Sasami-san @ Ganbaranai - Volume 1 - Chapter 15

VOLUME 1

PART 3: NINIGI NO MIKOTO (1)

Chapter 15: Expedition to Ame-no-Iwato (Front Half) (2)

Occasionally, I thought back to the past.

My clan lived in a remote corner of Kyushu (3), in a shrine which passed down one single duty from generation to generation.

That duty was the sealing, management, and control of the Supreme God Amaterasu.

Yes, I came from a mysterious lineage that had somehow captured the Supreme God alive, and used that to maintain a world that was convenient for humans to live in.

We were an unsavory group of spiritualists who were pulling the strings from behind the curtains.

If there were gods residing in everything, then you could take that to mean that there were also gods living within the bodies of humans. The spiritual powers of my family came from turning that way of thinking into a finding tools or skills with which we could harness divine powers.

Of course, the divinity of humans was not intrinsically high. In the end, we didn’t amount to more than averaged-leveled creature gods.

But humans could train, exert immense effort, or just take in or consume more gods to heighten their own powers.

There were then the spiritualists who surpassed the rest, and who sought to punish the evil gods who threatened this world made for the comfort of humans. In order to preserve that world, they also warped reality through an alteration, so that most people didn’t know of their existence, or just didn’t believe in them.

In any case, ever since I was born I had been raised as one of those spiritualists.

I went through hellish, torturous trainings day after day, but I was content.

Because I was raised in a closed-off environment like the shrine, I was halfway brainwashed and grew up believing that we were forces of justice striving to protect the world.

Even though we were little more than rebels who had tricked the Supreme God into being captured alive, and were arbitrarily forcing the world into a shape that served us.

And so, shut in that prison, I focused every ounce of my strength on my training. But sometimes I couldn’t take it anymore and managed to escape. The training I was put through to heighten my spiritual powers was incredibly taxing, and I was also just a little girl filled with curiosity about the world and humans outside.

Every time I escaped, it would raise a huge panic back home and I would get dreadfully scolded, but I didn’t pay that any heed.

And then, after the shop I frequented for manga and games also set up an internet connection, my entire worldview crumbled into dust.

Through the network lines, I was able to travel from the ascetic, amusement-free environment of my village into the wide, chaotic world outside. Through reading blogs, I increased my awareness of the world.

And then, upon reading the homepage of a certain spiritualist, I suddenly was made aware of the truth… of the true identity of my clan.

It seemed that in order to preserve this world made for the comfort of humans, the power of the Supreme God was passed down from generation to generation from parent to offspring.

My particular family, those who took Tsukuyomi as a surname, was the clan tasked with that outrageous responsibility.

I was astonished, and also frightened.

To preserve the state of the world… that was just way too monumental of a task.

Every piece of training I had gone through up to this point was to prepare myself for that task.

It was all so when the Supreme God was sealed in my body, I would be able to control those powers and prevent them from running wild.

The next year, my mother, who was still young, passed away.

The power of the Supreme God was then passed down to me, who had been raised from birth as a shrine priestess, and although much celebration was had, this event marked the beginning of true Hell for me.

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I often had nightmares about my past.

“Hnn………”

I woke up from a listless sleep and began to move around under my covers.

Spring was still far off… and the nights were terribly cold, so I curled up inside my futon.

When I checked the clock next to my pillow, I saw that it was six in the evening.

After I had lived a while as a hikikomori, I found myself prone to insomnia, and my biological clock had also been completely thrown off.

And even if I woke up, it’s not like there was much to do.

It was also pretty cold, so maybe I should sleep for a bit longer.

Yawwnnnnn…

I yawned, thinking sweet things like Yeah, that’s a great idea. Sleep a bit longer. So I began to drift off again, when…

“Hm?”

I suddenly noticed something.

When I tried to sleep on my front side, I noticed that something felt off near my chest.

It didn’t hurt or itch or anything… it just felt like there was something intruding there.

It’s not like my breasts were big enough to bother me when I tried to sleep, so maybe there was some stuffed animal stuck there or something…

A bit irritated, I turned over and then felt around on top of my bed with my hand, looking for the culprit.

But there was nothing there.

I suddenly got a bad feeling about all this, and touched the suspicious area on my chest with a finger.

Something felt strange.

“Wha-“

I lost any and all will to sleep, and flew up from my bed in a panic.

