[V1/C11] ILLUSORY WORLD

In a sudden wake, Tsukuyomi rose from the bed he lay, profusely sweating as if he saw a nightmare of the past.

"Huff! Huff! Huff!" He kept breathing and breaking out in cold sweat as he clenched his chest. Looking down below him, he saw himself in a change of clothing wearing a fully white laced robe. He looked further to his side and saw the sleeping Amaterasu right by his side.

"What happened...?" He questioned. Running his fingers at his long black hair, he quietly sat down cross-legged, thinking back on what happened before he passed out.

'Where's the Beast...?' He tried to remember the past events which was concluded after he passed out."Urgh..." After trying so hard to remember, instead of remembering, his head started to ache feeling a bit of nausea.

As he groaned in pain, Amaterasu woke up seeing the pained Tsukuyomi."Brother...?" She yawned as she questioned.

Removing the morning tears in her eyes, she stood up and opened the bright blue curtains and there she saw two birds flying around the skies near a plum tree.

She smiled at the skies and turned her back happily towards Tsukuyomi. Gazing upon her joyful expression, he smiled back at her instantly recovering from the minor backlash and spoke "I'm back, Lil Su."

She replied with a yearning gaze. 'Welcome back, Brother." She brightly smiled as she spoke these magical words, which gave strength to the confused Tsukuyomi.

"Let's hurry back Brother, Second Older Brother is currently waiting with Mother right outside the shrine"

Hearing her, Tsukuyomi asked for confirmation "Wait, the Second and Mother?"

Amaterasu answered. "Yes! They're here to pick us up!"

Tsukuyomi's eyes sharpened, and he immediately rose from the bed, pointing his finger at Amaterasu. He angrily said. "Tell me! Who are you?!"

His little sister disappointingly answered. "What do you mean by that Brother...? I'm quite disappointed in you..."

Tsukuyomi closed his eyes and used all of his senses to locate the source of the illusory world. While sensing around the entire vicinity, he sensed that nothing in this world was fake.

'Impossible...!' he looked once again at the worried Amaterasu.

"Tell me, what year is it today?" He questioned with a serious tone in his voice.

"What do you mean by that Brother? It's the year of 876" She answered with full certainty. We're currently at the shrine in our clan. You passed out after training and pushing yourself too hard so Second Eldest Brother brought you here to recover"

Tsukuyomi then tried to rush outside. As he hurriedly opened the door he saw a familiar face. "Eldest Brother?"

Seeing the same familiar face and hearing the same familiar voice, Tsukuyomi's eyes widened in shock and anger.

"How?! How are you still alive?! Answer me! Susanoo!"

Susanoo blinked twice in confusion while his older brother shouted at him for no particular reason. "Whatever do you mean by that Eldest Brother? Why would I die?"

***

Susanoo. Susanoo is the god of storms, and as such, he is also associated with wind, fields, and the harvest.

***

As he blankly stared at him, a shadow emerged behind Susanoo. "Are you alright son?" A calm voice with a tinge of elegance resounded through his ears. The voice seemingly belonged to a Female Deity.

Slowly, while the shadow from the dark corner brightened, Tsukuyomi saw a young woman with short greying hair, fair skin and bloodshot eyes. Her appearance was rather quite thin, though curvy, giving her a more androgynous appearance, wearing a white tunic with red accents. "Mother...?" He said with a shocked face as if he saw the dead coming back to life, his eyes tearing up, changing the shocked expression with a deep longing in an instant, unlike the hatred he first felt when seeing Susanoo.

Seeing his mother, he pushed aside Susanoo and immediately ran towards Izanami with open arms. Izanami replied and welcomed him with open arms.

As the two hugged each other. Izanami, Tsukuyomi's Mother spoke.

"Why are you crying, my Son?" She asked, her face painted with worry.

Tsukuyomi cried out to her as if he was the little boy he once was before becoming an independent man. "Mother! Sob... Sob..."

In response to her child's cry, she caressed his hair and answered. "Yes. Yes. I'm here my child."

***

Izanami is the Shintō mother goddess or progenitor Japanese goddess of the country and kami of Japan. She has the power to create forests, rocks, islands, and other kami.

***

Ever since his Mother died, she was announced to be one of the ruling Gods of the Underworld, making it impossible for Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu to visit her since only the dead and their Rulers are welcome in the Underworld.

Izanami was trapped in the endless cycle of the Land of Reincarnation. She was lucky enough to live again after dying once at the hands of one of her children.

Under heavy restrictions, she was not permitted to leave the Underworld without the permission of the other Rulers. She was under surveillance ever since entering the Underworld as one of its many rulers. With their intention portrayed, the majority of the Rulers are in denial of Izanami's sudden appearance making it hard for her to see her children.

That was what was in Tsukuyomi's mind after hearing it from one of the minority of the Underworld Rulers, so he deliberately hugged her, assessing the realism of the illusion and finding a way to get through it.

When he lets his guard down, everyone else sees him as someone pitiful, making them lower their guard against him.

While hugging Izanami, he compared every detail of his Mother to the fake right in front of him. 'Genuine. But there's a slight loophole in between how my real Mother would react after pushing Susanoo aside.'

Tsukuyomi secretly stared daggers at the appearance of the Fake Izanami. 'My real mother wouldn't be so biased as to immediately embrace me after doing something wrong.'

After a minute or so, he left his mother's embrace and apologized. "I'm sorry mother. I just missed you a lot these days making my emotional state unstable"

Izanami brushed it aside and praised him for trying hard for the family."It's alright, my dear Son", she smiled, but behind those smiles was just emptiness, particularly similar to falling into an infinite abyss.