Darkening Haze
Accidental or Fateful Meeting?
Once again the busy megalopolis of Tokyo found the sun rising on it. Just as it had the day before, and just as everyone assumed it would tomorrow. Yet no one took the time to enjoy it. In the hectic days of the twenty-first century, no one bothered to take in the small pleasures of life, such as watching the sunrise or set, enjoying the tiny pockets of nature all throughout the city, or even stopping to take in everything that surrounded them. While life for humans was far too short, no one savored life anymore. It was all about meetings, making money, trying to get through the daily things. No one cared about anything of consequence anymore.
No one cared for legends, fairy tales, magic, demons, miko, deities, or life anymore. Who had the time for such evanescent things anyway? Maybe if everyone took a moment to remember the legends and deities that created their culture, then life might have more meaning. For who could not treasure life in the face of such awesome stories about heroes who gave up everything they could to keep people like them safe from harm? Who could not feel the very human desire for adventure after hearing about an evil that threatened to take away everything they held dear?
Yet no one had time for such stories. Because that was all they were - stories. The people in them did not exist and heroes had no place in their self-created world of evil. That was reality, and the reason it was futile to dwell on awesome fiction action that could never happen.
However one young man refused to believe such things. He did not want to believe that in the reality of everyone else when he knew the truth. While stories might be fiction, some held their roots in truth and a reality that once existed. A time when miko and demons faced off for the fate of regular humans. A time when deities walked on the ground and shaped the world. A time when heroes still existed and fought for the truth instead of giving in to the temptation of evil.
The truth he knew was one no one would believe. People had become cynical and would never believe the hope in his truth. Yet he was fine with that. The story he knew was not his to tell, after all. It was his sister's, and she would never again tell it to another. Instead it stayed cradled in her heart with all her memories just as she existed only in his heart. Though, what he would do to see and experience the thrill of adventure with her again!
She was somewhere he could not be, and it was for the best. Sometimes memories were hard to shake, and the more extraordinary the memories, the deeper the pain. At the end of the story, what could ever be left for the hero? The same, normal life they had had before everything happened? While the thought of their old life may be comforting during the adventure, the hero always knew they could not return to it. Because while that life may not have changed, they did. The person who set off was never the same one who returned. And without the adventure or their arch-nemesis, what was there for the hero? Nothing but a life that ate away at them with the mundane.
That was why his sister left and it had been a year since he last saw her. He loved her far too much to be angry with her, so he only hoped that she was happy with her decision. She tried living her old life for three years and he watched as it slowly tore at her. After the world-saving adventure she had been on, she could never be normal again. While he missed her and the excitement she brought, he wanted her to have a life she could enjoy more.
"Souta."
His mother's comforting hand accompanied her soft voice. No matter how old he became, she could always comfort him. That was one of the reasons why he had stayed at the shrine, so he could always have that comfort whenever he found himself missing his older sister too much. Another was because his mother reminded him so much of the sister who left him behind. "Your friends are waiting for you."
He nodded, not realizing how much time had passed as he gazed at the well house that started it all. It had been the first time in months that he didn't start blaming himself for his sister's departure. If he had been stronger or braver then everything would not have happened. Now he felt nothing but a strange peace as he stared at the mini-shrine. It had been almost five years to that day when it all had started, and it seemed like he was now getting the acceptance he needed.
"Thanks, mom." He smiled at her, trying to convince her that he was fine. For the first time in a long time, he was. "I'll be home for dinner."
A relieved smile greeted him as she patted his shoulder. "Have fun, Souta."
As the youngest Higurashi ran off to join his friends, the matriarch turned to the well house her son had been watching intently. However she did not get lost in her memories nor was she resentful. She only sighed at the feeling of destiny that gripped her heart. It had been five years since she last felt it and it ended up taking her daughter away from her. While she did not know what it would mean this time, she accepted whatever it may bring. Perhaps it would bring her daughter back to her and the family that missed her more than words could convey. Or perhaps it would take away her only other child. Whatever may happen, she knew it was useless to fight against it. Fate and Destiny had so many paths that they could take, and the diverted path may be the more disastrous one.
"Please, just let my children be safe... Both Souta, and Kagome."
As the wind carried off her whispered words, she gripped her broom tighter and headed back to her chores. While something was going to happen, the shrine was not going to take care of itself.