I turned on the room’s lights with a remote control, and told myself to calm down.

I tried my best to not look down at my chest but headed for the wash basin that was set in my room.

I washed my face to wake myself up a bit, and then once again took a look at myself.

There was a strange bulge coming out of my body.

“What the hell is this…?”

The bulge originated near the base of my collarbone.

It was big enough to push up against the fabric of my pajamas, as if asserting its own existence.

And it also just didn’t seem natural.

The bulge was uneven, and it was hard for me to imagine what could be lying beneath it.

Now that I thought about it, when I got into the bathtub last night, there was already a small bump forming around here…

It was small enough that I thought it was just a pimple or something… so I had left it alone.

Did that thing suddenly grow big?

“What is this… why is it so swollen already? This… isn’t cancer is it? A tumor or something? I-If this is some weird disease, what am I going to do…?”

Almost near tears, I began to unfasten the buttons on my pajamas, one by one.

I was scared to check exactly what this thing was, but it was far more scary to just leave it be and continue not knowing what was going on.

I steeled myself and exposed the top half of my body.

And what appeared there completely blew my expectations to bits.

“Eh…?”

–

It was someone’s hand.

–

Someone’s hand was extending from the wrist, out of my chest.

It looked like a right hand… It was a slender hand which was pale to its fingertips, and the nails were well groomed.

This was probably a girl’s hand. Although…

That hand sure did seem familiar…

To test something out, I took my own right hand and put it right next to the hand sticking out from my chest.

They looked exactly the same. From the length of the nails from the positions of the moles.

“This is my hand…? What is going on…?”

“Sasami-saaaan~~.”

As my face paled and I began to shake, I heard a carefree voice calling out to me.

It was my brother.

“It’s dinner timeee~~. Are you awake~~? If you’re not awake your oniichan can come and give you a little kiss like sleeping beauty ufu ufufufufu~~”

My brother was spouting some random nonsense, but at a time like this I felt I could trust this hentai to help me.

With my face still pale, I rushed to the door of my room and opened it.

“Oniichan!”

“Uwah, you surprised me!”

It was rare for me to go and open the door (my brother usually just barged in himself), so it looked like my brother was a bit shocked. He steadied the plate of hot food he was holding with one hand, while he dutifully covered his face with the other like some nude model who had to keep his face hidden.

I clung to my brother’s arm with tears threatening to fall from my eyes.

“Oniichan, oniichan, what should I do?! Umm, there’s this thing on my chest-“

“Sasami-san’s chest?”

My brother moved one of his fingers so he could look through the crack at me.

“Actually, why does Sasami-san have her pajama top half-open…? Hahaah, I understand now! Finally, my love for you is getting repaid, yes?! I understand, I understand, just leave the rest to your oniichan! Come on, onto the bed-“

“Shut up you idiot! Listen to what I’m trying to say!”

I screamed at my brother as he began to try to forcibly drag me to the bed.

“What are you thinking, you damn pervert?! We’re siblings, aren’t we?!”

“Eh? I though you just wanted to sleep next to me because you had a scary dream… was that not it?”

“A-Ahh, so that was it… I was thinking of something completely different…”

“What were you thinking? Sasami-san, you’re such a naughty girl! What kind of scene were you painting in that cute little head of yours? Come on, you don’t have to spare any details, just tell your oniichan! Just tell me, hurry up, hahhh hahhh hahh…”

“You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you?! Also, why the hell are you stripping?! If I just wanted to sleep next to you why the hell would we need to get naked?!”

As I spat out the foulest obscenities at my brother, I managed to shake his hand off and distanced myself a bit from him.

And then, my face flushing completely red, I showed my brother my slightly exposed upper body.

“Here, look at this…”

That hand was still dangling out from my chest.

It didn’t seem like it was going to grow any bigger than this… and it wasn’t moving either… also, a tumor or something like that wouldn’t ever look this much like a hand.

“W-What is happening to me? Help me, oniichan…”

“Hmmm……”

My brother approached me and seemed to be seriously in thought.

“This is certainly quite strange.”

He slowly grabbed onto one of my breasts and began to lightly squeeze it.

Squeeze squeeze squeeze.

“You’re already in high school, but these don’t look like they’re growing any bigger… this just won’t do. I’m not surprised you’re so worried. I understand, your oniichan will help you get these breasts to grow! When you get your breasts groped by someone else, you let out more female hormones, you know…”

“Oniichan…”

After I had killed my brother with the brightest smile in the world, I left his corpse there to rot and returned to the wash basin. I was an idiot to have any faith in that damn moron.

