The Priestess Midoriko
An Inuyasha Fanfiction
By: Arcane Weapon
Author's Note: The idea for this fic came to me out of nowhere. I'd been thinking of writing an Inuyasha fic for a while, but for some reason I just didn't want to write a story about Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, etc… I love the characters, but I guess I just couldn't come up with a way to use them that someone hadn't already done. Then when I was re-watching an episode of the anime specifically about the Shikon no Tama, I realized that there was hardly any back-story to it. A single name is provided along with a minor story and that's it. As always I had trouble coming up with a genre for the fic. Right now it stands at General/Action & Adventure, but General may change to Angst in the future, I'm not sure. I hope that this fic will be an enjoyable explanation of the past.
Disclaimer: I do not own Midoriko, she belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, or Enju, she belongs to Sunrise or Viz or something. Also, the line where Seikai explains naobi is taken word for word from Miroku and Sango so I don't own that either. All the other characters, however, are my creations.
Chapter 1: The Dream
It was the same dream again. She had no idea how, or even why, but twice a month for the past six months she always had exactly the same dream. In it she was fully aware that she was dreaming, everything appeared crystal clear unlike her other dreams which usually seemed as if they were viewed though a thin piece of silk. She could also feel pain.
As usual the dream started with her standing alone in the middle of a grassy field under a cloudless blue sky. She was in her priestess attire, a white robe with sleeves down to her hands and a long pink-red skirt worn over it, barely showing her sandaled feet. Her long black hair flowed freely down her back, barely passing her waist.
She gazed out at the horizon, waiting, knowing what was about to happen and yet not trying to escape. She had tried to escape in the past, tried many times and always failed. Now she simply waited. As expected, the entire horizon around her slowly darkened. They were coming.
After a few moments she was able to make them out, their scales, claws, fangs, wings, and always the ever-burning hatred in their eyes. The countless horde of demons drew closer and closer.
She began to mentally prepare herself for what was coming even though she knew it was futile. No matter how many times it happened she was sure she could never prepare for it. To her surprise something happened this time that had never happened before. She noticed a faint, barely discernable pink glow surrounding her entire body. She was confused, the past twelve times she'd had the dream she was sure nothing like this had occurred, why was it changing now?
The first blow jerked her out of her thoughts.
A demon's claws sliced across her back, cutting through her hair and clothes and ripping into her soft flesh. Against her will she let out a scream of agony. She hated that scream, that small sign of weakness. Always she promised herself she wouldn't scream, and yet she always did. Thankfully it didn't last very long until everything was blackness.
Was it a memory from a past life or perhaps a prediction of the future? Or was it simply a curse?
"Midoriko, its time for breakfast!" her mother called out, waking her up and bringing her back to the real world.
A light sheen of sweat covered her entire body, causing the shift she slept in to cling to her skin. Instead of heeding her mother's call, Midoriko lay there thinking about what had happened.
That pink glow… It was so faint, but I'm sure it was there! But why? Did something I do cause it? Is the dream… trying to tell me something?
"Midoriko!" her mother called out again, breaking her train of thoughts. "Your food's getting cold!"
"Sorry Mother, I'm coming!" she replied as she crawled out of her bed.
She peeled off her sweat-stained shift and hung it up to dry before walking over to a small bowl under the window, where she splashed some clean water from it on her face.
I wish I had the time to take a bath, but I suppose that will have to wait until later.
Not wanting to worry her mother anymore, Midoriko hurriedly tossed on a clean shift followed by her priestess' robes and walked to the dining room.
"Ah, there you are," her mother said with a smile as she saw her daughter enter the room.
Midoriko returned her mother's smile as she sat down beside her and took a small sip of her tea. It was slightly colder then she would have preferred, but she knew that was her own fault.
"I apologize for keeping you waiting Mother," Midoriko said contritely.
"Now, now, none of that," her mother said, "it's not like being a little late for breakfast is a big deal. What I'm more worried about is your beautiful hair."
"My hair?" Midoriko asked, slightly confused.
"Didn't you notice? It's all tangled up, did you have a bad night's sleep?"
Of course, after the dream it's always horribly tangled. I was so distracted by that glow I forgot to brush it. But how do I explain that to Mother, I refuse to tell her about the dream and make her worry!
"Y...yes," Midoriko replied hesitantly, "I had trouble falling asleep last night and I guess I tossed and turned too much…"
"Let me brush it for you while you eat your meal, we don't want you to be late for your training with Master Seikai."
"Thank you, Mother," Midoriko said before beginning to eat, glad that her mother hadn't asked any more questions. She hated the lie, but she knew her mother already had too many things to worry about without adding another.
She finished eating at the same time her mother finished brushing her hair and said another quick thank you before excusing herself to leave for the temple. As she left her house she saw to her left that their neighbor, the potter Enju, was already out firing up her kiln.
