"Amaterasu, wake up," I said, prodding her with my paw. When she slept, she was beautiful. When she stirred, she was beautiful. For the love of Nippon, no matter what she does, she's beautiful!

"What? Why do you need me?" She asked, looking into my eyes. Those eyes that make me melt- well, she is the Sun Goddess... "Josh?" She asked, staring at me even more intensively. I almost started to stammer, but I managed to catch myself and regain composure.

"Monsters in Shinsu field," I said, steeling myself. She nodded. Now, if you were wondering, I actually was able to control the power of rosaries and brush powers. Don't ask me why it works, I just know it does. But I fight side by side with Okami Amaterasu whenever monsters appear. They don't appear often, but when they do, you can believe I'll be there.

However, fighting with Amaterasu has its upsides and downsides. When she fights, she looks…-for lack of a better, godlier word- hot. But I've got to keep my most primal urges under control. If I don't, I could ruin our friendship.

And that would not only affect me, (sending me into spiraling depression, mind you) but it'll affect all of Nippon! Monsters would overrun cities, killing innocent villagers- they could destroy life as we know it! The message behind this; I need to keep my primal urges under control.

So, about these rosaries and brush powers? Yeah, they make me pretty strong. As far as I know, only Amaterasu and I can perform all 13. But I'm not trying to gloat. We were on our way to Nippon, when the monsters rushed out to meet us.

"Yes." Amaterasu whispered, waiting for them to charge at us. She lowered her front paws, and lifted her butt in the air. I did the same- as was our fight stance. When the monster had charged at us, we felt the walls secrete around us. There was only one way out; not that we need one, and that was when you found the hole in the gate.

Amaterasu took the first move and flung her rosary out at the enemy. When he was on his back, I felt us enter the workshop. The workshop is the time in between the brush lifting, and the brushstroke ending. It's where we perform our brush techniques.

It's also a time when we can be alone. However, it does not last forever. When our mind power, or as most people refer to them as ink jars, then we run out of power, our special markings on our bodies disappear, and our rosaries power down.

So, we always try to avoid that. Anyway, I jumped at the chance and painted a straight line (a power slash) across an enemy. When we exited the workshop, some monsters dropped dead, while others blocked our paint.

How they had figured out how to do that? I don't know, but while they were blocking, I jumped to their backs and slashed away with my rosary. He dropped dead, the walls crumbled, and we were free at last. "Ah, jeez." I said, falling backwards. "Always too much heat in there. Haven't they heard of AC?" I asked playfully.

I earned a laugh from Amaterasu. When we had regained our energy, we were on our way back to Kamiki village (Did I mention that we live there?) when one more enemy crossed our path.

"Come on!" Amaterasu said, getting herself pumped. The monster rushed at us, and we managed to sidestep quickly.

"Allow me!" I said, power slashing him already. When he was on the ground, I ran at him, Amaterasu in tow. When we reached him, he looked at us menacingly. Again, the walls appeared, and this was a monster we had never seen before.

He had blue and red fur… kind of like Oki. But it wasn't a wolf. Instead, it was a like a hybrid. Like a cat/dog. It's hard to describe it. Imagine the front of a dog and the back of a cat. "Ammy," I whispered, "Have you seen this guy before?" She shook her head 'no'. I shrugged; did I really care that this guy hadn't been seen before? The answer is no.

I lunged forward, and he simply moved his paw and flicked me to the side. I gasped for air. I felt like I was being slowly drained of my energy, my power. "Give me… the brush techniques…" He said slowly and eerily.

"Why?" I asked, using all of my energy to choke out that one word.

"Please…" He said sarcastically. "You… are not worthy… of possessing such power… as this. I am… the one true master… of the brush…"

I heard Amaterasu growl. I wanted to choke out stop; to tell her not to hurt herself; to just live her life to the fullest. But instead, I heard her growl and jump. Then I heard her yelp. But strangely enough, I felt the draining ease up.

I stood up shaking. I looked around, saw the Brush Imposter, and- what I saw next, made me want to die on the spot.