But murdering my brother did make me feel better, and I definitely had managed to regain my composure. So I decided to test a few things out.

“I can feel this…”

I timidly touched this sarcoma (as I will call it from now on) that was growing from my chest.

I could feel my touch through it.

In other words, this meant it was connected via nerves to my brain.

Which meant that this was another part of my body.

I could probably also feel pain through it, so it would probably be a bad idea to just cut it off…

I put a finger to the wrist of this sarcoma, and I could feel the thud thud thud of a heartbeat.

It also was connected to my circulatory system.

Yeah, it really would have been a bad idea to chop it off. I might die of blood loss.

Although, I couldn’t just live with this thing forever.

I was a hikikomori, which meant I didn’t meet many other people and so it’s not like anybody would care about this… but this thing made it hard to sleep and it was just a weird feeling to have something like this growing from my chest.

I had to get rid of it somehow…

“But really, what’s wrong? Sasami-san…”

My brother seemed to have revived himself and walked over, seeming puzzled.

As I watched him warily to prevent myself from getting groped again, I pointed to the sarcoma on my chest.

“Oniichan, can you see this? Do you know what it is?”

“Uhh…”

My brother cocked hi shead to the side.

“There’s a hand coming out of your chest. But that’s not anything strange.”

“……”

I knew it now.

This was an alteration.

No matter how off my brother was, if a hand suddenly sprouted from his little sister’s chest he should be surprised and immediately go to find a doctor.

But my brother wasn’t shaken at all… it was almost like this was completely normal to him.

In other words, some god had enacted an alteration, and this irregularity was the result.

I protected my body with my spiritual powers, but the divinity of humans was not that high.

If a strong god targeted me, I wouldn’t be able to defend against that.

But, who exactly was targeting me? And why me?

What was he after…? What was the point of making a hand come out of my chest…?

“Sasami-san.”

My brother had no way of detecting this irregularity, but maybe he sensed my unease… he pulled me in for an embrace as if I was a small child and stroked my head.

“Everything will be alright. There’s nothing to worry about. Sasami-san is a strong girl, so she’ll be able to overcome anything.”

“Okay…”

For some reason, I felt nervous, and I looked up at my brother.

I was greeted by a rare sight. My brother was not covering his face.

“We have plenty of money, and you can also buy food through the mail, right? Even if you didn’t have this room, even if you didn’t have me… you would be alright.”

“Yeah, I would be.”

I would come to forever regret my words back then.

It’s just that when my brother hugged me like that, I felt myself blush and had to act strong… so I looked at him with an angry expression and spoke curtly.

“I’m strong. I can do anything by myself. Oniichan doesn’t have to worry about a single thing.”

“Yes, that’s certainly true.”

My brother smiled.

“Ever since she was a child, Sasami-san could do her best by myself… I never had to save her, and all I could do is follow along and admire her…”

“Oniichan?”

I cowered a bit at the sound of loneliness in his voice and looked up at him.

I didn’t realize it.

The fingertips of the sarcoma that was dangling from my chest had begun to move.

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The preservation of the world.

To manage and control this world that was made for the comfort of humans, I had to keep the power of the Supreme God sealed within me in check… and that was an unimaginably painful task.

Generation after generation, my family members tended to die young.

That wasn’t a surprise. The Supreme God was sealed within our kin.

Our bodies were honed to be the most suitable for keeping the Supreme God contained and in control. And to protect that bloodline, our family repeatedly practiced incest, causing our bodies to deteriorate.

My mom and dad had been siblings.

From ancient times, our family would tie together siblings or parent and child… they would give birth to a new child, thus tying our bloodline together.

The women would become priestesses and hone their spiritual powers in order to manage the Supreme God.

The men would support those priestesses and become their servants. They would protect the priestesses with their lives, and in the end would be used as mere tools for childbirth and then tossed away.

My brother had also been brought up like that.

Ever since our childhood, my brother was no more than my slave.

No matter what I said, he would listen. He would eat all the things I didn’t want to eat. He would smash any bugs that came out and scared me. He would carry heavy things for me, switch with me when I had hard chores to do… I ended up using him for anything and everything.

But I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

That was just the role thrust upon the men in our clan.