"Good morning Midoriko," Enju called out when she saw her as well.
"Good morning Enju, I'd love to stay and chat, but I really must hurry to Master Seikai."
"I wouldn't want to make you late," Enju replied smiling, "come and see me later though, it's been a while since we sat down and talked."
Midoriko smiled and nodded before hurrying to the temple on the other side of the village. When she arrived, she stopped just outside the entrance and caught her breath before walking in. Inside she saw her master sitting on the floor before the small shrine praying, and quietly walked a few steps behind him.
"Please pardon my lateness Master," she said quietly, looking down at her feet.
She heard the rustling of his robes as he stood up and turned to face her, and then felt his hand under her chin gently raise her head to look up into his brown eyes.
"I can sense that you are troubled as well as see it in your eyes Midoriko, is there something you wish to ask me?" Seikai questioned softly.
Midoriko hesitated slightly before responding. "Have I… changed lately?"
"Changed? In what way? I don't understand what your asking," Seikai said confused.
"I'm not really sure myself," Midoriko replied, "I was just wondering if you had noticed something."
"Well your spiritual powers have been increasing lately, but other then that you seem like the same girl who began training under me thirteen years ago, just grown up now."
Is that it? Was that pink glow due to my increased spiritual powers?
"One more thing Master, have you ever heard of a priestess… glowing?" she asked.
"Glowing? No, I never have, where did you see or hear of this?" he questioned.
"In a dream," Midoriko reluctantly replied, knowing she could never lie to her master.
"Ahhh, dreams," Seikai replied, smiling. "Dreams are nothing to worry yourself over, they are simply distractions of the mind while sleeping. They mean nothing."
Midoriko frowned slightly. You're wrong Master. I'm sure my dream is no mistake. My dream means something. I know it.
Midoriko hadn't told even her master about the dream, she knew that he would be the most logical person to talk to about it, but for some reason she wanted to keep it private. After hearing what he had just said she was glad that she hadn't told him.
"Enough of this, though," Seikai said firmly, bringing her out of her thoughts. "We will continue your lessons from where we left off last, do you remember were that was?"
"Of course," replied Midoriko as they walked over to a set of cushions and sat down facing each other. "We were talking about the four spirits: kushimitama, nigimitama, aramitama, and sakimitama."
"Very good, and they stand for…?" Seikai prompted her.
"Kushimitama is the spirit of wisdom, nigimitama is the spirit of friendship, aramitama is the spirit of courage, and sakimitama… is the spirit of love."
"You hesitate on sakimitama, why is this?"
"Are priestess' not forbidden to love Master? This is what confuses me."
Seikai smiled as he responded, "Yes, it is true that a priestess is forbidden from loving another. However, a priestess is not forbidden from love."
Midoriko looked at Seikai in confusion, "I'm afraid I don't quite follow you Master."
"It's quite simple. You are forbidden from loving one man because that love distracts, it makes you lose focus on the fact that you must love everything with all your heart. You must love your mother, the sky, the trees, everything in the world the same amount to achieve the true balance of sakimitama."
"I must love everything in the world the same?" Midoriko asked, surprised.
"What of the terrible summer storm that comes and ruins the roads and destroys houses?" she asked, trying to come up with an example of something impossible to love.
"Do not forget that while the storm destroys the houses and roads it also floods the rice fields with rain, providing us with the food we need to survive. The houses and roads can always be rebuilt."
Midoriko frowned as she saw his point and tried to come up with something else. "What of demons? Am I supposed to love demons as well?"
Seikai frowned deeply before responding, "Now that is a good question. The answer is both yes and no. I suppose it would be best for me to rephrase my statement as 'you must love everything good in this world the same amount'. You must remember that not all demons are evil."
"Thank you Master, I believe I understand sakimitama much better now."
Seikai nodded before continuing, "These four spirits combined form the soul of a person, housed inside their heart. When the four spirits work together in harmony it is called naobi and the human heart is filled with goodness. When somebody does a bad deed the four spirits energize evil and the human loses his way. In other words, a soul can turn good or bad and this transformation can happen within a human's soul or a demon's soul."
"And you Master? Have you attained naobi?" Midoriko questioned.
"No, no I have not reached it… It is something to be strived for, but something that will never be attained." Seikai fell silent and stared off into space after finishing.
Realizing that she had inadvertently upset her master Midoriko prepared to apologize, but was cut off before she could.
"I believe that will be enough for today. Please take the rest of the day off to think over what you have learned this morning."
Deciding it would be best to just drop the subject entirely Midoriko thanked Seikai. "I promise I will not be late tomorrow Master," she said before bowing and preparing to leave.
"Is tomorrow not your birthday Midoriko? We will withhold the next lesson for another day so you may enjoy yourself and relax tomorrow."
