Third Day
This day would prove to be the most difficult, for this aspect is the top of the pyramid. It is where we meet the singularity, and the oneness of all things. It turned out to be exactly as I feared. I would lose track of what is real and what is not, like the first day, but it was in power and magnitude threefold. It is where I would come to understand the strangeness behind all that is the first and most important of the eighteen disciplines: Seishinteki kyōyō. Only after an hour of meditation, as I focused on the Yaoyorozu no Kami, I began to see apparitions in the distance while I was in these woods of Arashii no Gunraku. Lost spirits, doused in flowing blankets of white, haunted my meditation, and revealed their presences to me. Either this happened, or my third eye became incredibly sensitive from my meditation. I actually suppose the ladder, considering my concentration. My eyes were slightly open, in addition to my mind's eye, so I could be aware of what they were doing. I was aware they were going around me in circles, each following each other in a circular line. There were many circles of them, and several different kinds of spirits - both light and dark, filled with various other colors of the bow of the rain, swirling mist, or being strange creatures like I have never before imagined. Some of them had floating limbs or body parts that moved around the primary body on their own, and a single huge eye that would look upon me or dart to the skies above. Others were more like forces of nature, walking out of the leaves or trees and forming into shapes that were the most convenient for them. Some shaped like pure 'V's dipped down from the skies in gails of white and blue, and moved through the air as if doing so created an enchanting music that made me long to hear more. All of these spirits that I began seeing were not usual Kami, they were Mushi. I never thought I was a Mushishi, for only they can see them, and the Mushishi only come once in a blue moon. Perhaps the best way to describe the Mushi would be, "spirit bugs." Though, they come in all shapes and sizes and many do not look like bugs at all. They are forces of nature, and are far more closely tied to the essence of life than normal life is. Some, though rare, even look like they could be humans, or at least human-like. They seem by far the most ancient, including the ones that seem like pure forces of nature. They are both miraculously beautiful, and utterly frightening. They were circling around me in several circles, each respective circle going in the opposite direction. It seems they were performing some initiation of sorts. My father or mother never told me of anything like this, and I was, with complete honesty, scared to death. I then looked at my sword as this was happening, and I was not frightened anymore.
I knew who I was.
The sword glowed with a pure white, and yet I did not squint, for it was a light that welcomed me within. I joined the memories and emotions of my ancestors. While in this dimension of nothingness and everything, I saw before me standing a figure, garbed in a flowing silken grey men's kimono that was decorated with black roses trimmed with silver. His eyes were at first a moonlight gray like mine, but then turned purple-black as they looked down upon me. This was the only figure in this dimension that was aware of my presence, at least consciously. His raven hair was long and damp, going past his shoulders, and he bore a finely trimmed beard. A part of his long hair was tied into a neat top-knot. His eyebrows were peaked upward, regal and proud. Lastly, he had pointed ears that reminded me of the ancients of old. Everything about him made him seem an old Emperor whose youth never faded, and I knew he was an Emperor that resided within my heart. Sheathed behind his lower back, horizontally, was the third Onikata. I realized that all of the Mushi that surrounded me were still with me, even though we entered some other strange forest. They were all completely still, witnessing this man. His mouth opened, and I felt a warning as if I should cover my ears. His voice sounded like a gong that made me resonate as a bell, and my spine quaked, and shivered, as if some snake hidden coiled beneath had been residing there all of this time, and now chose to slither its way up into my mind's eye through a spring-leap. Though, it stopped, right at the stem of my brain, and I twitched. "I am Imak," he said, the entire forest shaking as he spoke. "I take on the form of he who founded the clan, lifetimes of trees ago. He was named Kami. Just as you must accept Kami, you must accept me." He then proceeded to stare intently into my eyes, and I held the force in my spine beckon. I raised myself to my own two feet, and looked into his haunting, mesmerizing eyes. "I accept you." Then the force rushed into my head, and I felt like I was lifted into the clouds yet still standing on two feet. My spirit felt as if it had been freed from the chambers of prison, and now was one with who I am. I... knew who I was, on so many more orders of magnitude than I could ever have known. I understood the meaning behind bliss. Imak turned then into a woman, from utterly handsome, to stunningly mesmerizing. It was her... Eli... Aika... and she spoke with her enchanting voice, but it was yet still a voice that caused the ground the quake, and the Mushi to flutter and dance. "I am now your Anima. Just as she is your Anima, you are her Animus. Together, you create ImakkamI. Go now, with the second sword; give the sword to her, mentor her till she would bloom. Forge the destiny. You are Kami, striving for Imak. She is Imak, striving for Kami. Walk together merging with the Third, ImmakkamI, and you shall find Heaven on all that is Gaia. Thou art two serpents entwined that encircle endlessly toward all that IS." Her eyes would widen so much that a complete shiver gonged through my spine, and I was so overwhelmed that I fell into the ground and kept falling, endlessly. I looked up to the clouds and there Imak floated, looking down upon me, and I did not know if I would, or could, live anymore.
I opened my eyes as I was still sitting, and the Mushi around me slowly began to vanish one by one, dancing. I looked down.
There were two twin swords before me. My own. Her's.
...imakkami...
_________________ "Even if the morrow is barren of promises Nothing shall forestall my return To become the dew that quenches the land To spare the sands, the seas, the skies I offer thee this silent sacrifice."
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