My brother never received a proper education, and his mentality was completely remodeled into that of a servant.

This was also why he always hid his face, supporting me with all his strength from the shadows like a ninja or a stage assistant.

I would rely on my brother to cut open a path forwards for me, and then to take me on his shoulders to walk that path.

But my brother never doubted me for a second. He never complained that I was completely using him. He was like a robot… and if I ordered him to bite off his tongue and kill himself he would probably gladly comply.

My brother thought of me as his beloved family, believed that I was the ultimate female, and worshiped me like a god.

That was just how he was made.

Even as I knew how wrong all of this was, I continued to take advantage of him.

My brother was the only person in the world who wouldn’t betray me.

My brother was the only person in the world who wouldn’t hurt me.

My brother was the only person in the world who loved me.

No matter how ugly I was, no matter how worthless I was, no matter how seedy, how disgusting, how awful of a girl I was, my brother would accept me for me. He would support me. He would protect me.

It was hard to call this love… it was perhaps more like a programmed response.

So, when I used the computer I had coaxed my parents into buying for me, when I was getting completely lost in the world of the Internet… I thought that I would bring my brother with me when I left.

He was a useful tool, after all.

He would support the lifestyle I wanted to live.

That was it; I wasn’t supposed to feel anything more than that.

I had gotten fed up with this Supreme God prison, this life that I was living which tortured me both physically and psychologically. So I ran away. I turned my back and ran away from the role that had persisted in our clan from time immemorial, and for which my own mother had sacrificed herself.

I might have been weak and foolish. I might have done something that prevented me from ever holding my head up again.

But I was at my limit.

Why was it that only I had to be isolated and trapped like a bird in a cage to preserve the Supreme God’s power, while everyone else lived free lives outside?

To prevent the Supreme God’s powers from being activated carelessly, my desires were all stripped away, and I was drugged so I lived perpetually in a haze. To prevent me from being the target of someone’s evil scheme, I was locked away and only allowed to interact with my brother, who took care of me.

I was lonely. And I was scared. Scared that I was going to die like this.

I didn’t want to be used up and worn out, and for everything to end like that.

I pretended to be an obedient priestess, deceiving everyone else at the shrine, and then one day… I secretly disposed of the medicine I was supposed to take in the bathroom.

And then, with clear will, I sorrowed over my misfortunes, and in the end decided to run away.

This time, it wasn’t for some silly reason like escaping to a manga café to play.

This time, I didn’t intend to return.

I didn’t care what happened to the world.

No matter what the world spat at me, no matter how many stones they threw at me, I didn’t care.

I was already at my limit. I couldn’t take it anymore.

Pain and fear had won out against any guilt I was feeling.

Of course, there were people who tried to stop me, but I shook them off.

If I used the power of the Supreme God, then nobody could interfere with my plans. I took my brother with me, and went far away… until I arrived in Amenonuboko and settled down here.

The first night after my escape, I was shaking with regret for having betrayed everyone, but my brother embraced me and slept right next to me. I still remember his words from back then.

“It’ll be alright, Sasami-san.”

My brother never really talked back at the shrine (the other people at the shrine actually thought of him as a worthless caretaker who always spaced out and wasn’t good at his job), but that night he continued to talk to me until I relaxed and fell asleep.

“Don’t be afraid. Don’t cry. You’re free now. Be proud of that, and live happily. That’s your right. The people back at the shrine were wrong. Nobody has the right to take your life from you.”

I was too weak to say anything, but I just wept and held onto my brother, feeling his body’s warmth.

“All your pain and regret and guilt… all the bad things you feel… give everything to me. I’ll take them for you. That’s my role in this world. That’s my reason for living.”

My brother was kind.

Everyone had always made fun of him, but I’d known forever that my brother had a truly beautiful, pure heart. At the very least, I preferred his attitude far more to the ones of those adults who just threw meaningless flatteries my way and whose ulterior motives were as transparent as glass.

When I cried, he would stroke my head.

He would comfort me with clumsy words.

I was certain that I loved my brother.

But that was why I also hated him. As long as we lived in the shrine, we would someday have to comply with our clan’s wishes and make a child together. And then, we would pass down our heavy burdens onto our son or daughter. So, my feelings towards my brother would always be those for a convenient tool; I couldn’t let those feelings develop genuine affection.

And so, I loved my brother.

But we could never be joined together.

