Celestial Metal

Northern Ryoshima Coast - 1

Because of all that had happened before now, Amaterasu and Issun could call now. . .normal.
    The goddess and her tiny, annoying partner were at the northern side of Ryoshima Coast after speaking to Queen Himiko about Oni Island, heading to Watcher's Cape. They had already met Orca, the emissary sent by Otohime, the leader of the Dragonians, to bring them to the Dragon Palace, and were ready to get the Whirlpool Galaxy spinning.
    Dodging the red Demon Scrolls, Amaterasu was running at full speed, grass appearing with each step then disappearing like it wasn't there. She ran across the bridge that closed the gap between a small river leading to the ocean, she ran all the way to the water's edge at the small pool near a cat statue.
    "Hey, furball!" Issun exclaimed after the third minute of Amaterasu looking around, confused. "Remember the brush technique Catwalk that you got from Kabegami? Remember the cat statues you can use it with?"
    He pointed to the green cat statue on the other side of the pool, but Amaterasu didn't notice. She used the move Holy Eagle to double jump across to the cat statue. However, she landed in the water, making Issun cry out in surprise at the lukewarm droplets hitting him like massive raindrops. She used her Celestial Brush (or her tail, really. Seriously, how does she paint with her tail like that?!) to make a water lily, hopped on it, then hopped onto the other side.
    "Ammy, you can't just go jumping into water like that without warning me!" Issun yelled, hopping angrily.
    Amaterasu completely ignored him, walking towards the cat statue. She examined the cat statue, not noticing Issun falling off her back, then realized exactly what to do. Using her Celestial Brush, she drew a thick, inky line from the statue to the top of the cliff. She barked at Issun as if telling him to hop on her back, which he did, then jumped onto the path Catwalk made. While on the compact dirt wall, she used Crescent, making a backwards C in the sunlit sky. Once the bright crescent moon appeared, Amaterasu kept going up until she reached the top.
    At the top of Watcher's Cape, Amaterasu immediately went for a glowing circle, indicating a chest. She dug into the patch of lit up grass, then easily yanked out a treasure chest. It didn't look normal, though. Instead of deep brown and sunny gold dusted with dirt and pebbles, it was entirely gold without any scratches or dirt or anything that made it look anywhere over a minute old. The rims were a nice blue instead of gold, and none of it looked or felt like anything Amaterasu had seen before. It seemed to be made of an unidentifiable metal that was tougher than Orochi's scales with the barrier around them, yet no heavier than the usual chests she'd seen around and dug up.
    "Oh, man! There's got to be one out-of-this-world treasure in there!" Issun said, excited.
    Issun's assumption made Amaterasu think. If there hadn't been any chests like this before, and this one was so drastically different, what was even in it?
    "Leap before you look, Ammy! C'mon, open the chest!" Issun added, breaking Amaterasu's thought process.
    Following his words, Amaterasu backed up then headbutted the chest with all her might. She yelped and jumped back, head now throbbing. That chest was nothing ordinary, and boy did it hurt. At least it flew open.
    "That's no Vengeance Slip or Excorcism Slip," Issun observed. "And no treasure, either. What is it?" He hopped off Amaterasu's head and grabbed the object, which looked like a cyan glowing orb. "This couldn't possibly be a Satomi something or other, could it? There were eight dogs, not nine, and we got them all!"
    The orb shook and glowed brighter, causing Issun to look scared, drop it, then jump back onto Amaterasu's head. It grew so large it was bigger than her, then suddenly stopped. The glow disappeared, and all that was left was a translucent cyan orb with another, minature light blue orb within.
    "Wait, what's that noise?" Issun asked. Before he could make any guesses or receive an answer, the most blinding light shone only for a split second, but it still made him hide his face in Amaterasu's fur.
    Amaterasu, on the other hand, just shut her eyes tight, whimpering. She felt like she was being split apart yet forced to be compressed.
    But then it all faded to nothing.