Her Passion

Okami saw the piercing shine of her son's eyes, and she knew that Faolan would go through so much pain without her. Okami turned her head away from the direction of her son but to the enemy that stood in front of her. The evil creature that had been causing a reckoning had to be put down, so that was her priority.

"AHAHAAHA, what a stupid boy; I've never seen a boy cry so much!" The monster hysterically laughs, insulting Okami's son, "I'm going to make sure I KILL him just for you," The monster spun its arms, transforming them into massive blades.

"Demon, I will not allow you to cause any more pain to anyone or anything," Okami's face blackens. She gripped her katana with both hands, battered and scratched from the battle.

"Oh, she looks a lot more serious! Yes, keep looking at me that way, oooooh yes, I want you to really come at me now," The Demon crafted a massive grin, its tongue enveloped saliva throughout his bladed arms.

The Demon dashed, launching its arms for a wide sweeping slash. Okami raised her blade to parry one of the arms. Her katana caught the large bladed arm in the rotation of the sweep, Okami raised herself, pushing the arm high, and with the momentum of the rotation, she successfully slashed the demon's body. Okami, with the same momentum, drives for another slash into the body, but the other bladed arm deflects it. The Demon swung its right arm at the leg of Okami, and she shifts her leg, the bladed arm slightly slicing her leg. Blood ran down her left calf, and she showed no sign of weakness.

The Demon lifted the bladed arm that sliced Okami's leg and licked the blood dripping on the blade. Its eyes spazzed out in excitement over the flavor of the blood.

'Ahhhh so rich and tasty, this must be it OH YEEEES, MASTER I MAY HAVE FOUND THE ONE! I can't fail you now, and this has to be the one.'

The demon pointed at Okami, "You have some special blood, which means I'll just have to do more than kill you. "The Demon laughs maniacally, "If you have such special blood, that means that bastard of a boy will have it too!" The Demon postured for its attack.

"You will taste no blood, special or normal; tonight, I will deliver you peace that only death can bring you."

Okami grips her sword back to its original form, while the blood from her leg is still dripping.

The Demon launched itself onto Okami with enough blunt force to fling her into destroyed rubble. The Demon pounces on Okami, only for her to spin out of danger, returning to her feet. The Demon shoots blades from its back, launching from every direction, Okami attempts to dodge and block the blades, but many of the blades pierce her from chest to legs in an effort to protect her neck and face. The body of Okami flowed with little streaks of blood, discoloring her dark blue kimono, which was ripped and torn as well; her hair was sliced and disarranged; she did not care.

'I will fight for those who cannot fight, and I fight for the love of this world!'

The Demon continued to grin; the body of The Demon was growing in size, elongating the blades on its arm, also healing the slashes thrown by Okami.

"It is truly wonderful to see how little you've accomplished here, and I might have to reward you for trying, at least. I'm not just any horrible Demon, and I will at least let that boy see me devour you whole! Or I can let him see me devour your body, one by one, for covering up my eye." The Demon glares at Okami for slicing its eye open.

"A true ECLIPSE-," The Demon is interrupted by Okami.

"I do not care where you came from or what you are; you're only an adversary now, one I will bring to justice. May God have mercy on your soul."

Okami wearily raised her blade into her original form once again; however, it is clear that she couldn't keep the form as well as she did at the beginning of the clash. She inhaled deeply, providing more oxygen to course through the body and providing the adrenaline not to feel as much pain. This breathing would allow her to put herself on par with the Demon; unlike other humans, this particular breathing was a special skill that has been honed for many years.

"How dare you speak back to someone who has more power than you I'm sick of you DISRESPECTING ME, I'M SICK OF EVERYTHING DISRESPECTING ME! YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND MY PURPOSE!" The Demon is angered quickly raising its voice.

It delivers flashing attacks swinging the massive blades from a multitude of directions, Okami patiently observes the directions of the swinging for an opening for the neck. Every tiny opening chance Okami would deliver quick slices to its arms and body while deflecting attacks that were too risky to block due to the amount of force put on the attack. She could tell and observe with just her eyes.