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It took three days from the first appearance of this sarcoma before something strange happened.

I had returned to my usual mode of life.

The sarcoma was an important clue, but I was already tired of worrying about it, so I just let it be.

I was just casually going around all the favorite websites I had bookmarked.

One of the net idols I liked had once again written a blog post filled with emoticons. That relieved a bit of stress.

I tended to lose my sense of time when I surfed the net, but that was what being thirsty was for.

I suddenly felt like I wanted to drink something.

And that’s when I noticed the coffee cup being held right up next to my lips.

“………”

I was at a loss for words, but soon realized what was happening.

The sarcoma that had sprouted from my chest was holding a coffee cup up to my lips. As if telling me to drink.

It was moving.

And what’s more, this sarcoma had grown.

The other day, only everything after the wrist was showing, but today I could see the entire arm almost up to the shoulder.

How had I not noticed this before…? Did it just suddenly grow out with tremendous speed?

I shook at this amazing turn of events and couldn’t move, so of course I didn’t have the composure to drink from the coffee cup either.

Maybe it sensed that I was frozen in place, but the sarcoma put the coffee cup down.

And then, of all things, it skillfully used its one hand to type on the keyboard.

It opened up notepad, and words began to appear on the screen.

–

Good afternoon.

I couldn’t do anything but open and close my mouth wordlessly.

Wanting to test something out, I tried to put strength into this sarcoma.

If this was really a part of my body, then I should be able to move it, right?

That’s useless. I am a will separate from your own.

The sarcoma almost seemed to be mocking me when it said that.

I couldn’t even call for my brother to help. Instead, I could only sit there and get knocked around by this irregularity.

“What… are you…?”

I am your “flesh.”

I am a god that represents a human body… more specifically, the body of Tsukuyomi Sasami.

During the Yamata no Orochi SNS incident from a few days ago, your psyche – that is, the will that was forcibly controlling this body – temporarily was separated from your body.

That small crack allowed me to awaken.

“Don’t tell me…”

I had a horrible feeling about this.

“Those people back at the shrine planted something in my body…? They predicted that I would betray them and run away… and they planted a god in my body who would be much more obedient to their wishes than I would have been… or maybe it’s better to say they absorbed that god into my body?”

That’s half correct.

Certainly, my will was something created through the efforts of those back at the shrine.

At the shrine, your own will was broken up through use of drugs. But in the off chance that at some point, you might suffer a mental collapse and be attacked in your sleep, they created me as an “emergency power supply” to be able to deal with those situations.

But for someone with the power of the Supreme God resting in her, if you felt like it you could destroy me at any time. My divinity is not that high. The people at the shrine would never have imagined you would betray them in their wildest dreams… to the very end, I was made as a precaution to save you in emergency situations.

My one goal is the preservation of this physical body. I will do anything to accomplish that goal. That is how I was programmed.

“Protecting my body…”

Yes. If it is to ensure this body’s safety, even the desires of your psyche – the main controlling force of this body – are irrelevant to me.

In certain cases, I may even find myself at odds with you.

But trust me, there is no need to worry.

The only reason I took the risk to come out and reveal myself to you is because I have managed to finally ensure your complete safety.

Everything is now over. Your happy lifestyle has been perfectly assured.

You should be grateful.

“Y-You…”

I felt a chill run up my spine and suddenly stood up.

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten breakfast today. I hadn’t eaten lunch either. What happened to my brother? It was a weekday too. Maybe he had something he absolutely had to do at school and so he left me alone at the house…? No no, my brother would never prioritize that over me.

But then, why hadn’t I seen my brother anywhere today?

The sarcoma coming from my chest slowly typed, almost as if it was playing with the keyboard.

I’ve always been watching from inside of you since you escaped from the shrine.

And then, I came to a conclusion.

The biggest threat to your life right now is any potential agents sent from the shrine to take you back. As long as you continued to fear that the shrine would send out a search party and use any means to capture you, there would be no relief in your life.

If you are caught by the shrine, this time there would be no escape. They would drug you, brainwash you, and forever isolate you. Those people would definitely go that far.

However, there is one method by which you will never need to fear that shrine again.

To the very end, the people at that shrine are only after the power of the Supreme God, with which they would like to preserve this world made for the comfort of humans. They don’t need Tsukuyomi Sasami, but just the god in this land with the highest divinity.

