Final Feudal Fairy Tale
Chapter one: Deja vu.
I don't own InuYasha, I don't even own a plushie of InuYasha. I do own Hiko though, but that's all. Don't sue me!
The sun had already started to set against the Tokyo summer sky as Hiko Higurashi clambered up the steps of her grandfather's shrine, she was there for a visit, and also, to help her grandfather with his shrinely duties. She had gotten word from him through a telephone call that her favorite little cousin, Kagome, had been sick as of late, and wasn't able to help at all. From what it sounded like on the phone it was pretty serious too. She scaled the last step and took a quick look around the simple shrine. She was a shrine maiden herself, having helped her own father in their shrine up in Okinawa, so she would be perfect to help her aging grandfather in tending to the shrine. Quickly, she crossed the grounds towards the house, and rapt urgently on the door, if she didn't get inside soon, she was going to drop everything she was lugging around in her luggage. She smiled as the door rattled open, and there stood Souta, her younger cousin. His face was bland until suddenly, as if recalling a stranger, a smile cracked over his face and he jumped at her, hugging her tight around the middle, " Hiko itoko! I haven't seen you in forever!", he sqeeked through her shirt.
" Ack! Souta! Careful, or i'm going to drop my things!", she laughed gently, doing her best to return his embrace with all the suitcases in her hands.
" Oh! Lemme help!", he grabbed the second largest bag out of her hands and raced into the house, yelling into the side room, "Mama! Hiko is here!"
Hiko sighed with a wry smile and entered the threshold of the Higurashi home, just then, Mama Higurashi poked her head out of the kitchen and clapped her hands together with a brilliant smile when she spotted her neice in the doorway, " Hiko! My dear girl look at you! You've gotten so beautiful!", Mama grinned as she gathered up Hiko in her arms for a hug.
" Arigatou, Mama obasan! It's been a long while, and you don't look a day older!" she giggled as she hugged her aunt in return, while slipping off her shoes.
" Of course I don't. I haven't aged.", Mama Higurashi said matter-of-factly, " Oh! Dear, let me help you. We can set these in the guest room.", she said as she grabbed a few of Hiko's bags, and headed off for the stairs, and Hiko could do little more than follow.
After everything had been settled in her room, and after Granpa Higurashi's enterance, dressed in full priests' robes and carrying several jars of what looked like pickled lizards, Hiko finally had enough sense to ask where Kagome was, and was suprised by the reaction.
" Uhh...", Souta stuttered, " She's, ahh...well...Oh, NO! I don't mean the well...Wait! Yes I do! No! ACK!", Hiko raised a dark eyebrow as the youth slapped a hand over his mouth and ran out of the room, down the hall, and away from her.
" Well that was odd...", Hiko shrugged before heading to the kitchen for dinner.
Dinner was normal as normal dinners go, except for the fact that Kagome was no where to be seen, she didn't show up for dinner, and Hiko hadn't seen her favorite cousin all day, she had just assumed that Kagome was simply too ill to be up and about, and left it to that until the next morning, when Kagome didn't come down for breakfast either.
" Ohayou Hiko!" Her aunt called as she slumped her way into the kitchen, Mama Higurashi was already working on breakfast, dressed and primped, ready for the day, while Hiko looked as if she was still quite possibly asleep. Her long, ebony hair was tied back in a messy braid, accompanined by rumpled pajamas with tiny pictures of dancing moons and stars embroidered all over.
"Ohayou...Mama obasan.", she mumbled through a yawn. She looked up as her aunt chuckled at her, and realized how funny she must look right now.
" Goodness, you look like you didn't get much sleep." Mama Higurashi frowned, while shoving a plate of pancakes under her niece's nose.
Hiko gave a small smile and nodded gently, " Not much actually, kept having dreams about the Goshinboku, and Kagome, and some other boy I can't describe. I know he was wearing red, but that's all I really remember." Hiko didn't catch her aunt's faint gasp or her look of astonishment, but instead was focused on her delicious breakfast. Mama Higurashi wondered faintly about her niece, before continuing the rest of breakfast in silence.
