Imakkai ~by Cheenjeehan
Disclaimer: I don't own
Princess Mononoke, so there. =P
Note: I probably spelled some names wrong and stuff,
but if I did just let me know and I'll get around to fixing it one of these
days. It's a bit odd, but I tried my absolute hardest to stay true to the story
and how it ends, and to keep everyone 'in character'. I think I did a pretty
good job, but I don't know, it's been a while since I last saw the movie and I
haven't been able to rent it lately…But once I do, I'll go around editing
madly, I promise. I'm an obsessive perfectionist, so don't worry, changes WILL
be made…Eventually…
Chapter One:
Lady Eboshi cursed quietly and then, quickly recovering
herself, smiled up at the young man in front of her. "Ashitaka, I'm afraid I
must ask you a favor."
He sat down on the floor in front of her, but did not
look at her. Instead, he watched Gonza's retreat from the room; the guard,
having just whispered something to the woman, had a worried, stressed look upon
his broad face. Lady Eboshi followed his gaze and then brought his attention
back to her by repeating quietly and yet slightly sharply, "Ashitaka."
He snapped back to attention and focused on her, twisting
the cloth of his pants between his fingers abselt-mindedly. "Yes, Lady Eboshi?"
She smiled, finally having got his attention, and then
her face was grim. "Ashitaka, Gonza has just informed me of something very
grave." Seeing his reaction, she continued, "You remember, of course, how Koku
fell violently ill yesterday?"
"Yes."
"Well, she had become much worse through the night."
"That is very sad, my lady," Ashitaka said patiently, his
voice hinting honest sadness. Then he added quizzically, "But what does this
have to do with me?"
She nodded. "Yes, I was just getting to that. Now several
more of the woman and a good few men are ill in the same way." She paused for
effect. "Now Gonza has informed me that there is say that a plague is spreading
a little north of here. These people show all the symptoms of the plague."
"This saddens me deeply, Eboshi, but I still do not
understand what this has to do with me."
She leaned forward excitedly. "The old one, the oldest
man in Iron Town, says that there is a cure. And do you know where that cure
is, Ashitaka?"
He thought a moment, wondering where this was leading to.
Where did he have connections to that no one else did? The forest, that was is.
"The forest?" he hazarded.
She laughed. "No, Ashitaka, though it is a good guess."
Seeing his confusing in his eyes, she finally explained, "Out east! He said
that many, many, many years ago something just like this spread around, and he
knows that this is the same thing. And do you know how they healed it? With a
special herb found only in the east." She cupped her chin in her only hand.
"Now, Jigo tells me that you know the land there."
"Traitor," he mumbled, so that she could not hear, and
answered her evasively, "A little."
"A little is more than we know. Ashitaka, these people
will die if you do not get this
plant."
He hung his head. "What plant is it?"
"The imakkai. Have you heard of it?"
Ashitaka looked up quickly. "Yes. It is an ingredient in
what the Wise Woman poured over my wound."
"Good, then you can find it and bring it back?"
He hesitated, then slowly nodded. "I will try my hardest,
Lady Eboshi."
"Good. Then get ready to leave."
*****
San inspected the fruit carefully before popping it into
her mouth. Chewing thoughtfully, she stared into her reflection in the lake and
remembered.
It'd been over a year—maybe two, maybe more—since the
Great Forest Spirit had died. Yes, she thought musingly, it must have been
about two years and perhaps three, as she counted the seasons that had come and
gone since it had happened.
And since then, so much had happened, and so little as
well. Though she missed her mother Moro deeply, San also knew that life must go
on—just as it had gone on since the Great Forest Spirit's death. She went about
life just as she had before then, only now she no longer felt the burning
passion to kill Lady Eboshi—or, as she had always called her and nothing else,
'that damn woman'.
She also no longer felt she was willing to just throw her
life away, as Ashitaka had told her not to. San sighed. Ashitaka; he was the
one major difference in her life. Before then
she had no contact with humans other than attacking them sporadically, and
before they began chopping down the forest, absolutely no contact at all. How
things had changed since then; now she saw Ashitaka at least once a week,
sometimes several times more, sometimes less. Some weeks, lucky weeks, he'd
come almost every day, but that was so rare San could barely remember the last
time it'd happened.
But whether she saw him seven times a week or once or not
at all, it was still a major change. Not to mention a complete change; San had
gone from dispising humans; hating them, loathing them, trying to kill them,
to, well….. . San blushed slightly. Loving one.
She heard light footsteps in the forest behind her,
animal footsteps. Standing slowly up and swallowing, she turned around to come
nearly face to face will Yakkul, who snorted and took a few steps away from her
wolf brothers.
