One of the things that kept her interested while she had little else too do was reading mythology. While others might find it silly to believe in such things, Mizuki never doubted they existed. Though the mythology she was reading about was quite interesting. She didn't read just from Japanese mythology, that'd be dull.
Few believe that pure evil exists, scholars claim that evil is just an opposing moral view point. They are wrong. Evil exists, and she waits just beneath the surface of sea.
Ancient poems warn of a narrow channel of water so treacherous that death touches all who approach. Sailors must choose to risk their ship, traveling close to the monstrous whirlpool Charybdis, or instead hug the rocky shoals where dwells a creature some say is made from the nightmares of all men.
Scylla, they call her, Horror of the Deep. No ship that dares sail in her waters goes unscathed. Those that cling to survival whisper panicked tales of enormous black tentacles tipped with slavering hound heads ravaging whole ships to splinters with pitiless precision. Though itβs her laughter, they say, thatβs most horrible; child-like, delighting in blood soaked murder as men are dragged into the dark abyss.
Poets have tried to romanticize this beast, to provide some humanity to her monstrosity. They write she was once a beautiful Naiad, wronged by a jealous priestess and transformed. Yet the old poems say she was born this way, beget by gods full of jealousy and loathing; dropped into the sea to terrorize mankind.
Mizuki doesn't exactly remember when she first found this story, but she's been in love with the story kept it since then. Suddenly, she was snapped from the attention she was giving her book by a shout.
"Off your asses, fools! Get over here! We finally got a prayer."
Ignoring the foul language used, Mizuki was interested to see what the prayer was, she did not want to risk leaving the comfort of her room and she went back to reading. She had chosen a new book by now, one about Nu Wa; Guardian of Heaven.
When two warring Gods shattered the World Pillar, Heaven and Earth dangerously shifted, and Armageddon was unleashed. Firestorms, floods, and bloodthirsty monsters ravaged the land and stole the lives of more than can be counted. In ages past, Nu Wa, Guardian of Heaven and Earth, hand-crafted all people from clay. They were her creations, her children, her responsibility.
As the Earth shuddered and broke, and the skies turned black with ash, Nu Wa forged five mystic stones, one for each of the elemental forces of nature: Earth, Water, Fire, Wood, and Metal. With the power of these stones, she slew a gargantuan tortoise, severed its legs, and raced to the broken World Pillar. One leg she used to prop the Heavens aloft and with the elemental stones, she sealed it in place. Balance between Heaven and Earth was restored, but the world was never the same. Skies cleared, but the stars had shifted. Seas retreated, but rivers drained westward. Everything leaned, but the End was averted.
In the years that followed, Nu Wa and her brother, Fu Xi, took the throne of China. They ruled with wisdom and ushered in an age of recovery and prosperity, for which she is adored and worshiped to this day.
She loved plowing through books like this, maybe she could finish a whole stack in a day if she kept up at this pace.