said something like, Goodbye.

Why did you tell me... to wait for you? Did you really intend to come back for me? he wondered.

He did not know the answer since no one had come.

Susanoo stared silently at Seong-Hwi’s conflicted expression and said, “Find it.”

“What?”

“Find the source of your agony.”

“Are you telling me... to find my mother?”

“You will never overcome it if you do not face it head-on.”

“Is that... your condition to let me borrow your destiny?” Seong-Hwi asked.

Susanoo smiled and nodded. “Yes. I stopped looking for my mother once I became whole, but it appears you have to find your mother to become whole.”

K.I.Y., Seong-Hwi inwardly said what appeared to be his mother’s initials.

“Find it, destroy it, then recreate it,” Susanoo continued.

“Destroy and recreate,” Seong-Hwi mumbled back, then smirked.

Yeah, why make something so simple this complicated? It’s nothing I can’t do.

“I understand. I will look for her,” he answered.

“Ahahaha! You and I truly are alike! Now, destroy everything that blocks your path forward!” Susanoo shouted as he pulled out both the Ame-no-Habakiri and the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, then handed them to Seong-Hwi.

Seong-Hwi accepted the swords and asked, “What about the causality?”

“I will collect it later, since you are about to enter a battle. It is a reward for reminding me of the past.”

Susanoo began to fade, then vanished as he became a storm. His voice, resembling the flapping of a thousand birds’ feathers, echoed throughout the vast ocean.

“Go! Let this world know of the existence of Takehaya-Susanoo-no-Mikoto!”

***

Seong-Hwi opened his eyes and saw a vast ocean stretched throughout the horizon. A violent storm blew inside his eyes.

[Operating Wings of Evolution.]

[Sixteen Wings,]

[Unleashing the stats stored within the Absolute Crown.]

The beautiful Wings of Evolution shone iridescently behind Seong-Hwi, and the Absolute Crown over his head spun as it flashed with a golden light.

“A deferred payment, huh? I don’t like the feeling of being in debt, but... What a relief,” he mumbled as he pulled out a card from the Tarot Deck of Destiny.

It showed Susanoo with disheveled hair, generating a storm with the Ame-no-Habakiri in one hand and the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi in the other.

“Thanks to that, I borrowed my first eight-card destiny!” he shouted as he immediately activated skills.

[Activating Unique Skill: Borrowing Destiny.]

[Takehaya-Susanoo-no-Mikoto]

[Activating Unique Skill: Symbol Embodiment.]

[Ame-no-Habakiri]

A giant, straight, double-edged sword appeared in Seong-Hwi’s hand. The hilt was long enough to fit ten hands, so its blade seemed much longer than it looked. He gripped the sword with both hands and pulled it behind his back, and an aura resembling the ocean in a storm gathered around the blade and flashed.

“Kurgh, this is an insane sword!” he shouted in shock once the sword consumed eighty percent of his mana and Destiny Force, which had already been amplified by the Absolute Crown’s overclocking and the Wings of Evolution.

However, thanks to that, the Ame-no-Habakiri was wrapped in a storm as powerful as when Susanoo severed Yamato no Orochi’s final head.

“Destroy, then recreate!” Susanoo shouted from inside him.

“CHAAAAAHHH!” Seong-Hwi roared, swinging down the Ame-no Habakiri toward the ocean directly under Gurzes.

[Activating Exclusive Skill: Ocean Splitter.]

The storm wrapping the Ame-no Habakiri slammed into the ocean, and as the skill’s name suggested, it literally split the ocean like Moses parting the Red Sea. An unknown power prevented the miraculous parting of the two walls of water from merging again.

“Found it!” Seong-Hwi shouted, noticing a giant city that shone beautifully between the walls of water.

It was Gurzes, located ten thousand meters underwater.