The rambunctious sounds coming from the field could be heard from the street. It seemed as if only the youth could fully enjoy certain moments of life, such as playing football with their dearest friends. As friend faced off against friend, amiable shouts and jibes were traded as they played to win but took nothing serious. There would always be next week for the defeated to rise up and take the win.
Times like that, surrounded by friends and friendly competition, allowed Souta to feel like a normal pre-teen. Everything that happened with his sister seemed to fade away, and he was no longer the little brother of the 'sick girl'. He was just Souta, football player extraordinaire!
His concentration slipped as his thoughts drifted to his sister, and one wayward kick sent the football flying off the field and into the park. Just like five years ago, trepidation filled his entire being as he stared off in the direction the ball went.
"Jeez, Souta!" Hideaki, one of his friends, shouted with a well-intentioned jab. "Keep your head in the game!"
Souta grinned despite his unease. "Sorry! So... Who's getting the ball?"
"Oh no you don't! You kicked it off into the park, you get it."
"But..." Souta paled, not liking the way he was feeling. It was nothing more than getting a ball from the park, so why did he feel as if everything was about to change? He glanced at all his friends, realizing that if he tried to explain what he was thinking and feeling, they would label him as chicken-hearted. Just like his sister had years ago.
"But?" One of his other friends prodded him to continue.
He shook his head, telling himself he was being silly. After all, if his sister could be fearless, then so could he. Anyway, it would probably come out that he was being nothing more than foolish. He was in a public park after all, what was the worst that could happen?
"Never mind," he said, jogging off to get the ball. "I'll be right back!"
The further away from his friends he went, the more his unease grew. It made no sense to him as to why he would be feeling uneasy, as there were countless adults, couples and children surrounding him feeling at ease. So why did he feel as if something life altering was about to take place? And why could he not find the damn ball? There was no way he kicked it hard enough for it to go too far.
Yet it was nowhere in sight. It made him wonder if someone saw the ball and decided to take it. That would make him feel beyond horrible as it wasn't his ball and it would end their game for a couple of weeks. He definitely had to find Hideaki's ball.
As the crowd in front of him thinned out, he spotted the black and white ball straight ahead, underneath an upturned root of a tree. How it managed to get as far away as it did, he didn't know. Nor did he care, so long as he got it back and they could continue their game.
When he was only a couple of steps away from it, he felt a wave of vertigo wash over him at the same time an intense pressure surrounded him on all sides. Not only was he dizzy, but it felt as if the world surrounding him was condensing around him. After only a second, he felt himself break through the pressure and fall into an entirely new world. He saw the ball before him in a barren land before everything started going black.
There was no oxygen in the world he was now in, only a thick suppressing power that pressed against his lungs and constricted his throat. He gripped his throat as if it would help him breathe before collapsing against the compact land. As his vision faded, he saw a pair of black shoes stop in front of him.
"Pathetic humans. If only you would learn to stay away from the barrier rifts."
The person in front of the now-unconscious boy scoffed as he felt the life begin to leave him. It was all more proof to him that the lot of them needed to die or learn to stay in their own world. The suffocating youki always built up in their lungs and killed them within hours. This boy was lucky he had been nearby or else he would have gone undetected until it was too late.
"Master Hiei," one of the supporting demons Enki assigned to shadow the barrier patrol addressed him. "Shall I start cleaning his lungs?"
It had only been a year and a half since Enki won the Demon World Tournament and forced him (and others, too) to patrol the barrier for unsuspecting humans. Ever since KoEnma had the barrier taken down, more and more humans found themselves falling through rifts in the dimensional barrier that remained. The only reason he bothered with wiping their mind and pumping the youki out of their lungs was because Enki ordered it. He was like his old teammates with how much he cared and looked out for the humans. The memories of the time and battles he fought alongside his old comrades were the only thing that kept him following Enki's orders.
However it was getting far too tedious. Only on rare occasions did he get to kill anything anymore; instead his time was spent saving humans. It didn't sit well with him at all. After this, his reputation would be forever unsalvageable.
He nodded to the small demon as he removed the ward on his Jagan. Though his original reasons for receiving the implanted eye were to look for his missing hiroseki stone and the island of the Koorime (and later his twin sister), he was using it more often now. All three of his objectives had been found, and now he was finally using his third eye for more and discovering more about it. While it may have been the first powerful weapon he had received, it was the last to be tamed. The Jagan was proving to be as stubborn and strong-willed as its current possessor.
