The first thing we did, since Queen Himiko had given us the key, was go through the gate to Northern Ryoshima Coast. The coast wasn't cursed, though. Interesting...
I suggest looking in the water.
Actually, I wouldn't really get that from "Dragonian Domain," but I think someone did mention it was under the sea.
Jerk.
So we headed down the path...but before we could get very far, Waka materialized from thin air! What a convenient ability.
What do you want now, you weirdo?
Shut up. And it was actually kind of fun! You know, aside from the choking green mist part.
And no thanks to you! You could have helped me, you know!
Good thinking, Issun! I knew I kept you around for a reason.
Yeah? Well, it looks fine now. Do you know anything about that?
HEY! That's my job, you jerk! Get out of here and let me do my job!
Shut up! You ruined it now! It would have been so much better if you'd let ME do it!
We would have gotten to it eventually!
Screw you. Are you done talking yet?
Well, I guess...
Yeah! You give it right back to him, Issun!
Stop being mysterious already!
Well, that's what he keeps telling me, but I haven't actually seen him do any art...
Why? You've decided to become an art collector?
You tell him, Issun!
Why wouldn't he be? You stole our thunder!
So Waka told a little story about some guy who stole his grandfather's paintings and claimed them as his own even though he couldn't really paint anything. What an interesting story. What are you trying to imply here, Waka?
Is there a point to this story?
Wood sprite?
Didn't you show me a painting of a wood sprite, Issun?
Well, I'm sure it's probably nothing. There are probably lots of paintings of wood sprites out there.
What's your problem, Waka? Do you have a problem with the company I keep?
Shut up, Waka! My dubious friend and I have more important things to do right now!
See? He doesn't know what you're talking about. And I trust him completely.
HAHA! OH ISSUN, YOU SO FUNNY.
Ooh. He's really pissed! You'd better look out, Waka. You wouldn't want to wake up with a tiny sword stuck in your foot!
Well, you did just basically accuse him of being a thief and a liar, so...
He didn't have any prophecies for us this time, which was probably a good thing, since they usually turn out to be worthless anyway.
Yeah, get out of here so I can fight this wheel with a nose on it.
You read that right. There was a nose on that wheel.
The next one will have a chin on it, right? Or maybe a tongue?
Anyway, it was easy to kill, and we moved on.
As we were traveling through N. Ryoshima Coast, though, we couldn't help but notice an annoying sound echoing through the land. It sounded like something crying, or...meowing, or something. Fortunately, we met a little girl who explained some of what was going on.
Catcall Tower, eh? Too bad I didn't get a picture of it. It was a ridiculously tall tower on an island a little ways away from the shore.
You don't say?! I never would have guessed.
...But no one would know for sure, because the tower goes so far up into the stratosphere.
Okay, you're losing me here.
Giant cat turns into cat god? How did the cat get onto the tower in the first place?
Wait, wait, wait. So there was originally just some cat...that lived for a really long time...and turned into a god...so it built the tower? Why doesn't this seem remotely plausible to me?
Did it throw a hissy fit? Ah, I crack myself up.
Wouldn't it just starve to death first? And if the original cat turned to stone, what's making the noise?
And nobody ever bothered to climb the tower to check on the cat statue? Why am I not surprised?
I don't know if "saddest" is really the right word to use. "Weirdest," maybe. But then, they didn't even bother to give you a name, so I don't know how much stock I should put in your story anyway.
After the girl was done telling us her story, we wandered down to the beach...where we found some neighborhood bullies beating up the local fisherman. After we rescued him, he told us his story.
When he was younger, someone named Orca met him at the pier and took him to the Dragonian Domain. Interesting.
This happened a long time ago, and apparently Orca never came back after that. Well, now I'm here, so clearly that's going to change.
Worthy of the Dragon Palace? Well, I'm Amaterasu, so I should be good. I don't know about Issun, though.
So we decided to sit on the nearby dock all night and wait for Orca to come. And in the morning...
Something arrived!
That looks like a whale. What a surprise!
It's such a happy whale!
Maybe it's just happy it finally found someone it could take to the Dragon Palace.
Urashima? Get out of here, you bum! It's my turn to go to the Dragonian Domain!
Clearly that means the time for your adventuring is over. Move aside!
Without waiting for an answer, he tried to climb into Orca's basket...which ended badly when Orca basically drop-kicked him into the ocean.
Bye! Hope the Water Dragon doesn't eat you!
Doesn't seem possible, does it?
Look, he's all sparkly! He MUST be the emissary!
He's got some kind of symbol on his head. Must be the symbol of the Dragonian Domain or something.
