Expelled from heaven for his violence, Susanoo undergoes a striking transformation, and his descent to earth turns him from a destroyer into a hero. Arriving in the land of Izumo, he comes upon an old couple weeping beside their last daughter, Kushinada-hime: a monstrous eight-headed and eight-tailed serpent, the Yamata-no-Orochi, has devoured their other seven daughters one by one, year after year, and has come now for the last. Susanoo offers to kill the serpent in return for the girl's hand. He has the couple brew strong sake and set it out in eight vats; the serpent lowers its eight heads to drink, grows drunk, and falls asleep, and Susanoo hacks it to pieces.
In one of its tails he finds a great sword, which he presents to Amaterasu as a gift of reconciliation, the sword Kusanagi, which becomes one of the three sacred regalia of the imperial line. Susanoo then settles in Izumo, marries Kushinada-hime, and becomes an ancestor of its gods. His myth is a remarkable study in a single divine character's two faces: the chaotic, destructive storm that darkens the world, and the courageous champion who slays the monster and wins the sacred sword. He remains one of the most vivid and important deities of Shinto, worshipped especially in the Izumo region.