"Myths exist because something made it seem real. Superstitions are the same."
Kagome was never one to believe in superstitions. That was always her grandfather's role - and believe her when she told you that he had that role covered. She was given a monkey paw for her birthday once, as proof of Grandfather's belief in superstitions. Kagome, on the other hand, would break a mirror on purpose (if she wasn't afraid of hurting her hand in the process and for the fact that breaking the mirror for no reason would be pointless). She walked under ladders, had a plethora of black cats cross her path, she had said Bloody Mary into a mirror in a dark bathroom with the door closed, she only wished on a falling star once or twice in her life and has never made a wish on the first star of the night; Kagome never searched for a four-leaf clover, never carried a silver horseshoe (although Grandfather wanted her to once) and although she had an uncanny nack for looking at the clock just as it turned 11:11, she never tried to wish. Superstitions were just that - superstitions! To Kagome, they only became true if you believed it to be true. Honestly, she didn't really believe they became true. She simply believed that some people believed them to be real, that every coincidence that happened to them was somehow linked back to the superstition.
Case in point, just the other day her friend, Ayumi, won the lottery. She had exclaimed, "I knew that walking the extra foot around that ladder would save me!"
Save her from what, Kagome had wondered? She'd only won fifteen dollars, and she had blown that at Starbucks. No, Kagome certainly didn't believe in superstitions. In fact, Kagome wasn't a believer in most anything. The typical person has some secret thing they believe in - aliens, big foot, Loch Nes Monster, superstitions, something that science has never explained, but Kagome didn't. She was an extremely level-headed young woman who believed that the only way to get something was through hard work and dedication. She had never stopped to wish on stars, look for leprechauns, or anything of that sort.
All of her friends had something they believed in - Shippou, a young boy Kagome baby-sat, believed that Fairies lived in the woods behing his house. Ayumi believe in Big Foot, while Yuka was still waiting for the mothership to take her home. Eri had a "lucky" rabbit's foot on her keychain, Hojo never left home without his rosary, and although Sango's superstition wasn't way out there, she still had her own quirk - she wore a special red hairband in her hair when she took tests.
Kagome never did any of these things - all she had, she had earned. All she wanted, she worked for. She made no wishes. And yet, a queer feeling filled the air that morning when she awoke.
Dreams had haunted her night, as they usually do, but these dreams were different. They included glimpses of things she didn't believe, had never before even thought. But the thing that haunted her most was the boy with white hair and golden eyes. He looked so lost, confused, and yet angry. Ears had sat atop his head, and they twitched, as though he could hear something in her dream that she could not. His face turned into a scowl, an expression the face was used to by the ease of which it had appeared. But then, the dreams warps. His eyes grow red, fangs extend, and claws swipe out at her in anger, but before she can be cut, the dream shifts. She is standing in the middle of a field filled with purple mist. The flowers wilt, die, and turn to ash. Although all living things are dying, she can stand and breathe, she can live. Looking through the fog, she sees a figure, it's running towards her. It's her brother, Souta! No, it's broken through the mist, she can see now, it's a boy, but not her brother. He points around her, gesturing her to look. But it's a field, she already knows this, but she looks again anyway. Oh. It's not a field, it's Tokyo. Or, once was. Buildings crumbled, people cried and screamed, and dark shadow creatures lashed out, grabbing onto the living, pulling them into death.
A shiver ran down Kagome's spine as she laid in bed, thinking about the dream. It was early yet, only four in the morning, but Kagome knew she wouldn't be getting back to sleep. The dream was just... too eerie. Kagome grabbed her diary from her bedside table drawer and quickly wrote down her dream. She didn't want to forget it - it was too... interesting for her to forget. She had never had the dream before, or any like it. Even her dreams were plain, usually involving what she imagined living on her own would be like. Nothing... Nothing so fantasy, like a book straight from the science fiction/supernatural section of the library.
Crawling out of bed, she stretched and looked out her window. It was still dark outside, the sun not having even thought about rising. Why would it at such an ungodly hour? This was, after all, much to early. It wouldn't rise for another hour and some odd minutes. Well, at least she could watch the sun rise. It wasn't something she really got to watch often, she did enjoy her sleep, and that would take away some of her anxiety from the dream. Honestly, she had no idea why the dream bothered her so much, but it did, and she needed to take her mind off of it. Perhaps a nice shower would wash away the eerie feeling she had?