If only it were that easy!
Oh, yeah. Orca's voice sounds like something out of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Maybe he breathes a lot of helium.
Really? So we could swim around on you and visit all the islands without having to worry about being eaten by the Water Dragon? Because I don't like being eaten when I try to go to any of the islands around here.
Issun seemed a little hesitant about riding on the whale, but Amaterasu really, really wanted to, for some reason. In the above picture, she was standing on the whale's head trying to get into the basket, but slipped and fell on the dock.
Whee! We get to ride on a whale!
NO, REALLY? I THOUGHT WE WERE JUST GOING TO GO EXPLORING.
Wait, what?
Otohime? Who's that? And did Urashima have to complete this ordeal, too?
Of course it couldn't be as easy as just taking us there. Why do we have to go around proving ourselves all the time? Why can't somebody just take our word for it for once?
I would hope so, since the whole thing was her decree.
Like I said before...maybe it'd be a good idea to reserve our judgement until we know what's going on?
A whirlpool? Oh good God...
Well, that's nice. So we get to find the whirlpool?
Okay then...
Being the taskmasters we are, though, we had to do some exploring first. When we got close to the island with Catcall Tower on it, though, the meowing from it finally started to annoy Issun, I guess.
The tower we can't see the vast majority of in that picture? Okay.
I dunno, it's mostly just annoying to me.
So we landed on Catcall Island (no idea if that's its name or not). Here's what we found!
What is that, a tree? Some kind of roots? Well, we'd better go inside and see.
So that's the tower, eh? I wonder what all those yellow spots are.
Something with sticky feet climbed all over it?
Catwalk? That's what it's called? Well, I guess someone's too sexy for better ability names.
YOU MEAN IF WE CLIMB THIS TOWER WE MIGHT GET A NEW BRUSH TECHNIQUE?! HOLY CRAP, I'M TOTALLY THERE!
Just as soon as I defeat this enemy that looks like three scythes tied together. Which was pretty easy, actually.
Just try and stop me!
I know cats are supposed to be really good at climbing things, but I'm pretty sure they can't walk on walls. That kind of thing is reserved for spiders...and Spider-Man, I guess. Well, insects/arachnids in general.
Hopefully this gives you a bit of an idea how tall the tower is. Because it's pretty ridiculous.
And here we are at the top of the tower. It took forever to get to this point. Seriously, this tower is impossibly tall. Plus we had to keep stopping for treasure, and to feed the occasional cat on the occasional tower platform.
And at the almost-top of the structure at the top of the tower, we found...THIS!
Another one? How do these cats keep getting up here?
Being lonely, maybe? I dunno, maybe it's the one making all those weird noises.
Hmm, I think that's a hint. Okay, I'll feed it some fish.
Finally! Those meows were driving me crazy!
OUR NEW BRUSH TECHNIQUE!!!
Our constellation, which looks...like a house with a dog hiding behind it? (Bonus points if you can spot the lurker...)
Okay, forget the house-with-dog thing. It's clearly a demonic-looking cat.
...THAT'S GONNA POUNCE! LOOK OUT, ISSUN!
Bwuh?
And then Issun ran off and the cat and I ran through a blurry field of flowers to play a little soccer with him as the ball. No more than he deserves for being an idiot, I guess.
I wish that picture hadn't been so blurry, because it was a really great little scene.
Oh, I see. It's some kind of mirror with a fish on it and the cat is being Spider-Cat.
What whirlpool? It's hidden, remember?
That's fine, if a little weird...but it looks like it might get uncomfortable after a while...
Walls? You're the god of WALLS? Why aren't you the god of climbing, or...daring-ness, or something?
Okay, cool. What can I do with this awesome new ability?
Shut up, Issun.
Well, yes, his speech bubble did say that on it...
He was the god of walls...
It is? I thought it was just a cat.
So then we noticed a cat statue next to one of the walls nearby. How convenient.
I think I've seen a few of those scattered around Nippon...
Okay...so what does that do, exactly?
So basically, Catwalk lets me draw a line upward from a cat statue to put those yellow paw prints on a wall so I can climb it. When I climbed the wall, we found...this!
That is a giant cat statue. Well, that girl did say something about a statue...
DO YOU SEE ANYTHING ABOVE IT, GENIUS?
Seriously, Issun. You're worse than Fi sometimes!
And that brings me to my stopping point for today. Check back next time for my exciting account of how we found the whirlpool we were looking before! There wasn't any aimless wandering around in the sea looking for it, I assure you. *cough* Okay, anyway. Until next time, heroes!
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