'It continues to swing vertically and horizontally at an angle; due to the weight of each swing, it is attempting to kill me in an instant, this will make it difficult for it to feint an attack, yet I'm not sure of the Demons maximum potential. God, may you give me an opening if you allow it.'

Okami witnesses an opening but a risky one that could potentially fatally harm her permanently. Okami believes in the risk due to the fact that Demon is enraged.

"This is my chance!"

Okami wielded the blade in a horizontal angle, slipping her knee low, slicing the cartilage of the leg of the Demon in order for it to kneel at her height, so she could slice its neck. The Demon successfully drops, Okami switches the blade to her right arm, swinging through the neck, opening wildly spewing blood.

'The neck was thicker than I anticipated,' only blood splattered onto Okami as she sliced.

The Demon's neck was too thick for the slice she delivered; in that failure, it smiled showing its sharp teeth, The Demon instantaneously sliced Okami's left arm which she had raised for balance off clean. The Demon then booted Okami's ribs sending her flying into a destroyed house.

The destroyed house's roof shattered on top of Okami along with the ash-covered snow. Okami dug herself out of the shattered roof with only one arm; the ashy snow minimally caught her. Okami did not feel the loss of her arm or the rupture of her ribs. Most of her body was completely broken or torn, she couldn't focus on the pain she was experiencing. She looked up into the night sky; the ashy fumes have dissipated.

"Ohhohoho, look at you now. You're missing a part of you. Now stop being so irritating and stand down." The Demon's eye has grown back into its socket.

"HEEY, you bitch look at me when you speak to me! I need you to be still breathing!" The Demon angrily approaches Okami, who still stared into the night sky.

Okami's world was instilled in the night sky everything seemed slow to herself; she looked for the bright Moon that would shine over so much darkness that had come.

'God, is this what you're allowing to pass? Is it, not your goal to allow me to live today for my son, just as his father?' She pauses in wonder,

I see God; no matter where I am I'll always live with my son as long as he holds me dear. You have given me so much my God. I know you have a plan for my son; you have given him a destiny only he could fulfill. It may not be easy for him, my God but with your love,

I know he will prevail. With my prayer, he will prevail.

His journey has only begun.'

Okami looked into the bright Moon that she had found; the Moon had already been there watching her all along. Okami inhaled deeply, a breath she would wield to the very end; may it be her end. She held her strikingly blue blade with one arm with the rest of her body aching in pain and loss. The sword would be an extension of her will; tears ran down her race.

"My Faolan, may my river allow you to live!"

Okami's dark eyes suddenly appeared to alter into an aqua color that expanded her view and view the ultimate advantage of any possible opening that could occur; her eyes reflected the Moon and the sky's reflection of the lighting, and a mysterious, darkly strange mark formed across her face down to her single arm it is unknown to what this Mark is, but it granted her power that she never had before. It then glowed a majestic light resonating with power.

"Total Concentration Breathing

Breath Of Water: Eleventh Style: Living Water!"

The surroundings of Okami had been liquified; water poured in a fierce and forward motion as Okami stood with one leg in front of the other, wielding her sword downwards with the blade facing upwards. The waters grew more ferocious as she held her position. She was injured in every part of her body; she still had blades stuck inside of her, her ribs were also shattered, and the loss of her arm only made her resolve much more powerful.

"OH YES, GO ALL OUT! I'LL MAKE YOU RESPECT ME, I'LL PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE YOU BITCH! I WON'T LET ANYONE STOP MY MISSION!" The Demon howled immensely; his body growled violently.

"ECLIPSE DOMAIN: BLADED BARRAGE!"

The Demon's body repeatedly shot blades from its body, unlike when it shot single blades from his back. The blades would multiply into many blades from any part of its body.

The Blades further multiplied as they neared Okami; she flung herself into the barrage.

"Wait, WHAT!"