Ashitaka jumped down, and San was surprised to see that
he was wearing his head covering, which he wore only when traveling. Putting
this together with the fact that he'd been riding Yakkul, San questioned
suspiciously, "Where're you going?"
"East. In the area where I grew up." Ashitaka outlined
the story that Lady Eboshi had told him, and San listened aptly, every once in
a while making thoughtful 'hm' noises.
"I'm going with you," she finally declared, and watched
the surprise register on his face. Laughing shortly, she commented, "What, you
came to say goodbye, didn't you? Well, I'm coming, too. And I'll bring one of
my brothers with me. The other will stay to watch the forest."
"Are you sure? Fine, then," he consented, smiling at her.
"But you might not want to go when you hear that people will not go anywhere
near you looking like that."
She put her hands on her hip and asked crossly, "What do
you mean?"
"I mean that I'm going to have to go into villages and
you can't looking like that. You should either wipe off your face makeup and
take off the headband and stuff, and keep your clothes as they are, or you
should change into normal clothes and you could keep that stuff."
She thought about it crossly before saying, "Where would
you get your quote-on-quote normal clothes?"
"I could ask Toki for an outfit."
"Fine," she grumbled, knowing that otherwise she wouldn't
get to go with him, and she wanted desperately to go with him.
*****
"Hey, Kaya!"
The girl ran over to her friend, the young princess. Kaya
turned around to face her. "What is it?"
Her friend, Ako, panted to catch her breath. "I was
looking for you. I was just wondering how you were."
Kaya looked at her questioningly. "Why?"
Ako hesitated. "Well….. . You know, it's exactly three
years next weeks that Ashitaka.. ." She trailed off.
"I know that," she said sharply.
"Kaya, do you really think he's—dead?"
She sighed painfully. "The Wise Woman cast her stones to
find out, you know that. And they told her that he died."
"But do you—"
"Of course she's right. She's never been wrong before.
Ashitaka died, and that's that."
Ako considered her friend sadly, knowing that she was
right but disheartened that she had lost the hope that she'd clung to for two
and a three quarter years. And then, only a few weeks ago.. .
Ako smiled encouragingly. "Come on, Kaya, cheer up."
"Humph."
*****
Ashitaka sat leaning against a tree while, on the other
side, San changed. He wondered vaguely why she'd given in so easily, but was
distracted by San saying loudly, "I'm done!"
He stood up and peeked around the tree. Finding that
she'd put on everything correctly, he commented, "That looks nice on you."
She glared at him crossly, but inside she glowed.
Carefully, she jumped onto her brother's back, and Ashitaka untethered and
mounted Yakkul, who made a short huffing noise. "Let's go," was all she said,
and pressed her heels into her brother's side, and they shot off.
Hours later, deep into the night, they stopped. By then
they were almost out of the forest, and they started a fire and sat staring
into its depths for a few minutes. "San," Ashitaka finally said in a hushed
voice, "why did you decide to come
with me?"
She looked away uneasily. "I told you once, a few years
ago, that you mean a lot to me. That's all."
He reached down and took her hand in his own and held it
gently. "Thank you."
She blushed behind the paint on her face. "It is
nothing." She shifted her hand so that she could hold his more tightly and
leaned against him, soaking in the heat from his body instead of that from the
fire.
He blushed in return but leaned against her also, and
neither cared when the fire began to die down.
After a few minutes, Ashitaka leaned over and kissed her
lightly on the forehead, then stood up, threw a few sticks onto the fire, and
lay down to sleep.
San lay down on the ground opposite of him, her forehead
burning where his lips had touched it.
*****
Kaya leaned against the wall with a deep sigh. "Do you
really think he's dead?"
The Wise Woman regarded the girl sadly. "Yes, Kaya, I do.
The stones do not lie, and they told me that Ashitaka died."
"I know. I know he's dead. I just thought that you might
have found out something since then."
"Nothing, child. Nothing concerning your brother." She paused,
then added, "Do you remember where your brother was heading?"
"Yes, of course. West."
"There are rumors that a plague is spreading there."
Kaya gasped in surprise and horror. "Will it spread here?
If a plague hit the Emishi, it could be the last of us."
The Wise Woman smiled. "Ah, but in this the gods have
smiled upon us, for once. We and we alone have the cure, and so we are safe
from the sickness."
Kaya sighed. "Good." Then a thought struck her. "What if
Ashitaka saw the place where it's struck before he died? What if he knew the
people who are now sick?"
"I suppose that's possible. But do not trouble yourself
with such thoughts, child."
Kaya stood up and got ready to leave the room, her face
etched with youthful sadness. "Why are things like this happening?" she
murmured. "Why all these bad things?"
"We do not know, child, and we may never. Now go home."