A long shower was exactly what she needed. When she left the bathroom, almost an hour after she had entered it, she felt refreshed and awake. She went downstairs to start making coffee, a horrible, American habit she had taken to thanks to an exchange student two years ago. She was a wonderful person, though, and Kagome was glad to have met her.
"Kagome, dear, you're up awful early," Mama Higurashi entered the kitchen in her robe and slippers.
"I started warming some water for your tea, Mama," Kagome smiled before she actually answered her mother's question. "I woke up at four this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I figured that it would be nice to watch the sun rise as well. I rarely get to see it."
Mama Higurashi smiled. "You always did love sun rises so much more then sun sets. Perhaps it has to do with what they say about them."
Kagome rolled her eyes. She knew her mom was teasing her about superstitions, it was something done so often at this shrine, mostly because it was a shrine and Kagome didn't believe in anything. "I do not like a sun rise because it symbolizes something. It just means that the days beginning rather then ending. And that's a proven fact. If the sun didn't rise, a new day would never come."
"Dear, you are much to serious. Will you ever take life lightly? It's like you are aging backwards. You were like this very young, too. Perhaps when you are eighty is when you'll believe in monsters under your bed and such," Mama Higurashi laughed as she went to her tea pot.
"Perhaps you're right, mother. Then again, I could be like this forever," Kagome stood from the table and smoothed out her skirt. "I'm going to watch the sun. I'll return for my coffee."
Kagome's mother dismissed her with a nod and the teenager left the room swiftly. The bond she and her mother had was a special one, one that required few words, if any most of the time, and the love ran deep. It was one of the many things Kagome cherished in life.
Once outside, Kagome made her way towards the God Tree, where she could lean against it and watch the sun come up. She could vaguely remember, when she was really little, her father and her stood under this tree, watching the world go by. She couldn't remember his face, when she looked up in her memory, the bright sun blocked her from seeing him. Was his hair black, or brown? What color were his eyes? She could only remember that he was wearing black slacks and a blue shirt, tucked in. With a black bow tie. No, it was just a tie, hanging down, she remembered, she had tugged on it. He had just gotten home from work, and rather then resting, he spent this time with Kagome. She had always been his number one...
"Only remember the good things, Kagome," the girl whispered out loud to herself as she looked at the sun rising. The beautiful golden rays slowly inched over Tokyo, covering everything in light. Although the city had already begun its wake up process, it didn't seem complete without the sun's rays to greet it morning. The sad thing about sun rises, Kagome decided, was that the most beautiful part of it was short lived, when it first peaked over the edge of the world. When all the colors blended together in a dance of pink, purple, and blue. Tokyo, which was never truly asleep, begun to awaken. People moved about the street, ants from the great height of the shrine. That meant that Grandfather would be out at any moment to start his morning blessing of the shrine.
In fact, Kagome passed him on her way inside. "Ah, Kagome, up early, eh? Perhaps I'll make a priestess out of you, yet!" He chuckled in good nature.
"I'll work when you need me, Poppy, but I won't carry the title priestess. I don't believe, and I think it would be a mockery of sorts to those priestesses that do believe," Kagome smiled to her grandfather. "I just can't work now. I need my coffee."
"Bleh. I'm not sure how you stand that stuff! It's bitter taste," Grandfather twisted his face to that of a disgusted look that Kagome just laughed as she entered her home and headed to the kitchen. Grandfather had always been an odd fellow, but he was loveable, and all who met him seemed to enjoy his company, and Kagome did as well, though it was her little brother, Souta, who truly enjoyed hanging out with Grandfather. He would often help Grandfather with everything in the evening. Rarely did he help in the morning, and simply because he wasn't up in time. But that was just how Souta was - an average boy who enjoyed his video games and his sleep, as well as junk food.
"Your phone went off while you were outside," Mama Higurashi informed her daughter as Kagome filled her coffee cup.
