Before

The thick muscle and bone of my flesh ridden hands pressed to my ears were not enough to drown out the sounds of their frantic voices. The many different vibrations of tones of the combination of hundreds of gods perched sneakily at the entrance of my Ama-no-Iwato, were bouncing off the narrow walls and driving me insane. They'd frequented many moons out there, spending the long nights pressuring me into remerging. How foolish did they suppose I was?!

No matter; I stood firm in the decision to not move from this spot. I was perfectly content with never having to see Susanoo again.

Susanoo no Mikoto; my despicable brother and god of the ever changing seas.

My hands squeezed ever tighter around my ears. I'd confined myself here because of him! After everything I'd generously given to him, forgiven him for, and he still broke down my rice fields, and had the audacity to throw a flayed bloodied horse straight through my palace doors while my sister and I were doing our afternoon weaving! In his final act of defiance towards my mercy, he desecrated her dwelling place as well. My sister was grief stricken.

I shook my head hard of the horrid memories I would have liked nothing more than to forget.

"Why? Why Susanoo, did you have to drive the world into so much peril?" I questioned slowly to no one but myself.

I'd cared for both of my brothers as much as one god was able to care for another. We'd been family once. If our mother, Izanami no Kami were to see us now she would weep until the very sea's overflowed and drowned out the lived below with her grief. But no matter how much divine blood we shared; Susanoo was not a just god.

The tones grew to ones of rage as the masses tried many a time to get me to finally appear and bring light back to the world. Their anger and frustration almost amused me.

After hours of tenuous trial and error, and my eyes weighed heavily with exhaustion, did I hear the rhythmic tone of the song.

"She is even fairer than Amaterasu!"

"Yes! Yes! Look at how she becomes air itself!?" Another praised from beyond.

The rest of the men's whining turned complimenting and cheerful. As the sound waves of the sudden music pounded off the walls and into the very essence of my being, I grew livid. Who were my fellow gods speaking so highly of? How could their attention be turned so quickly? A goddess fairer than I? Impossible!

Without hesitancy or an ounce of self-control my body moved toward the cold stone door I'd placed to seal the entrance.

"One look cannot hurt. I must see for myself, such a woman…" My will wrapped around the large boulder, sliding it back just enough to see the dark ominous sky whirling wildly above. The wind howled and would have sliced a mortal's skin clean open. A woman wrapped in shimmering silk spun around a glowing thick and deeply rooted tree and sat decorated in pristine sparkling jewels and fine cotton cloth. And strangely enough, in the trunk of this display of heavenly prayer, was me.