The Demon could not understand how Okami is maneuvering through the barrage; Okami's Living Water protected her from surrounding incoming attacks at the sacrifice of one center vulnerability that would be too fast for the Demon to get a hold of. The living water engulfed the Demon, and with an upwardly diagonal slash, the Demon's neck was partially sliced,

The neck is vulnerable; she witnesses an opening glow that shined brightly and intensified as she focused. Its the thickest part of its flesh.

She turned the blade in the opposite direction, with the blade facing downwards diagonally, the final slash to cut the rest of the Demon's neck.

Swshshshs

The Demon's head flew, spinning on the thread of a bone, How couldn't I kill you? It thought,

'I've eaten so many humans to grow powerful and to be feared, yet I'm unable to defeat just one woman; I've killed other women, but this one...

Was it because of her special blood?

Was it because of her skill?

Was it because I was too weak

Was it because I didn't eat enough.'

The Demon reminisces a moment when a strange man appeared to it as a child. He remembers the emptiness he felt as a child, the feeling of loneliness, the feeling of being disregarded by society. His family abandoned him for being weak to the bone, and no one would offer him work. He sat in the muddy alleyway of a city.

He rose his head to a Man who had the piercingly bright eyes of a ghost, skin paler than a corpse, his voice deeper and more formal than any rich man from the sound of his breath.

"I can give you the power to make everyone look at you. And with that power... you can help me change the world." The Man sliced a thread of his finger, exposing blood that slid down his finger.

"I will be special?" He asked.

"You will be special because you are already made special. I know that you will make the world a better place." The Man gently grabbed the child by the chin, caressing the jawline.

"Drink." He whispered.

The child drank and drank; what seemed to be a little droplet of blood felt like a river full. The child rocked as the blood began to overflow his body, now filling the veins; the child's limbs were elongating the natural position of the bones, twisting the body widely; the Child's body appeared to mangle from the inside out, teeth sharpening as if it were a wild beast.

The child panicked quietly to himself from the glory of the pain sprawling as the child's vision fogged into darkness.

The child re-awakes feeling full. "You are human no longer, my Eclipse; in the new world, you will rid those who pride themselves as one for the people. However, be careful in what you do; there are consequences for every action. I believe you will do great things." whispered the Man who smiled. He scrubbed the young child's fluffy hair.

The boy, now a demon, wanted to use his newfound body to do what he could for the stranger until that goal had enslaved his thoughts with the desire to do the best that he could. The stranger wanted him to find subjects for him. This was The Demon's mission for many years. Frustrated in not finding the perfect subject for the Stranger, he had torn the many lives of innocent humans in desperation, and the lives of those who tried to protect them, only now to fall short at the hands of one woman, who was his chance.

The Demon now thought of the amount of blood it spilled, enough blood that would fill an entire village's water supply. The number of bodies that hung internally within the Demon's appetite would grow ever more impatient and thirsty for blood; he had gone too far.

"I would not question the atrocities I have committed, the deaths..... I did not even need to consume them... I had grown desperate to pay you back... for giving me a purpose...my consequences.

The stranger's words from many years ago tore straight into his mind. I was made an Eclipse, yet I wasn't strong enough; I failed to uphold the goal he wanted to share with me.

I will never be

Recognized."

Okami dropped her sword, falling to her knees, soon to fall directly on her back. She laid not thinking of the injury she had taken but thinking of her son.

Mr. Nakama took care of my son, and she smiled.

"Why, why does everything hate me? There's only been one being in my life that had seen the potential within me, and... I threw it all away now." the head of The Demon said to Okami.

Okami turned to the Demon's head,

"I don't accept the life you have decided to live, I do not agree with the massive amount of destruction you've caused to this village and the lives of others, and I do not agree with how many times you've threatened my family... but I do not hate you," she states with empathy.

"After— after everything I've done? You don't hate me?" The Demon began to shed a tear.

"I do not hate you, and I forgive you."

