I had this idea all of a sudden and I really wanted to write it. So… please tell me if it's any good. (I actually have this one planned. Makes a change!)
Disclaimer: The only characters in this chapter I own are Mikazi and Kisa. I own nothing else… besides possibly the plot…
As far as I am aware, Kagome's mother is nameless. As a result she is named Arisa for this fic. If she does have a name, will someone tell me please?
Back in time
"Mamma," Arisa Higurashi looked up to see her daughter's podgy hand waving in her face. She smiled and finished tucking the blankets in.
Seven-year-old Kagome Higurashi, her daughter, was a handful sometimes. But she was so sweet and loving, Arisa couldn't help but give her what she wanted.
"What is it sweetie?" One could tell straightaway by looking at the two that they were related. Both had warm brown eyes and dark hair, and that smile that made you glow inside. Arisa used that smile now on her daughter.
"Mamma, can I ask you a question?"
"Kagome, it's late…" Kagome turned the puppy eyes on her mother. "Oh, okay. But only one."
"Why can't me and Souta play in the well-house?"
Arisa let her mind drift. She had always known that she would have to tell her daughter someday…
"I'll tell you a story, okay?"
"But why?"
"Listen, Kagome. You'll see."
So the little girl leant back on her pillows and listened as her mother started taking…
If one visited the Higurashi shrine sixteen years ago, and revisited now, they would find that very little has changed. The God tree still looms over everything and there is still a man at the door selling charms, though he has aged. And the well-house is still there, the bone-eater's well gathering dust inside.
However, on one day sixteen years ago, one thing was slightly different. Although the May breezes were just right, although the sun was out and the sky was clear, a girl lay on her bed, crying.
She wore a black dress, long and loose, that hung on her pretty frame, making her appear like a scarecrow. Her dark hair was short, barely shoulder length, and her face was currently smudged with running make-up.
To say that Arisa Higurashi, aged sixteen as of today, was depressed, was an understatement.
Her mother had been killed in a train crash one month ago. The first the family had heard of the crash was on the news… "There were no survivors."
Never having too many close friends anyway, Arisa found herself more and more alone as the days passed. She took to wearing black and heavy make-up. Not that that made her feel any better.
So her friends drifted away, leaving her alone when she needed them the most. And now… her father had forgotten her birthday.
He had always been slightly eccentric. That, her mother always used to say, was why she married him. He was clever, witty and very, very handsome. He could recite any Japanese legend off pat, and despite having to put up with the spell scrolls, Arisa and her mother had always been united as a family with him.
Sadly, her mother's death had affected him badly. What should have brought father and daughter together had instead driven them apart.
Thus why Arisa was crying.
She had let the sobs wrack her body, and the tears stream down her face for long enough. Now, when there seemed to be nothing left for her, she took a choking breath and sat up.
Her father wouldn't miss her, that much she knew. He seemed to have forgotten she existed. So why shouldn't she end it now? End it... the words seemed to haunt her. In death she could be free... she would see her mother again. Here, she was worthless and useless, a piece of filth cliging to a harsh world. Yes. Death was her best choice.
But how?
The well… it was deep. No one looked in the well-house.
Goodbye father.
She wiped the running mascara and eyeliner off her face, pale and red-eyed from crying.
No sense looking like a monster when I'm found.
Throwing on a long black coat, she climbed out of her window as she used to do when she was younger, and ran towards the well-house.
The door still creaked and the dust rose from the floor when she got it. Coughing from the dust, she peered around. The shrine had been shut since her mother's death, and, just like her family, had gone to pieces. Now, cobwebs hung from the ceiling and the air was chokingly thick, as if even the small shed wished to mourn.
A spider scuttled across the wall and Arisa shivered. She could never stand spiders.
Grasping a long wooden stick, she skewered it.
Much better.
The stick felt oddly warm against her cold, shaking hands. Her fingers traced the designs on it… suns, moons and stars interwoven by ribbons of water and leaves.
Arisa's legs started shaking as the full impact of what she was about to do hit her.
It is hard to take a life. It is harder to take your own. Yet when you are alone and friendless, a burden on the world, is it the right think to do?