"Thanks," Kagome stirred in her creamer and took a quick sip before heading back to her room, coffee and all. She entered her room, placed her coffee at her desk and grabbed her phone, pulling it off the charger to check her message. "Im up n had the freakiest dream! Need 2 tell it 2 u ASAP. OMWO now." and it was from Sango, Kagome's closest friend. Instead of replying to the text right away, Kagome reread it a couple of times and thought. How odd that they both had weird dreams last night? Obviously it was a coincident, but it was an odd one nonetheless. Sliding the phone open, Kagome texted back, "K. Waitin on steps." and then she grabbed her coffee and went to do just that.
Sango arrived quickly, only about fifteen minutes, as traffic was low and she was one of the few people Kagome knew that owned a car, but then again, Sango was also the only person Kagome knew that owned a village as well. It had been passed down through her family since the Warring States Era and now Sango owned it. Well, all the land that it was placed on.
Hair pulled up into a ponytail, Sango wore the school's uniform with her own added accessories. Unlike most Japanese schools, Kouun Senior High was slack on its uniform policy. You had to wear the uniform, but you could accessorize it however you wished. Sango wore some bangles, and the tie of her uniform was undone, just hanging loosely for the wind to toy with. "Kagome! Wow, you look really awake for being this hour..."
"I was up at four," Kagome replied as she stood from the steps, and then frowned into her cup when she went to take a drink only to find it empty.
"Me too..." Sango left the words hang in the air a bit before speaking again, "It was my dream that awoke me. Tokyo was on fire, but it wasn't really fire that burned it. It was this purple misty thing, it hurt my flesh and it... it felt like it was killing me slowly, from the outside in." She paused here to shiver at the memory of it. "But that's not all, or even the worst of it. You know that boomerang that's above the fireplace, Hiraikotsu?"
"Yeah," Kagome nodded, "but why is a giant boomerang in your dream?"
"Nightmare! And it's not just a boomerang. It's said that long ago, in the Warring States Era, it was a weapon used for killing Youkai, which is really odd, because in this nightmare, I'm using it. It isn't like I've never used it before, I used to throw it around and hit targets all the time with Dad, and I must admit, it's like I'm a natural pro at it, but still. Anyway, I'm fighting with it, and then, you're there. You are standing in the center of this purple mist stuff, and only you can stand there. Everyone else is falling down - they can't breathe, and you can't either, but you refuse to fall. You... I don't know," Sango ran a hand threw her ponytail and she shifted, as if uncomfortable. "It's... well, as strange as this may sound, it seems like, you are the only who can't succumb to its poison, because the minute you do, everything is lost. Just before this nightmare ends, it looks like you're about to fall down, and I felt really... hopeless, like the entire point of living was gone. Ya know?"
Kagome looked at her friend, the expression on her face one of awe, shock, and yet, a confident look, as if a part of her knew that Sango's dream was going to be much like hers. "You... your dream. Sango, I had one a lot like it." Kagome retold her dream to Sango, leaving out the part about the white haired boy (for some reason, it felt special to her), and both girls sat on the steps in silence as it sunk it.
"So... we really did have dreams that matched each others," Sango was the first to whisper it. "Do you think it means something?"
"No," Kagome replied, instantly, "I don't believe in things like that. I think that out minds are a like, and because we are both stressing over the chemistry final, that our stress formed dreams that seem a like. But... and don't you dare say that I'm a believer, but there could be something deeper to this. I mean, what if, by some odd miracle somewhere, it did mean something."
The silence that hung was heavy, and both girls were happy when Souta interrupted that silence to tell them that Mama had made breakfast for them both and that they should come and enjoy it before he got to it. Sango hopped up quickly, but Kagome took her time, insisting that Sango go on ahead of her because she wanted to do something first. Sango agreed and then raced Souta back to the house.
Kagome smiled after them, glad that Souta had Sango in his life. But, her purpose for staying out was not to think about Sango and Souta. She moved to the sacred tree and knelt at its base, placing her hand on its trunk. "Papa. I ask for your guidance now, as I have so many times before. Does this dream mean something more?"
Although Kagome did not believe in the supernatural, superstitions, or the mythical, she did believe that somewhere, somehow, her father was watching her. And he had yet to steer her in the wrong direction.