Okami smiled with reassurance.

The Demon's tear broke from its socket, "I–I,"

The Demon was at a lost for words,

"Thank You... I feel... mistaken now... I just...." The Demon didn't know how to further respond, and his mind flashed back to the Stranger, his goal for the people, he had already ultimately failed.

Okami giggles, "Ah no, I'm none of that. I'm only a mother doing her duty for my son and for the lives of innocent people."

"I'll pray for you."

The Demon's head disintegrated into the night sky, entering the never-ending cycle of life and death.

"My God, thank you for allowing me to see your beautiful creation one last time; thank you for the time you have given me on this earth. Many people do not know of your love, but I wanted to demonstrate it to my son and my patience for this entire village. I only pray that you deliver my son from his pain. I also pray that this being who was formerly a human finds peace, for we all sin and make mistakes. Please forgive him."

Okami reached for the sky, reaching for something she could reminisce. A certain peace finally came to her. The fires of the village have died down, and the ash of the smoke air has disappeared. Finally, displaying a beautiful night sky.

"Ah, this is beautiful; I hope Faolan will see the beauty of this night, the beauty of his life." Okami rested her only arm.

"I again pray, Lord, that you provide the wisdom to Mr. Nakama to guide my son through his journey, for it will not be easy for him as well, but just as painful, Mr.Nakama, it is okay to cry you are not alone too, you will have my son close to your heart."

Okami hummed her favorite song that she sang to Faolan, a song that she sang only for him. A song for him to find peace on a night when could not sleep. A song where he could find healing when he was sick.

A song he was always loved.

Years ago...

It was a beautiful day in the village, and the autumn winds delivered a refreshing breeze that drifted auburn-shaded leaves in nearly every corner. The village folk were incredibly happy, hustling for the winter to come. The village elders watched the children play peacefully, and adults carried on their day of work, which included crafting, ensuring livestock, and farming. The village knew nothing of fear within its seclusion. It has been this way for multiple years since the village isn't as old as other villages but not as modern.

Akari Okami carried a basket of fresh goods, specifically sweet in nature. Her son Faolan followed her behind, holding on to her left forearm, which was free.

"Faolan, why do you cling so much to me?" Okami smiles, continuing on her path.

"Well, I don't want to let go," Faolan glances away.

"You know what I've always told you, Faolan," Okami stops, turning herself to face her son. She lifted and pointed at Faolan's chest, where his heart would be located.

"I will always be with you." Okami smiles hopefully.

"I know, but I wish I could do more for you," Faolan looked over to the arm which carried the basket of goods.

Okami directed her arm, carrying the basket of goods into Faolan's chest, "Here, can you hold this? I believe you're strong enough for this," she giggled, knowing his true strength.

"I can do it!" Faolan holds the basket with all his might, taking consistent breaths and making large movements with his legs.

"Remember to breathe," Okami raised her finger in reminder.

The two continued on the path that headed to Miss Yano-san's home. Faolan held his mother close to his heart, and he could not fathom the idea of ever letting go of his mother. Okami had to raise Faolan through so many hardships because she had no husband. Faolan would watch his mother work tirelessly for the necessities of their living. She had support from the local blacksmith and Miss Yano-san. The local blacksmith would supply Okami with metals to help sturdy the home; however, she worked on the home alone. For many years Faolan was young and unable to do much for his mother; during those times it fueled the flames of how much he desired to do for her.

Miss Yano-san would gift Okami extra food that was made at home, especially during times of celebration. Okami knew about Faolan's desire to help her, but she continued to urge him that it was her duty as a mother.

Even without the Father.

"Faolan would rarely ask anything about his father, and he was a righteous man. Perhaps I wished that Faolan would approach me about his father, but his focus was always on me. Always focused on what was in front of him, never behind him. Oh Faolan, how you always desired to be the best son. You were truly a blessing I did not deserve, but I was gifted with a son who loved me dearly. I wanted to guide you in becoming the person that lives in righteousness."