My birthday! Of course, how could I have forgotten?
Not wanting to disturb Seikai since he had returned to his prayers Midoriko said a silent thank you and left the temple.
As she was walking leisurely back to her house, enjoying the warm feeling of the sun and thinking about what she had learned, she was surprised when someone grabbed her from behind and covered her eyes with their hand. Midoriko began to struggle, trying to escape from her captor, until she heard a small giggle behind her.
"Guess who it is," a girlish voice asked playfully from behind her.
"Sayo! You sacred the spirits out of me!" Midoriko exclaimed.
"You always look so serious whenever you come out of the temple, I couldn't help myself," Sayo explained as she removed her hand and moved to walk alongside her friend. "Sorry," she added as an afterthought.
"Don't worry about it," Midoriko replied, smiling over at her. "Just promise not to do it again, okay?"
Sayo was the same age as Midoriko and was her best friend. Today she was dressed up in a light blue kimono with orange fishes spread across it. Her black hair was much shorter then Midoriko's and done up in a ponytail.
"Yah, sure, so what were you talking about this time anyways?"
"Love," Midoriko replied, not really thinking about her answer.
"Ooo, love!" exclaimed Sayo. "I thought you were forbidden to fall in love!"
Midoriko winced, regretting her mistake. "Look, Sayo, it's really complicated and I don't want to try and explain it now okay? So can we just drop the subject?"
Realizing she'd upset her friend, Sayo nodded before linking her arm with Midoriko's. "Common, I want to show you something!" she said, dragging her friend in a different direction then her house.
"Where are we going Sayo?" Midoriko asked.
"You're you going to have to wait and see," Sayo giggled.
Midoriko laughed and relaxed, there was no point in worrying over the dream or what had upset Seikai. She had the rest of the day off and tomorrow was her birthday.
After a while the sound of clashing swords caught her attention, causing her to cut off her idle chatter with Sayo and come to a halt.
"Sayo, why are we going to the training grounds?" she asked. From the direction they had been traveling in she was pretty sure this was where they were going, but she didn't understand why.
Sayo's only response was another giggle and a tug on her arm urging her to start moving again.
Letting out a small sigh Midoriko followed her friend until they reached the edge of the grounds where they stopped. Toshu, the villages' weapon master was in the middle of a training session with about ten men. Noticing the girls approach he glanced over and frowned, but was too busy to go over to them.
"Sayo, why are we here? You saw the look from Toshu, he doesn't want us to distract them."
Sayo ignored her question and pointed to one of the men closest to them who was currently practicing his sword technique. "Look."
"Yes Sayo, I see, they're training," Midoriko said, slightly annoyed. "I don't know about you, but I don't want Toshu mad at me."
Still ignoring her Sayo kept pointing, "No, look at him."
Midoriko glanced at the man again, getting more annoyed at how Sayo was behaving. He was of average height, had short brown hair, and seemed to be quite good with the sword in his hands. "What about him?"
"His name is Kokichi, isn't he handsome?" Sayo asked dreamily.
Midoriko took a step back and blinked several times at her friend in disbelief.
Did she seriously bring me out here just so she could fawn over some guy she met?
"Sayo, I'm glad you have a boyfriend, but now is not the time and place," she explained, gesturing at Toshu who was now glaring daggers at the two of them as most of the men had become distracted by their presence.
At these words Sayo's face turned bright red and she whirled around to face Midoriko. "He's not my boyfriend!" Sayo exclaimed, still blushing furiously.
"You can explain as we walk, Toshu looks like he's about ready to halt practice and come over here."
Sayo finally tore her eyes away from Kokichi and noticed that Toshu did indeed look rather upset. Deciding that they had been here long enough, she grabbed Midoriko's hand and they hurriedly walked away.
Glancing over at Sayo and deciding that she wasn't going to start explaining Midoriko prompted her with a question. "So, who is he? I've never seen him around before."
"No one really knows. He showed up at the village gates about a week ago, covered in blood. Demon blood."
"Demon blood?! What happened, how did I not hear about this already?" Midoriko asked in shock.
Sayo glanced over at her, "I think it was around the time you and Master Seikai were out in the forest collecting and identifying medicinal herbs. By the time you two got back the news had mostly calmed down so I guess that's why you never heard about it."
"So what happened?"
"He said that his village was overrun by demons, everyone died except him. Ever since he's been here all he's done is train with Toshu."
Another demon attack… They've been increasing in number lately, but never this severe before. Is it come kind of sign?
"So he's been here a week, he can't be training all the time. Why haven't you talked to him and gotten to know him yet if you like him?"
"It's not that easy," Sayo replied, irritated.
"Oh? Why not?"
"You would never understand!" Sayo snapped.
Midoriko knew Sayo didn't intend it, but her words cut her deeply. "Your right Sayo, I never will," she replied sadly.