The eye flared to life as his bandana fell to the ground and began shifting through the memories of the human in front of him. The first, and most recent, memories were the ones he erased. Humans were not to know of the existence of the Demon World even though demons were slowly migrating to the Human World. This boy didn't need to remember the brief glimpses he got of this world, nor did he need to remember ever seeing his feet.
As he went back further into the boy's memories to make sure he removed all evidence of this incident, he found only memories of a football game and a young woman with blue eyes. No matter how he tried, he couldn't remove the image of those eyes from his mind. It was as if he had seen those eyes before, though he knew he had never come across a human like that. As a rule of thumb when he had been confined to a district in Tokyo, he stayed as far away as he could from the species.
He pulled out of the boy's mind, wanting to get away from those blue eyes. "Leave the boy as he is and send him back to the Human World. If he can't survive as is, then he doesn't deserve life," he said to his 'shadow'.
Not wanting to disobey Hiei, the demon did as he was told. However when he sent the boy back, he would make sure it would be near enough to other humans so he could be saved. He did not share Hiei's views on strength or humans. Hiei waited until his annoying little shadow was out of sight before kicking the human's football back into the Human World, the same way it came in from. He didn't do it for the human, but to keep other demons from coming across it and learning the ridiculous game.
The morning held a peacefulness that he wasn't used to feeling. When he glanced up, blue skies met his eyes instead of the turbulent mauve skies of the Demon World. Had he somehow walked through a dimensional rift and fell asleep in the Human World? It was highly unlikely as he never slept while in the Human World - it was too noisy and full of pollution for his tastes. He preferred the smell of blood and violence that always existed in the wind of the Demon World.
However, this place didn't even seem to be the Human World. If it was, it was completely different from what he remembered. He knew of no place that held clean air or so much greenery. This couldn't be the Human World, could it? And if it was, just where did he manage to end up?
His confusion and the lack of answers were causing his anger to come to the surface. He was tempted to jump out of the tree he was perched in and head off to find some place he could get the answers he wanted. Or he would if he could. The slight anger he had been feeling grew to frustration as he found his body wouldn't comply with his wishes. No matter how much he willed it, he couldn't move a single limb.
He couldn't even glance down to see if he was actually in the tree, his eyes, or what he thought to be his eyes, were focused on the clearing in front of him. As he began to calm down after realizing the futility of getting angry and losing his head, he felt anticipation flow through his blood. He was waiting for something, or someone, to arrive. In the back of his mind, he knew exactly what he was waiting for, but at the same time, he didn't know what it was.
His earlier anger surfaced at the confusion that only seemed to grow. What the hell was happening with him?
All thoughts and angry feelings faded away as a soft scent filled his nose. What he had been waiting for finally arrived. And instead of jumping down and killing whatever it was he felt his body relax against the branch. It just wanted to observe whatever it was. Surprise filled his mind as he noticed familiar black locks of hair surrounding a human woman's face and blue eyes. The very same woman he saw in that boy's mind...
Hiei jolted out of his dream and bed, the shock and pain he was feeling bringing him back to reality. He gripped his forehead as his Jagan throbbed in pain. The confusion he felt during the dream, memory, whatever the hell it was, still lingered with him. There was no way he could make sense of what he saw in it.
Not to mention the fact that the Jagan was supposedly dormant underneath the ward in his bandana, so why did it manage to take control of his mind while he was sleeping? He blamed it entirely on the boy he saved earlier in the day and his memories of the blue-eyed woman. Whatever it was about her, the Jagan was not letting her image fade from his mind.
Perhaps he finally did it and over-exerted the Jagan. In the past year and a half, he had used it more often than he had before. Given the pain that it was feeling, he had no reason not to believe that reason. It was entirely plausible, and it would give him an excuse to take a break from patrolling the barrier.
Though he tried to write off what he saw as nothing more than an exhausted dream concocted by the Jagan, he couldn't. It all felt too familiar and as if it was more than a dream.
I just realized I've had this story sitting on my computer for just about three years now. Somehow it got lost among the many others that I have, but either way.. I still hope you all find some enjoyment from this story. And please, remember there is a reason why romance is not really one of the genres for this story, and that not all OCs are bad..
As always, please don't be afraid to leave a review letting me know if you liked it or loved it.