Around noon, Hiko was starting to get very bored. She had already worked on her tan, went to the grocery with her aunt, even played a quick game with Souta. She had decided to change into some summer clothes and head out for some fresh air, but her grandpa was waiting and caught her as she stepped outside. Her grandfather had yammered on for nearly three hours about the Sunset Shrine's history, how it came to be, the powers associated with the Higurashi name. Nothing Hiko hadn't already studied. She was escstatic when the shrine suddenly had visitors, and her grandfather had gone to attend to them. She all but ran inside the house to hide, ignoring Souta's "HeyIgotthisnewgamed'youwannaplaywithme!", someone had given the kid one of those pixie sticks, and he was on a mile high sugar rush, something she just didn't feel like dealing with. Instead, she was bound and determined to see one person.
She knocked quietly on the unappealing door to her cousin's room before turning the pink-tissue covered knob, " Kagome? Kagome are you awake?", she started, but then stopped, looking around the room in a state of utter confusion. " What the? Kagome's not even here!" She looked over the many things in the room, her bed was made and pressed, everything was in its place, but covered in a week's worth of dust. She hadn't been there for a while. So where is she? She's supposed to be sick! She sighed and fingered through a few of Kagome's leftover school assignments, Some of these are dated for two weeks ago! She was starting to get a little worried when something caught her eye, it was a tiny glass vial set on the corner of her desk. " What's this?", she asked no one in particular as she grabbed the small vial and peered into it. There was something inside, and it was glowing a faint shade of pink. " It can't be...this...this looks like the Shikon no Tama. But how...?" Hiko shook her head, she knew for a fact that the Shikon no Tama was safely enshrined in her own family's shrine in Okinawa, while here, the Goshinboku was cared for. " How did Kagome get these...?"
She practically flew down the stairs, vial in hand, past Souta and Mama, and out onto sun-baked shrine grounds. Her goal was to talk to her grandfather, but something felt heavy on her mind. So heavy infact, her steps were forced to stop. It was like some kind of white hot electricity shot through her head, and she whirled around, only to be faced with a small, dark shrine on the corner of the grounds. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, It...its calling to me. There's something in that little hut...Her steps seemed to echo indefinately as she got closer, pulsing with the beat of her heart. They were so loud, and everything else was so quiet. Her hand reached for the door, closer, closer still, she could almost feel herself being pulled inside by some unknown force, it spoke to her, whispered of adventure...
" Hiko? What are you doing there, girl?" Her grandfather's voice cut through to her, and she jumped, making a small squeak of suprise.
"Ojiisan! You scared me!" She placed a hand over her thundering heart, breathing heavier than would be considered normal, " I...I was just..."
Her grandfather just frowned at her and set his hands on his hips, " You know, this shrine is sacred, this is the Bone Eater's well, carved out of wood from the Goshin--", He had started, but Hiko had no intention of listening to him, she just wanted to distance herself from that place for now, so, she cut him off by yelling at the imaginary voice of her aunt.
" Oh! Yes! I'm comming Mama obasan!" she called off loudly in the general direction of the house before running off, away from her talkitive grandfather, ignoring the aging man's look of exasperation.
" Ugh!" she sputtered as she plopped down in the shaded grass beside the sacred tree itself. It was almost unbearably hot. Her grandfather was off somewhere, talking to visitors in the heat. She felt slightly guilty for not helping him right away, but she just couldn't get that man to talk about anything but history. She groaned inwardly when she realized she hadn't asked him about the vial, she was just in such a hurry to get away! She pulled the fragile glass container out of the pocket of her long cotton skirt and shook it gently, watching the faintly glowing shards bounce around on the inside, making a tinkling noise against the glass. There are just so many unanswered questions...And no one to help me answer them. Why did they tell me Kagome's sick anyway? Why are they lying? My own family...And these shards, it's the Shikon no Tama, I know that...but, how! She groaned again, her head was starting to hurt. Hiko leaned tiredly against the ancient bark of the Goshinboku, and closed her eyes. The small hut flashed against her eyelids, startling her. She opened her eyes and gasped audibly.That shrine...it has magic in it. I know it. I'll have to check it out later. Her dark eyes squinted against the hot afternoon sun, and she gave herself a cunning smile, " After Dinner..." she said as she leapt up, and made her way towards the house.