Yes, said one part of her. I am worthless.
No. Said another, very small voice. No. There is always a reason for living. You just need to find it.
Arisa squashed her doubt down. There was nothing for her back at the shrine. So…
She stepped onto the edge of the well with the stick clenched in her hand.
She looked into the darkness of the well.
Welcome to oblivion.
Hands seemed to reach out for her out of the blackness. She saw her mother's face…
Shutting her eyes and holding the stick, her lifeline, as though there was no tomorrow, she jumped.
Well, to her at least there would be no tomorrow.
But someone somewhere had other ideas.
The well began glowing, faintly at first but then growing in power. Not that Arisa could see this. She had her eyes firmly shut, waiting, almost longing for the impact.
It never came.
Arisa opened her eyes to a bird chirping overhead. Her head felt fuzzy, as though she had been in hospital and had had an anaesthetic, and was now waking up.
She sat up slowly, clutching a long pole to her chest.
What on earth is that?
She started in shock at the moons and stars engraved on the wood as memory flooded back to her.
I can't do anything right, can I. Even kill myself.
She was so busy wallowing in self pity that the strangeness of the situation didn't hit her.
She was sitting next to a dried up well, in a patch of grass far greener than one could ever find in Tokyo. Trees towered overhead around the clearing in which she was sitting. Flowers nodded their heads to the gentle breeze that softly floated by.
All in all, it appeared to be a haven.
Too bad for the teen who had chosen death.
Intent blue eyes peered out from under a bush, watching as the girl sighed heavily and stood up.
Arisa looked around her in surprise.
Where am I?
She leant on her pole for support. Getting a closer look at it, she was surprised to find the top was carved into a disk shape, where a galloping horse was cut into the wood.
Hey! This isn't a stick! It's a staff!
Arisa turned sharply around, black dress whirling smoothly. The watcher looked as the teen peered down the well, then stepped onto the edge, apparently ready to jump.
Arisa, for the second time that day, found herself staring into the darkness. She was about to step off when…
"No!"
Arisa swung roughly around, catching herself before she actually fell with her staff.
"No! Don't jump!"
A small girl, no more than ten years of age, stood in the shadow of the trees, staring at her it fear.
Arisa lightly sprung off the well-wall.
The girl was quivering with either fright or shock, though which, Arisa could not tell. Short brown hair tied with two red ribbons framed a face that was both cute and scared. And she was wearing…
"You're wearing a kimono?"
It came out of her mouth without her even thinking. The child stepped backwards, slowly, small steps then faster. Her short purple kimono, tied with a red sash, looked dirty, and on closer inspection, Arisa could see that her hair needed a wash and a brush and her face could do with a good scrub.
"No… wait." Arisa tried to smile at the terrified child. However, though she could make her mouth do this, her eyes were still cold and empty.
She tried a different tact. "Please, I'm lost. Could you tell me where I am?"
The girl stopped and gave her an odd look through piercing blue eyes. Arisa found it difficult to move. It was though this child was looking through her, into her thoughts and emotions. This, she sensed, was a test.
"You're in the nameless forest, Bel Um Ful."
"Uh…?"
"Near the Lost Village."
Arisa blinked and rubbed her raw eyes for what seemed the millionth time lately.
Lost Village? Sounds like some sort of morbid legend! But then, I am somewhere else…
"I can take you there." The little girl blinked her blue eyes solemnly. "I'm called Mikazi."
That's a strange name... I've never heard it before and father knows all the old Japenese names.
She decided to trust the child.
"Arisa Higurashi." she said.Then, after hesitating, Arisa smiled truly for the first time in a month. "And I would like it very much if you could take me to this village."
"Then follow me." The little girl pursed pink rosebud lips. "Don't forget your staff. Mistress Kisa will want to see it as well as you."
Huh? She's not scared any more…?
Arisa dutifully followed the child into the woods and into a much better future than the one she had been foreseeing.
OK – what do you think? That was kind of an introduction – next chapter'll be (hopefully) longer.
(A big thanks to everyone who reviewed my other fics! You're all stars!)
R 'n' r!
CN.