"Midoriko… you know I…"
"I understand Sayo. Just please leave me alone for now. I want to take a bath and then meditate, I'll see you tomorrow okay?"
"Yah, okay Midoriko… I'm sorry," Sayo finished as she walked away from her friend to her own house.
Thus will I be ever reminded of the difference between a priestess and a normal woman.
"You look even deeper in thought now then when you left your house this morning," a voice said as she neared her house, "if such a thing is even possible."
Midoriko glanced over and saw Enju still sitting in front of her kiln. The woman gestured for her to join her and Midoriko walked over to sit next to her.
"What is troubling you Midoriko? Bear too many burdens on your back and it's sure to break."
The saying brought a small smile to Midoriko's lips. "Thank you Enju, I was just thinking about a conversation I just had with Sayo about love."
"Ahh, a rather touchy subject around a priestess, yes?"
"Yes," Midoriko replied softly, looking down at the ground.
"Do you envy her, envy me, for being free to love whomever we will?" Enju asked, resting a hand gently on her back in comfort.
"Envy?" Midoriko asked, confusion entering her voice. "No, I do not envy you or anyone else. We each live our own lives and we are each free to make our own decisions. I have things that you shall never have just as you have things I never will. Each and every person lives their own life and no one else can judge them based upon that."
"The answer of a true Priestess."
Midoriko frowned.
"I do not say that in jest, Midoriko, your answer is your own and perfect."
"Thank you Enju, it is always comforting to talk with you when I'm troubled. It's almost hard to believe there's only a gap of two years between us sometimes."
Enju let out a laugh at this statement. "Are you saying I sound like a woman twice my age?" she asked playfully.
"No! Of course not," Midoriko laughed. "You know I think of you as an older sister."
"And you are a wonderful younger sister. Here, let me give you your birthday present a little early."
Midoriko looked on eagerly as Enju stood up and walked over to a small table where she picked up a wooden box.
"I just finished it today," Enju stated happily as she handed over the box. "Go on, open it!"
Midoriko took the lid off and looked inside, a gasp of surprise escaped her lips when she saw what was in it.
"Oh my Kami, it's beautiful!" exclaimed Midoriko in pleasure as she took the small clay statue of a cat with two tails out of the box. It was painted yellow with black markings on its feet and tails and a peculiar one right on its forehead.
"I read a story of a mythical cat demon who looked like this and just had to make a statue of it for you, I hope you like it."
"Like it? I love it! Thank you Enju!" Midoriko exclaimed as she set the cat on the table carefully before hugging her friend. "What does that mark on its head represent?" she asked. "I've never seen a symbol of four lines spaced like that before."
"To be honest I don't know," Enju replied, slightly puzzled. The inspiration for it just struck me right at the end when I thought I was finished. I hope you don't mind it."
"No, not at all," Midoriko responded slowly, unable to shake the feeling that somehow the mark seemed… familiar in some way. "I like it."
"Well, are you going to name it?" Enju asked playfully.
"Hmm, your right. A beautiful cat needs a beautiful name. How about… Kirere?"
"Kirere, I like it," Enju said with a smile.
"If you'll excuse me I'd like to go put Kirere in my room before I go to the springs to take a bath, thank you again so much,"
"Of course, go and get cleaned up, we can always celebrate more tomorrow." Enju gave her another quick hug before going back to her kiln.
Midoriko picked Kirere up and walked into her house, glancing around for her mother.
Hmm, she must still be out getting food for tomorrow,
Once she got to her room she placed Kirere on the table next to the washbowl before grabbing a towel and leaving the house through the backdoor. She followed a decently well-worn path through the grass to the edge of the forest and continued in to where the hot springs awaited her at the end.
Clarifications: 1). Kirere is pronounced Ki-ray-ray, not Ki-le-le or Ki-ree-ree. This is not me misspelling Kirara, this will be better explained in Chapter 3. 2). The symbol on Kirere's forehead is the same as the symbol on Midoriko's forehead if you look at a picture of her. At this point in the story, however, Midoriko doesn't have that mark yet, and doesn't know what it means. 3). Enju was introduced in Episode 92 of the anime, "Plot of the Waking Dead" in case you were wondering where I got her from. She's not in the manga for those of you who have only read that and not seen the anime.
End Notes: Well that's the first chapter, I know not a ton of stuff happened, but I needed to get everyone introduced, the action will pick up, I promise. Plus I was writing it on the fly so I didn't really have any idea of what was coming next. For example, that dream? Yah, that wasn't planned at all when I first thought of the fic and then when I started writing it suddenly became the main focus of the story. Anyways, there's only one other major character to introduce and he'll be showing up in the next chapter, I can't wait to write him. So I hope you liked the start of this fic (please leave a review letting me know what you think! ), and I'll try and get the next chapter up as soon as I can.