*****************************************************
Dinner was just as uneventful as breakfast. She asked about Kagome again, and got the response she expected. Kagome was sick in her room with emphataigo or something of that sort, and couldn't come down for dinner. Hiko just shrugged and ate her meal in relative silence. After dinner, she helped her aunt with a few dishes, before heading into her room, where she sat on the edge of the matress, and waited.
It was an hour or two before she heard her aunt go into her room and saw the light go out in the hall way. Good, she'll be asleep soon. She waited just a few minutes more, her ear pressed to the wall, when the sounds of rhythmic breathing could be heard from the other room. Hiko stole out into the hallway, and down the stairs, taking care to not step on the second to last step, which squeaked loudly whenever someone stepped on it. She reached the door and flung herself out of it, still trying to stick her feet all the way into her shoes. The shrine was dark and still as she made her way towards the well house. The moon was high in the sky now, and the day's heat had been completely quenched by night's cool touch. Hiko was starting to rethink her little endeavor as she shivered in the cold. She was still wearing her skimpy cotton shirt and her long skirt after all, but her curiosity was getting the better of her as she laid eyes on the wellhouse. The little shrine itself was particularly dark, even with the light of the moon, and Hiko hesitated for a moment, staring at the structure when she felt it again, the unmistakeable pull coming from inside the wellhouse.
She inhaled deeply, and walked foreward slowly. Again her heart thumped in tune with the pulls on her soul. She was determined to see what was inside there, she had to know, she had to find out, nothing was going to stop her this time. She reached the door and slid it open, stepping into the darkness of the tiny shrine. Inside it was pitch black, she could hardly see the hand in front of her face, so it wasn't a suprise when she missplaced her foot, and fell down some stairs. Hiko landed painfully on her side, having hit her back on the side of something old, and wooden. She fumbled around in the darkness, cursing her forgetfullness, If only she had thought ahead enough to bring a flashlight, or some matches even! She grumbled as she pulled herself up, when she remembered the tiny vial of shards in her pocket. She hastily tried to fish them out of her pocket but gave an outraged cry as the smooth glass vial slipped from her hands, she fumbled with them before they eluded her grasp and fell down a deep hole. " NO!" she gasped as she watched the tiny glowing vial fall, and shatter at the bottom of the well. Hiko groaned and let out a frustrated sigh, " Perfect..."
Mustering up her resolve she peered over the lip of the well. She could still see the small fragments through the darkness, it didn't look too far down, she could probably jump, then shimmy her way back up. Hiko nodded, gathered her courage, hitched up her skirt, and threw a leg over the edge, hoisting herself off the wooded railing and down into the mouth of the well. She braced for impact, closing her eyes and readying her knees to land, but she never landed. What the? Her eye peeked open, only to find the shards dancing before her eyes, she grabbed at them, then gasped as she got a look around. She was surrounded by a shimmering light, and was flying? No, floating, floating through this rift. Her mind started to reel uncontrollably, unable to comprehend what was happening, all of her senses were on overload, and she was starting to panic. There was magic enveloping her, and the force that had been beckoning her before was stronger now, dragging her towards a steadily brightening light. The light consumed her, and her legs collapsed when she hit the solid ground again. The very last thing she remembered before blacking out was the shards, and how brightly they had begun glowing.
Mwhaha...Cliffy. I love those things. They're so great!
Japanese lesson:
Obasan-Aunt
itoko-cousin
Ohayou- "Good Morning"
Ojiisan- Granfather
Goshinboku- God Tree
Shikon no Tama- Jewel of Four Souls
If there's anything I missed ask me and i'll make sure to translate!