But right now, the power of the Supreme God is not resting within you…

“It’s in… oniichan…”

Yes.

I knew that all too well.

It was something I was still in the middle of investigating… but for now I really didn’t understand why things had turned out this way.

After I ran away from my family and began to live in this place… I soon realized it.

I had lost the power of the Supreme God. I only was able to control the very average power of my own body’s god by using my spiritual powers.

I had lost the ability to control everything, down to the very laws of nature, that came with possessing the power of the Supreme God Amaterasu.

That power had shifted into my brother.

I had no idea why, but that was the only possible explanation.

I could no longer create alterations in the world. In return, all my brothers wishes had begun to come true. For example, he hadn’t been educated himself but suddenly found himself employed as a teacher… the world was being altered in order to be more convenient for my brother.

My brother was raised as my servant, and to make sure he had no ambitions of his own he was given almost no spiritual powers (he was a so-called “spiritual eunuch”). So he had no way of understanding the position he was in, and just continued to warp the world around him.

My own divinity had plummeted to close to zero, so I had no real option other than to just watch my brother from a distance and make sure he didn’t try to change the world in any strange ways.

That was the current state of affairs.

Indeed. The Supreme God Amaterasu had migrated from Tsukuyomi Sasami to Tsukuyomi Kamiomi.

The sarcoma began to make a proud declaration.

The Supreme God is sealed within flesh… and Sasami is related by blood to Kamiomi. So even an unprecedented event like a transfer of the Supreme God might be possible. The priestesses have always been women, but that’s just an arbitrary rule set down by humans. Men can also be suitable vessels for the Supreme God.

What probably happens is that your brother told you he would take on all your pain… and so the biggest burden you had was taken by him.

Yes.

I probably did something like that and took advantage of my brother.

I gave up trying by myself.

And decided to throw everything onto my brother’s shoulders.

After that, isn’t the solution simple?

The sarcoma seemed incredibly pleased with itself.

The shrine wants the power of the Supreme God. And right now, that power rests within Tsukuyomi Kamiomi.

So if Tsukuyomi Kamiomi returns to the shrine, then there will be no danger of them chasing after you.

The shrine will have the Supreme God’s power returned to it, and the people there will be satisfied with that.

So then, Tsukuyomi Kamiomi would just need to negotiate with the shrine and offer himself in return for the shrine leaving his little sister in peace. From his perspective, he will have been able to protect his precious little sister, so this is a satisfying result.

You will no longer need to fear anybody from the shrine, and nobody will interrupt your new life.

I will also be able to accomplish my goal of protecting this body.

Everybody wins. It is a wonderful conclusion, is it not?

“You……”

I could feel my guts boiling, and I grabbed the sarcoma with both my hands.

I felt an intense pain run through me, but I couldn’t give up now just because of that.

This thing was the god of my physical body, and was set up to counter anybody who might attack me while I slept. In other words, when I slept… when I wasn’t conscious, this thing could freely control my body.

My biological clock was completely off track, so there were many times when my brother was awake but I was asleep.

So this sarcoma might have used one of those times to make contact with my brother.

But my brother had no consciousness of this irregularity, so he wouldn’t be able to realize that I was being controlled by a different will. He would think of the sarcoma as me, and then believe whatever it said.

“You… told all that to oniichan, didn’t you?! While I was asleep, you hijacked my body… and then pretended to me and told all that to oniichan, didn’t you?!”

You seem to be hugely misunderstanding something.

I just showed your report to that completely ignorant brother of yours, and patiently answered all his questions.

He was the one who came to his own conclusions, who made his own decisions, and who chose to go back to the shrine in order to protect you.

He’s probably already finished negotiating with the people at the shrine, and now is trying o return the world to its normal made-for-humans state.

If the Supreme God desires something, all the myriad gods have no choice but to obey. My own divinity is not high at all, so I may soon no longer be able to talk.

So in the end, I just wanted to come out and explain the situation to you.

Congratulations, Sasami-san.

Your days of peace will now be able to continue into eternity.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) The grandson of Amaterasu, who was sent down to earth to bring down three gifts (a sword, a jewel, and a mirror) to the Japanese emperor. These three gifts became the sign of the emperor’s divine ancestry.

(2) The legendary “cave of the sun god.” Most famous as the cave in which Amaterasu hid for a long time (thus plunging the world into darkness) before being lured out by her own reflection.

(3) The southernmost island of Japan.