Prologue Part 1
Miroka allowed her head to fall forward on top of her desk with a thud loud enough to draw the attention of half the class. A hopeless groan escaped her throat. She had missed the past two and a half weeks of school due to her grandma's sudden death, and now she couldn't decipher for the life of her what the hell the teachers were talking about. Seriously, every word coming out of all their mouths was like that wah waht wah wah thing the adults do in the Peanuts cartoons! Borrowing her friends notes weren't helping any either. Not even the Pythagorean theorem of A squared plus B squared equals C squared looked familiar anymore. Then to top everything off, Miroka just had to return to school the day before final exams.
"Psst! You okay, Mushi? You seem pretty drained," one of the boys that sat behind her whispered poking Miroka in the back, "but considering you just got back from being sick for so long it's not surprising."
"Being sick?!" Miroka shrieked sitting bolt upright and whipping around in her seat. "Being sick!!! My grandmother gets run over by some son of a bitch fucking drunk driver and I'm away from school because I'm sick!!!!! How about you have your brother get hit by a Ford F-150 and tell me how you feel afterwards!!!" (1)
A heavy silence fell on the classroom after Miroka's heated words and everyone stared at her as if she had suddenly sprouted a second head right in front of them. When Miroka was gone the teachers had said that she had the flu or something to that effect, not the true story. Not what they had just heard come out of her mouth.
The math teacher sputtered for a few moments then finally managed to yell, "Miroka Mushi, out in the hall now!"
"Humph," Miroka turned and grabbed her belongings then stalked in to the hallway slamming the classroom door behind her.
She walked down the hall more dejected than angry and out in to the warm sunlight and air of early summer. In a few weeks school would be over and she would find herself sitting around the now much more empty temple her family had called home for many generations. Miroka had heard the tales of her most revered ancestors every day since she was born as well as the tales of those who had fallen to an evil curse placed on her family by an evil demon. Hell, if Miroka had to use a word to describe the devotion her grandpa showed their ancestors it would be obsessed. The fact that her own name was just one syllable off from being that of the monk Miroku who slew the demon Naraku was proof enough of that concept. Plus then there was also how her family name was one letter off from being the name of the man who raised Miroku, Mushin, didn't help any. Her grandfather was obsessed with their ancestors, and her grandmother had been the one who let Miroka get away with not having to dedicate her life to being a priestess yet even though her grandfather swore up and down that she had the natural spiritual powers for it within her. And soon she be entering high school if she was lucky.
"How could you be so insensitive, Komomura!" Ai, Emiko and Noriko all said at the same time ganging up on the boy who had insulted Miroka and upset her. They had known Miroka since they were in kindergarten practically and knew when to leave her alone.
For the second time that day Komomura had the look of a deer caught in headlights on his face, "I didn't know!" was all he could muster in his own defense.
"That still doesn't mean you had to bring it up!" Miroka's three friends shot back in unison. "Now she's nowhere to be found on school grounds and how the hell is the school going to explain that one to her family when they've already had a lot lost in the past few months."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Didn't you hear that Miroka's little brother, Satoru, vanished without a trace that day that person wearing a mask caused all that commotion a month or so ago (2), and he still hasn't been found. Now her grandma died almost three weeks ago," Noriko said incredulously.
"Things have to be so tough on her and her family with all the stuff going on," Ai said on the verge of tears thinking about what could have happened to Miroka between the time she was kicked out of class and the end of the day.
"What if something serious has happened to her and its your fault?!" Emiko burst out before turning away from the others to keep them from seeing just how upset she was.
Miroka had been stupid, she knew that now, in sneaking out of school then wandering to the edge of the city by herself. There were plenty of thugs and other criminals out there that could do her harm that were of the variety she believed in. Never in a million years had she thought she would now be pinned in a dead end alley by a giant freak of nature! No way were centipedes supposed to be as large as the one currently facing her down! It had to be a good ten fucking feet tall when reared up the way it was and somewhere close to fifty feet long. Was this thing a result of nuclear radiation or something like Godzilla?! And how the fucking hell was that thing now found before now by someone?!
A/N: I know this is short so far, but I'm going to start the second part of the prologue shortly after this is posted. And yes the other main character enters the scene in Prologue Part 2. Please R&R!
(1) I hold nothing against this vehicle personally, it was just the first truck that came to mind.
(2)Reference to that flesh eating Noh mask that had a Shikon jewel shard in its forehead from anime episode 11 and 6th battle in the manga, can't remember what chapter off hand.
