
Artist's commentary
An Incident at Sea
The spear that fell from the heavens is the light of the gods themselves.
It was cast down to usher humans into godhood, and orochi into dragons.
The creature that was cast out of the kingdom of gods due to fear and loathing, and despised as a nation-devouring monstrosity, was supposed to feed. Everyone, including the creature herself, thought she would feed on her anger, her grief, and her resentment until her malice swallowed her whole. She would inevitably transform into the nation-devouring calamity the gods always suspected she would become.
But all that went away with a single man's kindhearted remark.
The monstrous nation-devourer couldn't tell whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. But by then, neither of them cared. All they wanted was to be together, forever. That was all they needed.
And while it took several bizarre twists of fate for it to happen, their wish—their promise—was eventually fulfilled.
Even if their newly found time together was no more than a fleeting illusion, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that they could finally tell each other what they'd always wanted to say:
"I'm glad I met you."
That...was the incident at sea.